September 1010. Having already defeated the Kingdom of Olenia, the Changeling Lands is at the height of its power. Now with growing tensions at the border, Queen Chrysalis has her sights set on Equestria. The world as we know it is about to be plunged into a great war...
Kobalt Stardust is a Unicorn stallion from Wittenland living in Equestria. With nothing but a passion for aircraft and engineering, he enlists in the Equestrian Royal Air Force. This is the story of him and his brothers in arms.
A story of camaraderie, courage, love, loss, and never giving up no matter the odds.
The sun barely warmed the ground on this cold evening in Equestria. At least the gentle breeze wasn’t as harsh as it could have been, which took the edge off it. Being an airfield, the wind had lots of open space to bluster. But usually the activity around the airfield more than heated things up. Planes of various shapes and sizes were parked far and wide around it. Most of them with ponies working on them. Some were in hangers, but most were on the open taxiways. The ambient noise was shrouded by the sound of engines running, tools grinding, and ponies chatting.
Inside one of the far hangers, a dark faded yellow pegasus slowly trotted through under the wing of his plane, giving his white mane with a few streaks of sky blue a quick brush with his hoof. The sight of the aircraft never failed to impress him. A big four-engined bomber, the Halifax was an older design from the Northern Development Bureau to fulfil a need to carry a large payload deep into enemy territory. It had several maintenance ponies tearing it apart to work on it. Occasionally they threw him a gesture or a smile. The noise of the machinery made it difficult to hold a conversation, so he simply smiled and nodded back.
He watched his plane as he continued to walk all the way to the back of the hanger, where the volume was much more tolerable. He approached a workbench, currently adorned with several tools, but also where he left his letter. He had read it several times already, but he had to keep re-reading it to believe it. Or rather, one particular sentence.
‘By order of Bomber Command, Flying Officer Spark Igniter is hereby promoted to the rank of Flight Lieutenant and is to take command of NDB Halifax reg HP4970 with immediate effect.’
He couldn’t hold back a smile even if he wanted to as he glanced down at his new rank that he bore upon the shoulders of his uniform—the two blue stripes of the Flight Lieutenant.
“Still can’t believe it, eh?”
Spark Igniter jumped at the sudden voice behind him, dropping the letter back on the workbench. He quickly rushed around to look at the older stallion standing behind him. A brown coated balding stallion currently adorned in the same blue-grey uniform he was wearing. “L-Lieut - I mean uh, s-Squadron Leader Hailstorm, sir!” The stallion tried to catch up, which only made him stutter as he raised his hoof in a salute.
The older stallion chuffed, “I may be a higher rank now Sparky, but you can still just call me Hailstorm,” he saluted back with a smile. “I just came to ask how you’re settling in.”
“Well...I haven’t actually been up to the cockpit yet,” Spark admitted, looking over at his plane. “They’re really overhauling her, Sir. I don’t want to get in their way.”
Hailstorm nodded, stepping to the side to look over at the plane with Spark. “The Halifax may not be modern, but it’s far from obsolete. A few upgrades here and there will serve her well.”
Spark nodded in agreement, “I hear they’re on the cusp of getting into the flight testing phase with the Lancaster.”
“I’ve heard that too,” Hailstorm replied, “But if the Changelings swallow us up the same way they did with Olenia, it may never get off the ground.” He turned and slowly walked back towards the front of the plane. “Are the rest of the crew here?”
“Mess,” Spark replied, following behind him. “Would you like me to gather them?”
“That won’t be necessary, I just wanted to introduce you all to somepony.” Hailstorm explained, stopping a few steps out the front of the hanger. He bought his hoof up to his chest to check the time on his watch. “He should be here any minute now…” He said to himself, gazing around the active airfield. All the ponies and machinery moving around made it difficult to spot… “There he is,” Hailstorm motioned to a Navy blue unicorn hitching a ride on the back of a fuel tanker sporting some saddlebags on his back.
The fuel tanker slowed to a crawl outside the hanger, giving the unicorn enough time to jump off in front of them before it sped back up again. Hailstorm waved his hoof over to the stallion to catch his attention, who trotted over to them. “Sir!” He greeted, motioning into a salute.
Hailstorm and Spark saluted back, giving Spark a moment to take in his new flight engineer. A navy blue stallion with a dark burgundy mane, brushed back and well-groomed. He was definitely fresh out of training, uniform spotless. One thing immediately caught his attention on the uniform, though; the flag on his shoulders. It wasn’t the Equestrian flag. He was a Riverlands pony? Spark wasn’t really well versed on that part of the world, so he couldn’t pinpoint exactly where from. There was also the name patched on the breast of his uniform - ‘Kobalt Zvjezdaprah’. There was no way in Equestria he was getting that pronunciation right first time.
Hailstorm cleared his throat as he finished the salute. “Sparky, allow me to introduce your new flight engineer, Pilot Officer Kobalt Zvjez...zvez....uh,” Hailstorm raised an eyebrow and tilted his head to better read the name badge. “Z...vez…”
“Zvjezdaprah,” Kobalt corrected him quickly, “But it translates to Stardust in Ponish.”
Well, mystery solved for Spark at least. His accent was definitely foreign but had a hint of Equestrian in it. At least he wouldn’t be hard to understand over a bad radio…
“I’ll leave you to settle in, with the capable hooves of Lieutenant Spark Igniter here,” Hailstorm turned to face Spark. “Catch you on the radio,” He raised his hoof in a salute.
“Thank you, Sir!” Spark replied, saluting back. Hailstorm nodded, then turned to walk away.
Spark looked back at Kobalt with a smile. “Well, nice to meet you Kobalt. I’m the CO of your plane and its pilot, Spark Igniter. Although most just call me Sparky,” He introduced himself with his hoof held out.
Kobalt took his hoof and gave it a shake, all the while looking at the Halifax in the hanger. “Is that our plane?” He asked.
“Yeah, that’s her,” Sparky twisted on the spot to look at it. “She’s called the Mystic Mare. She’s just getting an overhaul at the minute, strange problem with engine four.”
“Mind if I have a look?” Kobalt asked.
“No, not at--”
In a flash of light blue, he teleported away.
“...All?” Sparky turned to look back at the plane, where Kobalt had suddenly appeared on the wing, startling the mechanics.
“What’s the problem?” He asked bluntly to the mechanics.
“Uh, i-intermittent misfire,” One of them stammered, being caught by surprise.
“Hmm…” Kobalt raised an eyebrow and stroked his chin with his hoof. His horn lit up in the light blue aura of his magic and projected outwards onto the engine. It started projecting through the engine and turning certain parts see-through, almost like he was doing an X-ray of the engine. His magic remained on while he stared at it for several seconds before he eventually withdrew it. “Port magneto is worn. Replace it.” Leaving no room for discussion, he teleported back down to Sparky.
Sparky glanced back at the plane briefly, where he got very disproving looks from the mechanics. Sparky bit his tongue and did his best to ignore them.
He looked back over at Kobalt and cleared his throat, “Let me show you around,” he motioned, trotting down the taxiway adjacent to the runway. Kobalt naturally followed him. “So...you’re from the Riverlands?”
“Wittenland, but my family's heritage is Riverlands,” Kobalt answered flatly.
“Oh right,” Spark pondered. While he didn’t know much about that part of the world, he knew that Wittenland was famous for its powerful unicorns. Which would explain his magical ability… “So, what brings you to Equestria?”
Kobalt shrugged, “I wanted a new life, I couldn’t see a good future for myself in Wittenland...“
Spark raised an eyebrow at his vague answer. He could have pressed harder, but decided not to. Maybe Kobalt was trying to avoid the question. He could just pick it up later. For now, he changed the subject. “Well, you seem to know your way around an engine. I take it you found those lessons easy during training?”
“Yes,” Kobalt replied...plain and simple.
Kobalt grinded his teeth a little, sensing that this stallion was going to have a common theme of short, blunt, vague answers. “So...sounds like you have good engineering knowledge. Where did you learn that?”
“Experience,” Kobalt replied. “I never had the money to replace something when it broke back home. So I learned to fix it instead. I even made a small business out of it back home.”
“...Good to know…” Sparky replied. Kobalt so far seemed...tolerable. His instinct still told him that there was something odd going on, though. But he couldn’t quite put his hoof on it…
At the end of the runway, they turned a corner towards a big wooden building. “Well, home sweet home,” Sparky pushed through the wooden door, holding it open with his wing for Kobalt. “This is the typical residence for us. Enjoy it while it lasts, because I’ve heard rumours they’ll resort to fields and tents if the Changelings blow them to Tartarus.”
Kobalt took a few steps in and took in his surroundings. The stench of the aged wood and cigarette smoke made it smell no different than a typical bar. The subtle jazz music coming from a gramophone managed to slightly overcut the ambient noise of the various conversations happening around the tables, chairs and sofas scattered around the open area. A few dozen ponies were present, either chatting, eating or playing poker to pass the time. An open fireplace warmed the room up nicely.
“Hey there, Sparky!"
Kobalt looked at the mare approaching Spark. A red-coated earth pony mare with a dark yellow mane, quite messy and parted to the right side. She wore the typical dark brown leather flying jacket of the ERAF.
"Or do I need to call you LIEUTENANT Sparky now? Congrats!" She praised him, quickly throwing her forelegs around him in a hug.
“Thanks Snap,” Spark replied, quickly returning the hug. He didn’t hold it for long before he pulled away and cleared his throat. “Good timing actually, as this is my replacement,” he motioned with his hoof towards Kobalt. “Meet Pilot Officer Kobalt Stardust. He’s our new flight engineer.”
“The new Sparky, huh?” The mare grinned and raised an eyebrow, extending her hoof towards Kobalt. “Snapshot. I’m the Mystic Mare’s mid gunner.”
Kobalt simply shook her hoof back, not saying a word.
“Come meet the rest of the crew,” she encouraged, twisting on the spot and trotting towards a table at the back. Kobalt walked alongside her.
Kobalt stopped short of taking a seat, and his eyes bounced around all the ponies looking at him. They were all wearing the same brown leather flying jacket. He was given his own before he arrived, but it was in his bag.
“Welcome to the madness,” An older earth pony stallion greeted with a smile. “The names Barber, the Mares’ navigator,” he introduced himself. His coat was a very faded red, and his mane was even more faded to the point where it was a combination of faint pink and grey, probably a vibrant red and another colour at some point in his youth. It was funny because he only looked middle-aged at best, but his mane and tail told a different story.
“Nice to meet you,” Another younger unicorn Stallion greeted, probably around the same age as Kobalt. He sported a light lime green coat and blue mane with a streak of lighter blue through it. He was looking very sharp, his mane and tail cut short. “I’m Astute, I’m the bomb aimer. Keep the plane running smoothly, and we’ll be on target,” he finished with a wink.
“Funny you mention that Astute, he already might have fixed that problem with engine four,” Spark Igniter explained, bumping his shoulder against Kobalt’s.
“Getting stuck in already? There’s hardly a grease mark on you hun!” Another unicorn mare sitting at the side of the table joked. She had a celeste coloured coat with a long wavy magenta and lemon yellow mane and tail. “My name's Melody, I’m the plane's radio operator...well, ask my mother, and she’ll tell you that my names ‘Melodic Symphony-’” she imitated a posh accent, waving her hoof around in an exaggerated manner “-but everypony calls me Melody.”
Her flowing mane, her cute little face with just the right amount of makeup, her perfect…’contours’. Kobalt couldn’t deny it, she was a beautiful mare. But he knew better than to try anything. He didn’t doubt that every stallion in this squadron had done so already…
At the back of the table, an earth pony stallion meekly raised his hoof in greeting. “Slingshot...rear gunner…” he spoke softly but in a deep voice. And rightfully so, because he looked like a big earth pony. All muscle, and much taller than anypony else around the table. His coat was a pewter grey colour with a dark black mane. A very long straight mane tied back in a ponytail. For such a big intimidating pony, he was very soft-spoken. A gentle giant perhaps…
“He’s also my brother,” Snapshot butted in with a smile, but then covered half of her mouth with her hoof. “He also doesn’t speak much…he’s kinda shy...” she loud-whispered to Kobalt.
Kobalt looked around his new crewmates...seems like everypony was introduced. He nodded in acknowledgement. “Kobalt Stardust...your new flight engineer,” he explained quickly, pulling up a chair with his magic and taking a seat, laying his bags down beside him.
He sat there, and...nothing. Silence. He was expecting whatever conversations they were having before he got there to carry on...but nothing.
“So…” Barber broke the ice, tilting his head to look at Kobalt. “You're from Wittenland?”
“Yes,” Kobalt replied flatly.
...once again, silence. Spark found Kobalt’s silence somewhat irritating, but maybe he was just shy or nervous. Although his attitude towards the mechanics earlier contradicted that thought.
“So...what brought you to Equestria?” Melody asked, raising an eyebrow. “Especially at a time like this.”
“I wanted a change,” Kobalt replied...once again, bluntly.
“Wait,” Astute butted in. “If you’re a unicorn from Wittenland...isn’t Wittenland famous for its powerful unicorns?”
Kobalt raised an eyebrow at Astute. “I...suppose?”
“So...are you any good at magic?”
Kobalt shrugged his shoulders, “I guess…”
“Don’t be so modest,” Spark chuckled, batting Kobalt on the shoulder. “He was doing some crazy magic on the plane earlier, some sort of X-ray spell.”
“X-ray spell?” Astute raised an eyebrow.
Kobalt nodded, “I crafted it back when I was a colt...it’s useful for helping me fix things,” He explained.
“That’s...pretty cool,” Astute chuckled, “Magic like that will certainly be useful. And it sounds like you’re just the stallion for it!” He encouraged with a wink.
“Speaking of which kid, what did you do before coming here? Back in Wittenland?” Barber asked.
“Just a handypony,” Kobalt replied, sighing. “Nothing special...”
“I see…” Barber continued, “And you say Wittenland, but I can hear a pinch of Riverlands in your accent...”
“My family's origins are from the River Republic,” Kobalt explained, “I probably picked it up from my parents.”
Barber chuckled, “So can you speak Rijekan?”
“Da li ti?” Kobalt spoke back while raising an eyebrow, switching to the language as if it were as natural to him as walking.
Barber shook his head, “Only tourist-Rijekan,” he joked, chuckling. “And even then, I haven’t been to that side of the world for many years...it’s enough for me to work out that the last part of your name there means Stardust in your tongue.” He explained, pointing to the name badge sewn onto Kobalt’s uniform.
Kobalt glanced down to the name badge on his chest. “Yeah,” He answered back.
“Even I worked that one out, Gramps,” Snapshot butted in, getting a few laughs from his crewmates.
“Gramps?” Barber scoffed, “Please young lady, I’ll have you know I’m only old enough to be your father,” he replied sarcastically, earning even more laughs.
Kobalt felt the left corner of his lip twist upwards, finding humour in the banter between them. It eventually died down, and the table returned to silence…
With nothing more to say, Kobalt stood up and looked at Spark. “Can you show me my bed?” He asked, taking his bags in his magic.
