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Homecoming1,000 words

Homecoming

Spitfire felt a swell in her breast at the sight of the returning Interceptors. The ground grew scrambled to set up, keeping fire-extinguishers and medical staff on standby.

The draconic mechs hit the deck one after another, claws sparking furiously as they tore through the arresting cables, snapping them one by one until the fearsome machines finally ground to a halt.

As the engines powered down the arcane light faded from the thrusters and the metal cavities opened to deposit the pilots on the deck.

Dash ripped the suction cups from her breasts before leaping down, her hooves splashing. Her tits felt like weights trying to make her fall, but she regained her balance and straightened up.

Spitfire approached as RD stepped away from the frame. When she noticed the captain coming her way she stuffed her boobs back into her jumpsuit before standing at attention.

High-Winds made her way over after dismounting her own machine and stepped up beside her comrade, giving the captain a curt salute.

When Spitfire put them at ease, High-Winds suddenly hugged Rainbow-Dash, squeezing her tight and standing on one hoof, leaning into the slightly larger pony with all her weight.

Spitfire laughed at Dash's uncomfortable expression, and after a moment even RD managed a smile.

"That was amazing!" said High-Winds, stepping back and clasping her hands behind her, her own face flushed.

Spitfire was intrigued, even raising an eyebrow. "I'll expect details at the debrief, but for now..."

Spitfire gestured over to the middle passage, where Fleet-Foot was emerging onto the deck, looking right as rain.

Both pilots were relieved to see her, and she them. RD offered her a handshake, and High-Winds embraced her, though more delicately than she had Dash.

Fleet-Foot was still a touch overly-sensitive but did her best to hide it. More than anything she was glad that her friends made it back. Though she said nothing, she had felt guilty retreating and leaving them alone. She didn't have a choice, but if something had happened she would never have forgiven herself.

Not long after the mechanics emerged to perform diagnostic checks of the returned hardware.

"Let's get out of their way." said Spitfire, leading the others below deck.

With the mechanics' work underway above Dash and the other pilots made their way to the showers, peeling off their flight-suits and stuffing them in their lockers.

The water was hot and melted away the chill, first exposing and then relieving the hidden aches the adrenaline had kept hidden until then.

Unexpectedly, their captain joined them a few minutes later, her brilliant yellow body emerging like a star being born as she shrugged off her uniform. Once she had dressed down she took her place amongst the others, each standing side-by-side at their own shower-head.

Fleet-Foot couldn't help but salute as the captain stepped up beside her, snapping to attention faster than her breasts could keep up, causing them to shake uncomfortably and flick water into the air.

High-Winds snickered from behind her, but the captain merely gave Fleet-Foot a respectful nod, which seemed to satisfy her.

The vindicated cadet tossed High-Winds a look that made her throw up her hands in a halting gesture, though she kept on smiling.

"I thought we could perform our debrief here." said Spitfire with a grin, turning around and tossing her hair back with both hands, drenching it with water.

The captain nodded at RD, waiting expectantly for her recounting of events.

Dash explained everything while shampooing her tail, including her reckless charge leading the missiles into the swarm, which she expected Spitfire to scold her for.

She didn't, though.

"You came back in one piece, Ace." was all she said, raising her arm and soaping up the underneath, as well as the place where her breast met her torso.

"Captain," said Dash. "Do you think we are in the clear? We took out the contacts, all of them, but we also made a lot of noise."

Spitfire let the water touch her face for a moment, feeling it on her cheek bones and running down the sides of her muzzle.

"I can't say for sure. We're still airborne, but we still don't know a whole lot about how the hives operate."

Dash thought about the ambush force they had encountered in the cloud, lying dormant until they arrived. The data on that would be useful, and Scoots would know to extract it from the logs and submit it to the elucidation team for review and proliferation throughout the fleet, should they manage to make contact.

And if they still exist.

"If they come, we will fight." said Spitfire, running her fingers through her hair. "That's all there is to it. No sense dwelling on it too much. The course is set, the die has already been cast. Just enjoy the moment, Ace."

Dash liked being called 'Ace,' but somewhere deep down it reminded her of her fears.

What if I don't deserve this? What if I failed, and don't even know it yet?

After their shower they retired to their quarters, except for the captain. She walked down the long corridor amidships and glanced through the doorway of the nav-com room, where data was being sifted through and adjustments to the course were being made by tired members of the staff.

Further on, some of the Interceptors had been lowered into the hangar bays to be worked on without interference from the wind and rain. She saw Scootaloo extracting the flight recording from Dash's mech and nodded when she caught her eye.

The young girl smiled and gave a relaxed salute, then returned her focus to her data cypher.

Spitfire climbed the ramp and emerged once more from the middle passageway, this time with no cadets waiting. Only a sky full of clouds lay before her, and whatever it was they were hiding.

If they’re out there, I’ll find them.

She took a deep breath, tossed back her fiery mane and smiled bright.

Author's Note:

Took me a while to figure out where I wanted to go with this. It was difficult at first to turn the images and feelings I had into something conveyable. Originally this story was going to be about fighter jets, and revolve around a rivalry between RD and Indigo Zap. I may still use Indigo at some point, if I decide to carry on with this idea, but for now this story at least is complete. There is a great deal of uncertainty at the end, as the nature of the threat is not well understood by the characters, separated as they are from their allies, (if they are even still out there.) I’m still deciding how I want to expand upon the intricacies of the Swarm, and wanted to leave this story somewhat open-ended in case I decide to do more with that in the future.

Cheers!