Rarity checked her monitor. All clear. She looked around, at the clouds, rolling across the sky. She loved this moment. The calm before the storm. Her helmet kept most of the noise out, all she could hear was the quiet chatter over her comms.
“All units! All units! Green light has been given! I repeat, green light has been given!” Her comms sounded bit garbled, but she understood clear enough.
She fired her jets engines, flying forward at supersonic speeds. It didn't take long for her to get to her destination. The city, buildings tall and ready for anything. Except for an air strike, of course. She set her path so she would pass right over the enemy, drop some bombs, then turn around and repeat.
But before she reached her target, the air around her exploded in flak. She banked away, barely dodging it, as several other friendly jets weren't as lucky. “Damn it...” She turned around and headed back. No way was she going to lose her life trying to fly through some AA turret infested area.
Applejack's voice entered her head. “Alright, listen up! Twilight wasn't able ta clear a path like we had expected! We'll be met with more resistance than we had expected. So let's kick these bitches back ta hell!”
Everyone cheered. Pinkie Pie's voice could be most heard over the radio. “Alright! Let's party with GUNS!”
Rarity rolled her eyes. They could have told her that before she got shot at. Muttering a long line of swear words, she turned around and regrouped with the main force. The plan was Twilight would go in first and soften them up, then the air force would swoop in and weaken them even further, mainly along the back lines where their armor and guns were. Looks like Twilight missed that part.
Now her and the other pilots were headed, once more, to the back, but this time from behind.
“All fighter units, move in and hit 'em hard.” She heard command through her comm.
The short flight there was eventless. Her formation whirled around and began their assault. She grinned to herself. No way they'd be looking back here. They'd get clobbered.
Her warning system flared to life. Missile lock? She fired her flares and swerved to the left. She looked around to see the whole formation in complete disarray. Everypony was diving and rising and turning, it was a miracle they didn't crash into each other.
She turned her attention to avoiding whatever was locked onto her. Her system continued to blare, meaning she hadn't dodged anything. She expected the missile to come from the ground. She turned to the right, trying to shake it.
The missile shot out from underneath her, leaving a smoky trail. Behind? She checked her radar, and sure enough, on the very edge of her radar, was a whole hoard of green dots. Enemies.
She pulled around. Several friendlies exploded as missiles made contact, but most of them didn't. While a small group continued to press on towards the guns, the rest charged towards the enemy.
Rarity steeled herself as the two masses collided. Several exploded from head on collisions, others were sent tumbling down as their wings or tail got cut off. Rarity managed to dodge the enemy fighters, letting a few of her missiles go as her system scrambled to lock onto a target long enough? She knew at least one of her missiles found their targets.
She pulled up and over, chasing after the first enemy she could find. She locked onto one and fired a missile. The enemy banked and fired it's flares, sending the missile off into the ground. She pursued the enemy, dodging the fighters that barreled through the sky, making the whole place look like a massive mess.
She was ready to fire another missile when her target collided with another enemy. The two birds went up in flames, the explosion sending bits of metal everywhere. One of those bits barely missed her cockpit.
What mattered was the massive ball of fire and metal she was heading straight for. She tried to pull to the left, but she wasn't fast enough. Her bird flew through the fire. Rarity shook in her seat as her fighter rattled and shook for that brief second.
She made it out, seemingly unscathed. She did a quick check on her systems. Oxygen, fine. Minigun, fine. Bombs, fine. Missiles, fine. Engines, fine. Targeting systems... down? Great, now how in the hell was she supposed to fire missiles at a moving target if she couldn't lock on?
She looked around. A ball of smoke and fire fell out of the sky, almost clipping her wing. Her friends seemed to be winning, so she decided to check the guns. They were unscathed, still firing away at her friends below. Apparently, the small squad sent earlier had failed. She looked to the roads leading out of the city. One of the bridges down below, spanning a giant lake, was filled with enemy armor, all heading towards the city. That couldn't be good.
“Applejack! I've spotted an enemy convoy moving up from the south. Permission to engage?”
It was outside of her orders, so she needed permission.
“Granted!” her friends voice cackled through the comms.
She called up some friends, including her newbie sister.. “Carmel, Sweetie, Berry, follow me!”
