//------------------------------// // Chapter 65. Operation War Horse // Story: Dust on the Wind // by Sparky Brony //------------------------------// “1st Earth corps, watch your left flank!” I shout, my throat mic picking up my words and relaying them to the ponies in question. I watch them adjust, we need to win this one, damn it. I’m ten thousand feet above the battlefield. I’m glad that typical infrared homing missiles are ineffective against pegasi, though the radar guided ones, we have to watch for. Over a hundred pegasi are in the air, the Royal Guard pegasi are keeping the battlefield organized. The humans have learned to keep rotary winged equipment away from pegasi. We can disable them with ease, an armored hoof to the blades, or other relatively minor damage will put them out of commission. Though I’m keeping my eyes peeled, fast moves are likely going to be in the area. I’ve got a com setup strapped to me, with a touch of a hoof to the buttons on my chest, I can talk to any of the unit leaders before me. I’m told it’s better than any bit of satellite imagery, and I have to agree. I can direct the battle quite well from up here. Though the humans have been taking pot shots at me from time to time, but all I have to do is break the sound barrier and streak off, trusting in the individual unit commanders to do their jobs without me looking over their withers constantly. So far, they’ve earned that trust. Rolling Earth has turned out to be rather effective against some of the heavy weapons that humans have. And keeping a couple of unicorns that are proficient with shield spells on hand keeps the heavy crew served weaponry at bay. I glance around the sky, something is tickling the back of my mind, I don’t see anything close enough to be a threat, but missiles fired at beyond visual range can make my life miserable today. I’ve got a half dozen speedsters here with me though. We are going to make the humans regret coming against ponies in prepared positions. I focus my eyes down, switching frequencies and keeping apprised of the situations. Working together, it’s something the US military focuses on to the nth degree, it’s also something ponies believe in. I get a query, and answer in the affirmative. A dozen ponies break out from the lines, heading for a quartet of tanks that have a good portion of the right flank pinned down. The ponies use the terrain to their advantage, and get close. The unicorn in the lead jumps forward, his horn glowing. Three of the earth ponies with him slam hooves into the ground, bringing up a jagged chunk of earth, and now two of the tanks have their treads completely off the ground. And in moments the other two are taken care of the same way. At the same time, the gun tubes of all of the tanks bend to where each muzzle is facing its own tank. Well, that was easy. I grin as the ponies head back to cover. “Dust, F-22 inbound.” Comes a call from one of the other speedsters on the periphery of the battle. I scan around and tap a button, “Got it Ginger, I’ll take care of it, you keep an eye on the ground pounders.” I streak towards the plane. I don’t think the pilot knows he’s been spotted. He’s supercruising, keeping a bit over the speed of sound. But he doesn’t know what a pegasus like me can do. I do a hard turn, coming up from underneath and to the side of the sleek fighter. Pegasi aren’t very visible on radar either. I pop up right next to the cockpit, tossing off a salute at the human. I laugh as his head jerks in surprise, and he takes his plane vertical. A crashing boom announces him lighting off his afterburners. “A vertical climb, huh.” I chuckle, “Too easy.” I streak straight up, hot on the aircraft’s tail. Is he gonna try an immelman? Shortly he’s at his apogee, and he flips the plane, streaking down towards the battlefield. I’ve got to give the human pilot credit, he’s focused on his mission. Not that I’m going to allow him to complete it. I streak in front of him, forcing him to change course. “Dust, they didn’t just send one.” Ginger’s voice comes over my com system. I barrel roll around the fighter as I key in to respond, “How many?” “Looks like an element of four.” I think rapidly, I’ve got one of the best fighters humanity has been able to produce hot on my tail, and three more of them in the area. Damn it. “Misty Fly, High Winds, and you, each take one. Force them away.” This is a lot different than playing with airliners, they are maneuverable. Not nearly as maneuverable as I am, but I’ve got to keep on my tiphooves to keep outsmarting the pilot. And this one seems to be almost as crazy as I am. He reefs his plane in nearly a ten g turn. I pull nearly thirty, trusting in my magic to keep me safe as I turn within his radius. He can’t accelerate as well as I can as well. I hear calls of roger as I accelerate to stay in front of the fighter. I glance back, “Okay big boy, keep following me, and you won’t make my friends lives harder.” A squeal sounds in my headset, he’s trying to get a lock on me. “Oh, you naughty boy.” I breathe as I nearly double my speed and pull a tight loop, coming up behind the craft and make contact with the plane right behind the cockpit. I wonder if the humans know this trick that Rainbow Blaze came up with. My magic interacts with the plane, and I’m on it like I would be on a cloud. I fold my wings and walk to the cockpit, a quick climb over the bubble cockpit and I am face to face with the pilot. He rolls the fighter, and my magic sticks me to the plane like I’m a part of it. He takes it vertical again, and I laugh in his face. He flips his visor up, I get to look into his brown eyes. I’ve got his complete attention, I bring up my forehooves, and stretch my face out and stick my tongue out at him, laughing at the expression on his face. I giggle