“Oh...uh, sure…” he stood up himself, clearing his throat. “Follow me…”
Without so much as a goodnight, Kobalt followed Spark through a series of doors leading down to the quarters. Good thing he didn’t check behind him, as his crewmates weren’t exactly looking happy.
“Well, this is yours…” Spark opened a door leading into a small room with two bunk beds on either side. It had a few floor lockers at the end of the room. It had a faint dusty smell to it, nothing unusual. It had a window at least, but the plain white curtains were drawn over it.“It’s not homely, but beds are alright. Top left is yours,” He instructed Kobalt, pointing at the bed in question. “Floor lockers at the front.”
Kobalt stepped in and placed his bags down by one of the lockers. “Thank you,” he spoke before beginning to take off his uniform.
Spark nodded and took a step to leave, but then stopped. “Just a heads-up, Barber snores like a god-damn freight train.” He said with a chuckle, hoping to get a reaction out of Kobalt...but he didn’t get so much as a hiss…”Haha...ha…” Spark left Kobalt to sort himself out, closing the door behind him with his wing. Out of sight, he cringed and gave his face a rub with his other wing.
He trotted back to the mess, only to see that everypony had an equally confused look on their face as he did. At least the feeling was mutual...
“Well he sure is the life of the party,” Snapshot blurted out sarcastically. “It ain’t even late…”
“Oh cut him some slack,” Astute replied, “Guy came to Equestria seeking a better life, and now he’s about to go to war. How would you feel in his position?”
“Astute, bro, we’re on the brink of war, and we’ve gotta trust him to get us home after Changeling cannons have turned our fuselage into Aquileian cheese. Would you?” Snapshot asked seriously.
“I would,” Spark interrupted, drawing everypony’s attention. He took his seat back. “I saw him diagnose an engine fault in a matter of seconds. He may have his...quirks, but I trust him to know what he’s doing.”
“It could have been a fluke,” Snapshot answered back, batting a hoof. “Or a guess to make it look like he knew what he’s doing.”
“Yeah, you’re his superior. He probably just wanted to make good first impressions,” Astute deduced in agreement with Snapshot.
“You’re only saying that because that’s something you would do, Astute,” Spark replied with a smug grin, earning a huff and a roll of the eyes from Astute.
Spark chuckled then looked over at Barber. “Anyway, what do you think Barber?” He asked, looking over at the old stallion.
Barber finished lighting a cigarette before speaking. “I think he’s genuine...but he’s hiding something. Thankfully due to my...ahem, ‘experience’…”
“Age,” Snapshot snarkily corrected.
“EXPERIENCE,” Barber reiterated, “I can make some pretty reasonable guesses…”
“Care to elaborate?” Spark questioned with an eyebrow raise, waving his hoof.
Barber took a draw from his cigarette and slowly exhaled. “From what I’ve read, Wittenland has a pretty big class divide. It’s gotten better ever since Queen White Star took power, but it’s still there. When he says he came here seeking more opportunities, I think he just had nowhere left to go and was after money.”
“If his skills are all that-” Snapshot pointed at Spark, referring to his engine fix “-couldn’t he just...get a better job in Wittenland?”
“That’s a good question,” Barber replied, “Snapshot is right, I have no doubt he could find a better life from himself in Wittenland…” he finished with another draw of his smoke.
“...But?” Spark pressed for more answers, keeping his eyes locked on Barber.
“Think about it for a moment,” Barber winked, taking another smoke and resting back in his chair, tipping it onto its back legs.
Spark groaned, “C’mon, don’t leave us hanging on every word.”
“As somepony who's been busking in every corner of Equestria, I kind of understand where he’s coming from,” Melody chimed in.
“No offence, but I don’t see how your attempted music career compares…” Astute replied, raising an eyebrow.
“I just meant that when you get desperate, you start looking further afield...in Kobalt’s case, maybe even to another continent…” Melody shrugged, “Just a thought…”
Spark looked back over at Barber. “Are they right?”
Barber shook his head, “Not quite what I had in mind.”
“Then, what was it?” Spark replied chuckling. It was frustrating but in a funny way. He knew Barber was just playing mind tricks with them, deliberately forcing them to rack their brains.
Barber took a final drag from his cigarette before stumping it out in the ashtray on the table. “Well, It’s all good speculation...but try thinking about it in the other direction. Instead of thinking about what drew him to Equestria, think about what drove him out of Wittenland.”
Drove him out of Wittenland? Spark rubbed his chin as he turned his thinking around to try and ponder...but he couldn’t put his hoof on anything…
“Nah I got nothin’,” Snapshot folded, resting back in her seat.
“Me neither,” Melody agreed.
“I mean...can we ever fully understand anypony’s personal issues?” Astute raised.
“...Geez, I'm amazed you kids can even read books,” Barber sighed, rubbing a hoof against his right temple. “But I’ll enlighten you. I think he’s in trouble. I think he came to Equestria to escape from something…”
“What makes you say that?” Spark asked back.
“Just a hunch,” Barber replied, “But from what I just saw, it’s the only thing I can think of. Why else would somepony come to a country on the brink of war and enlist in the military?”
“Maybe he just wants to fight against the Changeling menace?” Melody suggested, “If Equestria were to fall, where do you think they’d go for next?”
“Actually I agree with Barber,” Astute spoke up, “I think he is in some sort of trouble...or rather, was...maybe legal trouble. He didn’t sound like he had many bits to his name. Like Melody said, ponies get desperate and go to extreme lengths. Maybe he committed a crime. I reckon there’s a price on his head back in Wittenland.”
Melody chuckled, “Alright mister SMILE agent, even if that’s all true, how did he get here without being caught?” Melody suggested.
Astute looked over at Melody with a shrug, “Who said he came here legally?” He suggested with a smug grin.
“Now there’s a thought,” Snapshot added, “That would explain why he’s giving us the cold shoulder. He probably thinks we’re buttering him up to make him spill the beans.”
Spark sighed and stood from his seat, “We could speculate all night. Bottom line is that we won’t know until he tells us. Let's just do our best to make him feel welcome, he might open up some more once he gets to know us.”
“You got it, Cap’n,” Snapshot joked with a half-hearted salute.
Aside from Snapshots snarky response, everypony looked at him approvingly. “Good,” he finished, turning. “I’ve got some stuff to finish before our training flight tomorrow. I’ll see you in the morning,” he waved with his wing before starting a slow trot.
His crew all said some form of goodnight as he walked towards the door. He trotted out and headed down the walkway towards the operations building. Despite trying to take his mind off it...he couldn’t shake the thought. Kobalt was a mysterious unicorn. But Spark would happily give him the benefit of the doubt down to nerves. They’ve all been there once before after all…
For now, he just had something to look forward to tomorrow; his first flight in a Halifax as the CO.
Spark Igniter looked himself over once again in the mirror. He was all dressed up and ready to go. He wore his usual combination of the blue-grey uniform of the ERAF along with the flying jacket, but with the additional equipment he needed while up in the air. His flying helmet held his goggles above his head, ready to be slid down at a moments notice. His oxygen mask dangled lazily from the left side of it, again ready to be worn when needed. He looked himself in the eyes through the mirror. This was it. He was about to take command for the first time. He couldn’t kid himself, he was nervous as hell. He was just doing an excellent job at controlling it...so far anyway…
His attention was drawn by the sound of the door to his shared room creaking open. “Sorry to interrupt Spark, but we still haven’t found Kobalt.”
Spark blinked and looked over at Slingshot standing in the doorway, sporting the same uniform as him. His lips curled upwards slightly at the sight. He always found it funny that Slingshot was always as tall as the door itself. It was a miracle he even managed to fit in the plane… “As I’ve heard,” Spark replied, “But it’s not our job to babysit him, I trust him to turn up. Continue as planned, I’ll be there in a minute.”
Slingshot nodded and walked away, closing the door behind him.
Spark turned back to the mirror. “You got this…” he said to himself, holding a stare into his eyes for several seconds before releasing a sigh. As ready as he would ever be, he left his room.
He walked to the outside of the big hut that made up their operations building, where he found several crews already beginning to walk towards the hangers. But his team were still waiting. Astute, Snapshot, Slingshot, Barber and Melody all looked raring to go and immediately spotted him as he approached.
“No Kobalt?” He asked as he approached his crew.
“Nothing,” Astute answered, shaking his head.
“Alright, let’s go,” Spark commanded in a semi-frustrated tone, beginning to walk in the direction of the hangers. “We can’t be late.”
Spark and his crew trotted along the taxiway in relative silence, only passing comments about the weather. Small talk in any other scenario, but quite crucial for aircrews. Luckily it was reasonably clear skies, allowing the sun to glisten off the ground. Given the time of year, it was still quite cold, but at least there would be no rain to deal with.
The activity around the hangers was high, with plenty of maintenance crews performing their final checks and rolling the bombers out ready for their practice flights. Spark found something enjoyable about watching the engineers go about what was to them just their daily business. But watching them get the planes ready got him hyped up. He liked using it as motivation.
When he got to their plane, the Mystic Mare...well, that answered where Kobalt had been. The engineers looked like they were just getting ready to roll the aircraft out of the hanger, while Kobalt was standing on the wing chatting to one of the engineers. From the way he pointed, it looked like they were discussing one of the engines.
“Kobalt!”
Sparky’s voice drew Kobalt’s attention, seeing his crew suited and booted approaching the plane. He quickly glanced back at the engineer. “We’re out of time, but re-balance it before the next flight.” He spoke his final instructions before vanishing in a light blue flash of magic.
He reappeared directly in front of Sparky, startling him. “Sir!” He greeted with a salute.
“Geez, don’t do that so close,” Sparky complained, rubbing his forehead. “Where have you been?”
“Making sure the plane is ready, Sir,” Kobalt replied. “Is my job no?”
“Yeah, but…” he noticed the black patches of oil stains on Kobalt's navy blue fur…looked like he was doing some pretty serious work… “Have you been up all night?”
Kobalt shook his head, “Only for a few hours.”
"A few hours?! It's not even eight AM yet,” Spark explained.
“I’ll be fine if that’s what you’re wondering,” Kobalt replied, his horn lighting up and floating a well-stained mug of coffee over to himself, taking a generous sip to finish it off.
Sparky rolled his eyes, “Whatever, but we’re about to take off. So get yourself geared up and in that cabin pronto.”
“Aye, sir!” Kobalt nodded then turned quickly back over to a workbench near the side of the hanger. He grabbed a towel with his magic and promptly used it to rub all the oil and grease out of his coat before picking up his uniform and flight gear that he’d flung over a chair earlier. Luckily with the use of magic, he was able to get himself changed quickly and soon enough, he was geared up and ready to rock.
Sparky opened the hatch at the back of the plane and began clambering in. It was...surprisingly clean smelling. It still had that metallic-oily smell lingering, but that was never going away due to the nature of being inside what was basically a flying tin can. Kobalt must have cleaned it while he was working...
After making his way through the plane, Spark climbed up into the pilots' seat. He got himself comfortable then strapped his helmet onto his head, securing the mask that provided his oxygen and microphone.
A couple of lights flickered to life on his instrument panel, indicating that Kobalt had just flicked the power on. Confirming his radio was plugged in, he pressed in the button to speak. “Radio check.”
“Tail gun looks good, Sir,” Slingshot replied over the radio.
“Ready when you are,” Snapshot added.
“Radio all tuned in,” Melody relayed.
“Navigator ready,” Barber answered.
“Engineer ready,” Kobalt copied.
“Bombardier ready,” Astute finished.
“Perfect. Alright Kobalt, let’s get pre-flight checks underway. How is it look--”
“I’ve already done mine,” Kobalt cut Spark off.
Spark was lucky that he was out of view of Kobalt. He felt himself twitch as his patience wore thinner and thinner with that stallion...but in Kobalt’s defence, he had just been working on the plane all morning. He must know it like the back of his hoof by now. “Okay...guess I’ll finish mine then. Melody, radio ground and get us tugged out.”
As the plane was pulled out of the hanger, Spark coordinated with the rest of his crew to make sure everything was as expected. The aircraft was pulled far enough out of the hanger to freely manoeuvrer. Looking around, Spark saw plenty of other Halifaxes getting ready to go, some starting their engines. “Ready for starting,” he called on the radio.
Back in the flight engineer's seat, Kobalt’s lips curled upwards at the sound of those very words. His magic worked in harmony with his hooves to flick all the required switches. Then with a final hold of a button, vibrations began to fill the aircraft as one of the propellers started turning.
Sparky felt himself getting excited as the first engine whirred into life. He looked over his left shoulder as the next propeller began spinning. Then to his right for the final two until all four engines were idling. “How’s it looking, Kobalt?”
“All engines are within tolerance,” Kobalt answered back over the radio.
“Good enough for me,” Spark acknowledged. They were ready to go...all they had to do was wait for the planes ahead of them to go now. Which only took a few minutes. As the plane to the right of him started creeping forward, Spark took in a deep sigh and gently lowered his hoof onto the throttle quadrant; a block of four sticks which controlled the engine's power. He gently pushed forward and heard the engine noise increase in pitch. As the plane started creeping along, he pushed on the pedals with his right hind leg to twist the rudder to the right, making the plane turn and follow the others down the taxiway.
He kept his distance from the plane in front, not daring to go any faster in fear of not being able to stop in time and slam into the back of it. That wouldn’t be an ideal start to his first time as CO of the plane...the train of a dozen planes crept along the taxiway towards the end of the runway, where they held awaiting further instructions. The lead plane performed some radio checks with the rest of the squadron just to confirm they could all hear each other when necessary.
“We still good, Kobalt?” Spark asked.
“Aye Sir, ready for takeoff,” Kobalt replied over the radio.
“Good luck, Sparky!” Barber added.
Spark smiled. At least his crew had confidence in him. He pulled his flight goggles down over his eyes and concentrated ahead. The flight lead was most likely just confirming takeoff clearance.
It took a few moments, but at the end of the runway, Spark saw a bright green flare shoot upwards into the sky. He gulped, knowing that was clearance for takeoff. “Here we go…” he said to himself, hoof hovering over the throttle quadrant, ready to punch it.
The roars of engines echoed all around them, albeit somewhat muffled by the headphones they were wearing. When the plane in front of them started moving, Spark pushed the throttle sticks all the way forward. The plane suddenly came to life, and he felt himself getting forced back a little in his seat. He gripped the steering yoke tight and felt the plane vibrate as it raced down the runway. It was a glorious feeling, one that he had been looking forward to for a long time. Now all he had to do was not fuck up…
He kept his eyes peeled down the runway, only occasionally glancing to look down at his airspeed indicator, steadily rising. At least he had a few planes width between him and the planes in front, giving him room for error. It felt a little nerve-racking now being the least experienced CO in the squadron, but the adrenaline he was getting quickly overrode any feeling of doubt.
When the required airspeed was reached, Spark gently pulled back on the stick and felt his body being forced into his seat. This was it. He was doing it. He quickly glanced around to make sure he wasn’t on a collision course with any of his squadmates, then glanced down at the instrument cluster to make sure his rate of climb was good enough. Confirming it was, he pulled on the landing gear lever to bring the landing gear into its stored position for flight.
