At Tallahassee, a stallion burst through the door that led the the commanding officer's office, "Major Gusty!" He yelled as he entered.

Major Gusty, the military officer in charge of running Tallahassee looked up from her desk where she was planning the next mission, "What is it Windrider*(1)?" She asked as the stallion caught his breath.

Captain Windrider, the lead radio operator of Tallahassee who worked in the control tower, finally spoke after a few seconds, "We got another one coming."

Gusty stopped in her tracks for a second as she contemplated what Windrider had said. Then is clicked, and she wished he had never came through the door.

They had already had three bombers crash on landing at the base due to an emergency landing, a B-17 and B-24 from another squadron and a B-24 from the 851st that had landed just minutes earlier.

She had hoped that no other bomber would come in for an emergency landing after seeing what had happened to those three.

The first bomber that had crashed was one of the B-24’s, one of the 851st bombers, and it had not fared well. Though it didn't belly land, it suffered a similar fate to the bomber that had. When the wheels came in contact with the runway, the left wing snapped off at it’s base, which had been severely damaged due to a fire in the #2 engine. The bomber had then rolled over to the left before it explode when the right wing slapped the runway turning the bomber into a tumbling fireball, which killed the seven ponies who had survived up to that point.

The second bomber had been the B-17, and it fared just as bad. The pilot had been in a panic and wanted to get on the ground as quick as possible. But in his haste, he had come in at too steep of an angle and smashed the nose into the runway, crumpling the front of the bomber and breaking it apart. Out of the 10 ponies who had been on the bomber, 3 walked away and another 4 were taken to the hospital with varying injuries.*(2). While, three that had died. The navigator and bombardier and the pilot who had caused the whole mess. *(3)

The last plane was the second B-24, which ended up looking much like the first one. It had belly landed, as the right wing had been severely damaged and it’s gear wheel blown off. When it hit the runway, the damaged right wing gave out and snapped off, causing fuel and fire to go everywhere. The bomber leaned over to the right, but had been going slow enough that is stopped before the left wing could carry over and slap the runway upside-down. The bomber would eventually fall back to the left, crushing the wing tip of the left wing, but thankfully, not bursting out into flames. Two crew on that bomber had been killed before making it back to the base, 6 more were taken to the hospital with second degree burns while the two others were able to walk away with only minor injuries. *(4)

Gusty turned away from the captain and stared out the window at the end of her office that over-looked runway 5, the runway that the B-24 had cartwheeled on. The B-24’s twisted and charred remains still sat on the runway.

"What squadron is it from?" She asked after a moment.

"It's one ours, a B-17 from the 848th. Bomber 44-5651." Windrider replied.

Gusty froze. She new that bomber well. Hell everyone at base knew 'Speed of Lead'. Sorin and his crew were known by and friends with almost everyone at base, and hated by none. His crew had been given the nickname 'Angels in Hell' because they had come back from so many missions in their trusted bomber covered with holes and with destroyed engines, many times with injuries that should have killed them but never did.

And now they were coming back to base for a crash landing, something they had done only one other time.

"How long ago did they radio in?" She asked as she played out situations in her mind.

"They called in about half an hour ago. We got in contact with a bomber that flew past them around the same time, they were about two hours out at the time, and from what we were told, they’re in bad shape. If we heard the pilot correctly, he said they were on two engines, and the bomber is barely airworthy." Windrider responded.

"Why was I not informed of this half an hour ago!" Gusty yelled in frustration, "Something like this should have been brought up to me at that moment."

Windrider didn't move or flinch at Gusty's outburst, he'd heard it before. He was in complete agreement, and he was just as frustrated as her. He was just able to hold it in a little better.

"I only heard of it a few minutes ago and when I did, I came straight here. Why someone didn't come here and tell you earlier, who knows. What we have to focus on right now is making sure we give them everything we have to give them the best chance at surviving."

“Right. Do we know which runway they're most inline with?”

“From the position the other bomber gave us, they're on an almost straight path to runway 4.”

"Okay, we need to get those remains of that B-17 off the runway now.” Gusty said as she calmed down slightly.

"Already ahead of you." Windrider stated, "I got some of the mechanics to pull the wreckage off the runway the second I was told, I have them combing it for sharp metal now."

Gusty took a deep breath, "Good, that's the least we can do for them. Now we just have to hope Sorin and D.D. can do what they always do, and bring that bomber home."

Windrider put a hoof on Gusty's shoulder and tried to crack a smile, "Gusty, this is Sorin we're talking about, he'd probably try to muscle home a bomber without a tail and pull it off."*(5)

Gusty tried to smile too, "I hope you're right."

Two Hours Later

Gusty stood in the control tower as she, and the rest of Tallahassee, waited with bated breath for the only B-17 from their base that was still unaccounted for.*(6)

They scanned the skies, fighter's at the ready to search for the bomber's wreckage if the wait was deemed too long, but everyone was hoping that they wouldn't be needed.

"Look there they are!" One of the controllers yelled and pointed toward a black speck in the distance. Some were skeptical at first because they couldn't hear the sound of the bomber's engines, but as it came a little closer, they realized that it really was the stricken B-17. It was then they all realized that, for the first time, they had seen it before they had heard it.*(7)

All of Tallahassee looked on in amazement as the once elegant bomber fell toward the runway, running on only one engine and nearly cut in half.

"My god." Wingrider said under his breath as they all looked out at the bomber as its left wing dipped toward the ground. One of the operators next to him pulled out one of the military issued camera, turning toward the distant bomber.

"What are they doing?" One of the other radio operators asked.

It was then Gusty was able to get a good look at the bomber, and realized that it's right gear wheel wasn't deplored, only the wheel on the left wheel.

"They're trying to land that monster on one wheel!" Gusty yelled as she grabbed the base's intercom, "All emergency personnel be ready! It’s a unicycle"*(8) Then all they could do was watch as the bomber came in slow toward the runway.

The wheel came closer and closer to the ground until, finally, the gear made contact with the runway with the left wing angled to the point that the wing tip floated just feet away from the rapidly moving asphalt. Seconds after the wheel touched the ground, the #4 engine, the only engine left still running, died, leaving the plane with no power.

"My god, they're doing it." Gusty said as the bomber tore down the runway. Everyone in the tower then watched as the bomber passed the middle of the runway, "But it's going way too fast!" someone yelled as the whole base watched the bomber careened toward the end of the runway, and the trees beyond it.

They watched, helpless, as the bomber bounced off the end of the runway and into the grass, the left wheel leaving a rut in the ground. As dirt built up in front of the tire, the bomber slowed to the point that the right wing fell hard to the ground, snapping off part of it and sending the bomber careening to the right.

Tallahassee watched as the bomber slid sideways till it disappeared into a treeline. Not long after, an ear-shattering crash was heard, and the ponies in the control tower watched as one of the larger trees on the horizon shook violently.

In all, the landing had only last 53 seconds.*(9)

The air had barely went silent when every able body in Tallahassee raced to the end of runway 4 to help anyone who had survived what was, without a doubt, the most death-defying landing anyone could remember.

As they ran, they had two thoughts in their minds, how many of their friends were alive still, and how many were now not going home.

Rainbow looked out at the others who had strapped themselves into the radio room. Lead Leg had just pulled himself in from the cockpit and soon, he too was strapped in.

