//------------------------------// // [Prologue] Falling for a star // Story: Falling for a Star // by CCpone //------------------------------// Arc I - Human Adaptations Operation: Nervous Hawk Location: United Arab Emirates Base: Al Dhafra Air Base Date: May/31/2020 Time: 20:00 *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* *Mumbles* *BEEP* *BEEP* *SLAM* You open your eyes slowly; relieved that your alarm clock has stopped its wretched beeping. The ceiling of your humble abode starts to come into view as you lay motionless on top of your bed, fighting the lingering temptations for five more minutes of sleep. Being the persistent person you are, you manage to get up and sit on the edge of your bed in the dimly lit room. Taking a moment for yourself to wake up, you getup and head towards the kitchen in this house. Or should you say apartment. The rooms were small and cramped making it hard to navigate in the darkness, causing you to bump into objects every now and again. This after all was a temporary home and you... well you were too lazy to map out the place when you got here. Speaking of time you have just enough of it to eat a quick meal and get a nice cold shower. As usual the shower was cold as fuck, but it awoke every nerve in your body that was still sleeping, so in the end you can consider it a fair trade off. Quickly and calmly you manage to get back into your room unharmed to put on your clothes. Your room was pretty dark even in the day time, so here in the morning it was almost pitch black. The only way you were able to navigate through out the room so easily was due to your memory. While you didn't have the whole apartment mapped out, you at least gave enough effort to familiarize yourself with your sleeping quarters. After getting your shit together you start to make your way to the door; only to stop yourself when you feel you have a slightly empty pocket. Tapping your right pant pocket you noticed that you almost forgot your wallet, fuck that was a close one. You think to yourself as you walk back into your almost pitch black room and pick up your wallet laying on the battered night stand. You couldn't wait to get out of this godforsaken apartment. You don't even know if you can even consider it one. It's only two stories high and the landlord never pays for the maintenance. Nevertheless, you think picking this spot was ideal. You're only ten minutes away from freedom (otherwise known as the Al Dhafra Air Base). Located opposite of the Gulf of Oman in a small country predominantly known as the United Arab Emirates, or UAE for short. Opening the door you're greeted with the hottest, and driest breeze you have ever witnessed. It felt like the wind was stealing all the moisture that you got from your shower and running away with it never to return. One thought and one thought alone kept you waking up every morning. The chance to get out of here on a jet, and not any old jet an F-22 raptor! The thought of the sheer speed and power sent shivers up your spine; while carving a slight grin upon your face. You could say that during your rather short walk towards your beat up car you were getting quite hyped. Then again you came here for only two reasons, the adrenaline, and to fly. Walking to said car you look up at the night sky... storm clouds... storm clouds fucking everywhere. Though this didn't discourage you though... no you were to stubborn to let these dark fluffy monstrosity ruin your day. For today you knew that your captain had a mission that you and your fellow wing-men would be embarking on. What made it all complete was that you out of all people were leading this mission. Well as soon as you were done the rather tedious briefing that is. Either way you liked the rain that these types of clouds would surly bring. The dark atmosphere had a soothing and relaxing feeling to it. If you took out the crosswind factor, rapidly changing wind directions and hot atmosphere this place always had then it would be a perfect day for flying. Opening the door to your beat up Lada -yes it's a Lada deal with it- you start up your engine hearing the poor car try to come alive. "come on, come on, you can do this." You mutter under your breath. After applying some TLC the car suddenly filled with energy as it finally started up on your fifth try. It's '21:10' (9:10 PM) now and you have to hurry, the briefing starts in fifty minutes. Wasting no time you pull your Lada out of the parking spot and straight onto the highway labeled E 30. You say the numbers mostly because you don't know their language at all. Just as you thought the highway was clear, not much cars were out and about. Most people at this time were at home going to sleep or watching some shows on their televisions. A clear highway was a good highway in your mind, not going to be late today! As per usual you arrive at the front gates of the air base. It's the normal routine, the people check your car, your id and let you in. Within a couple of seconds your past the security gate enabling you to park your sick ass Lada in a free spot in front of the HQ. The HQ here wasn't really all that fancy, the army just closed off all public access to the terminal and placed their jets here. Taking off your seat belt you look at the time '21:30' (9:30 PM), If you're not early you are late! You like