Gotta Stay Fly

Gotta Stay Fly

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Canterlot was burning.

Smoke engulfed the sky above the capital city of Equestria, emanating from the crackling flames that swallowed entire buildings. Black-stained craters scarred the streets as destroyed homes and businesses had spilled rubble everywhere around the city.

Some craters were larger than others. Some only a few feet wide, others the size of an entire city block. At this rate, Canterlot was going to be vaporized if something wasn’t done soon.

The screams of wounded and terrified ponies mixed with the roaring blaze of fires and the crumbling of building infrastructures. Medical ponies had already begun to haul off the wounded in carriages. Emergency responders and Royal Guards alike were desperately trying to evacuate the city before the next strike.

Rarity was helping an elderly mare with a broken leg out from under a chunk of wall that came crashing down on her. Fluttershy was in a fetal position sobbing with her head tucked in her gut. Once Rarity had turned over the elderly mare to a medic, she turned to face her stricken friend.

“Darling, I know that what’s happening right now is terrible and frightening…but please…I need your help. We’ve got to evacuate as many ponies as possible before more bombers come,” Rarity pleaded, staring at the butter-colored pegasus with desperation and fear.

The fashionista was quite aware that her mane and coat were ruined and that most of her body was stained black with ash. Cuts, bruises, debris and a little blood were among the blemishes that her white coat and cutie mark were buried under.

“Oh…this is awful…just awful. W-why would ponies do something like this?” the shy pegasus questioned, choking back tears.

Rarity brushed her traumatized friend’s mane in pure sympathy. Honestly said, the unicorn was frightened as well, but nothing could be done about that now expect for the task at hoof.

A Royal Guard spotted both of them and singled them out with a hoof.

“Hey you two! We’re evacuating the city here! Move it or lose it!” he barked forcefully.

Today will probably go down in the history books as one of the greatest tragedies in Equestrian history…

And the worst has yet to come.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Twilight Sparkle adjusted her oxygen mask as she glanced to the right and left of her cockpit. On her left, she spotted Rainbow Dash’s fighter flying alongside her own, and on her right was the same for Applejack and Pinkie Pie.

Twilight jerked up a bit on the control stick for the SU-47 Griffin she and her friends were piloting. The unicorn had raised her altitude to match that of the new wave of enemy fighters and bombers, who were approaching Canterlot from the south.

Her friends followed her lead as they rose up to meet her. They organized into a v-formation with Twilight at the tip, Rainbow on the left with Pinkie, and Applejack on the right.

Twilight tried to steal a glance at the capital city below but her sight was hindered by clouds and the blanket of smoke that continuously billowed into the sky. All that she could see were the moving dots of orange that lit up the ground like stars would light up the sky.

“This is dreadful! What sick, twisted pony would order for something like this to be carried out? Why?” she thought, a knot in her gut making her start to feel a little sick.

Her heads-up-display beeped suddenly and she heard the professional voice of a stallion.

“Element Squadron, is that you? …Good. I wish we could’ve gotten you here sooner but this attack was the last thing anypony had anticipated,” the speaker took a moment to pause and sigh in sadness.

“This is AWACS Thunderhead; I am tasked to inform you that the next flight of bombers is carrying tactical nuclear weapons. I repeat, all incoming bombers have NUCLEAR WEAPONS as ordinance!”

Twilight’s eyes nearly popped out of her visor as she listened.

“What!? They-they can’t do that! Can they?!”

“You’re group is the only one close enough to make the intercept in time. So it’s imperative that you destroy all eight enemy bombers before they can drop their payload,”

Twilight’s mind was still reeling at this prospect.

“This CANNOT be happening!”

“Understood? This mission rests solely on your shoulders. Everypony is counting on you so don’t let us down. You are to complete the mission and come back alive…

Anything less is not acceptable,”

Rainbow Dash was taking deep breaths as she listened to the briefing. She eased her mind as she mentally prepared for the task in front of her. She then cracked a cocky grin in an attempt to quell her nervousness.

“Gotta stay fly. Gotta stay fly. Gotta stay fly,” she repeated to herself, a usual ritual she performed before completing a task in an effort to get her head in the game.

