Aces' Diary

Chapter 1: Pony?

Gerhard woke up and saw nothing but darkness. He tried to look around, but his body wouldn’t obey him. He couldn’t feel his body either. Only darkness of the void around him.

So, this is how it end, a crash landing… he thought.

Suddenly, a mysterious bright light ahead of him drove away the nearby darkness. He tried to follow it, but no luck. He mustered all his might to follow it, still no luck. The light was getting brighter and brighter every second. His sensation of his torso had returned, followed by his arms, hands and legs. The light finally drove away the void. It embraced him. He felt warmth all over his body. He closed his eyes and waited for his judgment.

*****

Gerhard opened his eyes slowly t adjust his vision from the glare caused by sunlight. He was still in the cockpit of his Messerschmitt, but all his could see beyond its broken square canopy was a huge boulder and surrounding greenery. The propeller had bent and broken off before him.

So, this is what stopped my plane? he wondered while inspecting the gigantic rock.

Assuming that he was behind the enemy’s line, he decided to get out before anyone finds him. He tried moving his arm slowly to check its condition. Luckily, it remained unharmed from the crash. He felt liquid dripping from his head. He checked the wound, just a small cut. He continued to his legs.

“ARRGH!” he screamed in pain.

His left leg was broken, along with a few bruises. He tried to move it a bit to see how serious it was, but it merely lead to more fiery pain.

It’s very serious…

He unlocked his canopy and swung it open. He stood up on his good leg and climbed out. He stood on the wing, looked around. He saw a brightly-coloured field, mountain, forest, and a village.

This definitely isn’t England or France… he thought. Certainly not with those… flying horses. He shook his head to clear it. He looked about, but saw nothing. It must have been a hallucination, he rationalized.

He saw no one nearby. Considering the fact that this was probably enemy territory, which was a good thing. He grabbed his survival kit from behind the pilot’s seat and awkwardly walked down to the lowest wingtip, trying not to harm his fragile broken leg whilst still hurrying to get away from his downed aircraft. A crash landing would have drawn someone’s attention, so he only had a few minutes to get away. He drew his trusty Walther P38, just in case he was already too late.

Better be safe than sorry… he thought sagely.

He limped out of the open, to a bush near the forest. He hid in the bush and looked at his broken leg, covered fresh wounds. He could still do something about it. He broke off a twig and bit down on it before bending his own leg back to its normal shape.

“ARRG!” He cried in pain.

He broke some more branches to support his leg and wrapped some bandages around it. He found another to act as a crutch. As he finally settled himself back against a small tree, he felt something fall on his head. He looked up, rubbing his already sensitive scalp. He saw a lot of kids’ stuff, toys and tools.

Who would stashed tools in this bush? he wondered while taking account of everything hidden inside.

Then he saw an axe. He smirked and grabbed it. It was an ordinary axe in pink with some flower pattern on it. The handle was very smooth, must have been sanded. He tried it on one of the branch, clean cut. He grinned devilishly.

This would come in handy. He grinned deviously, staring at his reflection from the mirror-like surface of the axe.

He moved out of the bush. With a cane supporting him, he moved a bit quicker. Still, he felt uneasy, as if someone was looking at him. He looked around and readied his pistol. Nothing in the field nor the sky, only the forest he couldn’t check for the source of that feeling. He smelled something horrid, like someone who hadn’t brushed their teeth for years. He heard cracks from the bush nearby. He reacted by pointing his gun and readied his pink axe. He also checked his pistol, full magazine. He cocked his pistol and unlocked its safety, readied for anything closing on him.

A bunny came out, hopping as fast as it can. He lowered his pistol. Then he smelled it again, the horrid smell, this time much stronger. He looked around once more to find its source. He saw it: a wolf made of logs, branches and leaves. Its eyes emitting green light. It growled at him, the horrid stench almost destroying his sense of smell. It pounced at him and slashed at his chest with its wooden claws.

