The Aces

by Blackout

The Beginning

A stallion enters a room with all the lights shut off. He walks up to the podium in front of a congregation of talking ponies and calls for their attention. The room quiets down as he opens the folder in front of him marked with a classified stamp. The fact that this was on the folder always seemed funny to him. Every operation he carried out was classified. It seemed obvious to everypony that if it had to do with war, it was a secret.

"Alright, as you may or may not know, the gargoyles have set up a jamming device in the mountains. This compound is holding equipment that is disrupting our communications and most of the electronics in a two hundred mile radius." He had dealt with gargoyles before. They started out by taking over a few small territories not far from Equestria but they ran out of luck when they tried to move into the kingdom. Despite their past victories, they were primitive and never stood a chance against the Royal Army or the Guard.

"Our job is to go to the mountain, destroy the jammer, and its operators. We are heading out at 0800 tomorrow so get some sleep and be ready for a hike. Dismissed."

The chatter started up again as the briefing room emptied and the stallion headed back to his room. The pony's name was Blackout, he is a pegasis that lead the best branch of the Royal Military: the Royal Elite, but they've gained the name the "Aces" amongst the Army boys. He had a jetblack mane and tail and dark grey fur. His mane was spikey and pointed foreward causing it to jut out slightly past his face. He had emerald green eyes and always wore a now dated M1 helmet with a net over it. "One size fits all" they said, it still seemed a bit loose but it never falls off. His body size is second only to Celestia herself but his real pride is his wings. He had one of the largest, most powerful set of wings in Equestria. Celestia may have bigger wings but lack of day to day use has made them weaker than the wings of athlete flyier. He, on the other hand, worked his wings daily on missions plus he took his time to train them to make sure they stay the way they are. The only pony that out did his speed was Mig.

Mig was Blackout's best friend and second in command. They first met when the both of them came up with a scheme to bust out of a prison considered to be inescapable. He remember that day to the last detail, the eight step plan, the sacrifice the prisoners made, and the leadership of the pegasis that faught by his side through the entire ordeal. But what really impressed him was the pony's speed. He was the only pony Blackout knew to have ever pulled off a sonic rainboom. Despite his smaller wingspan, he was MUCH faster than Blackout. Mig's wings were stronger than his and Mig was smaller than him. Even if only by a little, Mig still had areodynamic superiority over Blackout. Mig sported a dark brown mane and light brown fur. He wore an Ushanka with goggles attached to them and had sky blue eyes. His mane was short and pointed up and away from his forehead. Despite the history of his ethnicity being associated with drinking and simplicity he was a geneous. Which would also describe the final member of the group, Gear Head.

Gear Head was the youngest of the group and as his name implies, he was a gearhead. Blackout recruted him when the need for armored ground transport rised. A call to everypony who invented anything close to what they needed was sent out, and that's when he showed up. First thing he did was bring in a prototype of what would now be a steam engine. They had never seen anything like it but when he fired it up, the eggheads lit up like Manehattan's Time Square. The fact that this pony had been making things like this already excited everypony. He was instantly appointed head of enginering and when he showed promise on the battle field, Blackout recruted him. He was average sized with an Irish accent. He had green fur and a messy blond mane that stuck out from under his blue cap, which had a headset around it that he used for his radio set. With him, we managed to put together one of the top military weapons today, a gun. He also managed to perfect long range, portable radios, cars, and computors. But the most impressive project was his pride and joy, the helicarrier. It was a massive flying structure that was kept aloft by four massive propellers and engines. This served as the Aces base of operations. Though it wasn't made with stealth in mind, it had everything they needed. Plus it didn't need to be stealthy if it could reach hieghts only the strongest fliers could reach.

"Why do we have to fight with the Army." Gear Head griped, "I thought we were on a mission, not babysitn'."

"I guess the princess wanted to have an equal share of the action" answed Blackout, "Just try your best to put up with them."

