Chatper Eleven - Magical Airport Ninjas

Upon opening the door and walking inside, I found the first room to be empty, there were just a load of wires and pipes, along with some stairs to the second level, I looked up the stairs and noticed a CCTV camera on the first floor.

“We can’t turn off the spell here, there’s a camera up there.” I whispered to Twilight.

I knew the original plan was to deactivate the spell to conserve mana, but I guess we’d have to take the risk of keeping the spell on to prevent getting caught here.

“Where to now?” She asked.

“Let’s see where these stairs take us.” I said.

We quickly and quietly crept up the stairs, on the first floor we found more stairs, and a door with a sign saying ‘maintenance room’.

“No use in there, we need to find some sort of control room.” I said.

Twilight said nothing, and simply followed me up the stairs, my heart was racing, I was expecting a guard to come and catch me any second now; my hands were shaking and I felt a big tingle up my spine.
We got to the second floor, where there was another door labelled ‘Server room’.

“Let’s try in here.” I whispered.

I slowly opened the door, luckily there were no people inside, but there were no computers either, just a load of routers, a shed load of wires, and other technical equipment.

“Nothing in here, next floor.” I said.

As I turned and headed up the stairs, I heard a groan of frustration from someone, and it wasn’t Twilight.

“Get back, quickly, against the wall.” I quietly hissed to Twilight.

We swiftly slinked against the wall at the stairs just as a pair of feet came into sight.

“For goodness sake… Graham do this, Graham do that… Do it yourself you lazy bastard, maintenance isn’t even my job…” The man mumbled to himself.

He was a rather fat man with a large nose, and had a big bald patch on the back of his head and a noticeable wart on his chin.
He waddled down the stairs and then down the stairs beyond that, so no doubt he was going to the maintenance room.

“Right, let’s move.” I whispered.

We continued up the stairs to the third floor and found what we were looking for, the control room. I put my ear to the door to hear two voices inside.

“There are people in there, what do we do?” I asked.

“I don’t know!” She growled back, rather loudly.

“Sshh, do you want us to get caught?” I growled.

I looked around frantically, then had an idea.

“Twilight, I’m going to knock on the door, when it opens, find your chance and get in there.” I ordered.

“I’m not going in there alone, do you think I’m stupid enough to trust you?” She growled.

“I never said you’re going alone, just find your chance and get in, I’ll knock twice if need to be.” I replied.

“Fine.” She mumbled.

“Ready?” I asked.

She said nothing, so I could only assume that she was. I put my hand to the door, and knocked three times.
Five seconds later, the door opened. A man stood in the doorway, he was tall, thin, and had a huge chin, his fringe was swept across to one side, making it look like an ocean wave.

“Why hello! Oh, hello? Who’s there?” He asked openly, looking around.

“Who is it Harry?” A woman called from inside.

“I don’t know poppet, there’s no one out here.” The man replied.

“It’s probably just Graham messing around, not wanting to sort those fuses out.” The woman suggested.

“What a sausage…” The man said before shutting the door.

“What now?” Twilight hissed with frustration.

I ignored her and knocked on the door a second time. A few seconds later the man named Harry opened the door quickly.

“What is it now?” He called out.

He looked around and huffed.

“That’s it Graham…” He said before stepping out the door.

As quick as a flea Twilight and I crept behind him and into the room, Harry then closed the door behind us. Inside the room there were a few desks, some office chairs, and about seven computers, in the middle of the room the woman was sitting at a computer, typing in some things.

“Those guys…” She mumbled to herself.

The telephone next to her on the desk started to ring; she picked it up and answered.

“Hello? Yeah. It’s Kinder, the others are busy, uh huh, right…” She said before engaging a full conversation with whoever was contacting her.

“The computer in the far corner.” I whispered to Twilight.

We both scuttled over to the corner of the room, the computer was on and was on the main desktop.

“Use the keyword ‘database’.” I whispered.

