Battle for the Skies

“Alright Snake Eyes, were a couple miles from friendly territory, you should be able to take it from here,” said a young pilot into his radio.

“Thanks for the escort Tiger. We don’t know what we would have done without you,” replied the pilot of the broken B-17 bomber.

“Well, Lightning and I were happy to help,” replied the pilot.

“It was our pleasure boys, now get that bird home safely,” said a different male voice over the radio.

The three war birds flew over the European countryside to friendly air. The bomber known as Snake Eyes, was having engine troubles while on a bombing run to Berlin. Captain Bill Johnson, or Tiger, because of the Bengal Tiger he had painted on the side of his P-51 Mustang, was running escort for the bombers when Snake Eyes reported engine trouble. Him, and his wingman Lightning decided to escort the flying fortress to friendly airspace.

Captain William Hawk, or Lightning, who’s known for flying a P-38 Lightning, which has a thunder cloud with a blue lightning bold coming out of it painted on the nose. Well, he didn’t have much of a say in the return home. Now I know what you’re thinking, how is a P-38 flying wingman with a P-51? Well how he ended up convincing his superiors to fly it with a squadron of P-51’s still has Tiger baffled, but he never once questioned it. The young man proved his worth time and time again.

“Okay Snake Eyes, you’re good to go. Lightning and I are headed home,” Tiger said over the radio.

“Roger that Tiger, once again, the boys and I thank you for the escort,” replied the B-17 pilot.

“You're welcome Snake Eyes," said Tiger, "Lightning, lets head home."

“Roger that,” replied Lighting.

The two war birds left the heavy bomber as they did a slow bank to the left. Both men pulled up next to each other as they scanned the horizon. They were never going to see action this far from the frontlines. So they just hoped that the flyboys would make it back home safely. By now the war in Europe was coming to an end. But the Luftwaffe was hitting the bombers with everything they had. Both Tiger and Lightning hoped to shoot down at least one of the new Messerschmitt 262 jet powered fighters. It may have speed, but it could never beat a P-51, or at least not in Tigers eyes. Anyway, as the two men roared through the sky’s, Tiger noticed a rather unsettling storm approaching.

“Hey Lightning? You see that storm up a head?” asked Tiger.

“Yeah, and it don’t look to friendly,” replied Lightning.

Tiger looked down the length of the massive storm, “It doesn’t look like there’s a way around it.”

“What are yah thinking?” asked Lightning.

“Let’s pull up and see if we can get over it.”

“Roger that.”

Tiger pulled back on the stick and pushed the throttle forward. Lightning did the same and followed his wingman. The two men climbed from 2000 to 3000 feet before leveling off, “This things huge,” said Tiger.

“Yeah there’s no getting around this,” said Lightning.

Tiger looked out the right side of his window and saw his friend in the other plane. “I say we go for it and hope for the best.”

“Whatever you say. You’ve always been known for doing stupid stunts,” said Lightning while looking at his friend.

“Thanks,” Tiger deadpanned.

Both men pushed their throttles forward, increasing the speed on the war birds. Raindrops began to pepper the canopies of both planes. The closer the pilots approached the harder the rain hit the glass. Suddenly both planes jerked violently as the turbulence became known. Both men tightened their grips on the sticks.

BOOM! CRACK! BOOM!

Lightning flashed in front of the two planes. Both men held fast as they raced forward.

“How yah holding up?” asked Tiger.

“I’m good,” replied Lightning, “You?”

“Not a big fan of lightning,” a bright flash of white shot in front of Tiger, “WOAH!”

“Let’s just get through this mess,” said Lightning.

“I agree,” said Tiger.

The two men flew their shaking and rain soaked birds through the intensifying storm. But unfortunately in war… nothing ever goes as planned.

A massive burst of lightning struck the twin engine P-38.

“I’M HIT!” Lightning screamed over the radio.

Tiger watched his partner fall into a nose dive. His eyes went wide as he watched his friend lose altitude.

“LIGHTNING, PULL UP!” screamed Tiger in a panic.

“I CAN’T!” replied the panicking pilot.

“LIGHTNING, BAIL OUT NOW!”

“I CANT THE CANOPIES STUCK!”

“LIGHTNING… LIGHTNING!?!”

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Spitfire's POV

It was a nice day for the Wonderbolt Captain… well a nice day for a pony at war. The orange captain was a squadron leader of Celestia and Luna’s Royal Air Force.

As she walked down the airfield, she ran into her wing pony, and close friend, Captain Soarin.

“Hey Soarin! whatcha up to?” she asked.

“Oh nothing, just taking a walk I guess,” he replied.