“The bombers will be in range to attack Canterlot in ten minutes! Destroy them before time is up!”

Pinkie Pie groaned uneasily as she started to feel sick to her stomach. She had been in the air before but wasn’t used to this kind of speed. She blinked twice and gave herself the biggest smile she could muster to boost her confidence and fight through the discomfort.

Applejack gritted her teeth and transformed it into a toothy grin to tell herself that she was ready for whatever was thrown at her.

“Good luck Element,” was all that was heard as AWACS Thunderhead bleeped out for the moment.

“Roger! Element 1, engaging!” Twilight announced.

“Element 2, engaging!” Rainbow yelled with enthusiasm.

“Element 3, engaging!” Pinkie said with a squeakier voice than usual.

“Element 4, engaging!” Applejack acknowledged calmly.

All four Element pilots hit their afterburners in an effort to meet the enemy as far away from Canterlot as possible. The engines roared and the afterburners sizzled as the four fighter jets sped in the direction of the bomber formation.

“This is terrible! They plan to wipe out Canterlot itself!” Twilight cried in disbelief.

“Who are these meanies? And why are they doing this?” asked a very confused pink pony in the jet next to Twilight’s.

“Well it doesn’t matter none! I promise, we’re gonna put these loonies in their place sugarcube!” Applejack responded, the confidence oozing out of her tone.

“Yeah! Let’s show these nutjobs who’s boss!” Rainbow Dash added as she slammed on the gas.

The radio in Twilight’s cockpit intercepted chatter from the ground. She was shocked at what she heard.

“Come on, Fluttershy! We’ve got to get out of here!” a familiar voice cried.

“I…I can’t. I-I’m sorry, but I can’t,” the second voice whimpered in despair.

“Please, darling! The bombers are coming back!” the other voice yelled in fear.

“Oh no. Rarity and Fluttershy are down there too. We’ve got to end this before more ponies get hurt!” Twilight thought.

“This is AWACS Thunderhead, here to report that a second wave of bombers is inbound from the south. Their pounding the city with bombs again! Come on! There’s got to be other teams out there besides Element! Somepony please respond! If this keeps up, there’ll be no Canterlot to come back to!”

“Let’s go Fluttershy!” Rarity urged.

“O-ok…I’ll try,” Fluttershy said, barely audible.

Rainbow’s fighter was now passing her friends and was charging into the enemy formation with afterburners blazing. That’s when Twilight got a first look at the bomber formation and noticed something. When they flew past the cloud cover, they noticed eight huge aircraft flying in formation with twelve smaller aircraft in leading them from the front in a v-formation.

“Wait Rainbow! They’ve got escort fighters!” she cried, and pleaded for the pegasus to turn around.

“Don’t worry about me! After all, if you wanna be the best, you’ve gotta stay-,”

“I know! I know! But you gotta come back! I don’t think even you can handle that many fighters by yourself!” Twilight said as she cut off Dash’s motto.

“Can’t handle!? I’ll show her!” the cyan pegasus thought as she felt she was issued a challenge.

“Are these the Elements of Harmony?” an enemy pilot asked, his voice quivering in fear.

“Don’t be intimidated! Grabacr Squadron, engage those Equestrians!” Grabacr leader ordered.

Rainbow sped towards an enemy bomber at full speed, weaving through enemy fighters, bullets and missiles that were zipping past her at an alarming rate.

She heard the beep from her targeting system.

Exactly what she was hoping for.

“Radar lock! Element 2, Fox Three!” the cyan pegasus announced as she pressed her hoof down on the red button ontop of her control stick.

A radar-guided missile dropped from her left wing and sped towards the enemy formation, leaving a trail of white smoke in its wake. The entire opposing formation split-off in different directions to dodge it while simultaneously dispersing chaff.

The bomber was not so lucky.

The missile slammed into the nose of the nuke-carrying aircraft and a deafening explosion rocked the skies. The bomber’s structure was obliterated as burning pieces of the aircraft dropped out of the sky.

