The Element of Loyalty
Rainbow Dash raced out of the makeshift cloud barracks. “We’re up! We’re up! Move!” The pegasus tugged one of her wingstraps tight with her teeth as she galloped. The metal feathers flared as the enchantment locked in place. She gave it a test flap, and the sharpened feathers sang in the brisk air.
Her wing itched.
It always itched, even in her sleep. Rainbow loved cloud beds as much as any pegasus, and her damn wing always itched during the night. She imagined it itched even when it wasn’t attached to her stumpy wing joint.
Phantom pain. Stupid, Rainbow huffed. The other pilots flapped their wings across the lumpy clouds, flying low towards the parked planes. The fighters had been enchanted and the clouds reinforced, but they still sagged into the soft cumulus. Traditional take-off would be a pain in the flank.
Rainbow’s flight suit chafed around her tail. The rainbow contrail twisted wildly in the wind. I get why Flurry just cut the damn thing off. She slowed and tugged on the jumpsuit’s zipper with her teeth as she approached the airfield.
Rainbow didn’t slow to look at Cloudsdale. She didn’t need to look at it anymore; she had seen enough scraping the poor airfield together from the ruins of her home. The only thing left of the best pegasus city in Equestria was her shitty Airstrip One with thousands of fighters parked high in the sky.
The wind blew strong gales against the anchored cumulus, held together by flight magic. Cloudsdale was always cold. Pegasi could endure the cold, and some even enjoyed it, but the griffons peeling off towards their planes all wore stuffed leather jackets.
Damn those look cool, Rainbow huffed into the air.
Misty Fly flapped up towards her from the airfield, flying from the planes. “Everyone’s fueled and ready!” The old Wonderbolt saluted around her headphones. “Good luck, Air Marshal! High Flying!”
“Get the crews ready to drop!” Rainbow shouted as she flew by. “We’re dropping, everypony!”
Nopony responded verbally. The air wings broke off into their groups and flew towards the parked aircraft. Rainbow found her plane easily. For once, it was properly painted with her colors. Rainbow finally bit the bit and asked for help.
It didn’t quite hide the boxy quality of a late Changeling fighter. None of the repurposed planes looked right without the gunmetal black of the Hegemony. They had been painted sloppily with dazzling colors to tell at a glance which ones were friendly.
Damn birds better not be colorblind. Aren’t dogs colorblind? Rainbow landed on the left wing and wiped her natural feathers across the canopy. The glass was slick with frost.
“Good hunting, everypony!” Rainbow screamed at the surrounding pilots. The pegasi flew low and clambered up onto their planes. Most were wearing brown or blue flight suits.
“Good hunting, Air Marshal!” several screamed back. The Nova Griffonians had split off to their own air wings, borrowed from the coastline in the north. The Nova Griffonian fighters, basic brown, stuck out like claws amongst the smoothed clouds.
Rainbow pulled the latch and slid the canopy back, climbing into the cockpit and laying down on the seat. Tugging the flight cap over her cut-down mohawk, the pegasus tapped her fetlock against the communication crystal. “Everypony, fire up your engines. Nova Griffs, remember the test drops. We don’t have time for airstrip launches.”
“Flight crew is in position,” Misty’s voice crackled. “On your command, Air Marshal.”
Rainbow kicked the lever to start the engine with a rear hoof. She tested the stick and grimaced again at the stiff controls. Damn bugs can’t even build a good plane. The engine roared to life.
She lifted her flight cap to stare through the windshield at the spinning propeller, reaching over and testing the flaps and rudder. The planes directly beside her hummed. “Air wings report in,” the pegasus rasped into her mic.
“Violet ready.”
“Red ready.”
“Green reporting.”
“Orange good to go.”
“Blue reporting.”
“Indigo ready.”
Rainbow looked around at the surrounding planes. The pilots had started their engines and closed their canopies, idling atop the clouds. “Yellow,” she said, “ready to launch.” She twisted the lever and the landing gear retracted.
