Mirage

by LordofChaos

Rating: mature
Tags: Gallus, Other, Romance, Thriller, Original Character, Rainbow Dash, Queen Chrysalis, Sex, Profanity, Violence, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Death, Alternate Universe, Human
Length: 13182

An Alternate story for Lance Wilson.

Instead of falling into that beam of light with Richard, Lance found himself in the Changelings Hive by himself. Greeted with Reformed Queen Chrysalis, Prince Thorax, and General Pharynx. Lance found themselves dealing with another great danger; not aliens, but some brainwashed Changelings who refused to reform. Now, along side with his new allies, they MUST rebel against the BW Changelings... It's Do or Die.

Published 2020-11-15 00:20:00 UTC
Last updated 2021-04-16 16:56:50 UTC

Prologue: Intercepting an Unexpected Guest

Author's Note

Because this story took place in an alternate universe, the background settings may be different from the original one.

The Mirage will be updated every Friday. But The rate might be unstable due to school.

Prologue: Intercepting an Unexpected Guest

The RCAF, or better known as the Royal Changeling Air Force, were one of the most feared Air Forces around the globe. But how they became one is quite a tale. You see, after the first human visited Equestria 20 years ago, the Equestrians and their allies were amazed by the human technologies. The humans, or what they called themselves the "British", their Prime Minister Churchill made a deal with the Equestrian Princess Celestia; they'll give them some of there techs, while the Equestrian would secretly help the British. However, these technologies were left for them to figure out themselves. Later some other countries joined in this project and offered them theirs.

After 20 years of researching and testing, the first ever Equestrian jet; the F-86 Saber. Since then, many countries developed their jets; the Kirin however, doesn't have that much condition to research and develop their jets, and so, they bought the Migs from the Dragon Lands.

While the Air Forces at the other countries continued developing, the Changelings however, were stuck in one place.

After the return of the reformed Queen Chrysalis, the military and the government system of the Changeling Empire were refreshed. And to do so, they ran out of supplies and energy when it comes to the military power. But what troubles Chrysalis isn't their weak military power, but another wave of enemies; not the others... But themselves.

Queen Chrysalis was able to persuade many other Changelings to reform, but there's this group of Brainwashed Changelings who refused to change. Their bodies were the same as the changelings before their reformation. The only difference is their eyes and their fangs; their eyes were glowing devious red, their fangs were longer then usual, due to the hate and anger in their body, most of the were even stronger then the Queen herself.

The reformed Changelings then called them the "Unchanged", and have no other choice but to ban them. Their leader, a ex-commander of Chrysalis's army, Steel Jaw, swore to strike back and "refresh" their fallen Empire. Due to their threatening, Chrysalis have to request for supports from their closest ally; the Equestrians. So their military is armed with full Equestrian gears. Equestrian jets, tanks, guns, etc. Steel Jaw and his minions left, and never to be heard of again.

Until now.

------(~*~)------

RCAF, the 4th Fighter Platoon, Mage Squadron
Attitude: 10,000 ft
POV: Captain Sword Tail "Mage 1"
Weapon used: Equestrian F-16A "Fighting Falcon"

The sky is clear as usual, Celestia's sun is up high, the strong breeze of wind whooshed by. Traveling at the speed of 577 miles per hour, which is Mach 0.75, while looking at the view below is absolutely stunning. This is a reason why Sword Tail joined the RCAF in the first place, he enjoys his job. The another reason is that his parents were murdered by the very own hoof of Steel Jaw himself, and so to take his vengeance, Sword Tail took flight.

His squadron, or better known as "Lucky Sons of Bitches", had survived long enough to NOT feel any fear. Not by their instructor, not by enemy, no nothing. However, their missions were dragging them down.

Scout and recon.

Scout and fucking recon.

What the fuck is that?

Unlike most of his comrades, Sword Tail seeks for challenges, he passed by the shoulder of death itself, cheated death, and kicked the very own ass of death itself. Yes, death won't hold any grips of him. Yet.

Hell, but this mission is slowly killing him.

Feeling bored, he decided to have a little chat with his wingman, Quick Slash. He's about the same age as Sword Tail, but he served in Chrysalis's army longer than he did. For some reason, he still have that playful characteristic in him. But when the danger comes, Quick Slash is always quick to react, just like his name; you'll never see it coming.

"Mage 1 to Mage 2, how's your status?" Sword tail asked through the radio.

"Fine as hell," Mage 2, which is Quick Slash's code name, answered, "but I'm slowly dying from all these scouting shits."

"No point arguing," Sword Tail sighed, "but still, keep an eye out."

The two of them continue to soar through the clouds; the clouds were thicker than usual. This is no surprise for them, because they're currently flying over the Everfree Forest, things can be a bit weirder than usual.

Just as them continued feeling relaxed, Mage 1, Sword Tail spotted something unusual about the sun itself. Why is it a bit brighter than usual? Everfree Forest can be unpredictable, but the sun was controlled by Princess Celestia herself. And she won't mess with the sun on purpose. And also, why aren't the radar working...

"Mage 1 to Mage 2!" Sword tail shouted, "My radar is blurry, and some of the electronic devices are going crazy, report your status!"

A second later, in the blurs of the radio, he got the reply, "Ugh! Same here! What the hell?" Then the radio went completely blurred out, the radar lost contact, and the keyboard light went out.

"Mage 1 to Flight Tower! Do you read me?" Sword tail tried to connect the signal again, but after trying it for three ties, he gave up. He looked to the window outside and saw something that's DEFINILY unusual.

The clouds were combining together, forming what's like a storm eye. And suddenly, a blinding light shot out from the storm eye and nearly blinded both pilots. Thought Sword Tail have his goggles on, he could still feel his eyes stinging, he shook his head to refocus. This time, the light was gone, so are the myserteous storm eye. Everything was back to normal as if nothing had happened. The radar was scanning, the keyboard were working fine, and there's no blurs coming from the radio.

"Mage 1 to Mage 2! You alright?" Sword Tail asked.

"Mage 2 to Mage 1, no I'm not! My eyes sting like shit!" Quick Slash whined.

Suddenly, both pilots heard their radars' beeping alarm. Sword Tail checked the radar, instead of having two bright dot representing him and Quick Slash, there's a new dot, its location is at their upper right side.

"Mager 2 to Mage 1! Boogie spotted, 2 o'clock high!" Quick Slash said.

"Too big for a Mig-29, and the speed isn't right either." Swrd Tail said, "But its in our airspace, you know what to do."

"Copy that Mage 1," Quick Slash said as both of them turned their aircrafts towards the direction of the boogie, "let's get to work."

------(~*~)------

RAF, 1st Fighter Platoon, "Blitzwing" Squadron Leader
Attitude: 10,000 ft
POV: Captain Lance Wilson
Weapon used: Lockheed F-35B "Lighting" II

Lance's day couldn't get anymore worst, and yet it did.

First he's getting chased by a bunch of mad aliens in their space fighter firing their pulse cannon at he and his "Blitzwing" Squadron, Lance himself splashed two of them down, then he got gunned by them. Lost three of his teammates, then got sucked into this weird storm eye somehow.

Lance opened his eyes, after getting stabbed by that blinding light. He's slowly recovering, the RAF Captain checked his surroundings, it shocked him.

"Is it just me, or I'm fighting above Vietnam?" he muttered. Below him was some sort of forest, but Lance can clearly remember h was fighting over the English Channel, and there's not much forest in England, and his advanced GPS radar system won't get him lost somewhere above the Netherlands.

What's more weird as that he spotted two dots coming in from 8 o'clock low, and they're quickly approaching him.

Lance tensed up, his hands on the handle, fingers on the trigger. But something isn't right, the targets were two big to be the aliens' star fighters, not to mention their speeds, which is at the cruising speed of an F-16.

Huh? I don't remember anything about Americans assisting us. He thought, but as the distance between him and the boogies got closer, Lance found himself getting surrounded by two F-16A Fighting Falcons.

"The fuck are the Americans doing here?" he murmured, suddenly, a new voice popped up in his globe radio chat. And it sounded nothing like American ascent.

"This is the RCAF, Royal Changeling Air Force speaking," it said, "you're entering the restricted airspace, please indicate your ID, Nationality, and purpose of this flight. Change course immediately."

The bloody hell are the Royal Changeling Air Force? What kind of bloody Joke is this? Many questions rushed through his mind, but his military career forced him to speak.

"This is Captain Lance Wilson of the RAF speaking, I have no clue what you're talking about. And by the way... Don't. Mess. With. Me." he said sternly.

Brief silence filled the radio chat room, then, "This is RCAF to unknown aircraft, change course immediately, or you will get fired upon."

Then the Fighting Falcon on his right side slid off his goggle, revealing a set of huge purple eyes and a small curved horn. Lance blinked twice, then he rubbed his eyes. Again. that weird looking pilot is still by his side in the Fighting Falcon.

