TInto the Storm: The Flight of Firefly
MLP: FiM
Dark
Adventure
Thriller
Before the Wonderbolts, there were the Bolt Knights. And before Rainbow Dash, there was Firefly. The story of Rainbow Dash's ancestor, the founding of the Wonderbolts, and the outbreak of the Great Pony/Gryphon War.
Gore
Violence
Alt. Universe
Celestia
OC
Other
Firesight · 421k words · 211 8 · 3.5k views

Into the Storm: Flight of Firefly - Chapter 8 Draft Complete · 7:58pm Feb 2nd, 2018

*** Reposted with apologies because I forgot to tag the story in the original blog entry. By the time I noticed, it had fallen off the feed list. ***

Part 8 of Flight of Firefly is off to prereaders and I’m quite pleased with it. I’m going to attempt to get some new battle graphics done for it, but if they're not ready by Sunday, I’ll leave them off for now. But that’s just icing on the cake at this point. A teaser? Okay, but Just a hint: lore from the most recent reason of MLP regarding an ancient pony fighting force is incorporated and plays a surprising role.

Want more to chew on? Fine. Here’s Firefly’s opening narration to the chapter:

Before we begin this crucial third chapter to the Battle of Cloudsdale, I would like to take a moment to thank all those who have contributed or still will to this growing work, including the trio of guest authors that have penned these three latest chapters describing the combat and outright carnage at Cloudsdale and those pegasi, civilian and soldier alike, who fought in its defense. I know full well 'tis oft painful to relive the battles we fought and remember those who fell, but 'tis necessary that we do so so to honor their memory and ensure their legacy lives on.

'Twas not my original intention that we marked these chapters with visits to the battle sites we describe, but as we write we find ourselves all but compelled to, wishing to remember or at least reminiscence. As the Equestrian Officer Academy was out of session for the recent winter holidays, the surviving Bolt Knights gathered in Cloudsdale for a New Years' commemoration of the recently unveiled monument of Thunderbolt, an exquisitely carved statue erected in front of the Remedial Flyers' School he once taught at, a place where he can forever stand watch over the city he once saved. I have more to say about this event, but this is one instance where I feel my words are best saved for the end; for after the full story of the battle is told.

In the meantime, I turn my quill back over to those who were present at Cloudsdale during the Gryphon attack. I promise that the story's attention will return to my own battalion at Epsilon soon enough, but ‘tis simply little point in it for now. For mid-afternoon on the first of September, we were not under attack but knew well one was coming; with all the other outposts around us falling one by one I had no doubt that the next wave would hit us at nightfall and be far more difficult to defeat.

—Firefly