Rainbow didn’t have time to cheer because once she fired; A missile alert popped up on her HUD. She looked behind her and saw that two enemy fighters were on her six. One of them fired a missile at her but she evaded by jerking up on the control stick to fly vertically while popping flares at the same time. The missile lost its lock and detonated where Rainbow just was a split second ago.

“Dammit! Missile shot trashed!” the enemy pilot growled in disappointment.

Rainbow looped upside down, and completely flipped topside to realign herself with the enemy formation. She looked to her right and saw Pinkie and Applejack getting chased by some fighters while Twilight went for the bombers.

“I’ve got tone. Element 1, Fox Two!” Twilight cried out as her missile sliced a bomber in half and both pieces plummeted to the earth below.

“There’s no WAY she’s gonna beat me!” Rainbow thought, her competiveness kicking in.

She zoomed right into the bomber formation, armed two missiles at the same time and waited for the red diamonds on her HUD to lock into the bombers. Once they did, her targeting system beeped wildly and she double-tapped on the fire button with a hoof.

Both missiles streaked past her wings and slammed into the sides of two bombers, effectively engulfing both in massive fireballs. Chunks of burning metal fell from the sky as Rainbow could’ve sworn she heard the pilots scream through her radio.

“They’re going after the bombers! We can’t let them get away with this!” the Grabacr leader shouted.

“HA HA! Beat that, egghead!” Dash taunted playfully as she barrel-rolled her fighter, screaming past her two newest victims.

“Rainbow! This isn’t a game! We have a real crisis on our hooves here!” Twilight retorted as she locked on to another bomber.

“Fox Two!” the purple unicorn yelled as the targeted bomber erupted into a flurry of smoking scrap metal upon missile contact.

“Oh yeah! Watch this!”

Rainbow took off towards another bomber. She banked back and forth to dodge gunfire from a couple of escort fighters and then barrel-rolled immediately to dodge a missile that was coming in head-on.

As she used her skill and natural flying grace to weave through enemy fire, her friends couldn’t help but to be taken aback. When the pegasus recovered, she repeated her earlier action and locked on to and fired missiles at two bombers, one after the other.

BEEP!

“Fox two!”

BEEP!

“Fox Two!”

Rainbow watched with utter satisfaction as the contrails of both heat seekers lined up perfectly with the bombers’ flight paths. Both anti-air weapons hit their mark as the airframes of the bombers shattered, and she watched as they both decelerated and lost altitude. Flames and smoke covered both aircraft as gravity took a hold of them and they nosed-dived towards the earth below.

“AH! Bandit on my six! I can’t shake him! Requesting assistance!” Twilight cried out.

“Hold on, Twi! I gotcha!” Dash responded as she flipped into position behind the enemy fighter.

“He’s spiking me!”

Rainbow was lining up for a shot when she noticed a white trail of smoke leave the enemy fighter.

“Twilight! It’s a missile! Jink! Jink!” she urged her friend.

Twilight dumped flares and pulled up and the missile ended up tracking the flares instead of her and impacted the wall of flares now below Twilight. As she banked left to shake the bandit, Rainbow pulled in behind him and received a lock. The enemy fighter was stuck on Twilight however, and started pelting her jet with cannon rounds.

“AH!”the unicorn screamed.

“Twilight! Bank right on the count of three got it?!” Rainbow ordered.

“But I’m in a left turn right now! What about the g-forces?!” Twilight rebuked.

“Trust me! I’m a pegasus!

…You gotta stay fly Twilight. Ok?” Dash chuckled a little at her overused catch phrase.

“O-ok,”

“Stay still so I can blast you dammit!” growled the annoyed Grabacr pilot.

“Alright…one….two…,” Rainbow counted, waiting for her shot. Then, the familiar beeping came from her systems and a red diamond was placed over the pursuer on her HUD.

Now.

“THREE! FOX TWO!” Rainbow screamed into her mic as she deployed her final missile.

The white contrails of the air-to-air weapon curved into the direction of the enemy fighter as Dash watched with relief as the enemy fighter connected with the missile’s flight path. The resounding explosion let the pegasus know that she’d done her job.

As Twilight broke hard right, her stomach felt like it was being turned inside out, due to the air pressure from the g-forces. When she came out of the turn, the unicorn looked back and witnessed the enemy fighter being blown to smithereens.

