//------------------------------// // Equestria's Newest Ace // Story: Equestrian Skies: The Bearers of the Ribbon Insignia // by Shattered Skies //------------------------------// Equestria's Newest Ace "I can't believe you were able to do that! You took out all those bombers without us, and you splashed two bandits all by yourself! On your first sortie none the less!" Omega 9 had been going on about Rainbow Dash's incredible performance the entire way to the carrier. "How did you get so good at flying? What's your secret?" "There's no secret." Rainbow Dash replied with a wide grin and a chest that was swelling with pride. "It just sorta happened. Everything felt natural, like I already knew what to do. That and I'm pretty awesome. I guess no pony can compete with such raw talent." "Be careful Mobius 1, that pride is going to get you killed you know." Storm Surge joked. The other squadron members laughed at this. Even Twilight let out a giggle. "Ha... yeah, not likely." Rainbow said, a little of her swagger lost. The others had only heard the joke, but she had heard the more serious undertone in his voice. He was worried about her, but she would prove to him, and anypony else, that there was nothing to worry about. She would be the best, and the best don't die. Rapier 6's voice over the radio interrupted her thoughts. "Hey look! There's the carrier." Sure enough, she could see the carrier out in front of her. Simultaneously, a blue dot appeared on radar, representing the floating city of steel. Though it was over 3 hoofball fields long, it was just a speck of grey in an endless expanse of blue from the distance they were at. "We're going to land on that?" she heard Twilight say with a hint of worry. "It's so... small." "Well, it gets bigger when you get closer to it." replied Rainbow with a grin. "Still, it is one of the hardest things a pilot has to do." "You have landed on a carrier before right?" Of course she had landed on a carrier before. "Of course I haven't." "What?!" shouted Twilight, her now filled with obvious fear. "Why would I have landed on a carrier before? It's not like every time you take off, you have to land somewhere. Though, when I do land, I land at an airbase. Then they put me on a boat and take me back to the carrier." "Aaah." Twilight thought. "The sting of sarcasm, will two can play at that game." "So... you have really never landed on a carrier?" Twilight asked in an innocent tone. Now that she knew the rules, it was time to play. "Of course I have landed on a carrier! How else would I get back to the carrier after I had taken off from it?" Rainbow Dash asked, sounding very flustered. "But you said it yourself. You land at an airfield and get back by boat." "I was joking. Don't you understand sarcasm?" "I don't believe you." Twilight stated in all the seriousness she could muster. It took all of her willpower not to laugh. "You don't believe that I was joking?" Rainbow asked. Now she was annoyed and confused. "No, I don't believe you can land on a carrier." "But I already told you that I can." "Prove it." Twilight said, in the most challenging tone she could manage while still stifling her laugh. "Prove what?" More confusion? Good. "That you can land on a carrier." "How?" "Oh, I don't know." Twilight said as she put her hoof to her chin and faked some difficult thinking. "Maybe by landing on the carrier in front of us." The other pilots couldn't contain their amusement any longer, causing the radio to be filled with laughter. With everypony else laughing, Twilight also lost it and began laughing so hard that when she took a deep breath, it caused her to snort. Everypony went silent for a moment, and then continued to laugh. Everypony except Rainbow. Instead she rolled her eyes and smiled. Twilight had gotten her good. She could grow to like that mare. -------------------------------------------------- After having continued their discussion of the mission, the pilots of the 118th had quickly approached their home carrier, the Cloudsdale. Named after the place where nonpegasus powered flight first took place, she was originally one of three sister ships that made up the backbone of the ISAF fleet. Sadly the Nimbostratus had been sunk early in the war, thanks to the actions of Prance's pride of the seas; the "Invincible" Aegir Fleet. Fortunately the other carrier had survived and returned to the east coast. Now the Ark Angel was at its home port, St. Ark (short for Ark Angle), to aid in the defense of the last remnants of ISAF's ground forces, which were desperately clinging onto their last foot hold on the mainland. "Mobius 1 perform landing check." A stallion's voice said over the radio. Rainbow twitched her tail downward in response to the command, causing the landing gear and tailhook to extend and the flaps on the wings to go down. Twilight observed all of this through the COFFIN system, checking to