"Exiting the ocean. Hell, haven't seen daylight for quite a while now." Blithy said, grinning with anticipation.
The surface of the Atlantic was just ahead of them, shimmering in the sun and sending disrupted rays of golden light down to the depths.
"Our Apollos are already engaging the enemy. We're sending you a third wingmare- trust me, you'll need her." the radio operator said.
Blithy sighed. "We'll see." she said as another Apollo pulled alongside the Horizons.
"Lightning Dust at your service ma'am." the pilot said.
Blithy tilted her head to one side. "Weren't you the one that got ki-"
"Yes ma'am." Lightning Dust cut her off before she could finish, which annoyed her slightly but wasn't of any importance. It was quite understandable.
"Turning off the mirage. Don't need that crap anymore." Blithy said, flicking a switch.
The Horizons faded back into existence, then broke the water's surface. It arched through the air, leaving streams of water in its wake. At first Blithy was blinded by the bright sun, then her eyes slowly adjusted to the chaos.
The world shook as three Apollos flew by really close, their engines roaring. Explosions were going off everywhere, dogfights spanning almost out of view. The planes chased each other through clouds, down back underwater, and through the skies.
Blithy yanked the joystick to one side, a Striker exploding and its flaming carcass drifting past the Horizons. She flew back through the trails of flames left behind by the burning Striker, dragging the smoke with her.
"Everypony go to Manehatten! We'll stand a better chance and will be able to avoid their heavy artillery in the streets!" Blithy yelled, the plane turning away and heading for the sand swept coastal city.
"Tangoes on your tail ma'am." Lightning Dust said.
"Copy." Blithy said, the missile lock-on warning flashing red with beeps.
She changed her trajectory and started flying straight up, towards the barricade and the edge of space. On her radar the missiles got ever closer, and she could see them in her rear view mirror. Then she turned off the engines, giving the missiles nothing to track- they could no longer find their target, so flew straight up. The plane started slowing down, then the nose tipped down and it started falling; breaking into a vertical nose dive.
"Ooooh..." the Doctor mumbled as his stomach lurched.
Blithy fell past the missiles, then re-activated the engines. The missiles started tracking her again, and arched back to follow- but slammed into each other midway and blew out into a huge fireball.
"Shuck. It's Val." the radio operator said, and Blithy saw a black and yellow flash to her right- it was the Wasp, Val's signature modified Striker.
"Buck. All pilots, break away now." Blithy said, and her wingmares broke out of formation and left her with her duel with Val.
Blithy put her comms through to the Wasp.
"Well well, commander. Forcing me out of the comfort of my throne room." Val yawned, casually firing a missile that struck dead in the cockpit of an Apollo. Its hull peeled away from the blast, leaving a flaming exoskeleton to fall to the depths of the Atlantic. "I'll take care of this quick."
"Won't happen." Blithy growled, turning the plane around to face Val.
There was an eery drone as they both squeezed their triggers, their prism guns shooting off beams at each other. The beams collided, causing small rainbow colored explosions in the middle. Val launched a missile, and Blithy rolled to the side and out of the way. She fired a missile in return, in which Val shattered with a prism beam.
Some Apollos came to interfere- but they shouldn't have.
Val's ship wasn't called the Wasp for no reason. The paint job was put on because of its name, and its name came from its PDP shield. The shield was specially crafted and required a lot of energy to operate, so her weapons systems must be turned off when the shield was activated. PDP stood for Physical Damage Prevention, and like it says- once the shield is activated, it will be impossible for it to be destroyed by physical means. When the shield is on, it's only vulnerable to energy weapons such as the prism guns and EMPs.
And right now the ship's hull had begun shimmering- the shield was on.
"Look out!" Blithy warned, but it was no use.
Val dodged all their prism beams, and flew the Wasp straight through all three Apollos- tearing them to pieces. They exploded, and the Wasp emerged from the fireball unharmed.
"Beware of the Wasp's sting." Val sang, turning off the shield and shooting a prism beam Blithy's way.
Blithy flew to the side as the beam burned past, retaliating with her own. Val swung out of the way.
