Chapters "Alright team, you know the drill. We wipe the skies clean until it's all blue, got that?"
Spitfire ordered, leading the Spectrum Task Force through the Equestrian skies, the drones of six blue and yellow decorated F/A-18 Super Hornets streaking through the air. Each of their planes were customized with insignia's of their cutie-marks on their horizontal stabilizers, as well as the cutie marks of the two princesses on each wing: Celestia on the right, Luna on the left.
They piloted their aircraft in a belly-down position on the seat, their wings controlling their flight as they were inside special slots that sensed muscle tensions. The movements would corresponded to the maneuvers of the aircraft that would result in them, just like if the pegasus was flying naturally. Their hooves grasped onto handles with buttons that controlled their toys of destruction.
They wore special Wonderbolt G-suits that mirrored the normal uniforms.They also didn't wear helmets, only goggles that had an integrated heads-up display. It was the best innovation to the pilot second only to the wing-controlled flight system, as they were much more comfortable, and allowed their awesome manes to be shown off to their opponents in battle--at least it was in Rainbow Dashes' opinion.
"Got it boss. This'll be nice and easy."
"No way, Soarin'--we're doing this mean and dirty. No one messes with us!" Fleetfoot taunted through the comm.
"C'mon, let's get into the furball already. These wings are just itching to show them what we got!"
"I'm with ya, Dash. Let's crash this party!" Lightning Dust said, her voice as well as her partner's filled with eagerness.
Their headsets crackled as they received their orders.
"This is Tower to Spectrum, we have hostiles within defensive perimeter. Intercept and engage."
"Roger that. Spectrum Team engaging." Spitfire complied.
"Let's do this!"
"Right behind ya!"
Their jets roared in a battle-cry as they accelerated to full afterburners, their incendiary tails shooting outwards. They banked towards the ridged mountains of Canterlot, where dozens of aircraft were already in the fight waiting for them.
"Bandits head-on."
Their missiles locked on, and they fired upon the unsuspecting enemies, blowing them out of the sky as they made a spectacular entrance through the roaring infernos of their prey, gaining much attention. They broke off into their separate directions in three pairs, Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash paired together.
"Just like a walk in the park!" Soarin teased.
"Man, these guys are gonna get it for ruining a good day!" Rainbow Dash growled, her eyes narrowing onto her next target.
"C'mon, we got some work to do." Spitfire said, as the team swiftly took out the bandits one by one with no problem at all whatsoever.
Soon, instead of a battle, it was the enemy scrambling through the air as they attempted to survive and avoid being forced to bail out as their planes were shreaded into pieces.
Rainbow Dashed fired a missile to pick off one of the last bandits, and cheered as the missile entered straight through the exhaust of the enemies' aircraft and detonated in a very satisfying display of fire and metal wreckage. A glint of light just beyond the downed aircraft caught her attention, and squinted to focus in on it. As it became closer, she made out the body of another aircraft, though she couldn't quite make out the pilot through the black glass, but managed to make out a speck of yellow. She finally noticed a puff of smoke under it's wing--a missile.
No countermeasures, missile already fired, not enough time to bail. Oh no no no no, no way this can be happening. Rainbow dash thought, as realization hit:
I'm going to die.
"DASH, LOOK OUT!!!" Her wingmare screamed, her warning too late. Rainbow Dash could only stare in shock attempt to pull away, but to no avail as the missile streaked towards her as time seemed to slow down. The echoes of the battle around her, the brilliant fireball still in front of her, and the extreme details of the missile in front of her. She saw the individual flaps bending as it tried to adjust to it's mark, the individual flares of light that propelled it towards her, and the brilliant flash of light followed by a rush of warm air that consumed her before she closed her eyes...
...the alarms of her cockpit still echoed through her ears...
