The sun was shining in through my window. I could hear carts rolling and ponies bustling. I crawl out of bed and look out my window at the beautiful city of Manehattan. Up above, there are pegasi flying and clouds drifting east. Way down below are the streets, filled with earth ponies and unicorns walking about, all heading off to work. I yawn and walk downstairs to get some food, when I hear my door buzzer ring.
My best friend and fellow flyer Aerodrome is at my door. I can hear her yelling through the speaker, demanding that I pick up. I approach the speaker/microphone and respond to her rather urgent and irritated summons.
"Good morning."
"Wing Nut, you were supposed to be at the airfield an hour ago." she said in a rather harsh tone, cutting me off.
"It's only 9 o'clock isn't it?" I asked in the nicest tone I could, as I glanced at my clock and realised that it was 11:00.
"No, It's eleven." she responded angrily. "And I think you need to start taking this team more seriously. It is YOUR team after all."
"I'll get some food and I'll be over in about half an hour." I respond, not paying any mind to her most previous comment. "Just head over to the field, and I'll meet you there."
"Wing Nut, we need to go now-"
"MMMKAY, bye." I say as I hang up the intercom.
There are a lot of things I dislike. One of those things is having my mornings interrupted (even if it's my fault, like now). Should I have been nicer to her? Probably. Was I ever going to be nice to a pony telling me that I had to get to work over the intercom, one minute after I wake up? Probably not. Unless they brought donuts or something. Or cake. Cake is good.
So in the next few minutes I pack my saddlebag, eat some slices of leftover pizza, lock my door, and set off for my desk/flight job at Reed Field. The sky is especially beautiful today. There is no wind, no rain, and no worries as I fly effortlessly through the scattered cumulus clouds, leaving pony-shaped holes in them as I go.
A short 15 minute flight, and I arrive at the field. I bypass security with my card and enter my office. Aero is sitting at my desk, just staring at me.
"Hello." I say simply, to the desk-invader.
"Oh, hello. fancy meeting you here."
"I work here. That's my desk."
"Is it? I apoligize, sir. I didn't know."
We both sit (or stand, in my case, because my chair was being used.) in silence for a few seconds, before she begins scolding me on my lateness. Despite the boringness of her lecture, I sit, and listen, and sit. and listen. And after a long one minute, I say ok, and shoo the desk-hijacker away. After all, I have work to catch up on. I begin typing.
Life Below
by Wing Nut
I kneel down, ready to spring
preparing for my flight.
I feel the wind, spread my wings,
and take off into the night.
Not many ponies enjoy flying
quite as much as I.
I savor every single moment
that I'm in the sky.
I slowly gain altitude,
and creep closer to the clouds.
The only sound I hear is wind,
No announcers or cheering crowds.
For being an airshow pony,
almost any time you fly,
there are ponies down below,
screaming and watching you up high.
I look down and see Manehattan,
And all of the glowing lights.
The city is so beautiful
Especially from this height.
I can feel the wind all around me,
and as it powerfully blows,
I close my eyes and think
about how my life is below.
I sit in my office at the airfield
and fill out paperwork.
I read a bunch of study guides,
and people treat me like a jerk.
They act like I'm a lesser being
Because I'm not with the wonderbolts.
I've wanted to start my own team
since I first flew as a colt.
And now that my dream is finally realised,
they act like we're the worst.
Yet we still get the crowds wound up,
And in contests, we often come first.
I open my eyes and clear my mind,
And stop thinking these unhappy thoughts.
Now's not the time, I say to myself,
I should enjoy being aloft.
The ponies below mean nothing right now.
They will mean nothing later on.
Because I know I will fly, until the moment I die.
And I'll be happy all along.