“Congrats on the first takeoff, Sparky!” Astute called over the radio.
“First landing would be a better call for celebration in my opinion…” Astute replied sarcastically.
“I’ll remember that if you miss our practice target,” Sparky fired back, earning a few chuckles over the radio.
Once they were in formation and flying straight and level, Spark found himself starting to relax a little. Maybe this wouldn’t be as stressful as he first thought. His spacing looked correct from where he sat, and being a pegasus himself, he was so tempted to fly out the window just to check out what it looked like from a bird's eye view. Barber navigated the plane perfectly along with the rest of the squadron, directing Sparky to make the necessary turns. The formation held perfectly, and the flight so far was going perfectly.
Spark looked over at the lead plane in the formation, piloted by Hailstorm. Their old pilot, now squadron leader. That old stallion had been such a great teacher to Sparky. He only hoped that he didn’t mess up in front of him.
“Making final approach,” Spark heard Hailstorm over the radio from the lead plane.
“You heard the stallion, Astute,” Spark instructed, gently banking the plane to the left to make the turn.
“Dummy bombs are ready, opening bomb bay doors,” Astute replied, pulling a lever on the panel to the side of where he was laying. He shuffled forward to a scope that made up the bombsight. He rested his head so that his right eye was staring down the sight while he could still see the control panel to the left of him out of his peripheral vision with his left eye. Whenever he needed a better view of either of them, he could close one of his eyes to focus.
He adjusted the sight until he had his target in sight. An empty field that stretched for miles with several circles marked out in thick paint marking the target like an archery board. Perfect for target practice, nothing for them to accidentally hit should there be any screw-ups. The circles were painted in white paint that overlapped each other to help determine how accurate they were.
Astute kept an eye on the target while adjusting some of the settings on the control panel with his magic. When he was happy with the settings, he pushed a final button which began a countdown. “Solution calculated,” He announced over the radio.
“Relaying,” Melody replied.
The formation of planes flew towards the target, Astute kept his eye on the timer counting down. Despite the noise of everything else, he was almost sure he could hear it ticking. When it hit zero, he pulled a big lever. “Bombs away!” He called over the radio. He could feel the clicks on his belly as the practice bombs dropped one by one and fell towards their target. It was just unfortunate that he wouldn’t be able to see them hit from his forward-facing position.
The only pony that got a good view was Slingshot in the rear gunners' position. And since they weren’t actual bombs filled with explosives, all he saw was a small flurry of dust that got kicked up as the bombs landed. Even then it looked like specks of dust from their altitude, and he couldn’t tell exactly when one was them. But judging by the majority landing within the target, he didn’t doubt that they made their mark.
Their practice run complete, the formation turned to head back to base. “What do you reckon, Astute?” Spark asked.
“Feeling confident, Sparky!” Astute replied, “We were on target for sure!”
“Willing to bet on it?” Snapshot asked.
“Absolutely,” Astute sounded confident, “First round of cider is on you if we were on target.”
“You’re on. Same for you if it wasn’t,” Snapshot retorted.
Spark grinned from ear to ear as he listened over the radio. His crew were performing admirably, and they were getting on like a house on fire...well, apart from a certain somepony, but he would deal with that later…
“Hey, fighters nine O’clock, check it out!” Snapshot observed.
Spark turned his head left to glance out the window, and he saw it. About half a dozen planes...Hurricanes. And they were flying towards them. “Looks like we’re not the only ones practising out here,” He commented.
“There’s planes with REAF and CEAF markings. I guess our pilots were doing some three on three training with pilots from the Crystal Empire,” Astute remarked.
As the Hurricane formation got closer, the markings became easier to see. With the Equestrian planes sporting the sun and moon mark of the two sisters inside the roundels on their wings, the same as the bombers. But the aircraft from the Crystal Empire carried the purple snowflake symbol, the same as the flag of the Crystal Empire.
The Hurricanes flashed their landing lights as a greeting to the bombers. Spark chuckled and tilted his wings from side to side in return. He couldn’t help but hear some clanging sounds creeping in around his headphones.
“Geez, warn us next time you do that,” Snapshot called, “I just fell over, got up, then fell again.”
“Heheh...sorry,” Sparky awkwardly apologised.
The Hurricanes flew past at high speed over the top of their formation. Spark quickly saluted them as they passed over. Not that they would have been able to see him of course.
About halfway home, Sparky heard a funny noise coming from the far left engine. Almost like a misfire. Although looking at it, he couldn’t see anything obviously wrong with it. “Hey Kobalt, does engine one sound funny to you?”
Kobalt looked at the gauges on his instrument cluster to try and find the issue...which was relatively easy to find. The fuel pressure gauge was significantly lower and still dropping on that engine. “Does it look like it’s leaking?” He asked back.
Spark looked at the engine again. His view wasn’t very clear, but he couldn’t see a trail of anything. “Nope, no trails apart from exhaust,” he replied.
“Hmm…” Kobalt started twisting a few knobs on his instrument cluster, slowly bringing the needle back up on that gauge. He could hear himself that the engine began to sound a little more normal. “Better?”
“Much better,” Spark replied, “What did you do?”
“Re-routed the fuel. That pump must be broken. I’ll check it out when we land,” he assured.
The rest of the flight was undramatic, and the runway was soon in sight. They began circling the airfield and awaited landing instructions, taking it in turns to land.
When he finally got the radio call, Spark eased back on the throttle and dipped the nose of the plane down, tightening the turn to line up with the runway. He kept a bit of power on to prevent the plane from stalling and kept an eye on his vertical speed indicator, wanting to make his first landing as smooth as possible.
The crosswind was gentle but enough to provide him with a bit of a challenge. Nothing that he couldn’t compensate for though. The biggest challenge was in this particular aircraft, he sat so high up, making it hard to judge where the wheels were on the bottom of the plane compared to where he was sitting.
When he was hovering a few feet above the runway, he pulled the throttle all the way back to idle and let the plane gently fall toward the tarmac...slowly but surely…
The plane jerked violently as a loud squeak echoed through the fuselage when the wheels made contact with the ground. Spark applied the brake, and the plane gently began slowing down, another squeaking noise coming from the brakes.
“Touchdown!” Snapshot called.
“Nice work, Sparky!” Astute added.
Sparky breathed a sigh of relief as the plane reached a controllable speed. “Thanks, guys,” he replied, gently reducing the brake pressure to turn off one of the taxiways.
He followed the directions of the ground crew and parked the plane in a line next to the rest of the flight, flicking the engines off and setting everything else into the off position. He sighed in relief as he pulled his goggles up onto his forehead and unclipped his mask. After disconnecting from the radio and oxygen, he twisted around. He stepped out of the pilot’s seat, looking towards Kobalt sitting in the flight engineer's position directly behind and below him. “What do you reckon that blip was, Kobalt?”
Kobalt pulled his own mask off, “Probably a fuel pump, but I’ll have to investigate,” he answered, unplugging himself from the radio and oxygen connections.
Before he could question further, Spark felt a hoof land on his back. “Not bad for a first landing.”
Spark chuckled, “Thanks Astute. Now let's see if your bombing is just as good.”
“Pfft,” Astute batted a hoof, “It’s not my first time, ya know, I’m feeling confident.”
“You better be,” Snapshot butted in, clambering out of the upper gun position. “You’ve got a pint of cider riding on it.”
The crew opened the door out of the plane and climbed out onto the taxiway. The area around the aircraft that had just been out to fly was buzzing with activity, with fuel tankers arriving to refuel the planes, as well as mechanics on their way to perform maintenance.
Kobalt broke from his group and walked towards a group of mechanics, getting ready to work on their plane. They noticed him approaching and saluted.
“Start investigating a potential fuel leak on the port wing,” Kobalt spoke bluntly before walking back to the main command building.
“Y-yes...sir…” one of the mechanics replied with a raised eyebrow before beginning to do what Kobalt asked.
Spark raised an eyebrow at the way Kobalt acted but didn’t say anything. He still had the euphoric feeling of his first successful flight as a CO in his mind, he didn’t want to kill the mood.
“Ready to put ya money where ya mouth is?” Snapshot taunted at Astute as they entered the building, walking towards the pinboard with the results from their practice run.
“The only thing I’ll be putting in my mouth is that sweet, sweet cider,” Astute taunted back with a wink.
“Oh, we’ll see about that,” Snapshot replied with a grin, eagerly trotting towards the pinboard.
On the pinboard, there was lots of information posted. But they could quickly identify the one they were looking for - 7th Bomber Squadron practice run results: 25/09/1007
The statistics listed underneath broke down various statistics. Their eyes scanned all the paperwork until they eventually found the section they were looking for.
HP4970; Mystic Mare. 12 practice rounds dropped, 12 landed on target. 100% accuracy.
“Boom!” Astute punched the air, looking over at Snapshot. “One pint of Sweet Apple Acres finest, please,” He asked with a smug grin.
Snapshot rolled her eyes, “Well, I guess you asked nicely…” she muttered under her breath.
“I suppose it is time for lunch…” Spark added fuel to the fire. “Usual place?”
“Already there,” Astute replied, turning towards the door. “C’mon Snap, ladies first…” he teased, using his magic to drag Snapshot along with him.
“Gimme a hoof here, big bro,” Snapshot pleaded, gripping around Slingshot’s leg.
Slingshot smirked and shrugged, “You made the bet…” he said then chuckled, following them out.
Sparky chuckled to himself at the ordeal. He still considered himself very fortunate that he had a crew that got on so well. All they had to do was integrate one more. Speaking of which… “Hey Kobalt, wanna grab lunch? Good diner just round the corner, best food in Yonderhill…”
Kobalt shook his head and turned towards the exit, “I have a plane to fix,” he answered back before walking swiftly towards the door.
Spark raised an eyebrow before letting out a sigh. “What am I gonna do with him…”
“At least he’s committed,” Barber commented.
“Yeah, committed to being a pain in my ass,” Spark replied.
Barber chuckled, “Well he seems to know what he’s doing and is confident about it. We should be grateful we’ve got such a competent flight engineer. Besides, you must remember being a fresh young officer eager to impress your superiors, right?” Barber gave Sparky a nudge.
The weather had taken a turn for the worse today. Heavy cloud cover coupled with a slight drizzle. Not ideal for flying, but it was suitable for navigation practice. Which is precisely why the squadron was airborne, to give their navigators a chance to practice and to give their pilots experience in bad weather.
Sparky was slowly getting more confident in foul weather flying. Of course, it wasn’t his first time flying a plane or flying a plane in bad weather, but it was his first time flying a massive plane with four engines in lousy weather. Luckily they were above the clouds, but only just. They seemed to be maintaining formation fine.
“And if you look to the right, you’ll see the small town of Hedgewards on the border of the Crystal Empire,” Barber guided over the radio, jokingly imitating the voice of a tour guide. “When I was a young colt, it was so small it wasn’t even on the map. It’s grown now, though.”
“Everythings grown to you, Gramps,” Snapshot jested over the radio.
Barber chuckled, “Well, consider yourself lucky if we ever get lost.”
“Seventh squadron, this is Bomber Command, do you copy?” A voice suddenly interrupted on the radio.
“Seventh squadron leader, receiving,” The voice of Hailstorm replied.
“Moments ago, several Changeling divisions simultaneously moved across the border to engage our forces. I’m afraid to tell you that we are now at war.”
It wasn’t like anypony wasn’t expecting it, but at the same time, to hear it actually become a reality...it sent a chill down everyone’s spine. Spark felt himself grip the flight yoke harder at the news.
“Luftwaffe fighters have been spotted in the area. Consider all training exercises cancelled and return to base immediately.”
“Roger Command,” Hailstorm replied over the radio. “All units maintain formation and bank to port, steer course two-zero-zero. Descend to five thousand feet.”
On the return flight, the radio chatter was unusually silent. Given the news, it was expected. Spark had no doubt that everypony in his squadron was in shock. Even he wasn’t sure how to take the news. Nevertheless, they had a duty to protect Equestria. “Hey Melody, can you tune us into EBC Radio?”
“I think so, gimme a moment,” Melody replied, getting to work on her console. She twisted a few knobs and flicked a few switches. Of course, nopony could actually see what she was doing from their stations, so they just trusted that she was doing some radio wizardry to make it work. “Got it, patching it through,” she said, flicking a switch to put it through to everypony’s headphones.
“In breaking news, today the Changeling war machine finally unleashes an attack that has been anticipated for several months. Tensions at the border have finally escalated into all-out war as Changeling tanks drove into Equestria. Reports say that Princess Celestia is beginning to address Equestria as we speak. More updates will follow once we know more.”
Sparky still didn’t really know how to react, but he didn’t like the silence. He had to say something. “Well...I guess we all knew that was coming…”
“I’ll keep an eye out for those pesky one-O’nines,” Snapshot called out enthusiastically, “I’ll swat them down like the bugs they are!”
“One-O’nines don’t have the range to reach this far, we’re more likely to see one-tens out here,” Kobalt piped up.
“Well that’s reassuring,” Astute replied sarcastically. “Don’t they carry more guns?”
“I’m sure he just has confidence in our gunners,” Sparky replied.
When they returned to the airbase, it was apparent that something was different. Sections of fighter squadrons were flying patrols around the area. At least it was a reassuring sight if anything.
Spark landed the plane and parked it up, eager to get out knowing that he would have plenty of preparation to do. The airport was bustling like a Manehatten high street. Ponies and equipment everywhere, trying to get the bombers ready to fly at a moment's notice. At least a dozen mechanics came over to the Mystic Mare after they touched down, to which Kobalt made his usual demands as if he was some sort of general.
Spark ignored it for the most part because, despite his questionable attitude, he seemed to do a good job. Now if only he could play his role as well…
Spark tossed and turned in his bed. He was feeling tired, but he just couldn’t get himself to doze off. He had already gone to bed way too late, all he wanted to do now was get some rest while he still could. But maybe that was the reason he was struggling. He knew that his life from this point onwards wouldn’t be as normal as it once was. Things were about to change...and there was no denying it; it was stressing him out. But being the CO of the plane, he had to control it.
He lifted himself up and twisted his head around. The only noises he heard was the gentle rise and fall of his bunkmates breathing. He had no doubt that he was the only pony awake. Although thinking about it, he could think of somepony that might be up…
He gently lowered himself to the floor, trying not to twitch as his hooves touched the cold wood floor in contrast with his warm bed. He used his wing to sling his flight jacket on, then picked something else up he had wrapped up on the table and slid it into his pocket. Confirming he had everything he needed, he crept out of the door, trying his best not to wake anypony.
Despite being early in the morning, there were still a couple of ponies out and about. Mainly keeping watch and performing maintenance. It was cold out, but his jacket did an excellent job of keeping him warm. A dim light came from the hangers he was walking towards.
He wandered around the front of the hangers, taking a peek inside each one until he found his plane along with the particular blue pony he was looking for.
He trotted into the hangar and walked over to the workbench where Kobalt was tinkering with a particular part of the plane. He had several tools suspended in his magic while concentrating hard on what he was doing.
Spark cleared his throat to announce his presence as he approached. Kobalt took a quick glance at him before returning to what he was doing. “Hey Kobalt…” Spark greeted.