to think to yourself. You open the door to your car and listen as it lets out a loud screech as the rust on the hinges scratch each other in a epic battle to the death. OK... maybe it wasn't 'that' epic as you portrayed it to be, but you digress. Exiting the car you slam the door shut making sure that this time you have your wallet and your keys with you. After all you don't want to tell the captain again that you locked yourself out of your own car. let's just say locking yourself out of your own car makes him rethink letting you fly a 150 million dollar jet. The weather here at the air base is much cooler and damp, mostly because the air base is located closer to the Persian Gulf. Picking up the pace you head on over to the HQ. Reaching the front door you think to yourself that there is nowhere else you rather be. Swing the doors open you come to the realization that you were the second one there other than the captain. Giving the Captain a quick salute you can't help but mull over some thoughts. I swear the Captain sleeps here at night, there is no other explanation why he get here so early. You comment mentally as you remember the one time you came here three hours early because your clock was broken. Yet when you arrived expecting no one to be here the Captain was just sitting there with a wide smile on his face reading the local newspaper. The moment you exit your thoughts you get greeted by him. "Lieutenant Anon!" The Captain booms out with his stern voice happy to see you early, but not too early. "Sir!" You return loud and proud. "Glad that you're on time lieutenant. Take a seat and we'll wait for the last pilot to arrive." His voice took to a much more steady and serious tone. With that you walk over to the end of the table while the captain goes back to organizing some papers and folders. You sit next to your wing-man his name is Lorin and you both have known each other for a long time. You would guess and say six to seven years, however your not completely sure. What you will say though is that he has always had your back like a real bro. Leaning back in your chair balancing it on the two rear legs as you glance over to him. Lorin as usual has his signature smile on his face "What!?" You ask. His face really starting to creep you out. "You don't know what today is?" He asks keeping his creepy and disturbing grin on. "You really don't know do you?" He adds, his smile not getting any less creepy with the passing time. "Uhh... mission day?" You say slightly confused. "It's your fucking birthday dude! How can you forget that!" He claims slamming his chair back down to all fours; all the while making weird gestures with his arms. This utterly surprises you as you look at your phone and place your chair back onto its four legs as well. He was right! May/31/2020! Wow how time flies here in the United Arab Emirates pun not intended. "Not for much longer." You say as you point your phone to him, showing him time '21:50' (9:50 PM). "True, so who're we waiting on sir." Lorin asks the last part to the Captain at his desk. "Is it Jason, If so he's always late." Lorin, You and the Captain were pretty tight so other then the formal greetings you simply talked to each other normally. "Yes, It's Jason." The Captain reveals with a large sigh of his own as Lorin was probably right with his prediction of Jason going to be late. "You guys might as well suit up while I wait for him here in the briefing room." The Captain grumbles out putting his head in his hands. This guy really needs a vacation. You think to yourself. "YES SIR!" You and Lorin say in unison. Lorin and you get up and out of your chairs to head down to where the lockers where. Arriving in the locker room you open up your locker and place your wallet and keys on the top shelf. As you would expect you grab your g-suit and have no problem getting it on, however once your done you turn your head to see Lorin clumsily trying to get on his g-suit. You can't help but laugh at the site, his leg is in the arm hole and his arm was in the leg hole. How the hell you can mess up that badly is mystery that only Lorin could solve. "Had a rough morning Lorin?" You question attempting to keep your composure. "That's one way to put it." He lazily replies as he takes it off and then properly puts it back on. When you and Lorin are done messing around you both strap on your boots only hear the front door of the HQ open and close. "Must be Jason." You claim as you quickly do up your boot and head into the briefing room. "Sir!" Jason says as he enters in at... you quickly check the clock on the wall... '22:15 (10:22 PM)' nice that's early for him. "What's your major malfunction Jason! And I better hear a god dam good reason for being late today lieutenant!" The captain responds loud and in command, a voice you would really hate to be up against. "Alarm clock died sir!" Jason's face grew beet red in embarrassment, even from here you could see the sweat dripping down from his face. Disappointment in himself and gilt no doubt playing a part in this show of emotion as well. "Then next time buy two more, hell buy three so that you'll never be late again!" The captain practically yells out. "Sorry sir! Won't happen again sir!" Jason replies as he walks over to you and Lorin. "Nice move Arco." You say as he passes, Arco being