//------------------------------// // Aerial Aces // Story: Fight of the Bumblebee // by Crowquill Symphony //------------------------------// “Now what have we learned, Luna?” The princess of the night sighed and rolled her eyes. “I learned not to...” “Ah ah ah, do it properly.” Celestia chimed. Luna gave a long sigh and then continued, her tone undeniably sarcastic. “Dear Elder Sister, Today I learned that one should not abuse ancient and mystical energies in order to solve problems that could just as easily be solved with the use of disintegration magic and a dustpan, especially when it involves bringing vastly superior technology into Equestria without your consent.” “Sign it,” Celestia cooed. Luna sighed again. “Signed Princess Luna.” “Theeere we go. Now then, I assume you put a proper tracking spell on the bee so we could track him down?” Celestia said. A second passed, then two, and finally three. At last Luna let out a fourth sigh. “Dear Elder Sister, Today I learned...” Perched high above the ground, Buck Bumble stared at the creatures beneath them. Each was at least a dozen times his size and able to tear a normal bug limb from limb. Even he, the cybernetic wonderbug would be hard pressed to fight them off. One in particular was an easily spotted menace, a towering figure with soulless black eyes, eyes that sent chills down his exoskeleton. The white fur may have fooled the ponies, but he wasn’t so easily tricked. He took to the sky and began to descend towards the creature, blaster in hand and buzzing loudly. The foul critter looked up with no time to react, no time to respond or stop the inevitable. Buck leveled the blaster and pulled the trigger. A beam of red energy crossed the gap and burned the giant right between the eyes. “Mr. Bumble, stop! You're hurting Angel!” Fluttershy cried out, and Buck pulled away. “I understand you’re antsy, but that doesn’t mean you’re allowed to go around zapping poor defenseless animals!” Buck glanced down at the angry little rabbit who was now shaking a little paw at him. Next time, the bee thought to himself. “Well, since there aren’t any evil bugs to shoot, I haven’t got much to bloody do, now do I? I’m a soldier without a war, and I need something to do.” “Well even so, you shouldn’t go around causing trouble. Can’t you just pollinate some flowers?” she asked. “I could, but what hive would accept a cyborg’s nector? Blasted portals through space and time...” “We could always go flying.” Dash said. “That’s always cool.” Buck gave a nod. “That sounds alright, as long as you’re not stomping on my head again.” “I said that was an accident!” “And I can say a rose is the same as a weed, but that doesn’t make it true.” Buck replied. “I’ll fly with you, but I’m not standing by and getting stepped on again. I’ll burn a hole in your wings first” With threats out of the way, the two of them took off out the door, Dash checking her speed so Buck could keep up with her. After making the journey to the front door Buck decided to play with her by speeding up and slowing down at random, his bee-like flying ability allowing him to switch in a second and then shout for her to slow down or keep up. He thrived on her annoyance, taking some joy in the fact that he could easily annoy anyone with a level of skill that would make a fly’s eyes go wider. Eventually though Dash caught on. Instead of getting mad or trying to cram him back into the bottle, she actually began to make a game of it, watching him carefully and trying to anticipate his every move and match him. As they goofed around it went from a game to a training exercise. “Look, if you want the level of control I’ve got, you’re going to need to flap your wings a lot faster than you’re going.” Buck explained, buzzing his own wings to demonstrate. “If you flap fast enough you’re like a helicopter, floating about and able to change direction at a moments notice.” Dash tried to match his tempo, but her wings simply weren’t able to mimic the technique. “That’s really cool, but my wings are more like bird wings than, y’know, bug wings.” “C’mon now, that’s quitter talk! Just focus on moving your wings faster than insectly possible, and if you’re lucky you’ll hit the right speed.” “I don’t think wings work like that...” “Who's the amazing cyberbee here, me or you?” Buck said a bit more forcefully than he had meant to. Dash gave a scowl and ground her teeth together. “Look, I don’t need to be able to hover around like some little bug. I bet you can’t do a sonic rainboom!” she shouted. Buck simply narrowed his mechanical eyes at her. “What the bloody flytrap is a sonic rainboom?” “... and that’s why I didn’t think that it was vastly important that I put a tracking spell on the bumblebee.” Luna concluded, finishing her detailed excuse for an irritated Celestia. “Luna, We’ve been through this; I’m sure someone will step on it before it causes trouble is not a solution, and neither is dropping frogs in the general area you left him in.” Celestia said. “I can’t believe that you would use such a dangerous spell without any sort of contingency. Luna, this is that Prench Masquerade all over again. You do remember that, don’t you? With the mayonaise?” “Sister, you always bring up the masquerade ball. Why do think I’ve forbidden the cooks to allow me into the kitchens? I swear...” Any further rebuttal was silenced when the sound of a sonic boom echoed from the distance and a rainbow wave crossed through the sky. The two princesses stared at it for a moment, silently gawking at the obvious signs of a sonic rainboom. After a minute Celestia turned to her younger sister and shook her head. “This. This is why we can’t have nice things Luna.” When Buck was a lad, only just past being a larva, he had the misfortune of being caught in the horrid winds of a leaf blower. The winds had knocked him around, sent him spinning through grass and plants until he had been plastered against an immense brick. His wing had been scuffed, but in time he wound up flying normally. This was nothing like that. This was more like the leafblower had been multiplied a thousand times over and been combined with the visions he had from the time he’d been flying around that british stoner. In short, it was insane. He was shaken up, and it took everything he had to keep from dropping his blaster or crashing into anything. In the end he finally regained control and found himself floating around inside of a building. Lots of blue, lots of purples and pinks as well as numerous things that were coated in jewels. Dresses of every shape and size fitted for pony bodies adorned mannequins as far as his little eyes could see. It was then he noticed that once more it was growing darker in a very specific area just like it had when he met Rainbow Dash. This time he was buzzing and drawing his blaster as it passed harmlessly by him. A fashion magazine, one of the thick ones with ads and perfume samples all throughout, passed by where he had been buzzing. Supported by what looked like an energy field it slammed into the counter below with an antenna rattling slam. “Oh, you disgusting little creature! Begone from my shop!” a pony shouted, and Buck turned with his blaster drawn, ready to take down whatever horrific monster he was confronted with. He did not expect a marshmallow with a purple mane and a levitating fashion magazine. He stared at the monumental pony in front of him with wide eyes, trying to comprehend the sight presented to him. He sighed and smacked his face with a palm. “Oh Bucking Flytraps.”