"That was AWESOME!"

As he climbed out of the cockpit and down the extended boarding ladder, John was practically assaulted by a wildly gesturing, polychromatic pegasus.

"You were all 'WOOSH, NYOOM'-" There was a pause as John removed his helmet. "Did... Did you really..."

"Did I what?" He glanced at Rainbow, who was now firmly on the ground and pointing at the dark spot below his waistline. "Ugh. Yes, yes I did."

John saw Rainbow's eyes begin to water, and her lips quivered like she was about to-

"BWAHAHAHA!!" The pegasus flopped over and began rolling on the ground. "OH CELESTIA! HE PEED HIMSELF!"

John rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up fuzzball. Let's stuff you into a metal box and throw you off a cliff. See how well you do."

As Rainbow continued to laugh, John checked the A-10 for any damage suffered during the landing. Other than the landing gear being covered in dirt and grass, there was nothing to indicate anything was wrong. He contemplated examining the engines, but thought better of it. There was no easy way to climb up to them without a ladder, and, if he did somehow manage it, he wouldn't really be able to do anything. He was just the pilot after all, not a mechanic. Regardless, he gave the turbines a cursory glance to make sure the fan blades weren't visibly damaged.

It didn't take long until the Blackhawk could be heard in the distance, and within moments, John was able to pick out the dark speck on the horizon. As he walked back towards the landing strip, the helicopter came in to land, billowing dust and debris everywhere. The cabin doors opened and a handful of ponies and marines hopped out onto the grass.

"It's about time you guys showed up." John smiled and gave a quick wave. "I was beginning to get worried."

A bundle was tossed at him by a familiar, fiery-maned pegasus. "We would've been here sooner, but somebody wanted some spare clothes." Spitfire then walked up to the human and proceeded to slug him in the thigh.

"OOF!" John, not suspecting the hit, almost dropped the bundle and began nursing his bruised leg. "Dammit woman! What was that for!?"

"YOU don't get to be worried." The Captain glared at him. "I could've sworn you were gonna buy the farm, and half the base personnel were biting their hooves. I think the Princess was the only one that wasn't worried."

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence." John deadpanned.

After answering a few questions from some of the engineers that arrived on the helicopter, he changed into his clean change of clothes. Seeing as it was the only remotely private spot in the immediate vicinity, he commandeered the cabin of the Blackhawk for the task. Once finished, he bundled up the soiled flight suit and made his way over to a rather annoyed looking Spitfire.

"Ma-am."

"Lieutenant." The Commander nodded in greeting. "I trust you have everything here under control, so I'm gonna head on out. Just got word that one of the cadets back at the farm decided to play with one of the cloud generators... Inside the barracks."

"Ooh." John winced. "Have fun with that."

"Yeah... I'm sure the Gunny is having a field day right now." Spitfire shook her head and sighed. "Anyways, Princess said she had to go back to Canterlot to do some paperwork, but said she'd be down to help tomorrow."

"Sounds good." John looked out across the field at the assembled ponies. Most were either just standing around chatting, or examining the two parked aircraft. There wasn't much of anything being done... not that there was really anything that could be done right then. "Not really sure what she's got planned though."

The pegasus gave John a large grin. "Oh, I'm sure you'll like it. In the mean time, I gotta jet. See ya around." She spread her wings, and with a powerful flap, catapulted herself into the air.

"Where's she goin'?" Rainbow asked as she trotted up next to the pilot.

John chuckled. "Some poor cadet is about to have a very bad day."

"Ouch." Rainbow winced. "So... Are you gonna be busy today?"

There wasn't really much that needed to be done, other than give the engineers a debrief of the flight, have them give the aircraft a once-over, and setup guard shifts. "Not really, why?"

"Just wondering if you wanted to hang out. Oh, and Cloud and Scoots wanted to see you."

"Hmmm." John thought for a moment. "Tell you what, head into town, find Sergeant Ironhoof, and send him my way. After that, go ahead and grab the kids and come back. I should be just about done by then."

"YESSS!" Rainbow thrust a hoof in the air in celebration. "Be back in a jiffy." With that, she flew off in the direction of Ponyville, leaving a cloud of dust in her wake.

After watching her go, John went in search of the few engineers that came with the helicopter.

"Good afternoon, sir. I assume the flight went well?" One of the engineers asked when he saw the Lieutenant approaching.

"The takeoff was a bit rough, but it was smooth sailing for the duration afterwards." John replied. "All the gauges stayed in the green, both the startup and shutdown went smoothly, and nothing seemed strange. I'd call it a complete success."