They all sat there, and listened to the almost distant sound of the lone engine as it struggled to get a bomber, built to barely be able to fly on two engines, to the runway that never seemed to draw closer.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, but was only minutes, D.D. came over the plane’s intercom, the sound slightly slurred because the speaker had been hit by shrapnel, "Alright everyone get ready, we've only got one shot at this, and we're going in."

Everyone in the radio room held their breath as they listened to Sorin and D.D. calling out the altitude over the intercom, to keep the others in the loop since they could see absolutely nothing.

"100. 80. 60. Easy Sorin you're coming in a little hard." D.D. said, finishing just as the tire squealed as it came in contact with the runway. Just after the tire came in contact with abused asphalt, the #4 engine, the only one left running, died.

"Why did you kill the engine!" Sorin yelled as he wrestled with the yoke to keep the right wing elevated.

"I didn't! D.D. yelled back. "We must of ran it out of fuel. Couldn't have timed it any better if you ask me."

Sorin groaned, "We cut that way too close."

"No shit!" D.D. Yelled back. "What's our speed?"

Sorin checked quick, "86."

"God damn it Sorin, get on the brakes harder! We've eaten up half the runway!"

"I'm on them as hard as I can be! Some of the shrapnel must have damaged the the brake lines!"

Then D.D. looked up out of the windshield and her heart almost stopped, "Oh shit hold on everyone! We're going to do some lawn care!

Just then, everyone felt the bomber bounce off the end of the runway and run into the grass.

"We're slowing down too fast!

"No shit Sherlock! We're gonna have to set the wing down easy."

The others in the radio room felt the right wing slowly level out, but the second it became level, the wing dropped hard and slapped the ground.

"Shit!

"Shit!"

Sorin and D.D. yelled, the wing snapping 3/4 of the way down it's length just after the aileron, and throwing the plane hard right.

"We're heading for the trees!" Sorin yelled seconds before the bomber collided with a tree 2ft in width between the ball turret and radio room.

The bomber hit the tree at about 60mph, almost splitting the bomber in two, embedding the tree half way through the tail. The bomber sat there, right wing against the ground and left wing pointed toward the sky.

As the tree stopped shaking, the metal of the bomber gave out one last groan as it settled into the ground, like the last breath of a dying animal.

The rush of ponies that had come from base arrived on the scene, and they stared in awe at what had happened.

Once the shock of what they were looking at wore off, they rushed to the waist gun windows and climbed in, looking for any survivors.

They got into the radio room after navigating around the tree and found the entire crew. Some were worse for wear than others, but all alive, strapped to the bomber’s framework, out cold.

They then traveled forwards into the cockpit and found Sorin and D.D. Sorin was still strapped in his seat, the left side of his head bleeding from smacking the broken window next to him. The window had been broken by a branch from a tree just about a foot from the bomber’s cockpit. D.D., who had been thrown out of her seat on impact, was now impaled on the end of the branch. The duo, were also completely unconscious.

"Get the medics!" one called, "These guys need the docs yesterday!"

Minutes later, as Rainbow was being carried out of the bomber, she momentarily regained consciousness. She looked around at the world around here, watching ponies scramble to and from the bomber carrying out her other crew members, and she realized she wasn't dead.

She chuckled to herself, "I guess protocol does come in handy." Chuckling again before falling back to the stretcher she was on, unconscious once again.

No one noticed she had came to.

Dash's unconscious mind brought her back to happier times, back when the thought of going to seemed like a good idea.

Dash had just arrived at one of the many military flight schools. By military rules, at least one other member of a bomber's crew, besides the pilot and co-pilot, must know how to fly the plane.

A mechanic in a jeep dropped Dash off at her bunk house, one of the older small ones that was really only good for two ponies.

She thanked the jeep's driver and grabbed her bag out of the back. As the jeep drove away, she walked into the bunk house.

She saw two beds, one was empty and was most likely her's. The other was a mess with a purple mane popping up between wing ups.

"So. My new roomy. Finally. Arrives" The other pony said between wing ups.

Dash could barely tell what the voice sounded like, but it sounded very familiar, " Yeah some mechanic just dropped me off." Dash said setting her military issue duffle bag in her bed.

The other pony stopped mid rep, "Dash?" the pony said in a mare’s voice.

Dash knew that voice she looked back at the other bed and saw an orange head pop up. Yes she knew this mare well, and she smiled, "Hey squirt, it's been awhile hasn't it."

Scootaloo beamed as she got up, walking over to her "older sister" and hugged her, "I didn't think I would see you here Dash." Scoots said with a smile, "I thought you said you were a navigator?"

"Yeah, but the military wants me to be a back up pilot so here I am."

"Really? So what are you training on?

Dash shrugged, "Multi-engine bomber, and that's all I know. So what about you? What they got you slaving over?"

"They've had me training on the P-38. I'm to be shipped out to the 49th squadron in about a month."

Rainbow Dash looked at her sister in astonishment, "The 49th. The 49th fighter squadron. The same 49th squadron that lays claim to 13 aces in 2 months. One of the hardest squadrons to be assigned to and has only lost 17 fighters in 24 years! That 49th squadron!"*(10)

Scootaloo smiled, proud that she had awestruck her idol, "Yep, the very same. The top pilot of every class is assigned to the 49th. For the last two months, they've had me training on the same P-38 that I'll be flying when I ship out."

"Oh really, where are you storing the thing, I want to check it out." Dash said, almost already out the door.

Scootaloo smiled sheepishly, "Well I would, but I might have." Just then the sound of a twin engine fighter buzzed low over the the bunk houses.

"What the hell was that!" Dash yelled.

Scootaloo just smiled, "Oh it's probably just D.D."

"Who's D.D." Dash asked, raising an eyebrow.

Scootaloo just gave a Rainbow a grin, "Just watch." she said as she pushed the bunk house's door open.

Dash stepped out the door to see a sheet metal finished P-38 buzzing low over the bunk houses. The plane then pitched hard toward the sky and climbed higher and higher. But Dash could tell something was wrong, "Shouldn't she level off soon, or won't she stall?"

Scootaloo just laughed, "Oh shut it and watch."

Dash turned back to the sky and watched as the fighter slowed then it started to back over, canape toward the ground. The pilot then kicked the rudder, throwing the P-38 into a flat spin, just 4,000ft above the ground. Rainbow held her breath as the P-38 fell in it's flat spin toward the ground, but slowly, the plane started to pull out of the flat spin. Soon after, it went into a regular dive, 1000ft above the ground. The pilot then pulled hard on the yoke, trying to get the fighter to level out. It continued to dive toward the ground, and Rainbow almost shut her eyes at what she thought was going to be a crash. But, at literally the last second, the P-38 leveled out at roared back into the sky, adding a few rolls for good measures.

"Holy shit." Was all Dash could say.

Scootaloo just smiled sheepishly, "Yeah, she's a bit insane. You have no idea how many times she's destroyed the props on fighters in the last few months doing tricks like that."

Dash just stared blankly at her sister, "She's wrecked planes before? Why haven't the orderlies*(11) gotten on her."

"They were the ones who put her up to it. They were tired of having old biplane trainer sitting around that no one could use because the military deemed them out of date. So when she accidentally climbed into one thinking it was her trainer, they told her to use it as one and have some fun with it, she already had a resume for doing crazy stuff in her trainers. Then one thing led to another and now she's just a crazy stunt flyer know as Dare Devil, but we mostly just call her D.D."

