Downtime: Shortfalls Disguised as Success
Ace Combat: Shattered Friendships
Downtime: Shortcomings Disguised as Success
Author: Draconis187
Pinkamena Diane Pie was standing near the entrance to a balcony overlooking the packed Canterlot plaza below. She stood next to Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy, all of whom – including her – were wearing various beautiful formal dresses as they looked at the three Alicorns in front of them, all wearing their ceremonial armour on top of their dresses while the lavender coloured one addressed the colossal crowd below.
They consisted of Princess Luna, ruler of the night sky and the moon. Princess Celestia, ruler over the day and the sun. The third had only been an Alicorn for a few hours and was visibly nervous. Her address was going well as the crowd cheered for her at certain intervals.
“You think we’ll still be friends?” The bright pink mare with cotton candy styled mane and tail asked her white unicorn friend, whose indigo mane and tail were styled with large curls.
“Of course darling, we’ll always be friends. Twilight still has to come to that party you’re planning for her back in Ponyville, doesn’t she?” Rarity replied with a small grin which made Pinkie Pie give one of her gigantic Cheshire Cat smiles in response.
“Of course she’ll come, she Pinkie Promised!” She said, throwing her hoof up in the air as her friends chuckled.
**** **** **** ****
Pinkamena stirred in her bunk, the sun’s rays trying to shake her from her slumbering state. Why she forgot to put up curtains was a mystery to her but it didn’t matter for the most part since she had a headache the size of an ocean liner crashing into her head with each throb.
“Ugh, how much did I drink this time?” She muttered as she rubbed the back of her neck with her hoof, trying to alleviate a smidgen of the pain but to no effect as it hit her harder than ever as if to mock her attempts.
She slowly got up and off her bunk, her bones creaking here and there, as if voicing their uncooperative motives to her as she forced herself to a standing position before walking to the showers. Her room was devoid of any personal paraphernalia ever since she turned mercenary. The only things she had was her money, her flight suit which somehow found its way to the ceiling, refusing to fall down and her F-15.
“I was so naïve to believe that.” Pinkamena mumbled to herself. As the warm shower water tried to ease her suffering, the only thing it did was disguise the single unknown tear that fell from her face.
**** **** **** ****
Rainbow Dash got up and fell out of her bunk with a resounding thud, her mane in the most bedraggled state known to ponykind. She shook her head before walking to the showers, her bed sheets still holding on to her tightly as she was leaving her room. The Wonderbolts were in a personalized barracks set up especially for them since they were originally assigned to Valiant Airbase before the start of the war.
As Dash got out of her quarters, she bumped into Spitfire who looked at her choice of ‘clothing’. “Planning on sleeping in the showers as well? I heard you can fall asleep anywhere but this is ridiculous.”
Dash looked at her improvised toga and shook it off like a dog shaking itself dry before retorting with a smirk. “Yeah I thought about it but then I had another thought: ‘Won't Spitfire be jealous when she sees that I can sleep wherever I want?’”
Spitfire facehoofed as the both of them hit the showers. The Wonderbolts’ showers had separating shower curtains for privacy since they had mixed genders and harassment was rife before they installed them. There were still some cases of harassment so the stallions felt it was best to have designated showering times for each gender.
“Hey Spitfire…” Rainbow began, rubbing her mane thoroughly with shampoo.
“Yeah Dash?” Spitfire replied as she preened her right wing. Even though they flew aircraft capable of flying at greater speeds and distances than most Pegasi, preening was still mandatory amongst all of the Pegasi.
“What do you think about those mercs?” Dash moved part of the curtain out of the way. She had a prismatic brush just like her mane attached a long cyan handle in her hoof as she stuck her head into Spitfire’s side of the shower.
“Honestly? I think they might just give us a shot here. Sure we would have been able to take on those bombers and escorts no problem on our own but…” Spitfire sighed as she pointed to a dull yellow strand of hair in her mane. “We aren't as young as we used to be or even as sharp as we used to be. Most of the Wonderbolts still consist of the old team even with you and Lightning Dust.”