All the engineers were elated at the news. "That's fantastic, sir!"

"Yeah, you guys did good." John smiled at their excitement. "However..." The ponies smiles waned. "That was the easy part. We've still got a long way to go before I'll be comfortable doing anything too crazy with her."

"Don't worry, sir. We'll make sure it's ready for anything!" The engineers nodded in affirmation. "In the mean time, is there anything you want us to do?"

John nodded. "Yeah. One sec." He took a step back, put his pointer fingers in his mouth, and blew.

PHBTHBTH

He glanced over at the engineers, who were snickering, and his face reddened. "...of all the times."

"That was silly!"

"AHHH!" John jumped, startled by the voice, and nearly tripped over the pink pony that was standing between his legs. "PINKIE!"

"That's me!" She exclaimed. "Here, try this!" She flipped over a nearby rock, grabbed a silver whistle from beneath it, and gave it to the baffled human.

"Um..." John stared Pinkie for a moment, trying to figure out what just happened. "Thanks."
Feeling a headache coming on, he shook his head in defeat and brought the whistle to his lips and blew. At the shrill tone, every head in the area turned towards him. "Bring it in! School circle, on me!"

"School circle, sir?" One of the engineers asked.

"Semi-circle. Like school kids around a teacher." In short order, everyone was gathered in front of the Lieutenant. "Alright, seeing as it's basically a waiting game at this point, I'm going to go ahead and call it for the day." The group cheered at the prospect of going into town for some free time. Raising his hand to calm the troops, he pointed at the engineers. "Engineers, you guys have your orders. When you're done, you're free to go." The appointed ponies nodded, and John pointed at the JTAC that arrived with the marines. "Staff Sergeant Daniels, Sergeant Ironhoof is on his way here. I want you to coordinate with him and setup a watch schedule. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just make sure nobody comes poking their noses where they shouldn't."

"Yes, sir." The Sergeant replied, then raised his hand. "Question?"

John nodded. "Shoot."

"Where is the manpower for the watch coming from?" The JTAC asked.

"Ironhoof's boys have been here on leave while we were off at the Academy." John replied. "Now that we're back, they're gonna step up and take the load off, so to speak. You all have worked your asses off the past few weeks, so now you get to have a break. I'll be rotating out everyone I can to make that happen. Any other questions?" Everyone present either replied with a "No, sir." or shook their heads. "Alright then. I don't know when the Princess is coming tomorrow, so be back here tomorrow by 0800 for morning briefing. Dismissed."

With that, the majority of the assembled individuals left and headed off in the direction of Ponyville.

It didn't take long for John to spot four ponies trotting towards him, one of which put a large smile on his face. "Well would ya look at that. Last time I saw you, you were laid up in the hospital."

"Normally, I'd say something along the lines of 'It'll take more than that to keep me down', but I'd rather not tempt fate." Lightning Flash retorted. "I'd also like to admit that getting shot suuuuucks."

"Indeed it does." John nodded. "You look on the up and up though."

"I guess. Therapy's a bitc- OW!" Lightning winced when a cyan wing thumped him on the back of the head. He looked over to see a rainbow-maned pegasus giving him the stink eye.

"Not in front of the kids."

John chuckled at the rather amusing sight, then looked over to the two foals that were currently staring wide-eyed at the two aircraft sitting behind him. "Speaking of, how have you two been?" The sudden question caused them to shift their gazes from the metal beasts to the human, large smiles on their faces. He pointed at the nearby Blackhawk. "Tell you what, let's catch up inside the helicopter."

"YEAH!"
"SWEET!"

The two foals glanced at each other for a moment. "Race you there!" They both shouted.

John and Rainbow chuckled as the two foals galloped off towards the aircraft.

Author's Note

Hoo Boy...

Hey, all! How's it hanging?

So... my plan to finish this story before I left for Basic fell through. Obviously.
And for that, I apologize.
In hindsight, with what I've got planned for this story, that was pretty much an impossible goal. I'm going to make it a point to not do that again in the future.

Anywho, over the course of the past however-long-it's-been, both this and my other story have had an ever-present place in the back of my mind. So, I figured it's high time to try my hand at this writing thing again.

I am NOT abandoning these stories.

I just have to find my runaway thought train and remember what the hell I had planned next.

Doesn't help that all my notes are literally 1732 miles away.

In the meantime, here's a quick little chapter that'll hopefully jog my memory.

[EDIT]:
Made the Featured Box for a bit. Wasn't expecting that, so that was pretty neat.