Rainbow Dash awoke with a jolt, shooting straight up into the air and hovered to take in her surroundings. She felt her heart beating intensely as she took panicked, rapid breaths. Sweat trickled down her body, and her limbs still shook from the adrenaline and rushing blood. An alarm clock was blaring on the nightstand adjacent to her pillow, a digital red 6:30 am flashing on the screen.
She was alone in a small, plain room, one of many that made up the domestic Equestrian military barracks. This room was located in the officer's wing, which had more luxury and comfort than others. Despite months of experience sleeping in much worse conditions, she still longed for her plushy cloud-bed, but it would have to do. The walls were a dull, light-blue with a poster of the Wonderbolts in front of her. A fan with lights on it dangled above her head, the blades rotating gracefully to produce a calm breeze. There were no windows, for the base is located inside of Canterlot's mountains.
"Just a nightmare...it's ok Rainbow--your fine." She had a series of similar nightmares over the past two nights, and this one was the third of the series.
She slammed her hoof on the clock to cease the deafening alarm, and groaned as she rubbed her face to erase her morning cobwebs. She groggily trotted on the dark, blue carpet towards the bathroom and took a shower wash off her sweat and refresh herself for the day ahead. After drying herself off, she left her room to proceed to the mess hall.
"*Yawn* ...Oh hey, RD."
Rainbow Dash looked to her right, and saw Lightning Dust emerging out of her own room, a towel draped over her neck, as well as a pair of earbuds stuffed in her ears, the wires trailing towards a small iPod strapped on her foreleg.
"Morning, Dust." Rainbow Dash weakly replied.
"Heh, looks like you had one heck of a night. What's up?"
"Eh, just a dream." She sighed.
"Well, it's over, your here. How was it?" Lightning Dust asked.
"Nothing much, it's fine." Rainbow lied. She hasn't mentioned anything of a dream to anyone until now.
"Then you'll get over it. C'mon, we'll get you some grub and relax with the team." She motioned with her head.
"Yeah, sounds like a plan."
They proceeded down the zigzagging corridors until the finally reached a large room filled with dozens of ponies with trays of food. They made their way to the line, and filled their trays with food from the buffet-style cafeteria. Scanning the room, they identified their team members just sitting down on a table, and went to go sit with their buddies.
"Lookie here, the newbies finally decided to show up!" Spitfire greeted with a grin.
"Yeah, morning to you too, Captain fire-butt." Lightning Dust replied, as Rainbow Dash cracked up.
Soarin ignored to conversation and dived into one of several small pies that he hogged from the stack, which wasn't very much in the first place, earning teasing nods of disapproval, all of which he was completely oblivious to.
"Any news yet?"
"No, the forces are still idle. We're still on stand-by for anything."
"Still? Ugh, the suspense is making me nuts. Just do something or get outta Equestria!" Rainbow protested.
A few days ago, small unknown groups of fighter jets were seen creeping around the Everfree border. Although no threats have been made, any attempt to contact them would result in their elusive retreat. Ever since then, the Equestrian standing military were put on stand-by, the Spectrum Task Force being one of them.
After that subject, the team began to talk about other random things, including the question of how many freaking pies does Soarin eat daily. They reached a verdict of 'too many pies a pony should eat in their entire lives'.
"Teams are in position. Do it."
It was another boring day for Twilight Sparkle. Besides the 'patrols' on the opposite side of the mountains her brother told her about, there really was nothing going on, as well as nothing to do. She's read every book in the entire library at least three times from cover to cover, all her friends were busy with something else, and there were no ponies who came by to check out a new book.
"Ugh, I really need to order new books from Canterlot...again."
She decided to kill some more time by rereading Daring Do and the Gryphon's Goblet again for the fourth time, until she was startled by a ferocious knocking on the door as somepony cried her name. Quickly, she ran downstairs and opened the door to find Lyra in a state of panic, carrying a small, leather bag with conspicuous drops of blood.
"OHMYGOSH TWILIGHT, YOU GOTTA HELP ME!!! SOMETHING HORRIBLE HAS HAPPENED AND I--" Twilight interrupted her with her hoof.
