Humani Victoria

Chapter 13- Take To The Sky

"I don't have a fear of flying; I have a fear of crashing."

                                                          -Billy Bob Thornton

Goldenoaks Library, Ponyville, Equestria, Wednesday 10th of April, 7:00am, 2205 AC

It had been a few days since Jason had visited Makers Fire and had set his project in motion, ever since then the two engineers had been working together to build their construct piece by piece, working through problem after problem. Everything from technological drawbacks to lack of proper equipment and materials, but they made due in the end, today was the day that the Human and the Blacksmith finish their project and put her to the test, and put her on her maiden voyage.

Jason was sitting in Twilights kitchen, munching down on some morning carrots when the lavender Unicorn herself walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning to you Twilight" the Human greeted her, the Pony Mage didn't respond but sat across from Jason with a half serious half worried expression on her face.

"Jason... We need to talk..." Jason's right eyebrow immediately raised itself.

"Well we're already doing that, but we can continue if you want." The Human grinned to show he was joking around, but Twilight retained her expression.

"It's just that..." She continued "You've been here a while now, and I like having you here really! It's just that.... Wouldn't you be more comfortable with... You know... Your own kind?" Jason blinked and Twilight rushed to reassure him.

"I mean, I know it's a long shot, and that Princess Celestia said pthey are few and far I between, but don't you think you would be happier at least searching for them? I mean, you haven't even been looking into it, don't you want to find your kin?" She sounded worried.

This conversation wasn't good, since Jason had told the fate of the Human race he had done all he could to forget, coming to the point where he believed the lie that Celestia had ordered him to tell. Unfortunately for his psyche, the Ponies seemed determined to bring up the painful memories.

Jason plastered a smile onto his face "I understand your worried Twilight, but you have to understand; I have no idea where my kin resides, no leads, no nothing. Hell most Ponies think we are a myth, I have no desire to wonder into the wilderness to be eaten by one of Sebastian's cousins" this got a giggle out of the Unicorn and broke the somber mood she had brought in with her, Jason ruffled her mane like one would a child.

"Don't worry about me, I'll find them on my own time" the Unicorn seemed to accept that and Jason bid her goodbye, exiting the library and into the street. Jason sighed heavily when he shut the door, feeling very tired all of a sudden, shrugging the feeling off the Human headed off towards Makers smithing area.

                                                               ~~*~~

Derpy Hooves landed in front of her house, smiling at a good mornings work and looking forward to sharing some muffins with Dinky, the grey Pegasus pushed the door open and placed her saddlebag to the side of the door.

"Dinky!" Derpy called out "I'm home!" There was no answer and then Derpy noticed a note that was nailed to the back of the door, the messy writing made in crayon told her that Dibky had left it there.

Gone crusading with Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle. Be back later

Derpy smiled "I'll make muffins for when they come back" she declared and dived into her kitchen.

                                                              ~~*~~

Makers Fire pulled the long piece of metal out of the water trot, the still hot metal sizzling and red, the Smith magicked the piece over to his work bench where he hammered the thing into submission, twisting and shaping the rapidly cooling metal into the shape that Jason had described to him.

Satisfied with its shape Maker shoved the thing into the water trot to cool, he placed down his tongs and hammer to take a breath, that's when Jason arrived.

"How goes it Maker?" The red Unicorn didn't say anything, rather he activated his rust-coloured magic and pulled the piece he had been shaping a moment ago, showing the long twisted profile of the propeller. This brought a genuine grin to the Humans face.

"Then let's put the final piece on" propellor in tow, the two engineers headed inside the large pavilion-sized tent that Maker had brought in to hide their project from prying eyes. Inside was the fruit of their labour; a small plane, about the size of a modern ultralight, created from forged bits of metal, wood, and canvas. It resembled that of the Wright Brothers invention, but with some aspects that gave it a more World War II look, with its wide curved wings and fat tail, one unique detail about it though was in place of an engine there was a large spring-like wire that connected to a gear-like disk at the front. It was on that disk that Maker and Jason fit the propellor onto the disk and the Smith levitated several rivets over and fitted them into the holes in the propellers centre, there was a flash of heat as Maker bound the rivets to the disk, securing the propellor in place.

The two stepped back to look at their creation, Jason rubbing his hands together.

"She'll fly well" he said proudly, admiring the machine, Makers Fire wasn't so sure though.

"Jason..." He said slowly "I'm not so sure about how this thing will work, I mean a streamlined aircraft that allows non-Pegasus Ponies to fly at speed? It's revolutionary in our day and age."

"Then what's the problem?" The Human asked.