“Yeah, it’s a pretty nice day,” replied the captain. The two began to walk down the airstrip together, “So, Soarin, how’s that relationship of yours going? You banging that girlfriend of yours yet?”

“Hard to do that when I’m here and she’s in Cloudsdale,” replied the wingpony.

“Well you better jump on it, or maybe I should say, in it,” said the Captain with a mischievous grin.

“Oh shut up,” replied the now frustrated wingpony.

“Hey, you know I’m just messin with yah?” said Spitfire.

“That’s what annoys me."

“What? A girl can’t have a little fun?”

“Any other girl, yes, you? No."

“You know how to suck the fun out things, don’tcha?”

“Well when I got you as a friend, I-“

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The familiar sound of the air raid horn cut Soarin out of his complaint.

Both ponies froze in their tracks

“Uh-oh,” said Spitfire.

“We gotta get to the planes!” barked Soarin.

“Agreed!” replied Spitfire.

The two began to sprint toward the hanger that held their old biplanes. The new vehicles were fairly recent, but they were soon adopted by all forces in the Equestrian Air Force… and all surrounding nations. The griffons found good use of the planes. Ground troops and pilots began to race for their planes. A massive dog fight was about to ensue, and the pilots needed to get airborne now!

“LOOK OUT!” screamed Soarin as he tackled his teammate.

A long line of dirt kicked up as a griffon plane did a strafing run where they were just recently standing. Both the Wonderbolts dragged themselves off the dirt ground and headed for a nearby sandbag wall. Once they were behind cover they sat against the makeshift wall.

Spitfire looked at her partner, “We need to get to those planes, now!”

“Were gonna get cut in half,” replied Soarin as he looked over the wall.

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Tiger’s POV

“Shitshitshit!” mumbled the captain.

His plane was shaking violently as he tried to find his friend in the dark grey clouds. By now, the storm had gotten significantly worse. He was breathing heavily as he tried to search for his friend below him. He still held onto the belief that Lightning would pop up right in front of him and they would laugh the scare off and head home.

Lightning never came out.

The next thing Tiger knew he came bursting out of the storm. He could see the ground as sunshine poured into his cockpit. Now that he could see better, he began to search the air below him, trying to find his missing friend. He didn’t even notice the mountain in front of him… or the town that was built into it.

“Shit!” he screamed as he looked forward. He gave the stick a hard pull back causing the plane to ascend upward. He just barely dodged the roof of a building.

The plane began to rise in the air as he surveyed the scene. “Where the hell am I?”

He tilted the stick and circled the town. He failed to notice two planes take up position behind him.

TINGTINGTING!

Three rounds impacted on the rear of the plane causing Tiger to curl up in his seat.

“SHIT!”

His attention went back to his flying. He looked over his shoulder and saw his attackers.

“Are those… biplanes?” he said under his breath.

They opened fire on him again.

He immediately looked forward, “Oh you wanna play, don’tcha?” he forced the throttle all the way forward, causing the Rolls Royce engine to flood with power, “try and catch me.”

The bird easily outpaced the much slower and heavier biplanes. He took a hard left bank and circled back around. The two biplanes banked away as he leveled off and decelerated. “And then that happened,” he said as he looked forward again.

This time he noticed more and more planes come into view. They began to strafe the town, and many of them were headed right for him. When he entered the mass of planes he banked and turned, all while doing his best to avoid hitting any incoming planes. Now that they opened up on him, he had free reign to fire back, but first he had to get out of this mess.

He made a quick and shallow dive to get out of the lion’s den, two more planes took chase. The leader opened fire while the wingman stayed at the ready. Tiger took evasive maneuvers and tried to lose his attackers, but for now all he could do was dodge their fire… that, and they really sucked at aiming. He banked back toward the city and raced through the hoard of planes once again. Without a wingman he was screwed… or so he thought. The main attacker exploded into a ball of flames in Tigers mirror, the pursuing wingman followed close behind. A familiar olive drab P-38 came into view.

“Miss me!” said an enthusiastic Lightning.

“Lightning! What happened to you?” asked a surprised and ecstatic Tiger.

“Regained power shortly before I hit the ground. Followed our original course. Ended up here,” replied Lightning as he pulled up next to the P-51.

Tiger looked at his partner, “Lets kick some ass!”

__________________________________________________

Spitfire’s POV

“Soarin we need to get to the planes!” screamed Spitfire as she looked up over the sand bag wall.

“I know!” replied Soarin.

“Okay on the count of three, we move,” ordered Spitfire as she looked at her partner.

"Okay," replied Soarin.

She looked over the wall, “One,” she started.

