My Little Pony: Equestria Warriors

"So."

I leaned back on my stool. The six of us were arranged around a table in some late-night diner. Mugs of hot chocolate, no coffee here yet, sat beside empty plates. We had just finished reminiscing about our past. Happy, hilarious moments before the Blitz, sad and fearful after. It was late when we finally ran out of things to say. So late that the cook had passed out about an hour ago and was snoring gently on a table he was cleaning.

"So." Griz repeated. "Here we are now. A bunch of fucking horses in God knows where."

"A bunch of special fucking horses." Mikey said.

"That still have human names." Garret said quietly.

"That'll be a problem. Why don't we roll with our callsigns?" I suggested, thinking of what Celestia had said in response to Twilight's question of my name, saying Valton.

"Okay." Tes nodded. "I'll stay Tes, Griz'll stay Griz, Will will become Blastburn, Garret will be Fareye, Mikey will be Gunner, and..."

"I'll be Valton." Impulsively, I put hoof into the middle of the table. "Eagle One."

"Eagle Two." Blastburn put his in.

"Eagle Three."

"Eagle Four."

"Eagle Five."

"Eagle Six."
As always, we bowed out heads. None of us were really religious, but we'd done this as part of a ritual for 7 sorties, 3 bombing runs and every patrol. We all stated different verses, and Griz started it off.

"May the Great Spirit of War guide us through this. We pray that He will allow us to enact our revenge and allow us to return." Tes went next.

"May You guide our ha- hooves, planes, bombs and missiles and allow us to have our revenge and return."

"Let You accept our allies, no matter the sins, and allow them through the gates. Allow us to have our revenge, and return." Blastburn said solemnly.

"May You guide our allies' bullets, tanks shells, and troops to where they may do the most good. Allow us to have our revenge and return." Fareye intoned.

"May You grace their aim with Your presence. Allow us to have our revenge and return." Gunner whispered.

"Great Sprit of War, hear our pleas. We are not perfect. We are not without sin. But we are fighting on the side of Liberty, Freedom, the Stars and Stripes, the Maple Leaf, and the Union Jack, along with the countless other countries that never had a chance to fight. In their name, we pray. Amen." I finished.

"Amen."

We were one once more.

"Rise, my friends! Today will be a long day!" Luna burst in on our room. We had bunked. Sunlight streamed through the open blinds. Me, Tes
and Fareye immediately snapped to attention, followed closely by Blastburn, but Griz and Gunner were still out cold.

"At ease. What's wrong with them?" Luna asked.

"Griz found a bottle of hard cider." I grimaced. "We took a glass each, but they kept going. And going."

"Ah. I think I have the cure for that." She winked, then shouted, her voice rattling the windows.

"GET UP YOU WORTHLESS TURDS!" The two bleary-eyed and clearly hungover stallions stood at attention. "At ease. I trust you are well
rested?" Luna asked with an ironic smile.

"As best we could." I replied.

"Good. Follow me."

We stepped into the dark, dank cavern underneath the castle. Luna stopped beside a slightly off colour rock.

"This area hasn't been opened since the Great Changeling War, almost two centuries ago." She motioned to Blastburn. "If you would do the honours, Mr. Blastburn." During the night, Blastburn discovered his other special talent, and solved the mystery of his cutie mark. We found out that the compass on his flank was imbedded in a C-4 detpack. He was now a wizard with explosives.

"Alright. A smidgen of C-4 should do it." With that, he took out a chunk of the white plastique and rolled it into a long 'worm'. He then mashed it against where the off-colour wall and the regular met. He placed a blasting cap in it.

"Alright, get back you bastards... and you ma'am." We took shelter behind a large rock. Blastburn held up the detonator, and pressed it.
WHUMP.

The plastique worked to perfection. Blastburn stood in front of the shattered barrier and waved us through like a butler. Luna stepped into the room that had been revealed. She stopped, as if gathering herself, and stepped through a pair of iron doors. We followed.

"My companions, welcome to the War Room. It was here that my sister and I conferred with the Elements of War during the last war." She turned. "It is where we will confer as well." Luna sat on a gigantic iron throne adorned with a crescent moon, like her cutie mark. Another throne with a sun sat next to her. A wooden table circled the front of the throne, with six seats positioned to face the thrones. The walls of the room were covered in maps, of Ponyville, Canterlot, and other places too; Los Pegasus, Manehatten, Vanhoover. A giant map showed all of Equestria.

