Skies of Harmony

The skies above Ponyville had erupted in a blazing dogfight as the Empire of Vulcan Sol mounted their airborne attack. With flak filling the air and planes and pegasi trying to defend the town from invasion. Sky Buster was hot on the heels of a parasol winged Vulcan fighter, augmented with magic to fly as fast and as agile as that of a Zero or Corsair. Although hopelessly outdated, the craft was comparable in combat ability to stock frontline aircraft fielded by Tidas Aurora due to its magical arcane enchantments.

"C'mon asshole! C'mon!" Sky lined up his gunsights to the deceptively agile monoplane, "Guns guns guns!"

Lighting up his enemy with rainbow tracer cannons, Sky Buster downed his first kill of the day. He was blaring electronic music in his helmet and grinned. He turned to another biplane fighter that was chasing him down.

"Hmph! Amateur!" Sky Buster performed his signature aerial technique: the Cobra Stall, to fly backwards for a split second vectoring his wing power so that his opponent would dart past him. This was a difficult technique to accomplish in full combat gear, as the pegasi had to keep flying forward for the extra winglets to keep them aloft. With his enemy flying right past him Sky Buster barrel rolled into position and filled the enemy fighter with 20mm cannon fire, "Chopper splash two bandits!"

"Good job my comrade!" Mikey was attacking one of the heavily armored airships that were on an bombing vector towards Ponyville. The legendary Kirov airships were ridiculously armored and armed with an absurd amount of bombs that could be dropped in rapid succession. Mikey was concentrated on destroying all of its engines to slow the massive aircraft down, but the whole craft was further shielded by a magical force field. The fast firing quad fifty caliber guns of his fighter merely bouncing off the airship, "Pheasant One to all flights! Concentrate all firepower onto their Kirov airships!"

"This is Firefly! Callsign Flash, Mirage Squadron request acknowledged!"

"Fluttershy! How's that enchantment countermeasure pod doing?" Sky Buster flew up next to her and noticed she had difficulties trying to get the sensitive magic jamming pod to work.

"It's not working, I'm trying to fix it," Fluttershy muttered softly into her radio. She was the radio operator and ECM fighter pony charged with a more supportive rather than a combat role.

"I'll fix it! Dash, Chopper, cover us while I get this thing to work! Those Vulcans are gonna be gunning for us!" one of Sky's squadron mates, a white coated and pale blue maned mare named Thunder Bolt flew over to Fluttershy to get her ECM pod to full operation. She was well trained with the use of technology, being a Cloudsdale factory worker before the Dark Days hit.

"Callsigns Chopper and Rainbow copy that! Let's go!" Rainbow Dash and Sky Buster pulled off in unison and flew within the airspace of Fluttershy and Thunder Bolt.

"Pheasant One and Two on the hunt!" Mikey and Tanya tried to cover as well.

"Thirty seconds! Pod rebooting!" Thunder Bolt was frantically trying to hack and reconfigure the pod.

"Thirty years of sitting duck time!" Sky Buster glanced over to his left and right to see a flight of biplanes coming after the exposed fighter ponies, "Dash! Tally five bandits ten o' clock! Engage!"

Dash saluted and they both dove to intercept. With the sun to their backs they were in the ideal ambush position in a dogfight.

"Surprise from the clouds bitches!" Sky Buster and Rainbow Dash burst out from the clouds and unloaded with their rainbow tracer cannons, downing two of the five aircraft, "Haha! Chopper and Rainbow, confirmed splash two bandits!"

"Great job Sky! How's everypony doing?" Firefly, the Mirage Squadron flightlead requested for a sitrep.

"Chopper, half full on ammo. Still got my rockets!"

"Rainbow here. A-okay as well."

"Done! ECM pod repaired, Thunder reengaging Vulcan forces!"

"Um... Butterfly here, anti enchantment support is up, they're crippled."

The rest of her squadron gave reports that they were focusing on the airships. Meanwhile, Pheasant Squadron was busy keeping some dive bombers off their targets.