Kobalt released the tools from his magic. “Morning,” he replied. “Early?”
Spark shrugged, “I couldn’t sleep, I figured I’d find you here…” Sparky looked at the cylindrical part he was working on. “What you up to?”
“Repairing this fuel pump,” Kobalt explained, “Chief Engineer wouldn’t let me have another one, so I’m fixing this one instead,” As he explained, he picked up his tools again and continued working.
“They wouldn’t replace a broken part?” Spark raised an eyebrow.
“It’s not technically broken, but it was almost starved of fuel during the flight. That fuel lubricates these bearings,” he used his magic to make the metal see-through again, pointing with his hoof to the parts he was talking about. “Without it, they wear out. I don’t want a fuel pump dying on us mid-flight,” He explained, picking up his well-stained mug of coffee with his magic and taking a few big glugs before resting it back down. “Damn Equestrian quad-engine designs…”
...Well, if Spark ever doubted his ability, he certainly didn’t now. “So...you’ve always loved planes and flying then?” Spark tried to make conversation, but Kobalt was already back to being engrossed in his work. “...Kobalt?”
Kobalt dropped his tools again, “What’s it to you, anyway?” He snapped back.
“Well, I--”
“I’m doing my job and doing it well. That’s all that’s asked of me. I’m not here to make friends, so stop trying.”
Spark just about managed to withhold a growl forming in his throat and furrowed his brow. “Maybe not...but it sounds like you need one.”
Kobalt chuffed in a mocking tone, “I don’t know why you Equestrians believe in this ‘magic of friendship’-” he made air-quotes with his hooves “-but where I come from, friendship is earned. I respect you as my superior, but nothing more, SIR.” He made his stance clear.
Spark gritted his teeth. “You’re right…” he began slowly, trying to contain his anger. “Friendship is something to be earned. But that’s a two pony show to work at, and you’re sure as hell not playing your part!” Spark said his words then spun around to face away from Kobalt and release a frustrated sigh. “Whatever, I’m ready when you are…” He reached into his inner jacket pocket with his wing and dropped a small envelope on the workbench. “You’re welcome,” he said before trotting away.
Kobalt raised an eyebrow as he watched Spark trot out of the hanger. When he was out of eyeshot, Kobalt looked at the envelope he had left for him. He picked it up with his magic and tore one end off, gently pulling out what was inside…
...Some replacement name badges...with his name spelt in Ponish; Kobalt Stardust. This would save a lot of confusion with his comrades and also no awkward attempts to pronounce his last name. How...thoughtful...
Spark made sure the door to the mess was shut to keep the warmth in. The fire was out, but the lights were still on dimly for the hoof-full of ponies that were in there taking a break from their nightly duties.
Spark sat down on one of the couches and reached into his jacket pocket to pull out a flask. He unscrewed the top and took a tipple of the smooth oakey liquid inside. When cider didn’t cut it, whiskey was always there to fill in and calm him down.
“Trouble sleeping?”
Spark almost jumped at the voice of Barber creeping up behind him. “Nope, nothing stressing me out. We’re only gonna be flying deep into the Changeling lands under intense flak fire and trying to make it out alive. No biggie, right?” He answered sarcastically.
Barber nodded, “Yeah, not that,” he took a seat on the couch opposite Spark. “How did your chat with our friend go?” He asked while fiddling around with his pack of cigarettes and lighter.
Spark shook his head, “I don’t think he’s our friend. Or rather, wants to be. I think he needs one, he doesn’t want to talk though. And I just don’t know how to get through to him,” He rambled, rubbing his forehead.
Barber blew smoke out the corner of his mouth so he didn’t blow it into Spark’s face. “You sound frustrated…”
“Because I am,” Spark rolled his eyes, taking another swig of whiskey. “I just tried to get to know him, and he told me to back off…”
“...And?” Barber raised an eyebrow.
“And I kinda...yelled at him...and stormed off…” Spark sighed, his ears flopping down as he recognised his mistakes. He didn’t doubt that Barber would point them out just to add insult to injury.
“Did you not drive home your authority and tell him to cut it out?” Barber asked.
“No…” Sparky whined.
Barber sighed, “Sparky, you’re a CO now. You need to start acting like it. Because if you don’t sort this out quickly, the rest of the crew is gonna start losing respect for you.”
“Spare me the lecture for tonight, I’m too tired for this shit…” Sparky rubbed his forehead again before taking one final swig of whiskey from his flask and screwing the top back on. “I’m going back to bed…” he stood up and stretched, leaning onto his front legs then hind legs before starting to walk towards the door.
“Goodnight,” Barber bidded farewell, continuing to smoke.
As he trotted to bed, Spark had a moment to think about Barbers words. ‘If you don’t sort this out quickly, the rest of the crew is gonna start losing respect for you.’ Maybe that was Kobalt’s plan all the long? Overthrow him? Spark scoffed and immediately dismissed the ridiculous idea. His tired, stressed brain was obviously blowing things way out of proportion. Barber was right about one thing though, he needed to sort this out quickly. What would the crew think if Kobalt suddenly became the one bossing him around?
For now, though, all he cared about was trying to get at least some sleep. Which he found much easier now that he had got a few things off his chest...
Barber stood up from his position on the plane, map in hoof. He walked over to the other side to get a better look at where they were. The cloud cover wasn’t on their side, but he managed to make it work using the rough notes he had been given for recon. He might know Equestria like the back of his hoof, but he’d never in his long life ventured over the border into the Changeling lands.
Using the landmarks, he made a guess of their current position and marked it on the map with a pencil, drawing a circle. He trotted down the plane towards where Kobalt and Spark were sitting. Kobalt was facing the interior wall, eyes glued on the instrument cluster. Barber gave him a tap on the shoulder to grab his attention and showed him the map. Barber being unplugged from the radio, Kobalt knew that he wouldn’t be able to hear, so just nodded in acknowledgement.
Sitting directly in front and slightly higher than Kobalt, Spark has eyes on the skies, piloting the plane. Barber climbed onto a support pillar, which got Spark’s attention. Barber presented the map. After taking in their position and time to target, Spark nodded.
Barber moved further down towards the front of the plane where he found Astute in the bomb aiming position. After grabbing his attention, Astute also looked at the map and nodded.
Barber moved back down the plane to his station, where he reconnected to the radio, making a slight crackling in his headset when he did. At least he didn’t miss much, the radio was deadly silent. He didn’t doubt that everypony was on edge, including himself. It was their first-ever live mission. Everypony either wanted to not screw up or not die. Depending on who he asked, each of those would have different priorities.
He pulled up a picture of their target, a black and white aerial photo of an oil refinery. From the reports he had heard, the Changelings were driving into Equestria very aggressively, making fair use of the speed advantages provided by their tanks and other motorised forms of transport. However, that didn’t come without its disadvantages; tanks and trucks require fuel to move. The strategy was clear; disrupt their supply lines to slow their advance.
“On final approach,” The squadron leader called over the radio, each plane in the formation beginning to bank to the right.
“Opening bomb bay doors,” Astute added for Spark’s knowledge. He rested his eye on the bombsight but was only greeted with patches of white fluff. “Damn clouds…”
“Summers over, Astute,” Snapshot called out, keeping her eyes peeled on the sky.
“Bandits inbound, seven O’clock high!” Another pony from a different plane called over the radio.
Snapshot immediately flicked her head in that direction. She operated the controls for the upper turret to move it around. She saw the reflections of some planes heading towards them, at least a dozen. She squinted, trying to get a better look. As they got closer, she recognised the unmistakable yellow nose of a Swarm One O’nine. “Look alive, brother of mine!” She called to Slingshot.
“I see them,” Slingshot replied, getting his gun as far over as he could.
When the fighters were in range, the bullets came whistling through the formation. The favour was immediately returned by their own gunfire. The sound of several machine guns unleashing on the Swarm of enemy fighters easily outclassed the engine noise.
Kobalt kept his eyes peeled on all the gauges representing hydraulic pressure to the turrets. If they got stuck, they were in trouble…
“Target in sight!” Astute called over the radio, “Calculating solution. Keep her steady, Sparky.”
“Tell that to the Bugs, I’ll do my best,” Sparky replied. He took a few seconds to look around at the fighters using typical hit and run tactics to attempt to intercept them. They didn’t like to hang around for too long as they knew that staying in one place for too long would make them easy targets for the Equestrian bombers’ machine guns. Spark had a quick look around his aircraft. Or rather, what he could see of it from his seat. They had got lucky so far with no hits, but he could see some of the other planes in his formation weren’t so fortunate, with various fluids trailing from some of them.
Slingshot quickly yanked the controls of his gun when he saw a fighter approaching from behind and underneath. He pulled the trigger right at the same time and their bullets crossed in midair. The shots made various pings and bangs against the fuselage of the Mystic Mare, but Slingshot saw that they had come better off from that engagement as the nose of the One O’nine caught fire. “Bandit down!” He called over the radio, watching it slowly losing altitude. The canopy blew off, and a small black figure lept from it.
“Dammit, you beat me to first kill!” Snapshot replied.
“Do I get a prize?” Slingshot replied back, jokingly.
“Your prize is survival if you can keep those fighters off our back!” Spark butted in. “Kobalt, any damage from those bullets?”
“Systems are fine, damage is probably superficial,” Kobalt answered.
Despite all the shaking, Astute kept his eyes peeled on the target; the fuel refinery. It’s tall towers extending high up in the sky. Not for much longer…all he had to do was wait for the indicators to cross over. Since it was right next to his head, he could hear the mechanical calculator slowly ticking down to the release. They were almost there. Just a little...more…
“Bombs away!” Astute declared, pulling the release lever hard.
The rest of the formation also dropped its bombs in somewhat unison over the target. Slingshot might have got a good view as they flew over if he weren’t so busy trying to keep enemy fighters from blowing holes in them. Those twenty-millimetre cannons did some severe damage when they hit their mark…
The planes banked around to fly back to Equestria. The cloud cover really didn’t help their accuracy, but they made the best out of the situation.
Flying back towards Equestria, they soon enough got in range of Equestrian and Crystal Empire fighters. The Hurricanes gave the Changeling One O’nines something to think about, drawing their attention away from the bombers before they eventually broke off their attack altogether.
Starting to recognise landmarks, Sparky breathed a sigh of relief and lifted his flight goggles up briefly to give his eyes a rub. “I think that went alright for a first mission,” he commented.
“No casualties is always a good start,” Astute agreed. “Shame the same couldn’t be said about our mares and stallions on the ground…”
“The Crystal Mountains must be giving those Changeling tanks a tough time at least,” Melody commented, “I imagine those things aren’t easy to navigate through windy mountain roads.”
“They won’t be easy to navigate anywhere without any fuel,” Sparky commented, earning a few chuckles.
Despite a few bombers leaking fuel, oil, coolant, or a mixture of all three, all the planes made it back to the airfield. When it was his turn, Sparky brought the plane down onto the runway and parked it up at the spot designated by the ground crew. Killing the engines, he rested back in his seat and released a long sigh as he pulled his oxygen mask off. He rolled out of the seat and fell onto his hooves, seeing Kobalt pulling his mask off in the flight engineers position. “How's it looking Kobalt?”
“No systems damage I can see, most likely just holes in the fuselage,” Kobalt replied, standing up.
“We making cider bets on my accuracy again?” Astute joked, walking through the plane.
“Pfft, if anything, you owe Sling one for downing our first plane,” Snapshot butted in as she dropped down from the turret position.
“I guess we do,” Sparky chuckled, heading towards the back of the plane where the door was.
The hatch opened, and all of them jumped out onto the grass below. Kobalt pulled his goggles up onto his forehead and immediately broke off to go talk to the mechanics that were approaching. “We took a few hits, but it seems mostly fuselage. Patch it up then inspect the hydraulic--”
“Sorry sir,” the closest mechanic butted in, “We’re under strict orders to do essential repairs only, your next sortie is in a few hours.”
“A few hours?!” Spark exclaimed, overhearing the conversation, “We’ve only just come down!”
“Don’t shoot the messenger,” The mechanic shrugged before turning to his team. “Alright boys, start on the port wing and work across,” he instructed as they all descended onto the plane.
“So much for that cider…” Snapshot pouted.
Spark sighed, “I guess…” he turned to walk towards the operations building, his team following behind him. He didn’t like it, but he had a feeling this was about to become their new normal. And given the way the Changelings were currently pushing them back, he had a feeling it would be this way for a while...a few hours barely gave him time to think, let alone rest…
The weather had taken a turn for the worse this afternoon. Heavy cloud cover and light rain plagued the Changeling lands. No doubt the work of pegasi in an attempt to hinder the Changelings' ground forces. Unfortunately, it didn’t play too well into the hooves of Seventh Bomber Squadron. They weren’t even sure if they managed to find their target, let alone hit it.
To make matters worse, they were picking up intense fire from both flak and enemy air cover. They were still too far out of range for friendly fighters to come and assist them, so they had to make do. Spark jumped at the sudden explosion off their port side. Initially relieved that it wasn’t their plane, he gritted his teeth at the sight of a bomber slowly losing altitude with one of its engines on fire.
“Where the hell do all these yellow-nosed bastards keep coming from?!” Snapshot shouted over the radio, continually firing in what felt like every direction in a desperate attempt to try and hit something.
“No doubt the Bugs know our game now, they’ve probably diverted more fighters to protect their fuel reserves,” Astute deduced.
“Don’t worry, we’ll hold together…” Sparky encouraged, but he was gripping the flight yoke tight. His eyes darting everywhere, wondering which of the yellow dashes across the sky would be the end of the line for them. “How we looking, Kobalt?”
“Minor fuel leak, but we’ll make it,” Kobalt answered back.
Sparky kept his head on a swivel, trying to perfect his spacing between the planes around him in the formation. His theory being that if they could concentrate their firepower, it might make the Bugs think twice before they tried attacking.
His attention turned when he heard a few bullets ricochet from the back of the plane. “AHH!” He heard over the radio.
“Bro!” Snapshot called, dropping down from her position in the turret to look down the back of the plane. “Are you alright?!” She tried to find out for herself, but it was difficult to see through the tiny window on the back of the hatch that led to the rear gunner position.
“I’m okay, just a scratch,” He eventually replied.
Snapshot breathed a sigh of relief before pulling herself back into her turret position.
Sparky glanced down at his instrument panel, seeing the RPM dropping on engine four. “Looks like engine four took a hit, Kobalt.”
“Yeah, looks like some kind of vacuum leak,” Kobalt replied, twisting in his seat to look out the window. It wasn’t on fire, but the smoke coming out of the exhaust was pretty thick and black. “I’ll see if I can compensate by adjusting the fuel mixture.”
“Barber, how much further?” Spark redirected his attention.
“Another twenty minutes or so at this speed,” Barber answered, looking over at the map to reconfirm their position.
Spark gulped. The Bugs were picking them out of the sky. He couldn’t lie, he was beginning to doubt they were going to be making it back home...but he couldn’t tell that to the crew. He had to stay strong...he had to be a leader.