"Your titles have been inscribed on the tables. But..." Luna sighed. "My sister and I no longer possess the Elements of Harmony." The table in front of us vanished, replaced with another, larger table. "The ponies you met upstairs, they are the new Elements of Harmony." We sat at our designated spots and waited for Celestia and the girls.

About half an hour later, we were all seated and ready to start.

"The meeting of the 12 Elements of Equestra have begun." Celestia called. "May my sister, Princess Luna, begin the meeting?"

"Yes, sister. This meeting had been called in response the return of the Elements of War, and the Changelings. As you are probably aware, they now possess higher technology, and have attacked your town twice now, hoping to destroy all Elements in on fell swoop. The Element of Leadership will explain." I stood.

"The Changelings have three types of aircraft, that we've seen so far. One is their heavy bomber, designated CHB-1, or 'Spanner'." Tes held up a rough drawing of the bomber. "The Spanner appears to be similar in design to a B-52 Megafortress, an aircraft from our world. It has a long range, but is weak without it's escort fighters. The Changelings have two escort fighter that we know of. One is designated as the CHF-1, or 'Spinie'. These appear to be shoddily made, and are slow and unwieldily. The other is a bit more of a challenge. The CHF-2, or 'Splicer', appears to be a smaller, narrower version of the Spinie. We only saw two of these, and they both were destroyed by collisions, so they look light." Tes held up two more sketches. "Both fighters carry a load of radar-seeking missiles. We don't know if they have heat-seekers. We don't know if they have any guns in the plane for 'knife-fights', any close-in engagements." I shrugged. "There's a lot we don't know. But-" A rhythmic pounding interrupted me.

"Bombers!" Rarity cried, diving for cover like the rest of the us, except for Luna.

"Relax!" She giggled. "That is just my
guards testing the Anti Aircraft guns. If an attack comes here, we'll be ready." Her eyes shone. "Now, about your planes."

"If this is to be our headquarters, then we need to bring what we have here." Tes said.

"No need. Along with your cutie marks and weapons, a plane suiting your Element is waiting for you in the hangars of Canterlot." Her smile broadened. My sister will now take you to them." The group began to follow, but Luna motioned that I should stay back. I raised an eyebrow in question. However, before Luna could say anything, Celestia ushered me out the door and closed it.

"What do you think you are doing?" Celestia hissed. "It's too early! Valton is still wild! He needs to be trained."

"No he's not. He can handle it." Luna sniffed. "My... the other leader did."

"He is not that leader!" Celestia's scowl softened. "I know how much this must hurt you."

"When you said they looked similar... I could never have imagined." Luna shuddered, a soft sob escaping her. Celestia embraced her younger sister.

"It was his choice to go back. Nothing you did forced him. It wasn't your fault."

"That's what everyone's told me for years. I still don't believe it." Luna said bitterly, wiping a tear from her face. "I won't ever believe it."

"Come on. We must get them ready for what they will face." Celestia looked into Luna's eyes and smiled. "One day, he will know. You must hold onto that. Until then, he is just another soldier."

"What the hell is taking them so long?" Griz grumbled to Gunner.

"Yeah. If I didn't know any better, I'd say they were rubbing one out." Gunner replied. The rest of the guys laughed, I turned to tell them to cool it. It struck me again the contrast between the two. Griz was a hulking, giant stallion, and Gunner was small, wiry, and filled with energy. They made for an unlikely, but deadly pair.

"Shut up, you two." I turned away grinning. Gunner had the uncanny talent of breaking the ice anywhere, anytime. Quickly, the awkward silence was shattered.

"What does 'rubbing one out' mean?" Rainbow asked me. I could barely contain my laughter.

"It means to masturbate, my darling." Blastburn yelled from across the room. A look of disgust crossed Dash's face.

"Oh."
The heavy iron doors slid open, and the two Princesses walked towards another set of iron doors. Together, they used their magic to open them. We all gaped in awe at what we saw.
There were six aircraft, all familiar, but all different. I felt inexplicably drawn to the plane on the far left. It had the design of a Phoenix stretching out across the wings, and near the nose there was a giant flaming '1' emblazoned on the midnight black paint. Four missiles squatted on the wings, and four engines pointed out the back.

"Oh my gosh..." Rainbow gasped beside me.

"She's beautiful..." I whispered. I climbed into the cockpit to find a brand-new helmet and a leather notebook. I put the helmet on first. It had the same design as the plane, except it had 'Element of Leadership' embossed on the back in gold. The visor flicked down automatically. At first, I saw nothing. Then blue words appeared, and a voice spoke.

