Taking Flight

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Colonel Surprise walked down the hall in her khaki uniform poking out from under her brown flight jacket. It was business time, which meant she had to wear the khaki tie. She was a Colonel, so the jacket would stay zipped.

The 45th Flight Wing was all veteran pilots. So it didn’t matter too much. And they knew how to greet their new Colonel. They snapped to attention as she opened the door. All she could do was smile as she entered.

“At ease,” Colonel Surprise ordered. “I am going to keep this simple. The rumors are true. All three of them.”

“Yes, last week, the 8th Squadron went down escorting the 7th Battalion’s retreat. They faced off against four dragons. They died honorably. No dragons were killed, but two were severely injured. Because of them, the transports got all soldiers out. 562 dead with 357 injured. But all bodies were recovered because of them.”

“So yes, we are the last Squadrons left flying. I know, this Flight Wing is only two months old. I hope you all like the brand new P-51s. A pursuit class plane, these things are the latest and greatest. And they are nicknamed the Mustang for a reason. They have it all. The power in the engine is amazing. This is peak aircraft performance. And the guns, Apple Jack herself can’t out buck them.”

“6 Warbird 50 caliber machine guns, enchanted to pack a harder punch and transfer the energy energy past dragon armor and scales. You will be firing a mix of Armor Piercing and High Explosive ammunition, but when those rounds fail, the energy will be transferred, giving them a goo bruising at the very least. And they are, right now, putting on the new HVAR Rockets pods. 5 inch diameters. You get 10 of those and 1880 rounds of the Warbird rounds.”

“I know you all have been flying them in tests. I know you are all veterans. So I know you can shoot. We have almost no time to do live fire tests with them.”

“The second rumor. Yes, there is a new class of air vehicles coming to kill the Dragons. They have finally gotten the airships modified for war. Steel and iron hulls; they are bigger, better, and they will wipe the dragons off the map for their atrocities and the Equestrian blood they have spilled.”

“But they have been delayed, again. We are the last aerial line of defense. We are all Equestria has against the Dragons. And the war is still raging. And not just in the air. Equestrian Troops are making a push at a Dragon Cave. And you know those Dragons will be there to stop them. The Dragon Lord’s choice to assault the ponies of Equestria will be their downfall.”

“Rumor three. Yes. I was shot down and reported dead. I was in a hospital for 38 months, including rehab. But I’m back and they will pay for it. I am trained on the P-51s. I got a nice surprise moving straight from the P-14s to the 51s. They did a lot of innovation over that time.”

“Business. No, we are not going to be escorting the transports for the push. We will be leading it. The soldiers do not know details yet, but the push is against a Dragon Cave, higher up. Recon reports three dragons. One adult male, and two adolescents.”

“This has been planned for a while. Recon believes that the dragons are forging armor there, below the cave. But after last week, I expect there will be a fourth Dragon as well. One of the injured ones departed in that direction, from what we heard.”

“The 51s are dragon killers. The 45th and all four of her Squadrons are an Equestrian Dragon Fighter Squadron. And we will perform our duties as such. Suit up. At 1300 we will be taking to the skies for our live fire exercise. I need to see Major Hearthstone, Major Magnet Bolt, and Captain Rare Find in my office right after this.”

“I want to restate that we are a Squadron of Dragon Killers. Many of you came with Major Hearthstone, from the 12th Squadron. I know your steel. Its tougher than the steel of your Manticores. And you guys flew them back after the blitz against Baltimare.”

“And then many of you are from the 2nd Squadron. I know you guys have been sitting hard for the past five years. They keep giving and then taking away your planes while you sat at Kerry Pippin Field outside of Appleloosa. Your accomplishments with the Battle for Appleloosa, the dragon failed because of you!”

“Each and every day she came, you showed them why they could not take Equestrian Land! For 56 nights you took to the skies and you drove her away! For 56 nights you stopped that beast from burning Appleloosa!”

“Your biplanes may be gone, but your skills and your hearts are not! I know you loved the Royal Aircraft S.E.5.s. That was a beautiful plane. And it was the first military plane Equestria had. But things have changed.”

“This isn’t defense work. But I know you were wanting to take it past just aerial defense each and every battle. I know you wanted to not just drive the dragon away as ordered, but you wanted to follow it and to rip it to shreds, making sure it was more than crippled.”

“This entire Squadron may be tacked together from the bits and pieces left, but its always the strongest metals that survive the fire and the flames. And its always the strongest bullets that pierce dragon hides and rip them to shreds.”

“You will hear me say it a thousand more times: The Dragons are afraid of us. Ponies shouldn’t be in the sky. They do not like us. Steel your hearts and give it to them. You can do it. They will fall.”

“Cause dang it! We are a thousand times more maneuverable than they are, and now we are faster. And we can swarm them. For each one we face, they get to face fifteen or twenty. We may not have dragon fire but we have more than they expect. Our bullets can pierce them! We can stop them!”

Colonel Surprise slammed her hoof down on the table. “WE WILL STOP THEM!”

The room erupted in cheers. The Colonel smirked, letting them all see her pride in them. She was proud to be leading them. An Equestrian “air force.” A decade ago, that was a foreign idea. A decade ago, anypony flying into ‘battle,’ that was what the Wonderbolts were for.

The Wonderbolts were not equipped to deal with dragons. Her old life was gone. Now she flew inside a steel tube, behind an engine with 1500 wingpower, which kept her in the sky using steel wings, and had more firepower than she ever had in the Wonderbolts. Even the engine was able to put out more raw wingpower than she could. But that was raw wingpower.

She was the Wonderbolt who led the change to steel wings. She now led just as skilled Earth Ponies and Unicorns into the sky. All they had needed was the wings. Most Pegasus Ponies shunned the new steel warbirds.

But the evolution to steel wings put more ponies into the sky in a direct combat military roll than the pegasi could ever do. And it added more support roles for other types of aircraft. Aerial recon had opened up and became very important. And often the ground troops needed other types of planes to back them up.

Bombers was an interesting group. They would make runs to bomb caves, nests, and dragon resources, especially the forges that made dragon armor. They were slow because of the payload and always in need of planes that could protect them from the dragons that were there. But they were effective when Equestria couldn’t move ground troops to that location. They died, a lot. They were easy targets with no maneuverability.

Even the S.E.5.’s 140 wingpower engine was more than what most pegasi’s wings could do. And it had guns. And it was more agile than half the pegasi in Equestria. It just didn’t have the magic the pegasi had with clouds and weather.

With everypony released, Colonel Surprise headed to her office. The others were right behind her.

“Wow,” Major Hearthstone said. “I never expected to see so much Wonderbolt equipment in here.”

“I can’t deny my past,” Surprise said. “Its why I am such a good pilot. Its why I survived all of those years behind the engine and bounced back after the crash.”

Colonel Surprise beckoned for the others to sit down.

“To business. I need reports. Major Hearthstone, The 12th is the largest of the 45th. You guys have been out of service and resting for 4 months. Waiting for new planes. The escort fighters you flew, the Manticores, did an amazing job. They got you back after dragon fire tore you up. All of your surviving rear gunners were reassigned. Its just the pilots. How have your pilots been handling the change?”

“Well Colonel, its not been easy. But they have been flying the P-39s. Until they transferred them to the 8th and we now know they went down. We have been rotating aircraft so quickly, its ridiculous. Its made pilots more versatile, but we can’t master them.”

“How are you mastering the 51s?”

“They have got a good grip on them. They could confidently take them into battle now. But I hope we have some more time. Every run we get better. Turns, flips, rolls, we can do it all. The P-51s are the first planes the Unicorns have really helped produce. They put in some nice features that reduce the G-Forces on the tight turns.”

Colonel Surprise nodded slowly. “Yes, that has been an invaluable advancement. And you haven’t gotten a chance to fire the Warbird M2 50s. The 39s did have rockets if I recall the reports correctly.”

“We got some practice in with the rockets with the P-39s.”

Colonel Surprise gave a nod. “Now, Major Magnet Bolt, report on The 2nd Squadron.”

“Uh...” He stammered. “Well, like the 12th, we have gotten a lot of different planes over the years, and then they take them away and give us new ones. So our focus has been all on pursuit planes. Not the escort fighters. That is to our advantage.”

“A general complaint is that they don’t turn like the old girls did. We fly too fast to get that maneuverability. And the planes are a lot heavier than the old girls. But that is a great trade off against dragons. Back then, we had no speed and no armor.”

“All in all, we are a solid flying Squadron and are ready.”

Colonel Surprise nodded. “Major Rare Find?”

“Major? I’m a Captain.”

Colonel Surprised grinned. “Not anymore. I need all of my Squadron Leads at Majors. Besides, you earned it with your track record.”

“Alright. Well, I have the misfits. And I know, I have the same number of planes as two squadrons. I’ve been doing my best, but its a, wreck. I have three types of pilots.”

“I have the 10 pursuit pilots. Their last Warbird was the P-38s, the Lightnings. Duel engine and tail monstrosities. They put a lot of firepower down range. So, the pilots were slow to warm up to the 51s. But now, there is nothing holding them back. They are speed demons. And all of them are Earth Ponies. Their lead was a race car driver, and boy can he let loose.”

“The real bulk, half of them, were bomber pilots from 17 different bomber squadrons. They are the biggest concern. They will floor it and put her at max speed, but they don’t do anything but fly straight. And straight. And then they have slow turns. I can’t get them to even do a simple barrel role. They are treating them like they are bombers, and it will get them killed. They will be useless in a fight.”

“The most annoying ones are my fellow escort fighter pilots. They flew Hellcats and Wildcats. So they have the turns, the roles and the evasive maneuvering down fine, but they won’t floor it. They won’t go faster than their previous planes could.”

“Every time I think they will let loose, they coast, or turn, or something that keeps them at those lower speeds. I know they have an extra 100 miles an hour before she hits max. They know it, but they won’t let loose.”

“But the biggest problem is those bomber pilots. They do not know how to really take evasive action and the dragons will burn them for it. They need to be taught it.”

“Understood,” Colonel Surprise nodded. “Obviously, Major Hearthstone has the 12th Squadron, and Major Magnet Bolt has the 2nd Squadron. Major Rare Fine, I will take the bombers and you take the pursuit and the escort fighter pilots.”

“No,” Rare Find said. “No. We need to balance out our Squadrons. You need some of those fighter pilots.”

“While normally I would agree, I can pull it out of them and inspire them. I have a trick or two tucked under my wings.”

“I have no doubt you can Colonel, but I won’t let you make a stupid, lopsided decision like this. That is my job as a Major over a Squadron in a new Flight Wing. Make sure you don’t screw yourself or the Squadron over.”

“I agree,” Colonel Surprise smiled. “And it's heard. But I’m going to pull rank on you because we don’t have the time to let them settle like we want. I won’t fly two Squadrons into battle that are fragmented. This keeps them more unified.”

