A calm, relaxing breeze blew past the soft grass and the cyan pillars of the floating islands, bringing with it some dust and the freshness of the day. The sun irradiated peacefully the surroundings, shining its holy light onto the external façade of the Greek-like buildings all across the floating islets and skerries. Such fiery ball in the sky, however, was currently lifted by someone else that wasn’t the actual Solar Princess of Equestria. In fact, right now, one could say the Princess was… a bit busy… dealing with important affairs… Outside of the castle….

“So… this is that ‘event’ you were excited about?” A tall, white figure spoke, her soft white hooves gracefully striding down the gigantic hangar, stepping on the smooth concrete floor. She looked around, seeing many ponies, griffons, hippogriffs, changelings… …pretty much all kind of races and species, hanging out and preparing for something. They were being strapped some sort of harness, with boxy things to the sides, and little sticks popping out of them. It felt like if they’re being strapped with broomsticks next to their bodies. The catplone next to her, a mostly white fluffy kitty with wings, sheepishly nodded, still all anxious and a complete nervous wreck due to the fact he was currently standing right next to her favorite Princess. “U-Um… w-well… yeah… sort of… t-t-this is an event they kinda said they’d do… a bit ago… for April Fools… and everyone’s excited about it…” He stammered, fidgeting with his front paws.

“Heh… It’s cute how you’re still anxious about me. But trust me, I assure you this looks interesting, and honestly I think I want to participate…” The Celestial Deity said, smiling towards him and bringing a hoof to pet him, ruffling up his mane as her frog and rim softly massaged his head. He let out a soft purr, closing his eyes in feline enjoyment, before replying, a bit more relaxed and happier “U-Um… I… well…. D-do you know what is this about?” He tried his best for his comment to not sound condescending or mean, yet also wanting to inquire if she actively understood what was about to happen. “Well… I may not have much knowledge of what’s going on. Some sort of sporting event? If it has adrenaline and competition, you can count me in, hehehe” Her soft giggle had an aura of calmness and relaxation, like if such a regal and royal pony making the cutest of giggles was able to diffuse tension around the atmosphere. The plonekitty just kept purring as the hoof continued to gently stroke his head, before it started to pet and massage his cheeks. “I… er… um… it’s sort of… um… have you ever played Paintball? It’s kinda like that… but with Pegasus… and flying… They have these advanced helmets with… Head On Display… and they have these guns they can shoot others with… and magic to define whether you’re shot down or not. It’s kinda cool actually”

“Oh… Ok now I’m really interested… where do we start?” Celestia said, smiling softly, yet there was also this… giddy excitement in her voice. Years of being a diplomat and keeping a queenly mask guise made her real intentions extremely hard to decipher, especially if she purposely wanted to hide them from you, but there was this small amount of eagerness in her words for what would happen next. At first she was a bit worried about requesting Lulu to take care of the castle alongside Twilight Sparkle and her friends, but now that she knew (Somewhat) how things worked, she was actually loving the idea of doing this. “Over there I think… uh… from what I was told… you get the harness and the magic and all that stuff over there. When you ‘die’, you go back to base to get the ‘magic healthbar’ to ‘reset’ and can go out again. You can also change loadouts or rearm.” The plone explained, as Celestia glanced towards the specific area the plane pony pointed at with his cute little black paw. In an office-like cubicle in the corner of the warehouse, there were a few unicorns and earth ponies around a Pegasus in the middle, as they installed on him the equipment and weaponry so they’d transform from a mere spectator to a participant, contestant of the skies, which would dogfight, or more appropriately, ponyfight, other creatures in order to gain air superiority. The giddiness in Celestia’s heart couldn’t be contained anymore, as she even started prancing lightly at the idea of roaming the skies with these ponies, in a team, ‘killing’ the opposition. She never had this fun before, especially with her boring, monotonous, ubiquitous royal duties, but now, that she took a temporary break for this routine, she felt the rush of adrenaline even before starting the match