as I let go and let myself fall from the plane. Watching him recede from me as I keep my wings folded for a long moment. I watch him turn on his side and pull a hard turn. He’s done. With all the afterburner flight and maneuvers, he’s almost out of gas now. “Alert, alert, B-1’s incoming.” Comes over my com. Shit, the F-22’s were a decoy. And a smart one too. The B-1B Lancer, known as the Bones, is a supersonic bomber, quite capable of dropping a lot of ordinance on a battlefield. I touch a button, “This is Dust, repel them. Let’s show them what we’ve been working on.” I hear calls of roger and look over at our command post. A dozen pegasi are taking off, I narrow my eyes and enhance my vision. Half of the ponies have a long tube, nearly ten inches in diameter, and a bit over twelve feet long, mounted on them. This is the pony variant to the AIM-120 AMRAAM missile. The normally 335lb missile has been halved in weight, and has nearly double the range, thanks to advances in the fuel, and the normally fifty pound warhead is under thirty pounds, and is more effective than the original. The only thing we haven’t been able to figure out is how to upgrade the radar on it. But for incoming Bone's, it will see them just fine. Added in with the small radar system each wingpony carries. Those long range bombers are in for a bad time. I turn and keep an eye out. The sky over the field remains ours. “Dust, this is Ginger.” I growl, “Ginger Crisp, report.” “This fighter is crazier than a loon, I need you to get your happy plot over here and help me drive the son of a bitch off.” I groan and streak to the west, Ginger’s patrol area. In moments I can see her, and the pilot. Ginger isn’t as fast as I am, so she’s not able to shake the pilot nearly as well as I can. In moments I’m above and behind the F-22. Okay, time for some real fun. I streak forward, and latch onto the nose of the aircraft. Not caring that I’ve left four pony size hoofprints on the nose of the craft. I stalk up to the cockpit of the fighter. This pilot does the same as the last one, and lifts their visor. I look at the pilot in shock. It’s a girl. This gets a big grin from me, and I turn around and twitch my tail to the side, giving her a good view, then I hot launch from the aircraft, leaving more hoofprints on the aircraft as I accelerate. Ginger had used my distraction to change course, and she updates me where she is. I grin and look back, I’ve got a pissed off pilot on my tail. I switch my radio to the guard frequency, I know she can hear me. “Got a fast plane there.” Her voice crackles over my headset, “You are pretty fast yourself, didn’t know you could stick to planes.” I smile, “I’m just full of surprises today, aren’t I?” I glance back, she’s lit off her afterburners and is catching up, “Catch me if you can!” And I pour everything into my speed. In seconds I’m pushing harder than ever against the air. I’m up against some kind of barrier. I take one last glance and push my forehooves forward, tucking my rear as tightly as possible. I’m well over the speed of sound, I’ve got more to push, so I push more. I know I can go faster than this. Pressure over my entire body, it’s like I’m trying to squeeze through a knothole. I can do it, I know I can. Finally the pressure lets off. I feel my body streak forward, what just happened? I glance back, I’ve got a trail nearly a hundred miles long, and then I almost lose control, behind me is a coruscating rainbow, expanding outward. Holy shit! I pull a hundred eighty degree turn, my magic so amped up it looks like I did a U turn in the sky, I couldn’t begin to tell anypony how many G’s I just pulled. I streak towards the F-22. My hypersonic speed allows me to blow past the fighter, I’m certain my wake is going to make her life hell in the next few seconds. But hell, I just did a Sonic Rainboom! *** I flutter down to the command center. I’m exhausted, I get on all fours, then yelp as my left foreleg touches the ground. When Ray set my forehoof, he said it would hurt for a while, though the bone is mended. My wings healed much more quickly, I was hovering around within a week, and back to where I should be when it comes to flying within three. I watch as my family emerges from the group of tents. Mindy rushes forward first and bowls me over. “Holy shit, Dustie. You did a sonic rainboom! Wohoo!” She shouts as she hugs me. “Heh, yeah, I guess I did.” I look up, the remains of the massive magical explosion is still spreading across the sky. Ponies and humans all around are looking up at the sky, and jaws have dropped, many of the humans are simply stumbling around. Sunset comes up, “Your rainboom just caught the humans off guard. The rest of the exercise pretty much was humans getting out and looking at the sky. If our weapons had been real, we’d have had no problem getting them all. As it is…” She’s interrupted by a loud voice, “Lightning Dust!” Come a roar, and shortly the human in question appears. His face red, “What in the holy bleeding hell was that?” I look at the Major General, “Well, General Smythe, that was us kicking your ass.” He grumbles for a few moments, “The computers are still running through the numbers from all the vests, and all the administrative kills. But it looks like you were winning well before you pulled that stunt.” Mindy bounces up, “Dustie did a sonic rainboom, General grumpy pants.” He glares at Mindy, who is now wearing Admiral’s stars on a US Navy fatigue uniform, she wags a hoof at him, “You can frown at me all you want, but we whipped your sorry plots. This exercise was a complete success.” He snorts, “That remains to be seen. But we will have to talk to some of your guard leaders, some of what you ponies have developed could be used by the US military.” I grin, “We will sell you whatever you