…

“Two.”

…

“Three,” she saw an opening and ran from her hiding spot.

Soaring followed close behind. Both ran as fast as they could for their hanger, but unfortunately it was the first hanger on the far side of the strip... and they were right in the middle. By now ponies had grabbed rifles and were firing at the passing planes. The injured and dead littered the field as the two ran down the dirt strip.

A biplane leveled off in front of them, the two Wonderbolts froze in their tracks. Their eyes went wide as they saw the massive two winged plane lined up and began firing on them. Twin dirt lines crawled toward them, it was ready to rip them in half. Spitfire expected the end… until the plane exploded and spun out of control. Two unknown planes roared overhead as they split away, the bright silver one banked left while the dark green one banked right.

She stood there and watched the two planes fly away. She didn’t know what to think, who were they?  And where did they come from?

“Spitfire we gotta go!” barked Soarin as he grabbed her by the shoulders.

Being the soldier that Spitfire is, her thoughts went from wondering who the two unknown planes were,  to running for her plane once again. The pair ran as fast and hard as they could, it felt like an eternity and her legs were burning, but she finally made it to the hanger. Spitfire grabbed the left door and pulled on it while Soarin grabbed the right.

The two dragged the massive metal doors open and ran inside. Spitfire ran up to her sky blue plane. The light blue plane had yellow flames painted on the nose along with her signature flamed cutie mark. Both her and Soarin did a quick flight inspection before starting the propeller. The blue plane roared to life as she removed the chocks holding the tires in place. She threw on her helmet and goggles and jumped in the pilot seat. She looked over to see Soarin doing the same thing. He looked at his instruments quickly and gave her a thumbs up, she returned the gesture and gave the engine power, causing the plane to pull forward.

She pulled the plane out of the hanger and oriented it down the runway and prepared for takeoff. Another griffon plane began to make a pass right in front of her, she watched as the silver plane dove and disappeared behind it. Her attacker exploded in a ball of flames and tumble to the ground near the airstrip, her new ally headed right for her, giving her a wing tilt as he roared overhead.

She smiled as the plane passed overhead.

__________________________________________________

Tiger's POV

“Lightning, we got two planes trying to taking off below us,” said Tiger while pulling up from his recent kill.

“I see em,” replied the P-38 pilot.

“We need to cover them until they take off, got it?”

“Roger,” replied the pilot, “let’s give them the full nine yards.”

Both planes began to circle the airfield. Tiger went clockwise while Lightning went counter clockwise. Both me circled the strip, shooting down any planes that came to close. After the second pass around Tiger watched the first plane accelerated down the strip. He began to hover above the ground as he made his ascent.

The second plane took its spot and began to accelerate. Once it was in the air it joined its wing man. Tiger and Lightning teamed up once again. Tiger and Lightning split off while his two new allies went to fight their part of the battle. The men roared through the sky’s as they chased each and every plane they could get their sites on. Tiger wore a cocky grin as he raced through the sky. After shooting down yet another plane; he looked into the skies and noticed one of blue planes taking heavy fire.

“Lightning, nine o’clock, we got a bird in distress,” said Tiger.

“I got em,” replied Lightning.

“Alright… drop em.”

__________________________________________________

Spitfire’s POV

“Soarin get out of there!” barked the orange pilot into her radio.

“I can’t shake them!” screamed Soarin in a panic.

“Just stay calm until I get there!”

“That’s a little hard to do right now!” retaliated the young pilot.

Spitfire banked the biplane to the left and fell in behind the three biplanes. She raced toward her partner at full throttle. Desperately trying to reach him, but he to, was at full throttle. She wasn't going to catch him unless he did something.

"Sorain, bank, dive, do something!" ordered Spitfire into her radio.

That's when she heard the roar of two different planes over the engine of her bird. The silver plane came speeding down and almost slid through the air before took its place in front of her, while the green plane did the same soon after. They were going almost twice, if not three times as fast as her primitive plane. They caught up to Soarin and opened up with their massive machine guns, once again causing the attacking biplanes to explode in a ball of flames as they fell to the ground. The two planes flew past her teammate while she let out a sigh of relief.

“Soarin you alive over there?” she asked.

“Yeah, remind me to buy these boys a hard cider when were done,” said a relieved Soarin.

Spitfire let out a light chuckle, “Will do.”

Soarin pulled back on the throttle and joined Spitfire as the fighting began to die off. The attacking griffon planes began their retreat; the two pilots followed the retreating biplanes as the silver and green plane pulled up next to her. She looked at the masked pilot, who looked back at her. He gave her a small salute with his right hand, which she gladly returned. He looked back and raced toward the retreating Griffons, the green plane following close behind.