his usual call sign. Jason was named Arco when you and Lorin found out he was high-class and lived with a rich family. For those that don't know what Arco means its 'the performance of a passage for stringed instruments with the bow' So you thought that would match him, mostly because most instruments played with a bow are considered high-class. You know like the cello or violin. "Shut it Eagle!" He snapped back. Lorin at this moment was trying to hold in his laughter. Ah how I love my call sign, they say you're not supposed to, but it fits me just right. Loyal, fastest and most of all a feared predator. You say to yourself. "Jason get your suit and helmet on! You better make up the time that you lost!" The Captain yells as Jason runs past you and Lorin. You and Lorin by this point are holding back your laughter as you hold your helmets patiently by your side, no need to put them on just yet. As Jason gets his shit together you and Lorin sit back down while the Captain passes out the mission files. Literally two minutes and Jason is already out of the locker room and sitting next to you. Got to hand it to the man he sure is one fast dresser, only if he was that fast in the air 'zing!' "OK!" Yells the captain getting ready to tell us the summery of the mission. "You three flyboys are going out to Iran to take down multiple bogies. We have intel that the Insurgents have access to SU-35's from the Russian's. Something about them giving Russia a hole shit tone of money." The Captain says while pacing around the room. "Other than that you have one side objective and that is to patrol the remaining airspace, clearing it out for our fellow ground troops to move in. Any questions so far?" The captain hollers out. "Yes, do we know what they're packing?" You say wanting to have the biggest advantage. "Sadly no we don't have that much intel. I would expect them to have their basic load out with k-13's. Any other questions or can I move on?" The Captain speaks much loader. "How many would you say we're up against?" Lorin quick to reply to the Captain's question. "The people down at the surveillance department couldn't make out the exact number, I would assume two to four." The Captain answers. For the next couple of hours you and the rest of the crew go over important details of the mission. Such as which tactics to use, what all your call signs are -which are the usual- and the weather conditions along with a whole bunch of other shit that you don't think your brain can remember. Honestly speaking you plan to wing this mission, after all you can never plan for everything. With the briefing finally complete you once again head out into the hot mess which is the air base. All of you walk in silence as the tensions rise from the missions at hand. It takes you about five minutes to walk over to the hangar where all three of the F-22 raptors sit. These were not your normal F-22's wither, they were the new ones! They're basically the same as the old ones just with two seats instead of one. Entering the hanger you can smell the fresh jet fuel mixed in with the carbon dioxide. The aroma of the metal angels. As you walked in your smile only grew. The two seats didn't really matter this time, because you were all taking one for yourselves. So the second seat would be empty in all three planes. Nevertheless the aircraft's sat there looking menacing, the black paint complemented the night sky and the sleek design tempting you to come at it. Neither of you or Lorin had to ask what the load out was, because from here you could see it all. 6x AIM-120 AMRAAM and 2x AIM-9 Sidewinders. "I want to see them flying boys! You got 30 minutes!" The captain quickly barked out as he left to open the hanger doors. You, Lorin and Jason look to each other for a small moment before you each get your own little smile. Taking this as the perfect opportunity you start to walk towards your F-22 slowly making sure to look all bad ass. Once at the F-22 you don't hesitate to open up the canopy to check and make sure everything was there. Once you're confident everything is there you hop on in. The one thing you hate about a cold start-up was the time it takes for your ground crew to prep the jet. Thankfully they were ahead of the game and already prepped the jet for taxi. Peaking out of the still open canopy you can see the men dressed in grey coveralls running about removing red tags that read "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT" and tinker with some of the parts of the plane. After what feels like hours the men finally give you the signal to close the canopy and do the checks yourself. The checks that you do are some basic maneuvers of the ailerons, flaps and spoilers to make sure that they're in proper working conditions. You do some other checks with the computers on board the jet as well as the in flight HUD (heads up display) in your helmet. Turning your head to the right you can see Lorin doing the same. Turning your head to the left you can see that Jason is already starting up his engines. Wasting no time you attach your oxygen mask and give your ground crew the signal that you're about to start up the engines. Reading you signals loud and clear they all retreat to a safe distance away from the jet. The next thing you hear is your engines starting up with a loud roar so menacing