His thoughts were once again broken by the sound of bullets tearing through the fuselage. He covered his face as the loud bangs and pings rattled all around him. In a matter of seconds, the carnage stopped. But the damage was audible. The wind was whistling through the cabin from the holes in the glass and fuselage. But more urgently needing attention was the engines. Engine three was now losing power on his instrument cluster. “Kobalt, can we get three back?”
“I’m trying!” Kobalt yelled back, frantically moving his hooves all over the controls to try and get something. He glanced to his right at the third engine on the wing. There were a few bullet holes around the cowling, and the propeller was beginning to slow down. “Must be a belt...or something…”
“Can you do anything?” Spark pleaded, looking at the airspeed indicator on his instruments slowly decreasing. “If we can’t stay with the formation then we’ll be sitting ducks!”
“Maybe…” Kobalt sighed, “Let me try…”
Kobalt glared out at the starboard wing again, formulating a plan in his mind. He used his magic to extract tools and spare parts from the various storage compartments around him. Confirming he had everything he needed, he began to concentrate. He knew what he was about to do something crazy...but if he didn’t try, they were dead anyway.
He pulled his oxygen mask off, only leaving his flying helmet and goggles on his head. He took several timed breaths to calm himself and focus, then closed his eyes, imagining his position...then the wings position...he had never tried teleporting from one moving surface to another moving surface before. He wasn’t even sure he could do it. But if he didn’t try, they were dead meat anyway…
His horn began to glow as he pictured the sequence of events in his mind. A very specific sequence of spells would have to be cast in rapid succession. He took a deep breath…
The light blue aura glowing against the green metal interior of the plane caught Sparky’s attention, causing him to twist his body in his seat to lean over and look at the position behind him. He only caught the last glimpse of Kobalt’s horn lighting up before he disappeared…
...And reappeared on the starboard wing between the two engines…
The rush of wind immediately greeted Kobalt, which was his trigger for firing his next spell. A shield sharing the light blue aura of his magic erected itself, encompassing the starboard engines and giving Kobalt barely enough space to work around them.
Sparky yanked the stick as the sudden additional air resistance on the starboard wing messed with the aircraft’s aerodynamics. “KOBALT WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!” He screamed, trying to direct it through one of the bullet holes in the glass.
Kobalt opened his eyes, seeing that he was still firmly planted on the plane. Although looking behind him at where he was standing on the edge of the wing, only just...he looked forward and pulled himself up, his shield blocking out the wind, making it easier for him to walk along the wing in flight...as long as he could keep the shield up. He didn’t want to breathe a sigh of relief in case it made him let his guard down…
Getting to work, he picked up the tools that he held in his magic and took the cowling off the third engine, examining the damage...and it looked like the supercharger pulley had been shot off.
Sparky watched the little blue bubble on the starboard wing with Kobalt inside it. He could tell that he was fixing the engine and shook his head, “Kobalt you insane son of a bitch…” He muttered to himself over the radio.
“Is he...fixing the engine? Mid-flight?” Snapshot asked.
“He sure is,” Astute answered, “So keep your eyes peeled, we can’t let him get shot!”
Thanks to his magic, Kobalt’s bodge job was soon complete, and he moved on to engine four. He left the cowling off as he had limited time since he had to hold the shield up as well as doing anything else...and the air was pretty thin up there without his oxygen mask…
He did away with the tools, and tore the cowling off with his magic, gritting his teeth as he tried to maintain his shield while also having to operate tools with his magic. As he suspected, a vacuum line had been pierced by a bullet. They were quite lucky to get away with such superficial damage, but at the same time not so lucky that it stalled the engines.
A quick fix, he used his magic to route a new line and sealed it up...that was it. He was done. All he had to do now was teleport back…
He took a deep breath and dropped the shield and everything else he had a hold on. The tools were replaceable, he wasn’t worried about them. The wind at that speed was like running straight into a brick wall. But he managed to get his spell out just in time, landing on his back inside the cabin of the plane.
Gasping for air, he rolled himself up onto his hooves and trotted the flew steps over to his station, picking his mask up and getting himself a breath of that oh so sweet oxygen. “Restarting...engines…” he said through huffs of breath, getting to work on restarting them.
“Kobalt, what the hell was that?! Have you got a deathwish?!” Melody called to him over the radio.
“Hey, if he fixed the engines, I won’t complain,” Astute chimed in.
“Kobalt, you’re absolutely insane, but we owe ya one if this works,” Sparky added.
Kobalt mostly ignored the idle radio chatter and simply focused on the task at hand. Slowly but surely, the engines started picking up speed again. He looked over and saw the propellers spooling up.
Sparky looked down at his instrument cluster and saw the engine RPM’s starting to increase. “You did it...you actually did it…” he said in disbelief.
“Yeah, now how about you get us home?” Kobalt called back over the radio.
“R-right,” Sparky answered, pushing the throttles forward to compensate for the speed they just lost, moving the plane along in the formation.
As the flight continued, a mixture of flak from the ground and enemy fighters continued to pester them every step of the way. It was clear to everypony that their flights were spending more time behind enemy lines than ever before. The Changelings weren’t hanging about, no matter how much they starved their tanks of precious fuel.
While Sparky kept the Mystic Mare in the sky, other planes weren’t so lucky. One by one, they fell out of the sky. Some bailing out, others not so fortunate...Sparky was sure that he and his crew just felt lucky enough to get back alive. They were mercifully relieved by friendly fighters that managed to drive off the Changelings once they made it back over the frontline.
They made it back to base where the planes with major fuel leaks got priority on the landing. When it was their turn, Sparky set the plane down with no problem. He was getting good at this. As usual, he simply went wherever he was directed by the ground crew and parked it up, killing the engines. He pulled his oxygen mask and goggles off simultaneously with his wings and wiped the sweat off his face, releasing a long sigh.
He twisted himself out of the pilot's seat and onto his hooves, looking over at Kobalt. “Kobalt...you’re probably the only reason we’re all still here…”
“Just doing my job,” Kobalt answered, pulling his mask and goggles off. The area surrounding his muzzle and eyes still showed off his navy blue fur that hadn’t been smudged by the black ash, dust and soot.
“Quit being modest,” Astute appeared beside him, patting him on the back. “I’ve never seen anypony in Equestria even attempt to pull something like that off. You could’ve taken a twenty mil straight through the chest!” Astute half-punched him in the chest to drive home his point.
Kobalt chuffed, “Just lucky I guess,” he stood up to make his way down the aircraft towards the hatch.
As they walked down, Slingshot was pulling himself out of the rear gunner's seat, a small bloodstain dripping down from his cheek that ran onto his jacket. Being the closest, he opened up the hatch for everypony.
“Damn bro, you almost catch a bullet?” Snapshot asked, looking at her brother.
“Nah, shard of glass when it smashed,” Slingshot replied, gently rubbing the scratch. It didn’t show up too much against his grey coat anyway. “Be good as new in a few days.”
When they got out of the plane, Kobalt had his usual conversation with the mechanics. Sparky was getting used to it, and to be honest, he found it interesting what they had to say to each other. There was always a bit of an argument over what Kobalt wanted and what they were ordered to do. He found it interesting on the parts Kobalt compromised on.
While they were having the discussion, Sparky noticed various ponies from the crews of the other bombers walking over to them. They had their eyes on...Kobalt?
Finally agreeing with their works, Kobalt let the mechanics loose on the Mystic Mare. But when he turned to walk away, he was taken off guard by a crowd of ponies who all seemed to want to talk to him.
“Dude, you’re absolutely crazy. I love it!” A stallion commented.
“Where did you learn magic like that?” A unicorn mare asked.
“Did you study at Celestia's school?” Another pony asked.
Kobalt’s head darted left to right at all these ponies that wanted to find out about his little stunt. He found himself backing up back to his crew, where he looked over at Sparky, seemingly wanting some help with the situation.
Sparky couldn’t help but laugh, “Told you it was impressive,” he chimed.
Kobalt only sighed and put on a smile for the ponies wanting to speak to him, answering a couple of questions and shaking plenty of hooves. Sparky and the rest of his crew stayed by his side to help him with the unexpected attention. Although Sparky couldn’t help but see the smile that over time slowly crept onto Kobalt’s face. He was happy. For the first time since he met him, he seemed happy. Finally, progress…
“Excuse me, coming through, pardon me…” A stallion equipped with a camera barged through the crowd of a few dozen ponies, making a small space for himself at the front. Judging by the smart clothes he was wearing, he could have possibly worked for a newspaper… “Mind if I get a picture?” He asked while setting the cameras tripod up at the same time.
“Uhhh--”
“Abso-fucking-lutely!” Snapshot butted in before Kobalt even got a chance to react, wrapping herself around Kobalt’s shoulders with her foreleg. “C’mon, everypony in!” She called, waving her hoof over at the rest of her crew to join the photo.
The crew of the Mystic Mare clambered together awkwardly, trying to get themselves all in shot in various poses.
“Pilot in the middle, please,” The photographer directed.
Sparky took the limelight in between the rest of his crew, but not before dragging Kobalt into the shot next to him. He and Kobalt sat side-by-side, both putting on their best smile. On Sparky’s right was Melody, placing herself at an angle to get a decent shot over her shoulder. On Kobalt’s left sat Astute, sitting straight and doing a simple salute to the camera. On his left sat Slingshot, with his smaller sister sitting against him, using him as a backrest and trying to ‘look cool’. Barber managed to shuffle in between them and astute and simply posed for the photo.
The camera pony made a few adjustments to the camera before snapping a photo with a flash. “Thanks, folks, I’ll get you some copies once they’re developed!” He announced before beginning to disassemble the camera.
“If we’ve got no sorties left today, wanna go celebrate down the bar?” Snapshot suggested. “I think it’s only fair Sparky rewards Kobalt by buying a round.”
“Only because you don’t want to,” Sparky shot back. “I’ll come for one, but not too many.”
“Good enough for me,” Snapshot replied, beginning to walk. “Don’t leave me hanging. Especially you,” She grabbed Kobalt around the shoulders again. “You’re the stallion of the hour after all!”
Sparky chuckled at the sight of Kobalt getting dragged away by Snapshot, with the rest of his crew in tow. He told them to keep trying with Kobalt, and after all this time, it finally seemed to be working. Kobalt was smiling. Genuinely smiling. Maybe this was the start of him finally coming out of his shell…
The afternoon came and went quickly. Not being assigned any more sorties, Kobalt decided to join his comrades for a drink...well, he didn’t exactly have a choice. Snapshot was determined to drag him along whether he wanted to or not.
The pub they went to was an old fashioned pub called The Blackbird Inn. It was full of service ponies from the air force and army. But mostly the air force, given its walking distance to Yonderhill airbase. It was very cosy inside, the heat produced by several bodies making it warm enough for condensation to form outside the window as the sun just finished setting.
“So I’m leading the target and fired a couple shots. Then I see another coming the opposite direction. My gun lined up perfectly and boom!” Snapshot slammed her hoof down on the bar, “Straight through the engine,” She finished retelling the story and picked up her pint of cider. “I still think that should be two kills…” She chimed before bringing the mug to her lips.
“Only counts if somepony can confirm it though,” Astute answered back with a wink.
Snapshot downed the remaining cider in her mug and tapped it back down. “I’m sure somepony did.” She looked over at Barber, “You saw, right, Gramps?”
“Sorry kid, these old eyes aren’t what they used to be,” He answered sarcastically, deliberately crossing his eyes.
“Fuck you,” Snapshot answered back before taking another glug of cider.
“I’m still amazed by Kobalt’s magic,” Astute commented. “He managed to keep a head level enough to not only concentrate on keeping that magic up but also fix both engines.”
“Is magic that hard?” Slingshot asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Depends on the complexity. For example, I can lift small things,” Astute demonstrated by levitating his mug of cider with his green magic aura. “I can lift lots of small things,” he proceeded to take all their ciders in his magic. “But levitation isn’t very complex. More advanced magic I can’t really manage,” he explained, returning everypony’s cider.
“Didn’t one of you say Wittenland is known for strong unicorns? Maybe that shits just normal where he’s from?” Snapshot suggested.
“Well, I would ask him, but…” Astute glanced over to the other side of the pub, “Mister Party Killer over there doesn’t want to know.”
His words drew everypony’s attention over to Kobalt, who took a table alone by the window, sipping a mug of cider while writing something on a piece of paper.
“Looks like he’s writing a letter, he probably just wanted a bit of privacy,” Sparky suggested, finishing off the little bit of cider that was left in his glass.
Snapshot pouted, “Can’t even be happy at his own celebration…” she crossed her hooves.
“I’m sure we’ll get something out of him…” Melody stood off her barstool, “...One day…” she trotted through the bar towards the bathrooms.
Spark pushed his cider glass further onto the bar and dropped a few bits alongside it. “That should help cover it.”
“You’re leaving?” Snapshot cried, “It’s early!”
Spark sighed, “The burdens of command, I’ve got stuff to do. And remember, some of our mares and stallions didn’t make it home today. That thought alone puts me off celebrating.”
“Hey, they’re probably cursing about what’s taking us so long to hit the Bugs back twice as hard,” Snapshot answered before quickly grabbing one of the bartender's attention to order another round.
Sparky chuffed, “I hope you’re right…” he turned around, “See you tomorrow,”
“Goodnight, Sparky!” Astute called.
“Oh!” Sparky stopped in his tracks. “Astute!” He twisted to line up parallel with the Astute and the barstool he was sitting on and wrapped his left wing around his shoulders. “Here,” with the other wing, he slid a few bits into the pocket of Astute’s flight jacket. “Buy the mare a drink. No excuses now,” he said with a wink. Saying nothing more, he quickly left.
Astute bought the bits out of his pocket with his magic and raised an eyebrow. “...The mare?”
Snapshot cringed and looked over at Barber. Barber only had a smug look on his face, which slowly turned into a chuckle. “Told ya he wouldn’t get it.”
“Ugh,” Snapshot rolled her eyes and pulled some bits out of the pocket of her jacket. “Ten bits, as agreed.”
“Thank you kindly,” Barber smugly answered. Not that they were going to last very long, he was about to get himself two pints of cider...
“Get it? Get what?” Astute’s eyes darted across all his comrades, trying to work out what was going on.
“Did you guys already get another round in?” Melody reappeared, taking a seat on a barstool.
“Oh, there’s it!” Snapshot joked, passing a glass of cider over to Melody. “This round was mine, hun.”
Melody raised an eyebrow, “...It?” She took a sip of the cider.
“Nothing,” Snapshot replied, batting a hoof.
“Well well well,” Barber drew their attention, sliding two pints of cider into the centre-view of their little huddle around the bar. “When the cats are away, the mice will play.” He rubbed his hooves together.
“What are you up to, Barb?” Astute asked with a suspicious pout.
“Just buying the stallion of the hour a drink,” he said innocently while bringing a small vile out of his jacket pocket. “With a little hint of...something…”
“Something?” Melody raised an eyebrow, “Are you drugging Kobalt?”
“Oh god no,” Barber shook his head, “Just a little something to...well, how do I put it...enhance the effect of alcohol,” he said cryptically with a wink, pulling the cork off the top of the vile. He gently tipped the clear liquid inside into one of the pints.
