A United Land

"Any ship can be a minesweeper... once."

                                                    - Anonymous

     Dungkirk was a small bay near the Equestrian/Crystal Empire border. The Changelings made a final push at the Crystal ponies, and they were forced to the area. All Equestrian and Imperial transports were diverted here to take the guards to Equestrian soil.

     Ace sat loftily with his 12 pony squadron over the scene.

     "Griffins, 7 high!" It was his wingpony, Lofty.

     "Wait what?" Lyon, part of his diamond formation

     "Confirmed!" Sylver, Lyon's wingpony.

     "Evasive maneuvers, remember what I taught you!"

     The 3 diamond formations broke apart and turned into the Griffins to throw them off. All too late, Ace realized it was a trap. Machine gun fire made him look back, a double winged plane chasing him.

      A Griffin fighter? How come I wasn't informed? Thought spun through his head as he dodged and weaved.

      Slowly, he began to drift lower and lower. Seeing he was at wave top level, he used the galleons stationed in the harbor as cover. Balancing the plane in it's wingtip, he flew between the masts of a schooner, then pulled up over a frigate, snap rolling at the top. The biplane, not being able to handle the g stress, fell to pieces.

     "Got one!"

     "Nice shot!"

     "Look at them burn!"

     "Ahhhhhhh!"

     Holding the aircraft off, the soldiers began to load onto the ships. Things would have been fine. Would have, if the changelings didn't come. Nearly finishing off the Griffins, reinforcements arrived and soon, the 12 Spitefuls found themselves overwhelmed by sheer numbers. The ground units did what they could to help, but it was only minimal.

    "Come on, where's that Jenkins guy when we need him?"

    "His squad is supposed to be on patrol duty-"

    "Hello!"

    "Aaaahhhhh....oh, it's just you."

   "Yeah, I had to break your order to save you butts."

   "Hey....."

   The Clydesdales barreled in to the rescue, guns blazing with tracer rounds. The transports below set sail for Equestria, and the Griffins and Changelings, realizing it wasn't worth losing any more soldiers, quickly retreated.

    "Jenkins?" Ace panted."

    "Yes sir!"

    "Welcome to Helios-"

    "Eeeeeeeeyes!"

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    "Goldenfeather, your majesty, we must clobber the ponies from the air!"

   The Griffin emperor sighed on his throne, and sank into it deeply.

   "Look chief, we would be wrecked in the skies, Dungkirk being a prime example. The only way we can win this war is through the ground, with our metal behemoths. The Equestrians have nothing to-"

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    "-counter these machines!" Ace was off in a rant. "Even the highest caliber guns on our planes won't be able to penetrate that armor! We have spears and swords; they have machine pistols!"

     Nyx sat across his desk in deep thought. "Ace, calm down. We can make it through this! If you can make something that is specifically designed to carry heavy bombs and high explosive rockets."

     Seeing that something was lighting up in his eyes, she continued. "Start on the Clydesdale. Fast enough to not get hit, slow enough to actually be accurate. Mabey you can do something like this?"

    Ace didn't answer. He was too busy drafting the attack aircraft to hear what Nyx had to say.

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   "Even now, those ponies could be dreaming up of something to counter our only superiority." Griffin Major Adamant said to his formation. "The army chief has ordered a massive push into Canterlot here-"

    He pointed his stick to the south, near the railroad ledge.

    "-here-"

    The north over the mountain.

    "-and here."

     The west, though the trade route.

     "We will be starting the push up the mountain in the north, as the spearhead of the attack. Any questions?"

      An awkward silence.

      "Good. We move out at 0700 hours."

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      Ace looked at the beautiful sunrise from a hilltop over Ponyville. Behind him was the prototype he painstakingly built throughout the night, in front, the reds, oranges, and purples painted against the sky.

     "So. This is how it ends." He sighed. "I didn't even get to see the world and it becomes planet Gryphus."

     He patted the wing of the machine.

     "Well, if I go down, I'm going to go down with a bang! Whattaya say, Javelin? Ooh, a good name!"

     Suddenly, two mares popped up from behind a bush. Ace yelled in surprise, and backpedalled into the Javelin.

    Diamond Tiara was the first to speak. "Hey Ace!"

    Ace was still recovering from his near heart attack experience. Silver Spoon, taking the silence as the go ahead to keep talking, said "We wanted to apologize for the immense torture that we gave you in your elementary years."

    Finally finding his voice, Ace snapped, "Is it because I'm being shipped out?" He huffed. "I'm not forgiving you just yet."

    The two young mares looked genuinely hurt. "No, Ace." Diamond sniffed. "It's because WE are nurses in the guard now, and we're being shipped to Prance."