“So um… well…” Bashy was about to speak, but sadly, his sentence he fought valiantly to voice out in front of the royal deity, fighting his anxiety, was quickly silenced by the white alicorn, who in an eager giddy frenzy, accidentally interrupted his words “Oh, oh that looks fun! I want to try. What team are you two going to be in?”. The plones were shocked seeing the usually regal and mannered Celestia suddenly behaving like an excited foal, but they couldn’t blame it on her; honestly, they were also very excited about this… and they’ve seen her real personality outside of her royal mask before too, so it wasn’t a big surprise. “Oh um… I-I think the red team. They give you outfits for your team color and the HUDs also show markers for the contestant’s team color” Celly’s excitement was starting to win over her regal self that wanted to keep her immobile on the spot, and soon enough, she rushed towards the cubicle, forcing the plones to accompany her in a quick run “Okay then! It shall be decreed! We’ll be on the same team! Good luck, and have fun!” She added, her hooves tapping the concrete floor in fast motion as she was the next one to get installed the equipment…. Uh… maybe they needed to figure out a helmet for alicorns… all they expected were pegasi so they had no holes for the horn…




“Is everyone ready?!” A referee, with a clear white-black outfit, yelled out loud with a white-red megaphone, in front of a flying amalgamation of species all reunited, coming from the Dragon Lands to the Changeling Empire. Everyone equipped with their respective flying paraphernalia, some having massive 45mm autocannons, others utilizing a much saner option of 20mm guns, while a large percentage also using heavy machineguns (12.7mm) and miniguns (7.62mm). A colossal ragtag bunch of misfits ready to pepper the enemy ‘fighters’ with bullets and shells, to take them down the sky. This particular group were the ‘fighters’ or ‘pursuers’, this because most of the ponies in said conglomeration had a specific role of combatting enemy flying combatants. Meanwhile, high above them, there was another, also fairly big group of ponies, which were exclusively ‘bombers’. These were tasked with the “destruction” of ground-based combatants like anti-aircraft cannons and tanks in the floating cities; they were vulnerable to pursuers, but their role wasn’t to fight them in a head-on anyways. Due to their strategic importance, and their decreased speed courtesy of the heavy bombs, they had an advantageous bomber ‘spawn’ higher and closer to the islands than the fighters.

“In your marks!” Yelled the referee, also through his little yet powerful loudspeaker. Celestia was right next to Bashful, herself not being acquainted to the air combat maneuvers the plone vaguely knew, and to be fair, nobody here really knew anything about dogfighting, even ex-wonderbolts only would’ve known how to kick someone’s ass in CQC and probably how to use bladed weaponry, but not how to keep two heavy projectile-based weaponries on someone’s mark. Everyone looked at each other with excitement in their body, and adrenaline pumping in their veins, feeling like a car’s engine as the high-octane fuel runs through the pipes to be combusted in explosive energy. There was fear, confusion, giddiness, but most importantly, eagerness to start. The referee, knowing this was the universal sentiment on both this ‘squad’ and the other one higher above, waited for the signal he’d be provided with, so both teams started at the same time with the other referee also synchronized. He made itself wait one second, then two, and finally, when it was least expected…

“GO” He said, holding a checkerboard flag on the other hoof, before he proceeded to lower said flag in a flashy manner. In an instant, everyone was travelling towards the floating islands reminiscent of Cloudsdale; an overzealous frenzy of ponies that with haste took positions forward, with a steeled resolve to engage other aerial targets, aka other ponies having fun. It was like if the biggest paintball match was made airborne and with added complexity. Their wings flapped, carrying the heavy gear alongside them as it impacted their maneuverability and speed, but not enough to be too cumbersome to fly. Higher above, the bomber formation with a lower kinetic energy dove onto the targets, trading their potential energy due to their altitude, into airspeed that benefitted them to reach faster the enemy ground forces.

Bashful looked at the bunch of ponies just clustering forward with no care in the world, including the Princess of the Sun herself, amusingly enough. He had to admit this was the happiest he has ever seen her… then again he’s not exactly a noble so it’s not like he’s capable of meeting her that much. The pony-sized dogfighting paraphernalia was… just a tiny bit small for her, but it still fit decently. “LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” She said… no… she decreed, she imposed to her subjects, an order that was pretty moot in the situation given that everyone was already complying with it way before she had to utilize her Royal Canterlot Voice. The white plone with black/blue mane couldn’t help but chuckle slightly, as he purposely flew a bit slower and took more altitude, a stark contrast of the flood of pegasi, griffons and changelings lowering their altitude in a 30-20° angle. For Azure, it was similar, she kept her original high-altitude while everyone else did a steep 60° dive to reach the targets.

