//------------------------------// // Aces High // Story: A Just Cause // by Tisbutascratch //------------------------------// Ponyville Equestria 11:31am Panauan Time 10/07/10 Earth Date Monsters and Monarchies “That was awful.” Twilight deadpanned. “You call that a joke?” Pinkie asked, confused by the atrocious joke. “I have to be honest with you Rico, that was the worst joke ever… of all time.” Applejack stated. “It wasn’t that bad.” Rico laughed. “Oh but it was.” Rainbow Dash countered. “That was dreadful!” Rarity swooned. “Are all humans this bad at telling jokes?” Lyra enquired. “I thought it was ok… if that’s ok with you.” Fluttershy whispered, in an attempt to appease Rico. “Just forget it, so is there anything else you want to know?” Rico enquired, trying to change the subject. “Yes, what do humans eat?” Twilight asked, floating a quill and scroll. “Shit.” Rico thought. “Well humans are omnivores.” Rico stated, running his right hand through his black hair. The seven mares began to slowly back away from Rico. “Look I’m not going to eat you.” Rico continued. They all stopped. “Well what animals do you eat?” Lyra enquired. Rico wasn’t sure what animals were sentient here. For all he knew Cows and sheep could also talk. “I don’t eat animals that can talk .” Rico said trying to keep the peace. “Okay…” Twilight replied still unsure. “I promise.” Rico assured. “Pinkie Pie Promise?” Pinkie enquired. “What? Sure, Pinkie Pie Promise.” Rico responded somewhat confused, "So the fact I eat animals doesn't bother you?" "No, animals eat other animals all the time. Bears eat fish, cats eat mice. It's totally natural." Fluttershy responded. "Fair enough." Rico stated. Ponyville Equestria 22:11pm Panauan Time 10/07/10 Earth Date There discussions continued well on into the evening. One by one they left. Applejack was the first to go, insisting on returning to Sweet Apple Acres. Followed by Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, who both left for SugarCube Corner and Rarity who had to return to Carousel Boutique, the word “Boutique” made Rico cringe. Twilight left a few hours later to send a letter to Princess Celestia about Rico’s “Situation” and finally Lyra only left because she ran out of scrolls, leaving Fluttershy and Rico alone in the cottage. “Well its getting late, so I better show you to your room I mean if that’s alright with you.” Fluttershy murmured. Rico rolled his eyes and thought, “She really needs to stand up for herself.” Before saying, “It’s fine Fluttershy, you’re right I better hit the hay.” “Would you rather sleep on hay? I mean I’ve got some hay outside in the shed if that’s alright with you.” Fluttershy asked quietly. “ It’s a figure of speech.” Rico stated. “Oh.” Fluttershy responded. She led Rico to his room, it’s interior matched the rest of the cottage, lightly furnished with a small pony-sized bed in one corner made of a wood Rico assumed was pine, a bedside table sat on the bed’s right side away from the wall. In the opposite corner was desk and chair made of the same material and adjacent to desk was a chest of drawers made of darker wood that appeared to be oak. The only source of light in the room was a small candle lantern. The room’s main attraction was the window ,that displayed the ever ominous Everfree Forest in all it’s nightmarish glory. “Thanks” Rico tossed his parachute on to the bed’s white sheets. “You’re welcome.” Fluttershy whispered as she walked out and closed the door. Leaving Rico alone with his guns and explosives, normally this would be incredibly dangerous but after the events of the past two days Rico was too tired to blow everything up. He put his assault rifle and it’s ammunition on top of the table. His SMG and it’s spare magazines on the chest of drawers and set his signature pistol on the bedside table. He then filled the bedside table’s small drawer with the pistol’s massive .454 magnum bullets and 30mm grenades. He pulled his grappling hook off and sat it on top of the bedside table. With no clothes to fill the drawers, he tossed his plastic explosives and grenades inside the top drawer, packing it with enough explosives to destabilize a country. Rico sat on the bed and looked out the window. He could see a few trees covered in birds’ nests, as well as a chicken coop located inside the cottage’s small garden. Just beyond that was the Everfree Forest. He stared out towards the menacing wood. The