Convergence

“Jackpot, this is Magic, request permission to take off.”

“Copy Magic, this is Jackpot, you are cleared for immediate take off on runway two-one, take off immediately, over.”

Colonel Ryan Desjar slowly exhaled, releasing the air he had been holding in.  So far, so good.  Ryan taxied forward, the engine of his F-16c purring.  The Falcon turned out onto the runway, and Ryan looked down at the controls.  Haven’t done this in a while…  Ryan pushed forward on the throttle, and the F-16’s engine roared.  The plane quickly began to slide down the runway.

Ryan waited until the fighter had accelerated to a little more than one hundred knots, then eased back on the stick.  The F-16 leapt into the air, returning to the sky for which it had been built.  Ryan began pressing various keys and buttons around the cockpit, and the hum of machinery could be heard as the wing flaps pulled up and the landing gear was withdrawn into the plane.

Ryan waited until the fighter had achieved an altitude of twenty thousand feet, and then turned West.  The fighter banked towards California.

<(^)>

Swiftwing folded in his feathered appendages, finally able to rest them after the six hour flight.  All around him, pegasi were alighting on the cobblestone of Canterlot castle’s courtyard.  They however, were not where his attention was focused.  Swiftwing eyed the strange object that rested in the corner of the courtyard, wondering at its origins.

The item in question was grey, and several emblems decorated it.  It was also very large and… matched the description of the flying machine reported in the Equestria Daily.  Swiftwing took a step back in surprise.  So it was real?  He prepared to take a closer look at the mysterious aircraft.  Then he remembered where he was.

Swiftwing snapped sharply to attention, awaiting orders from general Skyrider.  Though he waited for the sound of the general’s voice, he did not hear it.  He grew anxious, wondering if the old mare had made it through the long flight ok.  Then a voice spoke.  It was not the voice of Skyrider, but it was still commanding, and unquestionably male.  The voice seemed to come from above.

Swiftwing looked up.  A unicorn stallion stood on a balcony coming off of the castle, his voice carrying easily across the whole of the courtyard.  The unicorn had on a finely crafted white uniform, with gold and black buttons and emblems.  The markings on the uniform were the highest rank that Swiftwing had ever seen.  He listened carefully to the stallion.

“Welcome to Canterlot, members of the 11th royal air division.  I am General Stronghorn."

A series of gasps ran throw the assembled troops.  The name Stronghorn was well known.  The unicorn that addressed them was the supreme commander of the Equestrian military.  Stronghorn ignored the gasps, continuing on as if nothing had occurred.

“I only wish that you had arrived in more pleasurable circumstances.  As you were told by your officers, Equestria is at war.  I understand that this will come as a shock to most, as there hasn’t been a conflict where pony must kill pony for more than fifteen hundred years.”

The general paused for a minute.

“And there isn’t one going on right now.”

The General waited for the words to sink in.

“The enemy, my friends, are not ponies, or griffons, or zebras.  In fact, though I am completely aware that some of you will not believe this at first, they are not even from our world.”

The general paused once more, and sighed.

“They are incredibly advanced, with technology far superior to our own.  We have analyzed the Cloudsdale attack, and have decided that the entire operation was carried out by no more than sixteen of them, using only eight machines.”

The general ran a hoof through his mane.

“They are called humans.  Our greatest relief at the moment, is that not all of them are our enemies.  The Princesses are currently in a conference with three humans that are allies with us, and are committed to stopping their evil brethren.  There is hope that many other humans will come to our aid.”

The general surveyed the pegasi troops.

“However, in the meantime, we are fighting an enemy that is more advanced and more deadly than any that we have ever faced before.  Equestria will need every mare and stallion to do their part.  You, gentlecolts, are members of the honored Equestrian air force.  All of you will have your roles to play in the coming days and weeks.  Fight hard, and never show the enemy weakness.  There will be no surrender, as the enemy has already shown what they do to the defenseless.  Be brave.  Be very brave.”

The general looked down at them.

“You are dismissed, all of you will be shown to quarters by the castle staff.  Recover from your slight here.  But always be ready to fight at any given time.”

The General turned and walked back into the castle.  Suddenly, the main doors to the courtyard glowed, then swung open.

A large company of ponies awaited the troops.

“First platoon, follow me, I’ll take you to your quarters, and explain how things work around here on the way.  You had better listen closely, because I am only going to explain one time, and if I catch anypony breaking the rules, they’ll be on kitchen duty from now until they get rotated to a different base.”