Almost if on cue, D.D. buzzed low over head, upside-down at high speeds before going into a loop.

"When does she stop?" Dash asked.

"Either when she runs out of fuel, destroys an engine or two, or hits the ground." Scootaloo said as she watched knife-edge feet away from the control tower.*(12)

Dash watched with a smile, "I'll have to talk to her sometime, but right now, I'm gonna head to the chow house, I'm starved."

"I could go for some stale bread and beans." Scoots said, the sisters broke out in laughter as D.D. brought the p-38 in for a landing, the metal of it's wings only slightly damages from the high G's she had put them through.

Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash would never get to talk to D.D. at training.

Rainbow Dash and other recruits from several different training camps that had been assigned to bombers disembarked from the C-47 that had brought them to their last stop before the front lines, Vanhoover bomber training center. The 37 ponies who had been on the transport flight filed into the waiting area outside the orderly's office.

Dash set her stuff down next to an orange mare with a black mane, only to hear, "So the world famous Rainbow Dash was training was us huh."

Dash just turned to the mare and gave her a smile, "Oh I'm just another wonderbolt doing their job. You obviously know my name, so what's yours?"

The orange mare smiled at me, "My name's Cloudwing, but everyone calls me Dare Devil, or D.D. for short."

Dash cracked a smile when she heard this, "So you're the D.D. who stole my sister's P-38 and did crazy stunts with it. I got to say, I saw you a lot back at training, you're really good a flying fighters, so why are you a bomber pilot?"

D.D. looked at her, "Okay, one, who's your sister? And two, I may be good at flying fighters, but I think if I ever was assigned to one, I would spent more time doing my stunts than actually fighting."

Dash broke out laughing, "Fairpoint. Oh and to answer your question, my sister is Scootaloo."

That stopped D.D. dead, "Whoa Whoa Whoa, hold on a second, Scootaloo is your sister?"

Dash slightly shrugged, "Well technically, no. But when she was younger, she was picked on a lot because she couldn't fly well, and was late getting her cutie mark. She had always been a fan of me, and when she had a little bit of a break down on a camping trip with me and some of our friends, I took her under my wing as a little sister. Truth be told, I think it helped her self confidence by a lot."

D.D, stared at her, "Wow, that's crazy. to think that confident pilot once was a scared filly, is kinda sad."

"She wasn't really scared, she just had problems putting up with some other fillies at her school. There was one time that these two fillies got into her head when she and her friends were practicing a routine for a contest to see who carried our town's flag in the Equestria games. In it, she was supposed to jump through a hoop on her scooter. But when these two rich fillies got into her head saying she head to fly or they'd lose, she wore herself ragged trying to get herself to fly. The whole incident nearly tore her friendship apart, but after an intervention by her friends, and me, we made the tryouts, and they won."

D.D. cracked a smile, "Well I'll be. But enough talk about Scootaloo, I talked with her a lot back in training. So, you got any good stories?"

Rainbow shot D.D. a grin, "You have no idea."

The two mares spent the next two hours talking like old friends as the other pilots around them were called into an orderly’s office and assigned to their bombers and crew.

Everything was as normal as many of the other ponies made small talk with each other until, "Captain Cloudwing, First Lieutenant Rainbow Dash, please enter." All conversations stopped dead, only one pony at a time had been getting called in to the office, no one knew what it meant to have both Dash and D.D. called in at the same time.

D.D. and Rainbow just looked at each other and shrugged, before they both picked up their military issue duffle bag and headed into the office.

Sitting behind the office’s desk was light blue and yellow pegasus dressed in a Major’s uniform, sween into the uniform was the name Gusty.

Once the door behind them closed, the mare spoke, “Good, you’re both here. I called you in here at the same time because you’ve been assigned to the same bomber.”

She pulled two papers off her desk and handed one to each of them, “You’re bomber is 44-5651 and you’ve been assigned to the 848th bomb squadron, part of the 490th bomb group. You’ll be flying out of F.O.A.F Tallahassee.”

Dash and D.D. turned and looked at each other, “Tallahassee?” they both asked in confusion. Part of their training had included memorizing multiple bases, and Tallahassee rang no bells.

Gusty sighed a little, “I thought they had told you about this already. Tallahassee is a newly constructed base that got finished a few months ago. It’s nothing big, it wasn’t built to handle 6 bomb groups.*(13) Just know that you and the other nine members of the 848th are the first crews to use it, so don’t trash the place.”

The two mare did their best not to laugh before they folded the papers under their wings and saluting the major before turning and leaving her office.

The two quickly made their way out of the orderly building and out into the sun, looking off toward the hanger’s and lines of bombers.

“Well that could have gone a lot worse.” D.D. said as they got away from the office building.

“Yeah, I had no idea how that was gonna go. But I guess we’re gonna get to know each other a little better huh.” The two laughed before pulling out the papers that had been under their wings.

D.D. smiled, “Now, let’s see what other nut bags we’re gonna be flying with.”

“Alright, let’s see.” Dash said when she looked at the first and stopped dead. “Pilot, Captain Cloud.”

D.D. looked over at Dash, her eyebrow raised, “Are you ok?”

Dash looked over to the orange pegasus, “Captian Cloud is Sorin. I’m just a little shocked that Iron Wing got put on my crew.” She then cracked a smile, “I’m gonna take the piss out of him when I see him.”

D.D. couldn’t help but crack up laughing at Dash as she seemed to go crazy, “I’m not even going to ask, I’m just gonna see who else is with us while you lose your mind before the war even starts.

Rainbow quickly got a hold of herself, and went back to the list.

“Okay, let’s see here, I’m the co-pilot. Yeah that’s a surprise. And of course you’re the navigator, like you’d be anything else.” D.D. started as she went through the names, “Joining you in the nose as the bombardier is 2nd lieutenant Doo.”

Dash looked at that name, “Why do I feel like I know that name?” she said to herself, before she shook it off and continued to look over the list of names.

“We have a top turret gunner and flight engineer named Private Wall, and a radio operator known as Private Tail. You know I kinda hate how the military only gives last names, cause I feel like I might know some of these guys.”

Rainbow laughed a little, “Yeah, I can agree with you there.”

The two were about to turn back to their papers again when they heard a car come to a stop in front of them and someone yell, “Hey you two!”

The two mares looked up to see a jeep with three ponies inside sitting in front of them, the one that had spoken was sitting in the back.

“You’re Rainbow Dash right?” The one in the back spoke again.

“Yeah that’s me, who’s askin’?” She shot back. She had a few stallions try to hit on her during training and it had really started to piss her off.

The stallion held up his hooves, “Easy there Ms. Wonderbolt, we’re part of your crew. Name’s Cloudtramp.” He then motioned to the stallion in the passenger seat, “and that’s Live Wire. We’re your waist gunners.” He said before turning to the jeep’s driver, “And this suicidal lunatic is our tail gunner, Gusty McArrison. But everyone knows him as either Lucky Bastard or Lucky”

Rainbow nodded, and snuck a look at the paper, looking at the last three names to make sure they were actually telling the truth. When she saw the three names at the end of the list, she calmed down.