forest was unnerving, it reminded Rico of Hantu Island, only without the ancient Japanese cannibal ghosts, he could see why the ponies were horrified by his plan of staying in the forest. Even at the forest’s edge the tree’s were abnormally closely packed, leaving only one way in and one way out of the hellish woodland. Rico began to feel unnerved, as if there was something watching him, like there was something wrong with the forest it’s self. Rico walked up towards the window and pulled the curtains shut but not before duck taping a hand grenade to the window frame and using a spool of wire to create a nice, little booby trap inside the window frame, you know, just in case. Rico tossed his parachute in another drawer. Rico then climbed into his bed and blew out the lantern, plunging the room into darkness. After two days of total insanity Rico was glad he could finally rest. Rico drifted off into a dreamless sleep. Ponyville Equestria 06:01am Panauan Time 11/07/10 Earth Date Rico awoke to feeling of something sitting on his chest, “Shit.” He thought. He slowly opened his eyes, the room was still dark but he managed to make out a rabbit sitting on his chest, the rabbit looked pissed. Rico gently pushed the rabbit off his chest and on to the floor. The rabbit landed on the floor with a thud before scampering out the now open door. Rico pulled open the curtains, he covered his eyes with his left hand, he looked out into cottage’s garden. He could see Fluttershy in the garden caring to thousands of animals, literally thousands of animals, domestic ones like cats and dogs, alongside wild animals like bears and eagles. Rico felt slightly shocked by the number of animals she was caring for. He knew Fluttershy loved animals, it was obvious by the number of cages and birdhouses dotted around the property but he had no idea it was on this scale. Rico felt his PDA vibrate again, another message from his shadowy contractor. Scorpion, remember If you help me I’ll send you home and to sweeten the deal, I have left you a present at the F-33 Dragonfly Fighter. H.P. Rico sat up on the bed and put his PDA back in to his pocket. “Short message today.” Rico thought, as he repacked his ammunition for his SMG and signature pistol leaving his assault rifle. He grabbed his parachute and explosives and stuffed them in his shoulder bag. Just to be safe he took the assault rifle’s magazines as well. He grabbed his grabbling hook and locked it to his left arm. Holstering his SMG and Pistol, Rico headed for the door. Rico was just about to leave the room when he remembered his own “present” inside the window, he walked up to the window and removed the grenade. To stop any “accidents” from occurring. He walked out the room, closing the door behind himself. Rico walked down the stairs and through the living room, dodging past all the small animals scurrying past his feet not wanting to crush any with careless steps. Rico walked through kitchen, before heading out the back door towards where Fluttershy was located. When he stepped beyond the door’s threshold, Rico heard what only could be described as an angel. Rico followed the singing through the garden like a sailor following a siren’s song to his doom. He followed the song through the garden past the dens and burrows that made Fluttershy‘s garden resemble the surface of the moon, past the stream that dissected the garden and finally the singer was just beyond the corner of the cottage. When Rico rounded the corner towards where the voice was coming from, he got one of the biggest shocks of life. The singer was none other than Fluttershy. Fluttershy was perched on a tree stump singing to the birds in a nearby tree, her voice was beautiful, an angel’s wasn’t even a close comparison. Rico stood there gob smacked by Fluttershy’s sudden confidence boost. Fluttershy glanced around and saw Rico standing there with his jaw on the floor, she squeaked and jumped from her perch on the tree stump. Rico swaggered over towards where Fluttershy was cowering, She was hiding behind the small tree stump, with her forelegs wrapped her head. Fluttershy stood up, “Oh I’m sorry if I woke you, Rico.” Fluttershy yelped hiding behind her mane, avoiding eye contact. “You didn’t wake me, Fluttershy.” Rico stated monotonously as he crossed his arms. “Oh, well I was just going to have breakfast, would you like some?” Fluttershy asked looking up at Rico with