April 18th, 2006
0400 Hours
Ponyville
The months after the Equestrians’ trip to the United States had been quiet, at least relative to the massive and chaotic buildup that had come before. Much of the time was spent training and preparing for any action, but at a much more relaxed pace. This served as a fresh breath for the Equestrians and, ignoring the massed military increase, odd new aliens, and new technologies, life began to show resemblance to what it had been before they were thrust into the new world.
These months seemed to go by quickly for Dash, primarily due to the 1st Tactical’s absence from Everfree Air Base. The Americans that replaced them were all kind and helpful, but the absence of the friendship developed between the townsponies and the 1st Tactical was noticeable. She did not worry much in those days, but now and then she would wonder when the squadron would return. A few hours before, she treated herself to the view of the sun setting glow in its brilliant orange; having the odd feeling in knowing it was not the sun she had grown up with but being beautiful all the same. Perhaps she would be able to catch this one someday. Without prior thought of it, she pondered if Cole was also watching the sunset from where he was, before quickly shaking the thought out of her mind.
The nights were quiet as of late, and this one was no different. With all the hard work, she often slept soundly and hard in her home nestled amongst the clouds. She was already several hours into a deep sleep before she heard the roar of several jet engines and the cracks of sonic booms in the distance, followed by several deep rumbles. She stirred and awoke in a perturbed state, assuming it was some unscheduled exercise at the base, and covered her head with a pillow and her blankets. The American Navy was enacting a massive demonstration exercise throughout the day, and as such most Air Force bases took the time to ease off a bit. Why they would want to perform maneuvers so late without warning was a mystery she was too tired to solve.
“Dash!” she heard Lighting call from her doorway.
“Come on! Tomorrow’s supposed to be a day off!” she whined, rolling in her bed. “Just let me sleep a little more.”
“Dash get up! Hurry!”
“Dust? Ugh… whatever it is it can w-”
“We’re getting attacked!” Lightning shouted, yanking the blankets from her bed. “Not like test attack or anything! Somepony’s bombing us! We’re getting shot at!”
“W-what!? Bombed!?”
“Yes! Come on, get up!” Dust yelled, dragging Dash out of her bed and taking off back out the window.
Stretching her wings out, Dash took off after Dust, trying to keep low to avoid attention from any prowling fighters. The base ahead flashed at seemingly random intervals as explosions pierced through the black night. Fires began to erupt to and fro, and the sky above was marked by the afterburners of fighters and the long, red lines of anti-aircraft fire. At times she would look back at the town, and see one or two fires glowing brightly. Her thoughts turned to her friends, hoping they had not been hurt, before trying to refocus on the task.
It took three minutes to fly from her home to the base, but in that short time the whole world seemed to be blowing apart around her. She landed at the gates to the base at was greeted by a nervous guard and his pistol. The guard called for identification at first, but upon seeing the recognizable pony, he stopped himself and moved aside, yelling to continue on. The base itself was a mess of confusion, with personnel scurrying about like ants on a broken hill. Firemen ran trying to extinguish flames, maintenance and ordinance crews were attempting to prepare the jets to take off, and several other miscellaneous personnel ran simply trying to find cover from the attack.
Dash went to the briefing room first but, finding it empty an assuming every pilot was simply rushing to get in the air, she moved on to retrieve the necessary equipment. Here was where she found Dust again along with a group of other pilots, both human and pony, trying to dress and equip themselves. Dash had to rush clumsily to get everything that was needed, and had to apply most of it herself. She grabbed her helmet and began rushing for the door, but was stopped by one of the American pilots grabbing her suit.
“Captain Dash?”
Rainbow looked back and was greeted by the cross face of the 2nd Fighter Squadron’s commander.
“Simon-I-I mean, Colonel Ellsworth! Sorry, what was-”
“Damn it don’t worry about that right now! Just hold your horses, for Christ’s sake!” the American shot back.
“What? What are you talking about!? You don’t want us to fly!?”
“Not yet, we need to wait till things calm down. Enemy’s all over the base; anyone tries to take off now and they’ll get blown away before getting to the runway. I already lost one of my guys that way.”
Rainbow did not reply, trusting the more experienced American’s advice. There were some more explosions, and the fear of one of the bombs hitting the room they were in began to creep up on her. Ellsworth moved to the other end of the room, talking to another man waiting by the doorway. Time seemed to drag by, and when the Colonel called for everyone’s attention she was surprised that only a minute and a half had ticked by.
“Alright listen, the tower’s said the runway’s still active and they think the first attack wave is almost over,” he explained. “The ground crews have some birds ready for us to fly. When things let up, you haul ass direct to a jet and you take off. Don’t dick around, don’t worry if it’s yours or not, don’t fiddle with procedure too much. Just get in the air. Hooah?”