“Well you obviously know who I am.” She then pointed to D.D. next to her, “And this is Cloudwing, but everyone calls her D.D.”

D.D. gave the three a salute, which the three in the jeep returned half-heartedly before Lucky spoke, “You guys heading over to our bomber?” The two mares nodded, and the three cracked a grin.

“Perfect. That’s where we’re headin’. Climb on it!” Live Wire called as he moved over to give the two mares room.

The two mares happily obliged as they threw their duffle-bags in the back before climbing into the jeep.

With their new passengers loaded in, Lucky started up the jeep and pulled away, making a beeline for the rows go hangers where their new bomber awaited them.

“So where'd the name D.D. come from?” Live Wire asked as they came up to the long rows of hangers.

D.D. cracked a smile, “Technically, it stands for Dare Devil, but everyone started calling me D.D. As to where it came from, I was known for doing a lot of stunts in my trainers, and other ponies planes. I actually broke a lot of props because I would come too close to the ground.”

Cloudtramp and Live Wire stared at her for a second. It took a minute before Live Wire said anything, “You broke trainer plane doing stunts? How were you not court martialed?”*(14)

D.D. sighed a little, “It’s a long and confusing story that i don’t even really understand, but basically the orderlies were the ones telling me to. I don’t know why and I probably never will. But the second they told me I could basically do whatever I want whenever I wanted, I didn’t really care.”

The looks one Cloudtramp and Live Wire had one their faces and what they could see of Lucky’s in the rear view mirror almost made the two friends break down laughing.

Before anyone could question D.D. Rainbow spoke up, “Trust me she’s telling the truth. First day I was at training she came buzzing over my bunk house at like ten feet above their roofs in my sister’s P-38, almost crashed it too.”

Silence hung in the air, for about two seconds before the three gunner stallions burst out laughing. Rainbow and D.D. held together a little, before joining them in their fits of laughter.

When they finally calmed down, Live Wire spoke, “I have a feeling that you and Lucky are going to get along just fine.”

Hearing this, Dash thought back about what Cloudtramp had said when introducing Lucky, “Hey speaking of Lucky, what did you mean when you said he was a ‘suicidal lunatic’?”

Cloudtramp and Live Wire shot each other a grin, before Cloudtramp responded, “Well, there’s a reason Lucky has the name Lucky Bastard. He was known for doing a lot of stupid shit back in basic training and then in gunnery training. The name really came into its own when he jumped out of a C-47, that he somehow talked the orderlies into letting him use, from 150 ft into a lake just because one of his friends bet him twenty bits he wouldn’t do it. So he actually jumped out of the plane and cannonballed into the lake, and we all thought he was dead. But about a minute after he popped up out of the water, the only injury he had was a bloody nose and an injured eardrum from the pressure of being thrown about thirty feet under water.”

The two mares’ glances went between Cloudtramp and Lucky a few times, before D.D. blurted out, “How the fuck are you not dead!”

The three gunners looked at each other and shrugged, “No one knows. But the name Lucky Bastard has followed him around ever since.”

“I can see why.” Dash said. When her brain finally caught up with her, she noticed that they had stopped at the first hanger in the line of thirty where bombers sat, waiting for crews. “How long have we been sitting here? And why are we stopped at all?”

Lucky turned to her, “We’ve been sitting here for like fifteen minutes, and we stopped.” He turned and looked at Live Wire, “‘cause I forgot what hanger the mechanic said our bomber was in.”

Live Wire face hooved, “Third to last hanger on the left. Jesus Lucky we went over this like four times!”

Lucky had one of those smiles on his face that said, “Yeah I really messed up.” as he put the jeep into gear and continued down the rows of hangers.

“Speaking of our bomber, do you guys know if it’s a B-17 or a B-24?” D.D. asked as the jeep got back under way.

It was a decent question. At that time, the Royal Equestrian Air Force had two main heavy bombers, the B-17 Flying Fortress, and the B-24 Liberator. While the B-24 would go on to be produced in higher numbers than the B-17, but it wasn’t because they were a better design than the B-17. The nickname of the bomber said it all, The Flying Coffin.

The B-17 was known for getting shot up to the point that is shouldn’t be able to fly and still getting what was left of their crews home. It wasn’t that the B-24 hadn’t done the same, but due to their design, they were more susceptible to having their wings blown off. With the B-17, the wings were mounted in the center of the fuselage*(15) But with the B-24, the wings were mounted at the top of the fuselage, which made them all the easier to be torn off. Many would go on to say that more B-24 went on to be produced in the war than B-17 because more got shot down. The legend of the B-24 became so widespread that crews prayed to get assigned to B-17’s.

“Don’t know. The mechanic we asked didn’t tell us. I hope to hell it’s a B-17.” Lucky said as he looked down the rows of hangers.

“Amen to that.” D.D. replied, “I wanna get through the war in one piece, and not end up splattered across an Arabian farm field.”

The rest of the ponies in the jeep burst out laughing in agreement before Lucky spoke up again.

“Guys, look.”

He pointed to a hanger not to far away. The doors were partly opened, and written on a board, that looked like it had been painted over multiple times, hanging over the open space were the numbers 44-5651.

Ever pony in the jeep held their breath as they rolled toward the open hangar doors, prayers being said in there mind for a B-17, as if the result meant life or death. *(16)

They came to a stop in front of the doors. And then they saw the rounded engine cowlings and fuselage that were dead giveaways of a B-17.

“Thank Celestia it’s a fortress!” Live Wire yelled as Lucky pulled the jeep into the hanger.

D.D. and Rainbow both let out the breath they’d both been holding and silently thanked Luna’s lucky stars that they’d been given a B-17.

Dash was reaching for her duffle bag when she saw a tuft of blue move in the the cockpit glass. She watched the dark blue mane move around in the cockpit before something clicked, and a devilish grin crossed her face. She then yelled out, “Hey Iron Wing!”

The blue mane in the cockpit stopped moving, before a Sorin popped his head out of the co-pilot window and yelled out to Dash, “God damn it Dash! I told you to lay off with that god forsaken nickname! I’ve been reminded of that day enough.”

Rainbow couldn’t help break down laughing, “I’m just messing with you Sorin. Nice to see you again.”

Sorin just groaned, and Dash had to keep herself from laughing as she felt she could almost hear Sorin mentally saying, “This is gonna be a long ass war.”

Rainbow chuckled again to herself before she finally grabbed her duffle bag and started to walk toward her bomber. She almost had to stop for a moment when that thought came across her mind, “My bomber. Man that’s gonna take some time to get used to.”

Dash looked up to see Lucky and Cloudtramp pulling themselves into the rear entrance of the bomber, D.D. and Live Wire most likely already inside. She then took a second to look around the bomber.

She was a little surprised. When she had been in training, she had taken time to actually learn the markings for the different bomb groups, even though there were a lot of them and she really didn’t need to.

Usually, bombers in the 490th bomb group weren’t painted and were kept in their normal silver sheet metal finish with red lines outside the outboard engines, down the middle of the elevators, and along the bottom of the rudder.

While 44-5651 did have the distinctive red lines, the red line on the rudder took up the top instead of the bottom, and instead of being sheet metal silver, it was the classic drab olive green-brown that was used on most B-17’s at the time.