“We get this one flying session. I will take my Squadron up first, and I will lead them through a bunch on maneuvers and teach them to role, to dodge, and to climb and dive like pursuit pilots.”

“You can’t lead 20 planes from your one,” Rare Find argued. “If we are doing that, then my pursuit pilots will go up with you and help them learn. The other Squadrons make their live fire runs and then my Squadron hooks up and we do our run. And then you come in.”

“Your escort fighter pilots will learn how to gun it how?”

“I have that,” Hearthstone said. “Look, the Manticores were the predecessors to the Hellcats and Wildcats. I’ll put my captains on it and they can push them to punch it.”

“I feel useless,” Magnet Bolt said.

They all chuckled.

“The 45th Flight Wing is comprised of the 126th, 127th, 128th, and 129th, Squadrons. I get stuck leading the 126th, since I am the Colonel. What wants what?”

They didn’t know what to do. They had thought they were either in their old Squadrons or it had already been assigned.

“Whatever,” Magnet Bolt said. “Give me the 128th.”

“127th or 129th,” Rare Find asked Hearthstone. “You have seniority. Please, pick.”

“We were the 12th. So this makes it nice. At least our first two numbers are the same. I guess we will be the 127th.”

“Alright,” Colonel Surprise smiled. “Now we are getting somewhere. We have a lot of work. The General will be watching these runs. So, no pressure, but this is it.”

“No other ones?” Rare Find asked.

“Not that I can guarantee,” Colonel Surprise replied. “The ground soldiers are still getting organized. So, that is in our favor. Every chance we get, we will be in the sky working on our flying. While we need some of the pilots to teach the fighter tactics to bombers. We need them all to be more aggressive and instinctual. As soon as we unlock it, well you all are veteran pilots for a reason.”

A knock came at the door.

“Enter,” Colonel Surprise said.

“Colonel,” A Sergeant said saluting. “The first round of paint schemes are done.”

“Thank you,” Colonel Surprise said. “Take this and begin on round two. 1300 take off.”

She smirked and looked each of them in the eyes. “Shall you be joining me as I check out my fleet?”

They headed out of the building to the airfield. Ponies snapped to attention as they walked by. They were the most important ponies at the airfield, minus the General. But he mostly sat in his office at this point. And he was only here right now because the 45th Flight Wing was being assembled and had to pass his approval.

The airfield was lined with every single P-51 Mustang in the 45th Flight Wing. One row of all 77 planes. Shining silver in the sun as their polished steel exteriors basked in it’s glory. Only the Colonel’s plane was facing them. They walked over towards the first planes.

“You repainted them,” Rare Find stammered.

“Yeah, you painted the noses and tails,” Hearthstone said. “Care to explain why half are unpainted, and then the others are either green or blue?”

“I had them paint the wingtips as well,” Colonel Surprise said. “Each Squadron gets a color. 126th is yellow. My plane has the nose, tail, and wings painted yellow, you just can’t see it from this angle. And the one right past the last blue is also yellow.”

“The green is the old 2nd, so the 128th. ”

“What is the green apple?” Magnet Bolt asked. “The big one below our cockpits on the side.”

Colonel Surprise was beaming. “Kerry Pippin Apples, or they are supposed to be. The airfield for Appleloosa. That’s what they represent and why your color is green. And the apples signifies the blitz. When you fought off the dragon for those 60 nights. You have no kills or raids to your name, but you have that. And you now get to show your skill.”

“Thank you,” Magnet Bolt said. “It means a lot to me, and will to the others.”

“Blue looks like mine,” Hearthstone said as he read his name alongside the cockpit.

“Yes it is. And each X is for a successful mission flown. You were not bombers, but you were close air support and you brought it. You busted up the defenses any cave had installed. And you kept the dragons off the ground troops or pinned on the ground.”

“Its a shame we were halted after our Manticores were ripped apart.”

“Eh,” The Colonel shrugged. “It means I get to have you.”

They all chuckled. No matter how long some of them were held, they knew this was where they belonged. That Equestria needed them here, now.

“Okay, who’s plane is that?” Rare Find asked. “They are preparing the nose to be painted. I can’t see. But its got three rows of bombs from the front of the cockpit all the way to the tail.”

Colonel Surprise chuckled proudly. “That is Major Motherboard. The best bomber pilot Equestria has ever seen. Not only is that every bombing run he has made, he has survived 15 distinct bombing campaigns. As well as other bombing raids.”

“Wait,” Hearthstone said. “I thought they only did 15. 16 was canceled after the 82nd Bomb Squadron was downed.”

“They did. I have the sole survivor of 32 missions where the squadron was destroyed. To the news, he went down with his Squadron 6 times. And now, he is my Squadron Second. The 126th was always going to have him. In case I go down.”

Rare Find was confused. “I don’t recall having him in my training squadron.”

“He came in with me,” Colonel Surprise said. “He is checking on something for me, so he wasn’t at the meeting in the morning.”

“There you are Surprise,” Major Motherboard said as he ducked out from the wing on the Colonel’s plane. “How are the paints looking? The Tail numbers will look great against the colors. I just got the list so each is getting the final numbers put on. Its all going great. Oh, and the HVAR pods are all installed perfectly.”

“Major Motherboard, this Major Hearthstone. She used to lead Squadron 12, but now it is the 127th. Major Magnet –”

“Bolt! It is an honor to meet you Sir!”

“The same Major. I didn’t know we have a bombing veteran of your quality.”

“Yeah, she looks impressive tallied like that. But, 14 of those times I did go down all the way. It just happened to be after I successfully dropped my payloads and confirmed the hits. And the news reported me dead a long time ago. At least 6 times. I kept telling my family to ignore the news, they would get the names wrong with all that was going on.”

“So a survivor as well,” Magnet Bolt said chuckling. They all joined in.

“And then you must be Major Rare Find. We just finished updating the rank on your plane. She will get her full tail number in a minute.”

“Colonel,” Hearthstone said, pointing at the Colonel’s plane. “What do you have?”

“Oh,” Surprise said, straightening herself. “They are in order from when they happened, but its a total of 12 Green Dragons. 9 times the Squadron I led took down a dragon, 3 more kills were with two or more squadrons attacking that dragon. And then 5 Red Dragons. Yes, I personally downed 5 dragons. And no, they were not final killing blow. The final blow is denoted by a silver X in the green dragon. Red is a solo kill.”

The others Squadron Majors, except for Motherboard, were shocked. They hadn’t met a Dragon Ace before. A Dragon Killer, but never a pilot who had killed a dragon solo, a Dragon Hunter. And an Ace with 5 kills was unheard of. Dragon fighting was significantly more dangerous than being a bomber. Even fewer of those pilots made it out of their first battle. Escort fighter squadrons would pick up a kill here or there, but few squadrons had the sole purpose of meeting dragons in the skies.

Rare Find was the first to find his tongue, sort of. “You, you, personally killed five dragons? Alone!”

“I would say luck,” Colonel Surprise shrugged. “But I know each one was downed with skill. And yes, that first red dragon to start the row, that was Garble the Ghastly. The Dragon who personally laid waste to Dodge City, The Castle of the Two Sisters, and Somnambula. The first Dragon to fully rampage across Equestria. And we stopped him outside of Las Pegasus.”

“The Appaloosa Assaulter was an old dragon. We still don’t know her name or where she went. But she was never half as aggressive as Garble the Ghastly. And we still have not confirmed that she was apart of the war, or if she was acting independently, preying on the weak ponies.”

“Obviously, Magnet Bolt knew how to take care of her.”

“Oh please,” Magnet Bolt said, waiving the compliment off. “The 2nd Squadron knows we were just a fly swatter, keeping her away. We also do not think the war began until after she showed up. We think she was acting alone. And yes, we know just how important of a job we did during that blitz. We know our accomplishments. But, it is nice to see the giant apple under our name.”

“It looks phenomenal,” Motherboard said. “They did a great job.”

“Yes, paints,” Colonel Surprise said. “Major Rare Find, your nose and tail colors are red.”

“I still protest the split,” Rare Find said.

“What split?” Motherboard asked.

“The Colonel, and you, are taking all of the bomber pilots. All 18 of them.”

“So?” Motherboard asked. “They all are veteran pilots with great skill. I was finalizing their markers so they got the number of bombs correct on each plane.”

“We will fix it,” Colonel Surprise said. “They have no problem with the the speeds, they just won’t do evasive maneuvers. Only wide turns. Like they were still flying a bomber.”

“Ah,” Motherboard nodded. “I will fix that in my preflight talk and then in some dry runs.”

“Lets talk over an early lunch,” Colonel Surprise said.

After lunch, Surprise walked around her plane, doing the standard preflight visual inspection. It all was perfect. But it wasn't her P-1.

Surprise had flown a lot of planes. She had been with Project Alicorn Wings from the start. It was her job to be the Military Officer in charge. She was the obvious choice being a Wonderbolt. Surprise had flown more planes than any other pilot in Equestrian history. Most were one shot designs. Many were beyond dangerous. Her wings had saved her multiple times.

But while the Royal Aircraft S.E.5.s won the battle for Appleloosa, it only proved they needed something more aggressive to target dragons. Enter, the Pursuit 1 plane, also known as the Flash Magnus. The nickname was for the Legendary Equestrian Pegasus Hero who fought dragons and had a fireproof shield. And it started the nicknaming cycle for all military aircraft; mostly after animals and fearsome things.

The P-1 was painted a bronzed copper like the legendary shield. It was the first monoplane and the F&F engine used was divine. It ran at 172 wingpower, and just barely got the P-1 up into the skies, with a top speed of 155 mph. She could turn on a dime and the engine could not stall. But if it's power decreased, for several reasons, it would stop keeping the aircraft up when it dropped to 166 wingpower.

The first four dragon kills were with P-1s. They solidified the design trend for monoplanes and the need for dragon fighting pursuit planes.

Escort fighters would be designed once a need for close air support of ground troops arose. And soon they were needed for busting open dragon caves, nests or locations. They carried one or two bombs attached underneath the plane to be dropped on the target.

And later, as the planes gave Equestria the range to reach far beyond it’s boards, big bombers were designed to obliterate the land below and truly target resources. They held the bombs inside the aircraft in a special bay designed to protect them. The bay would be opened and then they would be dropped out from inside.

That first dragon kills were not luck. Garble wasn't alone. They would kill his purple accomplice, Fume, an hour later. The 5th Squadron was only 10 Planes and Surprise led them as a Captain.

Grable blindsided them. And he was bigger and nastier than the city before. He was growing with greed. Greed for pony blood.

He had never seen airplanes before. Surprise had already made an evasive maneuver that pulled her away from the purple dragon. Garble arrived and he chased Surprise, the lone plane and what he thought would be an easy target. Surprise pulled into a steep climb, straight up. The only reason the engine stalled was because she knowingly breached the service ceiling, where the engine couldn't get enough oxygen to run.