The Changeling fighter shuddered as it rested awkwardly on the cloud. The spinning propeller sank into the cloud slightly, slicing the soft texture apart. The plane slowly began to tilt forward into the cloud from the weight of the engine.
Her wingmates copied her. All across Airstrip One, the planes began to sink into the gathered cloud, falling forward. Nova Griffs better not choke, Rainbow thought. The Nova Griffonians didn’t have experience launching from a cloud-carrier. The test drops from the past weeks had been promising, but this was the first time all the air wings were launching simultaneously.
“Flight crew, begin the drop,” Rainbow stated.
The pegasi on the edges of Airstrip One began to pull apart the clouds in segments. As it lost structural integrity, the interior weakened in specific areas and the magic keeping the aircraft atop the clouds failed. Rainbow felt the fighter shudder as it sank nose-first into the clouds. The propeller continued to slice away the cumulus.
“Violet is away!” Misty Fly’s voice crackled over the headset. Rainbow craned her neck to the high cloud buzzing with pegasi above the airstrip. They coordinated the breakup of Airstrip One so each air wing launched alone.
“Indigo is away!”
Yellow went last on purpose, Rainbow reminded herself. “Head to your zones,” she called into the mic. The pegasus bent her foreleg to adjust the end of the microphone so it didn’t press against her lower lip. “Avoid Canterhorn and the Celestial Plain, Indigo. You’re closest to the front.”
“Acknowledged, Air Marshal,” a Nova Griffonian replied.
Spits said I was too temperamental to lead the ‘bolts, Rainbow snorted. She was leading far more than that now. She had to. Rainbow's ears flicked under the cap at the sound of thousands of falling engines roaring underneath her before drifting away.
“Red is away!”
Rainbow reached out a hoof to smooth the two pictures taped under the compass.
“Orange is away!”
A pegasus neighed wildly in her ear as she fell. “Orange Leader,” Rainbow snapped, “hold comms! Keep the channel clear!”
“Sorry!” Scootaloo apologized, not sounding sorry at all.
“Being a Wonderbolt Cadet only gets you so far, Scoots,” Rainbow chuckled.
“It got me Orange Leader,” Scootaloo countered with a laugh, “and I got you out of Canterlot. See you in the sky, old mare.”
“Green is away!” Misty Fly broke in again.
Rainbow twisted her head to watch the flight crew set up around the corners of her air wing. The pegasi tensed their hooves against the clouds and pulled a few segments away. The fighter slid downwards and the canopy was completely obscured; the tail and rudder stuck out high above at a ninety-degree angle.
“Blue is away!”
The propeller chopped away the cumulus and made a hole in the bottom of the cloud. The fighter now barely rested on its wings. Rainbow could feel the metal slide slowly down under its own momentum. She had an excellent view of the trees of the Everfree stretching out far below her.
“Blessed Boreas!” a Nova Griffonian screeched. “Damn pegasi are insane! Felt like I tore my tail off!”
“Blue Leader, you never dive bombed before?” Rainbow nickered.
“Not to take off!”
“Good luck, Air Marshal,” Misty Fly interrupted. “Yellow is away.”
The clouds abruptly collapsed and Rainbow’s fighter fell downwards. It happened quickly; there was no resistance from the clouds. The hundreds of fighters tumbled out of the bottom of a collapsing Airstrip One, all nose down in an dive towards the Everfree.
Rainbow adjusted the flaps, letting the fighter gain speed as it fell to the earth. Wind whistled through the propeller. Unlike an Equestrian fighter, the Changeling engine didn’t roar.
Rainbow glanced at one of the pictures. Wish you were here, G.
Gilda had given her an old black-and-white photograph of them together at flight camp. The griffon resembled a puffball more than a proper predator. Gilda was with her own air wing, somewhere above the Celestial Plain. She had given Rainbow the photo as an awkward goodbye, followed by an even more awkward hug. "I'll try to save some for you," she had promised with an attempted grin as the griffon flew away.