Written just above the bomber’s identification number was a +K, which was used to identify what bomber squadron the plane belonged to. Dash had tried for weeks to understand how these letters worked, but it had ended as well as Twilight trying to figure out Pinkie Sense.

It was then Dash noticed a pony’s body poking out of the ball turret. “Well that must be our ball gunner. What was his name?” Dash then realized that she not only hadn’t really taken the time to see what their ball gunner’s name was besides a quick glance at it when she was checking the names of Lucky, Live Wire, and Couldtramp, but she also realized that she had no idea where her crew list was.

She shrugged, and proceeded to walk over and went to poke the pegasus in the wings to get their attention, when she realized, the pony she was staring at wasn’t a pegasus.

Yes he had wings, but they weren’t pegasus wings, they were the bat wings of a terrestrial. Had she not already met a few of the terrestrials that worked as Luna’s guards, she probably would have been freaking out do to all the old horror stories that had been told about terrestrials. She had learned quick from those guards that those stories had been made up after Nightmare Moon’s defeat to attack the terrestrials for “siding with the darkness” when in reality they were being controlled the whole time by Nightmare Moon. But at the time, no one really wanted to listen to anyone who had been associated with the dark mare.

“Hey, I take it you’re our belly gunner. Name’s Rainbow Dash, I’m our navigator.”

The terrestrial unfolded himself from inside the ball turret and turned to her. Much like his tale, his mane was a two tone black and red, which had been part of what threw her off from thinking he was a terrestrial. Terrestrials she had seen normally had a purple or navy blue mane and tail.

The terrestrial stallion smiled, with Rainbow only jumping a little bit when she saw the small fangs in the stallion’s mouth. “Well hi there Rainbow Dash, name’s Mason. But everyone has taken to calling me Turtle”

Rainbow had to hold in a laugh, “Turtle. Really. The guys back in your gunnery basic weren’t to creative were they?”

Mason rubbed the back of his head with his hoof, “Well it didn’t really start out as a nickname, it was originally more of an insult. Turns out that even when you’re about to risk your life for Equestria, 1000 years of hatred doesn’t go easy. Growing up a terrestrial, I learned to try and make myself as small as possible. That doesn’t help when you’re stuck in a military barracks with 20 other ponies who want to do nothing but kick your ass and tell you you’re worthless. Eventually I learned through the help of a couple of real nice guys what friends can for each other, so I turned Turtle into a nickname. It was kinda our way of getting back at everyone at basic.”

Rainbow had to think about that for a second, “Wow. I’m surprised you’re still carrying that name around. But I do have to ask, what’s with the black and red mane thing? The terrestrials I’ve met usually have like, blue or purple ones?”

Mason looked up at the piece of his mane that had fallen down in front of his eyes, and had to hold back a laugh, “Oh yeah, that. I’ve had it for so long that I forget about it. I did have the normal navy blue mane, but Manehatten isn’t exactly nice to terrestrials. So I dyed my mane and tail to help myself blend into a crowd. I did it for so long, I grew to like it and I’ve kept it that way ever since.”

“Well it definitely works at helping you blend in.” Dash thought. “Well that makes more sense than anything I would have come up with. So what happened to these friends of yours?”

Mason shrugged, “It was basic, so who’s knows where they got sent to.”

Dash was about to reply when, “Ay, is that who I think it is?”*(17)

Rainbow and Mason turned toward the hangar doors to see a large white-grey stallion with a red oxide mane and tail, and seemed to speaking with a thick Scottish accent.

Mason looked at the stallion for a second before his face turned into a giant grin, “No way, Scotsman what are you doing here!”

The grey stallion walked over and slugged Mason in the shoulder, “I told y’ah that name was annoying as hell y’ah bastard. But it’s good to know that someone besides myself will actually be able to do ‘heir job.”

Dash watched as the two gunners proceeded to chat away like old friend. She had heard “Scotsman” say something about being a gunner, and the only gunner she hadn’t met yet was their top turret gunner.

”So that’s gotta be who he is.” She thought to herself as she watched the pair continue to chat away. She thought back to her missing list and the names that she had read on it. She thought back to the missing piece of paper, then she remembered.

“You must be Private Wall right?” She said as she walked up to the duo.

The scottish pony turned to her, “Ay that’s me. Name’s Stormwall, and you must be Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow nodded back, “Yep that’s me. I take it you and Mason know each other.”

Stormwall locked a foreleg around Mason’s neck and pulled him close, “Ay. Me and this idiot met up back in gunnery. Even though he started that annoying as hell nickname.” Stormwall shot a death glare at the terrestrial in his grasp, “I still consider him a good friend. Even if he walks a fine line between friend and enemy from time to time.”

Mason was eventually able to remove himself from Stormwall’s grasp. “Speaking of gunnery, do you know what happened to the others?”

Stormwall cracked a grin, “Well it turns out that Dusk got assigned to another bomber in the 848th as a waist gunner. As for Lightning and Skies, no idea.”*(18)

The conversation was cut short after that when, “Hey you three! Stop you’re gossiping and get in here! We got practice missions to run!”

“Oh cool you’re ass Iron Wing! The war’s not going anywhere!” Dash yelled at the outstretched head of Sorin.

“I swear to Faust Rainbow Dash! One of these days I’m gonna end you for that damn name!”

Rainbow painted her face with a cocky smirk, “Better hurry up Iron Wing or the flak will beat you to it!”

Sorin’s face had gone from his normal blue to a nice shade of red, “JUST GET IN THE DAMN PLANE!” He screamed, giving Luna’s Royal Canterlot Voice a run for it’s money.

The three air ponies groaned, ears slightly ringing, as Sorin, still fuming, pulled his head back into the cockpit of the bomber. Dash sighed as she turned to the two stallions, “Might as well do what he says, we’re gonna have to put up with him for as long as we last.”

The two stallions groaned again, but nodded as they picked up their bags and made their way over to the rear of the bomber where an open door waited to seal their fate.

Stormwall and Mason begrudgingly pulled themselves into the back of the bomber, and Rainbow was about to do the same when she heard a jeep come to a stop at the front of the hanger.

She turned her head toward the hangar door, and watched as a grey mare climbed out of the passenger seat. Dash caught sight of her back, and her cutie mark, and when Dash did, her eyes went wide.

“No way, it couldn’t be.” She said to herself, as she sat her duffle bag down in the bomber’s doorway and started to walk toward the open end of the hanger.

D.D., who had walked back to talk to Dash, saw her walking away through the waist gun window. She stuck her head out of the bomber’s door and yelled, “Hey Dash where you going?”

Dash didn’t even turn around as she shouted a reply, “Just going to confirm a hunch. Throw my bag in the nose will ya.”

D.D. rolled her eyes, grabbed Rainbow’s bag, and walked back up to the cockpit, watching as her new friend made her way over to the jeep.

Dash watched as the dropped off mare returned to the driver’s side of the jeep and spoke with the driver before waving as the jeep drove away. “Thanks again for the ride!”

Rainbow walked up behind the mare before saying, “You’re the last pony I expected to see her, Ditzy.”

Ditzy jumped a bit, caught off guard by the voice behind her. When she calmed down she turned around to see, “Dashie!” She yelled happily as she threw her forelegs around Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow had to chuckle as the grey mare that she had become good friends with over the past few years wrapped herself around her.

