It's a bird, it's a pegasus, it's heading this way!
CHAPTER 2: It's a bird, it's a Pegasus, it's heading this way!
Struggle was practically glued against the window. Something felt off. It might have been the forest they were flying over, what with its gnarled branches and the oddity of a few things glowing in the underbrush. The longer they flew, the stronger the gnawing feeling in the back of his mind - a hunch, if you will, that whatever they were flying over wasn't...right.
None of the trees were species he recognized; that castle they had passed, while inconspicuous enough, was in a state of disrepair that would be a black mark on any respectable preservation society. The other problem was he had been to enough castles in Europe to know that huge crowds were always present for such landmarks, and they were kept as pristine as possible. So why the lack of any discernable presence?
It wasn't until they sailed over an apple orchard that the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Only then did he truly realize his feeling might hold any merit. It was quick, far too abrupt for him to verify what he saw. But he could have sworn he saw a red horse, sheltered underneath an apple tree. The trees were a common sight for the thirty seconds they sailed overhead, but yet again something was off. He had flown over plenty of orchards before, and they were always positioned in nice neat rows, but this orchard’s arrangement seemed random. What would possess any professional farmer to adopt such a pattern? Sure, he could see the merit in root space, but it would be a nightmare in terms of irrigation. It wasn't until the 'comms' squelched to life that he was broken from his ruminations.
"Load, Pilot. There appears to be a town ahead. I'm going to bring us into an orbit to get a better look."
Struggle watched the scenery flow by as he waited to get a glimpse of the town Chaos mentioned. It was slow going for the most part until he heard a squeal, signifying an addition to his comm net. He turned away from the window for only a second to see who it was. The Nav stood behind him on a pigtail cord in the crew rest compartment, trying to look over his shoulder through the window. With the Nav on the isolation net, he could talk without the rest of the crew hearing.
"What's it look like out there? Anything to indicate where we are?" asked Papa Hotel.
"Nothing I've been able to recognize. Also, I'm not familiar with any island in the Atlantic that grows apple trees. But that's neither here nor there. Why aren't you at your station, and why didn't you check off comms?" replied Struggle.
"Had to take a piss. Besides, I can't figure out why my equipment isn't working."
"Cool story, but you know how Chaos is about comm procedures. Also, if your equipment isn't working, you should probably get back to your station to figure it out."
"What's your problem? I'm just stretching my legs, after all."
"Well, you're distracting me, so beat it," Struggle said before returning to look out the window.
"Well, fuck you too." A second later another squeal informed Struggle that the Nav had left the net. Normally Struggle wasn't confrontational; in fact, he could be considered the definition of laid-back to the point of being a doormat. But he was on edge, as his sixth sense screamed at him.
"Load, I've brought us into an orbit. In about thirty seconds, you'll be able to see the town....I only caught a glimpse, but I don't know, something seems off."
Struggle waited patiently as it slowly came into view, his eyes darting back and forth, searching for anything out of place. It seemed normal for awhile until it dawned on him.
Something important was missing, something that even the most backwards of countries he'd been to sported. There were no vehicles, not a single one. On the latter part of the orbit, he did see train tracks, although there was no locomotive he could spot. After that, he lost sight of the town till the orbit brought them back around.
With the lack of vehicles in mind, he paid more attention to the dirt roads snaking through the town. He had paid little thought to moving figures after the time he was flicked off by that kid on a bicycle on a training line. But now his disregard for animate objects screamed for attention, since even at this altitude he could make out a difference. The beings below scrambling in an a attempt to get indoors at their arrival was nothing new; what was, was that they didn't appear human. Perhaps in their scurrying they did, but not in their shape.
He had flown over all different types of animals: sheep, goats, camels, cows, even horses. The figures below were clearly quadrupedal, but even the largest of familiar herds barely paid mind to an aircraft's presence. So it was a complete shock to see animals acting in such a manner, almost as if they were sapient.
"Struggle, you see anything out of the ordinary?" the pilot asked.
"That depends, Pilot. Do you consider the lack of vehicles, and animals reacting as people do abnormal?"
"Come again, Load, I must have misheard what you said as crazy."
"Well, I would too, but a lot of small things are adding up to only one conclusion."
"And that would be?"