make sure that everything was functioning as it should. Once everything was in position, two lines appeared on Rainbow's HUD, one vertical and one horizontal. They indicated to her how she needed to adjust the aircraft for the best landing possible. It accomplished this by having the two lines intersect where ever she needed to go to line up with the runway, or in this case flight deck, and land successfully. "You are cleared to land." With her eyes narrowed in concentration Rainbow began her approach. She lowered her altitude to around 1000 feet, and then began to make small adjustments in the pitch and bearing of the plane so that the lines intersected right in the middle of her HUD. Now it was just a matter of keeping it that way. "Two miles to touch down." "No matter how many times I do this..." Rainbow thought while making further adjustments. " it never gets any easier. Why couldn't there be a skip landing button or something." "One mile to touch down." Now the plane was just a few hundred feet above the ocean. Rainbow angled the nose up slightly and cut back on the throttle, causing the plane to drift downwards towards the aft of the carrier. "You’re on the money!" said the stallion. The fighter continued its downward drift, but now the carrier seemed to be rapidly filling up her vision. In mere moments she was on the flight deck. A soon as Rainbow felt the wheels touch the deck she opened the throttle to full military power, which was as high as it could go without going into afterburner. This was to allow a plane to immediately take off in case the tailhook missed all of the arresting wires. Of course this precaution proved unnecessary, for the tailhook had caught the third of the four arresting wires which quickly brought the plane to a stop. "Nicely done Mobius 1!" said the stallion as both Rainbow and Twilight let go of the breath neither had realized they had been holding. Now that the plane had come to a stop, Rainbow quickly brought the throttle down to an idle, and maneuvered the F-4 out of the landing area so that the rest of the squadron could land. Once the plane was parked on the bow of the ship, Rainbow deactivated the engines and the flight systems. With the COFFIN system finally off, she returned her legs to their normal position and slipped her wings out of their sleeves. A final press of a button caused the canopy to open up and Rainbow flew out of the cockpit, eager to stretch her sore limbs. At the same time Twilight teleported out of the cockpit and on to the deck, where she gave a quick stretch of her back. "I guess you proved it." Twilight said with amusement in her eyes. "Told you I could." Rainbow Dash retorted with a smile on her face. -------------------------------------------------- The rest of the squadron landed without a problem shortly after Rainbow Dash's own successful landing. After everypony was safely on board the Cloudsdale, they were instructed to return to the ready room for a debriefing. Rainbow was especially excited for this one final part. Everypony would be able to see her amazing performance. After traveling below deck and through a labyrinth of steel corridors, the returning ponies finally arrived at the ready room. When they entered the room, they were assaulted by the sound of cheering and the pounding of pony hooves on the floor. "It’s the saviors of ISAF!" "Yahoo!" " Alright!" "You guys are the greatest!" "Ahem." "The heroes of ISAF return!" "That will teach those Prench to mess with us!" "Ahem!" "No pony messes with the 118th!" "You said it!" "EVERYPONY! SILENCE!" The assembled ponies stopped at once in response to the command and turned to look at who had interrupted their celebration. A yellow unicorn stallion with an orange mane that had been standing next to the projection screen at the end of the room was now at the center of everypony’s attention. "Awww... come on Spotlight, why'd you have to ruin our fun." Somepony whined, earning a few snickers from the others. "That's Colonel Spotlight to you, and the reason I ruined your "fun" second lieutenant Cloud Striker, is because of the reason we were all brought into this room. I would watch the tone you take with me in the future." the colonel growled. "Yes sir, sorry sir!" a light grey, white maned pegasus responded with a smart salute, though his eyes betrayed the worry he felt. "Now back to the reason you all have been assembled here; the debriefing of the recently successful operation: Umbrella. Everypony take your seats." Immediately the pilots and weapons officers did as they were instructed. With the assemble pegasi and unicorns seated, the stallion's horn flared with magic, and the screen next to him came to life. On it were five smaller screens each having five labeled arrows; four blue and one white that floated over a grid. The labels read: Mobius 1, Omega 11, Omega 9, Rapier 4, and Rapier 6. The white arrow