//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 - Digging Up the Shameful Past 
// Story: Top Wing 
// by LCranston 
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Disclaimer:

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the property of Hasbro and associations and are used without permission for the sole purpose of entertainment for no financial gain of any kind.

Top Gun was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps, Jr. and is handled by Paramount Pictures.  

Stratum, Steele, Big Bucks, Special Seed, Crystal Gaze, Ethereal Curtain, and Thunder Boss are my intellectual property, but Lauren Faust can make me an offer if she wishes.


Background and setup:

Top Gun was one of the great movies of the ‘80’s.  Everyone who saw it wanted to go out and become a fighter pilot, even kids.  We all got over it, but still the aspect of putting yourself on the line for your country remains a strong idea in our minds forever.

However, the movie is about more than shooting the enemy.  It’s about realizing that the only true obstacles to victory are ignorance and fear.  If we remain attached to them, we fail.  If we separate ourselves from them, we win.  This simple concept is not easily done.  Often times, it takes great sacrifice to remove them from ourselves.





Top Wing


(Approximately three years after Princess Luna’s return)

Stratum looked up at the sky through the overbearing foliage of the Everfree Forest.  With all of the wild trees growing in random places, he wondered how any thing could thrive in such an environment.  It was even a chore to see the sky, much less catch sunlight on his face.  How is the world did the grass get enough sunlight to grow?
A younger stallion came up to him breathlessly, asking, “Mr. Stratum, we’ve finished residence three.  Where do you want to dig now?”  The stallion was Stratum’s height, with a green coat, green eyes, and yellow mane.  His flank symbol was a shovel and pail.
Without looking, Stratum asked, “What was the shard density in the last layer of dirt?”
The stallion mumbled, “Um, I don’t know.  We didn’t record that.”
Stratum sighed, shaking his head.  He spoke evenly, “How do you expect to earn your archaeology degree if you don’t do the basic tasks?”
The student lowered his head and said, “I’m sorry.”
The short, yellow archaeologist turned back to camp, heading for his tent.
He ordered, “Don’t be sorry.  Do it.  Don’t do anything else until you record the shard density for every layer dug out since we made camp.”
The young stallion whined, “But that’ll take hours!”
Stratum’s voice took on a firm tone as he said, “Then you better get started.  I want all of those numbers by the time I’m ready to dig tomorrow.  I suggest you work through dinner.”
The stallion went back to the students’ tents, relaying the bad news.
Stratum thought to himself, Oh Celestia, what am I going to do with these ponies?  I swear the next generation are all slackers.  I did my density calculations every day and trended them on a map without being told.  How am I ever going to find the key to defeating the K’klattcha this way?  By the time I get these students into shape, the barrier will have expired.