Swiftwing quickly trotted after the pony, listening to his instructions as carefully as he could.

<(^)>

The F-16 falcon soared over Owens peak, the California desert coming into sight.  Ryan tensed, knowing that Edwards Air Force Base was a mere sixty miles away.

All right, show time.

“Jackpot, this is Magic, been a rather nice flight, I’m gonna start heading back now.”

“Copy that Magic, hope you got to clear your head, see you in a while.”

“Copy that Jackpot.”

Ryan turned the plane back to towards Nevada, then put applied slight forward pressure to the controls.  The nose of the plane began to dip down towards the desert.  Ryan tugged back on the throttle, and the engine began to decrease the amount of thrust it produced.  Ryan once again spoke into his headset, this time switching to an open frequency.

“Attention all USAF aircraft or personal, this is Charlie two six one Juliet, I’m losing thrust on my engine, over.”

Almost immediately, another transmitter responded.

“Charlie two six one Juliet, this is Thunder, can you please confirm your situation?”

“Copy Thunder,” Ryan replied, putting a slight tone of panic in his voice, “This is Charlie two six one Juliet, callsign Magic, I am losing thrust on…” Ryan flipped several switches, “Ugh, Dang it!  I just lost my engine, repeat my engine is no longer functional.”

“Magic, what is your current position, over?”

“I’m currently passing over Parkinson peak, over… all my equipment is going down!”

“Magic, there is a small airfield approximately six miles east of your location, can you make it?”

“Negative, all my controls are sluggish, and navigation just crapped out.  My gear won’t go down anyway, and… Crap!  I have no control, repeat Thunder, no response on any control surfaces!”

“Magic, we are scrambling SAR units to your area, bail out immediately, repeat, bail out!”

“This is Magic, I copy you Thunder!  I’m punching out!”

Ryan reached down and grabbed the yellow lever, yanking it back.  The canopy exploded off of the jet, quickly followed by the ejector seat.  He hung on for dear life as the seat dropped away and the parachute deployed.  The F-16 continued on, plummeting towards the landscape below.  It crashed into the mountain side, and Ryan smiled at his last touch; he had armed all the weapons before bailing out.  The ensuing fireball erased the little evidence that would have remained of the fraud.  He could just write off the detonation as a computer glitch.

Ryan slowly drifted down to Earth, and activated his transponder beacon.  Then he waited.  After forty minutes, he began to hear the steady thumps of helicopter rotors.  Ryan looked up.  A Blackhawk helicopter soared into view.  He stood up, stretched, and waves his arms at the Blackhawk.  The chopper quickly floated down to the stranded airman.  Ryan smiled and waved as the side doors swung open and a search and rescue team leapt out.

<(^)>

The A-10s soared through the skies of Equestria, winging their way toward their target.  The pilot of the lead thunderbolt-II armed his rockets.  The target was getting close.

<(^)>

Princess Celestia strode through halls of Canterlot castle, next to Alex.

“Are you sure that more men will be willing to join our cause, Alex?”

Alex took a moment to reply.

“It’s hard to say Princess, there are probably lots of men who know that what they’re doing is wrong, it’s a question of who is brave enough to do it.  However, you don’t get into the military for being a wimp.  If I had to guess, we should start seeing defectors as soon as more military action is taken against Equestria.  It’s mainly a question of if we can survive until enough men work up the courage to make a stand.”

“We shall try our hardest, though part of me fears it may not be enough.”

The Princess turned to Alex.

“I am, at least, extremely glad to have you here, Alex.  Ever since you arrived, you wasted no time in trying to fit in here, and gave me proper respect even before you knew who I was.”

Celestia smiled.

“Alex, at this moment, I would like to make you an honorary member of the Equestrian royal military, as long as you approve.”

Alex was stunned for a few moments.

“I… I would be honored.”

Celestia nodded.

“Then from this moment, you shall be known as a colonel among my forces.”

Alex absorbed the new information, slightly awed at the display of trust.

“Princess, you have given me more than I would have ever expected.”

Celestia’s smile turned grim.

“And you will need to use everything I give you to help our cause.  Nothing less will cut it.”

“I understand, Princess.”

“Good, colonel.”

The Princess smiled once more.  Then she turned to another subject.

“One thing that continues to amaze me about your people is flight.  None of you, from what I heard, are born able to fly.  Yet you were still able to conceive of machines that allow you to gain access to the sky.  If it is at all possible, I would be most interested in the basics of how they work.”

“Oh well, of course, Princess Celestia.”

