//------------------------------// // Five // Story: Flight to Dreadlands // by Prince of Cavia //------------------------------// Planes - Princess’s Orders - Scouting Mission - Remnants Starlight Berry was looking at her plane. It was a Lincoln-class strategic bomber. Heavy armed. It was using cutting-edge technology within about the best engines developed. Its range was so large, it was able to cover the whole of Equus from the Crystal Fields Air Force Base or, as Starlight did, bomb Wingbardy from the air bases in Severnaya. The air base was full of activity. It was completely full after Princess Flurry Heart ordered almost the entire Crystal Air Forces to relocate here. While most of the ponies here were barely capable of walking after the Princess’s recent magic stunt, they did so anyway. They were soldiers of the Crystal Empire, and it was their duty to serve their Princess. “Hello, Handsome. You still remember how to fly this junk?” said another pilot, Steel Rose. Handsome was Starlight’s callsign. With a shining light blue coat and a blue-yellow mane, she was the center of attention for many stallions in the airbase. Thanks to both her looks, the fact she came out unscratched from many fights with Griffon aircraft, and the fact she sent many fascists straight to Maar, she was a bit of a celebrity here. “Hello, Sunshine. I can fly this beauty even in my sleep,” replied Starlight. Steel Sunshine Rose was a fighter pilot, flying the most modern aircraft developed, Meteor-class jet fighter. These fighters were the pride of Crystal Air Force, and were decimating Karinthian planes over New Mareland. Still, even despite Princess Cadance’s quite bizarre decision to order every single military factory in the Crystal Empire to produce airplanes, many pilots still had to fly Great War-era Spitfires. “My head feels like I’ve been drinking cider with the southorns for the last week. Why in Heart’s name are we being sent on a mission now?” “If you want to complain, you should have gone to the softies in Equestria. We are the Crystal Empire!” Starlight said, even though she felt about the same. Suddenly, the speakers around the airbase started to speak. “Announcement. Princess Flurry Heart and Chief of the Air Force Martini Markerlight will make an important announcement in an hour at the command center. All pilots are to attend it personally.” “Maybe finally she will tell us what we are supposed to do now,” said Steel Rose. The pilots of the Crystal Air Force gathered by the command center. There was a large podium built on the site. Starlight Berry and Steel Rose, as one of the best pilots in the air force, were closests to it.  “I hope she tells us that we all can have paid leave for the next two weeks,” said Steel. “I think she teleported the city away because we have better targets to bomb than Wingbardy,” replied Starlight. “By the way, have you heard that Unicorns cannot teleport anymore? They cannot even do any magic other than simple levitation. Same with Pegasi, they cannot land on clouds or control the weather. This is quite strange, don’t you think?” “Probably the Princess messed up some spell. Whatever. We Earth Ponies never needed magic to be awesome.” “Damn right!” The chatter was silenced by an officer walking towards the microphone. “Her Majesty, Princess Flurry Heart, Princess of Crystal Empire, Princess of Ponies.” The gathered soldiers stood at attention. From the command center, the Princess walked towards them. The Chief of the Air Force, Martini Markerlight, was walking behind her. Despite the Princess being barely an adult, everypony gathered here felt obliged to listen to her. Starlight knew that Alicorns had something in them, and believed that Flurry in particular was blessed by the Heart to lead ponykind. She just felt this inside her soul. The young Princess walked towards the microphone. “Pilots of the Crystal Air Force. First of all, I want to thank you for the great job you did against the Karinthian Empire. The air superiority you managed to establish was the key in the success of my special mission. For this, you have my gratitude.” Steel looked at Starlight smugly and smiled. “Now, as many of you probably know, a week ago, I unleashed a powerful spell that teleported the city exactly one thousand four years into the future.” As the Princess said this, there were murmurs of confusion and discontent over this. Starlight was also confused. By the Heart, she actually did it. Why though?  “I know this decision would have been controversial, and this is why no official announcement was made. This is also why the majority of Crystal Armed Forces are currently in Crystal City. The good news is, Karinthian Empire and all others enemies of Ponykind are long gone.” The war is over? Well, that’s a good thing, I guess, thought Starlight. “However, our fight is far from over. That’s where you come in. Your mission is to fly recon flights over Equus, in order to check for any activity. As far as I know, all Ponies were evacuated from the continent a millennium ago. However, I cannot be sure of it. Martini Markerlight will deliver detailed orders of the regions that you will scout. If any of you find traces of civilization, photograph it and give it to the command center. Go with the Heart.” The gathered Ponies stomped their right hoof three times. Starlight Berry was flying over the area once known as Equestria.  From what she was able to see, there were no traces that an industrial civilization was ever there. The land was only a natural forest, as far as you can see. “Did the erosion erase it, or was it intentional?” she thought aloud.  She and her crew were to scout the Baltimare area. She hoped there would be something there. On the way through Equestria, she flew over a few smaller towns. At least, according to the map. There was nothing down there. Flying over the empty coastal land, Starlight began to get lost in thought. What happened to the world? Where was anypony? Two days before she was recalled to Crystal City, she heard some strange rumors. Some pilots in the Petershoof Air Base have claimed that strange things were happening over at Southern Cross, the Crystal-crewed air base in New Mareland. DDS agents were supposedly seen there. There were three Meteor fighter wings and one Lincoln strategic bomber wing there, all crewed by the ponies that were known to be the most devout followers of the Princess. Something was happening over there.  There was a talk that Princess Flurry Heart wanted to deploy megaspells against Karinthian Empire. Princess Cadance has created the first one four years ago, and by now Crystal Empire had dozens of them, supposedly. Could Flurry Heart do it? Could she order to throw the megaspells that emptied the world? No. These were treasonous thoughts. Princess Flurry Heart was a defender, she wanted to protect her ponies. There was no way she would have done this. But if not her, then who? Her rumination stopped when she was something. Far to the south, on the coast, there was visible light. It flicked unnaturally.  She recognized what it was. A lighthouse. In the town of Maretime Bay, things were perfect. Sunny know this. Since magic went back, everything was great. There were some incidents, of course. Like the one time an Earth Pony mare insulted an Unicorn, and the town was almost devoured by Void. But she said sorry, so it was okay now. Sunny walked over the promenade. There were happy ponies there, mostly looking at their smartphones. They surely looked at various proofs of tribal unity, as they were the only things worth looking at. Sunny wasn’t looking at her phone. She was looking at the sea on the warm late May day.  She heard some strange noise. Something like an old engine her father sometimes worked with in his free time, when he wasn’t working in praising Canter-Tech on his radio station. She looked around, but there were no machines like this nearby. She was a bit confused. Then, she looked at the sky. There was something over there. Sunny wasn’t sure what she was looking at. Was it a strange bird? It seemed to have wings, but it didn’t flap them. Sunny was almost sure the strange noise came out of it. What was that, then? Some strange contraption that somepony sent into the sky? Maybe a Pegasi prank? Ponies around her also noticed the strange thing in the sky, and started filming. Who made the best video would be the best pony. Sunny, as much as she wanted too, didn’t have time for that. She did what she was supposed to do when something strange was happening. She galloped to her friends in order to fix it together. Her friends knew this as well. They meet in the middle of the way. “Have you seen the giant bird in the sky, Sunny?” Izzy said cheerfully. “It’s not a bird, it’s a machine. Very strange one. How did it start to fly?” asked Zipp. “I wanted to ask about it too. It looks like one of your pranks, Zipp,” Sunny said. “I promise you I had nothing to do with this.” “Come on. It is just a big bird,” said Pipp. “I’ve got an idea! How about we have a contest of making the best photo of a bird and posting it on the best social media website, Hoofstagram? You know, the one site everypony should visit all the time, so I could have advertisement money?” “That’s a great idea!” said Hitch. “Amazing idea. Let’s do a contest, then!” announced Sunny. She got her phone, and started thinking of a good lookout spot. Surely, this strange-sounding bird that was circling above the city was just that, a bird. What else would it be?