"Lyra, calm down! Take deep breaths and SLOWLY tell me what happened."
"We were walking near the forest when suddenly something jumped out at us and took Bon Bon! So I ran here as fast as I could for your help!"
"What thing? Can you identify the--"
"TWILIGHT, WE HAVE TO GO NOW, THERE'S STILL A CHANCE THAT WE CAN CATCH HER, C'MON!" Lyra begged, and began to sprint away towards the forest. Not knowing what else to do, she ran after her to catch up.
After about two minutes of running, they went into the Everfree Forest and continued until they reached a clearing in the woods, the sun beaming down upon them as they stopped in the middle of it.
"Lyra, what happened? Were you guys attacked here?" Twilight asked as she scanned the area for any sign of a predator or Bon Bon. When she turned back to her friend, she saw Lyra holding a hoof out, her face carrying a serious expression, unlike a few minutes before. A strange device was strapped on the limb, and before she could react, she suddenly felt sharp, stinging sensations on her neck and chest, which suddenly became hot as her entire body was completely electrified with pain. She was unable to scream, as her entire body tensed up and suffered, nor could she concentrate to use her magic. She wanted nothing more but to tear away whatever was responsible for her torture. She heard the unmistakable crackling of electricity as she was zapped, which ended several seconds later as she collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.
She holstered her overclocked tazer, and took out a syringe, injecting Twilight with a nullifying solution that would keep Twilight in the state she was currently in for several long hours, as well as prevent her use of magic for an even longer period of time. Once the syringe was empty of every last drop, she activated a beacon and radioed in.
"Package secure, extraction team proceed to target point alpha and get me outta here before they come!"
"Hey, has anypony seen Twilight?" Spike asked, patrolling the town in search for the lavender librarian.
"Oh hey Spike, what's up?" Spike turned around, and saw Bon Bon, as well as her roommate Lyra trotting together.
"Have any of you seen Twilight? I just heard some commotion outside while I was in the kitchen, but when I went to see what was going on, Twilight was gone."
"Oh that's strange. Do you know where she went?" Lyra asked, followed by a facehoof from Bon Bon.
"If he knew where she was, would he be out here looking for her?" She said annoyingly.
"Lyra? What the heck are you doing here? And how'd you get here so fast?" The group turned their heads towards the new voice, and saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders running towards them.
"Uuuuh, what do you mean?" She asked confusingly.
"We saw you running into the forest with Twilight! Something about Bon Bon getting attacked by a nasty monster or something like that!" Applebloom said.
"I was never attacked! Where in Equestria did you hear that from?" Now it was Bon Bon's turn to be confused.
"Yeah, I was with Bon Bon the entire day! I was never with Twilight!"
"Wait, you guys saw Twilight?" Spike said.
"EXCUSE ME." Two Royal Guards in full sets of golden armor trotted towards them.
"We've spotted a changling entering the town, and we overhead your conversation about duplicate sightings of the same pony."
"Changling? Wait, then that means..." Lyra began.
"Twilight's been KIDNAPPED?!" Spike yelled, biting his claws in worry.
"Where was Twilight last seen?!" The guard commanded. Sweetie Bell responded.
"We saw Twilight with Lyra running into the entrance of the Everfree Forest! Or at least the changling Lyra..."
"C'mon, we need to tell the others!" One of the Guards said, and ran off to deliver the news. The other one turned back to the group.
"We thank you for your assistance, but you need to stay put and--" They heard the crackle of a radio come from his helmet, followed by words they could not make out. The guard tilted his head to listen, and his face suddenly turned from serious to shock and horror. The radio went silent, and the guard stood on shaking hooves, his eyes wide.
"Canterlot..is under attack by enemy fighters." He said gravely. As if to emphasize his point, deep rumbles followed by a series of echoing booms resonated from the distant mountains.