Twilight crouched beneath the desk so her magic wouldn’t be seen and began to do her work. The computer screen started to fuzz and the cursor darted around, a second later a selection of applications and documents came up, one of which was titled ‘Gatwick_Flight_Database.apdtb’ I took the mouse and double clicked on it, the database opened up and the whole screen changed to an application. I started seeing a shed load of numbers, country names, aeroplane company names, a clock, a radar, some sort of map, and a large number of connection bars at the bottom left corner of the screen.

“What do I do?” Twilight whispered.

I clicked on a bar at the top of the screen that had a magnifying glass, making it clear that it was a search bar, and typed in Brazil.
Nothing came up.

“Search for Brazil.” I ordered.

Twilight did as I asked, but her results were no better than mine.

“Nothing… There’s nothing.” She said, her breathing rate increasing, it was at this point where I realised she was just as scared as I was, maybe even more.

{Think Callum, think!} I thought to myself.

“Do the airports in Brazil have names?” She asked.

“Yes, but I don’t know them.” I replied.

Then an idea hit me… Names, locations, places in Brazil that might show up.

“Come on, hurry up, I can’t hold this spell forever.” Twilight hissed, getting even more worked up, she was going to hyperventilate at this point.
“I’m thinking, I’m thinking…” I whispered back.

{What’s the name of the place with the giant Jesus dude? Favela? No! That’s a Modern Warfare Two map!} I angrily thought to myself, trying desperately to think of a name.

The door to the control room opened and Harry walked back in, causing Twilight and I to jump.

“Apparently it wasn’t him.” He said, sitting down and opening a packet of crackers.

“How can you eat those? They’re so dry and tasteless…” The woman asked, pretending to gag.

“I like my crackers!” He squawked.

“Pfft, I need to call you Polly from now on, you’re like a bloody parrot…” The woman said, rolled her eyes.

{Parrots live in Brazil… Harry’s hair is like a wave, waves are blue, there’s a parrot called Blu in the film Rio!} I screamed in thought, almost aloud.

“Search for Rio.” I said to Twilight.

She did so, and there were no results.

“Nothing…” She whimpered, now getting herself really worked up.

“There must be… How are you spelling it?” I asked.

“R, E, E, O, H.” She answered.

“Spell it with R, I, O.” I ordered.

The screen once again flashed, and there it was, result we had been looking for. Flight TC, BRZL, Seven, Nine, Two. Rio de Janeiro.

“Got you...” I sighed in relief.

“It’s in one hour.” Twilight said, which upon looking at the screen showed that she was correct, fifty eight minutes to be precise; it was a Thomas Cook plane.

I took my phone out of my pocket to find it wasn’t invisible, not to my eyes anyway; I went to my stopwatch app and started it, causing it to beep.

“What was that?” The woman asked.

{Fuck!} I thought to myself, putting my phone back in my pocket.

Harry stood up and headed over to us, I quickly closed the application. I ducked down and stood absolutely still, next to me I could hear Twilight breathing quickly and faintly, full of fear.

“Shh…” I whispered as quietly as I could.

Harry looked around, saw nothing and shrugged.

“You must have been hearing things.” He said and walked back to his chair to eat more crackers.

Suddenly Twilight’s horn fizzled and the invisibility spell wore off; I looked her, and she looked at me, both of us petrified.

“What have you done?” I whispered angrily.

“The time on the spell wore off.” She replied, gulping.

“Cast another, quickly.” I hissed.

“I can’t, my magic would be too loud, and I can’t spare any more mana, or I won’t be able to provide enough when we’re airborne, we’ll die.” She whispered back.

I quickly went back to the computer and typed ‘camera’ into the search bar.

“What are you doing?” She asked, looking side to side in fear.

“I’m going to try disabling the cameras so we won’t get caught.” I answered.

In the results I found a single application called ‘CCTVCameraControl.exe’, I double clicked on it and was greeted with the same layout as the database, but the records was replaced with a single drop box, I clicked on it and it had a load of different options. Flight Tower, Office, Passenger Seating, blah blah blah… I scrolled down until I found ‘Rear Stairwell’. I clicked on that and was greeted with five screens, one camera for each floor, I found the floor I was on and selected the camera, and then noticed a button next to the camera name that said ‘deactivate’. I selected all the cameras on the stairwell and shut them all down, I then turned off the camera outside the airport as well so we wouldn't be spotted when running away.

