Ace combat: Shattered Rainbows

by Brotato

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The battle to retake Ponyville lasted not more than an hour and most gryphons surrendered on the spot after losing half their forces. Soon after the battle, Shyeye had informed headquarters about the successful mission and Rainboom Squadron was allowed some rest in Ponyville. They would have to report back to duty at eight in the morning.

Rainbow Dash looked at Ponyville Air Base below her. Most of the buildings were gone, but luckily the runway was still in good enough condition for landing. She descended toward the runway with Rainboom squadron following behind her. Ponies were already gathering around Rainbow’s jet as she parked next to several bombed, blackened hangars. The crowd was cheering and stomped their hooves, applauding for the liberation from the gryphons. Rainbow Dash jumped out of her jet and quickly soaked in the attention, puffing out her chest.

The rest of the Squadron joined Rainbow and they received their share of praise. Rainbow turned toward them, a huge grin on her face. “This is my kind of greeting!”

Spitfire chuckled lightly. “Kind of reminds me of my past days as a Wonderbolt, except now I’m saving Equestria,” she said toward nopony in particular.

Lightning walked beside Rainbow and nudged her. “Hey, what happened up there? We couldn’t find you anywhere and thought you bailed on us.”

Rainbow seemed lost in thought for a moment. She snapped out of her reverie and looked at Lightning when he nudged her again. “I was chasing after and shot down one of those camouflaged planes we fought during my first mission.”

Surprise showed on Lightning’s face as he eyes widened. “Wow, how did you manage that?”

“I’ll tell you, but let’s talk about that later. Right now, I really need a drink.” Rainbow increased her pace, leaving a confused Lightning Spark behind her.

Most of the crowd gave off their last thanks, some going far as to hug and innocent pecks on the cheek toward the pilots. Lightning felt a uncomfortable urge grow in his chest after a mare looked at him with half-lidded eyes and winked at him. A quick jab in the stomach from Mist broke him out of his daze.

He chuckled lightly, mostly to try and brush off the feeling of dread he felt after staring at the winking mare. Glancing toward Mist, he felt himself sweating under her unapproving gaze. “D-Don’t worry Mist, you’re the only mare for me.” Lightning gave off a sheepish smile, doing his best to disarm the situation.

Mist seemed satisfied as she smiled, closed her eyes, and nuzzled his shoulder. His uneasy smile became more natural and he nuzzled back, before following the crowd into the tavern to celebrate their victory.

***

“... and then bam! took out five enemy jets like they were flies,” Rainbow Dash boasted. She chugged down the rest of her cider and slammed the mug down, exhaling loudly. “That hit the spot.”

Lightning shook his head as he chuckled. He couldn’t bring himself to say she was exaggerating and didn’t want to interrupt Rainbow’s ego trip. Already several ponies were listening to her in awe, sitting in the chairs surrounding their booth. The tavern was busy today, but most of the customers were here just to greet their saviors on a mission well done.

Several hours passed of enjoying each other’s company over drinks. The crowd had dispersed, either pleased or bored of Rainbow’s tales. Lightning laughed at Rainbow who decided to snooze on the table next to their booth, her legs twitching a bit from a dream.

“I think it’s time to hit the hay everypony.” He felt his neck feel weak as his head sagged forward. Snapping his head back up, he forced his eyes open to prevent himself from faceplanting into the comfortable looking table.

“I’m going to agree with Lightning,” Spitfire said, standing out of the booth. “We will need to get as much sleep as possible for tomorrow.” Everypony knew what tomorrow held and they nodded solemnly.

“We’ll definately need to be at our best Tomorrow,” Mist added. She looked at Rainbow’s prone form and couldn’t stop a smile forming on her lips. “So who wants to show Rainbow to a bed?”

Lightning raised a hoof to get Mist’s attention. “I won’t have a problem buying a second room for her.”

Spitfire had other plans in mind as she was already putting Rainbow on her back. “She has a cloud house just above Ponyville so a room here won’t be necessary. She would probably prefer sleeping in her own bed anyway.” Spitfire quickly trotted out of the room and took to the sky.

Lightning looked at Derpy who had been quiet the whole time they’ve been in Ponyville. She seemed distracted, occasionally staring off into the distance, deep in thought. Saying her name brought her back from whatever she was thinking.

“Need something Lightning?” her small smile she always wore came back as she looked at him. Her right eye slowly slid out of place.

“Do you have a place to stay? If not, you can take my bed and I’ll rent another room.”

“Oh, don’t worry about me, I have my own house in Ponyville.” Derpy said her goodbye’s and left the tavern as well.

“Well, looks like it’s just you and me,” Mist said, staring at Lightning intently. Her hoof softly brushed the side of his face and slowly went down his chest. “How about we go celebrate our victory in our own way, hm?”

Lightning was frozen stiff at what she was suggesting. Sure, his body was yelling at him for hesitating such a request, but his mind had other plans. I still haven’t asked why she has been acting like this ever since the detention center incident. Then again, if I asked about it, that might break the mood, leading to no...

