Title:           Shuttle pones #9
Author:          Maintenance-Bro
Pastebin link:   http://pastebin.com/LXxbJFvW
First Edit:      Monday 19th of May 2014 07:53:05 PM CDT
Last Edit:       Monday 19th of May 2014 07:53:05 PM CDT

"I think it was to get them off Anon's back." Sasha said.
"So what if it was? I am not some performer he can summon whenever he's bored." Sergei said frustrated with both Brezhnev and you.
"Sergei, it was for something simple, and it would have gotten you out for a while, so what's the big deal about it?" Sasha asked as Sergei was in a particularly foul mood because of it.
"He should have asked us himself." Sergei said
"Sergei, Anon had an emergency this morning. YF-23 had issues, and then he was bogged with a check on Morgan afterwards. Stop being so critical of him." Ludmila said trying to calm him down.
"But still, should have asked us himself instead of sending Brezhnev." Sergei said as he pouted a little over it.
"So what if he should have asked? He is busy Sergei, you know this" Sasha said as Ludmila agreed with her
"You are being too critical of him. Remember, he'll make mistakes, not during repairs, but when he has other things going on. Sergei, give him some slack" Ludmila said prompting Sergei to not be so harsh towards you
"Perhaps I should give him some slack, but still it seems degrading to fly for ponies" Sergei said as Sasha finally figured out what was wrong
"You don't like the ponies do you Sergei?" Sasha asked
"Why would you say that?" Sergei asked.
"How you're acting, it shows" Sasha said confronting Sergei about it
"So what if I don't like them? They bring us nothing but trouble" Sergei said
"But we do not deal with them outside of the operations center why such hate towards them?" Sasha asked
"Like I said they bring me nothing but trouble, I trusted them once, but I cannot after they broke that trust. Remember why I brought you here Sasha?" Sergei asked.
"Yes, because I was in poor shape." Sasha said
"Right, but it was also combat damage. Done to you by the ponies, I requested to take the heavy combat to place you in safety, but they lied to me and send you in my stead. I got the patrol duty and you got sent to destroy something, you came back damaged and forgetful of what happened. I got you out of that place, brought you somewhere safe. Where they don't do combat sorties." Sergei said hoping this would bring back the memories of being shot up in Sasha
"I remember, but I cannot hate them for what happened, it was part of the job, the danger of being shot, you know this, I thank you for trying to protect me, but still, I can care for myself. contrary to what you believe. Perhaps you should worry more about Ludmila." Sasha said.
"What are you saying?" Sergei asked.
"I'm saying you need to let go. You've been like this ever since Lightning moved in with me. Sergei, you're holding a grudge, and Lightning was the trigger" Sasha said as Sergei was being dense
"Are you saying I'm living in the past Sasha?" Sergei asked as Lightning woke up.
"Bro you need to settle down, I might not know what you all are sayin, but Sergei get off our backs. Nothing good is going to come from you riding our asses all the time." Lightning said from his half asleep state.
"What you know about letting go?" Sergei asked.
"More than you. Sure I love my sister but she's a fucking cunt, when I realized that time for me to leave. Sometimes all it takes is something for you to realize it's time to let go. Knew I wouldn't be around her forever." Lightning said before rolling over on the couch.
"So you saying Sasha won't always be baby sister?" Serge asked, as Lightning nodded basically unconscious.
"Perhaps all of you are right. I should be a little more lenient on things." Sergei said allowing Sasha to smile.
"After those things leave." Sergei said as that wiped it from her face.
"Of course, you're going to be like that." Sasha said this time waking Lightning up.
"Hey, I'm trying to sleep here, can you all please be quiet." Lightning said as he rolled off the couch.
"Then go be in room." Sergei said.
"Ha, very funny, Sasha wanted some alone time, so I'm sleeping on the couch asshole." Lightning said as the tensions in the room got heated.
"Sasha why you need alone time?" Sergei asked only to find that Sasha had disappeared to her room.
"Good going Sergei. Now I can't talk to her until morning." Lightning said and went out for a walk.
2200 hrs out on the base
"Damn it Sergei, why'd ya go and fuck everything up." Lightning muttered to himself as he walked past your shop. To Lightning, Sergei was the peak of his problems, since Sergei was not terribly pleased about letting Sasha go, and well, with Lightning here it kinda makes things worse for the two of them, especially with Ludmila having moved in out of Sergei's kindness. That wasn't exactly the best for Lightning and Sasha's situation, in fact it made it slightly worse than it should have been. On the bright side, at least Ludmila kept Sergei from drinking himself into oblivion.
during his grumbling walk he noticed something small hanging out in a tree, would have missed it too if it wasn't for his sensors. From the sounds of it, it sounded like she wasn't happy either.
"Hey you up in the tree! What's going on with you?" Lightning called out as he startled her out of the tree.