The next day found Stratum digging alone in the ruined temple.  The students could not agree on which pottery shards had come from which dig sites, so they all submitted conflicting calculations on the shard density.  Stratum had uniformly thrown the reports into the campfire.  He then nominated a young mare to be in charge of the density calculations and went off to dig by himself.  
He dug carefully around the shattered stone throne.  Doing this was therapeutic as well as enlightening.  Sometimes he felt like the only true archaeologist in Equestria.  He wondered if there were any others in far away places like Stalliongrad or Hoofington.  Maybe he could finally find a date.
CRACK!  Suddenly, his small pick broke the back of the base of the throne.  He frowned, worried that he had ruined a precious artifact.
He swept away the debris, hoping the throne was still salvageable.  Underneath the seat it appeared to be a hollow space.  
Inside were some clay tablets, still in perfect condition!  Stratum had to force himself to drag them out slowly, careful not to stress them.
The writing was similar to the writing painted on the walls of the temple.  He already had a basic working knowledge of the grammar.  
Reading the tablet slowly and consulting his notes, he pieced together a simple phrase, saying it aloud.
“…forever live…memory…hearts within…memory stone…”
His curiosity peaked and he tried to translate another phrase.
As he finished, a young mare trotted up with a pack of papers.  She had pink eyes, a pink coat, and a green mane.  Her cutie mark was a shovel crossed with a measuring stick.  
Laying them at his hooves, she reported, “Here are the density reports since we arrived.  It seems that their residences were passed down from parents to children over at least a hundred generations.  They never even thought of building new residences.  They had plenty of materials.  I don’t understand.”
Stratum remarked, “Often, families have a cultural bias against building new homes because they limit their populations by choice.”  He looked at a word that seemed untranslatable.  He frowned and continued, “Or maybe all of the rest of the land was taken by their livelihoods and could not be sacrificed for more homes.  Perhaps that’s why the village dried up.  All of the children moved away to form a new village and the old one just died off of old age.”
The mare wondered out loud, “That wouldn’t explain the damage to the temple.  It actually looks ransacked.”
Stratum replied, “I can’t explain that yet.  I could learn more if I could translate this tablet.”
The mare looked at the ancient writing and felt her brain turn to mush.  She offered diplomatically, “I’m sure if you sent it to the university at Canterlot, the linguists could do something with it.”
Stratum replied, “And look incompetent in front of the board?  Never.  Besides, they’d just ask me to teach them to read the language so they can translate it.  No, it’s better to do it myself and be slow.”
He translated a few more characters and then noticed the mare sitting down upon the ground.  He asked, “Do you have a question?”
She replied mildly, “No, I’m just curious what the tablet says.”
He read off what he had so far.  “It says, ‘Our hearts will forever live in the stone.’  Some more junk.  Then it says, ‘The memories must be sealed by the law.’  That’s about all so far.”
The mare offered, “Does ‘sealed by law’ mean there was a law that said no one could read these memories?”
Stratum replied, “No, it means that the actually law itself protected the memories.  This word ‘law’ is a proper noun.”
She began to be lost and finished by gesturing to the free-standing wall of the temple behind the throne, “Oh, like those religious rules written on the wall.  They would be an object because they were important.”
Stratum’s brain did a triple somersault back flip and clicked into place.  He trotted over to the wall and looked closely.  The laws of the temple were painted upon the wall in two distinct columns.  There was a space between the lists as wide as a pony.
He turned around and bucked the wall hard.  CRUNCH!  A stone in the wall gave way and fall inwards.  He looked inside the hole he had created.  The soft glow of red met his vision as his eyes beheld a familiar shape.
The mare stood up and angrily rebuked, “What are you doing?!  Didn’t you teach us to never be too rough?  What does this mean?  Are you listening to me?  What do you see in there?”
Stratum turned around to look at the mare.  He replied, “Wondrous things.”

A young stallion with a green coat, purple mane, and yellow eyes raced into Ponyville hours later.  His flank symbol was a pair of horseshoes each with a pair of slim wings framing them.  Panting heavily, he altered his course for the Ponyville library.
Upon reaching the library, he tried to slow down.  His front hoof slipped into a mud puddle, robbing him of all friction for a short time.  
However, traveling at his speed meant a short time was all it needed to reach the front door.  
WHAM!
Inside, a purple unicorn looked up from her chemical table to stare at the door.  Since another knock wasn’t forthcoming, she trotted over to open the upper half of the door.
A lone hoof rose up, bearing a scroll.
A whimpering voice stated, “Urgent message for Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight took the missive and read it.  After several lines, a baby dragon came down into the main room.
He asked, “Who’s at the door?”
She replied distractedly, “Some messenger.  He’s got an urgent letter to send to the Princess!”  After a moment, she looked up and looked sheepishly at the door.  “Um, Spike, would you invite our guest in and give him some water?”
The purple unicorn continued to read the letter carefully.  Spike opened the bottom half of the door to admit the stallion inside.
The stallion grumped, “Ouch.  Why do they make such hard doors?”
The dragon joked, “To keep out all of the soft-heads, Swiftrunner.”
Swiftrunner playfully punched Spike in the arm, but could not keep off the wry smile from his face.  Spike left for the kitchen and returned with a tall glass of water.
As Swiftrunner drank the water, Twilight commanded, “Spike, take a letter.”
“Dear Princess Celestia,

Swiftrunner has just come from Stratum’s camp with fantastic news.  He claims to have found the legendary Memory Stone, right in the same village he found before.  He theorizes that the memory of how to put up the barrier might be stored inside the stone.  However, it’s brimming over with active magical energies.

He requests that a royal chariot be sent to collect the stone, which is the size and shape of the front half of a pegasus and made entirely of a single ruby, be sent right away.  He also requests a unicorn from the Enchantment School of your Royal Academy be alerted to study how to extract the memories, preferably without frying the recipient.

I await your response.

You faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle.”
Once Spike had written the letter, Twilight rolled it up with the original missive and a map showing the location of Stratum’s camp.  Then Spike belched his special green flame to send the letter to the Princess.
Twilight turned to Swiftrunner and said, “Well, it looks like you can take a rest.  It’ll be a bit before we get the response, much less the escort.  I’d suggest checking back here in a bit before heading back to camp.”
The green stallion smiled and raced towards the marketplace, “Yes!  There’s still time to catch Daisy May before she closes up shop for the day!”