Hello sir.

"Hello?"

Voice imprint memorized. Please state your name sir.

"Valton." There was slight pause.

Vital signs and magic levels are consistent with the Element of Leadership. Welcome sir.

The visor became clear, and on it I could see my Heads-Up Display (HUD).

"Computer, what is the combat effectiveness of this aircraft?"

The Element of Leadership warplane is equipped with 150 heat- and radar-seeking missiles, along with one million rounds each for the dual Vulcan cannons, sir.

"How did you get that many in this thing?"

Thanks to magical displacement, sir. Each missile is shrunk and placed into the hold. When released, the missile will be grown back to regular size. Don't worry, sir, it retains all it's warhead power and all electronics.

"OK... What can I call you other than computer?"

I am the Autonomous On-board Computer, ATOC for short.

"Okay, Atoc. Spin 'er up."

My pleasure sir. However, it might be more prudent to wait until we are outside of the hangar.

"Okay." I opened the canopy. "See you later Atoc."

On the contrary sir. A secure link to me is programmed into your goggles. Which, just so you know, are able to transform into anything you
like.

"That's badass." I took the helmet off and leaped out to look at the other planes. I stopped suddenly as Rainbow came under the wing, and we were nose to nose.

"How does she look?" I said excitedly, pulling back and staring at the nose art while trying to hide my blushing cheeks.

"She looks good. Really good." A tiny voice deep down told me she wasn't talking about the plane. A sudden bleeping sounded out of my bag. I threw it off and found the source: my goggles. I put them on.

Not to alarm you sir, but a rather large radar signature has been located heading towards your location. It appears to be Changeling in origin.

"Shit." I turned. "Guys, we got incoming!"

As we soon realized, the hangar also had a catapult built in, which was hideously underpowered and threw us almost straight at Canterlot.

"Woah!" Blastburn said as he quickly pulled up to avoid the castle. "What the fuck, Princesses?"

"I don't think the catapult was meant for jets." The rest of the squadron quickly climbed into formation, and we headed out to intercept the the Changelings once again.

"Ok boys, just as a heads-up, we don't need fuel. These planes run off of a magic reactor of some sorts." Tes said. "I don't know how it works, but it apparently does."

"Whatever it is, looks like we've got some extra horses!" I punched the throttle and leaped to near Mach 3.

"Let's go, baby!" Griz hit his afterburner.

"Oh shit. Big contact on radar boys." Gunner called out. "Directly ahead."

"I see it. What the hell?"
Slowly, a massive black shape appeared over the horizon. It was massive, bigger than anything we'd ever seen. It had 12 engines on each of it's incredibly big wings. As we watched, CHF 1s and 2s dropped from it's belly to challenge us.

"I've got this one." Griz slid in front of me and Blastburn. "Watch this." Griz fired one of the ugly looking missiles that hung off of his plane. At first, the missile looked like a regular heat- or radar-seeker, but after a second the casing blew off and a swarm of tiny missiles, plus whatever was left of the original, screamed towards the cloud of enemy fighters.

"Hahahahahaha! Boom!" Griz laughed as the missiles vaporized the cloud of Changelings. Not one was left to challenge us. Then, the massive plane surprised us again, dropping CHB-1s from it's belly!

"On 'em! We can't let them near Canterlot!" I looked down at my armaments. "Atoc, give me some help here!"

May I suggest the RAAM?

"What does it do?"

It is the Ramming Air-to-Air Missile, sir. It can punch through multiple targets before exploding.

"Lets try it." I selected the RAAM and fired. The missile, true to it's name, rammed through the first two bombers, then detonating against the third. "Three down, Seventeen to go."
Blastburn fired two missiles, and when they impacted, the two bombers hit were dragged to each other and exploded.

"Fifteen."
Garret went next. His exploded like a flashbang, but only in the direction it was travelling. All the bombers were affected, and slammed into either each other or the ground.

"Zero."

"Show off." I grinned. "Now for the big fucker." I fired off two more RAAMs, and they punched into and exploded inside the bomber, causing no apparent damage. An AA gun started up on the side of the damn thing!

"Eagles, break!" We split, half going under and half going over. Then we went to work.

"Take the engines! The engines!"

"Fuck! Turret on the wing! Watch out!"

"More fighters, coming at our 6!"