"That I don't think we are in Kansas anymore. It might be time to check out that city under the dome."
"-even now, my minions are chipping away at it," Chrysalis said before chuckling.
"He may not be my husband, but he is under my total control now." Her pronouncement elicited gasps from Twilight and Princess Cadence. "And, I'm sorry to say, unable to perform his duties as Captain of the Royal Guard!"
"Not my Shining Armor!" Cadence exclaimed.
"Orbit established. What are all those black dots surrounding that purple bubble?" Chaos inquired.
As always, the cockpit got a cursory glance at an object before Struggle did. But when it all came into focus as the orbit brought the city into view, he was just as baffled as they were. Hundreds of flying figures bashed repeatedly against the purple dome. That was until they all moved as one, and the dome collapsed. No sooner had it fallen than the black figures descended on the city like green meteorites. Flashes of green and other colors erupted from the streets below. It didn't take a rocket scientist, or a war veteran like Struggle, to understand what was happening. This was a battle, and the greens were on the offensive.
"Well I guess we know why that purple bubble was in place; it was a shield against their invaders." Struggle stated dryly. “Want to get a closer look?”
The sounds of destruction echoed throughout the city. It was just too bad for Mirage that he had sentry duty with his partner Morpheus. They were stationed on the edge of the city in case pony reinforcements arrived. So much love in such close proximity, and yet they were missing out on the feast. Suddenly, Morpheus hit him on the shoulder and pointed to the sky.
“Hey, what is that?” Morpheus asked.
Mirage followed his partner’s hoof to a blob approaching in the distance. He squinted briefly at it before responding. “I don’t know, a bird maybe?”
“You ever see a bird fly that high? I say it’s a Pegasus.” Their brief debate was interrupted by another changeling.
“What are you two knuckleheads looking at?” The voice belonged to their Sergeant, Mystique. She followed their gaze into the sky. “Sweet Chrysalis, what is that thing?” The object in question was still a few thousand feet higher than the city, but it had come within a mile of the outskirts.
“I don’t know, but it sure isn’t a bird, or pegasus, that's for sure.” Mirage replied. “Think we should get the Captain?”
"~This day has been just perfect. The kind of day of which I've dreamed since I was small. Everypony I'll soon control, every stallion, mare and foal. Who says a girl can't really have it all!" Chrysalis sang before chuckling.
Your Highness we may have a problem. A metal construct is flying outside of Canterlot. The psychic link Chrysalis maintained with her Changeling officers was to only be used in a state of emergency. So it was with regret that she divided her attention from her prisoners to respond.
If it is an ally of Celestia's, then deal with it, you foal! Otherwise, make it clear that outsiders are not welcome at this time. Our victory is at hoof, and I do not want any interlopers! Chrysalis mentally commanded.
Your will be done, Your Highness. The changeling officer responded, before grabbing the three changelings and flying out of the perimeter of the city.
Captain Guise was going over Chrysalis’s order in his head.
“What did she say, Captain?” Mirage asked of their commander.
“In not so many words, she said to see if it’s a threat.” Guise replied.
“Your orders, Sir?” Sergeant Mystique asked.
“Alright, here’s the plan, you three will come with me. We’ll see if we can't figure out what it is, before we proceed from there.”
Captain Guise knew one thing: it certainly was loud whatever it was. As Guise drew closer and it came into focus, he realized it was some sort of flying machine. If it weren't for the windows that had given it away, it would have been the unfamiliar flag of red, white, and blue painted on its backside. Its propulsion seemed to be some type of unholy union of a windmill and fire. But it wasn't what was seen that sent shivers down the Captain’s spine. It was common knowledge that all changelings were emotivores, and as such could feel emotions.
What wasn't common knowledge was that they could feel lingering emotions surrounding objects, or those powered by emotions. This thing was unlike any artifact the changelings had. Old sentimental trinkets acquired from the ponies held love, treasure stolen from dragons held envy, Chrysalis even had a object of fear, stolen from Sombra's reign. This flying machine's residual emotions, however, were something new; a plethora of residual emotions surrounded it. More unsettling was that it felt as if a thousand souls had passed through it, each leaving their own unique mark on it. Where had this thing been, and what had the occupants seen to leave behind such strong residual feelings?