“ERRG…” He growled in pain. His blood burst from the ragged wound in his flesh.

He chopped its neck with his axe and kicked it off him. It flew through the air and landed a yard away from him. He stood back up, pointed his pistol at it, and fired a couple shots. Within the second the bullet pierced the beast’s body, it growled painfully. It was still alive, he shot two more rounds into its stomach. As his bullets ended the beast’s life, it broke into wooden pieces and disintegrated. Smoke emitted from it. He grabbed his axe from its remaining logs and branches. He then sheathed it into his belt.

He checked his chest, still bleeding. He unbuttoned his shirt to see three small cuts. He opened his first aid kit picked up a bottle of morphine and a syringe. He sucked some morphine into the syringe and injected it into his chest. He grabbed the alcohol from the kit and poured it all over the wound. He put down the alcohol and grabbed a needle and a length of surgical thread. He paused with the needle to his skin, but gathered his courage. He started to stitch his wounds one loop at a time, tying off each rough not as quickly as he could. When he finished, he grabbed a roll of bandage from the kit. He wrapped it around his chest and tied a knot to secure the bandage. He finished just as the effects of the morphine began to dull his senses.

Better make a fire before night comes…

He picked up the logs and branches from the wolf’s remains and built it into a teepee shape. He then walked to nearby bush and picked some dried leaves. He saw green smoke moving slowly to his campfire, but he ignored it. Then he smelled it, a stench that could kill an elephant. He dropped the dried leaves and unsheathed his axe. He couldn’t risk wasting more of the few bullets he had. Too late, it charged at him. He tried to dodge, and failed. The wooden wolf got him, he flew three metres away, and rammed into a nearby tree. He felt darkness begin to envelope him as his consciousness slipped away from him.

He saw a blurry yellow figure with something pink thing on its head approaching, fast. It reached where he and that wolf were. His consciousness was slipping even further away. It stood there and yelled something to the wolf. The wolf seemed scared; it fled to the forest. He was almost completely unconscious by that point. The yellow figure approached him.

“Ava......” he whispered his wife’s name

*****

He woke up in the same darkness again. But this time, he saw a figure in the distance. He focused. His wife.

“Ava!” he called out to her. She didn’t seem to hear him.

“Ava!” he called again. She still didn’t hear him.

“AVA!!” he yelled louder this time.

She heard him, turned her head, smiled, and walked away from him. He followed her, but the distance between them only grew. He ran to catch up; she started to run too.

“AVA! Why are you running away from me?” he asked his wife. She didn’t answer him.

The distance grew further and further. He started sprinting. The distance from her stopped growing, not increasing or decreasing.

“Ava, please stop running!” he asked her, and again, she didn’t respond.

He began to sweat, but not exhausted, thanks to his workout and training. She ran even faster, he started to get exhausted as well. The distance grew at great rate. Finally, he lost her.

“AVAAAAA!!”

*****

He woke up panting. He rose to a sitting position and shielded his eyes.

What a terrible nightmare…

Panting began to stop, took a deep breath and blew out through his lips. He looked around to see where he was. He was in some kind of house, a lot of cages and animal houses were there. He saw a bunny, looking at him with crossed arms. He looked back as it stared at him. The silence lasted for a couple of minutes, before it hopped to another room.

What a strange hare… He looked at the door as it hopped out

He took another look at his surroundings, same cages and houses. He looked outside, noticing that night had fallen. He checked his gear; service knife was still in its sheath in his boot, his pistol back in its holster with four rounds left in its magazine. He pulled out the spare bullets from one of his pockets. He loaded his current magazine, his spares already prepared. When he finished loading his magazine, he heard some footsteps from the door which the strange hare had hopped out. He put his magazine back in, cocked it and pointed at the source of the sound.

A yellow pony with a long curly pink mane shyly emerged from the door. It fell back behind the door after a few seconds. Suddenly, he heard a conversation on the other side of the wall.