“Hooah!” the Americans replied, leaving Dash and the few other ponies to nod awkwardly.
Rainbow spent most of the time waiting in the room in silence. There was no lack of noise around her, between the commotion of the pilots and the attack outside. There was simply nothing more to do right now that she could think of, only to wait for the Colonel’s call. Occasionally an explosion would erupt outside, but eventually these subsided. A quiet came over the room as the sounds of battle outside stopped before the silence was broken by the Colonel’s shouting.
“Alright, go! There’s an opening! Get out there!”
Rainbow allowed the humans to go first, darting out of the room last and quickly overtaking them with her wings. In spite of the Colonel’s directions, she did go for her own F-16 first, reaching it in no time and settling in to the cockpit. The usual ground crews were not there, taking cover nearby after having completed their hazardous task of fueling and arming the jets. Some waved their hands or hooves at Dash, yelling and signaling for her to go as quickly as possible.
“Dust, are you there!?” she called over the radio, trying to check in with her wingpony.
“Yea, yea I’m here! I made it!” Dust answered, sounding relieved and trying to calm herself.
“Great! Did you see anypony else in our squadron?”
“I saw Lillypad and Nectar got to their jets, so we’ll have a full flight at least. I think all the Americans made it, too. There’s six of them.”
“That’s it? Where’s the everypony else?” Rainbow asked, looking at the long lines of jets.
“Not sure, both the squadrons got really scattered. I just came to get you first.”
“Rainbow Lead, do you copy? This is Beagle Lead,” Ellsworth called.
“Beagle, I hear you,” she answered.
“Alright, we got a small window to launch here, my squadron will go first. Once you’re airborne get as much altitude as you can fast. Don’t let the enemy bounce you from above,” the Colonel instructed. “When you’re up start engaging the enemy craft. Keep them off the rest of the parked planes so the others will still have something to fly when they get here.”
“I got it, we’ll follow you once you’ve taken off,” Rainbow answered before turning back to her own squadron. “Alright guys, the Americans are going to launch first. Then we’ll go after them. Got it?”
“Fine with me, I’m still trying to warm my plane up!” Dust yelled as she fought to start her engines. “Come on, come on come on come on!”
Off on the other end of the base, Rainbow saw the flash of a rocket launch from the ground as one of the surviving American launchers shot a surface-to-air missile. She followed it until it exploded with a flash, striking the intended target and sending it falling and trailing flame. The brief moment of triumph quickly changed when she realized the burning Fulcrum was falling directly towards the parked planes. Suddenly, part of the wing broke away and the MiG dropped like a flaming rock, crashing into two of the F-16s and detonating both with a large explosion as the burning aviation fuel detonated the ordinance on board.
It took Rainbow a second to realize the two Falcons had not been unmanned; both had pilots in them that were part of her squadron. Lilypad and Nectar were both gone now, and they had stood no chance against poor luck. Dash could do nothing about it, but continued to stare at where the two fighters had been, unable to really collect her thoughts.
“Got it!” Dust shouted, calling Rainbow’s attention back. “Ok, I’m ready to launch. Looks like the Americans are taking off. You all ready?”
“Dust, they’re gone!” Dash shouted, unsure of how to word it properly. “Lilypad and Nectar, they both got hit.”
“No… oh no… so it’s just us two?”
“Yea, until some more of our ponies can get here,” Rainbow confirmed. “We have to launch Dust, we have to! We need to help up there!”
“Ok, I’ll go first.”
Dust’s jet taxied to the end of the runway, with Dash’s following shortly behind. Already, Rainbow could tell that there was an air battle occurring overhead between the attackers and the 2nd. Dust’s Falcon rolled down the runway, and Dash took position immediately. Pushing up the throttle, she quickly increased speed and pulled back on the stick, trying to get into the air as soon as she possibly could. The wind lifted her jet from the tarmac and she rapidly gained altitude as Dust came around and formed up on her right.
“We made it!” Dash shouted. “Tower, can you hear us? Rainbow team is flying!”
“This is the control tower, copy that! Engage any enemy bombers; don’t let them destroy our runway!”
“Rainbow, this is Beagle. I see you managed to make it up. Is your plane alright?”
“I think so, everything looks good,” Dash answered the Colonel.
“That’s why you thank the mechanics, keeping it in good shape pays off,” Ellsworth answered. “My team will keep their fighters busy. There’s some low-flying attackers you need to kill. Can you do that?”
“Copy, we’ll get to it, out!” Dash answered. “Tower, this is Rainbow. Where are the attacking aircraft?”