had a different label on each screen which showed the pilot whose performance was being tacked on screen. On the side of each screen was a table that tracked the kills of the white arrow. The screen with the white arrow named Mobius 1 was at the center of the group and was slightly larger than the others. Colonel Spotlight cleared his throat and said "Ok, let’s get this debriefing underway." As he said this, the various arrows on the screen began to move, reenacting the mission that had occurred an hour earlier. A tail formed behind each arrow, showing the changes it made in altitude, roll, and bearing so that the observers could get an accurate sense of what the fighters were doing. Rainbow and Twilight watched their arrow attentively, along with every other pony in the room. Their arrow started off in formation with the other blue arrows, but after a few moments it left them behind and began to fly solo. It quickly approached a slow moving red arrow, and after a few moments it blinked out of existence with a beep. On the table, a slot filled up with the words Tu-95 x1. The arrow continued to move around causing other red arrows to disappear in a perfect imitation of Rainbow's flying, the table updating with each disappearance. While the screen showed the battle, Spotlight continued talking. "Thanks to your efforts, the enemy bomber strike was averted." *Beep* The last arrow disappeared as if to solidify is statement. The table's final reading was Tu-95 x6, Mig-21 x2. A pilot needed five kills to become an ace, and with eight confirmed kills, Rainbow Dash had not only met that requirement, she had exceeded it. She was officially an ace. "However" Spotlight continued "our victory will be meaningless should you all fail the next mission." With that sobering note, the screen winked out of existence. "Oh, and one more thing. Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle, front and center." Rainbow Dash's face fell at the sound of her name being called. Being called out in front of everypony was generally not a good thing, and it didn't help that the colonel did not sound pleased. Twilight was also worried, but a little more so. "He is going to kick us out." She thought frantically. "My first mission and I'm going to be kicked out of the air force, all because of Rainbow's rash actions. I shouldn't have let her fly out of formation. Is the colonel going to let us fly home? No, they can't afford to give us a plane. They're going to make us swim. Wait, Rainbow can fly so I'M going to have to swim, ALONE! I don't think I can swim all the way to North Point. Can anypony swim all the way to North Point?" The last thought brought Twilight's wild speculation to a girding halt, having realized that her panicking had gotten her off topic and far beyond the realm of reason. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and stood up. Rainbow Dash mimicked her, and they walked to the front of the room together. "Twilight... Rainbow Dash." Spotlight said with a stern voice. Suddenly his tone changed to a much more cheery state "The various member states of ISAF would like to extend their gratitude to you for your defense of ISAF GHQ and for preventing the enemy bomber force from damaging Silver Wing airbase. Congratulations First Lieutenant Sparkle and First Lieutenant Dash." Both of the mares were shocked by the sudden turn of events. Twilight was the first to notice the difference in rank. "First lieutenant Sir?" "That’s correct Twilight." Spotlight said with a pleased look as he levitated out a pair of silver bars. "Command has seen it fit that you two be promoted for you exceptional performance. Congratulations." Twilight's jaw dropped. Her first mission and she had already been promoted. Upon seeing the bemused expression of the colonel at her reaction, she quickly recovered and grabbed one of the silver bars with her magic. Meanwhile Rainbow Dash was absolutely beaming with pride. After letting the moment soak in, she too grabbed the remaining silver bar with her mouth. "You two can pin those on later. Now we can celebrate." With that, the two mares turned around to face their fellow pilots and weapons officers. Applause and cheers broke out once again. When the applause and cheering subsided, Cloud Striker called out "Hey Rainbow, in celebration of your promotion and all, let’s go see if we can convince the catapult officers to launch a hoofball off the carrier!” Rainbow quickly stowed her rank away before responding with excitement "That'd be sweet! Do you think they would actually let us do that?" "Dunno, but we won't find out by standing here. Come on, let’s go." With that Cloud Striker galloped out of the room closely followed by Rainbow Dash. The rest of the ponies began filing out until only Twilight, Storm Surge and Spotlight remained. Twilight and Spotlight just shook their heads at the ridiculously foalish idea