“Oh, Angel, what should I do? He made that funny noise and pointed that strange metal rod at me…” said the lady behind the door. ‘Angel’ didn’t respond.

“I... I should t..talk to him?” the girl behind the door continued shyly.

What? Is she talking to herself? Confused, he froze there for a second, processing everything he had been listening to.

“Ahh. Ok…” she accepted her defeat.

The yellow horse with long curly pink mane. Butterflies tattoo and a pair of wings? Pushed the door open slowly and walked hesitantly toward him. It stopped before him, its mouth shivered. He sensed fear from it and he lowered his gun. He moved his empty hand toward it, trying to be as careful as possible.

It flinched and let out a small ‘eep.’ It trotted back and hid behind its long mane.

Eep? Horses can’t make that sound, right? once again, he asked himself the unanswerable question.

“Umm, where’s your owner?” he muttered. The yellow horse peeked out from its mane, seemed to hear it.

“I...I don’t have an owner....” it answered him quietly in a shaky tone.

“DID YOU JUST TALK?!” he let out a very surprised shout, thus it hid behind its mane and shook violently.

“Sorry, did you just talk?” he asked quietly. It peeked out again, tear in its eyes.

“Y...Yes, I did...?” it answered in a shaky tone.

“How can a horse talk?” he muttered, again it seemed to hear what he muttered.

“W..We’re ponies” it corrected quietly. He saw it said something, but couldn’t hear it.

“What did you say?” he asked quietly, careful not to startle it again.

“W...We a..are ponies...” it corrected again.

“Ok, you are a pony with wings and the ability to talk,” he replied quietly.

“I’m a p..pegasus” it corrected him quietly. It stood up slowly.

“So, you are a pegasus that can talk,” he said what he learnt a minutes ago.

“A..And my n..name is F..Fluttershy”

“Excuse me?” he asked what it said.

“M...My n..name is F…Fluttershy,” it said again, a bit more audible than the first time.

“Butter Pie?” he repeated for correction.

“Fluttershy” it said, a lot more audible.

“Fluttershy?” he asked for an approval from her.

“Y..Yes,” she approved.

“Miss Fluttershy, where exactly am I?” he asked, looking out from a window.

“E..Equestria,” she answered his question.

“Where’re all the humans?” he asked and started panicking a bit.

“W...What are humans?” she asked back with confused look on her face.

He would have panicked, but his training taught him to remain calm and solve the problem, whatever it is. So instead, he moved on to a problem he could actually solve.

“Err...so, I’m in your house?” he asked

“Y...Yes,” she answered. He moved to the next question that popped into his head…

“What happened when it attacked me?” he asked, waited for her answer patiently.

“I...I was feeding my friends here when I smelled something horrible. So, I followed the smell and found you. He was... mauling you. That was not very nice of him so I...” She trailed off, unable to finish.

“Thanks, for that. I really needed it back then. I wouldn’t have survived him if you weren’t there,” he said, grateful for her help.

“I..It’s nothing, I couldn’t stand not to helped somepony that’s in danger!” she exclaimed.

“By the way, did I drop anything?” he asked

“I found this lying on the ground near you,” she answered his question, picking up his survival kit.

“Danke,” (Thank you) he said in German.

“W...What?” she asked, making a confused look on her face.

“Oh sorry, it means ‘Thank you’ in my language,” he answered her curiosity, wiping the confused look off her face.

“Ok…” she answered quietly

His stomach started to groan, alerting him to eat something. He rubbed his stomach. He grabbed a can of his rations labeled ‘Sauerkraut’ from his survival kit.

“Can I use your stove?” he asked her while he tried to figure out the way to open it.

“O...Of course.”

“Where’s the kitchen?”

“T....There.” She pointed her hoof at one of the doors. “W...What’re you going to do?” she asked him, looking at the bag he just grabbed.

“Cook some food,” he answered her question, before he walked to her kitchen.