"What a productive hour and a half." I tell myself. "Time for lunch". I realize that I was probably supposed to work on the new choreography set for the team, but I couldn't think of anything. Good thing I got something done, because if I sat and did nothing the whole time, I would be in even more trouble than I'm in now. I went out to a restaurant and got myself a nice big club sandwich. I was glad to be eating again. I love to eat. I finished my sandwich and headed back towards the airfield, ready to continue my super hard and important work, when suddenly I hear a loud boom. Something whizzes by my face from the front at lightning speed with a woosh, and it only takes me a second to realize what happened.
"Somepony just tried to shoot me." I thought. But what I ended up saying was "GUN!" I think everypony had already realised that as they were all running for the nearest building, rock, or wall (or in shock and not moving). I decide it wouldn't be a terrible idea to follow the running ponies, and I run for cover and find an alley between two buildings. So here I am, in the middle of an sniper situation, up against a wall, and I can't go anywhere because I'll get shot.
Behind me are a pair of fillies that look just about as terrified as I feel. They stare wide-eyed at me for several seconds, before another shot rings out. Anything that was moving a second ago, be it a running pony, a pony in cover, or even a cart escaping with its passengers seemed to freeze. Everypony in this block was completely petrified, out of fear that they would be killed. I peek around the corner to try and find out where the shooter is hiding, but all I see are short buildings and abandoned carts sitting in the four-way intersection. I continue looking and eventually find them. I see a silhouette on top of a small buisiness building. "Fuzzy N' Soft's Rugs, huh?." I say out loud as I read the buisiness' name.
"I have to get out of here" I tell myself, as the fillies continue looking at me in horror. I move towards the end of the alley, and find an area where I can fly up into better cover. However, if I went this way, I would be exposed for a few seconds between covers. "Girls, come here. I found an area that we can escape through." I tell the fillies. They hesitate, but it seems like their fear of the situation is greater than their fear of me, because they agree.
One of them is a pegasus, so I point out to her the route I saw, and ensure she flies there safely. Then I pick up the other one, and prepare to bound over to the clear space. Another shot rings out, followed by the momentary screams of several terrified ponies. I jump and fly as soon as I hear the round, but apparently I wasn't fast enough, because as I fly over the wall, yet another gunshot rings out, and I feel a shock wave and something extremely fast punch a hole in my wing.
The pain was incredible, like a blunt, broken, burning feeling that seemed to be taking up more of my wing than it should be. I yelled as I fell down into the cover on the other side of the alley, not remembering or caring that I was carrying a pony, and crashed into the ground as my vision became blurry. I could feel the filly crawling out from my forelegs as I lie in pain, moaning and trying to fold my wing. Both of the young ponies were crying as they looked on, being powerless to do anything to help me.
I lay on the ground for several minutes, though it felt like hours, simply trying to stop the bleeding and get my wing folded up correctly. Eventually I succeded, and I manage to stand back up somehow. Unfortunately, Reed Field and all of my friends were on the other side of the shooter's position, so the chance I had of getting back to my airshow team before I likely died were slim. But I would try. I had to survive this.
The two fillies looked at me as I stood up, and I suddenly remembered a poster that I saw on an Equestrian Air Force base once. It was a poster about snipers, and how if there is one, you should stay in cover where you are, call a special provided counter-sniper number on a phone, and also the police. If only I had remembered the special sniper number, not that I had a phone. It now mad sense that they wanted me to stay where I was, after all, trying to move had gotten me shot. I had almost forgotten about that, I was lost in my thoughts. The intense pain returned quickly once I had remembered it was there, though it was a lot lesser than it was before.
I was glad they hit me in the wing. I was bleeding badly, but it could be much worse. Another shot tears through the silence. The wall behind me rattles as I hear a bullet ricochet off of it.
"I have to get out of here." I say again to myself as I scan the area for another place to hide. A flying escape is now out of the question, so that greatly limits my options. Suddenly, I notice a phone booth across the street from from me. I may not recall the number for the counter-sniper, but I certainly remember the number for the police. The only problem is that the booth is in open space, as most of the phone booths in Manehattan are.