"The fucking hell are you guys?!" he asked. Then he too, removed the goggle, revealing his human face, which surprised the strange pilot. Then, he spoke something to the other Fighting Falcon. Lastly, he turned towards Lance.

"You are a human correct?" it asked. Lance assumed it was a "he" by his tone of voice, yet surprised he knew his race.

"Yes, how do you know?" Lance asked, slightly alarmed.

"There's no need to be hostile, you just appeared on the radar like a ghost, so we assumed you have no idea where you are," he said, "but don't worry, we mean no harm. Your left wing is smoking, leaking fuel, cannot seem to fly too far. Follow us." he wiggled his Fighting Falcon's wings before leaning his aircraft towards the left, the second Fighting Falcon did the same. Lance followed.

Though he still have no idea about the situation his in, but these guys don't seemed to have any purpose of harm, so he could trust them a bit. But something about this sounds familiar, like the stories he heard from his grandfather. Shaking these thought away, he followed the two strange Fighting Falcon, towards the unknown.

Unnoticed by them, their movement were recorded from the ground by an anti-aircraft vehicle. A changeling with black shell, sharp fangs, and red eyes, cut the recording.

"Commander, I have an emergency to report." he said to the radio.

"What is it?" the rough voice of a 40 year-old sounded through the speaker.

"The RCAF got a new toy."

Chapter 1: Project Supernova

As the jets approached the airbase, they lowered their airspeed and attitude, but both Changelings were confused when they saw Lance's F-35 still flying without showing any speed decrease, not attitude. But Lance told them that the F-35 can perform vertical take off and landing, also that his fighter jet won't be detected by radar that easily. which surprised them. Lance guessed that they don't have fifth generation stealth fighter yet.

The Changelings told him about this world in return; like how this world is called Equis and it runs on by magic. Themselves were called Changelings, they can take form of shape shift into anyone they meet. There's also many other creatures like ponies, Griffons, dragons, hippogriffs, etc. And the location they're currently in is called the Changelings Kingdom, ruled by Queen Chrysalis and Prince Thorax.

Lance also told them some stuff about Earth, but did not tell a thing about the aliens' invasion; because the lost of his teammates were just too painful to be speak of again. The Changeling pilots were both surprised again when Lance told them that magic is non-existent on Earth, that they used technologies to help them adept to different situation.

Lance is intersected in who this "Queen Chrysalis" is and her story. But when he asked this, he was told by Sword Tail that the queen does not wish her past story to be spoken again. But this intrigued Lance more, due to respect, he decided it's for the best to not talk about it for now.

Soon, the Changeling Airbase came into view, for a split second Lance thought that's the Americans' Edward Airbase, except the main fighters were mostly F-16s.

After requesting landing permission from the flight tower, the F-16s slowly aimed their way towards the runway, landing gears deployed, flap raised, and speed brake out. The gears made a loud screeching sound when contact with the ground, the pilots switched to brake and stopped the Fighting Falcons. Then they turned their gaze at Lance's F-35. Not only them, the engineers, and some other instructors also came out when Sword tail told them that they brought back a human and his advanced fighter jet. They witnessed there first sighting of vertical landing.

The F-35's engine were bended in an odd angle pointed downward, its landing gears and speed brake were deployed. The Changelings stared in awe as the F-35 slowly touched down the runway like a helicopter. After the landing preparation were completed, the engine roar died down.

Lance opened the cockpit and hopped out, greeted by hundreds of widening big eyes, which is starting to creep him out.

"Yo! Yo! Give' em some space!" Sword Tail shouted, while trotting over towards Lance, studying his aircraft closely.

"Why is there paints on your jet?" he asked after noticing a strange color of paints on the F-35B.

"Ah, these paints can absorb the radar waves instead of bouncing it back, which is a way to keep my aircraft invisible for the radars." Lance explained.

"Huh, you're just full of surprises." Sword Tail said, amused.

While they're talking, three armed royal changeling guards stepped in and asked to escort Lance to the hive, saying something about a meeting and the queen's wish to see the human.

"Welp, got some business to do," Sword Tail waved, "See ya later bud!" Lance then got into the jeep with the guards and drove of towards the hive.

------(~*~)------

The hive is basically a huge maze, without the guide of the guards, Lance swore that even the best maze solver would get lost. But there's no doubt that this is designed for enemy raiding, magic, duh.

Lance glanced around this haver, somehow like a hornet hive or something related to insects. There's many rooms such as storage, homing, education cave, hospital cave, army base, research lab, and all kinds of buildings. To conclude this hive, use of term should be a massive city in a rock.

Lastly, they arrived the royal chamber.

"Human, the Queen and the Prince is waiting, show your respect." A guard said to Lance. Though Lance had visited the Queen of England many times due to his excellent battle records, he's still not getting use to meeting royalty that much. With a sweaty palm, he walked into the chamber.

The chamber isn't in a cave as Lance expected, more like a crater. However, comparing to the dim cave, this is more like a garden, mosses and plants can be spotted, streams and rivers flow through the channel, and many colorful changelings were rooting around, most of them stared at Lance, creeping him out again. (Can't blame him, cuz Changeling eyes were too creepy, no offense to the Changelings fans)

He stopped in front of two thrones made of jade, and on it were the rulers.

There's three of them; the one on the left was a Changeling with bright green-yellowish coat with a pair of HUGE orange horns, he has purple eyes with no pupil, his wings were bright purple beetle-like wings. He looked more timid then the one on the right. That dude is dead serious, due to that damn frown on his face. I suppose he's the green-yellowish one's sibling because... uh... They have the same... eyes shape? This dude is dark purple with a bright purple eye like the one on the left.

And the middle one... she's... stunning.

Unlike most of the changelings, she's larger in size, her coat was white, her mane was bright blue (For some reason it's floating as if there's zero gravity.), her horn was long and curved, and Lance found himself kept looking at her beautiful ocean blue eyes. Her cheek turned a bit red as if she caught Lance staring at her.

The guard escorting Lance nudged him, "That's Prince Thorax, General Pharynx and Queen Chrysalis."

Shit, was the one thing Lance could think of, he bowed immediately.

"There's no need for formalities, please stand." Prince Thorax said quickly. Lance did as he was told.

"You must the human the RCAF told me about," Chrysalis said, "it had been quiet sometime since the humans last appeared. Mister..."

"Lance," the RAF pilot said, "name's Lance Wilson."

"Mister Lance, we're intersected in your jet, which can perform vertical take off and landing correct?" General Pharynx asked, still with that frown and serious tone.

"yes, how did you..." Lance started.

"We've been listening the conversation as soon as Sword Tail spotted you." Pharynx cut him off.

Seeing the frown on Lance's face, Thorax shot a glare at Pharynx before turning back to Lance, "Don't mind him, he's the fighting type."

"If this is okay with you, I have a few comments on your Air Force." Lance said.

"Better be good..." Pharynx mumbled.

"First of all, on my way here, I spotted another airbase at the desert outside the forest," Lance said, "using the ATGM radar on my jet, I spotted a few new model of Su-35 flankers and five Su-47s. But the RCAF is still using the old F-16A, which is a bit out of date.Ssince this Equestria is so advanced, why didn't it give you guys F-16 Vipers or at least the F-15 Eagle?"

Chrysalis sighed, "We don't have that much profits to buy the advanced jets from the Equestrians, we do have some parts, but lack of experienced designers."

"Can I see the blue print?" Lance asked, Chrysalis raised an eyebrow, "Yes, I can design one, before I became a fighter pilot, I'm an engineer and test pilot at RAF. I flew many other jets besides my F-35B." he said, much to the Queen's relief.

She ordered a changeling guard to get the blue prints while she and Lance have some chat about military improvements. Pharynx had some business to do, and Prince Thorax have to answer some requests from the citizens. That left Lance along with the Changeling queen.

As the blue print was brought up, Lance frowned more at the sight of it, "This design... is very out of date," he sighed, "this fighter jet looks similar to the Mig-21, this type f jet focused more on speed at high attitude. But now, the jets around the world is more focused on low attitude high maneuverability. Especially without the front canard and flaps."

Some of the engineers were shocked, one of them asked, "And you know anything better?"

Lance glanced at him, "Yes I do. Instead of focusing on the speed in high attitude, we should lower it down. Give me a pencil and a blue print." He received his materials and immediately drew on the blue print.

About ten minutes later, a blue print of a Mirage 2000 and a Rafale was compete.

"I have a question," the other engineer asked, "why tailless delta wings?"

"For this question, because the bigger and wider the wing is, more fuel capacity can it hold, not to mention the increase sizes of the weapon bay below the wings. It could carry up to five missiles, two laser guided bombs, and an external fuel tank. As for the tailless, the advantages of the tailless configuration include low parasitic drag, soaring glider, and good stealth characteristics." Lance explained as they nodded and surprised how accurate the sounded.