The pegasus was surprised her friend kept the photo after all those years. She didn’t remember even taking it. Her father had to have done it during flight camp.
Look at me now, Dad. You’re gone, Mom’s gone, home’s gone.
The planes around her pulled up as the pilots heaved the sticks back and extended the flaps. The fighters struggled to arrest the dive and transfer the momentum into a screaming glide. Rainbow pressed her hoof to the lever, but waited.
She could pick out individual trees in the canopy below her. A Reich supply truck sped along the path cut through the Everfree; the driver stuck his head out the window and looked up at the falling planes. She was still too high up to catch his expression, but he must’ve been dumbfounded.
Every story about Equestria is true, you assholes. Rainbow snarled and pulled the stick back with gritted teeth. The Changeling fighter squealed in protest and the yoke rattled.
Rainbow arrested the dive just above the trees, tearing back up into the sky as the engine sputtered. She waggled her wings at the truck below her and climbed back up towards the rest of her air wing.
“You cut that close, Air Marshal,” a pilot commented.
Rainbow didn’t dignify that with a response. “Proceed to your zones,” the pegasus spat into the mic. “Listen up, we’re on intercept. Radar picked up some high-fliers trying to skirt above the Celestial Plain to hit the supply lines. Shoot those bastards down. If you take critical damage, bail, fly low to Canterhorn and join the defense. Remember the countersign.”
“What’s the countersign again?” a Nova pilot asked.
“Not over the radio,” Rainbow snapped. “Figure it out on the ground and don’t get shot.”
Rainbow banked the fighter and joined the air wing to the northeast of Mount Canterhorn. Tracer fire from anti-air was already filling the sky above Canterlot. The Changeling garrison was clearly determined to prevent another aerial drop, like the last one.
Starlight would’ve loved this.
Rainbow hoped she was alive somewhere, but after Neigh Orleans fell…
“I don’t want to run anymore.”
Somewhere below her to the southwest, Princess Flurry Heart was fighting with the birds at the head of their armored counterassault against the Hegemony. Rainbow climbed higher with two dozen fighters trailing behind her, exceeding Airstrip One’s altitude and breaking through a cloud wall. It was quiet this high up; Rainbow took a deep breath of frosty morning air. The glass fogged over for a moment.
Black shadows flew above another cloud bank to the north, no more than a dozen. Damn bugs are flying high, Rainbow snorted. At this altitude, the entire northern horizon glowed pink in the light of the morning sun. The shield over the Crystal Empire and northern Equestria almost sparkled in the light of the sunrise.
Rainbow squinted at the boxy shapes sticking out against the pink sheen, then glanced at her compass. “Bearing zero-eight-five, dozen dive bombers. Yellow Leader, engaging.” She spun the fighter into a dive.
“Indigo Leader, spotted stragglers from the Celestial Plain. Bearing one-four-five. Engaging targets.”
Have to do your job for you, G. You better not die so I can rub it in your beak. Rainbow spared one last look at the picture taped below the compass. She refused to look at the picture taped next to it.
The Changeling fighters weren’t as agile as an Equestrian plane, probably something due to pegasi design. Nova Griffonian fighters were better, but the levers and buttons were too small for hooves. They had never properly designed anything for the pony minority; the planes that they did have were jury-rigged in desperation after the Reich invaded.
But the Changeling’s support planes were worse than both. Rainbow lined up a boxy two ‘ling dive bomber.
Rainbow’s fighter screamed down from above and she put a short burst through the tail gunner’s canopy before he could return fire. She raked the fuselage as she buzzed underneath the falling plane, then corkscrewed back up to one of his wing mates. Mid-spin, she put another burst into the belly of the plane as it tried to turn away.
Both planes fell from the sky. The rest of her pack descended on the bombers as the tail gunners poured tracer fire at the painted Hegemony fighters. They worked in tandem. One fighter provided a target for the gunner while another swept in from above or below. The Changelings were outnumbered, and they were always worse pilots.
All their aces died during the uprising. Rainbow made sure of it.