“Snowflake would have made a decent Wonderbolt but he joined the paratrooper division.” Spitfire commented before letting out a single chuckle. “I hear he’s a drill sergeant now.”
“He can scare anypony with that ‘Yeah!!’ yell of his.” Dash sniggered as Spitfire continued.
“Lightning Dust still doesn’t seem to appreciate the fact that we let her come back, she seemed royally pissed off when I named you my successor.” Spitfire took a small brush laced with a yellow mane dye in her hooves and ran the little brush over the dulling hair strand, making it match the rest of her mane. “There is no denying she is a good pilot, I’ll give her that but until she realises the fact that Wonderbolts work with each other, not against each other, will she become a great pilot. But I digress.”
“I'm not sure what I can say about Cipher. She is rather brutal against her opponents and pulls of manoeuvres that most experienced pilots would be terrified to even think of performing. I mean, stalling your plane just to line it up for a kill? She’s either the most brilliant pilot in the world or the craziest, not sure which is worse.” She said as Dash nodded, absorbing her hero’s words of wisdom that came from years of experience.
“Solo Wing on the other hoof? Well you should know her better than I do. She was one of your best friends after all.” Spitfire remarked before seeing Dash’s sad expression as she shook her head in response.
“I haven’t seen Pinks in six years. We had a falling out with each other and it got to the point where we all just… split. I don’t even know what happened to the others. Applejack is probably still at the farm, working her hooves to the bone for her bits. Twilight, well she was made a princess wasn’t she? Who knows what she has been up to before this mess? The others, I just don’t know.”
Dash hung her head as a few tears began to fall down her muzzle as Spitfire opened the separating curtains and gave her a light embrace. “Losing your friends is hard Dash but we have to carry on. I lost a few friends myself to a variety of causes. The one was test flying a prototype plane that malfunctioned halfway through a combat exercise. The buckle wouldn’t unclip and the seat refused to eject as it spiralled out of control. The largest thing they could find to identify his body… was his wedding ring. The rest…”
**** **** **** ****
Chrysalis got out of her bunk, well rested despite the events of the previous night still hung in the forefront of her mind. She changed herself to a more pony-like form and donned her gear. She went off to her bathing quarters, keeping an eye out for any prying ponies. As she reached her destination, she removed her clothing and disguised herself as she began to shower. She made her mane a dark green while hiding her chitin and bug wings. Her fangs were disguised as ordinary teeth and the holes in her mane, tail and hooves were filled in. Her coat remained the same colour while her pupils became rounded.
To the casual onlooker, she looked like a normal Unicorn taking a shower. She sighed as she had to maintain the illusion as well as clean herself. How it made her Changeling form clean as well, not even Chrysalis had the answer to that.
**** **** **** ****
Twilight woke up to the most peculiar sight as she found herself still inside the mess hall. Luna’s slightly larger form still unmoving as her wings involuntarily twitched from time to time as Twilight tried to get her off her body without waking the Princess of the Night.
She managed to levitate Luna off herself as she rolled across the floor before putting the dark Alicorn a bench nearby. She felt bad about just leaving her there but Luna didn’t seem to notice as she just curled up and continued to snore… rather loudly.
Twilight heard a chuckle behind her and wheeled around exceedingly quickly from shock. Princess Celestia stood just in front of Twilight with her puffy and bloodshot eyes. Her coat had various splotches of alcohol and her crown was missing but was quickly found on a table in one of the corners. In short, Celestia looked like somepony forwent the ugly stick and hit her with the entire ugly tree. She also had the migraine to match.
“Uh, Princess. This is not what it looks like.” Twilight tried to explain but Celestia just chuckled.
“Have no fear Twilight, my sister has been known to sleep in unusual places… and on top of unusual ponies, especially when drinking too much.” Celestia chuckled.
There was an awkward silence between the two before Celestia levitated a small, pocket mirror that was hidden in one of the – still unconscious – pilots’ pockets. Celestia softly chuckled as she saw her face.