While Lance is explaining the Mirage 2000 and Rafale to the engineers, Chrysalis on the other hand (hoof?) was thinking something else. They way Lance talked and explained were so enchanting, not to mention his pure brown eyes and blonde hair, so handsome... Chrysalis realized what was she getting into and blushed hard, hiding her face behind her mane, trying not to make eye contact with Lance. Unfortunately for her, Lance noticed.

"Are you feeling alright your majesty?" he ask in concern.

He cares about me! Chrysalis felt like butterflies swirling inter stomach, "Y-Yes, I'm f-fine, please continue." she stammered, still hiding her face behind her mane.

Lance stayed eye contact with her for another minute or so before returning to his blueprint. For some reason he felt something different when meeting this queen. He never dated any girls back on Earth due to duties, not to mention he never really intersected in any of them. But from the moment he met Chrysalis, as if something inside of him is awakened.

Putting this weird feeling aside for now, Lance continued his Q&A from the Changeling engineers.

Chrysalis sensed his emotion, not just any feelings such as like or love just to make you feel better, that concern emotion was pure. As if he was really worried for her. Maybe he's intersected in her too? Chrysalis had never felt anything like this her whole life.

Is this what the ponies used to say "Love the first sight?", Chrysalis thought...

Lance finished explaining the major questions and facts about the Mirage and Rafale, "Okay, you guys are the best we've got, can you get this done in a month?" he asked, an engineer smiled.

"Not a month, we can finish building the testing model and fly it in four weeks." He said.

Lance had an amused smile on his face, "All righty, then this new aircraft will be called Project Supernova, to make RCAF shine again."

Chrysalis had a dreamy smile on her face, she had a feeling that Lance is the key towards their rise of military power... and the future of Chrysalis herself.

Suddenly, alarm began to scream, everycreature immediately tensed up, then a guard stormed in, "EVERYCREATURE SCRAMBLE! ESCORT THE QUEEN TO SAFETY! CODE RED! CODE RED! THE UNCHANGED BOMBERS ARE RAIDING OUR TANK FACTORY!"

Author's Note

Hmm... Spark of love eh? And a cliffhanger. Will Project Supernova be a success? Can they the get to the factory in time?

Chapter 2: Spy Under Our Eyes

Author's Note

Here's the update, sorry to keep you guys waiting! Enjoy! :twilightsmile:

Chapter 2: Spy Under Our Eyes

"HOW DID THEY FOUND OUT OUR TANK FACTORY'S LOCATION?! IT'S CLASSIFIED!!!" Pharynx bellowed at a commander in the main control chamber. The commander's ears were down, not even dared to look up at his snapping boss.

"We don't know sir," he said, chewing his words carefully, "the enemies just suddenly appeared on our radar like ghosts."

Before Pharynx could argue back, the for slammed opened, revealing a panting officer with a terrified look on his face, "General Pharynx! The bombers! They're heading our way!"

"FUCK! GET OUR AIR COLTS INTO THE SKY! NOW!!!" Pharynx bellowed.

"What about Captain Lance Wilson?" the officer asked.

"He has more experience than the rest of us, sent him up too." Pharynx said after thinking about the idea.

------(~*~)------

At the airfield, the Changeling pilots were scrambling towards their jets, while the alarm rang throughout the base. Among the F-16As, a new, high-tech looking fighter jet and the human pilot stood at the helicopter LZ. Just a few minutes ago, Once received a letter from General Pharynx requesting Lane's help in the air. Without hesitation Lance immediately sprang into action.

Turns out that the RCAF (Royal Changeling Air Force) had some Sidewinders, external fuel-tanks and at least 2,000 AiM-120s to use, after ten minutes of loading, refueling, and checking, Lance went for sortie. He climbed into the cockpit, placed his helmet, put on his mask, and closed the hatch. Then, in the widened eyes of many Changelings, Lance switched to VTAL mode. The F-35B's engine pointed downward while the fans on the top began to swirl. Within a short amount of time, F-35B slowly rises into the air for at least 500~700 feet before switching back to its regular mode, it immediately shot out like a bullet with the sound of the afterburner, leaving a trail of clouds before disappearing in the skies above.

Quick Slash and Sword Tail quickly started their jest and followed Lance's F-35B, Lance have to keep his speed so the Fighting Falcons could keep up, the rest of the squadron formed in as they flew towards the direction of the enemy bombers. Shorty after the fighters took off, an AWACS also joined the fight, it flew way behind the fighters, providing radar supports for them.

"All units, this is your new Captain speaking, my call sign is 'Whiplash'." Lance said through the radio, "Enter super sonic cruise."

Booms of breaking the sound barrier could be heard outside the jets as they each flew super sonic, but keeping the cruising attitude and the same formation.

"Mage Squadron, attention," After five minutes, the AWACS suddenly spoke, "stay frosty, boogies spotted n the radar 7.8 kilometers at 3 o'clock from where you guys' location. Suspected to be enemy fighter squadron escorting the heavy bombers. Once boogies in sight you're clear to engage."

"Copy that." Lance said before shutting off the radio, "All unit, keep your radios silent, and enter low altitude flight, approach to the enemies, when you have a lock on them, light' em up. Over and out."

The squadron then broke the formation and went down to at least around 100~1,000 meters. That way they can blind the enemy radars.

Meanwhile, at the enemies' perspective...

Cold Blade is piloting his Su-27 Flanker, along with his comrades, by their sides, which they were escorting were Tu-95 heavy bombers. To be honest, he somehow hated this mission. Cold Blade was the most elite pilot under the hooves of Steel Jaw, trained by the General himself, he shot down more than 5 jest of the RCAF and destroyed numerous ground units, his squadron carried the name "Jet Busters". Feared by the RCAF, Cold Blade and the rest of the "Jet Busters" couldn't help but viewing this escorting mission too low for them.

"Ugh, why did Steel Jaw even put us into escorting those noobs?" Silver Teeth, wingman of Cold Blade, complained.

"Don't ask me, I don't give shit about his orders, long as I can shoot down the RCF noobs." Cold Blade snorted. The long years of shooting down planes and gaining victory slowly washed away his cautiousness, letting his pride grow; and that's what got him killed eventually. Silver Teeth, on the other hoof, is more clever and cautious, but sometimes his cautiousness were viewed as fear and often get laughed at by Cold Blade.

"Whatever, just make sure to stay sharp, and yes, I'm talking to you." Silver Teeth said, earning another snort of pride from Cold Blade.

"Shut it, you're just too chicken."

Silver Teeth can only roll his eyes at that. Fucking prideful bastard...

Cold Blade checked his ATGM radar, spotting the RCAF air base up ahead, he had a devious smirk, "Bombers, your targets are 10 miles ahead, 10 o'clock, do your homework while we take the sky." After that he shut off the radio with the Tu-95s and watched them slowly flew towards the enemy air base. Cold Blade then began to feel bored and wondered around, imagining the burning air base with screaming RCAF noobs... Makes life enjoyable just by imagining it.

Suddenly, he felt an icy shiver run down from his spine, he frowned slightly at that. Was something bad gonna happen? Cold Blade snorted at that thought, he's a realist. He couldn't help but feel weird... As if somepony is pointing a gun directly at his head... Unnoticed by him, he IS being radar locked by none-other than Lance himself.

Back to the Mage squadron, Captain Lance saw their distance is closing up, he told the rest of the pilots to turn on their combat radar and prepare to splash the enemies.

"Bombers first, then the fighters, we want them to lose their main objective." Lance said, but in his mind, Lance had already picked his first target; the leading Flanker, who's surprisingly had his radar turned off.

Weird... Lance thought as he gained a radar lock on him. Cold Blade is still bored out and ddi not turn on the warning system, still having absolutely NO idea he's locked on. Until he spotted something bright coming at him at his 9 o'clock...

Before he could even deploy flares, the AiM-120 shredded through his jet's fuel tank, igniting the entire plane, blowing it up in the mid-air. Cold Blade paid his ultimate price of being too prideful. Just a second before Cold Blade's nasty death, he swore he saw the souls of the ones he killed coming right at him, moaning his name full of hatred...

"Fox 3... Splash 1!" Lance said automatically after witnessing the splash, what makes him want to laugh is that his target didn't even move an inch nor deployed any flares. After seeing their captain's first splash, the other pilots decided to rage the battle on. They fired missiles at the Tu-95s, who were dumb enough to try to dodge the missiles, though its flares did managed to fool a couple of Sidewinders, but the numerous missiles coming at them is way too overwhelming. Soon, the bombers were completely wiped out.

The Flankers, on the other hoof, just fled the scene like cowards...

"Mission main objective achieved, requesting return to base." Lance said through the radio that connected to the flight tower back at the base.