"Haven't had this much fun since the war last time." she grinned. "Let's hope I don't end this too quick."
"No worries there." Blithy growled.
*
"I need a wingmare!" Lightning Dust yelled, flying towards one of the science faction cruisers.
"Right with ya." Zealo said, flying alongside.
"We're aiming for the enemy bridge. Stick close to the cruiser, so it'll be harder for their turrets to target us." Lightning said, changing course and aiming for the nose of the cruiser.
"I've got my torpedoes armed." Zealo sighed. While torpedoes were useless in the air, they could still be used as bombs to be dropped on targets- and they packed a way bigger punch than the conventional missiles. Even more than 20% bigger.
"Here goes." Lightning took in a deep breath as they neared the front of the cruiser.
Suddenly loud explosions started going up all around her as the enemy defense systems spotted her and Zealo.
"Flak cannons! Look out!" Zealo yelled, breaking away and spreading out.
Suddenly the nothingness below them was replaced by the cruiser as they whooshed over it, the rows and rows of artillery slowly swinging around to point at them. They wove through the towers, avoiding fresh Strikers as they emerged from hangars- or just shot at them.
"Uh-oh. Tail." Zealo said as he spotted a missile warning on his HUD.
"Cross over!" Lightning yelled, banking hard right while Zealo yanked his controller to the left.
Lightning twisted her controller, flipping the plane upside down. They passed each other, Zealo the right way up at the bottom and Lightning upside down at the top. Their cockpit windshields grazed each other's, and the missiles following them flew into each other and disappeared behind a fireball.
Lightning flipped the plane back to normal orientation, spinning out of the way of a flak turret.
"Oh, how I missed flying." she laughed.
"Just don't be too reckless and get me killed." Zealo said.
"How come everypony knows about that?" Lightning Dust grumbled. "And I don't even know you."
"Captain Spitfire kinda uses you as an example for the rookie fliers." Zealo shrugged, turning his plane vertical and allowing a prism beam to shoot past.
"So I'm some sort of role model?" Lightning asked, shooting a Striker out of the sky. Its flaming carcass fell down and slammed into the cruiser's hull.
"Yeah." Zealo nodded. "You inspired many accidents in cadet school."
"Ain't that great to hear." Lightning muttered.
*
"Still hiding, Blighty?" Val asked, the Wasp hovering and slowly gliding along the deserted streets of Manehatten.
Blithy didn't reply, the Horizons parked on a roof and its mirage device activated. The damaged panel sparked and quivered, fizzing in and out of existence. She could see Val's ship from up here, gliding along and checking around every corner. The Wasp was getting further and further away- but still Blithy waited for an opportunity to present the attack.
Dust crumbled off the surface of the buildings as the Wasp glided past, the engines pointed downwards creating a micro curl of wind on the streets and lifting up the ash. The vibrations from its engines shook the foundations of the weak buildings, and one behind Val finally gave up. It broke apart, crumbling to the ground like a pile of blocks knocked over by a foal.
Val turned her ship around, but nopony was hiding behind the building. She stared at the empty space for a while, then moved on.
"Where are you~" she hummed.
Then there was a loud whir as the Horizons spun sideways and out from behind a building, launching two missiles at Val's turned back.
Val turned her plane sideways so the wings were vertical, and the missiles missed where they should have hit the engines. Then her shield shimmered to life, and the Wasp abruptly made a 180 degree turn and boosted towards the Horizons.
Blithy only had a split second to make her move. She twisted both joysticks in different directions, and the plane flipped upside down.
Val passed below, and they looked up to see each other through their windshields, and Blithy made a rude hand gesture with her middle finger at Val as she passed.
"Oh it is on." Val said, grinning and turning the ship around as she passed.
Blithy jammed the accelerators forward, and the Horizons shot through the streets. The Wasp followed, prism beams firing everywhere. One beam struck the side of a building, taking it down almost instantly as the age old material crumbled into a million pieces and fell from the sky.