Captain Guise shook his head to clear the fog. It was currently about a thousand hooves above them. Taking the opportunity as it once again circled away from the city, he decided now was the time to relay his commands.
"Sergeant Mystique, I will fire a warning shot when it gets close again. You keep an offensive spell charged just in case it takes offense. Mirage and Morpheus, prepare a teleportation spell, and shield spell respectively." When they nodded, he turned back to the craft, charging his fire spell.
When it drew to its closest to them, he shot just below its massive form. The result was immediate and unexpected: the machine seemed to burst into flame, blinding them and causing Mystique to release her spell, before a shield and teleport went off.
Struggle had lost sight of the city and its conflict for near a minute, when he heard the tone go off, before a set of flares dispensed. But when their orbit finally brought it back into view, he was immediately greeted by a streak of green zipping towards the aircraft. He immediately hit the call button, silencing all other comm channels, and making him louder.
"Break right, break right, Triple A, three o'clock!" It was too late, however, as the stream of green tore through the right fuselage of the aircraft, rocking the mighty war bird and eliciting a cry of agony from the Nav in the Battle Management Center. He waited for another until it was obvious that there would be no encore, before deciding to cue the flight deck into the situation.
"Roll out, Pilot! Get us some distance from that city. Hostiles were using some type of anti-aircraft artillery." Struggle commanded.
"What happened, Load, are we hit?" Chaos responded.
"Yes sir, requesting 5 miles out call. After that, requesting check-off for battle damage assessment. Nav, I heard you scream, are you okay?"
"..."
"Eng, can you take over scanning? I think the Nav might be injured." It wasn't the Engineer, Story-Time, who responded however.
"Cleared off, Load, keep me abreast of the situation." responded the pilot.
Disconnecting from comms, Struggle was greeted by a world of muffled silence. Sure he could hear the roar of the engines, but little else. Time being of the essence in an evolving situation, he stumbled about the rocking aircraft that was presumably still being engaged by their new enemy. Once out of the Crew rest compartment, he grabbed his rolled up long comm cord and plugged in.
“Loads up.”
Even through the evasive maneuvers, he managed to make his way back to the battle management center. He stepped through the forward door to the small compartment. What he saw was unsettling: a thin gash ran down the fuselage, revealing a sliver of the outside world. All the while, a small fire raged, and hydraulic fluid spewed everywhere. And there slumped over in his seat, screaming in pain, was the Nav. Taking care to avoid the debris, he made his way around the booth to him.
Well no wonder we couldn't hear him afterwards; his comm box took a lucky hit. He couldn't tell exactly where Papa had been hit, but it was pretty obvious by the way he cradled his arm protectively over his side. He patted him firmly on the back to draw his attention.
The man flinched slightly under the touch before slowly turning to face him. Struggle grabbed his arm and moved it from his side despite Papa's protest. As he kneeled down to get a better look, he sighed in relief at what he saw. Underneath the singed uniform was about a quarter-inch gash that ran all the way across the top of his hip bone in the small layer of fat on the man. Sure, it looked like a third degree burn, and he was sure it hurt like all hell. But all things considered, it was relatively minor.
As he stood back up, he grabbed the right side of the Nav's headset to move it away to speak with him.
"COME ON! LET'S GET YOU TO THE CREW REST COMPARTMENT!" He had yelled as loud as he could, hopefully enough to cut through the noise and draw the man out of his pain. The Nav's only response, however, was a slow nod.
“The Nav is injured; it’s superficial but probably extremely painful. I’m taking him to the Crew rest compartment. I’ll give you a situation update afterwards.”
As the four assembled changelings watched the craft fly away, most of them felt an immense sense of dread. The first person to speak was the Captain.
“Well, Queen Chrysalis isn’t going to like this…”
“Does she really need to know? I'm sure she'll just be happy that it left.” Mirage said.
“I wasn't referring to us accidently hitting the thing..."
Twilight snuck her way to Cadence while the Queen was distracted.
"Quick, go to him while you still have the chance," she whispered, before using a spell to free Cadence from the goo on her hooves.
It had been slow going getting the Nav farther up-front, but now that he was safely out of the way, Struggle could get to work. It had taken two fire extinguishers to take down all the small fires in the booth.