that it would frighten any animal within a ten kilometer radius. The whole plane shook for a couple of seconds as your twin Pratt and Whitney turbofan jet engines settle down and stabilize. Looking back forwards the hanger doors were now opening, tempting to lure you out and into the limitless night sky. Being the team leader you're the first to break the silence. "ARCO, THIS IS EAGLE , RADIO CHECK, OVER." You say into the microphone being as sternly as possible. This is after all your first mission that your leading, don't want your wing man to think your soft now do you. "EAGLE, THIS IS ARCO, I READ YOU 5 BY 5, OVER." Now for Lorin "BUFF, THIS IS EAGLE, RADIO CHECK, OVER." Man where you laughing when you gave him his call sign it was too much for you. Even now you can feel the laughter inside you creeping its way up. "EAGLE, THIS IS BUFF, I READ YOU 5 BY 5, OVER." Now that we are done with the formalities it's time to head out. Bringing down your visor you roll the plane out of the hangar with Buff and Arco tailing you. "TOWER THIS IS EAGLE, REQUESTING PERMISSION TO TAXI TO RUNWAY TWO-FOUR, OVER." "EAGLE THIS IS TOWER, YOU HAVE THE GREEN LIGHT." "ROMEO TOWER WE'RE ON ROUTE." Heading over to the runway you look up into the night sky to take note of the weather, still overcast. "You guys alright to fly in the rain." You say on your com's to the two pilots following you. "Who says we're going to be flying bellow the clouds?" Buff says with a cocky tone. Choosing to ignore his remark you turn your attention back the runway that you've been taxing to. The lights lit up the runway like a Christmas tree as you take position at the end of it, with both wing-men behind and on either side of you. "TOWER THIS IS EAGLE, REQUESTING PERMISSION TO TAKE OFF RUNWAY TWO-FOUR, OVER." "EAGLE THIS IS TOWER, YOU'RE CLEAR FOR TAKE OFF." As soon as he said those beautiful words you push the throttle up. The asphalt below you zipping by as you go from zero to 54 knots in a matter of seconds. You can feel the wind from outside pushing up against your plane as it starts to leave the earth bellow it. You didn't notice but you were smiling the entire time. Checking behind you, you see both Buff and Arco on each side. You were taking off in a V formation -otherwise more commonly known as the echelon formation-. The formation was packed closely together, so close that you could probably jump the distance between the planes. As you looked at the other plane you could see the moons reflection on Buff's wing. Your glance goes from the wing to the tail as you see the small painting of a dumb bell on the vertical stabilizer. Climbing fast you reach 35'000ft before you hear from the radio again. "EAGLE THIS IS ALPHA, OVER." "ROGER ALPHA GO AHEAD, OVER." "WE GOT MORE INTEL, THEY SAY THE PLACE IS PRETTY CLEAN, OVER." "ROGER ALPHA WE ARE STILL ON OUR WAY. WILL DOUBLE CHECK, OVER." "AFFIRMATIVE ALPHA OUT." "YOU HEAR THAT BOYS WE'RE ON CLEAN UP DUTY." You swore you could hear Buff swear under his breath as you finished that sentence. It doesn't take long before you and your crew is over the Persian Gulf. You noticed it on your GPS because all the storm clouds are covering your view. Finally reaching supersonic cruse speed you take in the view around you. You know when you said that you would rather be here than anywhere else, this is why you said it. Taking in the night sky makes you really appreciate life to its fullest. Then again you're also in a F-22 raptor traveling at supersonic speeds how can you not appreciate it! Before you know it you look back down at your GPS to see Iran's coast is coming up. "Get ready boys, we're now entering enemy airspace. Keep your eyes peeled for any one that wants to mess with us." Not like they would. You thought to yourself hopefully. Coming up to your first way-point you can see nothing on the radar. With confirmation from Buff and Arco you move to the next way-point. This one was farther in-land and was more likely to have the fighters that you were looking for. The night was the best for this type of mission, if the pilot's didn't have night vision you would be unnoticeable from a distance. Coming up to the next way point you look at your radar... nothing. "Well I guess he wasn't joking when he said this place was clean, you guys picking up anything?" "Negative Eagle." Buff says. "Well We'll patrol till 03:00 (3:00 AM), All right?" "Roger Eagle." Both reply. 45 minutes later... It's 01:30 (1:30 AM) and you finally got your first plane to appear on the radar. It was moving fast to your liking, but while it was heading in your general direction it was drifting off to the right. "You seeing this guy." You say into the microphone to confirm your first target. "Yeah we see him Eagle" Buff and Arco say in unison over the com's. "Ok it looks like he's not paying attention to his R.W.R (Radar Warning Receiver) we'll bank left then right so that we can get a perfect shot at him from the side." Nothing but silence fills your ears as you continue to follow your own orders. Looking back on the radar you can see three more coming into range. "We got more coming." Buff says over the com's. "We can take them." You snap back not wanting to miss out on a fight. You can tell that Arco and Buff did not like this plan, they didn't want to risk their life to get the mission