“Damn, Grabacr six didn’t last a minute against them…” said Grabacr leader.

“Thanks Rainbow. I thought I was a goner for a second there,” Twilight praised.

“No problem Twi. Remember, you gotta stay fly,” Rainbow replied.

“He he, that rhymed,” Twilight shot back with a chuckle.

“I know,” Rainbow acknowledged with a smile.

Even in times like this, Rainbow Dash could still crack a joke. Twilight admired that about her.

“Maybe its Rainbow Dash who’ll get us all through this...

Yeah...friends,” she thought with a smile.

Her radio started acting up again as more radio chatter came through.

“This is Thunderhead, you’ve got two minutes before that nuclear weapon is in range! Destroy that last bomber!”

“That’s it darling! Keep moving! You’re doing wonderful!” Rarity encouraged.

A large explosion was heard on the radio as Twilight’s heart plummeted.

Static.

“NNNOOO!” Twilight cried in despair.

This wasn’t possible.

They couldn’t be.

All of a sudden a familiar voice sounded on the radio.

“Um…Rarity? Did you see the castle just get hit? There’s-there’s a big hole in its roof now…I hope the princesses are okay,” Fluttershy commented.

“Yes! I saw it Fluttershy! Hurry up! Let’s go before that becomes us!” Rarity ordered.

Twilight sighed in relief.

She didn’t need to worry about her friends after all.

Well, those two at least.

“Whew whee! I bagged one of them varmints, sugarcube!” Applejack whooped proudly as she started running down another fighter.

“Bandits in gun range,” Pinkie Pie called out as she pulled off a graceful twisting dive to slip behind an enemy F-18 Superpony.

The jubilant pink pony then went trigger-happy and unleashed a barrage of cannon rounds that sheared off the enemy’s left-wing and the jet spiraled out of control.

“UURRGG! The eject handle’s stuck!” the enemy pilot commented grimly as his fighter dropped out of the fight.

“Grabacr seven down! …Damn Elements,” a Grabacr pilot cursed.

“Splash one!” Pinkie announced.

“That was some fancy move you pulled off there, Pinkie. I don’t know if I coulda done that myself,” Applejack appreciated.

“Thanks Applejack! I learned it from watching Dashie fly!” the party pony chirped happily.

All of a sudden, two enemy fighters took this opportunity to slip behind Pinkie Pie and fired two missiles at Pinkie’s SU. She swerved left and right while deploying chaff in an effort to dodge them.  One missile lost its lock and continued flying through open air.

“Defeat the missile Pinkie!” Twilight called out in desperation.

“I…CAN’T…GET…IT AWAY!” was the only reply she received.

“Hold on Pinkie! I gotcha!” Rainbow, who seemingly zoomed out of nowhere, said as she came to Pinkie’s aid.

“Wait! Rainbow! What are you-” but Twilight was interrupted by what happened next.

Rainbow came up from below Pinkie and adjusted her plane to where the top side of it was shielding Pinkie from the missile.

“Remember Pinkie, you gotta stay fly…”

The missile screeched through the air towards Pinkie’s flight path as Rainbow intercepted it with the roof of her plane.

“Wait! Dashie-” Pinkie tried to call out.

Rainbow’s SU exploded as the rippling from the shockwave was felt by everypony in the air.

“RRRAAAAIIIINNNNBBBBOOOOWWW!” Twilight screamed in shock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-TWWiXnUrw

“Element 2 come in! Element 2! …Dammit,” Thunderhead sighed.

“D-ashie…no,” Pinkie squeaked out between sniffles.

Rainbow Dash had just taken a heat seeking missile to save Pinkie Pie’s life. Grief filled the cockpits of her three friends.

Now the Elements of Harmony was short one member.

One friend.

“You see? Pathetic! These are no elements! We can take them,” Grabacr leader spit out in a vile tone.

Hot tears filled Twilight’s visor as a rage built up inside her. She veered her aircraft towards the next Grabacr fighter and gunned him down with cannon rounds.

Applejack could be heard trying to hold back sobs as she exacted her vengeance on a second Grabacr fighter by nailing him with a missile.