His thoughts were cut short as Mist kissed him on the lips. It lasted only a couple of seconds, but the message it sent across made Lightning’s doubts fade away. Mist left the booth and made her way upstairs, giving a wink beforehand.

Lightning took little time as he zoomed up the stairs. He heard a chuckle behind him from the barkeep, but ignored him. Going down the small hallway, he opened the door to the room they rented. It was dark as the lights weren’t on.

He instinctively flicked on the light switch and almost had a heart attack. Mist was laying on the bed in front of him seductively, her flight-suit thrown on the ground. She was on her side with her tail moved out-of-the-way, giving him a good look at her flanks. Her “come hither” eyes sealed his fate as he turned off the lights and pounced toward her.

***

Rainbow Dash slept soundly in her bed, the light sound of snoring coming from her. A beam of light came through a nearby window and landed on Rainbow’s closed eyes. Waking up slightly, she stirred in the bed and flipped over to go back to a deep sleep. A small smile spread on her lips as sleep started to slowly take her.

Her dozing off was interrupted as a loud clang came from outside her bedroom. Groaning in annoyance, she waited to listen for anymore noises. She could hear shuffling as if somepony was walking around. Opening her eyes she shot up in bed and finally noticed she was in her bedroom.

The shuffling sound outside her door got louder as whoever was out there was approaching her bedroom. The door opened, showing Spitfire in a “kiss the cook” apron. The smell of fresh cooked pancakes emanated downstairs. “Good morning Rainbow,” Spitfire said with a smile. “I hope you don’t mind, but I decided to help myself to your kitchen. I just came up to see if you want to join me for breakfast.”

Rainbow rubbed her eyes, her mind not registering that a Wonderbolt was in her home and just cooked her breakfast. Stumbling out of bed, she nodded, her eyes still slightly closed from waking up. They both went downstairs, Rainbow sitting down at a table while Spitfire stacked the steaming pancakes on two plates, three for each of them. Tossing the apron on the kitchen counter, Spitfire placed a plate in front of Rainbow and took her seat across the table.

“Thanks Spitfire, you didn’t have to do this.” Rainbow blinked several times, looking at Spitfire sitting across the table as she slowly realized the situation she was in. Thinking back when she was at the tavern, she remembered vaguely sleeping on a table. Spitfire must've taken me home and is now in my house, making me pancakes. The thought floated in her mind a bit and she barely held back a fangirl squeal.

Spitfire raised an eyebrow in surprise at the sound Rainbow made and chuckled lightly. “You must be really enjoying this. Not everyday you have a Wonderbolt in your home making you Breakfast.” She took a bite of her pancake after pouring a bit of syrup on it. “So what do you think of my cooking?”

Asking for the syrup, Spitfire slid it across the table. Rainbow squeezed a descent amount to at least cover the pancakes and cut a large portion with her fork. Stuffing the entire slice into her mouth, her eyes lit up at how delicious it was. She quickly swallowed the rest of the pancakes in seconds. Taking a moment to catch her breath, Rainbow Dash looked at Spitfire who had her mouth hanging open at what she just saw.

Spitfire shook her head to clear away the shock. “I’ll take the way you ate those pancakes as a compliment to my cooking.”

Rainbow felt her face grow warm and she laughed nervously. “I guess I was more hungry than I thought.”

They both spent the next several minutes discussing the days before the war. Spitfire said the rest of the Wonderbolts were in Canterlot when it was first attacked. She doesn’t know where they are right now or if they even survived. Every one of them were close friends to Spitfire and she hoped they would be all right.

The reminiscing made Rainbow dash think of her friends who carried the Elements of Harmony and felt a urge to find her friends. Grabbing the plate, she placed it in the sink and walked toward the front door. “Thanks for the breakfast, Spitfire. I’m going to wander around Ponyville for a bit.”

Spitfire placed her plate in the sink as well. “That’s fine, I need to do a check-up on my jet. I think it took some gun fire yesterday.”

“All right, see you later.” Rainbow Dash thanked Spitfire for the pancakes again and went out the front door. Spitfire followed and closed the door behind her before taking off toward the runway.

Rainbow looked at the town below, relieved how peaceful it still looked up here, as if no war was going on. Good thing everypony fought away from Ponyville, else this place would be a disaster. She spotted a three familiar fillies running down a street toward the tavern they partied at yesterday afternoon. Wonder where they’re going. Hm, maybe Sweetie Belle knows where Rarity went. Spreading her wings, Rainbow Dash zipped away from her home toward the tavern.

Landing outside the front door of the tavern, Rainbow tucked her wings to her sides and trotted inside.

“Ahm tellin you, I saw Rainbow dash’s cutie mark on that blue plane that shot down our friend, Razorwing!” Applebloom said.

Rainbow’s eyes went wide in panic. She dove for a nearby booth out of sight from the three fillies. Several of the early morning customers gave strange looks, but said nothing. Thankfully the Crusaders didn’t notice her and she pressed against the booth wall, listening intently.

“Even if it was Rainbow Dash, I’m sure she had a good reason of doing it,” Sweetie Belle replied. Her voice tinged with sadness.

