A United Land

When a prang (crash) seems inevitable, endeavor to strike the softest, cheapest object in the vicinity as slow and gently as possible."

                                               - Advice given to RAF pilots during WWII

    "There she is!"

    "It's hard to imagine something so calm did all of this." Vanhoover burned in the night, little fires burning brightly.

    "Well, we should get ready to attack then." The mismatched Spitefuls fell into a single file line. Flak from the ship opened up, and several searchlights began to swing around wildly.

    "Steady, steady..."

    One after another, the Spitefuls rolled over and began to dive on the target. Flak batteries began to fire more recklessly, and the main guns pointed as high as they could to desperately bring down the attackers.

    Unfortunately for the cruiser, Omega Squad wasn't known for their courage for nothing. 12 tallcolt bombs fell on the cruiser, spinning past the sound barrier. The forward turrents were the first to blow up, then the main superstructure, then the rear turrents.

    The Spitefuls, using the speed gained, made a getaway back to their motherships, leaving the massive cruiser to her fate.

    "I thought I heard the old man say,

    Leave her Jonny, leave her.

    Oh leave her Jonny, leave her.

    For the journey is long,

    And the winds don't blow.

    And it's time to leave her Jonny"

   Even if the Changelings did attack Equestria without notice, it wasn't enough to condemn them to death. They were sailors, the pilots were sailors (for a week, at least). Flying over the ocean, a light suddenly appeared out of the fog. A merchant ship, it appeared. It was not of Equestrian design, with a massive funnel belching smoke.

    "Do we attack sir?"

    "No, we need a 500 pounder to do that-aww, come on, why do you never listen to me?"

     Four Spitefuls turned to strafe the ship. A big mushroom cloud burst from the ship, and it split in half.

     "See? I told you that we could bring it down!"

     "Did I give you permission to speak freely?"

      "Sorry, sir!"

      'That ship was carrying munitions' he thought. 'Interesting.'

      "Sir, changelings in our tail!"

      "Flip around, use the STVT jets, and full thrust reverses!"

       With the introduction of the "ship jets", the handling of the Spiteful became more of a helicopter. The earlier Spiteful models were relegated to embarrassing roles it was ill suited for, like dive bombing, high altitude bombing (which it took weeks to figure out where the bombs landed), torpedo bombing, and a target tug for AA training.

       It only took two seconds for Ace to realize this could be used to Equestria's advantage.

       "Steady....steady.....fire!"

       There was no counter to the tactic except pray to the maker. Unless you ram the Spiteful, of course.

        *thunk*

         Ace looked out the window, a whole portion of his left wing gone.

         "Sir, run while you can!"

         "No, I'm staying with you!"

         *thunk*

         "Okay, fine, I'll go!"

          Ace pushed the stick forward, and the little jet fell away from the battle. Spitefuls were an interesting combination of maneuverability, speed, climb rate, a stable gun platform, and armored like a tank. With one of the thrusters gone, the Spiteful would not be able to land on any ship.

         "Blue Four, requesting to ditch in the pool?"

         "Roger that, precession to ditch granted."

         "Dump fuel....cut engines...pray to the maker..."

          *Splish!*

          "Well, that went better than expected. Riptide, you got boat out to find me?"

           "Roger, what are your coordinates?"

           "37.8 degrees north, 46.3 degrees east."

           "They're coming right now."

           The pegasus rested his head on the dashboard. "Farewell, baby. I won't forget you."

           He quickly opened the canopy, then hopped out onto the wing.

           "Here, I'm over here!"

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            "So therefore, the Princesses cordially invite you to Twilight's castle for dinner."

            After Ace had been fished out of the water, the small fleet was directed to Manehattan. As soon as they had their gangplanks on soil, the whole of Omega Squadron was whisked away back to the Ponyville airdrome.

             "Thank you, commander. Tell their majesties we will be along shortly." The unicorn guard saluted, then trotted off in the direction of the castle.

             "Okay, I want to lay down a few ground rules. No brawling, alcohol-"

             "No alcohol?!"

             "Yes. No alcohol, and be polite."

             "But I need alcohol!"

             "It's only for one night, dammit! You will go without alcohol, and if I find that you smuggled some in, your getting the boot."

           Ace held up a dirty, smelly boot.

          "This boot, in fact."

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           "Wow...." Lyon looked up at the massive chandeliers and mosaics in complete awe. "Those Princesses really have it off lucky..."

           "So, you want to be a princess?"

           "A prince, you idiot. A boy can't be a princess."

           "Shut up you two. You want us to get bucked off to-why, hello, your majesties!"

          "Welcome, brave warriors of the sky. I know Ace already, but may I have the rest of your names?"

          "Duyal"

         "Lyon"

         "Sylver"

        "Right Fight"

        "Jetstream"

        "Cloud Runner"

        "Skytrain"

        "Hurricane"

        "Seafire"

        "Green Eagle"

        "Phantom Phlyer"

        "Pleased to meet you all." The solar diarch nodded to the pilots. "You can go in now, I'll be along in a moment. Ace, stay for a moment please."

         A bit of shuffling of hooves later, the alicorn and Pegasus were alone. The legendary alicorn, the same one that never showed any faults, the one that kept the entire nation alive, visible sagged.

        "The Griffins handed their entire military to the changelings." She sighed. "The Saddle Arabians have forced their surrender, but changelings have everything."

        "Well, just have hope. I'm working on something nopony knows about. I can't even tell you."

        Celestia smiled. "Thank you." She whispered hoarsely.

        "Well let's get this dinner squared away, shall we?"