Stormriders: Luna's Own

by PonyMarine

Chapter 8: The Freezing Season

Mareimar ADFB
Captain Cloud Dancer's quarters
Background Music

The room was almost entirely dark. The curtains were drawn tight; only the winking red digital clock on the dresser gave an indication of the time of day, not that the room's solitary occupant cared. Winter storms the likes of which hadn't been seen in Equestria in a century were battering the north of the country and Mareimar was in the middle of the worst of it. Besides following the mission and the loss of two of her pilots, the Major had grounded her and the squadron for ninety six hours. So it was just Cloud Dancer and her only the friend, the only thing that had ever really been there for her. A bottle of Buck Daniels she'd bartered away from one of the maintenance ponies. The spirit, a product of the city of Bridlesberg deep in the Equestrian south had once been Cloud Dancer's constant companion as she tried to cope with the pain and responsibility that had been shoved on to her in her foalhood.

She had lost her entire family except Cloud Burster when she'd been about ten, leaving Cloud Burster at six, and too young to really remember the fatal accident that had claimed their parents. He remembered being alone though, the series of cruel foster homes that they had suffered through, almost being separated on more then one occasion. It had been the two of them against all odds, with Cloud Dancer sacrificing everything to shield her brother from the cruel reality they had faced. Blows meant for him landed on her, many nights she would starve to make sure he had enough. Nothing was too much to ask or too much to give.

Volunteering for the EADF flight academy when she was legally able had been the turning point. After she enlisted the Judge Advocate General Corps assisted her in her fight for custody of Cloud Burster. It freed them both from the hell they'd been living in the better part of a decade. The secret drinking stopped--she no longer needed her "coping mechanism". The wounds of the past were finally on their way to being healed as she and Cloud Burster started their new life. Until recently... until it started happening again, until everything good was torn away from her again. Until she lost Cloud Burster in a ball of fire not far from where she was now collapsed, weeping, the happy little world she'd fought so hard for dying along with him.

The sobs were coming fast and hard now. Cloud Dancer alternated between gasping for breath and taking another slug of Buck. She'd finally had someone reach out to her, to look past the mask of professionalism that was Captain Cloud Dancer and see the heart of a mare that had never really stopped hurting, reaching out with simple kindness and concern for her well-being. This was something new for Cloud Dancer, as she had never had friends of her own. She had classmates and colleagues, but all her spare time was consumed with flight practice, studying or taking care of her brother. Everything for her family, her brother, never a thought contrary to that purpose and never, not even now a regret in those choices.

'I've given everything without a selfish thought in my heart, never asking only giving. Why does everything, everypony always get taken from me? Oh, Celestia how do I always manage to fail them all?"

Guttering flames of hope flared and died, a fractured heart shattered, and all the scars reopened and bled crimson, mixing the blood of her pain with her tears. She needed to get out of this room, to walk, to be somewhere, anywhere else. To feel something, anything even if that was just the freezing wind on her face.

Cloud Dancer stumbled and staggered her way out of the barracks, the cold bitter enough to freeze tears to her face. Her stomach rebelled from all the movement and left the better part of the bottle of Buck Daniels in the snow. He head was clearer now and Cloud Dancer felt a bit more stable. She carefully started to walk towards the hangar. The facility would be deserted right now and gave her an end location for her walk. The distance passed quickly. The cold and the alcohol muddled her thoughts and let her focus drift, with flashes of pain--emotional and otherwise--and the ghosts of those she'd lost appearing briefly in the driving snow.

She staggered against the hanger door, momentarily driven to her knees by the welling emotions.

'Luna damnit.... can I at least escape my nightmares when I'm fucking awake? Is that too much to ask?

Cloud Dancer continued on into the hangar proper, the rigid organization and familiar scents of the hanger calming her down slightly as she looked around the massive, darkened room. Everything was in its place.... except the two bare spots marking two missing strikers. A pang of loss echoed out from Cloud Dancer's heart as she stood where Zephyr's striker had once parked, the unit leaving them free of obstruction or use in memory of the fallen fliers, and most likely because of the superstition that haunted every military unit, the places and gear of the fallen becoming "bad luck".

BANG!