And then… the conflagration began. Like the aerosolized explosive composition of a thermobaric explosive; suddenly everything combusted in figurative flames as ponies started to be in gun range to others. Of course, given that it was two teams coming from opposite directions, some head-ons occurred, more often than not eliminating both contestants of the joust dueling and sending them back to the ‘hangar’. The saner ones, that didn’t rush face first into the enemy, now found a bigger issue; keeping their aims onto their target and showering them with imaginary lead, all the while they twitched and changed their direction of travel faster than a drunk driver.

Machineguns and autocannons blared in the day sky of the facsimile Cloudsdale, as the pursuiters/fighters danced with each other, proving their movements and trying to gain an advantageous position. This was the true essence of dogfight, the close quarter battle between aerial combatants, and their efforts in getting accurate shots into the enemy, as the frantic change of positions occurred with ponies that barely ever touched a firearm before. Understandable then, just how crazy the situation was, with pursuiters that were unable to lock onto their targets effectively to get a firing solution, or when they fired it was inaccurate as all hell. Then again, after a fair bit of fumbling around with their wing ordnance, they were soon enough able to at least get a few stray shots on the enemy’s ‘fuselage’

The fighter plone, seeing this madness take place from the safety of a higher altitude where apparently no enemies were at, pondered his options. Most if not all of the bandits were busy chasing someone else. Even Princess Celestia was being chased by two fighter ponies as she attempted to dodge them. Seeing himself with more freedom of movement, he let out a cute, kitty smirk, as the pupils on his eyes started to thin… a sign of his feral nature taking place, the instinct of predator chasing prey, as he did a quick inverse roll, then proceeded to dive onto the first target he saw; a holey black changeling trying to keep a hot side lag pursuit onto a pink Pegasus. He went towards him, figuratively pouncing on his figure like the feline he was. Everything happened in a matter of milliseconds, from detecting, to closing, and ultimately attacking, boom and zoom.


“Aw fuck” The changeling said, after the fast kitty plone overshoot him to his side, continuing the dive. He was already shot and marked, so now he had to go back to the hangar, while the plone kept diving to stay away from the main zone of conflict and started to gain altitude. But his victorious kill was interrupted when he noticed someone else on his figurative tail. A Pegasus. Without much thinking, and seeing how he was coming in hot and pretty fast, he maneuvered himself to avoid providing the him a proper pursuit. He started a loop, before he went right rudder. The Pegasus watched in confusion as he applied left rudder and right aileron on top of the loop, rolling the opposite direction of the reverse rudder, and suddenly, the plane pony had lost so much airspeed that the Pegasus had overshoot, speeding through. A loop with a twist, or Hineri Komi, and Bashful was suddenly on his back

The 27mm autocannons made quick work of the Pegasus, who just watched confusedly, unsure of what kind of tactic was performed upon him, before proceeding to fly back to base to rearm and ‘repair’, the plone speeding upwards to regain altitude and BnZ again, knowing his tactic was working pretty well for now. From the distance he could see Celestia as an unstoppable force that wished for destruction of his foes… or so it seemed… he couldn’t see very well; he didn’t have his glasses. All he could see was a bigger white blurry alicorn with long legs dashing through a multitude of colorful dots.

In the skies higher above, Azure, who was silently spectating the hell on Earth down below her, was also positioned to strike, like a cat wiggling just before it jumps onto whatever poor thing had caught its interest enough to activate its hunt instincts. She also had a predatory gaze affixed onto her main objectives, but by the virtue of being a bomber and not a fighter, she wasn’t too interested in the fast-moving dots all around, no, she was focused in the mainly dark gray/brownish that were peppering the surface of the islands. The multitude of anti-aircraft cannons and autocannons of varying calibers, of tanks, of ‘infantrymen’, of bases. Yes, she was aiming at the enemy’s ground forces.

With a swift half roll, and a steep descend of almost 90°, she was performing a dive towards the enemy positions. She held a rather big bomb on her forehooves, although then again it was actually affixed to her body by the harness, still she felt the need to grab onto it as her blue frame speeded downwards, progressively increasing in kinetic energy as she traded it with potential energy (Also known as losing altitude for increased speed). But she didn’t want to just crash; she put on the airbrakes, and put her engine to a minimum, reducing her whole momentum a lot…. And then… She let go off the cluster bomb she carried.