Blithy zig-zagged through the labyrinth of buildings, engines blaring and lifting clouds of sand into the air. Val followed close behind, taking down the megastructures she can't be bothered going around with the prism gun.
Val yanked the controllers in opposite directions, sending the Wasp into a fast sideways turn. She held down the triggers on the prism beams, sending them flying in all directions at Blithy.
Blithy had to keep in perfect sync to avoid Val's attacks, turning the Horizons with the Wasp and making sure none of the beams hit her.
Then the Horizons flipped in the air, already rotating backwards 180 degrees before it made a full loop. Blithy held down the triggers, firing the prism beams down at Val as she completed her loop.
Val quickly turned the Wasp away from pursuit, avoiding the rainbow beams by millimeters.
Now the Wasp was running from the Horizons.
*
Eclipse flew the Striker through a crowd of Apollos, prism beams blaring. Suddenly a red missile lock warning popped onto her HUD, and she spun the ship around to face the Apollos.
She slammed a hoof down on the accelerator, sending the Striker boosting forward. She turned the plane to one side just as the missile approached, and it flew past. She rolled into the smoky trail it left behind, straight towards the Apollo that sent it.
Instead of firing the prism beams, she simply emptied all her secondary weapons slots at the Apollo squad and slammed the eject button.
The cockpit broke away from the rest of the plane, the plane itself slamming into an Apollo and breaking both to pieces. The missiles she launched earlier took down several others.
The ejected cockpit split in two, and Eclipse leaped out from the wreckage. Eclipse was just another one of Val's experimental projects- made almost completely from scratch. Eclipse was part of an experiment labeled 'Matter Manipulation', essentially devices that will be able to manipulate particles. Eclipse has several of these devices embedded in her body, mainly in her hooves and on her back. The devices are able to make particles hover, change their state of matter, properties, and general shape they form. They are even able to multiply and destruct the particles at will. The devices acquire matter from the environment- and as it can multiply particles, as long as there is one particle left the devices will be able to function. Eclipse is still a prototype, and the range of the devices she posses is still quite limited.
None the less deadly.
Suddenly wings sprouted from her back as she fell, glowing a bright orange as the devices charged and multiplied the particles. They splayed out, huge artificial feathers reaching to the sides. Her hooves glowed orange, and long sharp claws sprouted from them.
An Apollo made the mistake of flying too close, and Eclipse tore it down the center. She kicked off one half and onto another plane, the older one blowing itself to pieces as the missile launching system malfunctioned.
She stabbed a claw through the windshield and into the pilot's chest, then ripped both the windshield and the pilot out. She leaped off, the out of control Apollo slamming into a Striker- but it didn't matter to her.
Then a missile was launched towards her, the bright red tip easily visible in the sun light. Two blades on her claws retracted, leaving just one single one sticking out of her hoof. The missile struck the blade, and she twisted it delicately to avoid the detonation cap so the missile wouldn't blow up. She sliced it cleanly in half, and the two halves flew either side and past her head. She heard them explode behind her later on.
With a bright orange glow, an incineration rifle appeared in her hooves. She pulled the trigger, an orange laser flying into an Apollo and instantly setting it on fire. Its engines blew apart as the flames reached the fuel, and eventually the entire plane faded to ash.
Exactly why Val didn't intimidate her by the slightest.
*
"You got your torpedoes primed?" Lightning Dust asked.
"Done." Zealo said.
"Flak." Lightning rolled the Apollo to one side, a cloud of smoke exploding outwards nearby.
The bridge was close. Once they bomb that, the enemy's traffic control will be out of the way.
"Missile!" Zealo yelled, banking the plane hard left.
Lightning Dust pulled away to the right, and spotted the missile peeling away as it passed.
"What the-?" she watched the outer shell of the strange projectile break away from the main body.
"Buck- look out!" Zealo yelled, diving down.
The projectile exploded, sending hundreds of tiny explosives towards Lightning's Apollo. They embedded themselves in the hull, and a split second later blew apart too. The right side of the hull was torn to pieces and peeled away, and internal systems were malfunctioning too. Two engines were lost, and the plane was tilting dangerously to one side because of the unbalance in thrust.