As she fell back, Surprise outwitted Garble and was able to put the first burst of bullets straight down his open throat. He closed his mouth in pain before he could chomp her to bits. Surprise had gotten then engine turned over and pulled up, avoiding slamming into him. She still got in the killing blow, sending every last bullet she had in a short strafe at his right eye. The kill was almost instantaneous.

Surprise had to land and speed reload her guns. Every plane in the 5th had to land to reload at least three times during the battle. Some had to change out burned out guns from. They never got a good strafing run at the eyes. But they pecked, and pecked, and pecked until his left eye was more than just bleeding. One final run at him and five planes were able to unleash the last bit of ammo they had down his throat.

They lost two in that battle. Burned alive in their planes.

Losing pilots and crew was always bad. It never got better. All lost lives are equal. But that was a fifth of their squadron and 1/10th of Equestria's trained military pilots. Those statistics were shocking, and bringing to light just how great a sacrifice it was for them to lose those pilots. The dead could not pass on the knowledge they had acquired in the fight.

The P-1 was nostalgia. The P-14 was adrenaline.

Another F&F engine, the P-14 tore it up at 215 mph. It still has a low stall factor with 740 wingpower. And It was the first sealed cockpit airplane. That glass casing had saved her twice on the first mission from the tip of dragon fire. It’s implementation saved many more lives from dragon fire.

It seemed all of the best planes Equestria fielded had F&F engines. It's not that they always made good engines, but the best designs were paired with that engine. The company knew how to take that engine and it's performance, and maximize it for that plane. In reality, they had just as many successes in their engines as any other company. And just as many failed designs as well.

But, they were simply known as F&F engines for a reason. Their designers, the Flim and Flam brothers, were known to be scam artists. And pony's mistrust was well earned. But one of their scams was with cider and it required a cider maker that worked really well, until they overrode the screening process to compensate for higher demand, shooting themselves in the hoof.

They were always good at doing their craft right, with quality materials. It is turned out that the engine they used for that cider machine was almost perfect for the first warplane. Their take over of a chunk of Las Pegasus gave them the bits they needed and F&F Engine Corporation was born.

The P-14 was also the first 'warbird.' The 14 took pursuit to a whole new level. They had developed bombers and escort fighters by the time it was introduced, but the 14 meant business. It had 4 wing mounted machine guns, whereas all previous planes had their guns mounted in front of the cockpit. That development alone made it a better attack plane.

The escort fighters we're excellent turn fighters. They needed that agility to turn and dive on a target to bomb dragon cave and bust resource stocks. And avoid dragon fire when their focus couldn’t be on the dragon.

That is what the soldiers jobs were, killing dragons. But that required the escort fighters to he lighter, meaning less armor for the plane. When it came to fighting dragons, they were adequate. Their turning ability gave them the edge in evading attacks, but they were slower. Even later models only had 2 guns in the wings. The Hellcats had finally put a 50 cal in each wing alongside a 30 cal.

The P-14 relied on the heavier engine to give it raw power and then big guns and multiple guns to bust up dragons in the initial head on attack. Their speed meant dragons had trouble hitting them with a swipe of their arms or tails before they were gone and setting up another run at the dragon. While the P-14s couldn't carry bombs, each was packed with the heaviest guns and ammo Equestria could put into the design.

Surprise had spent 45 months leading the 5th Squadron. They were apart of the 3rd Flight Wing, which had an escort fighter squadron and a bomb squadron. Most of those missions were running screens for the bombing runs. They would keep the dragons busy while the bombers targeted their homes, forges, and piles.

Dragons came and went as they sought out the best place to strike Equestria. They scored more hits than they ever killed. Dragons often broke off the fight if they felt they were losing. Especially if they came in a group and they were the last alive.

They preferred to come back later and fight again. They knew they were killing a lot of pilots. They often had would challenge squadrons before battle. They kept a close count of each kill they made, and they proudly announced it before known battles.

The other four solo Dragon kills Surprise had were all logistically like killing Garble. A Dragon came at them from a hidden spot, Surprise had just been forced apart, and Surprise was their target. Classic hunter mentality: Pick off the old, sickly, young, or solo prey first. Spend as little energy to get your food.

Each Dragon found her the direct opposite and lost before Surprise could get backup. Every other solo kill was also because a dragon tried to target a single plane that had been forced apart. That didn’t make it any less impressive.

But then it ended. In her last fight, the 5th Squadron brought down 2 dragons, injured 3 and lost almost everypony doing it. Five survived. Three were still ‘recovering’. They would never live a normal life, crippled forever, despite the greatest medial and magical sciences could provide.

And the other, she was done being a pilot. Her spirit was broken. She had 2 solo kills to her name and had been with the 5^th from the very beginning.

Surprise turned to her service crew chief, Glowsticks. The crew chief oversaw the maintenance, logs, and everything to do with that plane and that pilot.

“Lets get me up in the air. I want to watch them take off from a good spot.”

“Alright!” Glowsticks said.

Glowsticks got other service crew members over to remove some stuff and prepare to move the chock blocks from the wheels. He put his ear muffs on to damped the roar as she brought her engine to life in one go.

Surprise didn’t let it idle long. She gave it several good revs, stuck her head out of the cockpit to nod that she was ready. The chock blocks were removed and Surprise floored it.

Surprise was skipping all protocol and wasn’t even taxiing out to the real runway. She was in front of the hangers and buildings with only a quarter of the room. She kept everything down until the last minute when she adjusted the flaps and pulled up. Her wheels barely made it over the administration building.

Surprise did an aileron roll in victory before pulling up into a full climb. She chose her peak, adjusted as she reduced power to the engine, and gently flipped backwards. She floored it and came screaming out of the dive over the row of planes. She had just shown them the peak performance of the Mustang.

The tough turn she did pulling out of the dive was impossible on any other aircraft. Not because the craft was unable to do it at such an angle and such a tight turn, but because the gravity forces on the pilot were too great and she would have blacked out. Most of the planes couldn’t do that tight of a maneuver. But the internal dampeners the Unicorns did for each of the Mustangs was amazing. It was why there were only 87 ever produced. And three had already crashed in tests.

“Leaving me to do all the work?” Motherboard asked over their radio.

“Eh, you can cover it. I needed to let loose and have some fun.”

“You almost destroyed the building. I am sure they have at least one heart attack for that stunt.”

“I would only have damaged my office, which I also would not have needed.”

They both laughed.

“I never would have said you could pull that off. That anypony could have. The designers never would have said it was possible.”

“The designers don’t know a few tricks, that I keep in reserve. They are trusted only to the greatest pilots of Equestria. Now that you have seen it, I will teach my Majors and a few of the other top pilots in the 45th how to do it. We never will have that short of a runway.”

“Don’t get me started on runway lengths. They skimp on a lot of them because of what we at the top can do. Payloads suck and I have had several close calls because they didn’t account for something. Riddle Field has that nickname for a reason. I made five take offs at full loads from that crap shoot, and 3 1/2 landings.”

“All were guesses and intuition to get off the ground and safely land. After the first take off, they had to cut down a lot more trees in front of and behind the runway. And that half came from one of the riddles getting me on the third mission. Tore the wheel right off for no reason.”

“I know my takeoffs and landings.”

Surprise chuckled. “I still have almost five times as you. I have more crashes than you have missions. I have had more half landings than you have had landings. But, I need you to–”

“Make sure the bombers do short take offs.”

“Exactly!”

“We will be with you in ten minutes. I just finished my inspection as you took off.”

Surprise put herself into a wide, slow, circle pattern over the airfield. From above, she could easily tell that every nose and tail was painted, and the wing tips also stood out. Even the yellow stood out against the shining steel.

The 126th Squadron pulled out and taxied to the launch point. Several red tips joined them and formed up. They were the Dragon Killer Pilots. All had at least 2 Squadron kills to their name. They set up with the 126th. There was a guide for every two pilots. 9 groups.

Motherboard launched and gave it everything. As soon as he could, it was up and away at a sharp angle to get clear and be ready to fight. He was about halfway down the runway when he was airborne. Just like it should be for a pursuit plane.

The two planes behind him got similar launches. Every pursuit pilot took off in a similar, but unique manner, but with the same attitude of owning the skies. And the bomber pilots mimicked it very well.

They formed up in the skies. A stack of the 3 x 3, with the other rows slightly behind the row in front. Surprise was the lone plane above.

“Welcome all my Yellows to the 126th Squadron. I didn’t listen to the Major talk to you. I had other things to do. You should know that as of now, you were bomber pilots. Now you are pursuit pilots, to be Dragon Killers.”

“You have a unique advantage few new pursuit pilots ever get. You all are all veteran combat pilots on another type of aircraft. So, the controls are familiar to you and better, so is the adrenaline of combat. I got to really experience the magical dampening system when I launched and pulled my stunts, so tight turns because you can make them.”

“We don’t have time anymore. You have been with these planes for 2 months. I just got here yesterday. There is no time to mess around. You have to be the master of the skies with this Warbird.”

“And I can already tell, you are right on that edge. You took off like a pursuit pilot having to rush off to take on an attacking dragon. You have this. Just believe, fake it till you make it, and trust us that we are not pushing you too far.”

“Ma’am? Or Sir?”

“Yes, Yellow 17, Uhh,”

Surprise was scanning her list for the name. She had a special addition to her cockpit. Her radio had little lights next to that a plane ID. In this case, it was Yellow 17’s light that lit up. She had four displays like that, one for each Squadron. But it didn’t give a name. That was on her paper chart she had taped to the side of her window.

“It’s Captain Eclipse.”

“Ah! There you are on my list! I will have you all down soon enough. But yes, I take both, but prefer Ma’am.”

“How much have you flown this plane if you just got in yesterday? Your take off stunt was… well amazing.”

“I’ve gotten some flying time in,” Surprise replied. “Once I was out of the hospital, I was grounded from entering combat. They put me back in with the aviation project. They never liked me leaving it as it’s military adviser, but they couldn’t complain after I killed Garble alone and then finished off the Fume with my Squadron.”

“I was forced back into that project. I tested six planes, including the D-7 Hellcat and the B-6 Marauder. The P-51 was introduced to me four months ago. I got five test runs, including live fire. I crashed two of them. One was a landing gear defect.”

“We knew we were out of time, and needed more to stall. I got the Mustang into production and took over the new Flight Wing. The A-10 is already in production and pilots are being trained on it. This is probably the last pursuit aircraft. But we will hold her until its over.”

“A-1?” Red 4 asked.

“Assault Aircraft 1. You didn’t think that because of those new airships, that our job was done? No, the direction aviation is being taken is assault. Heavily gunned and armed aircraft that mix between the pursuit and the bombers. Pretty much, taking this and strapping a few bombs and more rockets onto it. But that means this would need to be a bigger plane and a much more powerful engine. And they want to add 20mm auto cannons to the gun list.”

Motherboard chuckled over the radio. “Yes, she isn’t thrilled. Neither am I. And we have extensively tested several models. But, we have a job to do, in the here and now.”