"Requesting accepted, you're clear to return and land."

Lance then formed that victory formation with the rest of the Mage Squadron, they roamed over the air base like a parade squadron, the Changelinsg down at the ground cheered for their victory...

However, not everypony was happy about it... A certain Changeling queen is worried sick...

"YOU ARE SAYING THAT HE WENT ON A DANGEROUS MISSION WITHOUT TELLING ME?!" Chrysalis bellowed at Pharynx, who recoiled at hr sudden outburst. he did not dared to challenge his queen's anger at this moment. However, he had this funny feeling inside of him, why is Chrysalis so worried for that human?

The door of the Queen Chamber opened, revealing a Changeling guard, "Your majesty, the Captain has returned and brought here as you requested."

"let him in, I prefer a private conversation with the captain, you too Pharynx." Chrysalis said in an demanding tone. Both Changelings nodded before trotting out quck as possible. While Lance glanced curiously at their expression, he swore he saw Pharynx giving him a sympathetic look before disappearing at the end of the hallway.

He walked into the Throne room, and froze upon seeing the angry queen.

"Uh... Are you feeling well your majesty?" Lance asked, picking his words carefully. However, Chrysalis is clearly not happy with his answer.

"WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?!" Lance flinched at her outburst, taking a step back, "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?!"

"Uh... I... Um... Should go..." he stammered as he slowly back his way towards the door.

"Wait!" he stopped when he heard the queen's cry, "get over here RIGHT NOW."

With a bit of hesitation, he walked over to the queen, he looked up slightly and saw her eyes, which surprised him. Its full of concern and pain.

Before he could ask what's wrong, he was tackled onto his throne by Chrysalis, "Why didn't you tell me you're going out?" she asked softly, but sadly, "You worried me sick..." then she stated to sob slightly against his shoulders. Lance was completely dumbstruck, he is NOT expecting this. But he then relaxed and started to stroke Chrysalis's mane gently.

"I... I t-thought I-I'm going to lose y-you..." she whispered, while sniffing from the tears.

"Hey, hey, I'm here, I'm in one piece, I'm good as ever." Lance whispered back softly.

After 10 minutes or so, Chrysalis calmed down and looked at him with her beautiful yet pained blue eyes, "Lance... Promise me one thing."

"Yes?"

"Before you go one each mission, remember to tell me first... And... don't leave me... Come back safety AND in one piece each time... Promise?" Chrysalis asked as he looked up with me with a sad smile. Lance suddenly felt butterflies swirling in his stomach, he couldn't help but keep his gaze on Chrysalis's beautiful face...

"Lance?" He snapped out of his dream.

"Uh... yeah?" he stammered, face becoming red while Chrysalis giggled.

"Promise me?" she asked.

"Can this answer you?" then he placed his lips upon her's, while Chrysalis's eyes opened in surprise. Lance locked lips with her, she relaxed and let their tongues touch, Chrysalis tasted like chrysanthemum, Lance enjoyed ever moment with Chrysalis. After kissing for another 10 seconds or so, they broke the kiss slowly, Chrysalis is blushing hard.

"So... Are we a... you know..." Lance asked, stammering.

"Yes, we are..." Chrysalis smiled before kissing her new coltfriend again. After a few minutes of romance, Lance figured that it's time for real business. Chrysalis agreed.

"Chrysalis, I here to inform you one thing." Lance said, sounding serious. Chrysalis's expression hardened, "The tank factory of ours is classified, but the enemies found out its location, so..."

"You're telling me..." Chrysalis started, her face in disbelief.

"I'm afraid, we have a spy under our eyes, among us." Lance finished.

The room grew silence after that.

Chapter 3: A Unofficial Relationship... At Least Not Until Later...

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 4: Operation Bullseyes

At the interrogation chamber, a beaten, broken, and half-alive Changeling had his head down on the enchanted chair, below him were some... Stuff he released due to the amount of fear he faced by the hands of the human. Lance, is standing next to him, with a devious smirk on his face, his hands were covered in green blood.

"So, you're answering or shall I continue?" he said to the traitor, who had his head hang low, not making a sound, "Oh well." Then he took out a taser and stabbed in into the traitor's open wound, and pressed the trigger. The Changeling screamed in agony, that taser contains electricity that's strong enough to take down an elephant, so imagine that going out in your body.

After about five minutes, the traitor is near death, still breathing, but clearly couldn't take it anymore, qhilwe Lance is whistling as if nothing is happening. Finally, the Changeling gave up, "S-STOP! I-I'll t-tell you e-everything..."

"About time." Lance smirked as he pulled the taser out, then bend down to the changeling's level, "Go ahead."

"Uh... I-I was contacting S-Steel Jaw. G-General Steel Jaw... F-From what I know... He's.... He's uh... He's at the Everfree Forest, but I do not know the location of his base..." The traitor stammered, but Lance can see the hesitation in his eyes. Liar, he had another devious smirk on his face, which is starting to freak the changeling out.

"So, tell me traitor, aren't you thirsty from all that sentencing?" Lance asked, which confused the traitor, "Oh, don't ask, here, drink some." Then he brought out a bottle o water and handed it to the thirsty Changeling, who sniffed it before gobbled it up, not noticing the Lance's cold eyes with a even darker smile. Soon, the changeling began to feel air-headed and starts to wobble.

Seeing the mental paralysis drug working, Lance began his final interrogation.

"What is your name?" He demanded.

"Flare Horn." The changeling replied unconsciously.

"Is Steel Jaw really the one you talked to?"

"Yes."

"How much do you know?"

"A lot."

"Tell me all of it." Now Lance is getting really intersected.

"Steel Jaw is located in the Southern Badlands, not far from Kudgetown, he had many workers there. But some were forced, Steel Jaw has more than 100,000 loyal changelings, 8,000 aircrafts, 12,000 armored vehicles, and numerous missiles of all kinds." Flare Horn blurted everything out, while Lance's frown deepened, "Also, Steel Jaw is secretly processing what he called the Project Praxidike... From what I know, he is researching a new fighter jet called X-02S Strike Wyvern... The new airframe uses redesigned engines with heat-resistant magnesium alloys to enhance thrust and fuel efficiency, compensated by expanded air intakes. The exhaust nozzles were changed to a saw-tooth design to lower the plane's infrared signature and make it quieter. The shapes of the weapon bays were altered and conformal fuel tanks were added to the top of the aircraft. X-02S's control programs were updated to allow full use of all of the aircraft's moving parts: the new folding canards, the signature variable forward-swept wings, the V-shaped tail, and the 3D thrust vectoring. The ventral fins were deemed unnecessary and removed. The combination of all of these parts leads to incredible maneuverability... Nearly no aircraft can beat the X-02S..."

Lance sighed, nothing good, "How did you know so much?"

"I worked for Steel Jaw's Project Praxidike for about 10 months before been told to go undercover into Chrysalis's hive." Flare Horn blurted.

"Anything to say about Steel Jaw's basement? How to destroy the basement easily?" Lance asked, an operation starting form in his head.

"Steel Jaw's basement is deep underground, at least 1,000 feet down. Many Anti-Air weapons were located near the base, there's twenty SAM sites, numerous anti-air vehicles, and six anti-air radar sites." Flare Horn continued.

"Types of fighter jets Steel; Jaw's Air Force uses." Lance said.

"2,000 Su-27 Flankers, 500 Su-35s, 1,000 Su-37 Termintors, 500 Su-34s, 1,000 Tu-95 heavy bombers, 200 Tu-160 bombers, 800 Su-25s, 1,000 Mig-29
Fulcrums, and 1,000 Mig-19s. There's also an arsenal bird patrolling near the airspace. "

Now where's all the jet factories at... "DO you know the locations of the jet factories?" Lance asked, unfortunately the answer disappointed him.

"No."

"Alright, the interrogation is complete. Die now." Lance said, Flare Horn's head hang low again, his breathing slowed down, until his body went limb. Lance sighed before walking out the interrogation chamber, signaling two guards to get the corpse out. Lance then went on the meeting with the high rank officers, squadrons for sortie Pharynx, and Chrysalis.

------(~*~)------

In the Military Meeting Chamber, a large table was at the center with chairs surrounding it, each sat the hit-ranked officers. Pharynx, Thorax, and Chrysalis were at the center of the table. Meanwhile the pilots of the Mage Squadron and Shifter Squadron, some Lance recognized; Sword Tail, Quick Slash, and a few other pilots he don't know yet. A projector map is at he center of the table, it forms a 3D view of the operation.

Seeing Lance walked in, Chrysalis smiled, "I suppose the interrogation is completed?"

"Yes Chrysalis, and I've gathered enough informations to begin an operation." Lance replied, receiving serval glares from some officers for saying their queen's name instead of 'your highness' or 'your majesty'. However, Lance ignored them and continued with his operation.