“Looks like I drank beyond my limit last night. I must really get a drinking buddy to restrain my habit. Although nopony can really fault us on it, we did successfully defend Valiant Airbase and give the Griffons something to consider. Well, the Wonderbolts and the Galm Team did anyway, how was it seeing your friend Pinkie Pie again Twilight?”
Twilight couldn’t look at her mentor in the eyes as she replied, the pain of the memory of that day still torturing her. “It’s been almost seven years since any of my friends wanted to see me. I'm surprised Dash didn’t use every insult she knew when we crossed paths while we were getting into the planes yesterday.”
Twilight’s voice got heavier as she began to talk about the pink mare. “Pinkie is… not the same anymore. You saw her: her mane was flat and her coat had dulled and she didn’t smile even once at all during the briefing. I don’t remember much of last night’s ‘festivities’ but I do remember that Pinkie sat on her own, drinking an insanely large amount of cider. While Dash went to go and get Cipher to come to the party, I tried to talk to Pinkie.”
“And how did that go?” Celestia’s inquisitive look was met with Twilight’s ‘not good’ face.
“She told me to just walk away without so much as batting an eyelid, she didn’t so much as look at me. I’m surprised somepony could still hold a grudge after so many years.” Twilight responded.
Celestia leaned in close to Twilight and whispered. “You forget: my sister held onto one for a thousand years.”
“Sorry Princess.” Twilight replied as she hung her head in shame. Celestia shook her head with a chuckle.
“It’s alright, everything turned out alright thanks to you and your friends. I think that if you just keep trying, you may just make it through to your friends and turn this all around. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get myself cleaned up… and try to wake Luna up… gently. She is not a morning mare.” With that, Celestia trotted off to her quarters, humming a small tune.
Twilight just turned her head to Luna’s still sleeping form and sighed as she raised a shield. “Please let this be easier than waking up Applejack…”
**** **** **** ****
By the time midday arrived, the Wonderbolts, Cipher, Pinkamena and the three Alicorns were gathered in the briefing room once more. This time though, there was a massive display of smiles as the drunken shenanigans of the previous night were forgotten or - most likely - covered up by the smiles.
“I am glad you were all able to get up and washed everypony.” Celestia smiled as the pilots just responded with embarrassed looks on their faces. “Now, the reason I've called this meeting is to fully debrief you of the operation yesterday and what is going to happen over the next few weeks until we win this war.”
A projector showed a display with multi-coloured arrows with ribbon trails, making various moves and others that ended in big crosses before stopping entirely. It did not take long for the pilots to make the connection to their own manoeuvres from the previous operation to the arrows. Cipher saw her arrow make the same stalling manoeuvre she did before plummeting and removing two red arrows that indicated the actual targets she took down: the bombers.
“Now, since Operation Crossblade was a resounding success, we have shown these Griffons that we are not going to roll over that quickly but they could launch another strike at any time so the tower is going to monitor the surrounding airspace 24/7. We are also going to split up the Wonderbolts into patrols consisting of two planes each.”
Celestia took a deep breath before continuing. “Should any of your patrols find an attacking squadron, do not engage them. Wait for the rest to scramble and meet up before taking any unnecessary risks. We need living pilots, not dead heroes. The next thing I need to inform you all about is actually directed to the mercenaries behind you.”
Pinkamena and Cipher’s ears perked up the moment they were mentioned. “We are getting several more planes coming in along with new pilots and mercenaries. Some A-10As for ground assaults, some F-16Cs for multirole purposes and some Mirage 2000Ds for high speed interceptions along with some highly specific and limited ammunition for them. We can have you fly them as well if you want but I'm afraid you will have to pay for the planes and their respective weapons.”
“No thanks, I like my Eagle.” Pinkamena said as she threw her forehooves behind her head. Cipher in the meantime considered this.
“I won’t mind. Every mission has a specific plane that can perform it better than some others.” Her distorted voice said.