her big teal eyes. “Sure.” He replied, now that he thought about it he hadn’t had anything to eat in the past three days. Fluttershy led Rico back into the small kitchen. “Well…um…I’m not really sure what humans eat…” Fluttershy whispered. “Do you have toast?” Rico asked, assuming like many things, that toast was universal. “Yes, would you like it with dandelions?” Fluttershy enquired. “No, just toast.” Rico replied, “Humans can’t digest flowers and grass.” “Ok.” Fluttershy responded, before she started to make the toast. She removed two slices of bread from the loaf, how she cut it was a mystery to Rico, She placed the two slices of bread in the toaster and pulled the small handle down. “Fluttershy, I’m going to go out in to Everfree. To see if I left any thing at the wreck, so I’ll probably be gone for a few hours.” Rico stated, masking his real intentions. “Ok, be careful then…” Fluttershy replied. They both sat in an awkward silence until the toast popped out of the toaster. Rico watched Fluttershy struggle for few moments as she attempted to get the toast from the toaster. “Here I’ll get it.” Rico stated gently moving Fluttershy out of the way and using his dexterous hands to grab the toast. He placed one slice of toast on a plate for Fluttershy and the other on a plate for himself. “Thank you.” Fluttershy said, before grabbing her plate in her mouth and placing it on the small table in the centre of the kitchen. She then covered her slice of toast in dandelions. Gently she began to take dainty bites of the toast, while Rico scoffed his and began to walk out. “See you later Fluttershy!” Rico shouted as he walked out the cottage. “Bye.” She shouted but it was barely above a whisper. Rico pulled out his PDA and glanced at the coordinates for the F-33. It was 2 kilometres northeast, Rico fired the grappling hook at a nearby tree, just before he hit the tree Rico opened his parachute, catapulting him into the air. Rico fired the grappling hook again, this time into the dirt path that snaked its way towards the nearby town. The grappling hook pulled Rico through the sky, towards his destination. Rico spotted what appeared to be a castle on the side of a mountain. “I wonder what would happen if I blew that up?” Rico wondered, as he fired his grappling hook again. Pictures of the castle tumbling down the side of the mountain ran rampant through Rico’s mind, “It would be awesome!” He continued thinking, as he fired his grappling hook again, pulling him closer to his destination. Rico was less than five hundred metres away when he began to make out the unmistakable shape of a runway. Beside the runway was a cluster of buildings and a road twisting away from the runway, Rico could also see a river running parallel to the right side of the runway. The runway as at least two hundred metres long and about thirty metres wide, a Bering I-86DP could take off with room to spare. Rico closed his parachute and dropped to the ground and sprinted the last 100 metres. The nearest building was directly adjacent to the right side of the runway, the building was some type of a crude hanger, no walls just a roof held up by thin metal struts, inside which was the F-33 dragonfly fighter, which was pointed towards the runway. Next door was a single story prefab olive drab building. Rico walked up to the door and tried the handle and to his surprise it opened, “I suppose no one locks their doors here.” Inside the main room of the green structure was a large table with a map of Equestria and the other surrounding countries, several chairs were dotted around the table. Rico walked up to the door of one of the other three rooms and opened the door. Inside was 4 bunk beds and eight footlockers, implying this room was some form of barracks. Rico closed the door and entered the next room inside was sixteen stalls, Rico assumed this was the toilet block so he closed the door and went into the next room, inside was an empty armoury. “Looks like H.P. wants me to stay here.” Rico thought. He closed the door and walked outside closing the door of the prefab structure. Next door was a two story prefab white control tower. Rico decided he could be bothered looking inside and decided to skip it and walk around the back of the control tower. Behind the other buildings was another crude hanger which was beside the dirt track that led away from the base, inside the back of the hanger was various crates