Ace combat: Shattered Rainbows

by Brotato

Chapter 7B

Chapter 8

This guy is good, I’ll give him that. Rainbow Dash spun her plane into a corkscrew to shake off the one following her. She leveled her plane after two spins and looked behind. “Finally lost him, but where is he?” Looking around in her canopy, she found him above her. She rolled her plane, dodging most of the bullets he fired, but several tore into the right wing of her aircraft. Buck, that was close.

Rainbow Dash quickly chased after him when he passed. Getting close to his plane, she welcomed the high-pitched tone meaning she had radar lock and fired a missile. Being such a short distance didn’t give much time to evade the missile, causing it to smash into the middle-left side of the enemy aircraft. Several pieces of metal flew off, but to Rainbow’s amazement, his plane still flew. Oddly, he wasn't moving his plane at all and just lazily flew forward.

A gruff voice entered Rainbow's headset. “That was a pretty good move you did there.”

“What? How did you find this... Never mind, Hold still while I finish you off.” Rainbow lined up her guns on his engine, all she had to do was fire. She tried to squeeze the trigger, but something in her mind told her not to. Why would he open a channel with the pilot who just fired a missile at him?

“What do you want?” Rainbow said quickly.

“To simply talk, that’s all. If it helps, my call-sign is Feather Thirteen, but you can call me Razorwing.”

Rainbow found it strange how calm he was handling the situation. He’s staring death in the face and he wants to have a small chat with another pilot?

“Well start talking, before my gun starts shooting,” Rainbow bluffed. She didn’t plan on shooting him yet. She still wanted to know where he was going with this conversation.

“No need to get violent. You won the battle fair and square. I just wish to know something before I die.”

A gryphon’s dying wish? What could he possibly want to know?“ Fine, but don’t think I’m going to answer.”

“I realize you don’t trust my race because of the war, so I thank you for listening. All I wish to know is your name.”

“Simple enough. It’s Rainbow Dash.”

She heard Razorwing chuckled lightly, “Figures. Gilda would find this quite ironic.”

How does he know about her? Did she join the enemy forces as well? “You know Gilda?”

“Aye, she was a part of Feather Squadron. She was quite a fine pilot.”

“Why are you telling me this, Razorwing?”

“Because I discharged Gilda out of Feather Squadron last night. I don’t know where she went, but I believe she’s looking for you, Rainbow.”

“What? After what happened at Ponyville, our friendship was over.” Gilda you feather-brain, what are you thinking.

“I don’t know what happened between the both of you, but she’s torn up about it. Nevertheless, I got to say what I wanted." He shot away from Rainbow's jet and turned around, facing her. "Now Rainbow. shoot me down and give me what honor I have left!” His jet rocketed toward Rainbow's in one last game of chicken.

Rainbow eagerly accepted and flew toward Razorwing. They both fired off their guns, tearing through each other's jets. The enemy jet was already in worse shape and easily fell apart from her barrage. She watched his jet slowly begin to fall.

“What are you doing? Just eject from the plane!”

“No, Rainbow Dash. I realized something while talking to Gilda. This whole war is a fight for power, a fight that I don’t want to become a part of anymore. My queen is wrong to have started this war and must be stopped. After following her orders for so long and killing so many ponies... I at least deserve to be shot down by you.”

“I see... It was an honor to talk with you, Razorwing.”Rainbow Dash watched the jet quickly descend and crash in a dip between two hills. A loud explosion shook nearby tree’s as smoke billowed over the crash-site. A smear of metal and fuel lie across the ground, the last remains of Feather Thirteen.

With nothing else to do, Rainbow Dash took off back toward Ponyville.

I have to find Gilda...

Comments

[Brotato]

Decided to post the last part of chapter seven in a different perspective. Even at a whopping 700 words this was hard. Writers block be damned!

[Cobra 1]

Awesome, the head to head game of chicken reminds me of the final battle of ACZ, that is not a bad thing either, also I was listening to Aquila from the AC04 OST while reading this.

[Cobra 1]

288529 It was perfectly fine just keep going, your readers are behind you.