Alex cleared his throat.

“Well, the Basic concept idea is that when the air pressure, that is, the concentration of air above the aircraft is lower than the concentration below it, it causes lift, and the aircraft can gain altitude.”

“I see, but how do can you control the air pressure difference?”

“Well, that is a result of the shape of the wings of the aircraft.  When the aircraft’s propulsion system pushes the aircraft forward, it pushes air over the wings.  The wings are shaped so that as long as the aircraft maintains a minimum velocity, the air pressure above the wings is lower than the pressure below the wings.  The velocity varies per aircraft, but on average it’s a little over one hundred miles an hour.

“Fascinating.  What happens if something were to cause the air pressure to change and make it the other way around?”

Alex stopped for a second.

“Well… I guess… it would drop like a rock.”

Suddenly an image popped into his mind, an image of the Princesses’ horn glowing, and a soft breeze starting up, extinguishing several candles.  Alex stopped walking.  Hesitantly, opened his mouth.

“Princess… do you think it would be possible for you, or a unicorn, to magically alter the air currents in a certain area?”

Celestia immediately caught his meaning.

“I know that I could probably perform such a spell, but given the altitude an aircraft flies at, and the way you described the air pressure…”

The princess spent several moments pondering the question.

“It seems that the amount of energy required would be immense, and the amount would increase the faster the aircraft was going, though by how much, I can not say.”

Alex nodded, “still, it could be extremely useful, even if it only applied to certain situations.  Our jet has only a limited supply of weapons… and fuel.”

An explosion shook them.

“What the heck?”

Alex turned to look out a window an A-10 was swooping in low over the city, its Avenger Gatling cannon spewing ammo into the buildings.  Several more Thunderbolts were preparing to fly over the city.  Celestia merely nodded at Alex, then spread her wings.  She was off in a heartbeat.

Alex sprinted after her.

“Wish I could do that…”

He muttered under his breath.

<(^)>

The pilot of the A-10 swooped in low, firing another rocket into the gathering of structures.  Debris flew up everywhere.  The pilot looked up.

“What the…”

A bolt of golden energy shattered the cockpit, annihilating the pilot.  The A-10, never intended as a UAV, quickly crashed.

Princess Celestia watched the falling plane, her horn still glowing.  Then she turned to the other aircraft, which were completing their attack runs.  A whole section of Canterlot burned.  She focused her energy on the nearest two aircraft.  The air around them seemed to glow gold, then they both plummeted to the ground.  Celestia noted that a small object detached itself from the front of one of the planes.

The remaining three attackers turned back, their attention now focused on the flying pony.  Celestia felt small objects slicing through the air around her.  She once more focused her magic on planes, but this team she felt weaker.  The spell had taken much out of her.  Her horn glowed once more, and two of the aircraft were tugged together, causing a massive airborne explosion.  The remaining jet zipped past her.  Celestia turned, by now breathing hard.  She watched the last remaining fighter, waiting for it to turn around.  It never did.  The aircraft continued on, back towards the direction of mount Ragnon.  Celestia sighed, and turned her attention down to the burning city.

<(^)>

“General Quentin sir, it is an honor to meet you.”

Ryan shook the hand of the young General, merely forty years old.

“Yes, well it’s nice to meet you… Ryan, is it?”

“Yes sir.”

The general cleared his throat.

“Good, good, now I was told by my second that for some reason the airmen they just plucked off the side of the mountain was threatening to shoot someone if they didn’t let him see me.”

Ryan blushed a little bit.

“Well… maybe I was a bit extreme.”

“So the real question is… why does an airmen wind up in the middle of the Californian country side, and then upon being rescued, immediately demand to speak with the CO of a base that he doesn’t even belong to?”

Quentin folded his hands on his desk.

Ryan removed a thumb drive from his pocket.

“Sir… the contents of that drive are from General Anderson, over at Nellis.  I understand that the two of you are friends.”

Quentin chuckled a bit.

“That man saved my butt more times than I care to recall.”

“Well… anyway, the reason why I’m here is because he wants you to have the information on there.”

The General looked at Ryan.

“Well, I appreciate it.”

He slid the drive into a nearby laptop.

“However, aren’t there easier ways to send data than have an F-16 crash in the middle of nowhere?”

“The information on that drive explains why he couldn’t just send it, sir.”

Quentin looked over at the computer screen.

“I see…”

He began to read.  The general’s eyes grew wider the more he read.  Quentin slowly nodded.

“I see.”