"How does it look back there, Load?" Chaos asked.
"Not as bad as it could have been. We've lost the booster hydraulic system. It looks like the gun deck armor managed to catch most of it, and what it did cut through is mostly dead space from what I can tell. We're lucky it missed the liquid oxygen tank or we would all be cinders right now. I'm about to start my exterior inspection, just let me get back up to the window. Also, can you open up the overhead hatch on the flight deck, to try and vent this smoke out."
"Copy, Eng is on it, Load." Within a few moments, the flow of air barreled through, carrying all the smoke and irritants from the fire bottles with it.
As he got back to his window, he exchanged a quick glance with the pained Nav. Just let me finish up, buddy, then we can see about getting you some bandages. He sat down, ready to do a scan of the engines and wing but stopped as something grabbed his attention.Huh, looks like they got their shield back up....oh shit, oh shit it's heading this way! He watched in awed terror as it expanded carrying black specks in its wake that were steadily growing larger with it.
His voice caught in his throat as he tried and failed to the warn the crew of their impending doom. Where he failed, the Co-Pilot didn’t.
“Brace for impact!” Struggle didn’t need to be told, as he had already curled up with his eyes screwed shut, waiting for the impending collision…The plane shook violently for a second, and a weird sensation seemed to pass through him, but that was it.
Daring to chance fate, he opened his eyes, only to see that, yes, he was still alive. He sighed in relief as he righted himself in the seat, remembering that he still had to scan the exterior of the plane. But when he turned to the window, what he saw made him lose faith in his sanity.
There, comically plastered up against the window was a bug-esque horse, slowly sliding down the window, making a barely audible squeaking noise as it went, before finally falling off altogether to the world below.
“Wha...I don’t even….jus’ how?” He was trying to reconcile the insanity of what he just saw, totally disregarding the fact of how fast the thing must have been flying when it hit the aircraft. He had been flying long enough to know what happens to birds when they hit an aircraft: lots of pink mist and feathers. Deciding to chalk it up to a stress-induced delusion, he started to scan the wing. What he saw wasn’t promising. Smoke was trailing from the number 3 engine, which must have been hit in the attack as well.
“Crew, Load. Engine three is smoking. I can’t see any fire, but it might be smart to shut ‘er down.” Struggle said.
“Shit, we’re too damned heavy to shut an engine down right now. You think it can make it to landing?” the Pilot asked. Struggle was about to respond when the Eng cut him off.
“Indications on engine three are still nominal. I’m fine with keeping it.” Struggle didn’t like it, but the Eng was the expert on those systems.
“Well, let's not chance it. Let's start looking for a spot to land,” the pilot said. But as Struggle scanned the terrain below, their prospects of potential runways were small. In fact, they were currently at zero. Everywhere he looked, there was either a tree line, a creek, or some other obstacle which spelled disaster. It wasn’t until he remembered the town that he got a bit of hope.
“Pilot, Load. Can you bring us closer to that town we passed? Their railroad tracks might have been landscaped enough to provide a decent runway running parallel.” Struggle said.
Celestia grabbed Twilight’s hoof as she forced herself onto her own.
“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine.” She smiled down to her student before continuing. “You have a real wedding to put together.” Twilight smiled back, stating her worry before finally corralling her friends to put the wedding of the century back on track.
As her student and friends departed, Celestia decided now would be a great time to get a breath of fresh air.
What a day. She thought to herself as she stepped onto the balcony. She scanned the scene below, noting the ponies who were assisting their fellow Equine, cleaning up debris, and casually disregarding the severity of the day’s events. It would take a week or so, but her little ponies would get on with their lives. She admired their strength, and she would remember today’s events long after they had been forgotten. The burden of a leader, she supposed. It wasn’t until she checked the position of her Sun that she noted the presence of anything concerning.
In the distance, a small figure sailed through the sky, leaving a distinct smoke trail in its wake. It seemed to be retreating in the direction of Ponyville, a worrying development indeed. She thought after today’s events that she might be able to catch a breather, but duty called, and she knew she would have to answer.
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Haven't read fic, but what happens when they run out of fuel? x3
A-10 is sexiest. A pox on people who say it's ugly and double-pox on Congress for trying to replace them.