Within a few seconds the telephone next to the woman rang, she picked it up and listened to what was said.

“Well there’s only me and Harry in here, and we haven’t touched them.” She said.

“What is it?” Harry asked, tilting his head on one side.

“We’ll sort it out.” The woman said, putting down the phone and looked to Harry. “Roger’s saying the cameras outside and on the stairs have been turned off from this room.”

I gulped.

“I’ll go outside and check.” Harry said, opening the door and leaving the room.

Thankfully he left the door wide open, we had one shot at this, or it would be all over. I picked up a pencil from the desk and looked around the corner at the woman, I waited until she looked at her own computer, and then I threw the pencil so that it went over her head and clattered against the wall behind her.

The trick worked like a charm, the woman turned around and looked at the wall to find the source of the sound; the second she turned around Twilight and I dashed forward and out the door, we made it.

“Now what?” She whispered.

“Downstairs and out.” I replied.

“But what about the other human?” She asked.

Just as she mentioned him, Harry came back up the stairs. I hurried up to the fourth floor and sat there, Twilight followed. Harry went back into the control room and shut the door. Without saying a word I headed down the stairs, I stopped on the first floor to check if Twilight was ok; she was right behind me, still scared without her invisibility spell.

“Who the heck are you?” A guy asked behind me.

I turned to see the fat man, Graham, looking directly at me, he then looked at Twilight.

“And what the heck is that?” He asked.

I stood there and calmly looked back at him, trying to look like I was allowed here.

“Just a delivery boy, Harry and Kinder want this thing in the office.” I said.

Upon mentioning his colleagues, he loosened up and assumed I had permission to be on the premises.

“What is that thing?” He asked once more.

“If you closely, you’ll see it’s clearly a unicorn.” I replied.

“It looks alive.” He said.

“Totally.” I deadpanned, trying to pass her off as a large plushie.

I looked at Twilight and kicked her in the leg, she froze solid and didn’t even flinch, she didn’t even blink. I smirked at finally being able to get back at her and her not being able to do anything about it.

“So it’s like a big plush or something?” He asked.

“Pretty much.” I replied.

I can’t believe this guy was taking the bait, he was denser than I thought; it was at that time when Twilight sneezed. She jumped up and shook her head, then realised what she had done and here pupils shrunk in terror, she looked at Graham and gulped.

“It… It… It is alive!” Graham shouted.

I had no time for words now, we had been spotted, and we would surely be compromised if I didn’t take action; it was about time I put my boxing experience to good use. I darted forward, punched Graham in the gut, causing him to bend over in pain, I then twisted my body and gave him an uppercut to the jaw, sending him down the stairs and into an unconscious heap.

Twilight stood there, her mouth agape, unable to take in what she had just seen; I nudged her shoulder, causing her to look at me.

“Move, now.” I ordered.

We rushed down the stairs and past Graham.

“Nothing personal mate…” I mumbled as I opened the back door.

I held the door open for Twilight, who ran out and didn’t stop running, she ran for the fence, I shut the door behind me and bolted as well; I was a good runner, due to having long legs, and had to sprint for only a couple of seconds to zoom past Twilight.

We got to the fence to find the others waiting on the other side, Twilight used another portal spell and we passed through, she fell to her knees and began to pant, trying to recover her breath; I on the other hand was not out of breath, I was running on the spot throwing punches into the air.

“Hell yeah! This is awesome! I’ve never felt so alive!” I shouted.

The adrenaline coursing through my veins had never been so strong, the excitement never being so intense; I had just crept inside an airport, taken intelligence, disabled security cameras and knocked someone out. It was like a bloody action movie!

“What happened?” Rainbow Dash asked, her eyes wide with curiosity.

“Well, I was a ninja, and then I did some ninja stuff.” I said with a big grin.

“Come on, what happened?” Dash persisted, desperate to know.

I ignored her and pulled some sunglasses out of my bag, which we had left by the fence before we set out.

“The name’s Bond… James Bond…” I said seductively, lowering my sunglasses slightly with a finger.

Dash responded by hitting me in the arm, pretty hard actually.