completed. Sadly they were stuck with you and if they had to know one thing about you it was that you never gave up a challenge when it presented itself. The pack of SU-35's were flying in a much larger echelon formation covering the most ground they could. From the looks of it they are flying at supersonic speeds as well, making attacking them that much harder. Searching though your brain to find a good maneuver, you come up with... nothing? This was the first time you completely blanked out and could not think of a way to attack the enemy. Nevertheless you were not the one to bail out of a fight. Finally deciding on a tactic you climb higher to get above them. This would give you a good advantage point for a boom and zoom* tactic. This would allow you to take out three fighters and dog fight the last one, however since this is not WW2 and the planes aren't severely limited by weight and speed you'll not be able to execute the tactic fully. Looking back you can still see Arco and Buff following you like loyal wing-man's should. "I am planning on doing a boom and zoom." You say over the com's. "Seems a bit old school?" Buff replies. "Yeah but at this range we can take out all four no problem." "Roger, let's just get this done with" Arco replies energetically. With not so much as another word you start your decent on the four SU-35's. The feeling of stealth and adrenalin is unmatched by any other feeling as you get ready to lock onto the first jet. Closing in fast, 30km, 25km, 20km, you start your lock on as you see the SU-35's move out of formation realizing that there R.W.R is going crazy. 10km 5km pressing the trigger you can see the cockpit erupt with light from the fire that the missal made when it hit its target. You watch as you see your target burn up in the sky and plummet to the ground bellow. Black smoke bellowing out of its engines unseen in the night sky. You're quickly caught off guard as you see Arco's missal miss due to his target deploying flares. The next event you see is horrifying, Arco's plane gets hit by red hot 30mm rounds that came of the fourth SU that circled around in a half Cuban eight. You can do nothing but watch as you wing-man's plane erupts into a fire ball and explodes leaving no time for escape. Anger now starts to fill your mind and control your body as you turn sharply to the other SU's. You don't know how to react, your wing-man just died. No he wasn't a wing-man he was a comrade a friend like no other. All you knew was that this bastard was going to find out what it feels like to be on receiving end. During the sharp turn you can feel your g-suit inflating keeping the blood flowing to your brain. This bitch was going to die today! The turn was to sharp thus causing you to drop bellow supersonic speeds. Despite the lack of speed you lock onto the fourth SU and fire only to be countered by flares. This was starting to get annoying, you knew that the SU's had shit tone of flares and were not afraid to use them. Knowing better you switch to your 20mm Vulcan 6 barrel Gatling gun. The fourth SU-35 kept on flying straight thinking you would only go missals on him, it wasn't till your first burst of 20mm that he realized he was sourly wrong. Unable to move out of the way the rounds hit the SU right in the engine causing it to cut out and explode, sending flames all the way up into the cockpit, killing the pilot instantly. Right now you have two conformed kills and a third flaming SU shows that Buff was not taking it easy on them as well. One more left you look at your radar to see that it's closing in behind you, with a quick reaction you pull up and start climbing. "Buff I got him on my tail can you get him off?" You say into the microphone as you pop flairs to confuse the incoming missiles. "Roger Eagle I'm Oscar Mike!" Buff says with a hint of anger no doubt from the sight of his friend exploding. The missiles stop coming but you're sure he's just waiting for the right time to let you have it. Looking behind you, you can see him fire a missile. Quickly looking back at your HUD you can see that you're not being locked on. Did he just waist a missile. No, he's is a trained pilot why would he pull such a rookie mistake. Your thoughts are interrupted as you see the missile still hot on your tail. Banking right the missile explodes 10ft from you but causing no damage. What? How am I still alive! Turning back to the displays you can see nothing, all the displays are as black as the night sky. Utterly confused you look back to see nothing as well. The SU-35 is gone and you can't see Buff anywhere as well. Snapping back into leader mode you go to the com's. "BUFF THIS IS EAGLE, RADIO CHECK, OVER." You hear nothing in return, the worst images start to play in your head as you think of why he would not be responding. "BUFF THIS IS EAGLE, RESPOND, OV-" You are cut off by the sound of your engines cutting off. Well shit. The plane is now falling fast and you have no idea where up or down is. The cloud layer is too far down to see and to make matters even worse you can't seem to find the moon in your death spiral. Pulling every ounce of knowledge you know you open up the backup battery just to see how high up you are. What you see makes you shit the bed, 160'000ft! HOW THE FUCK AM I UP HERE, THIS IS THE FUCKING MESOSPHERE! You start