Twilight Sparkle
Aboard airship travelling toward Mount Aris
October 13th, 007 SLR
Twilight and her friends huddled behind a pile of barrels. Everywhere around them bells clanged and steam engines let off a foul stench. A member of the ship’s crew, Boyle, belched as he walked past.
As Rainbow Dash visibly gagged, Applejack spoke up. “Whadaya think, Twilight? Should we just ask them ta take us?”
Twilight looked in disbelief. “Did you put the last day in your short-term memory, Applejack?”
Applejack looked at her. “Ah don’t know, Ah’ve forgotten.”
“Last time we trusted somepony they tried to sell us!”
Alas, for reasons of plot, Boyle moved the box that was hiding our heroines. “Uh, guys?” he asked. “Come check this out!”
Another sailor, Mullet, stepped over. “Looks like a pack of stowaways.”
“What are we supposed to do with stowaways?” asked Lix Spittle.
Squabble squawked, though nobody was entirely sure why.
“We tie them up!” Boyle cried. Applejack visibly cowered.
“We clip their wings!” Lix suggested. Rainbow suddenly looked defensive.
“You touch my wings, I’ll whack ya so hard you’ll taste boot polish on the back of your mouth for a month!” she yelled defiantly.
“No,” Mullet said. “We scar them...emotionally.”
Another member of the crew stomped over. She had a prosthetic leg and clanked loudly when she walked.
“What say the book, Captain Celaeno?”
Calaeno opened up a huge book she was carrying. “Storm King’s rulebook says...throw them overboard.”
On cue, a gangplank extended. It was an incredibly long way down. But just before the pirates could grab them-
-there was a long, slow, loud chime whistle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFAdkq1JnFM
“All right!” Calaeno called. “That’s lunch!”
Before anypony knew what was happening, the crew and them were at a table, being served bowls of-well, gruel is the closest thing it resembled.
Rainbow looked extremely confused. “Whoa whoa whoa! You were about to toss us overboard, and then you stop for lunch?”
“Storm King’s rulebooks allow for only one break a day, then it’s back to work,” Calaeno sighed.
“So, you're delivery workers?” Rainbow asked again.
“Can you take us to Mount Aris?” Twilight asked.
“We do as Storm King tells us or suffer his wrath.”
“I’ll take that as a no,” Twilight groaned. “Still going overboard!”
“Nothing personal,” Lix told them. “Still, there’s pudding!” she added, before dumping another load of slop into Rarity’s bowl.
“You weren’t always delivery workers, were you?” Rainbow asked.
“Yeah,” Calaeno said, sounding down. “We used to be much more adventurous.” She pulled back a banner with the Storm King’s face on it, revealing skull and crossbones.
“I met that guy in the desert!” Pinkie cried.
Rainbow Dash gasped in excitement. “You used to be pirates?”
“We prefer ‘buccaneers’”, Mullet told her.
“Buccaneer is just an alternate word for pirate,” Rainbow told them. “It comes from Prench, namely boucanes.” When Twilight looked at her, she added, “What? Scared I’m showing you up in obscure knowledge?”
Squabble squawked again, though what good that did was anybody’s guess.
“You birds have a choice to make,” Rainbow told them. You could let some cloven-hoofed Storm King tell you what to do,” she flew over and pulled down the Storm King banner, “OR you could be awesome again!”
Rorke
Airspace over Iron Seas, in pursuit of fugitives
Grubber was on the deck of the airship when he saw a vast explosion. “Oh, that’s so cool,” he said.
Rorke looked over. “I think we just found our fugitives,” he laughed. “Switch course, ramming speed!”
The huge airship lumbered over toward the freighter nearby. “We have target locked," the weapon officer informed him.
“Fire!” Rorke ordered. “That ship is unmanned. This’ll be a cakewalk!”
“I like cake,” Grubber said.
“Shut up.”
The grappling hook flew from its mounting and slammed into the enemy ship. It then slowly reeled in, allowing Rorke and a few Storm Beasts to jump onboard.
“What do we have here?” he asked coolly. “Those aren’t regulation uniforms Calaeno. Where are the fugitives?”
Calaeno looked at him, coldly. “That’s Captain Calaeno to you, Rorke,” she replied coldly. “And we have no fugitives on board, just oil, coal, and Storm King merchandise.”
Rorke looked most displeased. “I’ll be generous,” he said. “I’m gonna count to three. If you don’t give them up, we’ll send this ship to the bottom.”
He paused.
“One.”
Nobody moved.
“Two.”
Still nothing happened. It seemed nobody was going to break.
Rorke opened his mouth once again. But he never did manage to finish his next word.
A blast of bullets and several rockets slammed into his ship. Rorke looked up and saw 4 F-22s fly overhead.
“Goddamn Americans stick their noses in the wrong places,” he growled. “Get the PAK-FAs up here, show them who’s boss!”
Lieutenant Colonel William Bishop
Task Force 108, Warwolf Squadron
Airspace over Iron Ocean
October 13th, 007 SLR
Bishop led the fighters of Warwolf Squadron in on the target. The rocket impacts made little effect on the heavily armoured airship. “Damn!” he growled. “Guts, do we have anything heavier?”
