Equestria's skies, formerly the sky’s of earth shown a bright hue of golden amber as the airship Tanager (named after some long lost fighting ship) flew silently through the now glowing iridescence of clouds scattered around her reflecting silently off her polished deck as pony’s rushed to an fro with the practiced precision only years of experience could carry.
Minty Frost a pegasi born one generation after the final consumption of earth and the subsequent fusion (some would argue destruction) of the human race, flew silently along her mother ship. Though much larger than her the vulnerable ships still needed protection in these uncharted and unprotected skies ferrying supplies from town to town, outpost to outpost.
As a member of the royal guard it was her entrusted duty to ensure the protection of the vital supplies being carried by the Tanager, to and from its destination, which was currently the small sea side town of Foals-Haven located somewhere on the western coast of the former American empire, one of the many former nations ruled by the creatures that previously ran this world.
Glancing around a final time her amber eyes spotted a small glint on the horizon, not unusual nearer her destination, but out in the Marejave desert was quite unusual. She banked her wings and with a mighty thrust pushed herself to almost two hundred miles per hour approaching the object at almost her maximum speed.
As the object became clearer her heart began to race and mind going over its shining metal frame, massive engines, wings and blisters, this thing was really only meant for one thing, War. And it was coming right for her. Diving away just in time she was able to take in its size, almost as long as the Tanager the massive machine blistered with weapons as its roaring engines sliced through the air written in sketchy letters were written a scattered tangling of English and equestrian words, the first set was scary enough, Aluminum Overcast, the second set was worse, Humanis Pro Vita.
Aluminum Skies Chapter one
Overcast
Forged in a time long past, made of Iron, Aluminum, Spit and Prayers, the oldest and currently ONLY working B-17 working in the remnants of earth flew very unstealthy towards its target in rabid abandon. Glistening skin of hoof polished metal only began to reflect the true intent of the bomber as it flew through the sky, reworked from the inside and lacking a bomb bay, she now however worked as an airborne carrier for a dedicated team of pegasi or any pony dumb enough to jump out of a perfectly working airplane.
Dreamchaser, a earth pony’s who’s unique albinism and body shape were the result of a PER attack some time ago, though he would never admit his age, he was one of the few pony's still alive when humans were around, in fact he used to be one.
His hoofs glided over a series of controls as a confused Pegasus blasted past them at almost two hundred miles per hour. Leaning back in his chair he yelled deeper into the behemoth of an aircraft, “Xander, just spotted a flyer, you got two minutes tops!”
A dark gray zebra simply grunted in acceptance and started his work, leavers pressed, magazines loaded, barring polished, in a blindingly fast pace the zebra preformed a task that would take any normal pony hours in a matter of moments, a sign of both practice and determination. Xander quickly swiveled the the main ball turret (located behind the cockpit) into position and loaded his favorite rounds, Aluminum Phosphate mixed in with hollow points, perfect for taking down anything that relied on gas to fly.
With surprising dexterity for the quite large zebra, he quickly made his way to the fore of the aircraft and made quick work of the even larger sextuplet of heavy guns already fitted for war. With a simple flip he linked the two weapons turrets together and bringing a sum total of eight guns to bear on any one target, or anything unfortunate to be between Xander and his kill. A nod from Xander sent Chase into action, slamming down on the accelerator the behemoths engines started working in over time, from a little over 1000 horse power to almost 2000 in less than two seconds and sending the bomber well past its original operators safety limits, but this bomber was never really designed for high speed attack runs, until now.
Minty Frost doing her best to catch the bomber was trailing behind fast. At over 350 mph the aging but still deadly bomber rushed towards its victim with murderous intent. In sudden and crystal clarity only pegasi eyes could see, she watched as the bombers fore guns burst to life sending white hot rounds into the Tanager's vulnerable balloon section, as a smaller turret raked the deck back an forth taring lumber and pony to pieces.
In seconds the Tanager was reduced to a burning wreak falling quickly out of the sky. As the Overcast banked left and retreated into the distance Minty watched in horror as body’s still alight fell towards the earth there screams muddled by raging inferno around them as the precious cargo burned in the twilight’s light, she could only weep and pray to celestia that vengeance would find those responsible for this atrocity.
After a few long moments of watching the remaining burning wreckage fall to the ground the remaining pegasi survivors gathered around her for direction and support and together they quickly departed for Foals-Haven.
Looking back Minty now teary eyes took one last look at the small silver dot quickly disappearing into the distance and only let out a small whimper as her assailants disappeared into the closing night.
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3 Miles Away
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A lone pegasus watched silently perched atop his dark cloud masking both his presence and color from any around him. As the large bomber faded into the distance his hoof slid over a small box positioned close to his right ear and simply muttered, "They have struck again, took out the Tanager left the escorts." there was a pause as the pegasi waited for a response, he didn't have to wait long.
"Fallow them," A gravelly voice commanded, "You know your mission, R out." without hesitation the pegasi slid below the clouds and into the night.