Ayyy! An AC-130 fic set during the changeling invasion that doesn't involve the changelings on the receiving end of some dakka? Count me in!
7069727 Who knows? In the words of Ron White, running out of fuel would equal this. "All the way to the scene of the crash." But in all seriousness I've got plans. Mad, deranged awesome plans for this fic, you'll just have to stay tuned lol.
7069727 They get out and push the plane, my good man!
I really am enjoying this and I can't wait for more to read. Keep it up
7069745 Of course! I'm going for realism first and foremost. Standing operating procedures for all troops including aircraft is that if you can exit a engagement, that should be the course of action. Self defense is authorized but withdrawal is highly encouraged if able. Also I don't know if I touched on it enough, but this isn't a full crew. They have 5 out of the 13 people required to operate the aircraft, while in a pinch they could surely make do it wouldn't be smart to operate at such a deficiency.
7069744 I love the A-10, I've worked with them dozens of times. However they do seem to steal a lot of the spotlight from the other close air support platforms.
7069778 Just have Pinkie attach a shit load of balloons
"They penetrated our armor!" (World of Tanks)
7069790
No joke, in this one fic the soldiers in the plane see Canterlot under siege and start raining down hellfire...
It was not a very long fic.
Sooooooooo, why is it rated mature then?
I know 2 more WOT references in this chapter...
7069792 The visual I got was comical but also a little depressing.
7069799 Never played it. I guess I'm just that good. I can make references without referencing anything.
7069818 Eh. That will come into play in later chapters, it has nothing to do with anything planned within this fic. Rather it will deal with the past's of our protagonists', nothing overly angsty though.
I am definitely liking the way you are approaching this, although I do have two issues I want to bring up.
First is a technical issue with the way you mention the crew loosing sight of something on the ground while the aircraft is orbiting. The whole point of that maneuver is that it lets them keep their guns trained on a single point on the ground so they can rain continuous fire on a target until they run out of fuel or ammo, so they should never loose sight of a target on the ground as they are orbiting. You ran into this issue both over Ponyville and Canterlot and it really bothered me because it completely violates the core operational concept of the gunship.
Second is the way the changelings behaved. There was no reason for them to attack the gunship based on its actions, and Chrysalis's orders required them to figure out what it is before they could decide on a course of action. They really should have flown up to investigate it before doing anything else which would have led to a very different confrontation, although I doubt things would have played out all that differently because I cannot see the crew opening a door to let the changelings in. They would have either pulled away when they saw the changelings flying up towards them (because they absolutely would have seen that in a proper orbit) to avoid a confrontation, or looked at each other through the window for a bit until one side or the other decided to leave (or the shield bomb happened while Chrysalis was distracted trying to figure out what was going on). As is, the changelings just feel like the generic stupidity you explicitly said you were trying to avoid in the description which is extremely disappointing because I was really hoping you would do something interesting with cautious, rational diplomacy here rather than just throwing a slightly less awful coat of paint on the usual smash the baddies stupidity.
Anyways, it is looking good outside those two issues and I am definitely curious to see where it goes because you do seem to be generally on the ball with this, although it is too early for me to make a judgement on a thumb at this point.
7049247 Not gonna lie, that would be awesome.
7051560 You missed one C-130/AC-130 typo:
7069790 To be perfectly fair, there isn't usually much left to do after the A-10 shows up so of course it steals the attention.
More seriously, it is really not all that surprising because the A-10 is the only aircraft in service explicitly built as a dedicated ground attack airplane so of course it is better at the job than its competitors. The AC-130 is really the only serious alternative in the realm of fixed wing aircraft (helicopters are different enough that there really isn't a direct comparison between the two), but there are a lot more A-10s and they can fly in much more dangerous airspace than the converted cargo birds so it is not surprising that the AC-130 is generally seen as a runner up to the A-10.
Ticer's nickname could be Mr. T.
7069992 Have someone fire a warning shot, only they accidentally hit and get chewed out for it. Stupidity problem mostly solved.
You have my attention. Followed.
7069992 I'm very happy to hear that. It is far too often that I get grouched at for those kinds of comments so it is great to see that you appreciate them as the chance to learn and grow that they are.