Rainbow banked hard to the right and watched a tracer barely miss her rudder. One of her wing mates shattered the bomber’s canopy with a burst and the plane spiraled below. “Good kill, yellow four!” Rainbow barked into her flight cap. She tapped the comms crystal and flashed through the radio channels.
“Red Leader, engaging two-six-five! Red Five, put one up their ass!”
Sweet Celestia, how many of these bastards got through? Rainbow pirouetted back above the clouds, peering west. She pulled her goggles up with a hock.
The sky above the Celestial Plain was swarming with aircraft trying their level best to kill each other. This high up and far away, they looked like insects. Some of them are insects, Rainbow amended. Might as well crush them like bugs. The support units behind the advance fired flak into the sky at the attempted dive bombers.
Rainbow had joked about having to save the birds, but she didn’t think it would happen so quickly. The battle had just begun according to the radio reports from the base at Canterhorn. The ‘lings must have flung everything they had into the air to try and cut the supply lines.
Everyone was avoiding Mount Canterhorn. Flak filled the skyline above the mountain.
“Yellow five, another swarm bearing zero-six-three.” The fighter twisted back around as Rainbow aligned the compass. The Changeling planes were diving low towards a road cut through the Everfree. Some were already trailing smoke from earlier damage.
Rainbow nudged the stick into another dive. She braced her metal feathers flush against the metal and felt the vibrations shudder up the feather tips. She couldn’t truly feel it, not like her real wing, but it helped with the itchy feeling.
The bombers had already been savaged by Reich fighters. What made it through was just scraps. Rainbow almost felt bad; one of the tail gunners was hanging limply out of his turret. She adjusted her aim and blew through the canopy of the pilot instead. Her wingmates screeched past her and engaged the others.
Rainbow twisted above another rough road and corkscrewed again. She hung upside down by the straps in her seat and looked ‘up’ at the trucks heading north. Surprisingly, they weren’t fuel trucks; they were proper reserve units and half-tracks moving quickly. Some of the griffons were flying ahead of the trucks.
“Blue, you’re closest to the northern front,” Rainbow commented as she righted herself. “What’s going on?”
“I’m seeing tanks fall back,” Blue Leader reported. “We’re adjusting our air zone. Incoming flak from anti-air isn’t discriminating.”
Rainbow turned north again. It was all low valleys, like Ponyville once was to the south before the Everfree swallowed it.
“All air wings be advised,” Misty Fly’s voice crackled, “Marshal Fizzlepop is reporting that the Reich is being pushed back to the northern slope. Army is preparing to engage.”
“Keep the damn sky clear,” Rainbow growled across all the radio channels. She spun back up and spotted another small group of support bombers to the northwest. “Bearing zero-six-zero, ‘nother pack. Air Marshal going dark.” The pegasus flicked the crystal back to her local channel. “Hit ‘em.”
The dogfighting continued for the better part of an hour. A lucky shot punched through her left wing, but it didn’t cut through anything important. The flaps still worked. Rainbow didn’t bother counting her kills, not today. She flew with her wingmates and downed as many of the sluggish bombers as she could, even a few fighters that straggled through the sky above the Celestial Plain.
“Orange Leader, shifting north!” Scootaloo shouted into the radio. “Sweet Celestia, I see spellfire on the north of Canterhorn!”
Rainbow banked to the left to look through the frosted canopy. Flashes lit the base of the mountain and streaked towards the valley to the north, where the trenchworks were built-up. If the fighting’s that close…
Rainbow refocused on another support plane. The tail gunner was frantically trying to line her up while the pilot evaded. He was good; Rainbow had already wasted three bursts and nearly lost her rudder.
Not good enough. Rainbow finally lined up the plane and put a burst ahead of his turn. The engine burst into flames as the fuel lines were severed by a stream of bullets and the plane exploded with the gunner still pouring tracer fire behind her.
“Violet here. Sky’s clear to the south. Celestial Plain looks like a mess, but the Reich is holding.”