The device, a little sleeping foal of doom that would cast destruction when awoken, plummeted down violently yet also so peacefully, a complete free-fall towards its inevitable destiny, the fins providing some sort of accuracy and guidance, but despite that, it was pretty much a dumb bomb, requiring only the skilled usage of the pony instead of its own guidance methods aside from the fins helping with the air drag. She departed from the explosive ordnance, proceeding to decrease the angle of attack until she was flying level, albeit with a much less altitude she originally had. As for the bomb… it hit its mark, squarely in the middle of an anti-aircraft convoy, the bomb fragmenting as per its design, and sending a multitude of bomblets all around, shrapnel flying everywhere as the explosive type used caused a bright colorful smoke/fire combination, almost like getting hit by a rainbow bomb.

By doing that, she was inserted in the heat of the battle, as the cacophony of sounds and guns firing was the dessert for the cornucopia of ponies going to and fro, trying to decide the victor of this contested airspace. It was at this moment when someone on the enemy team, a heavy fighter, found the importance of bombers towards the war effort and the victory conditions established prior, and as such, he chased the blue kitty-plone that camouflaged herself with the azure sky. But she had a few tricks up her sleeve, now that she was free from the additional weight and reduced maneuverability of the big ass bomb she just dropped on the enemy’s positions. Out of sudden, she cut throttle, extended her airbrakes again, and did an extremely sharp snaproll to her right. The confused pony saw how she made a small circle in the air and attempted to follow suit, but due to Azure’s bleeding out her kinetic energy with the rolling scissors, the Pegasus that flew behind to shoot her ended up doing the opposite instead and overshoot, despite his best attempts at staying behind her tail. With another roll, Azure made sure he was in her crosshair, the target symbol aligning perfectly with his flying figure… or at least the position where he’d be, in a small lead pursuit that allowed her to train the guns to the pony’s future position. Kicking the engines to full power again, and returning to her original controlled flight, she let out a short burst of her weaponry, and it was over, the Pegasus now needing to return to base as he was, by the game’s rules, shot down from the sky. Meanwhile the sky-coloured plane pony, seeing as the one chasing her was chased till their incapacitation, proceeded to do a Split-S away from the quagmire of skirmishes in the center, gaining speed to maybe climb again and re-do the dive bombing she had performed earlier, but with a different target, both plane ponies making sure to try their best in winning the competition for their team, and with their knowledge of maneuvering and tactics? They’d probably be of great value.


ASDFASDGADFADFGSDFGASDF THIS EVENT WAS LITERALLY LAST YEAR APRIL FOOLS IN WAR THUNDER MOBILE YET I TOOK SO FUCKING LOOOOOOOOONG AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I actually feel kinda bad of myself xp. Ack ascfasdcfasdf please bap me with a newspaper till I stop existing I PROCRASTINATED ON THIS ARTWORK SO FUCKING HARD AAAAAAAA

Anyways this is a drawing for the whole War Thunder Mobile April Fools event, where you could basically clash your way in the skies (As a test for the airplane mode), but instead of dogfighting with a P-51, or a P-38, or a Yak-3 or even a Bf-110, you’d be piloting… PONIES. YEAH, THEY REDID THE FIRST APRIL FOOLS OF OG WAR THUNDER AND ADDED IT IN MOBILE AEAAAAAAAAAAAA

I enjoyed the event quite dearly, it was so funny and so amazing to be in the War Thunder server and see everyone, hardened veterans of the game, talk about ponies and which was their favorite by appearance of weapons, or even comments such as “You have to pick the Temu Rainbow Dash to get First Strike medal” or “Get the Applejack for better maneuverability”. I felt rather happy being able to literally showcase my brony side in the WTM Discord server and not being battered to death because it made sense in context¬¬

So as for the artwork, in the left side you find Bashful Interceptor, my male plane pony and ponification of my anxiety, casting some lead with his dual 27mm Mauser BK on each wing pod (And a GPU-5 with GAU-13A 30mm rotary autocannons >:3), while on the right side you can see a from-below view of Azure slowly approaching another target to turn into dust… into magical paintball like dust! Because there’s no death in MLP!… right? We don’t talk about King Storm death. I also tried my best to draw the islands and stuff as accurate as possible (I took many screenshots of the event w) and I drew some of the ponies present in the game

Join the War Thunder pony event! We got Cupcake, Elegance, Bubblegum, Sweet Storm, Starburst, Pineapple Pie, and Rainbow Jet! (Also known as Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, some random yellow pony, and Rainbow Dash :D) [Disclaimer: You can’t anymore sorry :<]