want, when it comes to equipment that we’ve developed. But the unicorns that can do the shield spells and the others with magic that was able to defeat much of your equipment are free ponies, and don’t have to go anywhere they don’t want to. If you want them to help, you’ll have to persuade them. I chuckle at that as I follow the dour human, ponies wouldn’t react well to his methods of persuasion. In moments we are in an ad hoc conference room, Lt. Fischer of the Rangers is there, along with Velvet and Blaze. Fleetfoot is sitting next to the LT, leaning against him, his hand rubbing her neck, both of them with smiles on their faces. I look at the other humans, members of the US Marine Corps, the Air Force, and the Army. I move to the head of the table, “Well, ladies and gentlemen, the purpose of this exercise today was twofold, to train ponies on human equipment and tactics, and to train the human military what to do with the way the ponies make war.” I look around at the assembled, “This really gave everyone an idea. But I must caution you, we didn’t have much of what was used today back in Equestria. Ponies are adapting to this world.” General Smythe leans forward, “Well, thanks to you, the Chinese have very few ponies, so they can’t do much when it comes to war. But from some reports, several thousand ponies cropped up in Russia. So, you can guarantee there will be some pony involvement if we have to deal with them.” I nod, “I understand, though with how peaceful things have been the last couple of years, after Corddis has been taken care of, I sincerely hope this training ends up only for readiness purposes.” One of the other Generals, in an Army uniform huffs, “Well, this wasn’t supposed to actually damage equipment.” An Air Force Colonel next to him nods his head. I suppress a giggle, “It’s kind of hard to simulate magical damage.” I smile brightly at them, “But unicorns are in the process right now, of fixing the damaged equipment to better than new status. We knew this would be a possibility.” The Colonel pipes up, “And the damage to the Raptors? One of them has a badly crumpled nose cone. The pilot nearly completely lost it when you blew by her at supersonic speeds.” This gets me to giggle, “Actually, Colonel, it was hypersonic. But I’ll have a unicorn come by and repair the damage. Your plane will be as good as new. On to dealing with a pegasus, which is far more maneuverable, and a good number of us are quite a bit faster than your best airplanes. We don’t have much of a heat signature for missiles to get a lock on, and radar homers cannot maneuver to hit, so to hit a pegasus in the air would require the pegasus being sloppy, or half asleep. We don’t have much for offensive weaponry naturally.” I grin, “Unless you count unbearable cuteness.” This gets a cut off bark of a laugh from Blaze, “But we are working on ways to fix that deficit, and I guarantee you that potential enemies would have the same ideas.” One of the Marine generals looks at me, “And what is to stop you ponies from selling or even giving knowledge you’ve gained here in the US to other pony colonies? Word is there is about fifty thousand outside the US.” I nod, “Fifty thousand is a good conservative estimate. Not counting the stragglers from various other parts of the world.” I glare at the Marine general, “The ponies here are US citizens, but in the end, we are all Equestrian, that is true. But from the ponies that I’ve talked to, we’ve decided that where we are staying is our home, our country. So we will hold to the laws of the US. In Equestria, our human nationality doesn’t matter, but we aren’t in Equestria, so the problem is moot.” This seems to satisfy him. We talk about tactics for a while, everyone chiming in ideas and thoughts. I pushed the idea of doing this exercise to train against potential pony threats from outside the nation. But knowing the nature of most of us, I seriously doubt this information will do anything really. My real reason is to train up the guards, give them something than fellow guard members to train against. What we are training for is to go get Irony. Mindy was able to track a few things, and she hasn’t zeroed in on this Twilight’s location, but we will find her. After several hours, I call an adjournment. Which is enthusiastically agreed to by the humans. I limp out of the tent, and spread my wings. “Dustie…” Comes a voice. I look back, “Yes, Mindy?” She comes close and gives me a hug, then whispers in my ear, “Sunset and I have been talking. We’ve all been taking the loss of Irony hard. But the one taking it the worst is Moon Shadow. I think you need to take her out on a date, just you and her. Just be there for her. You’ve been so focused on training, on searching. We support her as best as we can, we know how important what you are doing, leading the ponies and all, but she needs some attention from you.” I cock my head to the side, absorbing it all, but something sticks out, “I’ll do exactly that. I don’t think she’s slept in bed with us more than four or five nights in the last three weeks since we almost got Irony. But I have to ask, leading the ponies?” Mindy giggles, “Oh Dustie, don’t you know? Not only do the ponies all look to you for leadership.” She stops and looks around at the ponies cleaning up from the exercise, “and I’m not just talking your herd. But you are the public face of the ponies.” My jaw drops, “No, that can’t be.” Mindy gets a quizzical look on her face, “Dustie, who went on TV? Who crashed the President’s office the night Discord was defeated. What pony is the one that they now make more plushies of than anypony else?” Huh? I stop and try to reboot my brain, “Plushies?” I get a whirlwind hug from Mindy and she turns towards town, bouncing. She calls back, “Oh Dustie, never change.”