“I hope you all saw my initial take off, because we are not going to start easy. You showed you can take off like a Dragon Killer, now its time to finalize flying like a DK.”

“We will start with the aileron roll. Which is also known as a victory roll. Barrel rolls are great tools to avoid things, especially dragon fire, but the aileron roll serves no combat purpose. We do it after a successful win. When it is safe.”

“This roll is inline. Which means you don’t move, you only roll while flying straight. We will start with the four points. Its a box. Left wing up, upside down, left wing down, right side up. Show me you can do each point for half a second. Later we can do it seamlessly. After this, the rest is easy. You all are already speed demons. I wouldn’t ask you to do anything I know you can’t do. I’ll demonstrate.”

Surprise gunned it, getting in front of them enough to safely do the roll. It was choppy, displaying each point perfectly. Then she did a seamless roll before pulling up and sliding back to the position above them where she could watch.

“First time for everything,” Motherboard said moving out front. “I haven’t ever done this. Bombers don’t have this agility.”

Despite never doing it, he pulled it off well. He pulled away, breaking from the formation. He didn’t need to be there. They would form up on him after. His first pilot came out and performed the roll. There was a lot of shaking, but it worked well enough. The second dove when she tried to go upside down.

“I’ve got this!” Yellow 4 said, zooming back up.

She gave it another go and performed it well. The next one up was a pilot with 4 squad dragon kills, one of them being the final blow. The Aileron roll was demonstrated perfectly. His two did fine.

It was Yellow 12 who had freaked out and ended up diving. He barely saved himself from crashing, nose first. Even with the dampeners, it would have meant death.

“That’s okay,” Surprise said. “You pulled yourself out of that dive perfectly. It was aggressive and confident. At least that’s what we saw. And its what matters. You can freak out in the cockpit, but never show it with the plane. We will give it another go later.”

“I am pushing you hard. This should help you all lose your fear of tight turns by seeing the plane easily handle something that impresses so many. We don’t have the luxury of training any longer. You can do this. You have been flying them for 2 months.”

Yellow 12’s light came on. “Two months, but we have only gotten in 14 runs. 54 flight hours.”

“Huh,” Surprise said. “I thought you had at least 100 flying hours. You should have that for training on a new plane for 2 months.”

Red 3’s light came on. “They dragged in. We only got the last planes in 5 days ago. So, it was really spaced out when we could logistically fly. A lot of the maintenance and basic work on each plane was done overnight.”

“Well, we can’t fix it,” Surprise replied. “We just have to roll with it. You all are doing fine. Let's get back to the rolls.”

The rest finished with various results. Nothing too bad. After some more turn work, the red pilots were released to head back to their Squadron and get to work on their escort fighter squadmates.

Green 1’s light came on, Magnet Bolt. “Colonel. The 128th Squadron is beginning our live fine run.”

“Roger that, good luck!”

Surprise kept pushing the 126th as she began to work them through climbs and dives. They were taught and tested on flipped back after a climb. It wasn’t as extreme as she did in her take off expedition, but it still was a tight turn at the top. A lot of dragons fell prey to the climb and reverse tactic. And it gave the rest of the squadron an amazing target whenever a dragon focused on one plane.

“Colonel, that was amazing work by the 128th.” The message was only to her and it was the General.

Surprise flipped her radio to the tower’s. “Thank you General. That is good to hear.”

Surprise turned her full attention back to her Squadron. Yellow 4 was in a climb. Surprise watched him idle his engine and flip like she did. He slammed it home.

“Showoff,” Surprise said. “But it looked good.”

“A note to you all, the engine’s power is reduced. In this case, it was put in idle. That is fine. Never kill your engine. If it won’t restart, you are in trouble. You need the thrust to maneuver as you fall. You don’t want to slam into the dragon or end up straight into it’s open mouth.”

Blue 1 flashed. “The 127th Barnstormers are going in for the test run.”

“Roger that Blue 1, enjoy.”

Red 1 flashed. “We are not going to be out done. And we are the 129th Red Angels. We are in the air and on the scene. We have a lot of friends who went down. We will be their angels in the sky, watching over their graves, and dealing righteous retribution!”

“Roger. If that makes you happy.”

“And you? Green is still trying to come up with something better than the Angry Apples.”

Surprise made sure her whole Squadron could hear her. “126th Squadron is the Equestrian Dragons.”

“That’s it?” Rare Find asked.

Motherboard laughed over the radio. Over everypony’s radio in the 45th Flight Wing. “That’s it? Its got more power than our planes themselves. The 5th Squadron was retired when they went down. The 5th Squadron has more dragon kills to it’s name than any other Squadron. All of their members had a solo kill. At least one solo kill. The 5th was named the Equestrian Dragon Squadron by Celestia herself after they downed the first Dragons and stopped that rampage. The Colonel is the last flying 5th Squadron member. And she isn’t going to let that name go. Not while she is flying.”

“1 2 9, get ready for your run,” Surprise quietly ordered.

She wasn’t going to explain anything or talk about the name at all. And it wasn’t because Motherboard said it all. There was no way to explain it to everypony. She was The Equestrian Dragon. That was something that could never be taken away. It was one thing to be a Wonderbolt, but it was another to be bestowed the title by Celestia herself.

Surprise did some solo flying while they waited for the test track to be ready. She needed it to clear her head. Motherboard had it all covered. He was just talking tactics as they flew in a basic formation.

When they were up, Surprise slipped into the front position and led them into the track. They were spaced out. It was obvious they knew how to fly in their formations. This was live fire so the targets need a second to pop back up.

And Surprise was immediately pissed off about it. It was the same system that had always used. She had designed the system. It was like flight school for young pegasi; rings to go through as targets presented themselves. It had roles, dives and even more complicated maneuvers to simulate evasive maneuvering by putting rings in places where you had to do something like a barrel roll out to get to it.

That wasn’t the problem. The problem was they were using the same track that was used for the P-14s. Its fine if they recycled tracks and put some together, but she knew the track perfectly. She could fall asleep and still do it perfectly. Even the targets were in the same spot. And it only took a single shot for her to blast them.

The track ended with a harmless cloud wall. Surprise let a pair of rockets go to bust them apart and so she could slip through. That was the only change, right at the end.

“Nicely done Colonel,” The General said.

"No it wasn't! They recycled the P-14 track. I could do it in my sleep. Somepony didn’t think about who was flying.”

Surprise put herself into a tight twist and then shot straight up, letting out her pent up frustration. It also got her above the track as she watched her Squadron zip through it. They had great speed, good accuracy, and fluid movements. They had learned well.

Surprise landed and taxied into the hanger. The others had lined back up outside. She killed the engine and jumped out before the chock blocks were even in place. Glowsticks was right there with her log book.

“Good flight?” He asked.

“Yes,” Surprise smiled. “They know what they are doing. We unlocked their dangerous side. The Equestrian Dragons are ready to fight. They are ready to kill Dragons.”

“No word has come in. We will gas her up and have her ready for a night flight. None of them have flown them at night.”

Surprise nodded. “Get them all ready. We may not have time for a night flight. But if we do, I’ll get us in the sky to do one run.”

“Those 5 hours are the longest they have ever flow since getting here. Its always been in 3 hour blocks.”

“Crap,” Surprise spat. “I found out up there their flight hours. They should have had more. I get why, a bit. But I didn’t realize it took so long for them to get the planes here.”

“Yeah, somepony dropped the ball.”

“Well, I need food. Thanks for all you do. I hate changing crew chiefs.”

“Oh, you won’t be loosing us. We have a transport coming that will be taking us with the planes. The magic in them, they want approved chiefs overseeing it all.”

“Awesome,” Surprise smiled. “But now, food and work on papers and stuff. At least here, its actually less than working on the aviation project.”

They both laughed and headed to do their jobs.

Dragon Marauder Airstrip

View Online

A panicked pounding came at Colonel Surprise’s door. She rolled over and looked at the clock. 0415. They had been running night flying until 2300, which meant after it was done, she wasn’t done. 0030 was when she finally got to bed.

“I’m awake!” Surprise yelled as loud as the morning would allow her.

She stumbled to her door and opened it.

“Ma’am!” A Corporal snapped to attention with a salute.

Surprise might be in pajamas and a mess, but she still was the Colonel. Just a very tired, hard worked one.

“Orders Ma’am. For the 45^th Flight Wing.”

That kicked Surprise’s mind into full gear. She grabbed the orders and ripped them open. She speed read them.

“Get this copied and to each of my Majors. I need a copy back. Get that to my crew chief, Glowsticks.”

“Ma’am, the Majors are each getting their own copy. And so is every crew chief.”

“Then I will get ready. Let my crew chief know I am taking off ASAP.”

Surprise slammed the door closed in her haste. She didn’t even wait for confirmation from the Corporal. Surprise flicked the lights on to help wake up and pulled out her special flight suit. It had her new position, identifying her as the Colonel over the 45^th Flight Wing and the 126^th Squadron.

But it was her combat flight suit and a mixed one. It held a 5^th Squadron Patch, yellow with a dragon head snaking in from the top. The 126^th Squadron’s Squadron patch was the same yellow, but the dragon head came in from the bottom. Below was the squadron number molded to the curve of the patch, was supposed to be the 126^th Squadron. But it was a 5^th Squadron patch and she wasn’t letting it go, despite it’s honorable retirement. There was no denying the link between the two squadrons.

Surprise went to the mess haul and filled up a travel mug with coffee, downed a regular mug and headed to the hanger. She smiled as she arrived. Not because the coffee had kicked in, but because the plane was ready.

“There you are,” Glowsticks said. “The transport is gassed up and will be taking off before the planes. Once we are done with the pilots, its safe to pull us and get into the air.”

“And I can see you like the decals. It took all nights, but yes. We got them done.”

Surprise shoved her coffee mug into Glowsticks’ chest and hopped up onto the wing’s walking points. She touched the nose art. ‘Dragon Shade.’ Beside it was an expertly painted two dimensional dragon phantom. Outlined with black, it used the yellow for the creature. The creature was just enough to recognize it as a dragon, but enough was removed or faded to tell it was a ghost.

The night flight coined the name for Surprise. After she killed Garble and Fume, she was known as The Equestrian Dragon, and its what was painted on the nose of her P-1. It would be the name that was solidified as the 5^th Squadron’s nickname. Each plane had held some special meaning revolving around her and dragons. Since they figured Surprise was dead after downing her and not seeing her for over 3 years, shade was a great name for her plane.

Glowsticks smiled at her childish wonder. “Your 5^th Squadron symbol is on the wingtips and under the tale number. But, Surprise, did you catch the tail number?”

Surprise looked at Glowsticks. She hadn’t noticed a change. She jumped down and walked to the back. Above the insignia was her plane ID number. Every plane had their own. It was how they kept track of things. And it always followed the same format. Because of the yellow background, theirs were black letters.