“Tell me!” She whined.

“I’ll tell you when we’re on the plane.” I replied, rubbing my arm.

Dash sat down and huffed.

“Fine.”

“Alrighty then, our ride is in about forty five minutes.” I said, continuing to bounce around in excitement.

“What do we do in the meantime?” Rarity asked.

“We wait.” Twilight huffed, still catching her breath.

“Boring! I want to race Callum to see who’s faster out of our kind!” Rainbow Dash shouted.

To be perfectly honest, that was a pretty good idea, a bloody brilliant idea.

“I’m up for that. No flying though.” I said, poking Dash’s wing.

“Fine…” She moaned, rolling her eyes.

“Mind if I join y’all?” Applejack asked.

“By all means!” I happily replied.

Pinkie then jumped forward and was automatically appointed as the referee.

“Follow me to the start point! First one back here wins!” She squeaked and bounced away, we all shrugged and followed her.

She ended leading us to where our old camp was, which was about half a mile from our current location at the fence. She pulled some chalk out of her mane and drew a line in the ground. I looked at her, dumbfounded. I shook my head and remember that this was Pinkie Pie, there was all sorts of stuff hidden in her mane. I wouldn’t be surprised if she kept her Element of Harmony in there…

“Okie dokie lokie, first one back wins!” She yelled.

I got down like an Olympic runner, I noticed Dash and Applejack do the same.

“Three!”

I stretched my calf muscles.

“Two!”

I took a deep breath.

“One!”

I stared at the path ahead and tightened every muscle in my body, ready for a sprint.

“GO!” Pinkie screamed.

The three of us bolted, I sprinted as fast as I could, my arms swung back and forth as I gained momentum and glided across the ground. To my right I caught a glimpse of a rainbow coloured mane and knew Dash was right next to me, I could hear her hooves gallop on the dirt beneath us, this was intense.
To my left I could hear a heavier pair of hooves behind me and knew Applejack was right on my tail, being a farm worker had led to her legs becoming awfully strong, along with naturally being strong from her species as an earth pony, on the other hand Dash was thinner and lighter on her hooves as a pegasus. These two pony types were equally matched, despite their differences, I was not a pony, but I had my traits as well. I was a lot like Applejack, I was quite broad and was good at heavy lifting, making my legs very strong, but at the same time I was a good sprinter and light on my toes like Rainbow dash, this race was going to be very close.

A few yards ahead lay a fallen tree that was about waist height, Pinkie had purposely made this part of the track, as we approached it I noticed Rainbow Dash jump up then flap her wings once, giving her a large boost, she cleared the log and took the lead. I saw this as cheating, but it only made me more eager to win. I vaulted the log and kept running, we were very close to the finish line.
No more than twenty seconds later I could see the others waiting for us, upon seeing Dash a metre or two in front of me made me give one final push of desperation to win, I burst into a much stronger sprint, and I zoomed forward, in seconds I came alongside the pegasus, she noticed me and went into a sprint of her own, she managed to get a little further ahead but no more than half a metre. I gave one final burst of energy and sprinted at my absolute maximum and managed to pass Dash, but by then it was too late, we had both crossed the finish line; I skidded to a halt and almost collided with Rarity, who had jumped out of the way just in time.

I put my hands on my knees to support myself and began to breathe deeply to pay off the oxygen debt, even I had my limits when it came to stamina.

“Oh yeah! I did it! Woohoohoo!” Rainbow Dash cheered.

I tried to speak up, but I needed a minute to get my breath back.

“Stick to marshmallows two legs, I’m the fastest around here!” Dash continued to cheer.

“Only ‘cus you cheated!” Applejack puffed from behind us.

“Did not!” Dash shouted defensively.

“Well, you did use your wings at the jump.” Rarity pointed out.

“You weren’t even there!” Dash growled.

Rarity’s horn lit up and a magical projection appeared next to her, like a hologram, and it replayed the race, showing Dash flap her wings at the jump and proving that she cheated. Before anyone could say anything, Twilight walked through the projection, causing it to fizzle and disappear.