Celestia nodded. “Ok then, I will give you the full shipping manifest after we are done here. Any questions?” The room was silent and nopony raised their hooves. “There are two last things I wish to talk about. First, Luna and I will be leaving before the end of the day to meet with our ground forces and prepare our counter offensive against the Griffon Empire. So Twilight will be in charge until we return. Our next operation will be to get our supply route open to the Crystal Empire.”
“Weren’t they defeated?” Dash piped up, confused.
Celestia nodded with an all-knowing smile. “Yes, but luckily for us there is still a resistance movement trying to liberate it based in the nearby mountain range. The Griffons aren't very good at snow combat since the Griffon Empire tends to be rather humid all year round. Add the fact that it is now winter there and that leads to a situation that favours the Crystal Ponies. We need to get to them and the Round Table.”
“Round Table, what the hay is that?” Dash rubbed her head in confusion.
“It is also called Airspace B7R. The mountains are comprised of a certain rock, infused with a type of naturally occurring, electronic distorting crystal. That means that the chances of a distress signal reaching base is minimal at best, which brings me to the next point: being shot down. We cannot afford to lose as much as one of you, let alone one of your aircraft. That is why I need you to train for ground combat as part of your normal regime. Until the next operation, the base is to be on high alert. Thank you, dismissed.”
At that everypony left the room and went about their daily routines. The Wonderbolts hit the gym, lifting weights, jogging and using the wind tunnel for the aerial equivalent of jogging. Pinkamena on the other hoof was with the troops that defended the base from ground based attacks.
They were a mixture of Earth Ponies, Unicorns and Pegasi that couldn’t become pilots or where afraid of the several ton weighing monsters with jet engines. Pinkamena was sparring with one of the soldiers, another Earth Pony like herself but this one had experience written into every muscle as he dodged and countered each blow and move Pinkamena made.
“Come on, I thought the great Solo Wing would be as good on the ground as she was in the air!” The brown stallion taunted as he basically pirouetted Pinkamena around like a ballerina which made her angry. “Now, now, don’t let your anger consume your actions. If you do…” in a flash of fancy footwork, Pinkamena was on the floor with her own combat knife’s back pressed against her neck, receiving a smile from the soldier. “And you lose sight of everything.”
Pinkamena only smiled as Jack Hammer gave her a helping hoof. “Nice trick, I can see why Celestia wanted us to train with you. You know a lot of hoof-to-hoof combat.”
Jack Hammer only shrugged his shoulders and wiped his black mane out of his blue eyes. “Yeah, we can’t always rely on our weapons missy. You get a steel shell that can get you to and from a battle in complete comfort while we grunts get shot at on the ground wearing some stupid jackets.”
“I know and that’s why you need us to try and keep the pressure off you.” Pinkamena retorted. “We each have highly important jobs to do.”
“I know that, I wasn’t trying to disrespect or belittle you ma’am.” Jack Hammer defended.
“Have any of you seen Cipher?” Pinkamena asked, having noticed the mare was nowhere to be seen ever since they left the debriefing.
“Last I heard, she was in the hangar. She might be talking to Quick Fix and Lug Knut, our chief engineers. They make sure your planes are fuelled and armed. They don’t do it on their own obviously since there are too many planes for two ponies to maintain so they have a small team who help them out.” Jack Hammer explained.
“Ok, I didn’t need to know that much but thanks anyway.” Pinkamena placed her knife in its holder, under her left forehoof by her fourth rib. She trotted of to the hangars with an unusual skip in her step. Maybe it was the refreshing training session, maybe it was still the buzz from the alcohol still lingering in her system or maybe she was starting to like this Cipher.
In the hangar, Cipher wasn’t speaking to the two chief mechanics. She was going over her Eagle with a fine tooth comb, patching up a small bullet hole after removing said bullet if it hadn’t shot through the wing itself. The next was buffing out the scuff marks from the burns her plane got through those fireballs she flew through. The plane only suffered minor scorch marks but there was no warping of the metal or anything of the sort. If she wanted, the plane could fly out right now. A copy of the manifest Celestia promised to provide her was on top of a workbench near the wall behind the F-15's thrusters.