"Canterlot is under aerial attack! Scramble all fighters! Move defensive assets into position and defend the runway! "
Alarms rang as all the personnel raced throughout the base, doing whatever they needed to do during an attack. Among them were the Wonderbolt squadron as they geared themselves up for flight, and made their way outside onto the terminal. Rainbow Dash looked up and saw a display of chaos in the blue sky. Planes and missiles flew everywhere, with frequent explosions shaking the ground. The roar of many engines filled the air.
The team ran towards their F/A-18 Super Hornets which were waiting for them on the tarmac, the drone of their idle engines ready to fire up. They climbed up their ladders and fitted themselves inside of their seats as their cockpits began to seal. Rainbow Dash mentally checked herself out as she did hundreds of times before during her exercises--except this time, it was much, much more real.
"Everyone saddled up? Give me a count." Spitfire said through the headset.
"Spectrum 2, all saddled up!" said Soarin'
"Spectrum 3, ready for takeoff," Rainbow Dash complied.
"Spectrum 4, ready to kick some flank!" Lighting Dust said.
"Alright, were all set. The rest of the team will join up ASAP." Spitfire said.
"Tower to Spectrum, your cleared. Can you takeoff? The attacks are-- "
He was cutoff as jets screamed right over their heads, followed by missiles impacting the ground nearby. The fire of anti-air cannons deafened their ears, as well as bolts of magical lightning attempting to strike the enemy aircraft. They saw some of the aircraft spiral downwards in an inferno, leaving a black trail of smoke until it smashed into the ground and burst into a giant fireball.
"Holy SHIT!" screamed Lightning Dust.
"SPECTRUM, YOU NEED TO TAKEOFF BEFORE WE LOOSE THE RUNWAY! GO, NOW!!! " The Tower never seemed to have ever been this stressed before, if not over the radio.
Spitfire and Soarin' led first in front of Rainbow Dash and Lighting Dust as they made their way onto the main runway, already surrounded by several craters. An unrecognizable wreckage of an enemy plane rested in a fire next to the runway, attempting to be doused by a crew of fireponies.
"Alright, let's go, team. Just like we always do!"
Their engines eagerly screamed, creating a tail of fire as their Hornets accelerated down the runway. The began to tilt upwards, and soon left the ground, immediately retracting their gears.
"We already got bogies on our tail, break off!"
Sure enough, lock-on warnings flashed in their cockpits, and the two pairs broke into each other. They all looked to see a pair of bandits spitting off to individually take on a pair.
Rainbow Dash was his main target, and she maneuvered accordingly by pulling right as Lightning Dust pulled left. They then began to turn back into each other, except Rainbow Dash accelerated even faster as Lightning Dust opened her flaps to decelerate.
The bandit, still trailing Dash, flew into Lightning's line of fire, which she took full advantage of by opening up with a deadly burst of 20mm cannon fire at 100 rounds per second. The shells greedily tore the enemy apart, disintegrating into scrap metal, the body plummeting towards the ground.
"Nice! That weave was textbook!" cheered Rainbow Dash.
"That was sweet! But were not done yet!" Lightning Dust said. They paired back up, and moved on to take down another bandit.
(Back in Ponyville)
Spike attempted to keep up with the guards on foot as they galloped towards the edge of the Everfree Forest as a search and rescue team for Twilight. They were about 10 strong, and wore a tactical outfit with camouflage and kevlar, as well as their equipment which consisted of rilfes, magazines, and gadgets with various tasks, rather than the standard gold-armor uniform. A few of them carried Shocklances, which were special weapons that fired a bolt of lightning, effective up to a few dozen meters. They were very good against magic defenses and magic-wielding enemies.
The group finally slowed to a halt, and Spike put his palms on his knees, leaning over as he took large gulps of air, panting heavily.
"This is where Twilight was believed to have been last seen?" The leading guard asked.