and hard cases containing various supplies ranging from ammunition to parachutes. But that wasn’t the only thing inside the hanger, there was also a black Hedge Wildchild armoured 4x4 pickup with dual rear mounted remotely controlled rocket launchers. From the hanger Rico could see another crude hanger beside the river, inside which was an Agency Hovercraft. Rico walked back to the F-33 and spotted a large black hard case sitting beside it. He walked up beside the hard case and opened it. Inside was an Air Propulsion Gun. Rico assumed this was the "Present" H.P. was referring to. “That’ll come in handy.” Rico grabbed the gun and its air canisters and slung it across his back, stuffing the air cansisters in his pockets. He threw open Dragonfly’s canopy with his left hand before putting it in the rim of the cockpit and vaulting in. On the seat of the F-33 was a set of keys, attached to which was a small note scrawled on what appeared be a napkin. “These are for the buildings on this base, H.P.” “No shit Sherlock.” Rico sarcastically stated. Rico shoved the keys inside his pocket and sat down in the F-33’s chair. Rico pulled the canopy down, sealing him inside the aircraft. He did a brief check of all the systems, everything was green. Rico placed his hand on the throttle and pushed it forward, as he pulled the stick to turn the fighter towards the runway. Rico lined the plane up with end of the runway before he slammed the throttle forward causing the F-33 to thunder down the runway. After about eighty meters, Rico pulled the stick back and the F-33 rose towards the morning sun. Rico rolled the aircraft into a lazy barrel roll towards the Diamond Dog Badlands. To assist the "Tunnel Rats". But first Rico decided to have some fun. Canterlot Equestria 06:59am Panauan Time 11/07/10 Earth date Princess Luna had only one thing on her mind right now. Sleep, she had preformed all her royal duties and was now lazily walking up the many stairs that led to her bed at the top of the tower. After what seemed like an eternity of climbing stairs she was finally on the landing outside her room, the two unicorn guards that stood either side of her door shot to attention at the sight of the princess. Luna didn’t even see them, she was that tired. The two guards horns glowed a navy blue as they used their magic to open the large wooden doors. She stumbled in her darkened room as the doors closed simultaneously behind her. Everything in the room was dark, some of the things were over a thousand years old, unchanged since her banishment to the moon. Celestia insisted she changed them but Luna felt that it was a reminder of how she had fallen to darkness. Luna walked up to her bed, she threw the dark sheets back with her magic before climbing in the bed. She clambered in the bed and wrapped them around herself. She rested her head down on her darkened pillows as she began to drift off to sleep. Sleep. Gentle. Quiet rest. WOOOOOSH The tower shock violently, for a moment Luna believed the tower was going to collapse. Luna jumped out her skin and shot up out of her cocoon of sheets and landed with a dull thud on the dark marble floor. Quickly scrambling to her hooves she darted towards her balcony, throwing the doors open with her magic. In the distance she saw a small black speck with thick vapour trails following the unidentified flying object. The object barrel rolled before disappearing into the blanket of clouds above Canterlot. The room doors flew open, “Princess! Are you alright?” One of her guards shouted. “We are fine, do you have any idea what that is?” Luna asked, in all her years of being she had never seen anything like it. It was as easily as big as a dragon yet it could probably out fly even some of the best pegasi. Maybe that “Human” Celestia mentioned knew what this “UFO” was? “Negative, Princess.” The guard replied. Knowing the guards would never be able to catch the "UFO" Luna decided to drop the subject for now. “Very well, please return to your posts.” Luna stated. “As you wish.” He replied both guards bowed, before exiting and closing the doors behind themselves. Luna crawled back into her bed, she hoped there would be no UFOs this time. Author's Notes Sorry for the delay, the next chapter will be out sooner and contain at least 20% more explosions and as always rhetorical questions: Will Luna learn of Rico's "Flyby"? Will Rico cause an uprising? -Tisbutascratch