"Are you ok?" Lightning asked as he shined his landing light in her direction to see if she was alright.
"Yea, you just startled me that's all." She said with an air of indifference towards him.
"You know there aren't many pegasi out here, so do you mind if I ask why you're here?" Lightning asked making her defensive.
"What are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be in a hangar or something?" she shot back.
"Well, I was, until my girlfriend's brother woke me up with his arguing with my girlfriend. Oh, I'm Lightning by the way." he said introducing himself to the pegasus.
"Rainbow Dash, seems you've had a bit of a rough day." she said.
"And you the worst. I heard what happened. You shouldn't have done that, but I guess that's a learning experience." Lightning said as the two of them now walked around the airstrip.
"Tell me about it. You ever go up against Morgan or Anon?" Rainbow asked.
"Oh heavens no, that'd be foolish, especially since I can't go faster than 1.6 mach." Lightning said showing his own limitations as normal.
"Since when is going 1.6 times the speed of sound a problem?" Rainbow asked.
"Since beyond that point I become aerodynamically unstable and am liable to kill myself. Just a silly limitation due to design. Wasn't designed to be air to air, meant for air to ground." Lightning said.
"And Morgan?" Rainbow asked.
"Purely air to air. its what she excels at. Not sure how fast news travels around but she and Anon brought down a T-50 that was a total dickhead on the base. The rest of the base, well they kinda had their fun with him if you know what I mean." Lightning said
"So that explains the sort of two moods Morgan has." Rainbow said.
"Two moods? Isn't she just a soft voiced sweetheart?" Lightning asked, not really wanting to know the true air superiority Morgan.
"Sure she's sweet and nice on the ground, but give her a challenge and she's got this desire to destroy. Scared the heck out of me." Rainbow said as Lightning mostly tuned it out.
"Well, you challenged Morgan to what she did best. If it wasn't her that Anon flew, it would have been Raptor or Terminator, if he could persuade one of them." Lightning said as they walked past your hangar that had a slight glow of Luna's magic from one of the windows.
"And they are?" Rainbow asked.
"Other air superiority ponies here. They did warn you that going up against Anon was going up against Morgan right?" Lightning asked making sure that Rainbow was just dense and not completely retarded.
"Yea they both told me to rethink it, even Twilight told me to rethink the whole thing. Should have listened. Said something about Morgan and Anon sharing a connection of some sort." Rainbow said clearly wishing she thought again about who she challenged.
"Yea, I don't get that either. So you out alone because you're mad at yourself?" Lightning asked trying to figure out why she was out here.
"Not really, more trying to escape my friends for a little while." Rainbow said.
"Oh must be a joy." Lightning said.
"Not really, one of them is just reading Anon's repair books, another is trying to plan a party, one's complaining of the messes, well they're all doing something different and I'm just out to try and escape that from going insane." Rainbow said.
"I'd question your sanity because you challenged Anon and Morgan, but for someone who doesn't belong here, how were you to know." Lightning said as they continued to walk.
"What about you? Why are you out?" Rainbow asked.
"Like I said earlier, girlfriend's brother is being a dick, she needed space, and he made her mad, so things back at my home aren't really calm. Guess I just needed to be out for a while." Lightning said as they got towards his hangar.
"Bummer man. I guess I should get back to my friends before they start to worry about me." Rainbow said as she flew off.
"Hey! Shouldn't be flying at night unless you can see, it's pretty dark around here, even with Princess Luna giving us a full moon, it's still pretty dangerous to go flying around." Lightning called out after Rainbow getting her to just hover there.
"Are you suggesting I walk?" Rainbow asked.
"No, I'm suggesting you take a guide. One that can see at night. I've got perfect night vision, you on the other hoof do not." Lightning said as he started to hover and move slowly towards Rainbow.
"You can hover?" Rainbow asked.
"Yea, I can. Not very many of us can. Sometimes it's more of a problem than any good." Lightning said said as he turned on his landing lights for Rainbow to see what's in front of her.
"Thanks for lighting the way." Rainbow said as Lightning turned off his light and landed alert for something in the night.
"What is it?" Rainbow asked only to be pushed beneath Lightning.
"Quiet, and listen." Lightning said wary of what lurked in the night.
"Is that?"
"Another jet. A VTOL." Lightning said from the sound of the turbine going over the two of them at a slow rate of speed and descent.
"Who ya talking to little buddy?" Sidney said.
"Nobody you pile of scrap. Where in the name of Celestia have you been anyways?" Lightning asked.
"I've been around. Does it really matter where I've been buddy?" Sidney said.
"Actually yea, yea it does. There's been talk that you've been scrapped, or turned yourself into scrap. Kinda glad to see you're still flying." Lightning said not exactly sure how to approach this situation with Sidney with Rainbow hiding beneath him.