A rough voice sounded, “Move aside, you losers!”  Gilda the griffon was back in Ponyville and she was letting the marketplace know it.
Several ponies moved aside, but had scowls upon their faces.  They weren’t going to challenge the griffon, but her manners left them cold.
Gilda looked around, trying to see if there was anything radical enough to warrant her attention.  All she saw were boring stalls of boring ponies selling boring junk while boring foals played their boring games.
She was almost ready to fly off when she overheard something on the far side of the street she was standing upon.
“Yup, it was just me and the teacher, frantically chiseling away at the precious statue.  We were racing against time, trying to liberate it from the rock wall before the roof collapsed upon it.  That would have been one flattened statue if it wasn’t for me and my rugged muscles.”
She slinked over to see a green stallion flirting badly with an orange mare.  She had yellow eyes and blue eyes.  Her cutie mark was a pair of daises in a flower vase.  She was selling flowers in her stall.
She blinked and said with fascination, “Wow, Swiftrunner, that’s amazing!  I can’t wait to see the statue.  I’m sure it looks as heroic as you!”
Gilda thought she was going to vomit right there.  She decided to just take off and fly right there when she heard something that stopped her.
“Oh, yeah.  It looks just like me.  It’s shaped like a pegasus ready to take flight, carved from a single, huge ruby.  Well, other than the wings it looks like me.  Stratum says it’s enchanted, too.  Something about storing memories like a book.”
The griffin’s eyes went wide.  She thought, The Memory Stone?  I thought that was just a legend!  If it’s true, then those lame ponies must have found the one witness to the Great Betrayal.  I gotta tell someone about this!
Gilda leaped into the air, flapping her wing powerfully and heading north.

Hours later, Gilda prostrated herself before an old griffon seated upon a throne made of stone and gold.  She was in the throne room of Razorbeak Castle, capital of the Griffon Kingdom.  A pair of young, strong griffons, dug their claws into the wooden floor, hoping this commoner would give offense to the king and need a good punishment.
Gilda wrapped up her story, “…and then he said it was made of a single, huge ruby, carved like a pegasus taking flight.”
The griffon king considered these words carefully.  They stirred a foul current in his heart.  He was knowledgeable in all of griffon history, bloody and violent as it was.
He asked in a dangerous voice, “Is there any doubt?  Where is this statue?”
Gilda nervous answered, “It’s in the Everfree Forest, near the path to Ponyville.  No doubt at all.  Stratum’s the best archaeologist there is.  He’d never be wrong about this.”  King Razorbeak was really the only flying thing she feared.  His tastes in punishment bordered on the permanent.
He stated, “I need to have that statue destroyed.  It may contain the only living memory of our betrayal of the pony kingdom.  Perhaps guiding the K’klattcha to the surface was not a good idea, but the price they offered couldn’t be turned down!  No one would turn down such riches!”
Gilda added, hoping that extra information would move him to look favorably upon her, “They’re probably making preparations to move it right now!  My source told me that a letter was sent to Princess Celestia already.  It’ll be exposed soon!”
King Razorbeak stood up and bellowed, “Send for my advanced scouts!  I have places for them to search!  Also, send for General Stonetalon.  I have an…exercise for him to perform.”
The king let loose a griffon war cry, letting all in his castle know that he was serious and in charge.  All griffons in the castle responded with the same call, lest they appear disloyal.