Scootaloo piped up, “Agreed, we don’t want to jump to concloosheunz.”

“I think you mean ‘conclusions’ Scoot,” Sweetie Belle corrected.

“Gesundheit.”

Applebloom let out a tiny sigh. “I still miss him. This place seems empty without Razorwing, and he seemed pretty nice for a gryphon.”

The three fillies didn’t say anything more and Rainbow could hear small slurping noises as they drank their juice boxes. Buck me, why didn’t Razorwing just eject from the stupid jet. Rainbow ruffled her mane in frustration. I don’t think I can make it to the door without them noticing me. Taking several deep breaths to calm her nerves, Rainbow stepped out of the booth to greet the fillies.

Sweetie Belle and Applebloom sat with their backs toward Rainbow as she approached. Scootaloo sat across from them and noticed her first. “Oh, hey Rainbow Dash,” Scootaloo said quietly.

Probably best to pretend I didn’t hear anything. “Hey Scoot,” Rainbow said with a grin. “What’s up?”

“Just sitting around... enjoying our juice boxes. Not talking about you of course, right Applebloom?”

“Yeah, this juice sure is good, Hehe.”

“Okay... Anyway, Sweetie Belle have you seen Rarity at all?”

The white filly looked up from the table at Rainbow. “The last time I’ve seen her was when the war started. She said something about helping Twilight with something in Canterlot.” She paused for a moment, looking at her juice box. “I really miss her. She may get angry at me sometimes, but she’s my sister. I love her no matter what.” Her eyes started to turn misty. “If it’s not too much trouble, can you look for her if you’re ever in Canterlot? Please tell her that I miss her very much.”

Rainbow nodded slowly, feeling ashamed for saying something that made her cry. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry. I’m trying to find the rest of my friends in Ponyville.”

Applebloom’s eyes widened a bit. “Applejack is still in Ponyville. Most of our farm is just fine. She should still be back home with Big Mac ah think.”

“Really? Thanks applebloom, I’ll head over there right now!” Rainbow ran out of the tavern and spread her wings. About to take off into the sky, she heard Scootaloo’s voice behind her.”

“Rainbow wait up!”

“Huh? What is it squirt?”

Scoot pawed the ground nervously. “Do you fly a blue jet with your cutie mark on it?” Rainbow could barely hear her repeat, “Please say no.”

Rainbow desperately wanted to lie, but she knew it would hit her in the flank sooner or later. She sat on the ground and nodded her head, “I do.”

Scootaloo looked away, her purple mane hiding her face as if somepony just slapped her. “Why... Why did you shoot him down?”

“I didn’t have a choice, Scoot. If I didn’t, he would’ve done the same to me.”

“You don’t know that!” she yelled, getting several looks from passing ponies. “You could’ve tried... talking to him... at least,” she said between sobs. “Now he’s gone because of you.”

“Scootaloo, we’re at war! Diplomacy was chucked out the window the moment the gryphon kindgom’s attacked.“ A small group were already gathering, watching the two pegasai argue. They were smart enough to keep their distance.

“But he was different Rainbow. He was the nicest gryphon I’ve ever met, and I used to hate them ever since you brought Gilda here. He showed me not everypony is evil just because their leader is.” Scootaloo looked up at Rainbow in anger, wiping away her tears. “I don’t know what happened that made you so uncool, but I don’t think you’re my idol anymore.” She slowly walked back toward the tavern and slammed the door closed.

Rainbow sat in the middle of the road with her head hung, staring at the ground. She wanted to scream in frustration that Scootaloo didn’t understand what she was talking about. Sitting on her hind legs, she looked at her fore-hooves as if they held the answer to all her questions. What has the war turned me into? Am I really as bad?

Not getting an answer back, Rainbow glared at the crowd and they went back to minding their own business. She silently took into the sky and headed toward Sweet Apple Acres, hoping Applejack would help her out.

Comments

[Brotato]

Only one quick sweep for errors, will refine later. Too busy saving Earth from the Reapers in ME3... *cough* >_>;

[Dickwaffle]

313902
We have faith in you Commander Shepard!

[Cobra 1]

Im Commander Shepperd this is my favorite story on Earth. Mass Effect, great series, hope to play it sometime soon, too busy playing Ace Combat 04, 5, and 3 I will always love Ace Combat. (I know I said the quote wrong). Cant wait for the continuation. Keep on fighting those Reapers and save the planet (I dont remember where ME takes place).

[Cobra 1]

142127
Nooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No ponified "Edge", if she is to make an appearance in anything it needs to be as herself.

[Brotato]

346866 You mean... as a human in Equestria?

[Cobra 1]

346923
Just a cameo or mention. Nothing that would alter the story any.

[Cobra 1]

What no new chapter? Oh well looks like it is time to reread the first 9 chapters.

[Brotato]

346994 Sorry, I'm still working on the next chapter. Working on it when I have time over the weekday and hopefully have it done next weekend.

[Cobra 1]

I recently finished a good game from Project Aces, its for the Wii, called The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces, it is based on a novel called The Sky Crawlers. I loved it, especially the story, but I would expect no less from Project Aces.