Aponycalipse: Wings of Freedom

The next day, the camp continued its routine as crew checked on the aircraft. John wakes up and notices he was covered in a warm blanket as he slips out of it and started to stretch his wing expanded in all its glory. He looks at the blanket and smiles as he realizes it was Lyra. He then heads to the mess hall his mane a bit shaggy. Then Justin trots up to him.

“Hey man,” Justin said.

“Hey Justin!” John said, waving.

“Had a good night sleep?” Justin asked.

“The best I had in a long time,” John replied, “How about you?”

“Just fine, I was looking at the blueprint Isaac mentioned last night.” Justin said. “You want to see it?”

“Sure, but first I need some coffee.” John said as they head to the mess hall which was a tent. John enters along with Justin causing some heads to turn seeing pony deep within their base. Soldiers were whispering and some kept their distance fearing that they will change if they get to close.

“This is weird” Justin said nervously looking at the soldiers.

“I know... looks like there sitting some animosity here.” John said as he walks on while Justin follows beside him. Then a soldier walks up to them and blocks their path.

“What are ponies like you doing here?” The soldier said in a harsh tone.

“Uh were getting a cup of coffee?” John said, questioning the soldier.

“Coffee? Ha! Ponies don’t eat human food.” The soldier insulted as he went on. “Go eat hay or something!”

“Look we don’t want trouble.” John said, standing tall.

“We just want to get something to eat,” Justin added. One of the soldiers sneaks up behind him and snatches his U.S. Marine hat off his head. He rubs his head and notices it as he turns to the soldier and yells, “Hey! Give that back!!!”

“And what are you going to do about it?” the soldier laughed as he waved the hat in front of Justin’s face. Justin gritted his teeth. He just wanted to get is hat back from this soldier, but he didn’t have to wait long. Just as the soldier was about to wave the hat again, he sees that the hat was gone from his hand and turns around. He saw that it was Isaac and the soldier gets punched in the face by him. “Grrr…What was that for Isaac?!”

“They are our friends and shall be treated with respect.” Isaac said, with his arms crossed. Some of the soldiers help the guy up.

“Why should we? They are the reason this war is going on.”

Isaac yells in Russian as he snapped at the soldier. “The reason they are fighting against us is that we are still fighting them! We have to stop this madness! Just look at these two. They have been with us for a few days now and nothing has happened.”

“Beside we don’t know how it works...nor do it.” John said while Justin nods in agreement.

“The reason this war is going on is because of that mad general, Viktor. If you think violent is the answer to everything then you are just like him...” Isaac went on. “Trigger happy...insane...soldiers!”

“Whatever just make sure you keep them away from us.” And the soldiers left the tent. Isaac gives Justin his hat as he puts it on.

“Jerks…” Isaac huffed. “I know there is a way this war can end peacefully. They need to understand.”

“Yeah…” John said as he heads to the coffee machine and attempts to get some coffee. Isaac walks up to him and kindly helps him. “Thanks. It’s kind of hard to grip a cup with hooves”

“Does this help?” Isaac holds the cup up for him. John takes the cup by warping it around his hooves and his first joint. Isaac and John sit next to him while he sips his coffee. “Do you want to see the blueprint?”

“Sure, lay it on me.” John said as he took another sip.

“It's not much but they are starting to build it.” Isaac pulls out a blue sheet of paper and rolls it out. It showed a design of a Su-47 Berkut. John takes another sip of his coffee as he sets it down.

“Oh nice,” He said as he looked at it closely. “Going with the reverse wing angle huh, and another one at the base of the cockpit. Nice.”

“Yes, they said that it will be a few days until it is made.” Isaac explained.

“I can’t wait to see it when it’s finished.” John said. “But hopefully it won’t be long. So what you going to be doing today?”

“Lance said that there are some operations we can do.” Isaac answered. “He’ll explain it to us.”

“Ok, let’s go.” John jumps off the bench. They got outside and Isaac led them to the briefing tent. There, they see General Lance looking at maps.

“Oh you three are just in time.” Lance said as he shows a map he set up on a screen. “I have to make this quick. I need both you and Justin to investigate this factory. The area is being controlled in pony territory. We can't have any humans risk getting seen there.”

“What do you think we find?” John asked.

“We fear they may be making a weapon that can transform an entire city in one hit.” Lance said seriously. John’s ears flatten as he looks nervous. “We need to see if this is real. If it is true then it can be a big threat!”

“Right, so where is the place?” John asked.