“Negative sir,” his wingman replied. "I could call up the Warthogs if needed.”
Bishop’s IFF suddenly pinged. “USS Ronald Reagan, check those aircraft, over.”
“Copy that Warwolf,” replied General La Pointe. “Bogies are PAK-FA fighters, bearing Russian markings. Be extremely careful, those fighters can outperform yours.”
“Understood sir,” Bishop answered. “Boys, form up. Enemy fighter approaching.”
The first PAK flew over and rolled, getting in behind Warwolf 3. 3 immediately airbraked and performed a Pugachev Cobra, getting in behind them. Locking on, he fired a missile into the back of the fighter, destroying it.
Bishop performed an Immelmann in order to get behind another aircraft, but found himself boxed in by the two remaining fighters. Chasing one, he went into pursuit, but it rolled 180 degrees and dived underneath him, ending up on his 6.
Luckily, Guts formed up behind that one, and fired a missile into it, destroying it.
The remaining PAK suddenly started a dive. Bishop took the bait and flew downwards, noticing his speed gauge rapidly creeping upwards. He punched through the sound barrier, but his altimeter was reading as only having 100 feet left. The display started to beep, indicating a target lock.
“Come on, come on!” he said.
At last, his display went green, and gave a continuous ping. Bishop punched the fire button and all 4 missiles streaked out, impacting the foe and tearing it apart in a ball of fire.
Bishop pulled back on the stick. He pulled out of the dive with only 5 feet remaining. “Princess Twilight, can you hear me?” he asked.
“Loud and clear, over.”
“Your airspace will soon be clear. I’m bringing in Warthogs to bring that craft down.”
Bishop flew over the airship they were supporting. Rorke was on the deck, gesticulating wildly.
The seasoned pilot pulled the trigger. The bullets slammed into the deck and sent Rorke flying off of it, falling toward the sea.
“Thank goodness for that,” he said. In the corner of his vision (and on the aircraft RADAR) he could see the Warthog’s begin their run, only to get blown out of the sky by AA fire.
“Damn!” He switched his radio back on. “Twilight, the Warthogs are down. You cannot move from your current position, over.”
“Give me that!” he heard a voice on the other end say. "Hi, this is Rainbow Dash, Wonderbolt 6. I’ve got an idea...”
Rainbow Dash
Element of Loyalty
Airspace over Iron Ocean
October 13th, 007 SLR
Rainbow looked back at her friends. “I have to do this,” she said.
“That stunt led them to us!” Twilight exclaimed.
“Yeah, well this one will un-lead them from our position,” Rainbow answered. She took to the air before anypony could stop her.
Switching channel, she radioed Bishop. “Yo, Bishop, you there?” she said.
“This is Warwolf 1, over,” he replied. "We haven’t flown together since the Harmony War.”
“That was two years ago, but you saved my butt,” Rainbow answered. “So, I owe you one.”
“What’s the plan?”
“I need to reach 7673 miles an hour in order to punch through that thing without bouncing off. I need to position myself at about 30,000 feet in order to get enough speed up. Can you escort me there?”
“This sounds like one of your crazy plans, so therefore it’ll work. Warwolf Squadron, form up on me!”
Rainbow initiated her dive. The speed slowly built up, the front of her hooves slowly changing colour from blue to white. The Mach cone formed around her, as a loud boom indicated she had broken through the sound barrier. Still her speed rose. Mach 2, Mach 3. Flak exploded all around her, but still she accelerated through it. They wouldn’t be able to hit her anyway.
A missile flew at her, but she rolled over and dodged it. Stupid thing was a heat-seeker, confused by her speed.
She hit Mach 8. Then Mach 9.
Seconds before impacting the hull of the airship, she shouted down the radio, “EAT THIS!”
She slammed into the hull at the exact moment a loud explosion alerted the world to the oncoming spectacle. An aura of multiple colours exploded out from within the airship, the explosion tearing it to pieces. The parts began to fall down towards the ocean, Rainbow flying triumphantly in a circle, and slowing down. She landed safely on Calaeno’s ship.
“Woohoo! Was that awesome or what?”
Twilight just shook her head.
“So, no ‘thanks for saving my butt, Rainbow?’”
“If YOU hadn’t done that Sonic Rainboom in the first place, there would have been no butts in need of saving!” Twilight thundered.
“Your friend sounds pissed.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow replied. “Take a chill pill, Twi. At least we can get to mount Aris now.”
A loud explosion rocked the ship. Twilight looked over and saw a volley of missiles streaking up toward them.
“There’s an enemy fleet down there!” she called.
The radio cracked. "Princess Twilight, do you read, over?”
Twilight grabbed the headset from Rainbow. “Who is this?”
“This is Captain Elias Walker, Task Force: STALKER. We have control of the LUNA array. Do you have any targets for us?”
Twilight looked down. “Captain, I have quite a few for you.”