"I've got 'em. Fox Two!"
I looped around the tail and strafed the entirety of the plane tail to nose. As I turned to come after the cockpit, an explosion rocked my plane. Shrapnel peppered my fighter's belly.

"Holy shit! That thing's so big they have goddamn AA flak cannons!" I weaved through a hail of flak and managed to put a burst of cannon shells into it. Now, with smoke streaming from all of it's engines and obviously no offensive weapons left, the behemoth ship began to turn back the way it came.

"She's runnin' scared!" Gunner whooped

"As soon as it's away from Canterlot, she's all yours, Griz!"

"Roger. Fox... whatever the hell it is!" Another one of Griz's magic missiles split up and detonated themselves against the Changelings. The structural integrity gone from the plane, it began to falter. Flames spewed from the engines as the mammoth wings folded up. Seconds later the fuel exploded, leaving only pieces of debris and a oily black smear on the sky.

"Splash one motherfucker." Griz growled.

"Roger that. RTB."

Landing back in the cave was a bit hairy. The catapult and arresting wire weren't meant for our jets, and it was a close-run just finding the cave and getting the right approach. No wave offs here. Fareye was the last to fly in, and he broke the wire. Thankfully, his jet was able to stop without it.

"What happened? What was it?" Rainbow asked as I shut down my plane.

"I don't know what it was, but it was gigantic." I grinned. "We took care of it."

"How big was it?" Luna asked.

"Big enough that it carried two squadrons of fighters and one of bombers." Tes jumped in. "It didn't seem like they had the fuel to get back or the ability to get back aboard the mothership. It was do or die for them."

"It was die for them." Luna smiled. "Good work. All of you. The first round is on me tonight."

A loud cheer erupted in the hangar.

"So we came up around the wing of the bomber, and it's just spraying flak everywhere. Me and Fareye sliced right up around the tail while Valton strafed it." Tes was explaining our big battle to Twilight, Rainbow and Rarity.

"My goodness!" Rarity had a hoof to her mouth.

"Still not sure how they managed to mount ack-ack guns on a plane, for Christ's sake."

"I have no idea." I said. "But I want to know why the plane slowed after it released it's fighters and bombers?"

"I have nothing for that either." Tes shrugged.

"I know!" Twilight exclaimed. "What if the other, smaller planes were adding their power to the bigger one, and as soon as they launched, the big one had to slow because of the reduced power?"

"You're a genius Twi!" Tes bellowed. Twilight only blushed.
A ragged cheer arose from the table next to us.

"ANOTHER ROUND FOR MY GLORIOUS FRIENDS, BARTENDER!" Luna slammed down her mug of hard cider. Griz, Applejack, Gunner, Pinkie
and Blastburn cheered again. All were drunk, except for Luna. She seemed to be entirely faking it.

"Scoundrels." Rarity hissed. "Have they no shame?"

"Let them have their fun." I admonished. "God knows they deserve it."

"Why aren't you with them?" Rainbow asked.

"I gave that up when I became Eagle One. I have one drink, open the tab, and pick up the pieces. Like a parent."

"I just don't like being drunk." Tes grinned. I took a sip of hot chocolate.

"Where'd Fareye go?"

"He was taking Fluttershy home. She got a headache."

"Yeah. Fareye never liked social gatherings that much. He liked being in quiet places, or alone in general." Tes smiled into his cup. "We called him the Owlman."

"The Owl what?"

"Nevermind."

I yawned. "I think it's time to get going. So, who's picking up the bill?" Dash tossed some Bits onto the table. We stood, and walked to the door. I turned and threw a salute towards the drunk table. "Goodnight men! And women!"

"Goodnight sir!" The return was slurred, but legible. I looked at the bartender and nodded at him, telling him that this was their last round. He nodded back.

The night was cool, and the moon was brilliant in the sky.

"Wow." I said softly. "It's so clear. Almost you could just reach out and touch it."

"I know. It's wonderful." Twilight sighed. "Unfortunately as soon as the moon comes out, the train to Ponyville stops running. We're stuck here
for the night."

"I'm sure the Cave has some spare bedrooms." Included in our Elements of War package, we had identical wardrooms to do with as we please.

"We wouldn't want to impose..." Rarity's voice trailed off as something howled far off, in the general direction of Ponyville.

"You're welcome to walk." I smiled.

"No no! We'll stay!" Rarity's voice was slightly higher than normal.

"Good. We may have to share rooms, and if we do Tes and I will bunk in one, and you girls can sleep together."