"Uuuh--yeah...*pant* ...this is about...where we last...*pant*. ..saw her."
"Alright. Go back to Ponyville and stay safe, and try to keep a watch for any more trouble. We don't want anyone else being lost today. There's more than enough trouble going on than we can stop. We're Oscar Mike team, move it!"
He shouted further commands as the team moved into the treeline in search of of the enemy, leaving spike to himself.
They spread out into a line of 5 meters between each pony, advancing at a quick pace while staying as stealthy as possible. Once they saw a small clearing ahead, they began to stalk quietly, alert to their surroundings.
"Hey, my signals are getting all fuzzy. The sensors are going nuts. Something's jamming the area."
They halted, and also noticed that their radios were starting to produce static.
"This is--HQ--can you--*bzzzt*--radar's going--jamming--*bzzzt*... "
"HQ, can you repeat? Please copy. HQ?" The leader said. Only the buzzing sound of static answered back.
"All units, silence radios, go black."
Everyone turned off their electronics, and remained as still and silent as possible. No one moved, blinked, and barely even breathed. Only their squinted eyes scanned the perimeter.
They heard a faint noise of something across the clearing, like a snorting beast. Though, it did not sound threatening at all, rather it sounded more...cute? Despite this, they slowly raised their weapons without a single noise, and aimed at whatever the source was. After further analysis, it sounded like SNORING . In the far distance, a quiet drone was also heard. A bush shook and rustled before becoming once again dormant. The snoring seemed muffled, but was still pretty loud.
The leader nodded, and the group advanced towards the bush, closing in on whatever hid inside. The distant drone seemed closer now. They reached the edge of the clearing, but before they stepped into the sunlight, the drone started to progressively become much, much louder before it soon overpowered the snoring.
"What the hell is that?" One of them whispered.
They listened carefully once again, and heard the sound of a few jet engines approaching.
"Are there any friendly aircraft within the A.O?"
"There aren't supposed to be."
The sound began to grow deafening, and as they looked up, they expected aircraft to rush overhead. But instead, the sound seemed to remain constant, approaching slower than before. They estimated it's position.
200 meters. The sound began to rumble deeply. A few seconds passed.
100 meters. The whines of the turbines were heard, and began to turn into a high-pitched whirring screech that accompanied the roars.
50 meters. They all looked up, and began to see the nose of a jet inch it's way over the treeline. If it was a jet, why was it so slow? Soon, a second nose appeared, and the first jet's intakes were seen, soon followed by the wings. They saw enough to make out what they were: A pair of AV-8 Harrier II's currently hovering in VTOL mode. One of them carried some equipment under it's wings that did not look like any type of weapon they knew. They were probably the EM Jammers that screwed up their equipment and the radars. The second one was much more menacing. Several large missiles, as well as two gun-pods were carried on it's wings--and they were pointed straight at them.
"Holy...Shit." He said, looking at the aircraft dumbfounded.
"GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE!!! "
None of them needed to be told a second time as they turned around to flee, just as the most deafening and fearful sound they ever heard blasted the air. The armed Harrier began to fire it's enormous guns across the border of the clearing, billowing fire and dirt right behind their hooves. Tree after tree toppled down as their trunks were decimated into splinters without mercy, catching on fire from the incendiary bullets. After a few seconds and several-hundred bullets later, he eased the trigger, and the screaming banshees stopped.
The Harriers proceeded to lower to the ground, and their wheels touched the dirt. The Changling Agent, carrying a snoring, knocked-out Twilight Sparkle who was completely oblivious to everything that just happened, advanced towards the aircraft, and lifted Twilight into the empty backseat of the cockpit, grunting with effort.
Ugh, damn! Why do nerds have to be so heavy? .
Once she was in, he made buckled Twilight in, and made his way towards the other Harrier. The cockpits of each Harrier began to seal as he strapped himself in. The engines began to pick up as the Harriers rose above the trees, and accelerated back to where they came, their package secure.