“You ok up there Cipher?!” Pinkamena shouted over the sound of the machine Cipher was using to get the scorch marks out.
Cipher switched off the machine she was using to buff out the marks before looking down at Pinkamena from the top of the right wing. “I said: you ok up there?” Pinkamena said in a normal tone this time now that the hangar was quiet.
Cipher merely nodded her head before returning to her plane. Pinkamena seemed to get a feeling that she was in no mood to talk. Her old ways of not knowing the meaning of the word ‘no’ showed as walked up and jumped up onto the plane’s back, facing Cipher who switched the device off again.
“What’s wrong Cipher? Not get enough kills? Do you have some form of superiority complex? Feel guilty for killing some Griffons without mercy?” Pinkamena just looked at Cipher’s helmet. “Are you even looking at me? I can't tell with that helmet you insist on wearing.”
Finally Cipher’s distorted voice spoke up. “It’s neither Solo Wing, I like to stay focused on the task at hoof. No plane leaves a battle without some scars but my plane just has a few ‘flesh wounds’ as you may call them. I am merely fixing them so it’s in top condition for the next operation. I like my plane being pristine as the day I got it.”
“Why not just let Quick Fix and Lug Knut fix up your plane? It’s what they are here for.” Pinkamena was slightly confused.
“Being a mercenary, I thought you would understand the reason why. In our line of work, we tend to rely on ourselves and only ourselves. Any wingpony we get is usually only there to make sure we don’t change our minds and switch sides. There is always the fear that somepony might sabotage your plane in order to get more kills than you or to get rid of you.” Cipher calmly replied.
“Yeah, that would be true if we were fighting for a country other than Equestria. But you can trust these ponies… I know I did.” She mumbled the last bit but Cipher’s ears picked it up.
“I… see. The only thing I am concerned with is my wingpony’s ability to follow orders and if she can be there when it is needed. Can I count on you to have my tail when I need it?” Cipher asked, the raised eyebrow she was giving didn’t have an effect since Pinkamena couldn’t see it.
“Of course! I Pin- I promise. ” Cipher was a little interested in what she was going to initially say before she corrected herself but she hopped off the F-15 and walked out of the hangar, lost in thought before Cipher could question her.
“These ponies are severely damaged and it is not physically.” Cipher mused as she continued to fix up her F-15.
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2294208>>2294559>>2299596 Next chapter is up but the site is not recognizing the fact that it updated.
this get even better with each chapter, i really want to know what happen in those 7/6 years of the life of the mane 6.
i can see something bethen Jack and Pinkamena
and Cipher/Chrysalis is pretty awesome so want since she became a mercerary since the defeat of the hive. i'm really interested to know how
2302355 Yeah it will all get revealed in the Downtimes. The next chapter will be Operation Roseluck and then another Downtime chapter.
2302421 well the story is getting very good so far, if you need another merc, you know you can count with Joystick but since he aready is helping fluttershy killing demons in Dovahsky may cry it would be weird if he appeard again (or maybe not if your choose) i think he will be better in Equestrian Earth went you finish DMC:shy edition (
lol).
2302456 Don't worry. If I decide to bring Joystick in any of my stories, you will be the first to know as he is your OC.
And thus the suspense kills me, blah... I'm dead.....XD, I really like were this is going, very seldom do I find great Ace Combat crossovers.
2302571 Thank you for your kind words.
2302580 Welcome
2302496 Glad to know i'm on your V.I.P List
nah kidding
2302611 Very Important (or was that Impudent?) Pony. If you want your OC in, all you have to do is give me a holler.
2302626 i think is both Important and Imprudent so V.I.I.P list?. And I dont know. i want to keep Joystick for Equestrian Earth since they are playing videogames there and also to keep my OC Canon, remember i said before that Air Combat was not my style so since Joystick's personality is based on me i guess is not his style eather