while Storm Surge looked after them with an amused expression. "I knew she had it in her." Storm Surge said to no pony in particular. Turning his attention to the colonel he said "I'd better make sure they don't get in trouble." With that he too walked out of the room. -------------------------------------------------- Far on the other side of the continent, a chestnut unicorn colt sat on top of a small hill and stared up at the blue expanse above him. He had repeated this behavior for a week, constantly returning to the same spot to scan the distant blue skies. As the sun began to set, the colt stood up, disappointed yet again, and began to trot back towards his town. Well, what was once his town. He couldn't remember exactly when the western armies had occupied it. He had been too busy watching the horizon for the fighter with the yellow number 13 on its nose. As the colt walked through the town, he took limited notice of the changes that had occurred due to the occupation. The surrounding buildings had been plastered with colorful foreign propaganda. The colt could understand some of it, but only because they had started teaching the language at school. He continued to walk until he came to a stop at a cross walk. An earth pony stood there in green combat gear with a stop sign in his mouth and a weapon mounted to his back. Foreign M.P.s (military police) had replaced their friendly local sheriff's department. The unicorn waited as military vehicles and pony drawn carts crisscrossed the walk way until the soldier held out the stop sign. Though they lived in the 21st century gasoline rationing had reduced the civilians to pony powered carriages. After the colt had safely crossed the road, he returned his hazel eyes to the skies above him, still hoping to see the fighter "Yellow 13", but tall buildings and parabolic antennas were obscuring his view. He had heard whispers that the antennas were secretly being used to receive broadcast from North Point, but they had recently stopped, and no pony knew why. After his depressing walk through the city, he finally arrived at an equally depressing two story town house with a broken down taxi out front. After his parents' deaths, the colt had moved in with his uncle, who had formally been a taxi driver, but, without gas or the strength to pull carriages, he found himself without work. The colt entered the building and walked past his uncle, a light tan unicorn with a grey mane, who was in the kitchen with a hoof leaning on the table supporting his head. An open bottle of beer sat next to his head on the table. The colt climbed the stairs, his hoof steps echoing on the concrete staircase, and entered his room. He grabbed his harmonica with his magic, and began to walk back down the stairs. As he walked past his uncle again, his uncle shifted then shouted "You going back to that good for nothing bar again?!" "Yes, I'm going back there." the colt replied just loud enough to be heard. Then he walked out the door. "That lousy barkeeper, severing the enemy like a dog." his uncle grumbled to himself. The sun had fully set by the time he reached the bar. It was named the Sky Colt, and its owner was often scorned by the rest of the town for so eagerly doing business with the occupation forces. Tables sat outside of the bar, which were illuminated by the lights from the interior. More tables, and of course the bar, were inside the brightly light establishment. Each table was filled with sullen occupation ponies, trying to relieve their boredom through idle conversation and strong drinks. The colt approached the soldiers and began to play his harmonica, the one thing he seemed to be good at, though it had failed to give him his cutie mark. For his uplifting music the soldiers gave him their spare change, which he would used to support himself and his uncle. Just then an earth pony filly came out of the bar with a platter of drinks on her back. She had light pink fur, and a flowing bright yellow mane. The colt quickly averted his eyes as the slightly older filly turned around and returned to the bar. He had a crush on her, but she was also the barkeeper’s only daughter, and he doubted that the barkeeper would appreciated any feelings he had for her. As the night wore on, the colt continued to play for the soldiers' money. Finally, after a few hours of playing, he felt that he had enough, and began the long walk back to his uncle's town house. As he walked along the sparsely lit street, he sadly thought to himself "Another day passed, and still no Yellow 13." -------------------------------------------------- A.N. - Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. With a lot of the descriptions out of the way, future chapters will probably encompass all stages of a mission. I doubt I will be able to stick to a schedule, but I will do my best to not take an unreasonably long amount of time updating.