“The hell you get something like that?” Snapshot asked.
“When you’re as old as I am, you make contacts,” Barber replied, looking at Snapshot. “Being successful is fifty-fifty what you know and who you know, darlin’,” He explained with a wink.
“If he’s anything like you, yes,” Barber answered confidently, earning a few laughs from his comrades.
“You do get pretty loud I gotta be honest, big bro,” Snapshot agreed.
“Anyway, catch you kids later,” Astute slid a tray over from across the bar and placed the pints on them to carry them in his mouth. He took hold of them then turned around to walk towards Kobalt.
“Don’t get them mixed up,” Astute joked.
Obviously, Barber couldn’t reply because he had his mouth full with the tray, but he did smile as he walked over to Kobalt.
Kobalt only noticed him when he was standing right next to the table, looking up and seeing Barber with the two pints in his mouth. Barber placed the tray down on the table. “On me, Kiddo,” He greeted with a smile.
Kobalt dropped his pen and looked at Barber with a raised eyebrow.
“What?” Barber chuckled, taking a seat opposite him. “Can’t I at least by a pint of cider for the stallion that probably saved the lives of his entire crew?” He picked up one of the glasses and presented it to Kobalt.
Kobalt looked at the cider...then back at Barber...He really wanted to be left alone, but given that Barber had already bought the cider, he didn’t particularly want him to waste his bits...he reluctantly took the glass in his magic.
“Cheers!” Barber presented his own glass out.
Kobalt gently tapped the glass against Barbers then bought the drink to his lips, taking a generous sip in unison with Barber before placing the glass down.
Barber let out a sigh and looked down at the paper Kobalt was writing on. “Who you writing to?”
Kobalt glanced down and quickly took it in his magic. “No one,” he folded the paper several times before sliding it into one of his jackets inner pockets.
“Alright,” Barber shrugged, “Be warned though, I’m pretty good at guessing this stuff son…”
“If you say so…” Kobalt glanced away, taking another sip of cider.
Barbers lips slowly curled into a smile. “Got a special somepony back home?” He wiggled his eyebrows.
Kobalt shook his head, “Nope.”
Barber shrugged, “Well the world's your oyster then Kobalt, plenty of mares here would have you in a heartbeat y'know," he replied with a click of his tongue and a wink.
Kobalt chuffed, “Is that what you’ve come to help me with?”
Barber shrugged again, “Only if that’s what you want. Captain’s already tried that with Astute,” he chuckled, twisting in his seat to look over at the group of Astute, Melody, Snapshot and Slingshot all sitting around the bar on barstools.
“Astute?” Kobalt titled his head to look in that direction and raised an eyebrow.
“Mmhmm,” Barber nodded, looking back at Kobalt. “You might not have noticed since you’re new here, but Astute’s had a crush on Melody for a while now. Not that he’d tell anypony mind you, but it’s been getting more and more obvious…”
Kobalt smiled, “Well, she is very pretty…” he commented, taking a sip of cider.
“She sure is,” Barber agreed, a smug grin quickly forming on his face. “Wouldn’t it be nice to tell your parents you met a girl in that letter of yours?”
Kobalt’s went wide, and he almost choked on the cider he was drinking. “H-how did you--”
Barber laughed, “That was a complete shot in the dark, kiddo. Seems it made you spill the beans though,” he said and laughed again.
Kobalt pouted and stared daggers into Barber. Who only stared back. “Told you I’m good at this, Son,” He replied smugly with an eyebrow wiggle.
Kobalt sighed and looked away. Despite Barbers mind tricks...he did seem genuine… “Fine, you win.” Kobalt looked back at Barber. “I am writing to my family, but not to post off anytime soon…”
“Hmmm…” Barber rubbed his chin, his brow furrowing as he thought. “You don’t want somepony to find out where you are, do you?”
Kobalt gritted his teeth and glanced away, trying to suppress a growl from his throat, but a little escaped.
Barber smiled a little at his reaction. “Or you’re assumed dead. You strike me as a stallion smart enough to pull that off,” he leaned into the table. “You must have a pretty price on your head back in Wittenland…”
Kobalt chuffed, resting back in his seat. Barber was almost reading him like a book...but in a way, it felt good to get these things off his chest. No doubt the alcohol was a contributor. He didn’t know why he was feeling tipsy, this was only his second one... “Maybe...I didn’t hang around to find out…”
“Understandable,” Barber chuckled. A short silence fell between them. Time to go for the elephant in the room. “So...what did you do?”
Kobalt glanced away again, releasing a sigh as he stared out the window.
Barber raised an eyebrow. “Did you...kill somepony?”
“...No…” Kobalt answered quietly, a groan in his voice.
“You didn’t sound confident about that,” Barber answered, “I ain’t a SMILE agent Kobalt, I swear. I ain’t gonna turn you in or nothin’ ” he joked.
Kobalt folded his forelegs and gently sipped his cider, seemingly deep in thought.
“If ya don’t tell me, I’ll start guessing,” Barber teased, but he got no reaction. He waited a few more seconds...nothing. “Alright,” Barber took a swig of cider before continuing. “You’re a smart kid, but ya ain’t that good with ponies I gotta be honest. Ya clearly worried about somepony finding out you’re here...or even simpler than that, finding out you’re alive. From what you said that day we first met, it sounded like you didn’t have many bits to your name…” Barber rubbed his chin and raised an eyebrow. “I reckon ya turned to crime to earn some extra bits, mixed with the wrong crowd and got framed for something...either that or you ended up killing somepony doing business along those lines…”
Kobalt gritted his teeth, feeling his body tense up. He squinted his eyes shut and released a long sigh. Barber managed to figure out...most of it. Of course, he could always deny it. But something told him that Barber would keep pestering him about it if he did. Although the more Kobalt thought about it, the more he thought about trusting him. All his crewmates seemed like trustworthy ponies. And he would no doubt feel much better.
“Oh, now I get it!” Barber suddenly blurted out, “You’re seeking redemption to try and earn a pardon, aren’t you?”
...Welp, he just hit the nail on the head…
Kobalt leaned forward, glancing over his shoulders. Nopony else in the pub was nearby, and those who were were too engrossed in their own conversations to be paying attention to them. “Alright…” he began, “Guess you win,” he glanced all around him again just to make sure that they were definitely safe before looking back at Kobalt. “You’ve been to Wittenland, right?”
Barber chuffed, “A long LONG time ago, you probably weren’t even born...”
“Well, what do you know about our neighbours? Namely the Barrad Magocracy.”
Barber raised an eyebrow. “I know they separated from Wittenland because of dark magic...that’s all I know.”
“That’s good enough,” Kobalt replied. “Well, they were always after certain things from Wittenland. Crystals, spellbooks, artefacts, things like that…”
Barber nodded, following Kobalt’s story.
“And me and my family were always struggling for bits...so I met a group of ponies that needed my expertise for an… ‘exchange’ with them…”
“And it went south?” Barber worked out.
Kobalt nodded, “I think somepony must have had a tip-off on what was going on because, at the border, we were ambushed by several soldiers. We were outnumbered, so we gave up. I was getting ready to spend the rest of my life behind bars in Wittenburgh...but then the ponies from Barrad we were meant to meet showed up and chose to fight. I managed to escape in the chaos…”
As he retold the story, Barber noticed a slight tremble in Kobalt. He was clearly nervous about telling this story. All he could do was offer a helping hoof. “Did you...kill somepony during the standoff?”
“...Maybe…” Kobalt glanced away, “It was crazy, magic and bullets flying everywhere. I saw an opportunity to escape, and I took it...I fired back a few times with my own magic while escaping...I downed a couple of ponies, but...I don’t know if...I…” He looked back at Barber in the eyes. “I didn’t mean to kill anypony...I was just trying to escape.”
“I believe you,” Barber nodded. “If I panicked with that kind of power in my forehead, I probably would’ve done the same thing.”
Kobalt cringed at the memory before releasing another sigh.
“So you obviously escaped?” Barber picked up.
“Yeah,” Kobalt nodded. “I planned to lay low, but when I was in New Mareland, I heard of the suspected war between Equestria and the Changelings. I thought if I earned enough influence during the war, Equestria might grant me asylum. I’ve always loved planes and flying, so naturally, I picked the ERAF. I was hoping to get selected for fighters, but I was sent to serve on bombers instead.”
“Makes sense that you had no problem getting through, Equestria’s desperate for ponies…” Barber sighed, “Not that it matters much at the moment. The Bugs seem to be driving us further back every day…”
Kobalt leant back in his seat, resting his head against the back and...smiled? Kobalt seemed unusually happy about his little confession. He had a slight blush forming across his nose, he was probably feeling a little tipsy.
“You look happy,” Barber joked with a smile.
Kobalt chuckled, “Just feels good to get that off my chest…it’s nice being able to talk to somepony…” his face slowly returned to a stern look, and he leaned back into the table. “But please keep it a secret. I don’t want the others to know...at least not yet…”
“My lips are sealed,” Barber answered with a smile, “But feel free to tell the others. I don’t know what vibe you think we’re giving off, but we all like you and consider you a friend. I know you’re new and trying to impress, but ya gotta stop trying so hard, or you’ll drop dead from exhaustion before a Changeling even gets a chance to point a gun at ya.”
Kobalt laughed, “I’ll try and remember,” he answered sarcastically, tipping his glass all the way up and downing the remainder of the cider in it, finishing with a gasp. “This cider is growing on me, ya know. It doesn’t compare with Wittenland wine of course, but I’m starting to like it…”
“Yep, Sweet Apple Acres sure does make some fine cider,” Barber agreed, finishing his glass off. “I’m gonna go back and watch Snapshot tease ol’ loverboy over there, wanna come?”
“I’ll be there in a sec,” Kobalt replied, pulling his pen and letter back out from his pocket using his magic.
Barber nodded and rose from his seat, turning to head back to the bar.
Kobalt laid the letter back down on the table and resumed where he let off. Although a relieved smile just wouldn’t leave his face. Perhaps their friendship wasn’t as conditional as he first thought…
Astute sat in the lounge all suited up in his flight gear ready to go. Well, he and his crew were all ready to go. They were just waiting for the last flight to return. And he wasn’t the only one getting impatient to go. Plenty of other ponies from other planes were pacing around the lounge waiting for the sound of engines flying overhead to signal their return.
Astute finished off the last dregs of the coffee in his cup before setting it down on the nearest table with his magic. He took a moment to pause and look at Seventh Bomber Squadron’s roster. A chalkboard mounted on the wall with everypony’s name on it. Only some names had been struck through...and it seemed to be happening more and more as the war progressed…
He heard hoofsteps approaching as he continued to examine the names of those they had lost. The source of the hoofsteps eventually appeared in his line of sight. A member of the support crew quickly glanced at Astute before taking a piece of chalk in his hoof and struck another line through. For Astute, the sound of the chalk scraping across the board felt like it was trying to tug his heart out.
The stallion put the chalk down and looked back at Astute. “They tried, but...he died peacefully at least…”
Having no words, Astute could only nod. The stallion acknowledged then carried on with his duties.
Now wanting to take his mind away from the idea of potentially meeting the safe fate, Astute pulled a pocket watch out of one of his jacket pockets. Reading the time, it now marked twenty minutes in total that the first flight was overdue.
He turned around, walking towards the exit, but not before catching the headline on a newspaper left on one of the lounge tables; EQUESTRIA LOSES TALL TALE.
He walked out onto a patch of grass where his crew and plenty of other teams were waiting. Sparky stood alert, while Snapshot, Barber, and Slingshot sat resting on the grass. Melody laid on her belly, looking bored as anything. Even Kobalt was sitting idly with the rest of them instead of doing some last-minute tinkering with the plane. All geared up and ready to move at a moment's notice. There was definitely a bad feeling in the air today…
He approached Sparky, who noticed him as he approached. “No sign?” Astute asked.
Sparky shook his head, “Nothing,” he replied in a frustrated tone.
“They must have all been shot down,” Snapshot stomped her hoof on the grass, “I knew splittin’ the sorties was a bad idea.”
“They’re just trying to be more flexible with the fuel, the Bugs are pushing hard,” Sparky chimed in. “The fighters and dive-bombers need it more than we do. And that’s before the tanks in the army and ships in the navy.”
Snapshot groaned, sitting down on the grass. “I just wanna get up there and show the bugs what-for.”
Spark chuckled, “Well, feel free to request a transfer to fly a Typhoon or a Beaufighter.”
“Pfft,” Snapshot rolled her eyes, “I’ve heard bad things about the Tiffy.”
“Yeah, it struggled to meet the expectations set on Stratus, if I recall…” Astute rubbed his chin, recalling the information.
“I’m sure they’ll fix it,” Melody chimed in, then looked over at Kobalt. “Sounds like something you’d be good at, Kobalt. Fancy a job at Stratus?”
Kobalt chuffed, “I’m not going anywhere.”
Aside from the occasional short conversation, something really seemed up. The planes from the squadron that flew should really be back by now. Sparky checked his watch. They were almost half an hour late.
“Can’t they just get us in the air already?” Snapshot pleaded.
“We’ve only got one runway. If they return needing an emergency landing, we’ll be in the way,” Sparky explained.
Snapshot folded her forelegs. “I guess…” her ear twisted in the direction of a buzzing sound...the sound of an engine. “Oh, finally!”
Everypony looked in the direction of the sound. It was definitely a Halifax engine...but it didn't sound right. It sounded damaged. And it sounded like only one plane…
Their attention was quickly drawn again by a warning siren. Not an air raid siren...the emergency siren to clear the runway.
Sparky spread his wings and immediately took to the sky to get a clearer picture. And the problem soon became apparent—a Halifax...one lone Halifax...limping through the air. The outer right engine had thick black smoke billowing out of it, the inner right propeller seemed to have stopped spinning altogether. Smoke and various fluids were blowing out of numerous holes around the aircraft.
Emergency vehicles rushed across the grass, sirens blaring to reach the end of the runway where the plane was going to be touching down. Spark moved in a little closer, but not too close to make sure he didn’t get in anypony’s way. Being a pegasus, he could quite easily hover out of the way.
The plane descended gently towards the runway, but Spark could tell it was coming in way too fast. He saw the flaps still attempting to extend as the landing gear near the tarmac. Presumably, the pilot was trying to keep its speed up in the event they had a complete power failure during the landing approach. A good idea, but the other risk was that they might overshoot the runway…
The tyres screeched as they made contact with the tarmac, creating a small puff of smoke. Another screeching immediately followed, this time of the aircraft's brakes desperately trying to slow it down. The plane was slowing down, but in his mind Spark worked out that it wouldn’t be enough...at least to his guess…
Spark flew through the air, following barely-controlled aircraft. It started slowly steering to the right...at first, Spark assumed damage. But then he clocked the large patches of grass separating the taxiways. It had been quite wet recently, the ground was still soft and muddy. The extra resistance from the wheels digging in might be enough to stop it...good thinking from that pilot.