"Shuck-" Lightning cursed, slamming the eject button.
The cockpit blew away from the plane, and flew through the enemy bridge's glass wall. The Apollo arched down, spinning out of control as it only had its left engines left. It plunged into a flak turret, crushing both to scrap metal.
The cockpit skid across the floor, knocking down computers and equipment then dragging electronics and wires behind it. Sparks erupted as the wires were ripped apart and the computers torn to pieces. Science Faction officers dived out of the way as the cockpit skid across the bridge, then finally slammed into the far wall where it came to rest.
The bulletproof windshield blew out and bounced across the floor, and Lightning Dust leaped out.
She took off her pilot helmet and threw it across the bridge, clipping a nearby officer in the head and causing him to fall over. Lightning quickly darted to him and took away the rifle slung across his back, and opened fire on the other science faction ponies.
"Alert. Alert. Bridge has been breached. Alert. All personnel to the command center." an alarm went off, flashing red lights instantly filing up the bridge.
"Gotta go." Lightning Dust said, flipping back into a security officer's chest, then kicking off towards the broken bridge windshield. She left behind a trail of bright yellow electricity, zig zagging behind her tail.
She dove out of the bridge and onto the cruiser's hull below. Sparks flew as her hooves skid across the metal- just another landing.
The officers from the bridge weren't exactly good fighters- their lousy shots landed all around Lightning and was only causing more damage.
"Shuck Lightning! The hay are you?" Zealo asked.
"On the cruiser hull. My Apollo went down." Lightning said, diving forward as a flak projectile exploded behind her. She came out of the smoke cloud, coughing without her helmet. "Meet me at the engines!"
"What!?" Zealo frowned. "How the hay are you going to get there?"
"I'll find a way. Stay alive in the meantime." Lightning said, ducking down behind a flak tower.
She looked up- these turrets are manually operated- there must be a way in.
*
The Horizons broke into a steep climb, then abruptly turned around. The Wasp grazed past, both planes shaking as each other's engines let out waves of thrust.
"I regret eating lunch." Doctor Whooves said.
"What did you have?" Blithy asked, stopping the plane just before it hit the ground then sending it flying forward and weaving through the buildings.
"Hay fingers and custard." the Doctor said, and Blithy frowned.
"Hold it in then." she sighed, then rolled the plane to one side. "Ever been to Manehatten before? Or do you like bridges?"
"Yes, they fascinate me." the Doctor mumbled glumly.
"Well- Lincolt bridge is up ahead." Blithy said, banking the Horizons hard left and bringing it down so it was flying just above the ocean surface.
Water sprayed onto the hull as the engines shoved the ocean surface out of the way, leaving behind them large waves of disrupted water.
Blithy looked behind them- Val was still there. She sighed then took in a deep breath. A couple of Val's missiles flew by, hitting the water surface and lifting up a huge block of ocean. It flew up into the air, then came back down again with a huge splash.
All along the ocean surface other dogfights were taking place. Apollos and Strikers leaped out of the water and dived back in like dolphins- missiles and torpedoes following the arches of water they left behind.
"Time to leave behind a little gift." Blithy said, dropping a high explosive torpedo into the water.
It made a small splash as it hit the water.
"Time it Doctor." Blithy said, still cruising along the ocean surface.
"Here she comes..." the Doctor said, watching the screen in front of him. "Fire in the hole!" he yelled, slamming the detonation button.
The chaotic ocean battle ground would've seemed like a calm summer's day when compared to what came next.
The high explosive torpedo went off, lifting up a quarter of a cubic kilometer of water, sending all of them high up into the air. The shockwave traveled across the surface, rippling the ocean.
"Mother of-" Val muttered, the ship completely clouded in the water blast. She couldn't see anything but splashing water.
It took several seconds to finally break through. Water slid away from the windshield as she forced the Wasp forward. She looked around the empty space- but the Horizons was nowhere to be seen.
She sighed when she looked in her rear view mirror.
"Tag, you're it." she muttered, accelerating away as the Horizons broke through the water behind her.