Feathers and Steel

by Flint Easthoof

Introduction

A lot of ponies think that ‘The Wonderbolts’ are just a fancy flying team. That ‘Wonderbolts’ is just a name they made up to call themselves. Very few know the truth, and very few know that it takes more than a great flying to be a Wonderbolt. All the stunts that ponies see are things that these elite fliers incorporporated back during the times of Operation Buccaneer Blaze, Operation Ironwing and even The Colt War.

Some of these stunts performed at shows are toned down anti-personnel maneuvers designed to ground and/or kill hostiles during a conflict, the most dramatic of which would cost the flier their life. Maneuvers such as, The Buccaneer Blaze...

The Wonderbolts is actually a fairly new name for the Royal Guard's aerial performance team tracing their history all the way back to Commander Hurricane in the founding days of Equestria herself. Before they were simply known as the Equestrian Royal Flight Team, a bit of a mouthful and not nearly as catchy as Wonderbolts.

~

“Status report!”

“Sir! Dogger and Trident are down. We may need to abort Operation Buccaneer Blaze, we can’t afford to lose any more!”

“I know the cost of what we’re doing here Spitfire. Squad up and take Soarin with you.”

~

Canterlot

Royal Guard Training Camp, East Wing
CMAP Program
Time 1312hrs

“Listen up fillies and colts!” A large rust colored stallion with a silvery, short cropped mane barked. “From this day forth, you’ll be a member of the CMAP. This is designed to give you a leg up on your peers when you enter the Royal Guard, one that will grant you Officer status and a spot in what will come to be known as STRYKER.” He glared at the young pegasi all lined up in front of him. “Any questions?”

A yellow filly with a fiery orange mane raised her wing.

“Yes?” He bellowed.

“What’s the CMAP?”

“Good question. Who here knows the answer?” Not a single colt or filly volunteered to answer. “Very well then. CMAP stands for Cutie Mark Acquisition Program. You are the first group to go through it, so at this point it is merely an experiment.” The buck smiled, “I am Master Seargent Ironwing, do not bother telling me your names as you will have call signs when you get your cutie marks, until then you will only be known as Recruit or Junior Airmen.” He eyed one sky blue pegasus colt in particular. “That being said, welcome to the program. Now head to your barracks and get settled, because tomorrow, there will be no breaks. Dismissed!”

¤

“Junior Airmen Spitfire! What in the blue blazes are you doing? I thought that since you were the first to get a cutie mark, you’d be beating everyone here!” Master Sergeant Ironwing growled “Why can’t you fly through that course with ease?”

“Sir, I was unaware of any faults in my flight pattern, Sir!”

“Unaware? Spitfire, being unaware will get you killed, buck up and pay attention. I want you through this course in ten seconds flat otherwise you and the rest of your squad will be doing wing pushups until I sweat. Is that clear?”

“Sir, yes sir!” With that, Spitfire headed back to the starting line of the course and awaited the whistle to start. “C’mon Spitfire, you can do this,” The young mare whispered to herself. “You’re the leader of this group, they look up to you and they depend on you.”

Ironwing blew the whistle and Spitfire sprung forth, weaving between the set of logs with ease. Next came the fog weave, a dense amount of fog had been placed within the second half of upright logs, making navigation harder. Plus, they had been spaced closer together, making the challenge that much more complicated than the beams from before. Once again, she came through quickly without falter. After that came flying through another set of beams, these ones were placed parallel to the ground at varying heights and distances from one another. Luckily, these ones would not contain any intrusive fog, but one slip-up and even the strongest fliers would be knocked out cold.

“Seven Seconds!”

Finally, the least bit of the course, beams and logs, all placed at random angles from the ground and clouded in fog, the most difficult part of the course, and she only had three seconds left.

“Eight Seconds! Come on Spitfire, don’t fail me!”

She nicked a beam with her wing, knocking her off course and unceremoniously slamming her into another pole.

“Nine! Where are you Spitfire?”

She got back up and darted through the last little bit of beams that was left.

“Thirteen Seconds? What part of ten seconds don’t you understand Spitfire? Get on your muzzle and push holes in the dirt. ALL OF YOU!” Ironwing commanded and watched as his recruits performed the grueling exercise. “I thought you cared about your team,” He yelled in the yellow fillies ear making her cringe. “You should be more concerned about them than yourself! Now look what you did, they’re all suffering because of you. Is that what you want Spitfire? Do you want your team to suffer because you couldn’t hack it?”

“No sir!” Spitfire groaned.

“What was that? Speak up I can’t hear you!”

“NO, SIR!” She shouted.

“You’re mumbling Spitfire, how do you expect your squad to follow orders if they can’t hear you?”

“NO SIR! I DO NOT WISH FOR MY TEAM TO SUFFER DUE TO MY MISTAKES!”

“Prove it. Get up and fly through that course in under ten seconds. You make it, you all get the rest of the day off. If you don’t make it, you all fly until you can beat ten seconds but you won’t be eating tonight. Is that clear recruit?”

“Sir, yes sir!”

“Good, now fly!”

Eight months of hell known as the CMAP program. That’s what a group of twenty six young fliers endured in order to earn their cutie marks and guarantee themselves a place in the Royal Guard. A grueling training regimen that could make even flightless pegasi go from dodo to aerial ace. In the end, only three had been unable to complete it. The reasons have been labeled classified.

They called themselves, Stryker.

______________________________________________________________________________

Equestrian Military Phonetics Chart
A- Arc
B- Bingo
C- Colt
D- Dipper
E- Easy
F- Filly
G- Griffon
H- Havoc
I- Indigo
J- June
K- Kilo
L- Luna
M- Mare
N- Night
O- Omega
P- Pegasus
Q- Queen
R- Rainbow
S- Steel
T- Tango
U- Unicorn
V- Violet
W- Winter
X- Xeno
Y- Yearling
Z- Zephyr

Comments

[Shanenator]

Digging the pony military language. This certainly looks interesting.