The wheels transferred onto the grass and the plane immediately started bumping up and down from the uneven terrain. The wheels even left the ground at certain stages. But it seemed to be working, it was slowing down. After several moments of uncontrolled sliding, it ran out of momentum and stopped just short of the end of the runway.
Spark pumped his wings and rushed over to try and help out. Other pegasi with their gift of flight also used it to their advantage, doing whatever they could to help out. Mainly to make sure everypony was okay. Spark pulled open the rear hatch only to find he ripped it straight off its hinges from the damage. He moved out of the way just in time before it fell on him. He didn't waste time jumping through, only to be greeted by lots of smoke. Using a wing, he pulled his goggles down over his eyes to stop the smoke getting to them.
He looked through the smoke to his right to see everypony in the cabin doing their best to get out. They may have been injured, but they seemed mobile enough by themself, which was all he needed to know. Because his main concern was the door to the tailgunners’ position was still closed.
He galloped through the plane to the door and knocked on it several times. “Hello?!” He shouted but didn’t even wait for an answer before he began to pry the door open himself. He had some trouble opening it, from the body of the pony that was in the way. He coughed a few times as he heaved the door, trying his best to avoid inhaling smoke. He pulled his oxygen mask over his face to try and help. It wasn’t connected to any oxygen supply, but it might at least filter out some of the smoke and buy him a few more seconds.
He eventually managed to jam the door wide enough open to help the stallion out. “Are you alright?!” He called but got no response. He again didn’t wait for an answer and started dragging him out. Placing his hooves across the stallion's body, he felt something warm and liquid...blood. He must have been shot. But under his hooves, Spark could still feel him breathing, albeit struggling. “C’mon, hang in there!” He tried to encourage as he pulled the stallion out.
By the time he managed to get the stallion half-out, several other ponies had rushed to the aid of the stricken aircraft. He suddenly had several hooves and unicorn magic assistance to help him get the stallion out of the plane. With ponies much more qualified for this than him, Spark got out the way and let them get on with it, backing out through the same hatch he went in. He immediately tore the oxygen mask off his face and gasped for fresh, smoke-free air. Or at least as smoke-free as he could get, standing next to a burning aircraft. The fire crews had arrived to help stem the fire, and the loud hiss of the water cannons filled the air as they soaked the plane combined with the various mutterings of the several ponies that had gathered around, wanting to help in any way they can.
“What happened?” Spark heard the voice of Hailstorm ask. He twisted his head in the direction of the conversation, looking over at one of the plane's crew members, possibly the pilot, being treated for wounds by a medic while talking to the squadron leader.
“The Bugs just fell on us like a pack of ravenous wolves!” The pilot dramatized. “Just...through the clouds...we never saw them coming…” He lowered his face into his forehooves. “They picked off the flight lead...like it was nothing…”
Spark trotted slowly towards Hailstorm...but didn’t know what to say at the scene. The crew were in various stages of treatment. The pilot talking to Hailstorm seemed like he would live, but the rest of his team were either receiving treatment there on the grass or being loaded into an ambulance. There was one particular pony he had his eyes on though; the stallion he helped out of the tailgun.
Two medic ponies were examining him on the grass, removing his flight gear to reveal his horrific wounds. Spark cringed a little, but the medics didn’t skip it beat. Which only proved how used they were to seeing this… They were trying to get some response out of him while treating his wounds but failing. One of them pressed a hoof into his neck, waited a few seconds, but then looked up and shook his head at the other medic. Who in turn reached into his bag and pulled out a stethoscope. He put the pieces in his ears before lowering the metal piece onto the chest of the stallion. He held it there for a few seconds...but then shook his head the same way the other medic did and made a slicing motion across his neck at the same time.
...Well, there was the answer. Spark didn’t even know the stallion, but seeing him get pretty much declared dead struck him deep. He tried to save him...he felt like he failed. He lifted his hoof up, still with the stallions blood on it.
“Are you alright?”
Hailstorm's voice broke him out of his thoughts. “Y-yes, Sir!” Spark answered back quickly.
Hailstorm sighed and looked away before looking back at Storm. “Part of the job…” he looked over to his left at all the other plane crews now running back to their own planes, ready to get started. “We don’t have much time, so I’ll talk to you later. You need to be in the air pronto.”
“Of course,” Spark nodded and turned around. His crew were already waiting to go, and with a flick of his head, they all started running towards their plane. Now he could only hope that they weren’t going to end up with the same fate…
Astute shot up in his bunk with a gasp, blinking several times to take in his surroundings. His quarters...his bed...his bunkmates snoring…
He sighed quietly and rubbed his forehead. Just a dream...or more like a nightmare...he suppressed a groan and tried to figure out what time it is. He could hear the clock on the wall ticking, but his eyes were still adjusting, and he couldn’t see it. From what he could see through the crack in the curtain, it was still dark outside, but lighter than when he went to bed. It must be the early hours of the morning.
His ears twisted as they picked up a sound. He could hear the faint activities outside like he usually could, but he also faintly heard something else. It almost sounded like music, except not from the gramophone, and...singing? Well, humming, but still…
Convinced that any attempt to try and get some more sleep at this point would be fruitless, he rolled himself out of bed carefully onto the wooden floor, trying not to make it creak. He might be awake, but his roommates sure weren’t…
He didn’t bother with anything else. He just quickly straightened his blue mane up with his hooves and put his flight jacket on. He wasn’t sure how cold out it was, but it would probably still be cold from the night.
He crept out of the sleeping quarters and followed his ears to the source of the sound. He couldn’t put his hoof in it, but even through hums, the voice sounded familiar…
He made his way to the main lounge to find his theory was correct; he was familiar with the voice. Right in the far corner, relaxed on a chair was Melody. She held an acoustic guitar which she was ever so gently strumming, probably to make sure she didn’t wake anypony. It was barely audible anyway, and Astute only heard it because he was already awake.
He had a glance around to see that nopony else was in the room. It was still early after all; the shifts had not swapped over yet. He gulped and slowly approached Melody, hoping that she might see him walking. Although she seemed very engrossed in her music, humming and strumming away to herself. Astute recalled that she attempted to become a musician before the war had started, and her skills really showed. Maybe her voice was just as good. As he got closer to her, he noticed the faint glow coming from her cutie mark, a microphone with a few stars around it, fitting for a mare of her talents.
As he neared her, she quickly glanced over at Astute. She didn’t seem to be paying too much attention until she noticed who was approaching her, causing her to stop humming. “Oh, hey Astute,” she greeted with a smile. “I didn’t wake you did I?”
“Nah,” Astute shook his head, “I was already awake.” He sat down next to her on the sofa, listening to her playing. “But this is a nice sound to wake up to,” he added with a smile.
“Heh,” Melody smiled, “I don’t play as much as I used to before the war, but it helps me relax…”
“Better than listening to out there,” Astute pointed to the window. “You can almost hear the artillery fire now.”
Melody sighed, “I guess we’ll be relocating soon then,” she used her magic to move the strands of her purple and yellow mane that were getting in her eyes. She had a bit of a bedhead herself, obviously taking the same approach as Astute.
“Maybe,” Astute replied, “The airfields closer to the front give our fighters better range.”
Melody sighed again as she stopped playing. “So much for being over by Hearth’s Warming…” she levitated a cup of coffee over to herself and took a big swig. “What brings you awake at five in the morning, anyway?”
Astute shrugged, “I dunno, I…” he sighed, “It’s silly…”
“I’m listening, I won’t laugh,” Melody reassured with a smile.
“I just woke from a nightmare,” Astute admitted, “Dunno why, dunno how, maybe the stress is getting to me…”
“That’s not that silly,” Melody replied. “If you want silly, I woke up not long before you because I had to pee and couldn’t get back to sleep,” she explained with a chuckle.
“I guess,” Astute chuckled along with her, before glancing down and flattening his ears. “But...even still...I just feel like I woke from one nightmare into another…”
“Was there anything special about this nightmare?” Melody asked.
“Not really,” Astute shook his head, “I was being chased by the bugs, got captured, and sealed away in one of their cocoons.”
Melody nodded, “I’ve heard rumours that it’s a fate worse than death because you don’t actually die.”
“I’d rather not think about it,” Astute replied...while not being able to stop thinking about it… “Sometimes I wonder if I should’ve just stayed at my desk job…”
“What did you do before all this?” Melody asked.
“Number crunching for an insurance company. Boring as hell…” He began to chuckle, “Guess in a way, that would’ve been a fate worse than death as well being stuck there forever.”
Melody chuffed, “Sounds like the frying pan or the fire if you ask me,” She replied. She lowered her guitar down to the side and inhaled, beginning to yawn. As she exhaled, she slowly allowed her body to relax, sliding towards Astute. “When’s it all gonna go back to normal, Astute?”
Astute tried to respond, but he was too distracted by...well, what was going on. His body tensed up as Melody rested up against him. “Y-yeah…” his ears flattened, and he felt the heat rising in his cheeks. He wasn’t expecting...this.
Melody sighed once again, “What do you plan on doing when this is all over?” She asked.
“I-I...uhh…” Astute could feel himself twitch as he tried to formulate a response. He couldn’t get his words out.
“Ahem.”
A loud throat-clearing distracted his train of thought, causing him to twist his head to look at...Snapshot. Oh great, of all ponies to find him like this…how long had she been staring anyway?
He quickly shoved Melody, causing her to eep as he changed his position to sit upright. “Hey, Snap!” He greeted with an awkward smile on his face. At this point, his face was as red as the navigation light used on the left-wing of their planes.
“Good morning,” she greeted back. “Sleep well?” She asked while keeping a straight face, but her tone of voice heavily implied what she was trying to say to Astute.
Astute just about managed to hang onto the growl trying to escape his throat. “Yes,” he answered back.
“Good to hear,” Snapshot replied, taking a seat on one of the chairs opposite the couch. “Getting some practice in, Mel?” She asked, pointing at Melody’s guitar resting on the wall.
“Oh yeah,” Melody glanced at her guitar, then back at Snapshot. “I woke up early, so I decided to make the most of it,” she explained.
“Yeah I bet you did,” Snapshot muttered under her breath.
All of a sudden, a loud siren echoed throughout the base. A long droney noise was slowly raising and lowering in pitch, repeating itself. Astute caught sight of ponies beginning to run from outside the window.
“Air raid?!” Melody asked out loud.
“We’re under attack!” Snapshot yelled in response, turning to run back towards her room. “Quick, grab your gear!”
Astute wasted no time and jumped up from his seat, running back through the base towards his room. Luckily being one of the few up, he only had to compete with the crews coming off the late shifts for corridor space. They were all going in the same direction anyway.
Back in his room, he didn’t even bother with his uniform or anything else. He just threw on the bare minimum he needed to keep him warm in the air and indiscriminately shoved everything else into his bag like the rest of his crew. He looked like a tramp, but it was better than being dead. The zip on his bag barely did up, but he didn’t waste time and just threw it over his back, hoping that he didn’t drop anything. He didn’t have much of importance in there anyway.
Satisfied, Astute left his former quarters and sprinted out of the main building door towards the hangers, alongside hundreds of other ponies. It looked like a scene from the start of a marathon—ponies everywhere all running in the same direction. Above him, he could hear the sounds of engines...Changeling engines...he couldn’t see them, but he could hear them. They weren’t far away.
“Damn Bugs didn’t even give us time for coffee!”
Astute glanced left to see Slingshot running alongside him. “I thought you were a morning pony anyway?” He joked back.
“I am when the Luftwaffe isn’t the one bringing me my breakfast!”
They reached the hangers in record time and found Sparky waiting for them outside the Mystic Mare. Being a pegasus, he obviously had a speed advantage over anypony on hoof.
“In, in, in!” He repeatedly called, waving his hoof into the entry hatch of the plane.
Sparky kept a count of the ponies going in. Astute, Slingshot, Snapshot, Kobalt, Melody...where was Barber?
It took a few moments for Sparky’s eyes to scan through the sea of ponies all desperately rushing to get their planes off the ground, but he managed to see Barber through it all. He was trailing behind a little.
When he was near, Sparky climbed into the plane and turned around to offer Barber a hoof, which he gratefully accepted. “Damn...youngins...and yer fitness…” he said through gasps for breath.
“Just glad you’re here and not stuck on the ground, Gramps,” Sparky replied while scrambling through the plane to get to the pilots' seat. He quickly got himself seated, wrapping the oxygen mask over his face and plugging his radio connector in, getting a faint static buzz as he did. “No time for pre-flight checks, Kobalt, just get us started ASAP!”
“Yes, Sir!” Kobalt called back over the radio. He raised an eyebrow as the gears began turning in his mind...he did say ‘just get us started ASAP’...the corners of his lips ever so slightly curled upwards as he formulated a plan in his mind. His horn lit up, and at the same time, he started operating controls with his hooves.
Sparky felt the vibrations as the start-up procedure began. But they felt a little different...he looked to his left to see both propellers spinning. Then to his right to find the same thing on the right-wing. Typically they could start only one engine at a time. Kobalt must have found a way to start all four at once...it probably revealed all kinds of problems, but if it worked…
The exhausts spluttered as all four engines burst into life at the same time, just like Kobalt expected. “We have power!” Kobalt declared over the radio.
“Copy that, we’re outta here!” Sparky declared, pushing the throttle sticks forward to move the plane.
Melody worked her magic tuning the radio in as she felt the vibrations of the plane beginning to move along the ground through her seat. “Good morning ERAF Yonderhill, this is Bomber Command. This wake-up call was kindly brought to us this morning by the Luftwaffe. Take off and fly due east, climb to ten thousand, await further instructions.”
Sparky only briefly thought about the message before giving the throttle sticks a push to start the plane rolling forward. They were in a rush, and there was no time for a tug. Not that there would be one available anyway.
He followed the crowd of other planes taxiing to the end of the runway, a little faster and more bunched together than Sparky would’ve liked. He did his best to keep his distance from the plane in front of him but was also aware that time was of the essence. They had to get into the air before they got bombed.
As he neared the beginning of the runway, the plane he was following began to make the turn onto it...but it didn’t seem to be turning enough. It must have been going too fast to make the turn. It ran out wide onto the grass.
“Dammit,” Sparky took that as a hint to slow down and cut the power to the engines, the plane gently slowly. As he approached the turn, he kicked the rudder and used the brakes to try and help him turn. He gave it all he could, but he could feel that it was on the limit. It was gonna be touch and go…
...And he just about made it without clipping his wings on anything or running onto the grass. Sparky released the breath he was holding and concentrated on the runway ahead. “Keep an eye out for fighters, Shots!” He instructed over the radio, referring to Slingshot and Snapshot.
“My eyes are open,” Snapshot answered. “They’re above us.”
Sparky twisted his head around and up to look at what was flying overhead. From where they were on the ground, they looked like little faint specks. Those tiny faint specks would soon be delivering ordnance straight onto their heads unless they got off the ground soon.
Confirming that no planes were in his way, Sparky punched the throttle. The engines roared as the plane accelerated down the runway. Sparky felt the vibrations in his seat, no doubt the rest of his crew did too.