“Rainbow, this is the tower. We’ve got enemy Fencers hovering over the Everfree along with some Brawnys coming around for another pass. They hit our radar first and killed a lot of the AA in the process. You’ve got to stop them from hitting us again, over.”
“Copy, we’ll get them! Alright Dust, over the Everfree. You see anything?”
“I see them! At least five all together! Which one first, Dash?”
“We’ll dive and break them up first. You break off and attack the one farthest right, and as soon as it’s down form back up on me. I’ll hit the other ones.”
The two Falcons dove and turned simultaneously, each aiming for an individual target. Dust picked the one assigned to her, one of the Il-40 ‘Brawny’ attack planes, and launched a Sidewinder at it. The target did not have time to react and the missile struck the aircraft square on top and sent it falling into the woods below as Dust pulled back to regroup with her lead as ordered. Dash selected another Brawny and quickly killed it in a similar fashion, causing the rest of the group to scatter. She picked out the next closest target, one of the two Su-24 ‘Fencer’ jets assigned to electronic warfare support. Despite heavy jamming from the Fencer, Rainbow locked on with another heat-seeker and fired, only for it to be distracted by a burst of flares. She quickly locked on again and fired another, this one successfully striking the Fencer and sending it crashing. The surviving aircraft of the group scattered away, giving the airbase a brief respite from the assault.
Farther above them, the dogfight between the 2nd Squadron and the attacking aircraft was getting intense. Two of the American’s F-15Cs had been lost along with three Flanker fighters from the enemy’s formation. The crashes of explosions and the roars of engines combined with the flashes of explosions, the fire of engines, and the lights of tracers and missiles to conquer the night sky over Ponyville and Everfree Air Base. One of the Flankers spotted the duo, diving out of the fray to attack them in an attempt to avenge his fallen allies.
“Dash, one of them is coming after us,” Dust noticed. “I think it's going after you.”
“Ok, keep calm. Back off a little and you can get a shot at him, I'll lead it off to the left.”
The Flanker dove fast and Dash banked left in response, cutting her speed down in the hopes it would overshoot her. The attacking pilot noticed, reducing his own speed sharply and beginning to level out in accordance with his target. Dash turned further, exposing the tail of the Flanker to her wingpony. Dust watched nervously, tracking the Su-27 until one of her radar missiles locked on to the target. The ordinance flew off the rail and shot towards her target just as the Flanker pilot was getting a lock on Dash. He attempted to continue on, hoping to shoot the Falcon down, but Dust’s missile was fastest and struck the aircraft, tearing it apart and sending the wreckage into the forest below.
“I got it! Dash, I got it!”
“Good work, Dust! I knew I could count on you!”
“Tower, this is Beagle! We’ve got them tied up but we need help! Did any more pilots get here, over!?” the American called out.
“Tower here, we’ve got some trickling in but they've been held back till the bombers are down. Rainbow, what's the status on those hostile bombers, over?”
“T-they're already down,” Rainbow replied, realizing she should have reported this earlier. “They're either down or scattered.”
“They are? Good, we’ll get the rest of the jets moving!” the tower replied, quickly turning to the grounded fliers. “Rest of you pilots get up there and engage those bandits! You got it?”
“Rainbow, this is Beagle. We’ve got another wave closing fast. They're probably going to go for the tower and runway this time. Get up here and we’ll engage them together.”
Down below, the remaining pilots on the ground scrambled into whatever plane they could find. The surviving jets took off one at a time at random intervals, rushing to join the battle above them. One of them caught Dash’s eye, an F-16 taking off at full afterburner.
“Hey, who’s that taking off?” she called out. “This is Rainbow One, who are you?”
“Beagle three-three here! Sorry Rainbow Team, had to steal one of your birds,” the human pilot answered. “I just ran for the first plane I saw and it was this one.”
“Jarret, that you?” asked Colonel Ellsworth.
“Yes Sir! Had to commandeer one of the horsie’s birds. Fucking cramped in here, too!”
“That'll work! Get over here and cover my six!”
“Hey, did you see anypony from my squadron?” Rainbow asked.
“Yea, I saw a few. Should be launching soon.”
Down below the bedlam continued to increase and play out on the ground around the base and town. Twilight’s slumber had been shattered by the crashing of explosives, and upon realizing the situation she began organizing much of the town to respond. Once the chaos around town had been partially brought under control most of the populace took cover away from the town, with those that could staying to battle fires or aid those who had been hurt or trapped.
With the situation in town under a semblance of control, Twilight headed to the airbase to see what could be done there. Teleporting there in an instant, she was greeted by scenes of paralyzing devastation. Fires raged in the night, consuming everything and everyone in their path, as explosions rocked the earth and military personnel ran about. Seeing the closest person to her was an Air Force firefighter, she got his attention in hopes of aiding him before noticing the surprised and annoyed look on his face when he saw her.