The sudden loud noise dumped adrenaline into Cloud Dancer's system, and she found herself unsteadily hovering about three feet off the ground. She sheepishly landed and looked around the hangar for the source of the noise. Her eyes were drawn to one of the doors in to a store room attached to the hangar; it was open and there was a light on inside. She thought it was one of the ones the Marines had claimed for their use but no one should be here this time of night. Cloud Dancer's mouth unconsciously went for her shoulder holster. It wasn’t there, her sidearm was sitting on the desk in her quarters where she'd left it. Cloud Dancer still had her backup. She pulled the long curved combat knife from her right boot and settled it firmly in to her mouth as she crept towards the store room. Right as she made the door, the Buck Daniels decided to make its presence known again and she staggered into the open door with a loud crash.

'Oh yeah... I'm still drunk'.

However,she was rewarded with a distinctly female gasp from within the store room. The element of surprise firmly curb checked into oblivion, Cloud Dancer rushed around the corner to be greeted with the image of several Marines helping a shocked-looking Clanky Doo into cold weather survival gear and an Airborne Booster system. It was the backpack version of a striker engine, pegasi-assigned as airborne infantry used them to get a drastic speed, range and mobility boost over normal winged flight. One of the Marines, a solidly built mare with Staff Sergeant's chevrons on her collar, looked up from the strap she was adjusting.

"Awww horseapples... looks like we're bucked, fillies"

Cloud Dancer sheathed the knife and did her best to look imposing through the alcohol haze she was fighting.

"Somepony better have a hell of a good explanation for what's going on here!"

Cloud Dancer staggered a step in to the room... so much for imposing. However, the young blond airpony she knew as "Doo" and "That Blond Moron" depending on MSgt Ironheart's mood stepped forward to meet her challenge. Her eyes were red, face streaked with the trails of tears, and even to Cloud Dancer it was obvious that she'd been crying recently. Where Cloud Dancer's eyes showed what she thought was defeat and loss, Clanky Doo's eyes were filled with fire, tempered by a cold steely determination.

"They’re alive ma'am, and I'm going to go get them.”

"By stealing military equipment and going AWOL?"

Doo practically whispered her response.

"They... they’'d do the same for me."

Cloud Dancer turned, her gaze focusing in on the Marine SSgt.

"And you SSgt? The hell are you and your Marines doing helping her?"

The big mare shrugged. It was obvious she'd been in trouble before and didn't really care about it anymore.

"She saved all our necks on that transport ma'am, we figured we owed her one. Plus I know the colts and I don't like the idea of leaving ponies on the ground behind enemy lines without help... or hope."

That last word 'hope' practically broke Cloud Dancer where she stood. She knew her duty to the unit--to Equestria--but what about her duty to her ponies? And her friend? Her stomach heaved again; the Buck Daniels was not helping with this at all. Her stomach soon started to settle and her mind and heart followed it’s example.

"Five minutes."

There was a collective confused noise from the ponies in front of her.

"I'm going into my office, you have five minutes to finish gearing her up and getting her the hell out of here, I was drunk and didn't see a damn thing you understand me?"

Cloud Dancer didn't wait for a response. She just turned and staggered back towards the office, walking as straight as her hooves would allow her. A soft smile graced her face as she walked in to her office, slamming the door behind her. She sat down hard and let her thoughts and emotions consume her.

'The hell did I just do? I could have just bought myself a court martial.’

Her office door opened again, interrupting her train of thought. She caught a bark at one of the ponies involved at the operation when the light revealed the figure of MSgt Ironheart stepping through her door. The old mechanic looked tired and more worn-down then he usually did and Cloud Dancer internally braced herself for his accusations.

"You did the right thing."

Cloud Dancer's jaw just about hit her desk--that was not the reaction she'd be anticipating.

"Maybe not the legal thing, but it was the right thing to give those two fliers a shot, leaving a pony behind the lines... abandoning somepony, no matter how good the reasoning... that never sat well with me, Ma'am."

Ironheart took a seat by her desk and offered her a pull from a flask produced from his uniform’s breast pocket.

"Want a swig? Glenhoofitch 18 year, only the best."

"I think I've had more than enough to drink tonight, Top, but I do have a question."

"Shoot, ma'am."

"Why'd you let her go? You obviously saw her and the Marines. Do you really think she has a chance?"

The old master sergeant took another solid slug from his flask and leaned back a little on his haunches, letting a sigh out before continuing to speak.