"Hey Mikey! Looks like their enchantments are down!" Zak noticed a few craft limp back to their slow and cumbersome physical performance, making them easy pickings.

"White Pheasant aircraft, focus all fire on their airships! Our flak guns will down the rest of their aircraft!" Mikey ordered his flight to attack.

"Yeehaw! Ten four good buddy! Prowla' engagin' Kirovs!" Ghost destroyed one of the engines of the bomber blimp, making it turn heavily to the left, way off target, disabled. Mikey came in and peppered the armored hull of the hydrogen craft, making a large hole that was burning slowly at the canvas and metal.

"Zak here! One of their Kirovs are going for the town plaza! I'm hitting it with an X-4 guided missile!"

Beneath his craft was a prototype air to air missile, the first of it's kind in the world of Realm, one of the many superweapons fielded by the Kingdom of Tidas Aurora.

"Pheasant Three... Vulpix One!" Zak launched the missile and guided it manually with a small joystick on the side of his cockpit. It wasn't perfect, but the large size of the blimp made the wire guided missile easily hit it's mark, disabling its main engine and igniting the volatile hydrogen. The blimp drifted slowly into the ground and fortunately overshot the town plaza, crashing into the park and detonating safely away from anypony, "Hell yeah! Confirmed first kill with guided air to air munition! David's gonna be happy about this!"

The bomber disabled by Ghost was trying to limp back to friendly airspace but Sky Buster wasn't going to let it escape so easily.

"You're not getting away..." Sky was out of ammo and jettisoned his saddle over the airbase for recovery. He held his breath as he flew into the gaping hole of the ship, avoiding to inhale the burning hydrogen. He landed with a loud thud to announce his presence and glared at an enemy crew member, "Sup!"

"Inferior being! Why do you stand against the tide that is the Empi-?"

Sky Buster disarmed him and stabbed him in the mouth as he monologued with his own sword, "Haha, yeah, shut up!"

A squad of soldiers armed with bayonets charged at the pegasus.

"C'mon! I'll take all you assholes out!" Sky bucked a rifle out of one of the soldier's paws that charged him and used his wings to transition into a backflip to dodge another stab directed at him, landing on top of an anthro dog's head and stomping down with momentum, breaking his neck. His wing was stabbed in the feathers and he used that to his advantage by twisting back, grabbing the rifle and disarming the enemy with a swift elbow strike to his face, coupled with an overhand strike when Sky twirled the rifle out of his paws, skillfully leveraging his enemy's energy to strike them back. He broke the bolt of the rifle and tossed it over the railing as one soldier was just about to get up. Sky, with his wing, pulled out his ivory handled .357 magnum made from an anthro's horn and shot his enemy before he could get up.

"Pfft! Please, spare your embarrassment! This is my killing gun. Nopony trots away from my killing gun," Sky noticed another enemy away party trying to intercept him, "Well you Vulkie bastards, I'd love to chat buut!"

Sky shot one of the grenades on the chest of the commander and took off the pin. The grenade dropped off the railing and into the bomb bay.

"Salamat po!" Sky jumped off in a backwards freefall and watched as the blimp tore itself into two pieces upon explosion. The brilliant fireball brought a smile to his face as he emerged unharmed from a cloud of black smoke. Rainbow Dash was right there to catch him in time, although he didn't need it.

"Hey egghead! You okay?"

"I'm fine Dash, just brought the pain," Sky put his hooves behind his head and relaxed, flipping his visor up to see Dash's face, "You?"

Dash responded by jokingly dropping him. Sky merely let himself fall and smiled.

"I love you too!" his voice faded in his fall. Sky rolled over and spread his wings to glide onto a cloud. He looked at the town he helped to save and he smiled that it merely received some light structural damage, as burning planes were intercepted on the outskirts of the city, before they could do any major damage, "Chopper, requesting sitrep on mission status."