“It’s been a while Ditz.” She then caught sight of the gold ring on a chain around her neck alongside her dogtags.

“Ditzy, is that what I think it is?” Dash asked with a grin on her face, pointing to the ring.

Ditzy looked down to where Dash was pointing before returning her gaze to Dash, with a slight red hue imprinted on her cheeks. “Yeah, the Doctor proposed to me not long before I left to go to training. He said it would give me a reason to come back, even if him and Dinky were reason enough already.”

Rainbow couldn’t help but smile, “Hey that’s great Ditz! It’s about time Whooves popped the question.”

Dash then remembered what she had been about to ask before noticing Ditzy’s ring, “I gotta ask Ditz, what are you doing in the Air Force? No offence, but your the last pony I’d expect them to accept cause. Well, you know.” Dash had known Ditzy for nearly a decade now, but it still felt awkward to bring up her eye problem.

But as she always did, Ditzy barely even noticed the comment, “Funny thing about that. I had a recruitment letter come about nine months back. I thought the same thing that they wouldn’t take me because of my eyes. But they took me in and ran their normal tests, and found out that if I set the bomb sight in a specific way, I’m actually more accurate than the average bombardier.”

Dash was a little shocked by this. She knew that even with were lazy eye problem Ditzy didn’t have much trouble seeing, but the idea that they made her a better bombardier than most off the bat was a little crazy. Yet she could help but smile.

“That’s awesome Ditzy. With you in the crew, we’ll stick it to those Arabians real quick.” Dash then turned back towards the waiting B-17 behind her, “Come on, I’ll introduce you to the crew. I’m sure Sorin would be happy to see you again.”

Ditzy’s smile widened, “Sound great.” she said as she picked her duffle bag up off the ground and followed Dash.

They quickly pulled themselves into the back of the bomber and soon found all the gunners talking in the radio room above Mason’s turret.

Lucky turned when he heard the sound of hooves walking on the metal behind them, “Well nice to see you finally join us Dash.” He then caught sight Ditzy, “And who might this be?”

Lucky’s comment made the others turn to the two mares who had stopped just in front of the left waist gun. Dash smiled at the five stallions, “Guys, this is Ditzy. She's our bombardier and a good friend of mine from back home.”

She then turned to Ditzy and motioned toward the group, “Ditzy, these are our gunners. Lucky in the tail.”

“Wassup”

“Live Wire and Cloudtramp on the waist guns.”

“Yo.”

“How’s it going.”

“Mason, our ball gunner.”

“Whats going on.”

“And Stormwall our flight engineer and top turret gunner.”

“Ello lass.”

Ditzy smiled at the five stallions in front of her, “Nice to meet you all.”

It was then Cloudtramp noticed one of Ditzy’s eyes go a little lazy, and couldn’t help but point it out. “Hey are you ok?”

Ditzy and Rainbow turned to each other, and Dash immediately noticed what Cloudtramp was pointing out.

“Oh that. That’s nothing to worry about.” Dash said as Ditzy’s eyes went back to normal.

The five gunners looked at the two mares before finally, Cloudtramp spoke, “If you say so.”

Rainbow then turned back to Ditzy, “Come-on Ditz, we should probably get up in the nose before Sorin blows a fuse.”

Ditzy chuckled a little before falling in behind Dash as they crossed over the empty bomb bay and into the cockpit where Sorin and D.D. were sat in there seats checking over the multitude of gauges in front of them, preparing to start the four engines.

Sorin turned around at the sound of hooves behind him and caught sight of the two mares. “So you finally decided to do some work huh Rainbow Dash?” He said as he turned back to his work.

Dash rolled her eyes, “Screw off Sorin. We got plenty of time. Like I said, war’s not going anywhere and time soon.”

“Yeah but I’d rather not have the orderlies on my ass on day one. We’re supposed to be in a practice bombing formation in about ten minutes.”

Again Rainbow rolled her eyes before turning to D.D., “You sure you’re gonna be able to put up with him D.D.”

D.D. laughed, “I’m sure I’ll soften him up in no time.”

Sorin was getting tired of this, “Dash, just get down in the nose so we can get on with this.”

Dash held her hooves up, “Alright, alright, Iron Wing keep calm over there. Let’s go Ditz.” She said as she lowered herself into the tunnel leading into the nose, closely followed by Ditzy.

They quickly found themselves in the cramped interior of the nose. Sticking out of the plexiglass was a machine gun, sat right above Ditzy’s bomb sight. At the right was Dash’s desk, which had her duffle bag taking up most of its space, with another machine gun just to the left of it, and one in the same spot on the opposite side of the nose.

Dash looked around, taking in the cramped space, “I guess this is home for a while Ditzy.”

Ditzy walked past her and over to the bombsight, which took up a large part of the tip of the nose. Dash could see the slight smile on her face. “Well, we can atleast make the most of it.”

Dash watched as Ditzy took a photo out of one of her vest pockets, picturing Ditzy, her daughter Dinky, and the Doctor in front of there house in Ponyville, and put it in the groove of one of the bombsight’s adjusting knobs. She then took off her dog tags and hung them around the receiver of the machine gun next to her.

Rainbow couldn’t help but smile before she settled herself in behind her desk. Just as she did, she heard the bomber’s intercom buzz on.

“Alright everyone, now that we’re finally all settled in, we gotta hurry to get into formation with the other bombers to do practice in air formation.”

“Hold up there skipper.” Someone called back, “We’re still missing our radio pony.”

“Well where the hell is he!” Dash didn’t need the intercom to here Sorin that time.

“There he is.” D.D. called as a dark blue stallion walked into the hanger, not noticing that the bomber he was walking toward was already full of the rest of his crew.

Sorin didn’t feel like waiting, so the second he caught sight of the stallion, he fired the #1 engine. Sorin smiled a little when the stallion jumped as the #1 engine cranked over and came to life.

He quickly broke into a run to the back end of the bomber where a smug Stormwall stood, waiting to help the poor spooked stallion into the bomber.

Sorin, now with his full crew onboard, started the bombers other three engines before giving power to the #2 and #3 engines and slowly rolling the bomber out of the hanger, letting sunlight hit the new paint for the first time.

“Beautiful day to start a war huh Dash.” Ditzy said as the sunlight filled the nose.

Rainbow Dash chuckled, “Yes it is Ditzy, yes it is.”

Dash groaned as the fog in her mind started to clear as she came out of her coma. Her timing couldn’t have been better because as she started to come too, one of the base’s doctor walked in.

“Well good morning Miss Bat, glad to see you’re still with us.”

Dash groaned as she rolled her stiff body over to look at the doctor, “Keep talking Splits, you’re just digging your own grave when I get out of this bed.”

She then looked around the room and over at one of the windows, she could see that the sun was just coming up. “How long have I been out?” she asked rolling back to the doc.

“About six days.”

Rainbow Dash gave a soft chuckle, “Six days huh? Wow my naps keep getting longer. If I keep this up, I’ll sleep through the rest of this war.”

Doctor Splits laughed, “Glad to see near death hasn’t robbed you of your sense of humor.”

“So, how hard did I take it this time?” Dash asked as she looked herself over.

“Well you’re not dead, so that should be a plus after what you guys went through. But you were one of the hardest hit out of your crew. You have a concussion, two cracked ribs, a broken shoulder, and somewhere in the 50 range of stitches due to Celestia knows what.”