    "Really? I'm being sent to Prance to escort the bombers the Griffin Empire. No, I can't tell you anything more than that." He sighed. Defensive flying was not his strong point.

    The two mares saluted to him. "Godspeed, Ace."

    "You too."

    He turned to push the plane to the airdrome.

   "Um, a little help please?"

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     Stormstride flew as fast as he could. It was fast, being Equestria's fastest messenger pony, but not as fast as a certain mare known as Rainbow Dash.

     Finding his target, he rolled over and dove down.

     "Sargent Stormstride reporting for duty, sir!"

     Ace turned and gave a quizzical look. "The Royal Guard? What are you doing here?"

    "The Griffin machines have been found amassing near routes into Canterlot." He paused for a moment. "The Princesses need your opinion."

    "Hmm.....I'm no tanker, but I would suggest we evacuate the whole city. We can't fight that. Then, we blow up the structures in which the city sits on, and we take down three whole tank battalions. This will be important when we counterattack."

     The short Pegasus nodded, saluted, then flew in the direction of Canterlot.

    Ace didn't see this. He was running through the airdrome screaming, "Rise and shine, shitheads! We got a Griffin attack inbound!"

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    "So, the our job is to protect the Clydesdales armed with 500 kilos and whatever Javelins the factories managed to build so far. It would be suspicious if there wasn't any opposition."

    The small group exchanged looks and grins. All of them had lost a family member, no matter how distant, except for Ace Nova.

    To the tune of Imperial March, both sides of the inevitable conflict began to take action. Black smoke rising from the smokestacks of the tanks, flame from the back of the Spitefuls.

    The Griffins opened the attack with a light bombing with their biplanes by having the pilots taking bombs loaded IN the cockpits. The Spiteful squadron stationed in Canterlot intercepted them as they began their drop.

    Thus, the Griffins learned that having high explosives was not the best thing to have in their cockpits when flying though angry pony planes and flak.

    Clydesdales dove on the tanks, and generally made their lives miserable. But still they pushed on. Ace and his squadron soon arrived on the scene, to be quickly jumped on.

    "Evasive maneuvers!"

    With a biplane on his tail, he pulled up, waited for it to stall out, then swooped in to the kill. Pulling out, another got on him. At the same time, a biplane went for a head on. Rolling away from the trap, the two Griffin vehicles collided in a spectacular explosion.

    Three kills in the opening moments of the air battle. Not bad.

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    "Art thou sure about this, dear sister?" Luna was always one for doubt.

    The older alicorn nodded. "Just take the Elements and teleport to Ponyville. I have a couple of...errands to do."

    The night alicorn nodded, and disappeared in a flash of light, blue box in tow.

    "Thank you." Celestia nodded at the castle. Slowly going around the building, she set up explosives, then teleported to Ponyville. In Ace's mark, she would press the Big Red Button. Her sadness and hopelessness of not being able to do anything was countered by the fact that her ponies could finally be more independent, and all of the Canterlot citizens were safe and sound in neighboring towns.

   In a flash of light, she to teleported to Ponyville.

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   "Princess?" Ace bit at his hoof in anticipation.

   After a pause, "Hello?"

   "Mark."

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    "And tonight, we celebrate victory!" Adamant yelled above the cheering of the mass of Griffins in Canterlot Square. Suddenly an explosion ripped across the air. The shockwave tossed some tanks away to the side, while the entire city began shake.

    "Uh oh."

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    "Yee haw!" The Mane Six and the Princesses looked at the massive city go sliding down the mountainside. After a pause, a mushroom cloud rose where the city disappeared. Each had mixed feelings (I'm sure you can guess each).

     Omega squadron flew overhead in a single line, and one after another, did a barrel roll.

    "So, what now?"

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    Ace set his trusty jet down on the ground, and taxied over to his hanger. Calling a circle, he told them future plans.

   "Boys, we did great today. But this is only half the fight. The Flim and Flam brothers made a massive four engined plane that carries high explosives. The pegasi will escort it from Equestria to Germane, where they allowed us to station midair refueling aircraft. This is also where we come in to relieve the pegasi. We escort to the cities, bomb the crap out of them, then bring them back to Germane. We go back to Prance, and other pegasi will escort them back to Equestria soil. We will be flying a three engined variant of the Spiteful, the C-4. Home defense will fly the two engined version, C-2. We will be turning in these aircraft to the factories to be converted, or you can get a new one if you turn it in to the reserves. Any questions?"

    "Can't the bombers be in Germane?"

    "They only allow refueling aircraft."

    "Anyone want a new aircraft?"

    None did.

    "Good. All of you get a 2 week leave. Enjoy your family when you can."