“Focus north,” Rainbow responded. She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood as she gained altitude with a dozen wingmates. The flak around Canterlot hadn’t slowed down. She tapped the comms crystal with one of her real feathers. “Misty, report?”
“There’s a breakthrough to the north,” Misty answered. “They’re sent a tank brigade through the low valleys and the Reich got trapped. They’re falling back to regroup.”
“That exposes the trenchworks,” Rainbow said. She lined up another struggling support bomber and squinted underneath her goggles as she tried to guess their evasive maneuvers.
“I’m hit!” Scootaloo cried. “The sky’s full of bugs to the northwest!”
“Bail, squirt!” Rainbow shouted back. She finished off the bomber with a rake across the tail that broke the plane apart. She brought the plane up and leveled off east of Mount Canterhorn.
“The birds need support in the north!” Scootaloo continued. “Bugs are pushing through the valleys and overwhelming rear command! I can see-”
“Bail!” Rainbow screamed into her flight cap.
“My strap’s stuck-”
The radio went quiet.
Rainbow listened to the static. She would need to ditch her flight cap anyway.
The radio was quiet for several more seconds.
I don’t want to ask.
“Did she make it out?” Rainbow asked anyway. “Orange, report.”
Nopony answered.
Rainbow licked her lips. “This is Air Marshal Dash, report. Does anypony have eyes on Orange Leader?”
The radio crackled. Rainbow flicked the crystal with a feather. She clenched the stick between her forelegs. She’s a strong flier. She’s not a filly anymore.
“Scoots?”
“This is Orange Three,” a voice finally answered. “I saw her go down.”
Rainbow blinked and listened to the engine.
“I’m sorry, Air Marshal.”
Rainbow finally looked at the other picture beneath the compass. It was a color photo, enhanced by magic, taken just after Discord had been turned back into stone. All six of the Elements of Harmony posed in the center of Ponyville, just in front of the fountain.
Rainbow, with two whole wings and no scar twisting across her muzzle, was frozen midflight above a butter-yellow pegasus hiding behind her long pink mane. She had a soft smile barely visible, with one eye peeking through her bangs. The magenta-eyed pegasus above her had a smarmy grin, pumping a foreleg and flapping her wings.
In the center of the photograph, a purple unicorn stood with a slight smile, welcoming and friendly. She was the only one looking directly at the camera, at Spike. All of them were close together, nearly bumping flanks to be in the photograph. Applejack and Rarity, the farmpony and fashionista, were side-by-side. The orange earth pony and pearl unicorn had opposite smiles, one all teeth and one demure.
They truly looked like the best friends they were. That they would always be, no matter what.
Rainbow turned the fighter slightly southwest towards Canterlot. The anti-air above it had intensified as the army at the base of the mountain added their own guns to it. Flashes continued to streak to a valley in the north from the east side of the mountain.
We could make it through. I could order it right now.
“This is Orange Three,” the voice said again. “Reichsarmee is falling back to the north. We’re getting chewed up in the northwest. I see lots of bug motorized on the ground for a breakthrough.”
“This is Indigo Leader. Canterhorn is engaged. There’s heavy anti-air. Do we support?”
Rainbow looked at the photograph again, then spun the plane upside down to look down at the Everfree to the southeast. She stared down at it. Flutters…
“This is Misty Fly. We’re leaving a skeleton crew behind on Airstrip One and flying to Canterhorn base. Orders from Marshal Fizzlepop to reinforce. Good luck, everypony.”
Rainbow closed her eyes. “All air wings except Indigo, regroup northeast. Cut the breakthrough and buy time for the Reichsarmee to regroup. We have orders to keep the supply lines clear.”
“Acknowledged, Air Marshal,” Blue Leader confirmed.
“Green Leader: Already inbound.”
“Red Leader copies.”
“Violet Leader copies.”
“Indigo Leader: Will remain to keep the skies clear for the Celestial Plain.”
“Orange Three, you are now Orange Leader.” Rainbow’s voice broke. “Acknowledge.”