Then he heard it; the explosions. The first bombs had landed. He wasn’t able to see directly behind him, but the sound was all he needed. He took his hoof off the yoke to double-check that the throttles were all the way forward. They were. His eyes darted back and forth between the horizon and his airspeed indicator. As soon as he reached minimum takeoff speed, he planned to yank on the yoke like his life depended on it...because it kinda did.
In the tailgun, Slingshot saw the explosions picking up behind him. They were still just short of the airfield, but they were catching up...slowly but surely...and then the wall of explosions hit the boundaries of the airfield. He could see the other bombers chasing them down the runway. Hopefully, the explosions didn’t damage the runway too severely to the point where no more planes could take off...if they didn’t get taken out themselves.
Confirming they were going fast enough, Sparky gave the yoke a good tug to heave the plane into the air...maybe a little too abruptly. He felt the plane bounce a little as it lost its balance, the wings began to tip. “Nononononono,” he muttered to himself as he fought for control, the wings tipping from side to side as the plane tried to stall out. “C’mon baby, you can do it!”
A few hundred yards later, the aircraft managed to pick up enough speed to stabilise flight. Sparky took a breath now that he wasn’t fighting the controls. He kept the throttle on as he began a steady ascent. “Everypony alright?” He asked over the radio.
“It’s like I’m hungover, but I didn’t drink a drop of cider last night,” Slingshot replied over the radio.
“We got any company, Shots?” Sparky asked.
“Tail is clear,” Slingshot replied. “Fighters will probably pick off the stragglers, we got off the ground pretty quick.”
“Topside is lookin’ clear too, only ERAF planes up here,” Snapshot added.
“Yeah, we were quick to startup,” Sparky agreed. “All thanks to you being able to start all four at the same time, Kobalt. How’d you manage that?”
“I used my magic to compensate for the extra fuel and hydraulic pressure, as well as try and turn the cranks manually since I knew the battery didn’t have enough juice to turn all four props at once.” Kobalt replied, “I didn’t think it would work…”
“But it did,” Sparky added, “We may owe you our lives again, Kobalt…” he started to chuckle, “You’re bleeding my wallet dry with all these ciders I keep owing you, ya know.”
“I’m sure you can afford it, FLIGHT LIEUTENANT,” Astute emphasised his rank.
“Hardy harr harr,” Sparky replied sarcastically. “Anyway, what kinda range have we got with this amount of fuel onboard, Kobalt.”
“After this climb is finished, about a thousand miles, give or take a hundred. Assuming the engines last…”
“What’s wrong with the engines?” Spark asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Nothing yet, but we redlined them from cold, Sir. I’ll have to inspect them when we land. Wherever that might be…”
“Any ideas where a thousand miles will get us, Barber?”
“Thousand miles will get us a one-way ticket to Canterlot,” Barber replied. “I expect we’ll be directed to either Canterlot or Manechester.”
“We’ll wait and find out. Any word, Melody?”
“Nothing yet Sparky, same orders to fly directly east and await orders.”
“Alright then…” Spark took a moment to look down at his gauges. Everything was in the green, and operating normally. He released a long sigh, finally being able to somewhat relax. “Keep your eyes peeled for Changeling fighters, everypony.”
The flight continued in somewhat of a formation. The scramble to get all the planes in the air meant that there were several gaps and inconsistencies, plus certain aircraft not wanting to go any higher in fear of running out of fuel. Squadron leader Hailstorm managed to organise a half-decent convoy formation considering the circumstances.
“Orders coming in!” Melody called over the radio. “...We’re landing at Canterlot West. Runway two seven right. Cleared for the approach, we’ve been given priority due to our situation.”
“Canterlot it is,” Sparky acknowledged. “Care to guide us in, Barber? How far out are we?”
“Bear with me,” Barber replied, making marks on the map to work out how far away they were and what they needed to do to line up with the runway. He had to pull another map up which showed a more zoomed-in version of Canterlot and the surrounding areas. “We’ll be there in a little under two hours. We need to change course obviously, but that’s up to squad lead.”
“Got it,” Sparky acknowledged. “This is pretty much going home for you, isn’t it, Melody?”
“Yeah basically,” Melody replied.
“You can show us all the sights when we touchdown then,” Snapshot joked.
“If the Bugs haven’t blown them all to smithereens already…” Astute shot down.
“I don’t think Canterlot’s been hit yet,” Barber replied, “They’d get intercepted before they got anywhere near.”
“Let’s hope so…” Sparky added.
The flight continued slowly, Kobalt doing his best to try and conserve fuel. Some of the planes in convoy admitted defeat on the fuel front and broke off to land at separate airfields to refuel before making their way to Canterlot. But with a little bit of fuel management, Kobalt managed to get the Mystic Mare all the way to Canterlot.
After getting clearance to land over the radio, Sparky took the aircraft in for a landing. Feeling surprisingly calm, he took in the airbase as they approached. Way WAY bigger than the base at Yonderhill. The angle of the sun reminded them that it wasn’t even midday yet. Heck, most of the civilians living in Canterlot probably haven’t even woke up to begin their daily routines yet. He took a quick glance at the clock on his instrument cluster—a few minutes to half-past seven. As far as wake up calls go, it turned out bombing raids were very effective. The airfield was near the base of the mountain, around one of the surrounding towns. Canterlot city itself rested on the side of the mountain like it always had been. A sight that looked exactly like all the postcards.
The tyres screeched as they made contact with the runway. “Touchdown!” Sparky called over the radio. He was getting good at this.
“Mares and stallions, welcome to the capital of Equestria,” Barber imitated a tour guide's voice over the radio.
“Pfft, is Princess Celestia rolling out the red carpet for us?” Astute joked back.
“Nah, I think Princess Twilight will go out of her way to personally greet us,” Snapshot retorted.
Since he was unfamiliar with the airbase, Sparky took it easy and slowed it down a notch, giving himself time to follow the instructions from the ponies on the ground to direct him off the runway and towards somewhere to park. He was directed over to a large patch of grass in front of some hangers. Since their arrival was somewhat unexpected, they were probably still trying to find a way to cope with such a logistical challenge of all these planes suddenly turning up. And they weren’t small aircraft either…
Getting the okay from the ground ponies, Sparky began flicking switches to shut down the plane, while simultaneously pulling off his oxygen mask with his wing.
“I hope they’ve got some cots free,” Slingshot punctuated with a yawn as he pulled himself out of the rear gunners' position. “I could catch up on a few Z’s.”
“If they’ve got one big enough for you,” His sister joked in response.
Slingshot chuckled and undid the hatch. He jumped out the plane onto the grass.
Snapshot remained in the plane, watching her crewmates disembark. Melody, Barber, Kobalt, Sparky.
Then she placed her hoof over the hatch to block Astute’s path out. “We’ll catch you up, I just need a hoof with something,” Snapshot explained.
“Sure thing,” Sparky answered half-heartedly, sounding a little tired. That unexpected wakeup call must be taking its toll now that the adrenaline wasn’t pumping.
Slingshot watched as his sister sealed the hatch back up on the aircraft. He couldn’t help but chuckle to himself at the sight. Astute must feel like prey trapped in the lion's den.
“What’s so funny?”
Slingshot looked over to Barber standing next to him. “Oh nothing,” he replied back, beginning to walk in the direction the rest of their crew was going. “Just laughing cos Sis is about to give Astute some bad advice about...you know what…”
“What makes you say it’ll be bad advice?” Barber asked, walking alongside him.
“Snap knows nothing about relationships, she never even had a high school coltfriend when we were kids,” he explained.
Barber chuffed, “That’s because she’s into mares.”
“Get outta here,” Slingshot batted a hoof at Barber while chuckling. But when he saw his stern face...and raised eyebrow...oh. Barber was serious. “Wait...you...she told you?” He couldn’t formulate his words.
“Nah, I worked it out a while ago,” Barber replied.
“B-but...how?!” Slingshot demanded. This information was like receiving a blow to the head. How could something so obvious to Barber have gone right over his head? Nonetheless, it regarded his OWN SISTER for ponies sake.
Barber chuckled, “When you’re my age, kid, you learn a few things,” He answered simply with a wink.
“I don’t believe you,” Slingshot replied bluntly.
Barber shrugged, “Wanna bet on it?”
Slingshot opened his mouth to speak...and he was ready to talk, but his brain withheld his mouth. He was so confident that Barber was having him on...but at the same time, Barber was barely wrong...in fact, he could probably count the number of times Barber had been wrong on his hooves...his forehooves at that.
Slingshot released a dejected sigh. “We’ll see…”
Astute gulped at the sight in front of him. Snapshot had a serious look in her eyes. When somepony who was usually so carefree and sarcastic got serious, he knew he was in trouble. “W-whats up, Snap?” He asked meekly, trying to find somewhere to deflect the conversation to. But he knew exactly what was coming.
“Oh nothin’ much,” Snapshot replied casually. “Just wanted to know how things were going with Melody?”
“W-what do you--”
“I’m trying to give you advice, dummy,” Snapshot...snapped…
“Advice on what?” Astute asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Did you not notice the way she was leaning on you a couple hours ago? It almost looked like a romantic breakfast date. It was so cute, I almost barfed.”
“W-well, I...wasn’t...planning…” Astute’s eyes darted around the interior of the plane, trying to avoid eye contact with Snapshot. He could feel the heat rising in his cheeks. “She just...wanted to...lie down...and...I was in the way…”
“Oh for the love of…” Snapshot rubbed her left temple with her hoof. “She’s into you, ya moron!” She blurted out.
Astute felt his body tense up at Snap’s words. His cheeks were glowing a rosy red. He placed a hoof on his chest and slumped down to the floor, resting his back against the side of the ladder Snapshot would normally use to get to her turret position.
“Into...me?”
Snapshot groaned, “How else do you want me to spell it out? That mare likes you...big time.”
Astute cringed slightly as he took in the information. In the back of his mind, he always had the feeling...but he was hoping nopony would notice until he had the time to work it out for himself. Obviously, that wasn’t going to happen now. His mind kept going in circles. What should he do?
“Well, what you gonna do then?” Snapshot demanded again.
“I-I dunno,” Astute panicked, “M-maybe--”
“I dunno?!” Snapshot cut in, “Just ask her out already. What could you stand to lose?”
“My dignity, my friendship, it’ll make things awkward between us, it might impact our performance...need I go on?” Astute replied.
“Dude, she was practically begging for it, I guarantee a hundred percent she’ll say yes,” Snapshot encouraged.
Astute opened his mouth to respond but struggled to find the correct words. He ended up just releasing a frustrated sigh and banged his head back against the railing, closing his eyes.
Snapshot raised an eyebrow while she watched him compose himself. She was hoping that he might say something more, but he didn't say anything. "So...what's the matter?"
Astute cringed and looked away, mumbling something to himself.
"You just shy, or…" Snapshot trailed off, "Look dude, I'm genuinely trying to help. Any teasing is just me messing with ya, I don't mean it." She moved closer towards him and perched herself on one of the support bars opposite him.
Astute looked back at her, then glanced away over his shoulder again. "Can you keep a secret?"
Snapshot chuffed, "Hate to break it to ya, but it ain't exactly a secret you two are falling for each other. Why'd you think Sparky gave you some cash at the bar the other week? He was trying to hint for you to buy her a drink."
"...Oh…" Astute felt himself blush some more, "Well, fine, I admit I'm not the best at this stuff, but that's not what I meant."
"Then what is it?" Snapshot asked.
"Well, as I said, I'm not great with this stuff, but…" Astute sighed again, "Truth is...I don't know what I'm doing. I've never been on a date...asked a mare out…anything...and I'm worried I'll make a mistake and it'll offend her."
"Pfft, yeah, she really hates your guts right now doesn't she?" Snapshot replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
"Snap!" Astute growled.
"Alright, alright," Snapshot chuckled, waving her forehooves. "No more jokes."
Astute groaned and raised an eyebrow.
Snapshot took a breath and stepped off the support beam she was sitting on. She took a step forward and sat down close to Astute. "So you're nervous about asking her, right?"
Astute nodded.
"Well, why don't you play it clever and get her to ask you," she suggested with a smirk, patting Astute on the chest with her hoof.
Astute glanced away, raising an eyebrow as he tried to decipher what she meant. "I...don't get it?" He looked back at her.
"We're in Canterlot now, her home city. Next time we get some downtime, just say something along the lines of ‘Hey Mel, I’ve never been to Canterlot before, mind showing me the sights?’ ” Snapshot suggested while jokingly imitating Astute’s voice.
Astute looked away to think, humming and rubbing his chin. “That...actually sounds...good. No, that’s a great idea.” A smile started forming on his face, “Subtle, yet effective. I like it!”
“Good,” Snapshot nodded, “But my advice ain’t free, so here’s the deal.” She sat on the floor next to him and shuffled up close.
Astute raised his head away from her and narrowed his eyes. “Why do I suddenly feel like I’m making a deal with Discord?”
Snapshot chuckled, “You make me sound evil, I’m just trying to help,” She cooed, wrapping her foreleg around his shoulders. “But here’s the deal. The next time we get downtime, off-base, you HAVE to ask her. No excuses, no exceptions.”
“...And what if I don’t?” Astute raised an eyebrow.
Snapshot’s lips instantly curled into a cheeky grin. “Then I’ll tell her for you, and I’ll lay it out bluntly.”
“H-hey, that’s not a deal, that’s more like blackmail!” Astute complained.
“I don’t think you have a choice in this, Sweetie,” Snapshot stuck her tongue out at Astute.
“Mmmph,” Astute grunted and folded his forelegs, looking away.
“I’m only trying to help, ya know,” Snap replied, this time with a deeper, more serious tone in her voice. She tapped her hoof twice on the plane's fuselage, making a metallic bang. “We go up in this tin can not knowing whether we’ll touch back down safely or go down in a blazing fireball. I’m doing this for both of you because for all we know, time isn’t on our side and our next mission might be our last. I just don’t want you to spend your final moments wondering what-if’s.”
Astute chuckled, “That’s oddly sentimental for you, Snapshot.”
“Hey, I just want my friend to be happy. When was that a crime?” She placed a hoof on Astute’s shoulder and smiled. “C’mon,” she motioned by tilting her head towards the hatch. “Before the crew starts wondering what we’re doing.”
Astute nodded and bought himself to his hooves, grabbing his things and following Snapshot out of the plane. He stepped onto the tarmac and trotted over to the hangers, watching the scene around him. Planes all around landing, taking off and everything in between. Canterlot’s airspace sure was busy at the moment.
Astute saw a formation of three planes in a triangle formation. The lead aircraft was a shiny silver, the morning sun reflecting off its surface. It was as if the metal simply hadn’t been painted yet. Astute focused and noticed that it was a different shape. “Hey, is that a Spitfire prototype?” He pointed with his hoof.
Snapshot looked at where he was pointing. “Must be,” she replied. “I hear it’s got extra range compared to the Hurry, maybe we’ll actually get a fighter escort at some point soon.”
“And give you nothing to do?” Astute joked.
“Pfft,” Snapshot rolled her eyes, “You give fighter pilots too much credit,” she jested as they made their way into the main building. Things were changing, but hopefully for the better. They had barely even gotten started...