126-SDS-1401

1401 was the ending numbers of her P-14, The Dragon Lady. 5-EAF-1401. The first part was Squadron. EAF was the standard letters, standing for Equestrian Aviation Force. It was rare to not have EAF on it. 1401 was her insistence. 14 for the model and 01, because she was the first pilot flying the P-14s. First pilot since she lead the 5^th Squadron. And the other, hidden, meaning; 1 for her P-1 that she loved dearly.

“Alright,” Surprise said coming back to reality. “I need to get flying. I need to get to that airfield first. Know anything about it?”

“I made my calls,” Glowsticks said. “But nopony seems to know it exists. DMA is the code of it. Full name appears to be Dragon Marauder Airstrip.”

“Airstrip sounds bad,” Surprise said as she jumped into her plane. “Airstrips are always small and crude.”

She was skipping the visual inspection. It had just been inspected after the painting was done. Glowsticks jumped up onto the wing and passed Surprise her mug.

“Thanks,” Surprise said. “See you in a bit.”

Surprise slid the glass forward, sealing herself in, and fired up her engine and after it had settled, Glowsticks pulled away the chock blocks. She taxied out to runway and took off properly. She got up high and set her path. For now, she could stay high. But the location of their airfield was very close to the front. She would have to drop in low for her final approach.

Surprise saw the sunrise. She had personally seen Celestia raise the sun as Luna brought the moon down. And not in a ceremony, on a regular day with no ceremony. They had business at that time, what turned out to be naming the 5^th Squadron the Equestrian Dragons. A quick fly in, and a quick fly out and back to the war.

Now, She wished she was back in Canterlot, not on the front. But duty called and she absolutely loved killing dragons. Canterlot was safe, and this mission was a nasty one.

Surprise held in a curse as she finally caught sight of the airstrip. It was easily within view of the mountain and it was short. Its location and design was dangerous. And worse, the short strip was all dirt. Compacted dirt, but dirt. Dirt was horrible to land and take off at. It was a very big problem.

She dove and pulled up right above the trees. She dove hard again and put on the breaks. Surprise skidded to a stop right before the tree line. Several soldiers came running out and helped turn her around so she could taxi over to one of the parking locations. She was in a spot to readily take off if a dragon attacked. Her spot was quickly covered by camo netting to cover the bright plane up.

Surprise jumped out of her plane, angry. “Who’s in charge?” Surprise barked.

“I am,” A major said running over. “You’re early.”

“Early?” Surprise stammered. “I was given orders 6 hours ago to proceed here.”

“Here! I, we, what? No!”

Surprise narrowed her eyes at him. “Why am I landing at an extremely short dirt airstrip so close to the dragons we are about to attack! They can easily find and burn this place before we can get a single plane in the sky. Getting planes in here safely is going to be impossible!”

“I didn’t pick it!” The Major fired back. “General Fire Ruby chose it.”

“Fire Ruby! That dunce! No wonder why! She knows soldiers, not aviators! Why are we not at Clover Air Base a few hours north?”

“Because,” The Major paused. “Well, they burned four days ago.”

Surprise’s flank slammed into the ground as she sat down in shock. “How… how… how?”

“The three dragons attacked it. Two were adolescents. General Fire Ruby believes they know we are targeting them, and came from the mountain. She sent us forward to make a new airbase here. Its all gone. And its ripped up so bad that we can’t fix it in time.”

“The fool!” Surprise spit. “We can’t land here. I have a flight wing coming. 76 more planes! And a transport with aviation crew members! We can’t park here! Few can make this landing. At least twenty are not ready for a dirt strip with with the powerhouses we have. Do you even have fuel for us?”

“Uh, no. Its coming. Any hour now. A long train is coming to expand here. We don’t even have a kitchen. Its field rations. That tent holds everything! Housing, logistics, every crate of supplies. The bathroom is there. That is little more than a few buckets in a tent with privacy screens. We have no running water either.”

“I… crap. No radio?”

“Not reliable,” The Major replied. “We didn’t know you were coming yet until you dropped right on top of us.”

Surprise stepped up onto her wing and pulled out her headset. “I’m going to need to reroute the planes. My radio will pick them up. But its not going to be fun. I think they need to go to Aurora Forward Airbase.”

“That place hasn’t been used in over a year! Its been abandoned!”

Surprise sighed. “But they can’t make it back to our launch point, Luna Airfield. And they can’t go to Clover. At least Aurora is safe and can house them. And, Aurora should have aviation fuel. I doubt they drained the tanks.”

“In the meantime, get to drawing up a plan. We can’t launch from Aurora. Or, shouldn’t unless forced. We need to quietly house each plane. Plan to build zig zag cuts into the ground that we can pull them into. Its not optimal, but those sharp angles will look less open and can more easily be camouflaged.”

“Yes Sir!” The Major said, saluting.

Surprise replied with a quick salute with her wing and then hopped back into her plane. It was more comfortable than standing and she didn’t have much reach for the radio unit. Half an hour later she heard an engine. She tried the radio, but her channels were dead. There was no response on the open channels either.

Surprise hopped out and got out from under the camo netting to spot the plane. It was a single engine plane, with no others following it. That was clear. The Major and several others joined her. The plane was finally spotted and Surprise grabbed her small binoculars she always kept with her.

The plane’s tail tag was easy to read. LNCR-03-FS. Surprise held in a curse. She knew the tail tag. She knew the pilot. She hadn’t ever seen the plane though.

It was a phenomenal monstrosity and eyesore with the engine half exposed and other panels barely welded back on in different spots. A light pastel orange with a blue tale. It was the same as the pilot. The side of the fuselage was painted with a blue shield with a lightning bolt on it. Three red dragons were under the cockpit, and six green dragons were behind them. Each had a silver X in the center.

The plane ducked down to above the treeline, disappearing. A minute later it came low, right over the airstrip. It was setting up for its landing. It was a bumpy landing and the plane’s wing dipped on a bump and almost hit the ground. That would have ripped it off.

Like Surprise, it stopped right at the treeline. Others rushed out to get it turned around. It taxied its bouncing way to the parking spot on the other side of the area just off the airstrip and the camo netting was quickly thrown over it.

He jumped out and walked over to them. “Is that you, Colonel Surprise?”

Surprise scowled. “You better not be here for my job.”

“What! No! No no no,” He scrambled. “I am here to protect this airstrip. That’s all.”

“What is a Lancer like you doing protecting an airstrip?”

“Eh… well… Its all they will let me do. Everypony but the 45^th Flight Wing is grounded. But what are you doing here?”

“We were ordered to deploy here.”

“Here?”

“I’m just as thrilled as you are.”

“Who gave that order?”

“Apparently General Fire Ruby did. We were supposed to use Clover.”

“You didn’t hear it got burned, did you?”

“Not until I landed here. And the rest are on their way.”

“Oh boy.”

“Uh huh. Yeah.”

“Well, the support troops for here are half an hour out. So, they have to work fast.”

“Colonel Surprise’s orders for the design are being plotted out right now.”

“Is fuel coming?” Surprise asked.

“I could see them moving, not what they were moving. The trees were blocking them.”

A dragon’s roar in the distance turned their attention to the other problem. They didn’t need binoculars to see one soaring around the mountain, guarding the cave.

“Oh yeah, they know we are coming. Colonel, how long can you stay in their air? I assume you have ammo?”

“I have about 45 minutes. You?”

“Then you are up first. I have about 30 minutes. My warning light is on.”

“Of course it is,” Surprise grumbled. “How can you protect a place with no fuel? I have a mission to fly.”

“I didn’t expect it to be barren! I didn’t know it was this bad until I flew over it. The packed dirt needs more packing.”

“Working on it Sir. But you are?”

“Lancer Flash Sentry. The last of my kind!”

“Lancer?” The Major asked.

“Yeah,” Surprise spat. “The Lancers are a bunch of hot heads who turbocharged and overhauled their planes. It was never an official program, but by the time the first one was to be reprimanded, they solo killed a dragon, because of their plane.”

“Instead of working in a Squadron, they are solo Dragon hunters. Usually mechanical geniuses who heavily modified a platform to carry heavy guns and boast high speeds. Their planes have killed their pilots at least six times because something went wrong. Its why a pilot shouldn’t fly a plane into battle that hasn’t been through the rigorous testing process.”

“I don’t even know what platform he used.”

“What, her? Its the JI-61. The Jetstream Incorporated 61, a plane that was working to take the P-34 slot. It was given great marks, but they went with the other design. They gave me her after my P-32 needed to be retired.”

“The Lady Lancer already has a solo kill to her name. And she is packing some pretty heavy guns. Each wing as a Warbird 50, and then two Aviation 30s. Also in the nose is two Aviation 30s that I can turn on our off. I can carry 4 HVAR Rockets and a 250 pound bomb. Her solo kill was from dropping a bomb on the dragon.”

“It may be short, and carrying a lot of weight for her size, but she has extended fuel tanks to balance it. The Engine is a Jetstream original V-61 that originally put out 1000 wingpower, but now it puts out 1400 horsepower.”

“There is tension between you two,” The Major said. “Anything I need to know?”

Flash Sentry waved it off with a wing. “The Colonel hates Lancers. She wants them to just sit tight in the basic aircraft and play in a Squadron.”

“Shut up,” Surprise growled. “You are thrill seekers wanting to make a name for yourself. You have no qualifications as to what makes a Lancer and what skills you need. You don’t understand the delicate balance and what it takes to really down a dragon. Firepower isn’t everything. The engine and guns must work together with the plane to create the best thing available.”

“Your own engines have exploded and their own planes have killed more Lancers than dragons. The few of you lucky enough to not have their plane kill them die by dragons before they can do any real good. And then the rare few like you actually get there and kill something.”

“But a real DH Squadron will down more than your solo career and injure or drive off ten times more dragons than you have ever faced. You say the fight is only won when the dragon is dead. I’ve experienced the reality that its always good when the fight ends, even if that means they were only driven off. That is the real victory.”

“Because at the very basics, that is what keeps Equestria alive. We do not know how many dragons there are. And it doesn’t matter. This war won’t end with the death of the Dragon Lord. We need better aircraft to get there. Once we do, we will gain the upper hoof, but killing yourself in pursuits that give no benefit except for personal glory is a failure. We learn nothing from your planes. Not even what not to do.”

“A lone Lancer won’t do us any good in defense.”

Colonel Surprise trotted off to her plane to get back to the radio.

The engineer crew arrive twenty minutes later and immediately got to work smoothing and expanding the airstrip. They also got to work cutting the storage lanes. Fuel trucks arrived and refueled both aircraft. Ample ammo was brought for the 45^th Flight Wing.

The 45^th was finally picked up on the radio they had erected as part of the short, single pony air traffic control tower. They had pushed back the departure time and had an hour in between each departure.

The 126^th touched down first. Motherboard swung his plane right next to Surprise’s. He hopped out while the propeller blades were still swinging.

“I finally heard that Clover was burned. So we held back a bit. Which was a good call from what I can see.”

“Yes,” Surprise said flatly. “It was.”