For the first one, I'm not intimately familiar with the inner workings of the AC-130, but I would think that they could at least move the naviguesser to the TV station temporarily to get a better view of the area in a pylon turn because the pilot can do that without his help. Still, I can definitely see the interior layout making that infeasible depending on how hard it is to move around the aircraft and operate those systems untrained so I'll have to take your word on this one.
For the second, I don't think the timing is really all that tight. There is a fair amount of implied travel time with the girls going to the element chamber and getting dragged back in addition to the time spent talking and fighting so you should have at least 10 minutes of story time to work with, and I think 15 to 20 is a more realistic estimate. Now, you do loose about 5 to 10 minutes of that with the changelings getting into position and talking to each other, but that still gives a good 5 to 10 minutes for the interception and interaction. That is still not a lot of time, but it does at least give them time to intercept the plane and ponder it for a minute before the spell goes off. Thinking about it, I think the timing actually works perfectly to make them reporting what they are seeing be what distracts Chrysalis to let Cadence and Shiny light up their spell to throw the changelings out of the city. It does not change a lot because there is still no real conversation between the two sides, but it keeps the changelings from being stupid and gives a nice reason for Chrysalis not paying attention to the prisoners.
Alternatively, you could just have the crew see the changelings coming up to them and decide that they don't want to risk letting them get close so they pull away early. That actually takes less time than what you wrote because they start leaving earlier, and the changelings don't really wind up doing anything besides reporting what happened because the gunship left on its own before they could figure out what it was.
As for the last part, I understand exactly where you are coming from, but it is a case that could be confusing to people that don't know airplanes which is why I pointed it out.
That poor changebug. At least cartoon-physics seem to be in full effect and he'll have a story for the grand-nymphs...
That was a rather calm start to a "humans in Equestria" story than any I've read, especially since said humans are staffing one of the most powerful airships in the modern age.
Love it! The only concern I have is that the crew, like in every other 'vehicle+crew in equestria' fic, will be complete pushovers and immediately help Equestria in a war because 'it's the right thing to do'.
7070485 I don't think that's the way it's going to play out, he specifically stated that he wants to go for a more diplomatic approach. Also, if he sticks to the show canon, there's no war coming up at all.
7069872 referencing Major Oldes? Liked for knowing who he is!
Worse case, theyll have to land straddeling the line, but that is a true last ditch attempt as even keeping the nose up as best they can, those ties lie on top of the gravel base and it going to wreck hell out the nose.
At least they have something to be thankful of.
Theyre not wearing desert pink.
I can just see them staggering out of the carcass now, Pinkie Pie bouncing around singing Puff The Magic Dragon.
7071997
I forgot to ask before, this isnt the version with the turbojet pods for take off boosting, but still has the classic nose down level flight behaviour?
Just be glad these guys aint in the same AU as my OC.
I think a 65 foot span fixed wing cargo craft with one horsepower propulsion would give them the Mr Wibbles.
And you should see what I came up with for the Mane 6 and Gilda.
Hint.
J for Joker.
Still enjoying this. Please keep it up. If you have to choose between boring and realistic versus not boring and implausible, go with the boring and realistic. Seriously, we have more of the latter stories on this site.
7071997 Cool, I'm looking forward to seeing how you fix it.
As for the nav, I just kinda picked him because he seemed to be doing the least while orbiting. That said, the startup procedures you mentioned would be a problem, especially because they don't have someone that is used to them so it would probably take them far too long to get those sensors up and running to be worth it. Of course, they do still have the tried and true standby of looking out the side of the canopy as they orbit, although they were probably using one of the forward navigational sensors to help out which kills that idea.
Also, I just had an odd question. Do they have any ammo on board? It is just a ferry run after all and they didn't bother bringing a full crew with them so it is entirely possible that they left the magazines empty to save weight. After all, there will almost certainly be massive stockpiles wherever they are going and they are certainly not doing any fighting on the way there so there is really no reason to carry it and a number of good reasons not to.
7073289 Oh god...I'm now picturing an Equestrian Homeland Security. Thanks for that, also yeah it won't be standard one pony goes to greet human cliché. Some of what you mentioned certainly will be part of initial character clashes, but I've already worked out my own diplomatic solution in my head.