Dash winced a little as her condition was read back to her. She had been worse before, but she had also seen better days.

“So how long till I get out of this thing?” She asked, patting the bed she was on.

Splits ran a hoof through his mane, “That’s the question of the day Dash. I can’t give you an exact estimate, but given what we know about your condition at the second, it’ll probably be a few weeks.”

Rainbow groaned, “Where’s my Daring Do collection when I need it.”

Splints couldn’t help but laugh, which gained him a death glare from Dash. He just smiled back at her, “I’m gonna leave you be, I have others to look after. I’ll check up on you again in a few hours.” Still smiling, Dr. Splints turned to leave.

“Hold on a second Splints.”

Spints turned back around to see Dash, with an unsteady look on her face. “Yes?”

“Am I going home once I’m healed up?” The injured cyan mare asked.

Splints sighed and ran a hoof through his mane, “I was hoping you wouldn’t ask me that. The truth is Dash, the answer is most likely no.”

Rainbow Dash wasn't surprised by the answer, but it made a perfect opening for something that had been on her mind for a while. “I gotta ask Splints, why do you guys keep us here after we get so banged up? I had family that was in the military in the second griffin war, and there were soldier sent back because of a lot less that what most of us have gone through.”

Splints shook his head, “It’s a long story. Basically, the high ups feel that too much of Equestria is already being drawn into this war, and we can't really call on anyone because they're involved in the war as well. So, because of that, and advances in medicine and other tech, they're gonna keep you guys fighting as long as they possibly can. That's why Sparky didn't go home when that fuel tank exploded while he was under it, and why Rusty completely rebuilt that bomber’s wing instead of using it for spare parts.”

Dash started to get it. Back in conflicts like the second griffin war, they didn't have things like bionic replacement limbs and massive metal machines that could keep soldiers in a fight. Back then, if you took a spear and lived, there wasn't much you could do that would be of use to the military.

Now though, you can have a limb torn off by a 20mm shell, and have it replaced with a metal leg as good as the one you lost. Metal machines made up armies instead of ponies. And it was a lot easier to put a sheet of metal on a tank or plane wing, than replace 20 soldiers that once stood in the machine’s place.

“So there isn't much you can do to get out is there?” Dash finally asked

“At this point, the only way out is finish your tour, or go bat shit crazy. No pun intended.”

“Great.” Dash said, rolling her eyes and flopping back into her bed.

Splints turned back towards the door, “I’ll come back in a few hours to check on you again. That last mission was a rough one and it left me with a lot of new patients.”

“Alright doc, go do what you gotta do.”

With that, Dr. Splints walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him. Dash rolled over in her bed, and sat there trying to figure out what she was gonna do for the next few hours.

About half an hour later, Rainbow caught a lucky break. As she sat on her side wondering if she went mad in recovery, they’d let her go home, when someone pounded on her door before opening it.

“Oy Batty! You still alive in here.” Lead Leg called as he walked into the room, with Ditzy, Lucky, Turtle, Cannon, and Ace following behind.

“Hey guys.” Dash said with a smile at the group of ponies that now occupied her room.
Ditzy stepped up from behind Lead Leg, “How you holding up in here?

“Honestly, I’ve been in here for a few hours and I’m going insane. I need something to do.” Dash said as she laid herself back into the bed.

Ditzy smiled, “Well then I might have something to cheer you up.” Ditzy motioned back to Ace who passed her something from his saddle bags.

Ditzy walked over and passed Dash the object, and she stared in shock at what it was. It was a copy of the newest Daring Doo book, one that hadn’t even be released yet.

“Daring Do and The Journey Behind Enemy Lines!”*(19) Dash said in shock as she stared at the cover of the book. “How did you guys get this! It’s not supposed to be out for another two months!”*(20)

“There was a package sitting in the mail room for you addressed from A. K. Yearling. When we opened it up, that’s what was inside.” Ace said before going back to his saddlebags and pulled out a piece of paper, “Along with this note.” He passed the note up to Ditzy who then hoofed it over to Dash.

Rainbow

I heard from a friend of mine in the 851st about what happened to you guys a few days ago. After what happened in, the making of this book, I was stuck in a bed for a while, so I know how it feels. So, I might have finished up my book during that time, and had my publisher run you off a special copy. Hope to hear what you think.

A.K.

Dash was speechless, she couldn’t believe that Daring Do had actually sent her a copy of her newest book. Then someone spoke up, breaking Dash from her stupor.

“May I ask how you personally know A.K. Yearling enough to get an early copy of one of her books.”

It was Turtle.

Dash turned to the group, “It’s a long story, one I explain another time. But I got a question, where are the others.”

The once happy group of Air Force ponies grew sollum, and none spoke. At least for a while.

Finally, Turtle broke the uncomfortable silence, “They’re still stuck in their beds, just like you. Sorin and D.D. got hit the hardest out of us during the landing. Sorin got a pretty bad concussion and the side of his head got pretty shredded up. He also has a few broken ribs and a broken leg. D.D. got the worse of the two though. Her straps gave way when the bomber hit the tree and she wa thrown from her seat into the windshield and then into the wall next to Sorin. That itself left her with a cracked open head and some broke ribs, but she wasn’t out of the woods yet. A branch from one of the other trees around the bomber broke through the window next to Sorin’s head, and she got impaled on it. It punctured her lung, but the docs say that she’ll pull through, and be flight worthy in about two months.”

Dash was shocked by how bad the two pilots had made out. She knew that Sorin would most likely be fine after having his stomach sliced open and making it. But D.D., a punctured lung was no laughing matter.

That’s when she noticed something, which broke her from her thoughts on D.D., “Hey wait a second, where’s Sparky?”

The other ponies in the room looked at each other and then to the empty door before Ace face-hooved, and leaned out into the hall. “Sparky! Stop you’re bullshitting and get over here! She’s awake this time!”

Moments later, the dark blue radio operator ran into the room. “Oh hey Rainbow, nice to see that you’re still with us.”

Dash was about to comment on how Sparky had been flirting with a married nurse, when what Ace had said, this time, clicked in her head.

“Wait a second, what did you just say Ace? Awake this time?”

“We’ve come by a few times in the last couple of days.” Ace replied.

Dash had to think about that for a second, “Why didn’t the docs have you stuck in a bed like me?”

She could tell by the smirk on Lead Leg’s face that he had she smart ass answer coming her way.

“Well because we’re still smart enough to save our own skin.”

Thankfully, Dash wasn’t the only one getting tired of Lead Leg, proven when Ditzy smacked Lead in the back of the head. Hard.

Turtle sighed, “Lead, can you just stop being a pain in the ass for one day.” The Scottish gunner mumbled something to himself before he turned and walked out of the room. Turtle then turned back to Dash.

“We haven’t been stuck in the hospital the whole time because we came out of the accident in better shape.” He then motioned to Cannon who was standing beside him, and had stayed mostly silent ever since they had entered to room. “Cannon was the latest to join us back outside these walls. Docs let him out the door yesterday.”

“When did they let you guys out?” Dash asked, motioning to the others in the room.

Turtle turned back to the majority of the group, “Well Lead Leg was let out about two days after the accident, along with myself and Sparky. Ditzy and Ace were released the next day. And of course, Lucky never stayed in the hospital. He just got a bloody nose.”