“I’m afraid to asked, but is that Flash Sentry’s plane?”

Surprise just gave a single nod. She then sighed. “At least he is here to be the field’s aerial defense. Nothing more. He is as grounded as the others.”

“That is an ugly plane.”

The 129^th Squadron landed next. Their pursuit pilots pulled their planes into ready positions as well and they all converged to cover defensive tactics.

“Alright,” Surprise said, looking them over. “The Dragons know an attack is coming. We have to have three by their planes at all times so we can get in the air immediately. We will run in 4 hour shifts. Even at night. We are too close to run a flying defense. Patrols would take us right to them.”

“Save the location comments. General Fire Ruby made the call. That is all that needs to be said.”

“Is that a Lancer?” Captain Split Cherry asked.

“Yes,” Surprise said, trying to not break her teeth.

“Oh don’t be like that,” Flash Sentry said joining them.

“Ah, its you?” Split Cherry groaned. “I hate you!”

“Yeah yeah,” Flash Sentry said, waving it off with his wing. “Split Cherry, you always were a drag. A good pilot, but I found a better calling. I actually have kills.”

Split Cherry was shocked and offended. “The day after you left we took one and drove off three. All 17 of us because you couldn’t play nice! I have 6 Squad kills, and two more that are final kills. When Squadron 83 went down, I finished off the last dragon solo. She had been shot up and kicked hard, but a half hour solo fight. So don’t try flashing some fancy stickers you slapped on your plane. All of us have high kills.”

“Yeah, but the 83 was never able to get a solo kill on her books.”

“We don’t, didn’t, need a solo kill. The final kill count is what matters. If you want solo kills, five of the other pilots in the 129^th have one or two. We have a job to do and we did it. Now we are going to knock out another few. Stay out of the fight!”

“I’m not allowed,” Flash Sentry said, annoyed. “I’m grounded. Just here for direct defense. And you guys are talking about taking over my job if the base is attacked.”

“Cause you can’t defend. Lancers don’t do that stuff. You don’t know how! Otherwise you would be called shields. So get out of here. You are not welcome! And you are just a second rate Lancer! I know Thrust is the genius behind your planes. He was your crew chief. You were a soldier, not a mechanic!”

Flash Sentry huffed and walked away, annoyed that he wasn’t wanted. Nopony had time to talk with him. Their either were busy, or pilots who didn’t want to talk with a Lancer.

And Split Cherry was right. It was always Thrust behind the engine, not Flash Sentry. He had learned to do a lot, but maintaining and modifying were two different things. Most second generation Lancers had somepony backing them with the plan modifications.

“He’s going to attack,” Split Cherry warned Surprise.

Surprise shook her head slowly. “If he does, leave him to me. No sabotaging his plane either. Not even harmless things. No nicks, scratches, or markers even.”

Here Be Dragons

View Online

Surprise pushed the tent flap out of the way and began to head to her plane. General Fire Ruby followed her out. The 5^th Division had arrived later in the night. And they were moving out in an hour after some rest.

They had a regiment of ice archers, two regiments of regular archers, a shield regiment, artillery regiment, two sword regiments and two cavalry troops.

The archers would flank and work to target the head and wings of the dragon. The artillery regiment was unicorns who were trained to blast Dragons with their horns and other magic. The shields were trained unicorns and there for blocking dragon fire and claws. They spread out and protected the archer and artillery troops. The soldiers and cavalry troops went it with swords, spears and lances. There was nothing that the shields could do to protect them in their job.

Surprise had outright shot down General Fire Ruby’s plan. She wanted the Dragons forced to the ground so her troops could combat them. That wasn’t the 45^th Squadron’s directive. They were pursuit, not escort fighters. They were to combat the dragons in the sky.

If it happened that they forced any to the ground, so be it. Forcing Dragons down was a lot more dangerous. It attacks had to be coordinated and designed to press the Dragon to land. The back and wings were targets, not the head. Dragon Killer Squadrons knew that you targeted the wings. A dragon forced to land was a safer target. But they also knew that you needed to swarm and work together, not coordinate and line up attacks that Dragons could defend against.

The General couldn’t argue with the original plan.

Surprise looked at the other pilots on their line. The ones that had been at ready. They would be taking off immediately while the others formed up. They would take their time and get every plane in the sky before beginning. But this close, you needed your strongest fighters to be a screen if the Dragons chose to strike while half the planes couldn’t be a threat.

As soon as the blocks were removed, Surprise was out onto the airstrip and into the sky. She went high to watch the others take off. She was in charge of them all. Motherboard would be directly in charge of the 126^th until she was done with that job. The 126^th was out of their hidden lane and took off one right after another.

If one failed to take off, it would mean a pile up on the runway and death. The dirt runway had been worked on all night to perfect it. It showed as none of the planes did any extra bouncing.

The 129^th was right behind them, to pair them up with the other screen pilots and get them rolling as a whole unit. The 128^th brought up the rear. In 20 minutes all four had gotten off the ground and formed up.

They turned south and prepared for the fight.

Colonel Surprise gave out orders for each Squadron. “Yellow, head straight for they cave. I want each of you to put a pair of rockets into it. Red, dive at the forge below. The scouts confirmed it was real, so give it a heavy strafing. Green, hold back to chose your path by how they react. Blue, the west side is unknown, so shift over that way. Play back and pick your plan as they dragons react.”

“All of you were shooting fine, but watch it. Its 1800 rounds split between the 6 guns. I would suggest rockets against wings. But remember, bashing them is a valid tactic, even on their hard points. They will feel out enhanced guns.”

“We have had a very short time to work together and these planes. But I am confident in all you and your abilities, that these short days have forged a strength that the Dragons have never seen before. I believe we are the best that Equestria has ever seen.”

“I do sincerely hope that we have a favorable tactical situation coming up. But if we don’t, and if the worst comes to worst, I want each of us to do his greatest to destroy the enemy. If there is only one plane left to make runs in, I want you to go in an get a hit. And keep hitting them. Lets give them hell!”

Surprise ended the radio call so that the others could issue individual orders. Motherboard brought his wing into an aggressive forward position. All four planes would make a buffer so that if things went wrong, they were not together. Surprise had done her fair share of fighting in the lead. It was her turn to stay back and let them be the first in.

The sun rose and their planes were glistening in the light. But that wasn’t what awoke the dragons. They were waiting for them to come.

The yellow adolescent came out of the cave and clung to the cliffs. She slammed the cliff, breaking rocks and sending them into a long descent. Surprise grinned. It was challenge time. Something she always enjoyed.

“I AM SMOLDER! COME TO YOUR DEATHS!”

A brown dragon exited. How his body carried him when he was so big and his wings were only those of an adolescent, Surprise never knew. “I AM CLUMP! THE GREATEST FIRE-BELCHER!”

“Do not underestimate Clump!” Surprise warned the 45^th. “Those fat ones are not easy targets. And don’t try and shoot him down the throat. He breaths too fast and you will melt. Hit him in the wings!”

A large column of flame erupted from the area of the forge. Then the old green dragon stood up, over the trees.

“ OURS!” Magnet Bolt claimed.

“I AM SCINTILLATION! HERE TO CLAIM WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MINE!”

The edge of the cave cracked and a giant black dragon popped out. He was a brilliant, black scaled thing, with a white underbelly. Surprise had no idea how he fit in the cave.

“SHADOW IS HERE! THE NIGHT SHALL SWALLOW YOU UP! YOU HAVE AWOKE ME, THE GREAT DRAGON, FROM MY SLUMBER!”

Surprise flipped the radio to all. “Green has Scintillation. I think she is grounded. At the very least, heR age won’t play well in the sky. Red, try for Smolder. Avoid Clump and Shadow. Yellow has both. Blue, make that flank wider. There is no way they don’t have at least one experienced fighter with them. If nothing, hook in and at the three of them. If we can knock Smolder and Clump to the ground, we will be in good standing. ”

Surprise flipped the radio back to only Yellow. Motherboard, rocket clump, we need him distracted. The rest of us will roll in and work on that giant Shadow dragon. Don’t shoot and soar over. Make your shots and evade.”

Surprise did a aileron and picked up her radio’s receiver. She flipped on the ‘D’ switch. A new piece they had installed with her Radio. It took the Unicorns a while to figure out. It was a projection spell that allowed her to challenge the dragons back.

“Dragon’s, this is Colonel Surprise! The Equestrian Dragon! I have downed five of you by myself. I know you know my name. I am a phantom, a shade, who is back to haunt your lives. There is no killing me!”

“EQUESTRIA WILL NOT BOW TO YOU!”

Off to their west came a mighty roar. A brilliant blue dragon in golden armor arose from the forest. Standing on her hind legs, the top of the trees didn’t come halfway up her belly. And her face mask was thick armor. It would be difficult to down her.

“I AM EMBER! SLAYER OF THE DRAGON LADY! IT CAN NOT BE!”

Surprise smiled. She had drawn one out with her challenge. And it was the Ember she had drawn out. They had clashed over three dozen times. And she was huge. At least twice the size since their last meeting. Ember was a real fighting dragon. She came only to fight, not conquest. And she was the best at it.

Ember know what Surprise looked like. Surprise slid the glass top back and unbuckled herself. She stood in her seat, presenting herself. Surprise dropped back down and did a nice, wide S turn, showing off her kill markers. They were close enough the dragons could see them. Ember knew Surprise was back.

Surprise buckled back in as Motherboard and his wing launched their rockets. They rolled in different direction. One followed Motherboard and then sent another set of rockets into the cave. The fire that erupted from inside wasn’t the rockets. It was a dragon in pain.

The injured one they had planned on poked his head out. He was Lava. And he had taken down almost 80 planes.

Surprise’s wing rolled with her out so they launched rockets and guns at Lava. Most rang home. The other three wings in Yellow opened up on Shadow and successfully evaded. Shadow was clearly new at this.

Red tore into Smolder. Smolder was ready, tucking her face away and pulling her wings in to protect them. But she didn’t plan on rockets intentionally striking above her to drop rocks on her head. She had to dive and get out of the way. She began to chase one of Red’s wings.

Green split and dove on Scintillation. She shot fire at them, but their wide pattern allowed them to easily roll out of the way. Rockets and lead were released. She could do little to avoid it.

Magnet Bolt went into a climb right above her. He rolled back and dove. He was looking for damage dealt, not an attack. A wing was torn off and she was bleeding from it. Otherwise, her old hide protected her. There was evidence of their battle over Appleloosa on her hide.

Scintillation roared at Magnet Bolt. She called fire to to her throat but a rocket slammed into her neck, sending it shooting off to the side. Magnet bolt drilled a long, angry burst at her head. He had wanted to do that for years, he was not being denied. It wasn’t into the mouth, but he saw the rounds pound home, leaver her eyes destroyed and more damage behind them.

Magnet Bolt pulled up and away, evading any potential follow up attack. He got cheers over the radio as the others confirmed the kill.

“Green, go after Clump!” Magnet Bolt ordered.

