Lance's first flight in Equestria is actually NOT inside Equestria. Because he'll be going to Mt. Aris. Not too long ago, Lance received a letter from the Hippogriffian Navy, saying that he's welcomed too heck their Navy out, also a special guest will be welcoming him. And of course, lance accepted.
The next morning, right after breakfast, Lance went to the train station with Gallus. From the talk he got from Gallus, Lance learned that the Hippogriffian Navy is somehow similar to the US Navy, they have a fleet called the "Ponific Fleet" which reminded Lance about the Americans' "Pacific Fleet." He also learned that the Hippogriffian Navy is the first to build an Aircraft-Carrier, which surprised Lance. He'd never been on a carrier before, but he did witness a Super Hornet in action during an air show he watched; how the Super Hornet takeoff and landing on the carrier is truly a sight to see. Now he had a chance to actually go ON an Aircraft-Carrier.
After a hour of traveling, the train finally arrived the Mt. Aris station. Lance is astonished by the look of how beautiful it is.
Right after they departed from the train station, Lance and Gallus were greeted by a certain pink and blue-white maned female bubbly hippogriff. Lance could tell that Gallus have some special relationship with this hippogriff went they hugged and kissed.
"Lance, this is my marefriend, SIlverstream. Silver, this is the human I've been telling you about." Gallus introduced.
"OMG! You must be the grandson of the human that fought with us 20 years ago!" SIlverstream exclaimed, "I've always wanted to meet you!"
"Wow! I'm actually shaking hands... er... claws with an actual, living hippogriff!" Lance also exclaimed, just something about him; his watched Harry Potter and was obsessed with Hippogriffs.
"Alright, now let's move on." Gallus said, "You don't wanna miss the Hippogriffian Living Legend."
Lance raised an eyebrow, "A living legend? Like from Top Gun?"
"What?"
"Tell you later, by the way, who's this 'living legend'?" Lance asked.
They reached the Hippogriffian Navy Bay, once again Lance is shocked by how advance they are. There's cruisers, destroyers, cargo ships, and an old, retired Battleship that looked a lot like the Iowa-Class Battleship. But what amazed and surprised him the most is a huge military ship that has Tomcats on them.
"Silverstream, is that what I think it is?" Lance asked.
"Yup! You're looking at our famous USS Novo Aircraft-Carrier! Our first career!"
"Are these Tomcats?" Lance asked the hippogriff. The answer is just as he expected, "Yup, but what we called it is H-14 "Sea Gull", but Tomcat does sounds cool though."
They passed a few guards, showed them the ID and they let them in. For a split second Lance thought that he was onboard the CVN-78 Fort class; USS Novo has so many similarities to it. Except they uses H-14 instead of Super Hornets. Lance just thought it funny how their technologies are just like Earth's but its like during the 80s.
"We'll show you around USS Novo later," Silverstream said, "Somegriff is up there waiting for you."
"Who's that 'somegriff'?" Lance asked.
"You'll see."
They got on an elevator and moved up to the top floor of the carrier. Immediately right after they came out, Lance is once again stunned. On the runway were two H-14s, their landing gears were tied up and ready to blast off. The pilot in the cockpit gave the instructor a thumbs-up (Claws-up?) and the instructor returned it. Then he chattered something to his radio. A minute later, he nodded and gave the pilot the sign of take off sequence. Suddenly, he bend down low and raised his right claws straight, that's the signal. Immediately the H-14 blasted forward as it left a trail of afterburner. After a few second of gliding, it took off into the air.
Lance thought about the scenes from Top Gun, hey it's just like from the movie! He suddenly realized.
"Silverstream, where that 'somegriff" at" Lance asked.
"He's coming down!"
Immediately Lance looked to where SIlverstream was pointing, and saw a H-14 with a Eagle logo on its left wing. The H-14 started to lower its altitude and the tail hook. Its landing gears were deployed and made a loud screech the moment it touched the ground. The tailhook did the rest of the job, it caught the arresting wire and came to an immediate stop. The Hippogriffs rushed forward, putting the ladders next to the cockpit. The cockpit opened to reveal a young male hippogriff with white feathers and greenish blue feathers on his head and tails.
He climbed off the ladder and walks towards them, he took off his helmet and revealed...
"Terramar!" Silverstream squeak as she rushed forward for a sibling hug.
"Hey Silver!" the hippogriff known as Terramar smiled and hugged back. He saw Lance.
"Oh, and you must be the human I heard from Gallus," he said as he came forward, offering a claw shake, "I'm Terramar, Silverstream's brother and the Captain of the Top Wings squadron."
Lance returned the hand---claw shake, "Nice to meet you Terramar, I'm Lance. By the way, you reminded me of Tom Cruise from Top Gun."
He cocked his head, "Never heard of him, but he sounds cool."
Lance chuckled, "Heh heh, you'll get it, so, you fly this Sea Gull?"
"Yup, it has a name: Maverick." Terramar said proudly. Lance nearly jumped. Yup, This dude is the Hippogriffan Top Gun, he thought.
"Lance, Terramar will be your guide on USS Novo, I've some other work to do, see ya!" Silverstream said before taking off with Gallus. Lance smirked, already knew what she meant by "Work". Terramar then led Lance throughout the Aircraft carrier. Introducing some sections on the ship, when they came to the main control room, Lance saw everygriff in the room, chatting, checking, and... sweating... Of course.
He then told Terramar about Top Gun, which he was really amused and interested.
"Huh, this Tom Cruise does sound a bit like me. So our H-14 is called F-14 Tomcat in your world? Sounds cooler than Sea Gull." Terramar said, "And you mentioned a song called 'Danger Zone'? May I..."
"Of course." Lance said as he took out his phone and searched the MV he downloaded, which Terramar looked more interested. He clicked on "Play", and the classic rock begin to rock them both,
"Wow, so that's your version of the H-14?" Terramar asked, his tone sounded excited, "This Top Gun does seemed like a great movie, can we watch it later?"
"Why yes, Terramar. This is my first time onboard of an Aircraft-Carrier, just like the one back on Earth. All you need is some Super Hornets." once stated, which dragged Terramar's attention, "Super Hornet?"
"Oh, these are fighter jets that can also go on an Aircraft-Carrier." Lance explained, "They're more advanced than H-14 though. Their full name is called F/A-18 Super Hornet, twin-engined, fourth-generation, carrier-capable, and a multirole fighter. It carriers a 20mm Vulcan cannon, air-to-air missiles, air-to-surface missiles, and can carry up to five external fuel tanks. Its max air speed can go up to Mach 1.8, which is 1,190 miles per hour." Lance explained, while Terramar looked in awe.
"I should tell this to my dad, he's the boss of the Hippogriffian Navy." He said, "Those Super Hornets might be a great help to us someday."
"Yeah, you'll probably need some Super Hornets in the future." Lance agreed.
They spend the rest of their day going around the Hippogriffian Navy Bay, introducing many other military ships. Lance is amazed by how powerful the Hipporgiffian Navy is, if the Super Hornets have being manufactured and entered service, than the Hippogriffians should be in the leading point in the world's military compilation.
Lance would spend few more days at the Hippogriffian Navy before going to his next destination. But little do he know, that trouble and conflict is slowly approaching the peaceful land, and soon, this world would be at war, not with each other, but with another race from outer space.....
(Heads up! The real dogfighting begins in the next chapter!)