"Nice to hear that at least somepony here missed me. Got a little banged up, but I made one hell of a lot of money, enough to shut up that moron Anon and KC. Either that or take what Anon cares about most from him. That A-10 of his." Sidney said as Lightning wasn't sure if he was drunk or being serious.
"I wouldn't be surprised if they rolled out the unwelcome wagon for you Sid. If you haven't seen or heard, those that don't follow the rules here tend to have bad things happen to them." Lightning said backing up to the building and scooting Rainbow behind one of his legs.
"Hm, though as I was lurking around here, I could have sworn I heard you talking to someone." Sid said turning on his landing lights to see past Lightning.
"Just Sasha." Lightning said.
"That stuck up Yak? Don't tell me you actually see something in her." Sid said as Lightning was waiting for a time to strike Sid down.
"What's this? Is there a little pony around here?" Sid said as he saw Rainbow's hoof prints in the dirt.
"Sid you need to go back to wherever the hell you came from. Any sort of commotion here, you're going to get the fighters scrambled on you. I would leave now." Lightning said as Sid flipped his lights off and backed up a little.
"What are you saying kid? I need to leave?" Sid said as Lightning flooded him with his lights.
Full armament, two gun pods, Sid is here for one reason either to take revenge on you and KC or scare Raptor into getting back with him. Lightning was hoping on the second.
"No, just a suggestion Sid, you can take it however you want." Lightning said as he still shielded Rainbow from him.
"How's that whore you call a sister?" Sidney said hoping it was a confirmation on his second, Raptor could kill Sid without trying, Nora, well she may kill him before he can get close to Raptor.
"Kinda pissed I moved out on her." Lightning said.
"Can't baby you forever could she?" Sid said as he went off into the dark.
"Where are you going?" Lightning asked
"Say hello to your sister, if you don't have any complaints with that." Sidney said as he walked off towards Raptor's home.
Lightning waited until Sidney was out of earshot before moving and getting Rainbow inside.
"Stay inside whatever happens stay inside. I've got to get Anon Sidney being here means only one thing, he's here to stir up trouble." Lightning said as it was his turn to depart.
"What the hay is going on here?" Rainbow said as she went inside to find everyone but Twilight asleep.
 
000hrs. Your shop.
You're awoken by Princess Luna, whom you accidentally hit in the side.
"Why are you waking me?" You ask as the lights are still out.
"A plane named Lightning is asking for you. Asked through my window as I was still awake." Luna said.
"Not surprising, sorry I whacked you by the way." You say as you move over to the "guest" room and listen to Lightning
"What's going on if you got to wake me buddy?" You say.
"Sid is back, and he's got a full payload." Lightning said
"That's alarming, he can't really do much honestly. Unless he hits the shuttles' fuel, then this place is going up in flames. Where was he headed?" You ask quietly in case Sidney is around.
"Raptor's. I'm a little concerned, but, she probably senses him right about now. Even then, with Nora there, it's going to end badly for Sid." Lightning said as an explosion illuminates the runway and wakes a fair amount of ponies up.
"Shit." You say as you now run out to Raptor's hangar which is still standing and not buring
"What the hell got hit?" You ask as you see a hole bunch of burning trees about half a mile away.
"Sidney's back. Anon get to cover. This ain't going to be pretty." Nora said as she stepped from the shadows to reveal herself.
"Right, keep me covered. Is Raptor engaging him?" You ask
"No, I am. Nora said as she opened her weapons bays and got ready to take off.
"Green light. Make sure he stays away from the shuttles, Lightning, cover me back to my hangar. I want this bastard caught and hung by dawn. His payload won't last that long. Bring him down and string his ass up." You say as Lightning now hovers to cover your escape back to your hangar
"Anon what the hell is going on out there?" Luna asked as you returned.
"A Harrier named Sidney came back, and he's pretty pissed off. I didn't even know that shit left." You say as you run around and grab the GSh-30-1 off the wall and go back outside lugging it and a tripod out towards something you know will decimate him at the outskirts to the field. The missile defense field, which was also AA
"Come get me you piece of shit!" You yell on the radio as Morgan moves behind to protect you from missile fire, but it doesn't take you very long to find KC hiding out in the CIWS fields.
"KC you have them targeting Sidney?" You ask as you set up a small turret with what was T-50's cannon.
"What do ya think? I've reprogrammed every AA gun system on base to target him, ah ain't risking a loose missile hitting the shuttles." KC said as the combination of Phalanx and AK-630M1-2 CIWS fired on two incoming missiles.
"What's the matter Sidney? The two you hate the most in a single untargetable field?" You say laughing on the radio allowing every plane pony in the area to hear it
"You two and Raptor, have taken everything from me!" Sidney yelled as he strafed the area, but in return was fired upon by both you and the AA system
"Keep trying, you lost Raptor yourself you selfish scrap heap. KC and I just got tired of your shit first."