“The human is a selfish creature that can’t take losing, end of story; now if you actually care about Equestria and our extremely important mission, you would have noticed the aeroplane with Thomas Cook written on the side of it. That’s the one we need to take, and it leaves in fifteen minutes; so get your things and make a move.” She ordered.

Although Twilight was a massive party pooper, she had a point, regardless of her barbed comment.

“I wouldn’t say Callum can’t take losing, he hasn’t even complained.” Applejack mentioned.

“I said get your things, not question me about your pathetic little competitions!” Twilight barked, causing Fluttershy to jump out of her skin.

Applejack was about to argue, but I quickly shook my head at her. Twilight turned around and levitated her saddle bag onto her back, she fastened the belt, and then used a spell to literally burn a hole through the metal fence; so much for saving mana.

“Don’t worry, we’ll have a rematch at another time.” I quietly said to Applejack.

She looked at me dully without saying a word, she was still clearly annoyed by Twilight’s outburst; I walked over to Fluttershy and knelt down to her height.

“You ok?”

She gave a tiny nod, which was reasonably good for Fluttershy’s standards; I stood up and gave her a small pat on the shoulder, like I had to Rarity before.

“Alright everypony, it’s time to fly!” I announced. I loved the fact I could now say ‘everypony’ without it being weird.

The others were all ready, their bags on their backs. I slung my rucksack onto my back and stepped through the hole in the fence that Twilight had so nicely created. I looked over to the Thomas Cook plane to see a long vehicle alongside it, a man was hauling people’s luggage onto a conveyor belt into the cargo hold, which was our destination.

“Twilight, put the invisibility spell on us, there are humans over at the plane.” I ordered.

Twilight was too afraid of being caught to challenge me and obeyed, our bodies fizzled and phased out, I could only tell where the others were by the purple glows around their bodies.

“Get us there quickly, human; I can’t sustain this spell for long if we want to survive in the air.” Twilight snarled.

“Very well, pony.” I replied and jogged towards the plane, once again ignoring her foul attitude.

As everyone caught up and kept pace with me, I decided to speed up into a run, we got to the conveyor belt and the others crowded around me.

“We need to get on that belt, and fast, they’re almost done loading the plane.” I explained to the six, not loud enough for the men to hear.

Rainbow Dash did not need to be told twice, she crept past the man loading luggage onto the belt and sat on the belt and slid up and into the plane. I honestly didn’t expect her to go ahead and jump on that quickly, I guess she really was the ‘who dares wins’ character of the group.
After seeing Dash get on, Applejack and Pinkie followed, then Fluttershy and Rarity.

“Is that the lot?” The man shouted to another man behind the vehicle.

“Three more!” He called back.

“Twilight, get on.” I hissed.

She was motionless, it was as if the size of the plane and all the noise had petrified her. I was left with no other option.

“Sorry about this.” I whispered and I swung my hand forward and slapped Twilight on the side of the head.

She yelped and turned to me, I didn’t need to see her face to know she was absolutely livid.

“You just fu-”

I cut her off by grabbing her muzzle tightly.

“Get on that belt, right now. Or you get left behind.” I growled.

I let go of her muzzle and she quickly hopped onto the belt, now terrified out of her wits; I jumped on behind her and slid upwards to the cargo door.
The cargo hold was bigger than I had expected it to be, Twilight slid off the belt and fell down onto a suitcase, landing on her chest and giving a loud “Oof!” I misjudged my timing and fell in the same fashion as Twilight and landed on my shoulder right next to her.
Her spell turned off and I looked around to see Pinkie bouncing on some large elastic tubing, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were quizzing one another on sports, and Fluttershy was crouched down between two suitcases next to Rarity.

I turned back to find Twilight glaring at me, her lips curved up into a snarl.

“Yeah… About that slap…” I said sheepishly.

She only glared harder at me, her breathing sounding like small grunts.

“Twilight, I only did that because it was necessary, you froze and I needed you to move there and then.” I tried to explain.