"It's the spring propellor that worries me" the Smith said "I know I said that we use the same concept on our blimps, but that's different, blimps are kept in the sky by their ballon. This contraption puts almost all of its hope of flight on that one propellor, which might I add is decisively smaller that the ones used on blimps."

"You make a good point, but remember how we spent so much time on the wings? They're designed to glide, like a bird or Pegasus, so even if the propellor fails I can glide safely to the ground and make an emergency landing."

"Still, that spring will only give you an hour of thrust at most before you'll have to glide down, and even then I don't trust the infrastructure to take an emergency landing."

"You worry too much Maker, put a little faith into Human engineering."

"Forgive me if I'm doubtful, you know I still could put a moving enchantment on the propellor to make it spin indefinitely."

"And you know my answer, I'm trying to prove a point here."

"And what point might that be?"

"That Human Science and Engineering can accomplish anything that Pony Magic can." The Smithy sighed a bit.

"Do what you want, but when this design catches on my enchanting idea will too"

"Oh, this design won't catch on."

"What makes you say that? This machine could dissolve the barrier between Pegasus and Earth Ponies, anypony could fly at speed with this."

"It won't catch on because no one will know about it, because your not going to show anyone the designs, are you Makers Fire?" Jason had a grin on his face that unsettled the grizzled Smithy.

"No, I guess I'm not." He said in defeat.

"Good, now if you excuse me I have a rainbow Pony to find."

                                                              ~~*~~

The Everfree Forest

The four fillies moved on a rough game trail through the dark forest, a certain orange Pegasus in the lead.

"Come on girls! We need to explore the entire forest to earn our Cutie Marks!" Scootaloo said.

"Cutie Mark Crusader Forest Explorers yay!" The fourth small Equine didn't join in their cry.

"Ummm... Maybe we should head home?" Dinky said quietly, not wanting to attract any beasts "Mommy always told me to be careful of the forest."

"Come on Dinky! How do you expect to earn your Cutie Mark if your always acting like such a scaredy Pony?" Scootaloo taunted.

"I don't think my Cutie Mark is worth getting eaten.." Dink said to herself, but followed behind the CMC never the less.

                                                            ~~*~~

Rainbow Dash want hard to find, she didn't exactly blend in all that well. Jason found her napping on a a cloud that sat just ten metres off the ground, the Pony snuggled up in a little ball of rainbow-coloured adorableness.

So naturally Jason had to ruin it.

Looking up at the slumbering Pegasus the Human called out "Oi! Rainbow!" She didn't even twitch, so moving on to plan B Jason picked up a nearby pebble and expertly chucked the stone to hit Rainbow Dash directly on the snout. This got her attention as her eyes immediately awoke and spotted the culprit, she shot down and looked angrily at Jason.

"He what was that for?" She asked "Can't a girl take a nap once in a while?" Jason didn't acknowledge her question.

"Remember when I challenged you an air race a few weeks ago?"

"Uh... Yeah? Why?"

"Well I'm ready to race now."

"Wait... You were serious about that? How are you even going to fly?"

"Didn't I tell you then? I made a flying machine that could go fast"

"...No way"

"Way, Human engineering has no bounds, so you ready to race or what?"

"Heck yeah! I'll get everypony together! They're going to love this!" The Pegasus sped off, Jason meanwhile had Makers Fire move the plane to the central road that ran through Ponyville, a tarp over it to keep it a surprise. The large object hidden from sight began to attract a crowd and soon they had an ample audience to the soon to be race, Makers Fire had to ward off a few curious onlookers who wanted to sneak a peak at the mystery thing under the tarp.

"Jason!" A voice from the crowd called and The Human turned to see Twilight, Spike, and the rest of the Mane Six trotting towards him.

"What's this about you racing Rainbow Dash in the air? And something about a flying machine?" Twilight demanded, pointing at the rainbow Pegasus, who was curiously looking at the tarp.

"Oh, I challenged Dashy a week ago to a sky race, since then me and Makers Fire here have been rebuilding the Wright Brothers dream."

"The what?" Twilight asked.

"Sorry, we've been building a flying machine based on an old Human design." Jason signalled Maker and he pulled the tarp free to reveal the plane, to the oohing and awing of the nearby crowd.

"That's your flying machine!" Rainbow laughed "That'll never fly!"

"That's what they always say!" Jason said dramatically, pointing his finger at the Pegasus "Care to put your money where your mouth is?" Dashy adopted her cocky expression.

"Alright hotshot, your on!" Twilight looked between them, finally coming back to Jason.

"Jason! This is crazy! You'll hurt yourself!" She cried.