I realise what I must do. I know that I will probably die, but I have to call for help, I don't think any other pony is going to get to a phone booth. I've already been shot, so I can call for help and risk getting hit again, or I can hope that they will come on their own and likely bleed out waiting. I tell myself that if I pull this off, I will be a hero, dead or alive, though I don't really believe myself.
"Stay here, No matter what happens. Do you understand?" I ask the fillies. They both agree to stay put, and I prepare to dash across the street to the phone. A warning shot rings out, as the shooter tells everyone without using words that they should not move. I ignore their warning and run for the phone.
I get to the booth after a few seconds of galloping, not knowing whether or not they saw me, and I pick it up. I press those three buttons as fast as I can and wait for the phone to connect to the services. It is a painfully long five seconds before they answer, and without letting them even properly greet me I, I yell into the phone.
"THERE IS A SNIPER ON TOP OF FUZZY N' SOFT'S RUG STORE!"
"Did you say a sniper?" the dispatcher responded in shock.
"YEH, AND THEY CAN SEE ME RIGHT NOW! SEND HELP!"
"I'm sending help over now. Please stay in cover, what is your name?"
"MY NAME IS WING NUT! AND BUCK YOU! I WAS IN COVER BEFORE!" I screamed in to the phone in response. Another round went off, I heard a crack, and it felt like my eardrums burst as a bullet went past my head and shattered the booth around me. I took off, leaving the phone off the hook with the dispatcher still on.
I was almost there. Everything was moving in slow motion as I sprinted back toward the alleyway. Another shot. This one made its mark, hitting me in the front leg, and toppling me over about ten feet away from the entrance to the alleyway. I saw the pegasus filly run out towards me.
"No, Don't come out here!" I feebly yelled at her, but she continued running. She grabbed me and started pulling me back to the alley, while I clumsily attempted to push myself over with my good legs. A bullet went right over her back, almost knocking her down, but she maintained her balance, and continued pulling. We were 5 feet from the alley. 4, 3, 2, 1. We were out of sight of the sniper now and I was safe. I tried to keep my eyes open, but it was no use. Every second seemed to be longer than the last. I blacked out and fell into unconsciousness.
I woke up in one of Manehattan's many medical centers. I saw Aerodrome sitting next to the bed on the floor along with the filly that dragged me to the alley and also another mare that I didn't recognize. They noticed that I was awake now.
"That was probably one of the worst days of my life." I said as Aero began to smile, and the filly's face lit up.
"Even worse than that one day with the mimes and the cheap champange?" Aero said jokingly back to me.
"No." I responded angrily as as she laughed about it. Suddenly, she was interrupted by the pony that I didn't recognize.
"I just want you to know how sincerely thankful I am for you saving my daughter back there, Wing Nut." She said to me, motioning towards the pegasus filly behind her. "I want you to know that she is what I live for, and that if she had been killed that day, I don't know what I would have done."
"your daughter there is the one that saved my life." I responded. "I would be dead now without her."
The filly looked at me and smiled, "I was returning the favor, if you hadn't called the police on that phone, everypony out there that day could be dead." she said to me. "But thanks to you, the police came, caught the sniper, and now we're all okay. "It turns out she had a bomb in the building too. But the police ponies found it before she could set it off".
"Why was the pony shooting at civilians?" I asked anyone in the room who wanted to answer.
"She had a mental breakdown when her children died a week ago. It was all downhill from there." The filly's mother replied. "It's a shame. But nopony was killed, and she's in prison in canterlot now. Also, everypony present that day and their loved ones got together and made you this". She produced an 8x10 photo from her saddlebag against the wall and presented it to me. It was a photo of all the ponies I had saved standing together, and it had everypony's name written in marker along the edges of the frame.
"You're a hero, Wing Nut" Aero told me.
I just sat and stared at the photo for a minute. This would go above all of the trophies and medals I had ever earned on the shelves in my office.
"let's get some food" I told everyone. "The hospital will be happy to have me gone".
"Do you ever think of anything but food?" Aero asked me angrily.
"Do you always ask questions in an angry voice?" I retorted.
