“Now I see them!” Called Frosty.

All five Wonderbolts were primarily sky blue but varied from silver, red, blue, gold and even rainbow in mane color. They were arranged in a five-diamond formation, featuring a lead, a left and right wing, a tail, and a slot.

“Wonderbolts, base to final turn 1-2. Ready? Hit it!” The flight lead said through the radio.

Frosty and Echo looked up as the formation, which had been flying level, suddenly took a nosedive and revealed the pegasi making it up. The lead had a gold coat, the tail blue, the left wing was rainbow, the right wing red, and the slot blue and white.

The aerial team’s descent became audible as a tremendous roaring sound built up with the pegasi accumulating several hundred miles per hour in speed. By this point Verko had become aware of the sound above him and looked up.

“SHIT!” He screamed in an attempt to flee.

“Wonderbolts, drop 1-2. Ready? Hit it!” Shouted the lead with tremendous wind shrieking.

Several black objects detached from the pegasi in flight, headed right for Verko’s wagon.

“Wonderbolts, pull up! 1-2. Ready. Hit it!”

The team made a low pass to the west of the convoy and just a handful of yards above Verko’s wagon, passing with a thunderous *WHOOSH.*

The cylindrical, black objects next crashed into Verko’s wagon and began spewing a cloud of green smoke that caused the remaining creatures there to cough out of control.

“Teargas.” Explained Frosty.

“Airboss, Spitfire. Target is bullseye’d!” The lead’s voice reported.

“Copy Spitfire, great work as always! This never gets old!” The other voice replied.

“Age is just a number!” Replied Spitfire. “Wonderbolts, level off, wing power 50%. 1-2, Ready. Hit it!”

Polaris accompanied Frosty back to the other side of the convoy where several creatures victim to the Night-Mares lay. At the same time Echo appeared with a gasmask and removed the cannons from the area while collecting the creatures. They reassembled in the center of their convoy.

“Fish is dead. As are raccoon and ferret.” Frosty said as their remains were stacked.

“The others are alive but will need a ride.” Polaris observed.

“All the cuties over there can hip-hop! Nobody over there died.” Echo remarked.

“That makes three dead, four critically injured and seven alive who can walk.” Frosty counted and turned to PW. “Well PW, now you got to see what a Night-Mare in action is capable of. All that without using her D16.”

“Yes, you are so very powerful and thank you for putting up with me!” Cried PW, rearing to throw his forelegs and wings around her flanks (as much as a pony his size could).

“You’re… welcome.” She said, suddenly surprised with unexpected affection.

“Awww – O’bachan! Windy-chan!” Giggled Echo.

“Frosty, Spitfire! Are we clear to land?” The radio cracked.

“Affirm.” She muttered.

Echo had since returned to Verko’s destroyed wagon and rummaged about the wreckage. “Uh-oh!”

“Uh-oh what?” Frosty stood and approached with caution.

“Bad, bad, Verko-san!” Echo shook her head.

“Hey get out of there! There’s nothing for you there!” He shouted and squirmed on the sand.

He had regained enough strength to stand up and he approached Frosty.

“You know what your problem is? You’re really big. Which means you… MOVE SLOW!” Shouted Verko, pulling a dagger out of his cloak.

“WRONG.” She grunted and sent a blow to his chin that knocked him upside down.

“He won’t make that mistake again! Add one to the unable-to-walk-list!” PW shouted.

He and Frosty looked back to Echo who was holding a bag of white powder in her hoof.

“Ah narcotics.” Realized PW.

“That’s crack.” Frosty said flatly.

“And look! Mehanine-methan-theta-thines-OH! Methamphetamines!” Echo rolled her eyes and held up another bag.

“Who were you going to sell those to?” Frosty asked.

The injured mole only groaned in reply.

“Yeah, he’s too far gone now.” Laughed PW.

“Frisk everycreature!” Shouted Frosty.

The four armed ponies collected any remaining armaments. A whisper in the wind was heard as everypony looked up. The Wonderbolts made their glide into a soft touchdown. PW would have loved to capture a photo of Captain Spitfire’s face as she eyed Frosty.

“Erm, … ma’am?” Spitfire said.

“Captain.” Frosty gave her a curt nod.

“R-right. So, I wanted to follow up with you; the results of your mission. Is it complete?” Asked Spitfire.

PW was amazed to find that Spitfire, the renowned Wonderbolt captain, was shorter than he was! So, in fact, were the two other mares flanking her. One stallion was the same height and only the other stallion was taller. This particular team’s age was starting to show in the form of gray highlights.

“At this point, yes.” Frosty explained. “Our counts are three dead, five badly injured and six captured with minor injuries. No kills or significant injuries from your operations, Captain?”

PW’s eyes widened upon recognizing the red wonderbolt. “You’re Starfighter! The first pegasus to break 100,000 feet under wingpower alone!”

Starfighter turned with a grin. “That’s right!”

“Pft, big deal.” The proud, rainbow-maned mare scoffed. “What good is a record that nopony can see? My Sonic Rainboom is the real record of this squadron!”

Wonderbolt fan-colt mode was kicking in for PW now. “And you’re Rainbow Dash, the fastest flier there is!”

“Heh, yeah! That’s me!” Rainbow said with her muzzle to the sky.