"I'd feel safer with one of you in the room with us. You know, with your 'guns'." Twilight said shyly. I winked at Tes.

"How about this!" Rainbow exclaimed. "Me and Valton to one room, Twilight and Tes to another, and Rarity can pick whichever room she likes!"

"That sounds good..." I said pretending to think it over while everything in me screamed 'YES!'. "What do you think?" I asked Rarity.

"I think that sounds good." She smiled slyly at Twilight. "That'll do just fine."

I stretched out on the thin mattress that buffered me from the cold stone floor of the Cave. As I'd assured Dash, I'd slept in less comfortable conditions. From the room beside us I could hear Tes and Twilight softly discussing something, while Dash's light snoring overrode most of what was said. We heard no sounds coming from Fareye's room, so he and Fluttershy must have fell asleep ling before we got there. Rarity had a room to herself, so if the rest of the squadron came back (big if) there would be some rooms for them to crash.

"Hey Valton?"

"Yeah Dash?"

"I'm cold." I got up quietly, taking my only blanket. I stopped short when I saw Dash, budged all the way over to the other side of the bed to give me some room.

"I don't want you to be cold either." She said quietly. I sighed.

"Only until you're warm, then I'm going back down."

"Ok." She shuffled around, trying to get comfortable, which ended up being nose-to-nose with me. She snuggled down into the blankets.

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight." I said. I felt my eyelids droop, even though I was fighting it. I drifted off right next to Dash.

I was in a dark void, floating around.

"Wha... Where am I?" I wondered aloud. Nothing answered me.

"Hello? Hello?!?" I called. A voice finally responded.

"The book..."

"What? What book?"

"The book... You must read the book."

"Did you hear me? What book?" More voices began to chime in.

"The book... the book... the book... the book." The voices got louder and louder, screaming at me. "THE BOOK THE BOOK THE BOOK THE BOOK!"

I awoke with a start. The sun was just starting to creep under the crack in the door. I noticed to my embarrassment that Dash had put her head onto my chest sometime in the night. I gently slid out and walked down to my plane, wondering what that dream was about. What book was my subconscious telling me to read? Then it hit me. The leather-bound book in my plane! I'd forgotten all about it because of the Changeling attack! I raced to the hangar and leapt aboard. Sure enough, the book was sitting in a small pocket beside the seat. I tugged it out, and opened it.

"'The Flyboy's Guide to Changelings. Written by: Firebird.'" I read aloud, turning the page to the index. "Holy shit!" There were almost 200 entires detailing different Changeling attack vehicles, tanks, guns, all the ammo they used, and their tactics. I flipped to the About the Author page, and blinked in surprise. It appeared that 'Firebird' was the old Element of Leadership! I quickly skimmed through the rest of the book, and found that Firebird had scrawled the various Changeling weapon's weaknesses and the best ways to destroy them. This 'Firebird' knew what the hell he was talking about. All of the tactics he suggested detailed distractions, diversions, or something that would draw the Changelings away from what was ultimately their main target: civilian centres. I slipped the book back into it's special pocket and looked out towards the hangar doors, thinking about how amazing the sunrise would be. As I examined the door, it seemed someone else had the same idea as me. A small door was built into the doors, so that a pony could go out without having to open the noisy doors. I opened it, stepped outside, and sat, already seeing the sun peeking over the mountains. Unconsciously, my left hoof wandered left, as to get ready to stand up and spin with my right ready to fire if necessary, a habit introduced by my grandfather and one I had maintained throughout the years. To my surprise, my hoof clanged against something. A hatch, built into the walkway, popped open.

I peered inside. There was a book inside, nearly the exact size and shape to the other one. I pried it out of the hole, and hefted it. It was about the same weight, too. I opened it and stared in shock. The opening chapter was addressed to ME. Not 'Valton', but to 'Chris J. Telford, RCAF'. It read: 'You finally made it. Welcome to the big leagues, my boy!' Cautiously, I turned the page. Only one person I knew that had ever said that the air force was my grandfather, George A. Telford. Every muscle in my body froze. My grandfather flew in WWII. He went missing near the end of the war, 1945, after he tangled with some German jet fighters. He didn't show up until 1958, with two small children in tow, my mother and uncle; twins. He never talked about what happened in that time, only that a nice lady had taken him in, and my mother was named after her: Lucy. The book in my hooves caught a bit of wind, and the page flipped. I started reading.