"All in the pursuit of glory my dear, Maker! Crank her up!" The rust-coloured Unicorn grabbed the planes propellor and spun it counter-clockwise, an ominous clicking sound coming from it, until a finally a loud metallic clunk sound came from it, marking that the plane was ready to go. Waving to the crowd Jason hopped into the seat, placing his feet in the bicycle-like pedals that connected to the planes wheels.

Rainbow Dash lined up next to the huge contraption, confident that the thing wouldn't even get off the ground, all the while Twilight pleading to Jason to not go through with it. Pinkie Pie broke off from the crowd and placed herself between the two racers, holding a small green flag in her hoof.

She waved the flag and Rainbow Dash took off immediately, leaving a large cloud of dust behind her that clouded everyponies vision of Jason, however sounds could be heard from the dust cloud. The clinking sound of a chain moving, a creaking moan of the spring decompressing, and finally the low hum of the propellor spinning.

The plane burst forth from the dust cloud, rapidly increasing speed, it's bulky tail already lifted off the ground, inside Jason was peddling madly to make the wheels push the thing forward, the contraption slowly increase speed until the wheels finally lifted from the ground and the plane took off.

The crowd was in a dumb shock, the Mane Six stared up at the physical impossibility that was currently soaring through the sky, Rainbow Dash herself paused to stare in awe at the marvel of engineering. unnoticed by anypony, Makers Fire let out a small sigh of relief, meanwhile in the air Jason was having the time of his life, he laughed gleefully as he soared among the clouds, he was soon joined by Rainbow Dash who kept pace with the plane.

All thoughts of a race were gone from Dash, in truth she was amazed and in awe at the amazing invention that Jason had created, he had told her tales of amazing contraptions that the Human race had built, but to see one such marvel with her own eyes... She felt like an egghead all of a sudden.

The two flyers soared over Ponyville and came over the Everfree Forest, all the while Jason laughed and smiled in pure glee, his demeanour was infectious and Rainbow Dash soon joined in, laughing along with him, this was the first time she had seen Jason smile, as in actually smile in pure happiness and it rubbed off on her.

They banked to the far west side of the forest, in-verbally agreeing to circle the forest and head back to Ponyville, it seemed for a moment that Jason had calmed down until...

Is he... Singing?

It was true, faintly across the wind Jason's voice could be heard.

"I believe I can fly! I believe I can touch the sky! Spread my wings and fly!" Rainbow Dash giggled at the Humans antics, meanwhile Jason was thinking of putting the plane through some complicated maneuvers when he heard one of the most terrifying sounds he had ever heard in his life.

The sound of the spring decompressing, and the low hum of the propellor disappear as it stopped spinning.

It was at this moment that Jason realized just how high they were, which turned out to be about three hundred metres above sea level, and the natural fear of falling kicked in. Jason forced himself to stay calm, apparently Rainbow Dash noticed the lack of propellor-humming as well because she banked closer to ask what was wrong, Jason twitched the plane closer to explain the situation, but it was when he pulled the wheel of the plane back the other way was when he met resistance.

Pulling harder he realized that the flaps had locked, and the plane was locked in a permanent bank to the right, Jason barely had time to yell "Look out!" Before the wing swatted Rainbow Dash like a mosquito and the plane went into a spiral dive towards the ground.

It was all Jason could do to hold on as his world became a twisted thing of metal, wood, a grey stony ground, and occasionally flashed of blue and rainbows, eventually Jason got one good look at the grey rocky landing that awaited them before they hit and he lost his grip on consciousness.

                                                                ~~*~~

The four fillies stared in awe at the large twisted metal thing that had hit Rainbow Dash before plummeting to the ground.

Scootaloo was the first to break from the stupor "That was awesome!" Sweetie Belle looked at her friend in anger.

"How could you say that? Rainbow Dash could be hurt!" The orange Pegasus waved off the comment.

"No way, Rainbow Dash is made of studier stuff than that."

"Still, we should go check if they all are okay" Applebloom suggested, Scootaloo shrugged and the four trotted the relatively short distance to the crash sight. The fillies pushed the bushes out of there way to reveal the broken and twisted chassis of Jason's plane.

"Where's Rainbow Dash?" Scootaloo asked, no answer came and she turned to find Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Dinky were gone.

"Guys?" She called cautiously, before a furry paw covered her mouth and cut of her scream.

                                                              ~~*~~

Jason faded in and out of consciousness, he didn't feel much pain, but there was a definite ringing in his ears that lasted the entire while he managed to stay awake. The Human searched for Rainbow Dash but found nothing but the pieces of the defeated aircraft around him and the rocky surface they had landed on.

Eventually Jason sensed movement, hoping it was Dashy he managed to croak out a call for help. His hope was crushed though when a pair of beady black and yellow eyes entered his vision.

"Your mine now Pony-Friend thing" a voice said before Jason passed out again.