“What the Hell are you doing!?” he yelled.
“I’m here to help!”
“Help!? Haven’t you realized what’s going on? We’re getting bombed! We don’t need civilians to run out trying to help! We can’t afford to worry about you!”
“I can’t just let this happen! This is my home, and ponies and people are dying! You can’t just-”
“You shut up! Just shut up and fucking listen!” he yelled. “This isn't the place for you! You're going to get in the way and you're only going to get yourself killed!”
“But I can help-”
“You see this!?” the Airman replied, pointing skyward. “This is a war! Not some weird fantasy problem that you deal with! It's a fucking war! I don't care what weird-ass wizard spells you can cast, but you won't help if you stand out in the open and get vaporized by a bomb!”
“I-I’m sorry! I don't want to cause trouble, but I can't just… not do anything either!” the unicorn persisted. “Please, I'll stay out of the way, I'll listen to you. Just-”
“Fine! You can float stuff right?”
“I-yea, yea I can!”
“You see that building over there next to us? That's an ammo storage, and the fire’s going that direction. We already got some guys clearing the area, so you can help them. Get everything flammable out of there, the ammo too! Pile it in that little office off to the right, behind us. Got it?”
“Got it!” Twilight answered, being drowned out and shaken from another explosion on the other side of the runway.
“Don't float it all at once either, take your time! Do not drop that shit or there's a chance it'll go off, be gentle with it!”
“I will, I promise!”
“Got another Eagle taking off,” one of the American pilots noted. “Dwight, that you?”
“Roger that, I'm up in Beckett’s bird. Did you know he keeps a picture of his girl in here? Looks like I got something new to mess with him, eh?”
“Hey, where’s my team!?” Dash persisted.
“What, we’ve resorted to launching ponies into battle now? We’re toast aren’t we?” Dwight answered. “Check again horsie, some of yours are following me up now.”
“Stone Tail, Jackpot! You two are alright!” she jumped.
“Yea, barely. Sorry we’re late Dash,” said Jackpot.
“Rainbow, you got your team together?” asked Ellsworth. “Next wave is closing fast, they've got heavy bombers with them. Same plan as before, we’ll keep the escorts busy. Don't let one of those bombers get through or they'll wreck the runway.”
“Copy that,” Rainbow affirmed, picking up the formation on her radar. “Bearing two-zero-zero. Five strategic bombers.”
“What do you want us to do, Dash?” Jackpot asked, only now reaching the team’s formation.
“Everypony break up and go after a target, and shoot them down as quick as possible.”
“Roger!”
Rainbow's Falcons broke away and charged up at their individual prey as the Shadow fighter escorts sped up to engage the 2nd squadron. Each of the four F-16s reached their firing range at the same time, launching their missiles at the bombers. Within a minute’s time, four of the ‘Bear’ bombers were hit and fell from their group.
“Just one more,” Dash pointed out. “Jackpot, you and Stone Tail kill that thing quick! Dust, let’s go help the Americans finish those fighters!”
Again, the squadron did as commanded, with Dash and Dust charging further up to reach the dogfight. The Americans had already succeeded in destroying most of the fighters, on account of the latter believing the airspace would already be cleared. Still, Dash spotted an F-15 diving down and away from them with a Flanker following close behind.
Not seeing any others moving to help, she adjusted her own course towards the fleeing Eagle, leveling out and diving down after them. Watching the American break left, along with his pursuer, she gained a steady lock on the Su-27 and fired, striking the Flanker down and greatly rattling the human pilot.
“Jesus, say next time when you're shooting!” he yelled before calming himself. “Thanks for that, I really owe you one. Isn't your team supposed to be killing those Bears?”
“They are, don't worry,” answered Rainbow, checking on her other pilots. “Jackpot, did you stop the last bomber?”
“Any second now lead… got him!” he answered, a light flash from the explosion signaling his victory. “Is that it? Anything else?”
“This is the control tower, all bombers confirmed destroyed. Thanks for protecting our base everyone,” the operator reported, the relief noticeable in his voice. “You're all clear to land, the red carpet runway’s wide open.”
“Copy that, Beagle is three planes down from the air fight. Think one pilot made a nylon letdown off to the north,” the Colonel reported. “Rainbow squadron, great work. You lose anyone up here?”
“Up here… no,” answered Rainbow. “We didn't lose anypony in the air fight.”
“Huh, guess we didn't need to worry about the ponies after all,” Dwight chimed in. “That's a good call for a little celebration party, don't you think?”