Lucky couldn’t help but crack a cocky smirk, “It takes a lot more than a few lucky flak shots and a crash landing to take me out.”

Everyone in the room rolled their eyes. Lucky always seemed to have this cocky attitude, since he never came back home with injuries that needed hospitalization. They were all just waiting for they day that he got what he had coming to him. But he was a great tail gunner, so they felt his cumopense could wait till the war was over.

It was just then that Dr. Splits came back into the room. Or at least tried to.

“Wow, I’m surprised you’re all still here.” He said as he pushed his way through a assemblement of ponies. “I do however have to ask you to leave. Dash needs rest, more than she thinks, and I need to run some tests now that she’s awake. You can come see her again tomorrow.”

The group of six ponies nodded before they all turned, making their way out of the room. Ditzy was the last to leave, offering Rainbow Dash a smile and a quick wave before she pulled the door shut behind her.

Dash turned to look at Splints who had pulled at least four needles out of a cabinet.

“Damn it i had needles.”

Nearly three weeks later, Dash was walking around with her other crew members, minus Sorin and D.D., who were still in the hospital, but were both making a good recovery.

At that second, Dash was walking around the maintenance area where lines of bombers and fighters stood waiting to be repaired. They were walking next to a line of P-51s when Lucky turned to the group, “Hey you guys gotta see this P-51 that’s been sitting around here for a few weeks now. I still can’t believe it’s pilot landed the thing.”

They picked up the pace a little to keep up with the tail gunner as we passed by P-51 after P-51.

They came to a stop in front of a P-51 near the front of the line, one that had definitely seen better days.

“Sweet Celestia.” Was all Dash could say as she got a good look at the once graceful fighter. It was full of bullet holes from wingtip to wingtip, and rudder to propeller. The cowlings around the engine were stained black from oil and burned from sparks that had been shot from the exhaust. The cockpit canopy was early non-existent, obviously destroyed by whatever shot at the fighter. The rudder was completely destroyed, all the sheet metal that would normally cover its surface was gone, leaving only the destroyed metal framework. The wings had so many cannon holes in them, that it amazed Dash that they hadn’t just fallen off.

Rainbow used her wings to lift herself up towards the cockpit of the battered fighter. She was bit by the smell of aviation fuel as she set herself down on the plane’s right wing as lightly as she could. It groaned from the extra stress, but held firm.

She peared in, to she back of the cockpit filled with fuel, and the rest covered in dried blood. The control panel was shot up, leaving only the altimeter intact, even though its glass was shattered.

She leaned back and looked at the metal rim of the canopy. Slightly covered by oil, was a name “Cpt. Skyrider” Dash read to herself.

“Dash, what are you doing?” Ace asked. The whole crew had been standing on the ground as the watched Dash examine the destroyed fighter.

Dash floated herself off the wing of the P-51, “I was just trying to see if I could find anything that told us what squadron it’s from. Everything that’s a normal indication is destroyed.”

The others nodded. “Well the one thing I know is that she’s a good pilot. Got herself home in this wreck, and she’s got a 7 kill count.” Turtle said before motioning to the other side of the fighter.

Dash walked over and indeed saw 7 Arabian flags painted on the left side of the fighter. The metal piece they had been painted on on the right side was blown apart.

“Not bad, been a while since we had an Ace on base.” Dash said once she caught sight of the 7 flags. She then took a second and thought about what Turtle had said. “Wait a second. Turtle a second ago you said the pilot was a she, have you gotten a chance to talk to her?” She asked turning toward the black and red terrestrial.

“Yeah I talked with her quick yesterday when I was helping Lucky and Lead load ammo into one of their friend’s bombers. Really nice mare if you ask me. But I only got to talk to her for a second, and I never got around to asking what squadron she was in.”

“Do you have any idea where she would be right now?” Dash asked. At first she just wanted to know what squadron this mare had been in, but now she wanted to meet her and find out her story.

“Ah know.” Lead Leg spoke up. “She ot’a be over in the in’da shops wid’ Rusty.”

Dash nodded, “Well then, lead the way Scotsman.”

Lead leg shot Dash a death glare for mentioning his old annoying nick-name, but none the less, lead the group toward the mass of hangers that were used as the mechanic areas of Tallahassee.

Lead Leg walked into one of the main work hangers, currently occupied by a Crystal Empire Lancaster bomber, and three P-51’s.

“Oy Skyrider! Where are ye!” Lead yelled as we all set hoof in the hanger.

“I'm in the wing of the bomber you Scottish twat!” Came a muffled reply.

Lead Leg, now slightly pissed, filed in at the back of the pack leaving Rainbow Dash as the new leader.

“Gimme a second. Rusty had me re-rigging the cables for the aileron.” The muffled voice said again as movement was heard inside the right wing of the Lancaster.

The group heard the sound of shuffling coming from the bomber as the mare extracted herself from the inside of the bomber’s massive wing.

They were barely next to the bomber’s left wing when the sound of a pony climbing down a ladder, and then she came into view.

Dash stopped dead. The mare was a pegasus, but her back and wings were separately wrapped, forcing her to use the ladder instead of just hovering off the wing. She was trying to get some oil out of her orange coat, the oil matching the black highlights at the bottom of her purple mane. Dash knew this mare very well. It was one of the few ponies that she thought she would never see again.

“Now what do you want Sc..” She said as she looked up to the group, her eyes locking with Dash’s.

“Rainbow?” She said as she slowly started to walk toward the cyan mare.

“Scootaloo.” Dash said as she started to run toward her sister.

Scootaloo said nothing as she broke out in a full sprint, coming together with her older sister under the fuselage of the bomber in a crushing hug.

Author's Note

*(1) No not the same Windrider. I originally wrote this before episode 16 aired. Plus with all the ponies in Equestria, some names are going to overlap.
*(2) The three that had walked away were the two waist gunners and the tail gunner. The tail section in general had fared best.
*(3) It still amazed them that the co-pilot made it out alive.
*(4) These had been the bombardier and the pilot.
*(5) At the time, Windrider didn’t know how ironic that statement was.
*(6) All the other bombers had either returned to base, or had been confirmed as K.I.A.
*(7) B-17’s can usually be heard miles away when their four engines droned along together.
*(8) Yes, the military actually had a protocol for something like this. You'd be surprised all the things they have a name/protocol for.
*(9) That one ATC controller who had recorded the landing did what almost anyone would do when they get something crazy on tap, he confidently said, “I got that shit on film!”
*(10) The 49th fighter squadron was twelfth fighter squadron to be added to the Equestrian Air Force, making it one of the oldest still in operation behind the 8th and 2nd. It earned it’s number because it originally had 4 new pilots, and 9 aces.
*(11) The officers in charge of training the new soldiers.
*(12) Top gun reference anyone? Anyone? Come on! Highway to, the danger zone!
*(13) not yet at least.
*(14) Being tired in a military court.
*(15) main center body of a plane.
*(16) And depending on who you asked, it did.
*(17) I can’t write Scottish worth shit
*(18) Lightning and Skies would eventually become gunners on Shadow’s crew. Lightning would be his tail gunner and Skies a waist gunner.
*(19) It's not easy to come up with these names.
*(20) She kept in touch with A.K. after she was told about the setting for this book.