"You saw Doo's eyes, Ma'am?"

Cloud Dancer simply nodded, not knowing where Ironheart was taking this.

"There was love in those eyes, Ma'am. I haven't seen a more powerful force than that in twenty-five years of service and a good forty-two years of living. That filly will move mountains if it means getting her friends back. She deserves the chance, even if it kills her trying... which it probably will. It is Doo after all, it's just love, not Celestia's divine grace."

Ironheart punctuated the sentence with another pull from the flask as Cloud Dancer mulled his words over.

"Top, I think I'll join you in that drink... I think I've been drinking alone too much recently."

Ironheart passed the flask over.

"You gotta by careful with that Ma'am, easy to drink your life away and forget everything that's good in the world."

Mareimar ADFB
Southern Perimeter
Background Music

The Marines hustled Clanky out to a dead spot in the patrols guarding the base. It had cost SSgt Reckless some chewing tobacco and booze to arrange, but all the Marines in the detail thought they owed Clanky one and the collection to bribe the local Marines had been enthusiastically responded to. Reckless ran a quick eye over Clanky's gear. Survival rations, weapons and ammo for three, a couple grenades, maps that wouldn't do shit for the enemy in the event of capture, and a compass set up for navigation and some other odds and ends.

"Well Clanky, we have you as set up as possible, and in this weather the radar ain't gonna see shit unless you ram the dish. I gotta get the colts here back to the barracks before we're missed, good luck!"

And with a quick round of back-slapping, the Marines vanished into the storm, leaving Clanky alone in the dark.

’Well... you’ve come this far Clanky, time to turn and burn.’

Clanky went through the start-up procedures for the booster now strapped firmly to her back, the magic engine whined softly as it started to spin up. The unit flashed a green light in the small HUD mounted to her helmet, and with a quick whisper to Luna, Clanky took to the sky in a burst of magical fire.

The storm was brutal, even more brutal then Clanky thought it would be as she rose over the base, gale winds lashing at her from every direction, threatening to throw her off course. Ice fought her for purchase on her heated, extreme-cold-weather flight gear, trying to form and lock up her wings as she burned up skyward...she felt more than saw herself burst into a massive cloud bank, fighting all the while. Feeling one of her wing joints lock in place from all the ice, Clanky erupted through the top of the bank with a burst of flames and ice crystals, coming to an exhausted rest on top of the storm.

’No... no time to rest now.’

With a quick consultation of her map and compass to get her bearings, Clanky lept through the skies, burning northward in the strange sky above the storm, watched over by Luna’s full moon.

Reckless watched her go, a flame briefly rising in to the night sky, piercing the storm like a flaming arrow. She tapped her breast pocket making sure the other mare’s possible last letter home was secure in her shirt, she wished her friend luck, but with a heart like hers... Reckless was pretty sure Clanky wouldn’t need it. With a last glance towards the sky Reckless walked back inside, she had a letter to mail.

Comments

This keeps getting better and better.

[SteampunkBrony]

Okay... if anypony wants to help out i would be willing to do a reading of this. I can handle the narrator and a couple of the male voices but i can't do female voices.

[PonyMarine]

36642

That would be fucking awesome

Also welcome to our new readers, and four new trackers!

[Semaryiab]

36642

As much as I'd love to voiceact, I can't do women either. I will, however, be sure to listen in if you get the project off the ground. Best of luck in your endeavour!

[Ghost-091]

I love the feeling in this chapter. I've never had to experience it, but I can't imagine that there is a worse feeling for an officer than not knowing if your subordinates are still alive while behind enemy lines and that you left them behind. That's the curse of being an Officer. They have to make the calls that no one wants to make, and if that means you have to leave men behind to save the lives of the rest of your command, then that's the call you have to make. As the saying goes, "Honor the dead, but fight like Hell for the living."

I have to say this, I've kinda grown attached to the Flight Officers, Fly-boys as they are (I got family in the USAF, I've earned the right to make that joke). If I was there, damn the consequences, I'd be out there with Clanky. I will never leave someone, dead or alive, behind by choice. If I'm ever forced to, I'm not going to leave them there and may God have mercy on any OPFOR who stands in my way, because I won't.

PS: Hooah, Marine! From a soldier in the US Army.