"During the interrogation, I've gathered several useful info; first of all, Steel Jaw and his basement is located in the Southern Badlands, near a place called Kudgetown." As he starts speaking, the 3D projection shown the Southern Badlands, along with Steel Jaw's basement. (The map looks kinda like the one in Ace Combat 7, so are the briefing... Cuz why not?)

"I also received the fact that Steel Jaw is secretly researching a new type of fighter jet named X-02S, shown above. According to the interrogation, it was designed to have high maneuverability, stealth, speed, and fire-power. It'll be a horrible enemy to us once it enters service. The lab of the X-02S however, remains unknown to us. But by attacking Steel Jaw's basement we could effetely slow the production down." Lance explained his plan, "There'll an arsenal bird patrolling its airspace, carrying many fighter drones known as MQ-101, they're small but deadly, make sure to destroy them as fast as possible. You'll spot many anti-air vehicles and SAM sites, destroy them. Eliminate all the enemy fighters. Also, Steel Jaw's main base would be 1,000 feet below the ground, for this mission, I prepared a B-52 heavy bomber for support, it'll carry GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrators. However, you must make sure to laser guide the bombs. To conclude this mission; our main objective is to find and destroy Steel Jaw's basement... Along with some of his toys if you spot them."

The pilots and the officers glanced nervously at each other, Lance caught that, "I know this is a dangerous mission, also unpredictable, but the goal is critical to us, we must complete this."

He then changed the 3D map into the battle formations, showing each squadron's battle stations.

"Mage Squadron, I'll be the lead of you guys, Sword Tail is the second in command; you guys will be the main attack force of this mission; search and destroy all enemy fighters, anti-air vehicles, and search radar. Then we'll laser guide the bomber. Sifter Squadron, you guys will be providing cover for the bomber. DO NOT let any enemy aircrafts approach the bomber." Lance said, then he closed the map.

"This is a critical strike, we make it to their base, fuck it up, and go RTB." He then glanced the pilots, "This mission, will be named... Operation Bullseyes. Dismissed!"

------(~*~)------

Steel Jaw's Secret Research Lab, Unknown Location

The evil general stood in front of the experimental fighter aircraft that'll soon strike fear into RCAF's heart, he's staring into the new aircraft, imagining the horrified screams of the dying pilots getting shot down by him... He smirked. Steel Jaw was the most deadliest pilot of the RCAF before Chrysalis returned, now he's here, training his own elite squadron; The Shadow Squadron.

He turned and asked an engineer, "How's the new aircraft going?"

"Everything's good, the experimental X-02S is about to take its first test flight, sir... Except..." Th engineer stammered.

"Except what?" Steel Jaw demanded.

"Our progress on designing and making the G-Force Suit for X-02S's pilot is... Somehow slower than usual. High maneuverability and speed of this aircrafts can perform many high-G turns, but it also costs the pilot's body to be suitable for the flight." The engineer said.

"Continue on, I'm flying that anyway. I'll check the sun every now-and-on, prepare flight simulations." He then placed an insane smile that sent chills down the engineer's spine, "And I'll make sure.... To play with that new Human name Lance... Been such a long time since I last played with a good pilot... You're dismissed." The engineer saluted before trotting away.

Steel Jaw turned his attention onto the X-02S again, "Just you wait Lance, just you wait..."

Author's Note

The X-02S:

GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator:

Chapter 5: Sudden Death

After dismissing the pilots, Lance was told by Chrysalis that due to their current tensions with SteelJaw and his armies, the Equestrians and Hippogriffs each send one of their finest pilot as volunteers to support the RCAF. Lance met them afterward at the hanger. The Equestrian pilot is a Pegasus named Lighting Flash, former Wonderbolt and an elite pilot, flies F-22 Raptor, F-16 Viper, and Strike Eagle. The Hippogriff is a young pilot named Jokodi, served in the Hipporffian Navy, flies F/A-18F Super Hornet and F-35B Lighting II. Lance told the brief summary of Operation Bullseyes, the two pilots was then assigned to be the Wingmen of Mage Squadron. They Brough their aircraft with them; Since F-35B is still pretty new to them, Jokodi picked his old ride, a F/A-18F Super Hornet which is named "Maverick", while Lighting Flash prefers the attacking type, F-15E Strike Eagle. Now with the aircraft preparation completed, they're off to sortie. As for the Mirage and Rafale fighters, the engineers had already built the prototype and had successfully completed their test flies, just a few weeks before they officially enters service.

Before leaving, Lance went to see Chrysalis, as promised. The two shared a lovely kiss before departing.

"Please... Come back safely." Chrysalis sighed sadly as she leaned her head on his shoulder, which Lance brushed her mane softly.

"I will, love... I will."

At the airfield, Mage Squadron and Shifter Squadron were lined up on the runway, Shifter Squadron are the first to take off. Before talking off, Lance told the Mage Squadron their callsign; Lance's callsign will be Mage 1, or Trigger. Sword Tail will be Mage 4, or Viper. Quick Slash is Mage 5, or Full Band. Jokodi is Mage 2, or Sea Gull. And lastly Lighting Flash will be called as Mage 3, or Count.

The Mage Squadron will take off in numbers, Lance is the first. This time however, he flies a F-16C; he don't wanna waste the engine or some critical parts of his F-35B since it's new to this world. Lance pushed the airspeed to max, afterburner roaring, he glide towards the end of the runway and took off. Then came the Flight Tower's words.

"Mage Squadron, attitude restriction is lifted, happy hunting."

Lance then heard Shifter Squadron's leader, Night Shade, callsign Shifter 1, speaks, "Control tower, do me a favor and get these birds in the air ASAP."

One by one, Mage Squadron took off, "Mage Squadron, form around Mage 1." Lance ordered through the radio. Soon, a triangular formation can be seen from above; the one in the lead is Lance, on his bottom right is Jokodi, bottom left is Lighting Flash, Behind Jokodi is Quick Slash, and behind Lighting Flash is Sword Tail.

The AWAC is already in the air far behind them, providing radar supports for both fighter squadron, while the B-52 bomber is already up, around 50,000 feet above the ground.

"This is the AWAC Sky Keeper, don't forget your objective of the mission; Mage Squadron, find and destroy all enemy radar sites, anti-air vehicles, and SAM sites, Shifter Squadron, provide cover for the bomber, assist Mage Squadron if you can. Good luck."

"Copy that." Lance replied, while turning off his afterburner, theres no need for wasting fuel, it's a long way from their airbase to Steel Jaw's, besides, they carried external fuel tanks just incase.

Mage Squadron decides it'll not hurt to chat sometimes before the great battle starts.

"Hey Trigger, got any mares waiting back home?" Quick Slash asked.

"Nah, spending too much time in military won't get you a girl. "Lance said.

"What about our queen?" That question caught him off guard.

"What?"

"Chrysalis, I heard rumors about you two getting steamy." Quick Slash teased. Lance rolled his eyes.

"Fine, you're half-right though, but I haven't even start dating her yet, no need to get steamy just yet."

As the two chat, Sword Tail decides to charm in, "Hey Trigger, tell us something about your world."

Lance sighed, he doesn't have that much to say, all except for all those battles against the Extraterrestrials... he do hope that those bastards won't find their way here... Will they?

"Well, nothing much, Earth isn't exactly Equestria-Like; war and conflicts had been raging ever since mankind first appeared. There's World War 1 and World War 2, each took place in the early-mid twenty century; minions of men, women, and children died. Then the current war we're having on Earth is nothing like we'd expected." Lance said.

"What do you mean?" Sword Tail asked.

"Our enemies are from the stars, they've superior technologies and larger numbers; they struck as off-guard, many great countries were lost within a month; my country, which is England, Russia, and China were the only three remaining countries resisting the aliens... And I'm not sure if they're still active..." He sighed.

"Geez, I'm sorry dude." Quick Slash said.

"But even if mankind does lose the battle, I don't really care, " Lance said, "I lost my family and friends during their attacks, and my army wasn't doing great either. Humanity is full of hate and violence, I lost faith in them a while ago. Now I have a new life, new start, new fight, new friends... And maybe a new family."

Suddenly, AWAC's voice came over, "Attention Mage Squadron, this is the AWAC Sky Keeper; cut the chat, large groups of unidentified fighters are coming your way; most likely enemies, stay frosty, we'll provide radar support, over."

"Understood." Lance said before sending his message to the rest of the squadron, "Mage Squadron, listen up, enemies dead ahead, stay sharp."

Everyone stiffened as they awaits an intense air combat ahead of them, Quick Slash has been surprisingly quiet along the way. It's not long until Lance finally caught radar signals on his radar, more than twenty enemy planes were coming their way; from their airspeeds and sizes, Lance could identify them as Su-27 Flankers.