"This is Firefly, Chopper you crazy son of a bitch, that was some fancy flying back there. Glad to see you come back to Equestria."

"Thanks, I couldn't just sit by while my beloved nation was besieged... Again. And after what those Vulkies did, it's personal this time, I'm not in it for the money now."

A few hours later the town could finally take a breather. It was evening now and the ponies were just returning home to settle down for the night. Sky Buster was flying about when he noticed a small gamboge colored filly looking over what appeared to be a pile of wood that had been knocked loose by the air attack. He flew over and landed softly next to the young filly.

"Hey Scoots. You okay?" Sky Buster gave further inspection to the pile of wood, now noticing that it was her broken scooter.

"No, those mean pilots blew up my scooter," the filly looked disappointed. Sky smiled and patted her on the back.

"Well, looks like I'll need to report this to HQ as an enemy kill on wheeled transport. Hey, cheer up little sis. Let's head home for tonight and have some dinner. You hungry?"

"Yeah..." Scootaloo smiled and hugged her adopted brother.

"Hop on! And don't mind the smell of gunpowder and burning zeppelin, work was exhausting today," Sky brought a smile to her face and a laugh as well, "Want me to go full throttle this time?"

"You bet! Give it your best shot big brother!"

Sky Buster flipped his visor down, shading his face with an amber tinted lense, "Hang on!"

Sky spread his wings wide and with a powerful thrust he lifted off, quickly accelerating to transonic speeds at low altitude. He followed the course of the river that ran through town leaving an upwards wake of water caused by the force of his wings as he flew low enough to touch the water. He climbed into the clouds and into the upper atmosphere.

"Supersonic here we go!" Sky patted his little sister.

"Sweet!" Scootaloo held on tight as Sky Buster swept his wings back and dropped into a deep dive at full thrust, breaking the sound barrier and forming a mach cone. His helmet indicated his airspeed.

"Mach 2!" Sky kept accelerating, "Mach 3!"

"We're gonna crash!" Scootaloo yelled.

"Not on my watch! Mach 4!" Sky hit his fastest speed, "Alright! Thrust vectoring! Hitting the boost!"

He began to decelerate at such a rapid pace that he and Scootaloo began to shake violently. They were dropping altitude fast and they were on a collision course with their cloud house.

"Don't sweat lil sis!" Sky Buster pitched up and vectored his wing power to perform his signature Cobra stall, quickly bleeding momentum and gracefully touching down onto the cloud.

"That was awesome! How'd you do that?" Scootaloo fluttered shortly in excitement.

"I'll explain it to you later during dinner, it's rather complex and requires that you know the principles of aerodynamic physics. Just some things I put into practice after flight school," Sky patted her on the head as he rang the doorbell. Dash answered it with a smile.

"Hey guys!"

"Hey Dash! Look, I found a chicken!" Sky joked playfully as Scootaloo jumped off his back.

"Very funny Sky," Dash lightly bucked him again.

"How's my adobo cooking? All that stuff gotta be really tender now!" Sky hung up his helmet and powered it off, his red mane jumbled up like hat hair. Dash's pet tortoise crawled up next to him, "Oh! Hey Antanov! How's my favorite flying tortoise?"

The reptile rubbed against him and pointed to a managed rotor near his pet bed. Sky gave Tank the nickname of Antanov, referring to an experimental airborne tank design.

"Ugh, I told you about the importance of anti-torque physics regarding rotors you know? Don't worry, I just finished up a coaxial system for you at base, hold on, I got it in my saddle bag somewhere," Sky looked for the new rotor pack for Tank to fly with. He found it in his right pocket and presented it to the shelled reptilian, "Here we go! Twilight and I built that for you with Prince David's help. He wanted me to test it out, he's getting crazy with all his helicopter designs."

The tortoise returned a confused look at him but turned to smile at his new flight system.

"Go on! Try it out Tanky!" Dash patted her turtle and switched the pack on. With one revolution the rotors deployed from their folded position.