Magnet bolt was going straight at a Red wing. Smolder was chasing them. He launched a short burst at Smolder, right over a plane’s head. Smolder reeled from the attack and took multiple strikes from other Red wings. Smolder was left falling to the ground where she crashed into the trees.

Rare Find issued orders. “Red, back up Blue against Ember!”

Rare Find looked over at Blue and saw why Ember was able to knock Surprise out of the sky. She forced two planes to break off an attack with her breath, while swiping at another group. He tail destroyed another plane with a swipe, shattering it 5 parts.

Each wing went separate directions. The cockpit was compressed into itself where the engine was forced back. The rear fuselage went up as it broke from the impact of the engine and the tail was torn backwards.

Rare Fine looked for the tale. He finally saw it falling. 127-EAF-2001. 2001 was the designation for Hearthstone. The first in the second squadron of the 45^th. 2 and then 1.

And Ember was untouched. She roared in victory as the 127^th pulled away to reorganize.

The death was reported to Surprise, but it was her job to focus on Shadow. She let a single pull of the trigger go and then climbed. She was trying to distract him. It did, for half a second. But a Yellow wing came up and stuck his underbelly and that ended that chase. He was so big he didn’t need to do anything but swipe, launch trees and breath fire. His wings were pulled in tight.

As Surprise flipped down and dove on Shadow, she caught sight of clump. He had his back against the mountain to block attacks and was quickly belching fire in an impressive defense. But he was panicking. Surprise saw a plane get cooked and go down, every piece fused together by the flash of heat. It boosted Clump’s morale to dangerous levels.

Surprise turned her mind back to Shadow. She picked out his wings and launched her third set of rocks at them. She let her guns loose, working to poke holes in his wings to make him bleed. A bleeding dragon often second guessed their attacks.

Surprise pulled up right before hitting him, hugging his back for a second as she looked for holes. She leveled out to stay above the trees. There were no holes. He hide was as thick as he was big. They had fought large dragons before. Ember was larger by a good deal than many of the rampaging dragons. But she was half his size. He was unresponsive to anything they were throwing at him.

Lave lunged. They had thought he was killed. A bad call. And Yellow 8 was destroyed by his jaws. It was the last plane Lava would ever kill as all six rockets exploded in his mouth. Yellow 8 had launched them as it ended for her.

Surprise banked around hard. She was coming in hot and fast. Her target was the wings on Shadow. From the angel of the tree line, she might be able to get under them a bit so that the strong scales didn’t reinforce the wings and prevent them from ripping.

Surprise let it rip and pulled up. It did absolutely nothing.

“Motherboard, talk to me,” Surprise said.

“I’ve seen plenty of dragons, but that is a new one. And big. I don’t know. I assume your attempts at the wings proved useless?”

“Yeah?”

“He is a big boy. I’ll make a pass for his belly.”

Clump took down another plane from his fire breath and threw a rock at a pair, taking out the lead plane. They tried to bring rocks down on him, and it worked, but it only gave him a few bumps on his big, stupid head. He still kept burping. Red was down five planes now.

Rare Find pulled up and around, breaking away to reform. Two others came up on him and he lead them into a tough attack angle. They came to the cliffs and turned on their sides, hugging them as they sped along. They fired, targeting the wings.

They tore into one and he stumbled. Before he could fall, Clump caught himself on the cliff. He launched off it. He caught of the planes with Rare Fine with a swipe of his tail, ripped the wings off a plane coming right at him, and bear hugged a third plane.

They crashed to the ground below. He was immediately assaulted with ice arrows as the ground forces had arrived. His time was over.

“Colonel,” Rare Find said. “Down 8 planes. The 129^th is at 10 strong now.”

“Roger that Major. Red, flip down and try and work at Shadow’s belly with us. Yellow will target the back and head while you go low and strike. Shoot long distance. Its dangerous that low.”

Rare Find had three on his wing as the skimmed the treetops. They couldn’t risk rockets so close to the trees. They opened up with a solid burst and turned.

Shadow’s claws swiped them out of the sky. Rare Find was sitting in his cockpit, unsure why his plane had stopped working and why it was going down. He was lost. He didn’t know the tale had been ripped off. Shadow was that strong.

Rare Find gulped as he saw where he was going to land. There was no way for him to warn the soldiers trying to creep up on Shadow. Rare Find slid the glass back and pulled the ejector. He had to sit and watch as he floated there, as the plane exploded into the middle of them.

Shadow saw Rare Find floating and laughed. He regretted it as Yellow 17 put several rounds into his open mouth that his his lower jaw and tongue. He retaliated with a long sweep of fire that burned Rare Fine and a large swath of the forest where General Fire Ruby was actively moving troops through. The shields were not strong enough to block ancient dragon fire.

He was out for a moment and five in Red got in close where the trees had been crushed or ripped out and launched a volley of rockets into his hidden lower belly. His sharp movements as the pain struck moved his body into the path of a plane, claiming another life.

“Surprise,” Motherboard called. “Go! Go high and long. Target his head and go straight for it. We will keep him busy. We need an eye strike Even a single round.”

Surprise pulled up and away. She was the lone plane climbing in the open sky. She slowed down and turned. She would slowly increase speed. But she needed to be slow to target correctly and adjust at the last moment. The long necked dragons like Shadow were very difficult to hit in the head.

Surprise had a good view of the battle against Ember. She watched as Ember took out another two with a perfect swipe, knowingly sending one into the path of another plane so it slammed right into the falling wreckage. Ember’s armor was legendary. It was gold plated, thick, supported by heavy leather, and her tail spikes were well protected with leather. And she knew how to use the armor and adjust to reduce the incoming bullet’s impact.

Surprise force herself to focus on her attack. What Ember was doing in the fight didn’t matter. Not right now. She was being attacked properly and they had to deal with Shadow.

Surprise began to move in, watching how Shadow reacted to each attack. She began to see how he moved his neck as he took hits and she began to track it. Surprise guided herself in slowly, keeping track of who was moving in where.

They struck. He dodged his head to the side, and Surprise strafed him along the face. He roared with flames and Surprise rolled out of the way. She saw flames tickle her underside. The ammo belts were shielded, and so was the engine. But she knew from experience that her landing gear would not open.

Half blinded, Shadow became an easy target. He was more erratic, which down Yellow 11 and another Red, but his belly was more exposed as he shielded his head. Soldiers got beneath him and were harassing him from below. He dealt with most of them by laying down.

That new position opened up the wings for assault and five runs from all different directions immediately busted one apart, permanently grounding him. The forest was lit ablaze as Shadow tried to burn every soldier in it.

Red stayed to do the final bits to keep Shadow down and out. They didn’t want him healing somewhere and to come tramping back. He was going to die right there. He had killed a lot of pilots, and wiped out at least half of the division.

Surprise had no empathy with the ground troops. Over the ages, it was something she couldn’t empathize with. She knew what it was like in the sky. Shee knew how hot dragon fire was even at the tip. She knew the fear of seeing the claws coming and being unable to adjust, having to ride the action out. She knew the adrenaline of barely avoiding an attack. A second life. She couldn’t understand them below.

Surprise brought Yellow into a formation and they sounded off. 12. Surprise flipped on the radio to all Squadrons.

“All Squadron. Its time to rearm and refuel. Yellow, then when Yellow gets to Ember, Blue. Then Green. Red, you are last. Unless you either confirm the kill or run out of ammo, reload last.”

Surprise flipped her radio to just Motherboard. “Motherboard, I think my landing gear is cooked. Opening now. How do I look?”

“Uh, the doors are moving a bit. It looks like your doors are the only thing keeping them in.”

“Colonel, your landing gear can’t open,” Yellow 17 said.

“I know 17. I got cooked.”

“Let me blast them off with a big of magic.”

Surprise looked at her fuel indicator and then at Ember. She saw another plane go up in flames. “Alright. For the good of this group, try it.”

Surprise felt two strong thuds on the bottom of her plane. She tested the landing gear.

“Down and looking good,” Motherboard said.

“Go ahead. I’ll come in last. In case they fail.”

The crews were ready. The planes narrowly avoided each other as they came in and landed right behind each other. It was like a pit stop at the race car tracks. In and out and the crew expertly reloaded and refueled in a matter of minutes.

Once the last was up Surprise landed. Glowsticks gave her a full report on her landing gear.

“A little singed, but looks good. Shame about their shields. But the shields saved you for this R&R.”

Surprise let out a troubled sigh.

“I know,” Glowsticks said putting his hoof on her shoulder. “You guys are taking hits out there. Its a bad one. But its what you trained for. Your duty. It was their duty. They went down doing what they loved.”

“The army?”

Glowsticks raised and eyebrow. “You care about the army?”

Surprise shook her head. “I can’t. I don’t know why I can’t empathize. It doesn’t bother me until I know they took a major hit. And then, its all logistics, not compassion.”

“You and most pilots. They took a lot of casualties. Most of their force is unresponsive, MIA. And its probably going to stay that way. But they got the forge blown. They confirmed the green dragon’s death. Appleloosa is safe forever.”

“Magnet Bolt got a clear final kill.”

“Oh nice. Smolder gave them a real fight, finally picked apart. And Clump was heavily iced out and then lanced. That is the reports. You got to get back into the sky.”

Glowsticks jumped down and showed he was clear. Surprise took a deep breath in and then slammed the glass shut. She hated reload and refuels. It was flying into battle all over again, and knowing you had lost a lot getting to what felt like the start.

She caught up to the 126^th and slid into the lead. Her wing mates were gone and Motherboard had reorganized the other 10 members. But that was better for her.

Blue pulled out when Yellow was halfway there. Surprised almost yelled at them except she saw the real numbers. They were down to 4. And Ember hadn’t taken a solid hit.

Blue 3’s light came on as they passed her. “I’m not a chicken. I know my duty. But must we continue?”

“Yes Blue 3. We must. Ember has again presented herself to us. She has claimed a lot of lives. She didn’t get the drop on us though. But yes. We were to kill all of the dragons here. That was our directive.”

Surprise flipped on the radio to all. “Listen up 45^th. Our job isn’t done until Ember is either dead, or leaves. We were to kill the Dragons at this location. So yes, we will persist. Because we are Dragon Killers! This is what we do! You have been wanting this time to come for a long time! It is upon us now, and we will make it happen!”

“Colonel, Red 4 here. We confirm the death of the Dragon, Shadow.”

Surprise kept all channels open. “That’s good to hear. The only dragon left is Ember. And we will down her. No matter how many times we have to R&R, we will down her. She has a weakness.”

“Have you seen it?” Magnet Bolt asked. “Cause I am not seeing it.”

“No, not yet. But I’ve fought her a lot over the years. At least two dozen engagements. She is more and more predictable each time I face her. I haven’t been able to focus on her in this battle, but that changes now. Red, be careful. Its tight for the R&R on that field, but I know you guys are ready to handle it.”