"Mage Squadron! Drop fuel tanks! They're coming in hot!" Just as he finished giving orders, missile warnings went off immediately, "Alrighty... IT. IS. ON." Lance then dropped his tank, popped some decoys, and did a barrel roll to the right. Just as he did that, two infrared missiles flew by his jet, exploding on the decoys he just tossed.

"JINX! JINX!" he ordered, now the enemies were visible, the Flankers flew straight into their formation, braking them off and chasing them around, dogfighting. Lance soon found himself dogfighting with a raging Flanker on his tail, which kept on missile-locking him while launching infrared missiles at him, luckily thanks to flares and Lance's advanced maneuvers, none of the missiles got him.

"Show time!" Lance then raised his F-16C's head and climbed on, increasing his throttles while performing a high-G turn, or known as Kulbit. He flipped his jet above the air as he slowly turned towards the enemy, which passed by him fast. Lowering his throttle, Lance successfully got onto his sixth. But when he was about to gain a lock, the Flanker did something unexpected; it suddenly raised its head while letting the air current pull itself backward; Cobra!

This aerial stunt isn't used too much during a real-life air-to-air combat, more of a fun stunt to perform during an air-show; bit whoever this lucky bastard is, he's good enough to pull off a Cobra; only Flankers are capable for performing this stunt.

Advantage taken again, Lance was forced to perform a Chandelle, pulling his jet 180 degrees while climbing, which out-turned the Flanker, getting to his six o'clock again, and this time Lance won't let his chance slip away. Quickly gaining a radar lock on him, Lance pressed the trigger, "FOX 3!"

An AiM-120 flew out of its weapon hanger and darted straight into the Flanker's left engine, violently tearing the enemy jet apart; Lance watched as the jet's engine bursted into flames while spinning, falling towards the ground, a few more small bursts before the entire plane exploded into scraps of metals. (It looked kinda like how a jet dies in Ace Combat 7.)

"Splash! Splash!" Lance then saw Quick Slash getting chased by a Flanker, for some reason the way the Flanker moves looked similar to someone he knew back home... "Hold on Full Band! Coming your way!" But as he approaches the target, h was surprised to found that this is actually a Su-30SM, with red wing tips, a skull painted to its back, and a set of numbers "13" painted by its nose. What in the bloody hell is a Su-30SM doing in a Su-27 squadron? Must be the leader.

"Shit! Somebody get him off my tail!" Quick Slash's panicking voice came from the radio, "His good! Bastard's moves were almost same as mine! He's stuck to my ass as if he's glued to me! Damn it!"

"Fuck! Quick Slash I cannot get a clear shot with you in front of it!" Lance shouted over the radio, "Dive to the left! NOW!"

Quick Slash's jet immediately gave an hard dive to the left, the Flanker followed, copying his move exactly the same, Lance grunted as he couldn't get a clear shot without friendly-firing Quick Slash as well.

"HOLY SHIT! WHY ISN'T THE FUCKER FIRING?! It's like... It's like he's playing with me! DAMN IT!" Quick Slash's voice is desperate, panic and fear all over it, "THIS IS GETTING CREEPY! GET THAT SHIT OFF MY TAIL!!!"

"GOD DAMN IT I'M TRYING TO!!!" Lance yelled.

However, Lance later found himself getting locked on by another Flanker behind him, he had no choice but to leave Quick Slash, his heart pained as he heard his comerade's desperate screams, "TRIGGER?! WHAT ARE YOU... UGH! HIS FIRING! GOT DAMNIT GET BACK HERE!"

Lance couldn't repeat back, he's already busy dealing with the Flanker behind him.

"... He's a predator..." A few moment later. Quick Slash's unusual dead tone came to every jets in the Mage Squadron, "The weak gets eaten..."

"FUCK! QUICK SLASH SNAP OUT OF IT!" Sword Tail shouted, "Quick dogfighting and run!"

"He can't!" Jokodi's voice came in, "That bastard's already got the advantage..."

"FUCK! I'M NOT LEAVING HIM!" Sword Tail screamed.

Lance, who just did a U-turn and finished off that Flanker, early have time to turn back, when he did, he's only able to watch Quick Slash's final moments. His jet was already smoking, small flickers pf flames are visible. The Su-30SM however, is chasing and teasing Quick Slash like a cat chasing a mouse. Finally, the Su-30SM decided that time's up. It fired a missile at him.

"DAMN IT! GOD DMANIT! SOMEBODY HELP!!! NO! I DON'T WANNA DIE! I DON'T WANNA-----" his unfinished words were forever silenced by the suddenly buzz of the radio getting disconnected violently, explosion can be heard from the background, as the radio faded away completely.

Outside, time seemed to slow down; Quick Slash's plane was hit, its engines bursted as it went into a violent spin while bursting flames, then, everything ended when Quick Slash's jet exploded in the mid-air.

"NOO!!!" Sword Tail cried, there's no way anyone could survive the explosion in the air.

"Holy shit!"

"Oh my god!"

"Mage 5 is down! I repeat! Mage 5 had been splashed!"

Shocked chatters began to form, Lance's only target is this Su-30SM, he snapped. Lance's jet went straight towards the Su-30SM, closer and closer until he can spot the pilot in the cockpit. The enemy pilot had a set of black goggles and helmet on, he couldn't see his face, he looked at Lance, then went full afterburner, escaping the battlefield faster than a regular Su-30 goes. Lance can't risk wasting too much fuels, the main objective hasn't being completed yet, and he'd already lost a pilot.

"FUUUUCK!!!" Sword Tail roared into the radio, "SKY KEEPER I'M GONNA GET SMASH THAT PIECE OF SHIT!"

"Negative Mage 4, stick to the mission." Sky Keeper said, from his voice everyone can hear Sky Keeper suppressing has anger.

"NO! I'M GOING RIGHT NOW!" Sword Tail screamed, but the next sentence from Sky Keeper is ice cold.

"You go after him, I'll make you as a deserter, and enemy, then you WILL get fired upon."

"Sky Keeper! You wouldn't !" Lance snarled. But the AWAC ignored him, "Continue on with the mission."

"SON OF A BITCH!" Sword Tail cursed, but have no other choice but to move forward.

Author's Note

HOLY SHIT! Quick Slash is KIA?! Well, no sacrifice, no victory...

Just watch Brownie's death from Ace Combat 7, it's based on that.

Chapter 6: Love is in the Air

The way to the enemy base is silence, it felt strange and cold without Quick Slash's big muzzle around buzzing, Sword Tail haven't say a word ever since Quick Slash was KIA. Surprisingly, AWACS Sky Keeper had his mouth shut as well. At least HE'S showing some respect. The Shifter Squadron and the bomber haven't take note of the combat below yet, they were up there with the B-52 boring their craps out. After a few minutes, Jokodi broke the silence.

"Hey, Sword Tail is it?" he spoke through the radio, "Look, keeping your head into the sadness of losing a friend aren't gonna help you any better, trust me I've been through this; Back a few years ago, me and my boys, Cyclopes Squadron at the Navy flew over the Celestial Sea for border patrols. It was supposed to be a milk run, then we got into contact with some small enemy surface to air missile units, we radioed and warned them, but for some shitty unknown reason they fired at us. Some of my boys were lucky enough to dodge it; except for my wingman, Oli. I watched as his plane getting pounded by the missile, it slammed right into his cockpit, the result is already shown..."

Sword Tail stayed silence.

"After that I just couldn't bring myself to fly again, but as time goes by I realized that keeping your head in the sadness of the past can't do shit, you want revenge, then get your head out, stay alive, and fight on. Quick Slash would say the same thing too isn't he?" Jokodi concluded.

Sword Tail stayed silence for a brief moment, before sighing, "You're right..." And went back to silence again, Jokodi kept his mouth shut as well, some spaces and times are needed for Sword Tail to go through the lost of his friend. A war is a war, comrades and friends dies around you, death is normal, and sometimes you'll have to watch it happen.

Lance on the other hand, had seen this happen way too many times, he'd calmed down quickly a resumed back to their mission, but the urge of vengeance is still crying out to him.

The rest of the way went surprisingly easy, no residence or enemy fighters is present to intercept them, probably because they're out of fuel, which also means that there's a nearby airfield. But destroying their airfield is for another day, the Mage Squadron have to quicken the operation; before the air combat, the Squadron had already emptied their external fuel tanks, now the fuels in their main tank is their only fuel source, they'll have to finish this up fast. Luckily, the enemy HQ isn't that far ahead.

"Attention all units, this is AWACS Sky Keeper, enemy HQ is 20 miles ahead, Mage Squadron prepare laser guidance, Shifter Squadron spread out and lower your attitude, intercept any incoming hostiles targeting the bomber." The AWACS's information came into everyone's headset.