Sweetie called back, through grunts. “Berry's... ung... dead!”
Rarity flew out of the mess and made a beeline for the bridge. She looked back to see two more jets fly out after her.
“So what are we doing?” Carmel asked.
“Taking out that enemy convoy, on the bridge.”
Sweetie spoke up. “I see 'em.”
Normally, Rarity would chastise Sweetie for using... crude language. But this was not the time nor place. “Fire on my mark.” Rarity said.
Rarity lined up her missiles as best as she could. “Mark!” She fired all of her missiles, and Carmel and Sweetie Belle followed suit.
Her missiles mostly missed, but those that hit managed to tear large holes in the road. Sweetie Belle's and Carmel's were able to lock onto the enemy armor, leading to large chunks of them gone a fiery inferno, also blocking some of the rest of the convoy from moving forward.
“Yeah!” Carmel yelled. Then his shout of joy turned to shouts of terror. “AAAAAHHHH!”
Rarity whipped her head around to see his jet get engulfed in flames as he tumbled to the ground. She stared, speechless, before realizing the enemy jet that had killed him heading straight for her.
She dove to the side as his minigun flared to life, narrowly missing her engines, but tearing into her wings. She tried to turn around to fire at him, but his fighter was more agile than hers. He turned faster than she did, slowly gaining on her.
She tried to think of something to do, but nothing came to mind. Her warning system flared to life and she fired her flares. Just in time, as the missile hit the flare and detonated, rocking her jet. She only had one flare cartridge left.
Another system warning. She stopped turning and banked the opposite way, hoping to throw him off. He turned as soon as she did, effortlessly keeping her in his sights. She was out of options.
“I got ya!” Sweetie Belle shouted to her sister. Rarity looked back as the enemy fighter's tail exploded, sending it crashing down towards the lake.
“Thank you Sweetie. That was close.”
“No problem. At least we took out the convoy.”
Rarity turned to see that the bridge had collapsed, sending the entire convoy into the lake.
She turned her attention back to the dogfight she had left moments ago. It had died down. Mostly friendly fighters roamed the sky, and the remaining enemies were being routed. She looked back towards the guns, which were still intact. She decided to fix that.
“Sweetie Belle, follow me!” She dove down from the sky, eyes on the prize. Her missiles were depleted, but she still had her bombs. She set her path straight as she swooped down, ready to deliver her payload. But then the guns exploded, or rather, the building did, sending the guns down with it.
She pulled up and screamed through the city, desperately trying to avoid crashing into a building. At this speed, now way she would survive. Try as she might, she was almost out when her wing clipped a building. As she shot out of the city, her broken wing caused her to spin back around towards the city.
Her bird began to tumble out of the sky as she lost control. She had only one option left. She pulled a lever, sending her flying out of the broken jet.
She fell for a minute, trying to get out of her seat. Once she managed to loosen her straps, she free fell for a few seconds. She looked down to see her jet crash into a building, taking out a good portion of it with the explosion that ensued.
As she neared the ground, she pulled her parachute open, letting herself drift down towards the ground. Most of the army was forward, so she wasn't in danger of being shot. She hit the ground running the came to a stop beside a driver.
“You! Take me to the front line, now!”
The gray stallion held shook his head. “No, I gotta wait for the rest of our convoy.”
“I need to get to the front lines!”
He was about to retort, but stopped suddenly. “Yes sir.” He said to nopony. “Alright, get in. We're leaving.”
Rarity turned around and saw that a few tanks, but mostly infantry transport vehicles, were driving down the road.
“Lady! Get in or I'm leaving without you!”
Rarity hopped inside as he drove off, following the convoy.
“Rarity?!” Sweetie Belle's distressed voice came through her comms.
“I'm fine Sweetie. My bird crashed but I got out. I'm heading to the front lines.”
“Okay, I'm going to keep the skies clear. Good luck.” She sounded relieved.
“You too.”
Rarity focused on the road ahead. The sounds of battle drew close and soon she was in sight of a massive whole in the ground. She peaked down to see a few wrecked tanks. Hopefully one of them wasn't Applejack.
“Heads up!”
She looked forward as a rocket slammed into the ground next to Humvee she was in, sending it rolling.