Pinkie was breathing heavily and choking on her own tears as she armed two missiles and fired them simultaneously, destroying two fighters at once.

“Grabacr four down! What the hell is going on?! They’re maneuvering even better than before!” a Grabacr pilot panicked.

“Come on! We should be winning this! Don’t superior numbers count for anything!?” another enemy pilot complained.

“They’re just planes! Crash! Crash and Burn!” Grabacr leader roared into his mic.

Twilight locked into another fighter and fired a heat seeker at him. Rage and sadness constricted her heart as she laughed sadistically when the enemy plane caught the missile and detonated, killing the pilot.

“This is Thunderhead! One minute until the nuke is in range! You gotta stop them, Element!” the AWACS operator urged.

Twilight pulled from the air battle that her friends were starting to win as she turned back towards the bomber. She armed all three of her remaining missiles.

“This one’s for Rainbow Dash!” she spat as she ripple fired all three missiles at the bomber.

The behemoth had no chance. All three weapons connected and the bomber was reduced to ashes in a split second.

“You did it! Nuclear threat is neutralized!” AWACS shouted with joy.

“This is Mirage Squadron, we’ve made it and we are ready to engage the conventional enemy bombers. Great work Element! You saved Canterlot! Now just sit back and watch us mop up the rest of the bad guys!”

Allied squadrons had finally arrived.

The enemy conventional bombers that had been pummeling Canterlot for the past two hours were doomed. Equestrian fighters soon filled the sky like an aluminum cloud.

The ordeal was over.

“Enemy reinforcements have arrived, and a lot of ‘em too. We should separate from the fight soon,” Grabacr leader said solemnly, he had lost a lot of pilots today.

The Grabacr Squadron, or what was left of it, bugged out and flew home.

Twilight broke down.

As soon as her missiles hit the last nuke-carrying bomber, she shut out all the cheers on the radio and sobbed. She had never cried so hard in her life. She desperately tried to stop herself by huffing but it was no use.

She had lost a best friend today.

Applejack was silent, stoically staring out her cockpit with a single tear running down her cheek. Listening to her friends’ misery…the same as hers.

Pinkie was wailing and crying as loud as she possibly could, almost screaming.

“PLLEASE! DASSHIE! NO! J-JUST PL-EAS-E NO!” she started to scream in vain, no pegasus there to answer her heart’s plea.

Twilight’s radio was picking up chatter once more.

“Whew! Glad we made it out of there in time!” a fashionista spoke.

“Yeah…I just feel sorry for everypony though. Imagining all the loss here just breaks my heart,” her pegasus friend replied calmly yet solemnly.

“They made it…that’s good,” Twilight thought for a second.

Then she spoke into her mic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-TWWiXnUrw

“She...

She was a model fighter pilot to the end. She saved Pinkie’s life and mine. And for that I’m very grateful,” Twilight stopped to catch her breath and attempted once more to stop her sobbing but she couldn’t.

“By taking that missile for Pinkie, Rainbow proved that she is in fact, the Element of Loyalty. Her action was the definition of loyalty. She was our best friend who gave us the strength and protection we needed to get through this,” she sniffled a little as she struggled to continue.

“Rainbow loved flying. So much. It would only make sense that she…went…doing something she loved,”

Twilight had to open her visor and wipe her eyes with a hoof.

“Join me in saluting…RAINBOW DASH!”

All three remaining SUs soared past the cloud of billowing smoke were Dash’s plane used to be. Right as they passed the spot where their friend met her demise, all of the jets broke the sound barrier and let off a thundering sonic boom.

“If she was here to talk to us…I think I’d know what she’d tell us to do. What she’d want for us. And that is…” Twilight said as she slowed her plane down after going top speed.

She sounded sad yet proud.

Proud of her friend.

Proud of Rainbow Dash.

“That we…” Applejack and Pinkie both slid up to her, one of them flanking her on each side.

Twilight knew she would miss her, but Rainbow wouldn’t want that to slow her friends down. Rather, give them guidance and direction for the future.

And being remembered as a hero wasn’t half bad either.

“Gotta stay fly…”