to panic and look around only to calm down again from your extensive training. Frantically you look out of your plane and see the wings are now glowing red. This alarms you as you look back to the display showing your speed. HOLY SHIT I'M GOING MACH 4! More thoughts go through your brain as you're stuck there falling from the mesosphere. Some of the thoughts are funny some are downright questionable; like how are you alive at the moment. Shouldn't this plane explode from the heat and speed!? Not to mention the missile that blew up 10ft from me! You put those thoughts aside as you realize that redefining the laws of physics right now is what's keeping you alive. As time passed you keep your eye on the altimeter making sure as soon as you hit 60'000ft to pull up. Not like you weren't already pulling up but the plane just simply kept its nose down denying your actions like a stubborn child. You soon hit 60'000ft and you pull harder then you have ever pulled before, causing the plane to shake and pitch its nose up slightly. White smoke came from all sides of the aircraft showing you that while you're plane seems indestructible towards the heat it still takes stress damage. The stress that is acting on your plane is intense but for some reason the F-22 keeps its shape and holds true. Reaching 30'000ft you can see the cloud layer coming up fast. The F-22 is pointing at 45 degree angle now, better than nothing. Continuing to pull the stick you go though the layer off clouds that were hiding the well kept green grass. Wait what? Ignoring the light green grass in Iran you're able to pitch up a bit, bringing your nose to 40 degrees. Hitting 20'000ft you realize that you are probably not going to make it, approaching the ground at 1100km/h. A small village comes into view, It looks quite medieval with hay roofs and stone walls. In no time you realize that you are heading straight towards it! Thinking of the poor innocent people that would die if you kept your heading. You thought of the outcome, crashing would sure make your ammunition and fuel ignite and probably clear out half the town with ease. Turning your attention to the fast approaching town you make one last attempt to restart your engines and pull away to at least spare the people in the town. Suddenly you're greeted with a loud roar as your engines awaken from their slumber. Time is slipping as you're now 10'000ft from the town and closing fast considering you're now going 1100km/h at the moment. You bank the plane left, a slight glimmer of water catches your eye as the best spot to crash and make sure the explosion is contained within the water. As you plan your descent you realize that your throttle is all the way up and you brake the sound barrier in no time causing a loud sonic boom to echo throughout the valley. Doing a quick calculations in your head, say with the speed that you are going at and the river only 5'000ft. Yup, I'm defiantly dead. Within seconds your poor F-22 raptor and you hit the water with tremendous force. The last thing you do is welcome the darkness that soon follows, awaiting the moment to see Arco's face in hell. Rainbow Dashes POV: Five hours ago... You just got back from your job at the weather factory in Cloudsdale. Tartarus were you ever tired. You've been working double shifts all week to catch up from being in the Equestrian games. You would think that they would let a silver medalist off the hook, but you guess somepony has to control the weather while you're gone. Speeding though the air to get back to your beloved cloud home you take note of everything around you. Ponies are walking about doing their late evening duty's, such as picking up food or eating. Overall today was a ordinary day, besides the aching in your wings after that double shift. Reaching your fluffy white house you open the door to see it exactly how you left it. You don't like to boast but man was your house is clean. You like to keep it organized in case anypony were to ever come over. Thinking what you had just said over, it has been quite some time since you had any form of company. You're always out and about doing weather related work or playing some sports. If you weren't doing that then you were sleeping. Shaking the negative thought's out of your head you walk into your room, plopping down instantly on your extremely comfortable cloud bed. If somepony told you that there was something more comfortable then a cloud you would have denied it within seconds. As you lay there on your bed motionless you can't help but wander back to thinking why no one ever comes over. Sure you live on a cloud and Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity would fall thought if they stepped in, but none of your other Pegasus friends have came over from the weather factory. Turning your body over you gaze out the widow next to your bed. The sun was setting over the horizon and if it weren't for the grumbling in your belly, you would most likely have fallen asleep. Knowing what must be done you drag yourself out of your bed and down to the kitchen. You where no chef, but you did know some basic stuff such as pasta. Taking the pasta noodles out of the box you place them into a cast iron pot along with some water. Turning on the stove you boil the water until you see the bubbles start to form. As the water