"Copy that, Mage Squadron on me." Lance then broke the formation, lowered his attitude and flew straight for the HQ, with the rest of his squadron following behind him. Suddenly, Lance's radar began to scream, he's being missile locked.

"Damn! Watch for the SAMs!" He shote before posing out decoys while performing maneuvers, which is just in time to dodge an incoming missile, Lance then quickly searched through his ATGM radar and located the SAM site, he aimed the optic sight at the SAM truck and fired his 20 millimeter Vulcan cannon. BLUUURT! The SAM truck erupted into a massive fore ball as the missiles on its back were detonated.

"One down!" Lance then began to search and destroy the other SAM sites and anti-air vehicles, with the Mage Squadron following his actions. Soon, the anti-air sites were cleared out, Lance could see the enemy HQ from far ahead, he quickly switched weapons to laser guidance, when the distance matched, he turned it on. The laser flashed onto the suspected HQ site, though it looked like nothing from the top, the entire base is hidden underneath the layer.

Way upon them, at the attitude of 50,000 feet, the Stratofortress had just received the laser guidance signal from Mage Squadron, the pilots quickly turned the bomber towards the area, now flying flat and straight, the bombing bay opened, revealing two massive MOPs hanging on the bay, below them were the blue skies and surprisingly warm air. B-52 can fly in the Stratosphere where the air would be strangely warm instead of freezing, with theist check of bombing sequence, the bombing crew awaits for the final order.

"Mage 1 has the suspected targeted area locked," The radio operator said, "clear for the bomb run."

"Bombs away!" Then the two MOPs slipped off the weapon bay and fell directly towards the laser-targeted area.The MOPs' four flaps began to move around rapidly, slowly guiding the MOPs towards the suspected enemy HQ. The MOPs began to scream as their velocity and attitude got more extreme, the enemies units on the ground all stopped and looked up, horrified by two shadows coming straight at them in a terrifying velocity.

BAM! BAM!

The two massive MOPs each slammed straight through the ground that could penetrate three layers of 200 millimeter of concrete plates, the delay fuzes were set off, now all it matters is the time. The two MOPs went through layers and layers of concretes like a knife through butter, until it finally broke off the final protection plate of the underground basement. Time seemed to slowed down as the two unexpected 'gifts' penetrated through the plate of the ammunition storage, the enemy Changelings could only stare hopelessly as the MOPs ignited the explosives and the ammunitions.

(The MOPs in Equestria were booted with destruction magics, making them five times better than the MOPs on Earth. The Changelings poured a large amount of magic into their MOPs, so it'd look like a nuke explosion.)

From above, Lance and his fellow Mage Squadron flew away from the HQ to prevent being slammed by the shock wave, suddenly, the ground underneath the targeted area started to rise, formed into a hill, then sparks of flames and heat began to leek out. It's not long before the HUGE firework display came. A huge mushroom cloud raised from the area, the heat & shock wave spread throughout the land and crushed anything in its path of destruction. Lance could feel his jet shaking slightly from the shock wave, to be honest he wasn't expecting the MOPs to detonate like this, these magic-booted MOPs were way more destructive than the ones on Earth.

Then AWACS decided to pop up, "This is AWACS Sky Keeper, mission objective achieved, enemy HQ confirmed destroyed. Good job colts, Mage Squadron RTB, Shifter Squadron escort the bombers."

“Well at least we got our job done." Lighting Flash said, "Though some prices we have to pay."

"I said what I have to say." Sword Tail sudden said, his tone deep and unreadable.

"About what?" Sky Keeper replied.

"Not a stallion who retreats or cower over anypony; just simply not in his DNA." Sword Tail sighed, "Is there anything he left behind that's personal? Might be the only item related to Quick Slash that we can bury on the funeral."

"This Operation Bullseye is a success, thanks to both Mage Squadron and Shifter Squadron, who did most of the work. Though we lost some brave stallions, they deserved to be honored. Now, since the enemy HQ is wiped out, we believe that they've suffered minor damages, this is proved to be a critical strike to them. Steel Jaw and his army won't show up for at least one or two months, still that doesn't mean they won't send in some drones. Though we delivered a death strike to Steel Jaw, we still have to keep our guards on, there's no telling when that A-Hole would strike again. The funeral would be held tomorrow at 7:30 A.M, but those sacrifices are what led to our victory at this point. To conclude this debrief, we have delivered a K.O Punch to the enemies, and they sat their asses down for now! And we'll scout for their secret factory of their Elite Aircraft, then we'll began another operation. Until then, dismissed!"

Chrysalis is leaning against Lance's shoulder like what lover would do in her bed room; after the funeral and the honor speech, Chrysalis was once again, entering her 'worried mom' mode, which is starting to annoy Lance; though it is in a good way. Since the operation was a success, Mage Squadron and Shifter Squadron had their day off, and Lance aren't gonna miss this chance to get 'deeper' into his relationship with the Changeling queen.

"Say Lancy, what are your plans for our future?" Chrysalis asked.

"Well, I'm gonna be honest," Lance sighed, "it all happened so quick. Just four weeks ago, I came here from Earth, met you and your subjects, helped fought a war, and welp... Ends up courting the most beautiful Changeling queen I've met."

"Oh Lance, I'm the only Changeling queen you've met." Chrysalis giggled.

Then, there was an awkward silence for a brief moment, until Lance asked something Chrysalis is not expecting.

"Uh... Mind if I ask... May I dance with you?" Lance asked, a bit hesitatingly. Seeing Chrysalis froze there as well, he stammered, "Uh.... Never mind, I didn't say anything---"

"Why OF COURCE!" Then Lance was wrapped in a light blue aura and was pulled onto a dance position with his fiancé, "Oh, except there's no musicians for the background music."

"Don't worry, got that all fixed." Lance smirked as he snapped his fingers. The room was suddenly painted with romantic light settings, and a romantic music automatically played in the air, "Here's some romantic music from my home world. I think you'll love it."

Chrysalis started to sing, "In a perfect world,

One we've never known

We would never need

To face the world alone

They can have their world

We'll create our own

I may not be brave

Or strong or smart

But somewhere in my secret heart

I know,

Love will find a way.

Anywhere I go,

I'm home.

As long as you're beside me,

Like dark,

Turning into day,

Somehow we'll come through,

Now that I've found you,

Love will find a way."

Lance smiled, a bit surprised that she knew the lyrics, he joined in ,"I was so afraid,

Now I realize,

Love is never wrong,

And so it never dies,

There's a perfect world,

Shining in your eyes."

The couples danced with their hooves/palms held onto each others like how a couple would dance in the 50s, their voices and singing together formed a beautiful chorus.

"And if only they could feel it too,

The happiness,

I feel with you,

They'd know,

Love will find a way,

Anywhere we go,

We're home,

If we are there together,

Like dark,

Turning into day,

Somehow we'll come through,

Now that I've found you,

Love will find a way,

I know,

Love will find a way,

Anywhere we go,

I'm home,

If we are there together,

Like dark,

Turning into day,

Somehow we'll come through,

Now that I've found you,

Love will find a way,

I know love will find a way,

I know,

Love will find a,

Way..."

The two stared at each other's eyes after the sing ends, and Chrysalis planted her lips on Lance's, and Lance ddi not deny the kiss of an angel. He closed his eyes and let their tongues danced, small moans can be heard from Chrysalis's throat, as the couple broke the kiss slowly.

"Wow, that was... Wow." Lance stammered, "How'd you know all the lyrics?"

"Huh? Did I got them all right?" Chrysalis smiled sweetly, "I guess when we kissed, some of your chaos magic flew into me so I could see the stuff in your world? By the way, this is a great song for that movie."

Lance's eyes widened for a few seconds, she'd seen both Lion King movies?

"By the way, you still remembers what I told you before the Operation right?" she asked slyly, Lance's eyes widened again.

"You don't mean---"

"Yes, were doing it right here and right now. You are mine for the night!" said Chrysalis, then she tackled-kissed Lance onto her bed, she covered both of them with her queen-sized blanket as both lovers kissed deeply. Then...

It was a lot of moans and love-makings.

(HA! Gotcha! I'm not writing the sex part in, mainly because I'm not good a describing stuff like that. But I willl get into a tiny bit details in my next chapters on their 'activities' last night. Until then, Eddie out!)

Chapter 7: Flying the Black Tempest

It had been a few weeks after Operation Bullseyes, yet the intelligence agency haven't receive anything on Steel Jaw's movements yet. Usually when this kind of stuff happens, it only means one thing, Steel Jaw is planning something big. But this is just a suspect, they haven't even caught his new location yet.