"I'll try, but I can tell you now, I won't like it." He retorted before going to sleep. As much as the Colonel tried to tell himself the same thing, Gear was right. He couldn't stand how slow they were, but it wasn't there fault. They had no experiance seeing how his team takes every operation that comes up. The reason why his team was created was to keep war a secret. Equestrians have been living in peace for over 1,000 years as far as they know. If the princess wants to deal with something quietly, she comes to the Aces.

"Why are we hiking up this mountain again, we are all pegasis, you know?" Blackout hears one of the greenhorns complain as he led the platoon up the mountain.

"Well first, if we fly, we'll be detected, and second, this is a big mountain, near the top the air thins and more power is needed to stay in the air, plus you'll pass out. Oh and Gear Head isn't a pegasis."

"Oh." was the only thing the ignorant soldier could say. Blackout was bothered that he didn't know this. These types of things should taught in training, but there was no time to teach them. Most of the troops are sent right to the areas that the gargoyels normaly attack. He could feel the air thinning and ice was starting to form on his cold weather clothing. It provided balistics protection, camoflage, and personal shelter from the cold, up to -60 Fahrenheit. They finaly reached the peak, nothing.

"What the hay, there's nothing here!" the Colonel heard a soldier shout.

"If this was a drill then I'm goin' AWOL." another pony said.

"Calm down, this is just our rally point." Blackout explained.

"Well were's the compound?"

"Its over there."

He points to a drop off and most of the ponies move near the edge to get a look. It was on a ledge about one hundred yards down the slope. It had a concrete building in the middle with a dish on top, which was transmitting the signals that were messing with their comms. It had few small barracks around them and the entire facility was surrounded by fifteen foot tall walls, and to top it off, the gate had two towers guarding it, and a tower at each corner of the wall. The gate was facing away from the direction the "team" came. It was facing a path down the other side of the mountain. Though this path would have been easier, the group would have baisically been walking up the mountain to meet a group of cannon barrels pointed at their heads. The gargoyels didn't have actual guns. They could make cannons but thats it, which is why he found them easy to kill.

"So what do we do, go down there and bust a hole in the wall?"

"No, we post a few snipers on this ridge, then we go down and bust a hole in the wall. Hey you." Blackout pulled a soldier over to him, "Get the sniper team over here."

"Yes, sir."

The kid came back with a group of six ponies, each holding a gun larger than his.

"Sir, Corporal Quick Scope of the fourth sniper divi..."

"Cool story." Blackout cut him off. "I need you and your men to line up on the ridge so that each sniper has a view of every tower."

"Yes, sir."

"When I give the signal, your team will take out the cannon operators, got it?"

"Yes, sir, what's the signal?"

"When you hear a boom, after that you open fire, when were inside all hostile targets are fair game."

"Understood."

"Assualt team, on me." he shouted, "We're heading down the cliff to the compound, stay quiet until the wall is blown, then we storm the compound. Stay out of sight, if were caught, it'll only get harder."

He lead the platoon down the cliff in three groups. One led by him, another by Mig, and the other by Gear Head. The plan was to flank the compound, having one team destroy the barracks, one team provide support, and another to draw most of the fire. Unfortunatly, his team was the bait. He would set off the first explosion and by the time he was surrounded, two more would go off, simple as that right? They made it to the wall, the side facing the cliff, and attached the explosives to it. It was something Gear had come up with, said it was a plastic explosive, only way to detonate it was by a chemical reaction that set off via radio signal, which helped him with staying calm considering he had over a pound of the stuff on his back. He had waited a while to make sure that everypony was in position, not having any comms was pretty difficult but only posed as a minor detour. Taking a deep breath, Blackout slowly squeezed the detonator.

BOOM

Comments

[MrMusicalPony]

3 Out of 5. I never give a rating under 4 without a reason, for constructive criticism sake.

Everything is fine.

2nd person is not. 2nd person takes away the ability to really understand the character.