boils you trudge on over to your living room and lay on the couch. You may be the fastest flyer in Equestria, but you would be darned if you didn't get to rest a lot from the training and working. Sitting there for about five minutes you go back to the kitchen and check on progress of the noodles. You see the noodles have lost their structural integrity and have now fallen into the pot. Just as you have planned, you stirred the pot of noodles till the bubbles fade. Your tummy growls from lack of sustenance which makes you turn the temperature up to speed the process up. This does little to help as the bubbles come faster than you can stir them away. The water soon evaporates and all you are left with are somewhat done noodles. Damn your stomach for putting this upon you, the noodles start to burn as you notice that the pot is still on the burner. "Buck!" You say out loud as you take the pot away from the burner and dump it into the awaiting bowl. You turn off the stove and get back to your half burnt noodles. Scratch what you said before about knowing the basics of cooking. It docent take long for you to devour the crunchy noodles. The burnt parts tasted pretty bad, but other than that it was a alright meal. This even got the idea of being alone a lot off your mind..... well it almost did. Finishing the noodles you clean up the area with a rain cloud for the water and a normal cloud as a towel. Living in a cloud has its perks. Your house is practically invincible, if a wall were to have a hole in it you would simply get a cloud in the sky and stuff it in there. After spending about 30 minutes cleaning up your war zone of a eating place you head out to the front of your house. The weather team in Cloudsdale had planned for a huge rain storm tonight and then clear skies the rest of the week. That being said when you step outside you immediately saw the storm clouds. They were dark grey, almost black, no doubt filled to the rim with rain water. The air outside was getting colder making you shiver a bit from how high up your house was. After taking in the severity of the storm you head back in, planning to read a book till sleep comes. With sleep in mind you walk yourself up to your room and jump on the bed with a big "WOOOSH" and "THUNK." Picking up your book 'Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone.' you get to work reading. You have read this book before, actually you have read the whole series before, but a re-read is sometimes needed. Especially when the book is this good. Time fly's by as you read the amazingly awesome book. Soon after the sun sets and the moon and stars come out. Closing the book you rest your head on the fluffy pillow and look outside the window. You loved this window it had such a nice view of Ponyville and the Ponyville river. Changing your view from the ground you look up into the night sky with all the stars. One star in particular was moving, but this was normal, as Princess Luna often moved the stars to make the night that much more enjoyable. Having a different night sky every day was pretty in all but for those lost and relying on the stars for direction could get rather frustrating pretty easily. Then again no one in Equestria really gets lost. Nevertheless you make sure to keep an eye on the star as it moves faster and faster. Must be a shooting star. You say to yourself as you watch it fall from the darkened sky's. The strange thing was that this star didn't seem to give up, by now most stars would have vanished never to be seen again. This interests you as you sit up at the edge of your bed and look out to the star falling. The star kept increasing speed going almost as fast as you in the sky, possibly even faster. Naw who am I kidding I'm the fastest. Nothing can beat my speed! You say giggling a bit to yourself. However the more you look at it the more the star gains speed. You just start to realize the star is heading straight in the direction of Ponyville! "OMG, OMG, OMG!" You yell out as you see it closing in onto its target. Being the brave Rainbow Dash you are you run to the door and open them only to be greeted by the star whizzing past you. You immediately snap your head to see the star glow a bit more before a loud bang is heard. Your jaw drops to the floor as you just realize that the star had just broken the sound barrier. But I thought I was the only thing that can do that! You claim to yourself. Not much later after the loud bang the star changes course heading straight to the Ponyville river. At least it won't hit the village you think to yourself in relief. Your moment of relaxing stop's when you see the star hit the river with immense force causing water to be launched higher then town hall. Wasting no time you take off int the air and head to the crash site of the ominous fallen star. "Sometimes were like stars, we fall so someones wish can come true." ~ Anonymous Boom and Zoom* - This tactic was used in WW2 by the all sides. Mostly the USA with their heavy plane's being able to use gravity in their favor. The tactic goes like this: You get a height advantage on your target and when you are ready you dive right on top of him. While falling you line up your shots and fire, after you pass him you fly away with the speed of the fall making sure he can't catch up to you. PICTURE OF BOOM AND ZOOM.