Red 4’s light flashed. “Uh, well, we all have done plenty of R&Rs. All six of us are the veteran pursuit pilots. Do you want us to form up with Blue?”

Surprise flipped the coms over to Red. “No. I want all six of you two stay hot and fast. I need you to give her veteran hell. Show her that your badges were well earned. Let me guess. All of you have a solo kill?”

“Yes,” Red 4 replied.

“Then show her that you deserve it. We kill her, we will put a blue one on our planes. That’s why its red for a solo kill. Garble was red and killed first, by me and my trick.”

“We will earn that blue dragon!”

Surprise pulled herself up and banked. She wasn’t ready to go in yet. She needed to see how Ember responded to Yellow’s swap out. Motherboard had them cross and drop. They all launched rockets at the inside of her knees, where the metal armor connected with the leather. The left knee was left hanging by a single tie.

“There we go!” Surprise said. “That’s a hit and she was not expecting it. She doesn’t like it. We can’t pick every piece off, but each one we can, the better.”

Magnet Bolt led another plane in and they launched their last rockets, knocking the armor off.

“Now she isn’t impregnable!” Magnet Bolt yelled over their coms.

He even did a victory roll. Ember saw it and unleashed fire at him. They dodged it easily.

It took another fifteen minutes and they knocked the other leg plate off. Green was at their R&R at the time.

Motherboard got a few to line up and make a pass at her tale. They knocked one of the spikes off. It became evident that Ember’s tale didn’t have spikes. It was plane. Having her armor picked apart was really getting to her. She downed another Blue in rage.

“Red, pull away. I want a full diagnostic done of Ember. None of you have seen her. I think I’m biased, or blocked, or something.”

They pulled away and began to circle around. Surprise put them into a more aggressive attack pattern. They fired from longer distances to make sure they were not swiped or blown out of the sky.

“Red 7 here. We need to rock her feet. She’s got her wings in. But they are unarmored. She is wearing armored boot things. It will make it harder for her to feel. Its why she isn’t moving much.”

“Break her foundation and we force her to fly. That should let us get under her helmet mask thing and shred her wings. If we shred her wings, she won’t be a real problem. Starting attack run at her feet.”

Red dove from their various locations. A hail of rockets was unleashed. They tore apart the ground. Red stayed in a tight pattern, shooting above her armored boots. As Ember stepped to adjust for the shaking, a plane blasted at her feet, breaking the ground as she stepped down.

Another Blue pilot paid the price of her rage. One member of the 127^th was left.

“Second Lieutenant Wallflower here. Blue 13. Even if you are the last one, go in and get a hit!”

She dove and then pulled up, right along Ember’s belly. She released all three pairs of rockets and killed her engine so she fell. The swipe at her missed because she was in free fall. The rockets harmlessly exploded against the armor and the helmet except one. And Ember reared like she had just gotten an uppercut in the jaw.

Second Lieutenant Wallflower got her engine restarted and pushed the limits of the magic dampeners as she pulled out and cruised along the top of the trees, trying to calm her heart.

Ember glanced south. And the glance was obvious. She thought about bolting. But Magnet Bolt put a set of rockets right at her eye. They went off against the armor, doing no damage. But Ember was here to stay.

Ember shifted her stance and she tore Magnet Bolt’s plane apart with her claws. There was no saving him as the plane was ripped away from him, and he had nothing to eject with.

Another skip and she whacked a Red pilot out of the air. Her fire breath got a Green who was more focused on watching Magnet Bolt fall.

Yellow 17 dove hard, getting a strafe at her neck, finding that narrow opening. Her head jerked in pain and the plane collided with a giant tooth on the front. The tooth fell with the crumpled bits of the plane.

Ember was enraged, past the point of return. If they broke it off now, she would chase them and burn what she could. It was obvious to all of the pilots.

“No better way to die,” Motherboard said over all of their coms. “This is what Dragon Killers do. We kill dragons and protect them from rampaging against Equestria. We will fight her to the very end. We all signed up to fight Dragons in the sky. It doesn’t matter where we started, only where we have ended.”

“I’m going to keep going in until Ember is dead. Or I am.”

Motherboard went in from behind at her ankles, strafing her lower leg, starting at the bottom and working up the to knee. He survived her swipe and the tree she threw.

She was opening up in her anger. They got her in her armpit, in between her thighs were the armor stopped, and another good rocket hit at her eye, blinding her for half a second and taking out the other tooth her helmet had.

Blue 13 went down while trying to avoid a swipe of the claws. Two Yellows went down from her tail as they dove her her legs from behind. In a matter of minutes, it was Surprise, Motherboard, Yellow 8, Yellow 9, Red 4, Red 8, Green 14, and Green 18. 77 planes reduced to 8.

“I’m not going to say goodbye,” Green 14 said. “No. I am not. We are going to end this here and now.”

Ember skipped over to the side. Green 14 avoided her claws but slammed into her chest. She wasn’t phased at getting hit in the chest by a 12 ton plane flying at 400 miles per hour. That armor was saving her from everything.

“GO IN AND GET A HIT!” Red 8 yelled as she sent everything she had at a folded up wing. She pulled away safely.

“Wing is bleeding!” Motherboard reported as he prepared for a run at the wing from the opposite direction.

He opened up with rockets and guns. If he had waited another second he might have gotten clear. But Ember focused on the pain in her wing and he was an easy target despite her best effort.

Yellow 9 was burned solid and Surprise watched in horror as he tried to eject but was slammed against the solidified glass that would never open again.

Surprise dove, avoiding the tailed and came up and around, putting a well placed shot at the neck, in between the hard armor. She pulled around for another run and saw a red wing fluttering in the wind as Ember sliced open Yellow 8.

Green 18 had launched rockets to try and protect Yellow 8, but they were too late. It was a solid enough strike and enough that Surprise saw her opening. She grinned and Ember knew she was in trouble. Surprise let a burst go right down the slit for the eye.

Surprise had fought so many battles that by now, the best sound in the world was when a dragon roared in agony. Especially if she landed the painful blow. They had slaughtered so many. She had watched so many today go down. All because the Dragons hated the ponies. And now, it was so messed up, that both side’s hatred for the other was more than they could easily mend. Blood was all each side wanted.

Surprise did a wide, slow turn, trying to figure out what to do. Green 18 and her were flanking Ember. Ember was trying to figure out who would make the first move.

“Colonel,” Green 18 radioed. “Its been an honor this past week, serving under such an accomplished pilot. You taught me a lot, even in such a short time with very little contact. I’m not dying yet, or throwing my life away. I know you are not either. But in case the worst happens, I wanted to let you know. And declare, that I have given it my all. And every time I could, I have gone in to get the hit!”

“Thank you,” Surprise said. “It was a pleasure serving with you. Any idea Major…”

Surprise searched her sheet.

“Major Rivers? Any ideas?”

“None Colonel. My thought is, break off and see what Ember does? Perhaps that last strike by you is enough to end this. Maybe not.”

“Maybe,” Surprise said. “Keep circling with me, but lets not stay too predictable.”

Green 18 dove, staying loose at Surprise’s orders. Surprise made several moves to keep her circling unpredictable. Ember showed signs of their impasse. She wasn’t making any moves. All three of them wanted this to end.

The front of Ember’s helmet exploded. Surprise jerked her head to see where it came from. A lone plane came in and pulled up, letting a bomb go. Flash Sentry had given up sitting back at the airstrip as ordered.

The bomb exploded on Ember’s shoulder, destroying half of the mask. The other half sipped off, since it had nothing to hold it down. She glared at Surprise.

Surprise pulled away and lined up a shot at Flash Sentry. He had gone against orders and he was going to pay. Lancers had ‘come to the rescue’ three times for her. And each time it only aggravated the situation. And they always got the kill because of it.

The move crossed her too close to Ember and her fire breath was belted forward. Dragon Shade locked up as it was fused together and Surprise coasted a bit. The P-51 could coast for a while because of it’s design and her trajectory.

Green 18 had moved in. Ember was focused on the Surprise and the newly Promoted Major Rivers unleashed every bullet she had left in her aircraft.

Surprise couldn’t see the results. She was in a steep dive with two seconds to live. Two long seconds. If only there had been a better way than blood. Blind hatred never solved anything. And no matter who started it, hatred still never solved anything.

Surprise smiled. Last time she went down, which Ember had caused, she went down scared. Fighting for her life. But now, she was content.

Surprise didn't hate Ember. Surprise didn't hate any of the dragons she had fought, killed, or never seen. Although they had killed thousands, although they had done so much wrong, she didn't hate them.

Surprise had started her journey as a Wonderbolt. And she had loved it. And then she became a pilot, and then an Ace. And all of it was for the same reason.

She had done it for the land she loved. For the skies she love. For the ponies she loved. She served them in love. And there was no better way to die, and than doing what she loved. And she loved protecting Equestria and soaring through the skies.

MEMORIAL INFORMATION

I do living history. But what do I know?

I had met the pilot, Cowden Ward, who would do fly overs for our program when he could. He was always at airshows and programs honoring our veterans and teaching people, especially our youth, to inspire them to be something more.

Aviation fuel and maintenance is expensive. They often needed someone to help cover the costs to seat a veteran in the jump seat he had installed in the back. I had met veterans who had gone up with him. One had even flown P-51s during WW2.

Vincent Losada was a B-17 Bombardier who flew missions over Germany during WW2. I was hoping to meet him after the program, but that chance never happened.

I've gotten to know a lot of veterans, heard their stories, and done a lot of research. You know what I find? On both sides, the typical view was doing what was right and fighting for their nation. Ideals and taking care of the people often clash with others.

That isn't saying atrocities should happen, especially if we can stop them. But usually, the guy shooting at you doesn't hate you or want to be shooting at you. And you don't want to be shooting at him. And when you get to be 90, you see things that way. You don't hate, you respect.

And that's the worst part about the crash. Cowden Ward died teaching that to people. He died teaching people the history that can never be forgotten. Because history forgotten will be repeated. And that can not happen. Too many died or lost blood fighting two complicated world wars.

In the crash, we lost a WW2 Veteran at the same time. Both were there honoring those who did more than they did. And each day, we are losing veteran after veteran as they are all in their 90s and older.

December 7^th, 2018 this story was launched. 77 Years before marked the attack on Pearl Harbor, beginning the United States of America’s official involvement in what ended up being 2 wars at the same time. 5 survivors of the U.S.S. Arizona are alive, and none of them were able to attend the memorial this year.

I know silver star recipients, and they would do it all again, even knowing why it would entail. They don't see themselves as heroes, but they want to make sure that the younger generations don't have to go through what they went through.

The one thing I can say with the crash, both went down doing what the loved. Vincent Lasoda was excited to be going up in the plane and especially over the program. Cowden Ward was a highly accomplished pilot. Both loved what they did, and both were continuing to pass the ideals that give us our freedom today, onto the next generation.

Dragon War - Blood Sacrifice

by Mindrop

Taking Flight

Dragon Marauder Airstrip

Here Be Dragons