Since the changeling invasion just ended, this brings up a key question: Are the comics going to be a part of this? (I have not read the comics myself, but I do know that the first arc revolves around the changelings in some way.)
7073616 You don't capture members of a military of an unknown nation with unknown capabilities (magic on one side, airplane on the other) or try to bully them in any way. You talk with them politely and respectfully without trying to force them to do anything they are unwilling to do to make sure you don't start a war. That said, the rest of what you said is very sensible because you have to take things slow and work out a good solution that complies with the laws of both sides as much as possible. Equestria has rights to their own airspace and laws governing its use which must be respected, but at the same time the airplane is the property of the United States Air Force so it cannot be impounded. This is very much a special case and needs to be treated as such, but that mostly means things like taking its US certifications at face value to speed up the registration process or Princess Celestia personally granting special waivers on the Equestrian side and the aircrew being tolerant of delays on the American side.
Well, nicely done. It's not often a war story this well-worked comes along. I wouldn't worry about the pacing too much, you did do well. Perhaps the initial parts could have been stretched a bit, but it's fine for what it is.
A couple things on the side. Firstly, what did you think specifically on writing 'a more realistic view'? Course I see you mean to go against the killing-spree, just asking for more details. There is another point to the characters, but I'll get back to them after an answer's given to the first part; it's more advice really. But yea, pretty well done work mate.
7075836 Exactly. Be polite, be patient, be cooperative, and respect the other side's position and everything will work out fine in the end. Getting there might be a bit awkward, but it will work out well enough so long as both sides are at least reasonably diplomatic about things which sounds like it will be the case here.
7076016
Nah, wasn't nitpicking, just curious. Only other time I've read a story make the 'more realistic' claim turned out to be more insulting than that, but it doesn't seem to be a problem here. Just don't fret or get too terribly strict; realism as far as it goes is only as real as it's made to be, or at least what others claim it to be. But basically remember you are in a kind of crazy magical world, so normal and realistic is already a far cry. How realistic can it be when you're in a magical world, you know? Not to say you shouldn't be, just don't hold yourself back.
To the characters it was just advice rather than criticism. I think people forget a main hook in war stories is good characters. When much of the theme in the threat of death and killing are paramount and a constant, even in a held-back story like this, it makes for a greater connection and suspense. That seems to be the key. So yea, just make good characters; give quirks and opinions and backgrounds and such. But you've already done a good job starting that, so just keep it up and expand on it over time.
7069907
Yea, with things like the A-10 and the AC-130 it shows the difference in strategy and role. The 130 was built out of a test in Vietnam to focus on loiter time and ground support, so it works best in counter-insurgent conflicts like today. The Thunderbolt was built with the intention of countering Soviet armor columns in high-intensity conflicts, which is what WW3 was predicted to be, especially in Germany. Good thing is they do well at the opposite roles, too, which is the kind of flexibility that's vital in air warfare.
tis good so far keep up the good work
This is going into my faves, I love it so far. Let's hope Celly doesn't immediately go for a solar death beam on the poor guys.
7076624 Yeah, that ability to operate well outside their intended operating role is what makes them such fantastic aircraft. They both happily take on and excel at all kinds of work they were never designed to do in addition to their superb performance in their intended roles which is just fantastic.
Please continue this. I always have a bad habit of picking up HiE stories that are uber good, but either the releases are years apart, or on hiatus.
7079721 Haha thanks, and no worries on that front I'm committed to seeing this fic through.
7077976 Those always get me, thanks the error has been dealt with.
7076800 Or she could just drop the sun on those fools. Maybe I'll make a non-cannon chapter about being 'Blinded by the Light'.
7079843 this idea has the Oroboros Seal of Approval.
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I like the edits.
What was that tone before the flares? Would it react to changling magic? Also I think I like those guys. The changelings. I hope they get through your story ok. :)
7085613 The flares were automatic, any untypical source of heat can be picked up by a special sensor to trigger automatic dispense of flares. The tone was the notification to the crew that the computer detected such a heat source(in this case a changeling fire spell).
I love the story so far and I wait for the next chapter.
Yay! Moar moar moar :) if u dont mind, that is..
Typo
for a while
7070345 I think we can guess what eventually happened to that particular changeling.
7069744
aye, the warthog is a beautiful lass