As for Lance and Chrysalis's relationship, after that night's 'event', both decides to keep it a secret still, at least until Steel Jaw is confirmed dead, so none of them would be his target. A few days later, a new recruit came to Mage Squadron, as Quick Slash's replacement; he's surprisingly, a dragon. 23 year-old Magma, he used to serve the Dragon Air Force's 'Draken' multi-role combat squadron, but after an incident which he wasn't comfortable enough to talk about it, he quitted. But after he heard that a replacement is needed at the RCAF, Magma couldn't stop the feeling of taking off again; so he volunteered. As the result Magma is now officially a new member of the RCAF fighter squadron 'Mage', callsign will be naming after Quick Slash.

The Equestrians had also heard of the test flights of the newest RCAF aircrafts, and deeply intrigued by it. Princess Twilight Sparkle then went on a meeting with Queen Chrysalis, planning on sending a squadron of Equestrian Volunteer Air Combat Squadron as reinforcement for the War against Steel Jaw and his minions. Yes, a few days ago, after the raid on Steel Jaw's HQ, the Changelings declared war upon Steel Jaw, which Steel Jaw himself also revealed and send them a video. Finally, everything became clear; Steel Jaw's forces are called Purifiers instead of Unchanged, and that he also threatened the RCAF about their newest combat aircraft. But that was weeks ago, and the military haven't heard or seen him since then.

Anyway, put that aside, Lance and Magma set off to the RCAF Aircraft Testing Airfield. In teh transport truck, both pilot chatted about their past, Magma was greatly intersected about the RAF, he was amazed when Lance mentioned him about the fifth generation stealth fighters, he heard rumors about the Equestrians planning to build their own stealth fighter as well.

"So the Dragons uses Second Generation fighters? Why not try to purchase some advanced fourth generation fighters from the Equestrians?" Lance suggested, "You do realize that Equestrian's already started manufacturing their F-22 Stealth Fighters, plus they're already in service."

"Wait what?! Already?!" Magma's eyes widened, "Aw shit."

"What's the closest country to the Dragon Land?" Lance asked.

"Well there's three actually," Magma say das he counted his claws, "The Changelings, but you guys are busy enough already; Badlands, they're struggling to keep up, nope; then that left us with the Kirin."

"Correct, remember a few days ago, when the Kirins did their Victory Parade at their capital city? I got some footage of that, check this out." Lance said as he took out his phone and played the video recordings of the air show by the Kirins.

"You see those jets over there? Twin-engine, heavy fighter, fourth generation? That's the Kirin's newest fighter; J-11B Flanker-X. They got teh ideas from Steel Jaw's Su-27. I already made contact with their leader, they'll sent in a J-11B to be tested. If everything goes well, then congratulations, you got your country a new plane."

Lance could swear he saw stars shimmering in Magma's eyes--- Hold it, doesn't everyone does that in this world? Magic? Lance shrugged as the truck came to a stop. Outside is a large airbase, surrounded by a valley, and if you go more further out, then it'd be the Badlands. Well protected by the natural landscape, plus hardly anypony else except for Lance, Magma, and Chrysalis knows this location. Black Tempest is in the largest hanger to teh right, along side with the J-11B.

Lance gazed upon the first Mirage 2000 of the RCAF, it was painted dark gray, the nickname 'Black Tempest' painted next to its nose, it wasn't armed, but the Black Tempest is capable of carrying large amount of air to air, air to ground, anti-ships, and other weapons. Right next to the Black Tempest is a large fighter jet that looked very alike to Steel Jaw's Su-27; but it wasn't, that's the Kirin's J-11B Flanker-X.

"Larger than I thought, I take that we can ship it back to dragon land?" Magma asked, "Lord Ember would love to meet our new member of our Air Force."

"Indeed, this Flanker-X will be taken apart, placed in a C-5 Galaxy, and sent it home." Lance said as he shook hands/claws with the dragon pilot, "And also, welcome to the team."

This Mirage 2000, or to be specific, type D, is twin seated, although the single seated were the first to be produced. Magma and Lance, with full gears on, climbed into the cockpits as Lance closed the canopy. The ground staffs checked the engine and the fuel tanks, they gave Lance a thumbs up, that's he's signal. The human pilot slowly slid 'Black Tempest' along the runway, towards the airfield. Once he reached teh stopping point, Lance checked the air brakes, flaps, wings, and the system.

"Mage 1 to *Nest*, Black Tempest is fired up and ready to fly, waiting for permission." Lance said, using his squadron callsign.

"Nest to Mage 1, runway is clear, permission granted, you can now light the engine." Came the flight tower's response.

Lance clicked the switch, then the engine, as he slowly pushed the air speed valve to 20 percent, the fighter jet started to slowly slide forward, as Lance pushed the valve further. Air around the engine cooked as heated gases were shot out, it slowly got louder and brighter as the after-burner is activated. Now the Mirage 2000 is dashing madly off the runway, its nose pointed upward. Once the air speed went passed 200, Lance pulled the operating lever back, as Black Tempest's landing gears suddenly took off the ground.

His heart is racing, the first Mirage 2000 of the RCAF is now airborne, it'll be forever recorded in the history of Changeling Military, little does he know, that many years later, Black Tempest would be a legendary item to the Museum of History and Military of Equestria.

Those are for the future.

Right now, Black Tempest is currently flying 3,000 feet above the ground, the first stage, which is the take off, is completed. Now for the second stage; maneuverability.

"Mage 1 to Nest, maneuverability test begins now." Lance called the flight tower making sure that they're recording using the advanced camera that has been placed to an age where Black Tempest would be visible.

Lance then began the maneuverability test; rolls, break, barrel roll, High-sides guns pass, Immelmann turn, Wingover, high yo-yo, Lag displacement roll, high-G barrel roll, and other badass maneuvers that could be used in air shows or in combat.

All this time, Magma was quiet, the entire time. That's what a experienced pilot would do, enjoying the maneuvers, plus this Mirage 2000 ride is getting into him. Finally, Black Tempest, the first Mirage 2000 but by the RCAf, has passed all its tests, and now ready to enter service. This is needed fast, because the Intelligence agency just caught movements from Purifiers again, according to military satellites (yes they do have the technologies to reach space). However, there's still no sign of their newest aircraft X-02S, but their entire Air Force is scrambling, most likely for gaining air superiority, most of their jets were fighters, two AWACS, and a group of fighter-bombers.

Purifier Air Force base

"Operation Overlord is clear, due to the combat we had with the RCAF last time, we've acknowledged that a human is fighting alongside with them, new aircrafts are mostly likely to be introduced. Teh fighter-bombers would be heading to their factories, with escorts, while the fighter squadrons, under the lead of Scream and Rage, would be intercepting their main fighter forces." Steel Jaw said with a map opened in front of the briefing table. By his sides were two Purifier twins; no-one remember their real name, they just called them Rage and Scream. Rage is the older brother, experienced and cold-blooded, Scream, the younger brother, is bad-tempered, aggressive, and extremely violence. They swore their extreme loyalty to Steel Jaws, due to the fact that he saved the twins during the civil war years ago.

"Boys, especially to you, Scream, look out for this one particular fighter jet, with three strikes. This one is what shot down most of our jets form the last encounter, and the one who nearly shot me down as well. Find Three Strikes, and eliminate him. Scream, Three Striek is good, use your brain out there." Steel Jaw said as he placed a photo of a F-35 with Three Strikes on its left tail he took during his last combat.

"Ugh! Just get on with the fight already, my blood is boilin!" Scream grunted as he took the photo from Steel Jaw's hooves and went straight towards his Su-47. Rage sighed, doing the same thing.

Steel Jaw then placed his helmet on, climbed into his Su-30SM with red wing-tips, number '13' is bright enough to be noticed. "You intrigued me, Lance Wilson, and I'll end you with my own hooves if I need to."

Steel Jaw entered his fighter jet, as Red 13 took off...

(Yup, Red 13 is officially Steel Jaw's callsign!)

Author's Note

(The Chinese PLAAF (People's Liberation Army Air Force) J-11b Flanker-X; Or in this story, it's the Kirin Air Force's)

*Examples of Second Generation Fighters are listed; Mig-23, J-8II, Mig-21, F-4 Phantom, etc. As you can see, those are really old fighter jets which were pretty much all retired by now, although some small countries are still using them.*

*Nest usually means control or flight tower.*

Chapter 8: Assault Horizon

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

"The Mirage" Soundtracks

Author's Note

WARNING: INCLUDES A BIT OF SPOILERS!!!

"The Mirage" Soundtracks

Just some awesome musics I think it might be fitting this story, comment which one is your favorite!

(Ending Theme: Into the Fire)

(Opening Theme: Things We Lost In the Fire)

(Operation Bullseyes: Coming soon...)

(Mirages Takes the Sky: Coming Soon...)

(First Dogfight: Coming Soon...)

(Lance And Chrysalis: Chapter 2)

(Final Battle: Steel Jaw VS Lance Wilson: Coming Soon...)

(Mirage 2000 and Rafale: First Flight: Coming Soon...)

(Bonus Theme: Danger Zone)