“Acknowledged, Air Marshal,” Orange Leader replied after a moment. “We’re seeing a lot of close bombers with fighter escorts.”
Rainbow righted her fighter and turned away from Canterlot, back to the northwest. The sky was pink and blurry in front of her canopy. Rainbow lifted her goggles to scrub at her eyes, then pulled them back down.
“Yellow,” she said, “we’re on ground intercept. Everypony else keep the skies clear. Fire on the bugs until you run out of ammo, then find a tank and fucking ram it. Bail and fight on the ground.”
“Solid copy, Yellow Leader,” one of her wingmates answered.
Rainbow leaned forward and bit the photograph of the Elements of Harmony. She tore it off the controls and let it fall somewhere to the back of the plane behind her. "I'm sorry," Rainbow said to nopony in particular. She thought of her family, her friends, her teammates, her neighbors, her home, everything they had ever taken while she was somehow still alive when so many better ponies were dead.
But Rainbow was still alive, and as long as she was still breathing, she could kill the ones that took them away.
Her metal feathers scraped against the side of the canopy, gouging the glass with their razor tips as she flew north.
It no longer itched.
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Pretty nice, I liked the tragedy here
11540651
I'm not fucking around with this.
You're getting multiple perspectives and character deaths.
This is the battle of the story. Everyone is all-in.
Wahhhhhhhhh
Is this the end game of the story or is there more to it?
You'll know when it's done.
Vague answer, but I'm guarding that spoiler close. Sorry.
11540658
All or nothing, as one would say.
You respond to comments by moving your mouse over to the right-hand corner of the comment you want to reply to and clicking on the >> that appears. Why isn't there an alternate universe tag?
11540658
I can accept waiting for the end game. What I cannot accept nor tolerate is this story ending terribly or incomplete. Thank you for this marvelous writing.
Question/s:
1. What's Flurry's plan to unite the Equestrian realms culturally, economically, militarily, and politically?
2. With Flurry Heart intent on marrying Grover, wouldn't that make his subjects also HER subjects also by rule of law?
3. Will Flurry be joining a Military campaign with the Griffon Reich to stick a pike in Celestia's and Luna's heads soon?
11540832
1. That's a heavy question to attempt to answer in a comment. I'll let the story play out. Also, bold of you to assume she has a plan.
2. No, it's a political union. They keep their own subjects solely to their own authority; it was one of Flurry's demands. Their realms don't merge or anything, but some cooperation would probably be expected. (It'll be a mess of accusations of influence anyway. Grover's idea of meeting a few times a year as a show of solidarity and then fucking off back to their territories is probably the smartest option.)
3. No.
Scoots, NOOO!!!
Hell yeah! Tea, Sabaton's Wehrmacht playing, and Rainbow Dash being herself first, then a proper Equestrian soldier. Princess and the Kaiser as I liked it since I started reading it.
The outcome of the battle will determine the nature of the focus tree that will get unlocked.
Maybe I'm a sadist, but if there's going to be anything good coming out from her investment as the battle unfolds, there has to be some major fucking consequences from her departure. C'mon man, wir wollen den Totalen Krieg.
Keep up the good work, and remember, Values->Emotions-> Actions
11540878
Huh. There goes my theory. I thought for sure that after she re-took Equestria, that River might try to invade the Reich (though probably not under the Sisters' backing or anything), and Flurry, being the Kaiser's fiancé, and Equestria having signed a mutual-aid agreement, would be forced to help defend.
Be interesting to see whether Scoots makes it or not.
First the Kaiser, and now Rainbow's perspective. Do you plan on doing most of the major characters eventually?
🦀🦀🦀SCOOTALOO IS FUCKING DEAD🦀🦀🦀
This is so fucking based.
F
I guess neither side figured out the most productive thing to do with their aces is have them each the next generation of pilots?
I dunno, I think ramming a half-track or artillery piece would probably do more damage.
Why am I so bad a symbolism?
F