"Preflight checks! Swash plates?" Sky checked the controls, "Check! Anti-torque assembly?"

The reptile spun both his propellers slowly.

"Check! Awesome Shades?" Dash added. Tank retracted into his shell and came back out with a pair of sunglasses.

"Cleared for takeoff Antanov!" Sky watched as the twin rotors of their pet tortoise whirled up and the normally slow and steady reptile lifted off into the air, "It works! Roll over for me boy!"

Tank did an indoor barrel roll with his new rotor pack, successfully demonstrating it's agility.

"Huh, he couldn't do that before," Scootaloo hopped onto the couch and looked at the flying turtle.

"Exactly, he's much more stable and the twin blades will give him more power and agility. At least that's what Prince David told me. So! Who's hungry?" Sky asked.

Dash, Scoots, and Tank raised their hooves (leg in the case of Tank) to the question and they all proceeded to the dinner table.

Later that night Sky Buster was fast asleep and huddled close to Dash, sleeping in the same bed. He started to stir slightly and twitch at the dream he was having.

"Hey Sky, what's up?" Shining Armor spoke to him within his dreams.

"Not much, just some studying that needs to be done. Basic security and formation tactics. Did you hear that Tidas Aurora has fielded a new class of weapon called an assault rifle? It fires a downsized version of the same round fired by the Kar98s we use in training," Sky explained as he relived his flashback during his years at the Royal Guard Academy.

"This letter arrived for you, it seems important and you should probably open it as soon as possible."

"Oh, I wonder what it could be..." Sky swiftly opened it with a multitool he kept handy. As he read the letter it became clear that it was of a serious and heartbreaking tone. He dropped the letter and collapsed to the ground in an anxiety attack. The letter drifted to the ground, this was what it read:

-Sky Buster,

We deeply regret to inform you that your family was killed in a recent attack by the Empire of Vulcan Sol. Your mother, father, brother, and grandparents were victims of a ruthless attack on the Equestrian commonwealth of the Fillypines. As your commanding officer and mentor, I deeply apologize and send my sincerest sympathy for your loss. You may stay and study at the academy for as long as we can allow, free from any financial burdens. We are deeply sorry for the news...

-General Swift

Sky was a nervous and distraught wreck. Writhing in both emotional and physical pain on the ground as he was sobbing freely, stomach churning sickly, and curled into the fetal position. His friend lifted him up with magic and carried him into their dorm, Shining Armor picked up the letter and read what was on it.

"...Sky..." he had no words to say.

"M-My whole f-family! D-Dead!" he continued to writhe and sob uncontrollably, he was hyperventilating and was about to throw up. Shining Armor there to comfort him and catch his vomit just in time with a well needed trash bin.

Sky Buster was turning in his sleep and crying as well, muttering uncomfortably. In his state he woke up Dash, who glanced at him and immediately tried to wake him as well.

"Sky! Sky! Wake up! Sky!" She shook him awake with a look of concern at the hyperventilating and sobbing pegasus, "Wake up!"

Sky gasped and was thrusted back to reality, embracing Dash in a tight hug, trying to control his emotions.

"T-They're all dead Dash! Celestia dammit, I wish I could've done something!"

"Hey! Hey! Breath man!" Dash stuffed a paper bag into his face and held him up, "You're okay... I'm here..."

Sky whipped his head back and forth and wiped the tears from his face. He got up from the bed and trotted to the window with Dash supporting him.

"Hey... You're gonna be okay. I'll never leave you hangin' bud. Sing with me," she comforted her boyfriend with an embrace and some kind words, "I can save my lonely soul for you..."

"...B-But the feeling in my heart can't follow through..." Sky began to sing through his sobbing.

"You can give your broken heart to me..." Dash backed up so he could see the smiled on her face. She hugged him tighter.

"...Caz you know that I'll stay with you..." Sky smiled back and held her tighter, finally calm and in the hooves of one of his family.

"That's why they call me Loyalty..."