“Knock it off, Dash! You’ve been using that phrase for years!” Barked Starfighter.

“Because YOU always seem to get recognized first!”

“That’s not my problem, Rainbow!” Responded Starfighter.

“Hey, can… I get your autographs?” PW interrupted, bringing forth the back side of the image with the trains.

Soarin walked up and leaned in, already with a marker in his mouth.

PW saw he had a moment to chat. “So, Starfighter, I’ve always wanted to fly super high myself. What’s the secret?”

He cleared his throat and began. “Okay. Forget trying to climb as high as you can. Instead, fly where you go the fastest. That’s usually about two-thirds of your maximum altitude. Then, go as fast as you possibly can and pull up into a sixty degree climb. That’s the zoom climb. Around 70,000 feet, if you can get there, you’ll find that you’re not able to breathe anymore, and you can’t get any more air under your wings.”

PW listened with bated breath as the other Wonderbolts signed the photo. Starfighter continued. “At this point, breathe out, stop flapping, tuck your wings in close like a delta, and ride it out like the top of a rollercoaster, opening your wings again as you slow down. Oxygen management is critical. If you feel light, you’re doing it right. Then you MUST reconnect the air stream to your wings when you come back in before pulling out- or you could enter a fatal spin.”

He took the marker, provided his signature and passed it back to PW. “Good luck!”

Polaris looked to Fleetfoot, who was whispering up to Frosty and pointing at the other Wonderbolts.

Frosty’s eyes flew open in shock and she gawked, walking away.

“Creep!” She shouted.

“Fleety? What did you ask her?” Asked Soarin in a tone that indicated he already knew it was going to be bad.

“I just asked her to push her butt into one of your faces and squeeze it in place for a picture!” Fleetfoot laughed.

All the other pegasi, including PW, grimaced at that.

Echo approached, forehooves wide.

“Wonderbolts! So cute, the tiny pegas!” She squealed and lunged for a hug.

“BAIL! BAIL!” Shouted Fleetfoot, already in her takeoff roll.

“Enjoy your time with her, PW! Fly for your lives!” Cried Starfighter, beginning his roll.

“Go-go-go!” Added Rainbow Dash in quick succession.

“Wonderbolts GTFO! One – fuck – just do it now!” Spitfire spat and entered a maximum performance takeoff.

The team were airborne in a broken formation, soon increasing their angle to straight vertical.

“Aww! Echo-chan wanted a Wonderbolt to huggie–wuggie…” Complained Echo.

“Echo?” Called Frosty.

“Mmm?”

“What about PW?” Frosty asked.

His ears went flat against his skull.

“For fuck’s sake, Frosty!” Cried PW, trying to take off.

“Windy-chan!” Cried Echo, grabbing his tail.

The pegasus screamed as he was brought into the same embrace that had broken a creature beyond being able to walk.

“Echo loves Windy-chan so much!” She nuzzled him deeply.

“Can’t… breathe…” PW huffed.

The group moved into the task of cleaning up the site and preparing to depart.

“We need to dig three graves now I bet.” Whispered Polaris.

“The shifting sands of the desert will take care of it. We just need to haul them up to the northwest corner of the dune and they’ll be buried within a few days.” Frosty replied, pointing to the location.

She hauled the creatures into position on the slope and Echo took a picture to document the deceased.

“Arimaspi control, Frosty. The mission is complete and we’re returning to you with eleven in tow.”

“Roger that Frosty. Good job.” Replied the controller.

“Hey Frosty, I’m going to tag up with Captain Celaeno.” Radioed PW, already climbing towards the ship.

“Copy. You can let her know the mission is done as well.” Replied Frosty.

The pegasus glided down onto the deck of the stationary airboat.

“Welcome back, Windy!” Called Celaeno.

“Exciting, eh?” Claimed PW.

“Absolutely, Windy. My congratulations to you and I’m glad you defeated him. That was awesome to watch! Is anypony in your troop injured?”

“Nope. The only ones injured were from Verko’s band.”

“Excellent. In that case I will bid you farewell. And come say ‘hi’ next time you are in the area. You’ve got friends up here, PW.” The captain said with a wink.

“Thanks captain. Until we meet again!” PW said in farewell, shaking wings before jumping off the plank for the final time.

PW descended back northward to the desert to find that the six healthy captured were now being made to haul the wagon carrying the six injured, a bit of karma in action.

“Good job today, PW.” Complimented Frosty as she walked beside him.

“Thanks. We did not avoid deaths, though. We have three.”

“I think with eleven captured, none escaped, and Verko alive it’s going to be okay.” She shrugged. “And, you took no lives – it was all myself and Echo. So, you are clear. You also helped out a lot by relaying information to and from Captain Celaeno, which saved us valuable time.”

“Aww, thanks!” Answered PW.

She gave a smug grin and whipped her tail against PW’s back in affection.

“Ow, hahaha!” He laughed.

Author's Note

Yeah, Wonderbolts so had to stick Starfighter in the story briefly. Zoom climb instructions are based on a procedure I developed in Flight Sim to (successfully) get an F-104 above 100,000 feet in the sim. For Equestria, I set the atmospheric scale height to 2x Earth's, so 100,000 is really equivalent to 50,000 feet on Earth, not above the Armstrong Limit of warm blooded life.