She followed him. Her animals seemed to be frightened by him. She calmed them down before following him to the kitchen.

“Miss Fluttershy, Do you have a knife?” he asked. He looked at her sought for her answer.

“Err.... no, s..sorry,” she answered with a sad tone, looking down to the floor.

“It’s ok, Fluttershy. No need to be sorry,” he said to comfort her a bit. He pulled out his own knife from its sheath in his right boot. Fluttershy flinched a bit. He stabbed the can and cut the top open. He stared at the stove for a minute to figure out how to use it.

Fluttershy stood there and watched him cooking. She wanted to help him with the stove, but was too scared to say anything much. Gerhard finally figured out how to turn it on, after 5 minutes of trying.

“JA!” he shouted victoriously, which frightened Fluttershy in the progress.

“Sorry…” he apologized when he saw Fluttershy shivering in fear.

He wasted no time. He picked the ration up, put it on the stove, and waited. While it was heating up, he opened his survival kit and grabbed a spoon. After 5 minutes, He decided his meal was ready to eat.

He turned off the stove and picked up his ration. Fluttershy watched from the corner of the kitchen, wondering what was in that can; it smelled delicious. Gerhard scooped the cabbage up and ate it. It wasn’t that good, but this would satisfy his hunger for a couple of hours. He saw that Fluttershy was interested in his meal. He decided to ask if she would like some.

“Would you like a taste, Miss Fluttershy?” he asked

“Oh, that would be very nice thank you Mr… you never did tell me your name.”

“Excuse my rudeness, Miss. I’m Leutnant Gerhard Barkhorn, pilot of the Jagdgeschwader 52, Luftwaffe.”

“Er... sorry, I..I don’t want to be rude but, I don’t know what you are saying,” she apologized silently.

“Sorry for my mother language, I’m Lieutenant Gerhard Barkhorn, pilot of 52nd Fighter Wing, German Air Force.”

“S...Sorry, w..what’s a fighter wing?” she asked shyly as always

He was in a land of talking horse. There could be more of them. If they’re actually the dominant specie, they should at least have military. He scooped up some more into his mouth before answering her.

“A group of pilots that fly fighter aircraft,” he explained after he had chewed all the cabbage in his mouth. “Anyway, you want some of this?" he asked the same question again.

“Oh, t...thank you,” she said quietly, grateful for his generosity. He had eaten enough for this meal, so, he gave the rest of his ration to Fluttershy.

Somehow, Gerhard felt that Fluttershy was really cute. He shook that feeling away. Fluttershy gave him back his ration can. He accepted it from her, washed it at her sink, and let it dry on the counter. He would stash it back in his survival kit when it dried.

He felt tired; his eyes were getting heavier and heavier. He wanted to sleep, but he had to warn Fluttershy about something first.

“Fluttershy,” he called her. She turned to him.

“W..What is it Mr. Barkhorn?” she asked him.

“This thing" he said as he pointed at his gun. “Please, do NOT ever touch this. it’s very dangerous, trust me,” he said and made a serious face.

“O…O…Ok,” She nodded as she replied him in shaky voice, fear on her face.

He noticed the look she gave him. Fear... “Sorry, Fluttershy," he apologized. “Anyway, don’t touch this, alright? It can kill you if you are not careful,” he said. The word ‘kill’ made Fluttershy flinch. She would never touch a thing that will kill someone. She nodded silently.

“Is there any chance you have somewhere I can sleep?” he asked, looking in Fluttershy’s eyes, seeking for her answer.

“Y...Y can use my bed, I could sleep on the couch.”

“You should sleep in your bed, I’m fine with the couch,” he exclaimed

“O..Ok,” she agreed, not wanting to argue.

He walked to the room he woke up. He saw the couch he lay on when he was unconscious. He sat on it and removed his black leather boots before lying down and covering himself with the blanket. He closed his eyes, waiting for the sandman to put him to sleep.