The next day, a pair of pony merchants were pulling their wagon up the northern road.  Special Seed and her husband Big Bucks were happily humming a traveling song as they approached the border to the Griffon Kingdom.
Big Bucks was a short, thin stallion with a green coat, black mane, and green eyes.  His flank symbol was three stacks of gold coins.
Special Seed was an average-sized mare with a burgundy coat, purple mane, and red eyes.  Her cutie mark was a small pile of different-shaped plant seeds.
A sudden, piercing cry split the air as a pair of griffons swooped down to land in front of the ponies.  The ponies reared up in surprise, stopping the wagon quickly.
One of the griffons puffed out his chest and stated officially, “Halt!  This border is closed by order of his Supreme Majesty, King Razorbeak of the Griffon Kingdom!”
Big Bucks complained, “Oh, come on!  Who do you think you’re fooling?  I’m Big Bucks and this is my wife Special Seed.  We’ve been coming up this road at this time of year for ten years now.”
Special Seed whined, “It’s time for the annual Mountain Seed Swap!  You know, where griffons trade seeds with lowlanders for a wider variety of crops to plant!  Without the swap, your plates are going to be lighter this winter.”
The other griffon pushed his face up against Special Seed’s sad expression, ordering, “The Royal Griffon Air Force is conducting a series of military maneuvers over these skies, including practice bombing runs.  It’s not safe for anyone, much less you earth ponies, to travel.  The border is closed for two weeks, no exceptions.  Now either turn around or make camp and wait because it’ll be my feathers on a plate if you earth ponies get bombed into smithereens because of your stubbornness!”
The griffons spread their wings wide and leaped into the air.  Flapping their wings powerfully, they took their posts back on top of a pair of clouds in the sky.
Special Seed turned to her husband and asked, “Bucky, what are we gonna do?”
Big Bucks thought over every aspect of the situation.  He wondered what were his chances of sneaking past the guards at night and then again on the way back.  Seeing the alert posture of the guards, he decided his chances were slim.
He acquiesced, “We’ll just have to turn around and head back for Horseshoe Hill.  We better tell everypony else coming this way that the road’s closed.  We won’t do well this winter if we try to make a break for it, get caught, and have all our seeds confiscated.”
Special Seed sniffed, trying to contain herself.  Seeds were her special talent.  She knew all about every seed in Equestria.  Seeing and learning about new exotic seeds from faraway lands was something she positively lived for.  She was looking forward to this all year.
She said wistfully, “Maybe we should tell somepony in Canterlot.  Princess Celestia should know about this.”
Big Bucks smiled and said, “Well, we know one way to get a letter to the princess.”
As the pair turned their wagon around, they heard a dull boom from back north.  The earth ponies shivered as they considered that maybe the griffons were serious about this.

Hours later, Princess Celestia sat in the throne room of Canterlot Castle.  Looking out of the window, she saw that the sun was approaching the western horizon.  She thought wistfully that it was nearly time to lower the sun and call for Luna to raise the moon.
As she decided to stand up and make the customary royal proclamation, her horn glowed without her command.  She steeled her willpower to not show surprise in front of her bodyguards.
As the horn’s energy discharged, it accepted an object teleported to her and wrapped it in a telekinetic field to make it hover in mid-air.  
She concentrated on shaping the field.  The magic easily bent to her will, unrolling the scroll delicately.  The scroll read:
“Dear Princess Celestia,

Forgive the intrusion, but Big Bucks and Special Seed just sent me a rush delivery letter from Horseshoe Hill.  They were making their yearly trip to the annual Mountain Seed Swap, which is a legally recognized event up in the Griffon Kingdom.

They were rebuffed forcefully by the Royal Griffon Air Force, who was claiming to be putting on military maneuvers all across the entire northern border.  The griffons seemed really serious about not letting anypony in or out through the north border.  

While military exercises are nothing new, the Griffon Kingdom created the Seed Swap to bolster the variety of their own food stores.  Why would any griffon schedule practice maneuvers that would hurt the local food supply?

Big Bucks and Special Seed also say that they heard the sounds of bombing from inside griffon territory.  I think perhaps you should find out what the Griffon King is thinking.  My history books say that some wars start with using maneuvers as an excuse to move armies close to borders.  Also, some griffons have been seen flying over Ponyville and Sweet Apple Acres.  They have not attacked or even communicated with anypony.  They just circle around as if they were searching for something, then they fly away.

Everypony’s getting nervous.  I’ve been calming them as much as I can but some official word about their intention would be nice.

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle”
The white alicorn called out, “Luna!  I need you!”
After a moment, the alabaster double doors opened, admitting the dark alicorn into the throne room.
Princess Luna teased, “Don’t tell me that you’ve forgotten how to lower the sun, sister.  Perhaps I can do it this once.”
Celestia telekinetically moved the scroll into Luna’s field of vision, stating with disappointment, “This is no jest.”
Princess Luna read the missive, her eyes narrowing.  She complained, “Is the Griffon King insane?  His people will starve!  They’re used to our carrots and wheat.”
The white alicorn decided, “I am going to lower the sun a little early today.  Please raise the moon right afterwards and join me in the planning room.  We have much to discuss.”
She turned to her guards and ordered, “Send for General Ironhoof!  The Equestrian Royal Air Force is to be deployed at once!”
An hour later, the ponies in Canterlot were greeted with the magnificent sight of the entire Canterlot Royal Guard flying in formation overhead.
The crowd of ponies below stomped their front hooves in applause at the sight.  The applause died down as they realized that the dozens upon dozens of armored pegasi were not circling back to land in Canterlot.  
They were headed directly towards the northern border.
A general sense of anxiety spread all throughout Canterlot when the populace realized that not a single Royal Guard was left to defend them.