She slowly banked to the left while Soarin followed. Both made a quick pass of the airstrip while the troops below began celebrating. She dipped her wings in celebration, Soaring did the same. She finally circled around and began to make her landing, she lowered the flaps and decelerated her speed. The wheels lightly tapped the ground as the plane touched down.  She pulled the bird off the air strip, allowing Soarin to land. After pulling the plane near her hanger she jumped out.

A crowd of Wonderbolts ran up to her cheering. She smiled as she tossed her helmet into the pilot’s seat. She started to give out high fives and hugs as they celebrated their aerial victory.

Soarin pulled his plane up to the hanger and bailed out, “That was crazy,” he said while walking up to his partner and placing his goggles on his forehead.

“At least we won!” screamed Spitfire enthusiastically. She gave him a hard tap on the shoulder, "Come on you should be happier!”

He rubbed the spot on his shoulder, “I’m just glad to be alive,” he said with a smile.

By now the silver plane with the tiger painted on it began to pull up next to Soarin’s plane. The dark green one had already touched down and was taxiing down the runway. The silver plane came to a stop and sputtered as the pilot killed the engine. She approached and looked at the metal plane. The beast wasn’t silver in color it was bear metal. The hidden engine looked like an animal with the exhaust ports poking out of the side, and instead of having an open cockpit it was closed with a window, and to Spitfire… it was pretty damn sexy.

The window popped open and rose up as a gloved hand made itself visible. A young pilot stepped out and onto the wing; he was covered from head to toe in more gear than he needed. He turned around and looked at the crowd that had gathered.

His eyes went wide, “Well this was the last thing I ever expected see,” he then turned and walked down the wing and jumped off the lower part of the wing.

Spitfire walked around the back and stuck her hand out, “Names Captain Spitfire, but you can just call me Spitfire.”

“Huh, just like the plane,” replied the pilot. He grabbed her hand, “Captain Bill Johnson, but everyone just calls me Tiger,” he said as he shook her hand.

“Well Tiger it’s a pleasure to meet you,” replied Spitfire.

“Same here Spitfire,” he let go of her hand and pointed his finger at her and made a small circle motion, “So what exactly are you?”

“I’m a pony,” replied the captain, she pointed at him, “What are you?”

“I’m human,” replied Tiger, “You know what? We can discuss this later. Lightning where are you!?”

“Right here Tiger,” the other pilot walked around the back of the plane, “Have you seen…” he looked at Spitfire, “...never mind.”

He walked up and joined Tiger.

“So captain… who’s your wingpony?” asked Spitfire.

The captain was at a loss, but he understood wing in wingpony, “That’s Captain William Hawk, or you can call him Lightning,” said Tiger.

“Names Spitfire,” she grabbed Lightning’s hand and shook it, “that was some fancy flying you boys did up there,” said Spitfire as she shook Lightning’s hand.

“Not really, those planes couldn’t go toe to toe with a Mustang,” replied Tiger.

Lightning let go of Spitfires hand, “Or a P-38,” replied Lightning as he looked at Tiger.

“I’m guessing that’s the name or your birds here?” asked Spitfire.

“Yep,” Tiger stepped to the side, “this is my P-51 Mustang, finest fighter in the air.”

Spitfire let out an impressive whistle while placing her hands on her hips and cocking them to the side slightly, “I will admit, this thing looks much nicer than our biplanes.”

“Handles like a dream,” said Tiger with a smile.

“You know I could beat you any day of the week in my Lightning,” said Lightning.

“Ha! You wish!” replied Tiger while looking at his partner.

“Well if you want to see a better plane follow me,” Said Lightning with a slight head tilt. He walked around the back of the P-51, Spitfire followed close behind.

Spitfire was finally able to look at the olive drab war bird, “Wow two engines! Now I feel insulted,” she said sarcastically.

“Yeah, that’s my girl,” said Lightning proudly.

She looked at him, “So what's it like sleeping with it?” replied Spitfire with a dirty grin.

Lightning’s demeanor immediately changed.

“Oh man, that had to hurt,” said Tiger with a massive smile.

“Piss off!” barked a now furious Lightning.

“He dude relax, it was just a joke,” said Spitfire while placing her hand on the pilots shoulder.

“I thought it was pretty good,” said Tiger with a chuckle.

She lowered her arm, “Yeah me too... hey! Why don’t we get you out of your gear and get you boys a hot meal?” asked Spitfire.

“Fine by me,” Tiger looked at a still angry Lightning, “what do yah think Lightning?”

“Fine,” huffed Lightning.