“Down south pass The Valley.” Lance changes the map showing an open field which is marked red. “It's pass this hot zone you'll have to go through it. Pegasi and pilots have been fighting for control of this area and neither side has won control. You'll be escorted by Isaac and other pilots until you reach you target. Good luck.”

“I am going to help you guys. Now let’s get ready comrades,” Isaac said as he goes out of the tent and goes to his fighter with new colors that help it blend into the clouds. Justin gets his flight suit and zips it on. John shrugs and pick up his flight suit and puts it on. Minutes later, Isaac, and a group of other pilots drove onto the runway while John stood on the wings of Isaac’s fighter while Justin stood next to John.

Isaac pushes the throttle forward and takes off while the other fighters follow. John hangs on with his hooves. As they reach The Valley, they fly over pony territory and Justin and John flew towards the base, while Isaac hid in the clouds.

“Ok since we are ponies the others shouldn't have a problem with us right John?” Justin asked, raising an eyebrow. It was a big building that used to be a laboratory for industrial development. They both fly down and see two earth ponies guarding the entrance. “Oh hello.”

“Hiya!” John said cheerfully as he lands next to Justin.

“Sorry, restricted area.” One of the earth ponies spoke. “Miss Snowy says it’s important.”

“Aw really?” John asked.

“Uh... yes!” The other earth pony replied. “So let go play somewhere else... please?”

“Go right ahead,” John said kindly. “We’ll stand guard.”

“Don’t let anypony in ok?” And the two ponies left. Justin opens the door and walks inside while John follows. He stops as he sees a sign that shows the floors. There are five floors where the second floor below them was Snowy's lab and the bottom was the testing room. They can hear many ponies as scientist ponies were racing around.

“Wow, do they rush much?” Justin asked, looking at John.

“Yeah, no kidding.” John said in agreement.

“Let’s just be careful we don't cause a scene.” Justin said as he starts to calm trots by any ponies while John follows suit. The ponies around them discussed happy things. “Can't they think of something else other than muffins?”

“I know. It’s almost if they live in a hive mind.” John said. “Were we like them?”

“Well…” Justin whispers to him. “When you were transformed, you called yourself Dragon.”

“I did?” John tilted his head in confusion. “Was I creepy as well?”

“Well you acted like every other pony,” Justin said as he shrugged. John shivered by the very thought of it. “At least when I was transformed I still have my mind.”

“Why’s that?”

“I guess it must be my will. I may have wanted to become a pony but Snowy didn't use her magic to erase my human thoughts.” Justin explained as he sat down.

John groaned as he sat down as well. “Seriously, I thought I had the highest will.”

“Well you did have your back turned when she teleported behind you and transformed you.” Justin said.

John sighed, “Yea...which reminds me why didn’t you warn me when Snowy was gone?”

“What?”

“Um, never mind it’s not your fault just never expects to jump me.” John said.  Justin then goes down the stairs while John follows.

“We need to find documents, files, anything that tells us about their plans.” Justin said as he looked around.

“Now where could we find that?” John asked. Then they see a pegasus coming towards them.

“Hey…” The pegasus said to Justin as he turned to John and smiled. “Hey Dragon!”

John’s eyes widen a bit but he remains normal.

“I heard you blew a human nuke! The news says you and other 20 pegasi went to stop it, but you blew it up!!”

“I heard you blew a human nuke! The news says you and other 20 pegasi went to stop it, but you blew it up!!” The pegasus said happily.

“Uh yea I did....it was nothing. But I had some help.”

“Yeah the other twenty anonymous pegasi, keeping the sky safe,” The pegasus said. “Don’t worry. Soon when the unicorn's thing is done we will be able to earn a good rest.”

“Really? Who told you this?” John asked.

“It’s what everypony talks about, the heroic pegasus that stopped the nuke.”

“Sure…” Justin said sarcastically as he fixed his hat. “Even though he got help from Isaac.”

“Yeah, I had help from a human.” John said.

“What?!” The pegasus looked terribly worried. “Tell me it was a joke... humans helping? Bah, haha... It was a joke right?”

“Yea it is... just curious.” John said. “What if it wasn’t?”

“Oh I get it! You are testing us that are right? Well listen, no human will brainwash us, so tell snowy, it’s not necessary made secret inspections... sometimes, and that pony is overcautious...”The pegasus said.

“Well it’s better safe than sorry,” John said. “I’m here to do the ‘secret’ inspection. But don’t tell anyone okay?”

The pegasus sighed. “Well any suspicious pony of being brainwashed is taken to level three to given a dose of rainbowjuice or pony magic to cure them...”

“And how many have you cured?” John asked.

“Not many. Only five,” The pegasus said. ”I don’t know how it happens. And the rainbownuke is under development. It’s perfectly safe at sixty six percent done in the underground 5th floor. But I was want some action. Go hunt humans with a hero. But its ok, Snowy must keep you busy too.”

“Ok, thanks bro.” John brohoofs the pegasus. “Well I see you around um what’s your name?”

“My name is Flare.” The pegasus said. “I am good with signal lights.

“Well I’ll catch you later Flare.” John said kindly as Flare leaves. “Okay we should head on over to the fifth floor...though I feel sorry for the others.”

As they went down the hall, there were paintings on a wall of sad heavy polluted land with humans and a sunny colorful village of ponies with the words "for the future." There were also recreated areas made by ponies. Another poster was a mad scientists brainwashing a little filly words under says "save them."

“This is one messed up propaganda…” John said as he raised an eyebrow. “What is this, the 1950’s? Look at this propaganda. It’s like the McCarthy communist red fear thing. This is definitely Snowy's work...” The last one was a, image of the pacific pony village, a pegasus flying toward the sky followed by others far behind and a nuke going down it said Dragon. “I’m telling you underneath that cute friendly face is a dark in disguise....oh you got to be kidding me...”

“Ok this crosses the line.” Justin said as he gave an unamused look. “That is like the pearl harbor poster.”

John face hoofs as he tears the poster off. “All of this is lies… Yea well I’m dragon and I don’t approve of this...”

He tossed the crumpled poster in the recycle bin. Then Justin sees another poster and points at it as John went over to see. It was Snowy, Dragon, Cam, Blurry, Scribble, and each of the ponified friends as a personal poster for snowy. Justin was also there, flying over Snowy. On a table, a Dragon's bobble head on the base said, “custom made by Snowy.”

John looked dumb founded; he didn’t know what to say. “Ugh…ok Let’s go find those document.”

Justin looks around and walks into one of the rooms. John looks on the other room.

“Nothing here,” Justin said as he continued looking.

“There must be a safe or file cabinet somewhere,” John said as he looked through a desk.

“Oh I found a safe right here,” Justin points at the safe in the corner of the room. “But it’s locked. What are we going to do?”

“I can pick the lock,” John said as he walked up to the safe.

“You can?” Justin looked at him with confused look.

“Of course, but this could be difficult without any fingers. But I can try.” John added as he then reaches under his wing and took out a paperclip. Then he straightens the clip with his teeth and hooves and used his mouth to jimmy the locks. He gritted his teeth in annoyance as he tries to open it by twisting his head. Justin guards the door just in case. Then they heard a click as the lock opens.

“Let’s see what is inside.” He opens the safe and looks inside. It shows files and documents that told about the rainbow nuke. “I got the documents... and rainbow juice? What does rainbow juice has to do about the nuke?”

“Get the rest of the files. Maybe some of them should tell about it.” Justin said. John grabs it in his teeth strap under his wings and not just any rainbow juice in large quantity. Then they head to the exit. John walks casually while Justin talks to himself as they reach to the exit.

“I still don’t know why rainbowjuice is the main ingredient for the nuke.” John thought as they reached to the exit. Outside, ponies were storing bottles of rainbow juice... one rolled to John’s hoof. It kept its rainbow color pattern no matter what happens. John bend down and pick up the bottle with his teeth as the ponies didn’t seem to notice as John quickly pocketed it. John twitches his ear to activate his radio. “Isaac, we are done here.”

“Good, now get back to base.” Isaac responded. John opens his wings and gallops while Justin does the same and follows close behind. In a single flap, they took off. Minutes later Isaac flew next to them.

“What did you find?” He asked, leveling his fighter.

“Several document of dooms day of cuteness...and the main ingredient.” John said.

“Main ingredient?” Isaac was confused as he wanted to know what it as. John takes out a rainbow juice. The friendly colored liquid danced in the bottle by the movement. “Odd, we better not touch it.”

“We should definitely got to bring this back to base.” John said.

“But where are we going to hide it?” Justin asked.

John rubs his chin, thinking. “We could give it to R&D or I can keep it in my room.”

“But knowing the guys back in the tent will give us trouble if they find it.” Justin said, “Knowing them they'll steal it.”

“I’ll keep it in my room.” John said as they flew back to the base.