She stood up and I thought she was just going to blank me, she walked past me and I thought it was over, when suddenly she lifted her hind legs and bucked me in the face, causing me to jolt back and cry out. It hurt more than anything before, probably more than when I sniffed the Kuphila Amanzi; the whole front of my face felt like it was burning and my lips puffed up.
She dived into me and attempted to hit me repeatedly; I put my hands over my head to shield myself from the beating.

“Necessary! I’ll show you necessary you runt! You demented pig!” She screamed.

Before she could hit me any further, Rainbow Dash whizzed over and pulled her back.

“Twilight stop! What the heck is wrong with you?” She yelled.

Applejack rushed over and also helped to restrain her.

“Alright Twi, simmer down.” Applejack said.

Twilight tried to shake her off.

“Get off me!” She shrieked.

Applejack then lost her temper and grabbed Twilight and forced her to the ground and put her lips to her ear.

“You’re acting like you have a mental problem Twi; Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie don’t need to see this, they don’t need their best friend being violent in front of them, so when I tell you to simmer down, I mean simmer the fuck down; ok?” She hissed.

She took a step back to let Twilight stand, upon standing she glared at me, her lips and nose twitched with rage. After a few seconds she gave a loud grunt in frustration and spat at me, she then trotted off to the other side of the cargo hold; Rainbow Dash then flew over to my side and helped me sit up.

“Dude, are you ok?” She asked.

I wiped my face with my wrist to find my nose was bleeding, quite badly too, but at least it wasn’t broken.

“I’m fine.” I mumbled.

“Care to tell me what that was all about?” Applejack asked as she approached me.

I gave a small groan and wiped my nose again before I answered.

“She refused to get on the belt and we only had a few seconds left or we wouldn’t have made it on, she froze like a block of ice, I slapped her to get her to come to her senses and get on.” I explained.

“It’s about time she got a slap.” Rainbow Dash giggled.

Applejack on the other hand wasn’t impressed.

“Callum, she hates you as it is, hitting her ain’t going to get her to like you any faster, and I don’t approve you hurting my friends, even if they are being difficult.” She said, looking rather angry.

“Yeah, I know, but I had to-”

“But, nothing.” Applejack interrupted, “You could have got her attention without hurting her; you two have had tension from the moment you met. You’ve wanted to get back at her, and you saw the opportunity to hurt her and you took it.” She scolded.

“It wasn’t like that Applejack.” I said defensively.

“It was exactly like that, it would have only taken a nudge of the shoulder to get her to listen, not a slap.” She continued.

“Alright, maybe I got frustrated and acted a little too hasty.” I admitted, taking on what she was saying.

“There’s no maybe Callum, you’re in the wrong, now own up to it.” Applejack demanded.

“Ok, ok, I’m sorry.” I apologised.

“It’s not me you need to be sorry to.” Applejack said, turning around and walking over to talk with Rarity.

I wrinkled my nose and got up. I instantly felt Rainbow Dash pull my arm in attempt to help me.

“Hey, don’t listen to her, Applejack just likes to play the mother in this group.” She said.

“What do you mean?” I asked, licking some blood off my lower lip.

“Well, she enjoys the mother role, and likes to look after everypony and treat them like her kids or something; she’s been doing it for years with her little sister Applebloom.” Dash explained.

“Why does she do that?” I questioned with great curiosity.

“I don’t really know, I guess she’s been like it since… Since…” Rainbow Dash stopped and looked at the ground, she quickly licked her lips as they had gone dry.

“Since what?” I pressed.

“Look, dude, it’s not really my place to tell you, and AJ is really sensitive about it; she’ll tell when she’s ready to.” She said, giving a small sigh.

I nodded and didn’t press any further. I didn’t need to, it didn’t take a genius to work out what Dash had meant. I remembered yesterday when I planned to fake my own death and Applejack started to get emotional. Death was definitely the reason behind Applejack’s mothering behaviour. I assumed the worst and figured that Applejack’s parents had died, which was actually rather plausible as nothing is ever heard from her parents in the TV show. It was quite heart breaking to think about.

Without warning the plane’s engines started up and the whole cargo hold began to gently rumble, Fluttershy squeaked loudly and bolted towards the nearest pony possible, which was Rarity.

“What’s going on?” She yelped.

The others started to look around frantically, full of fear.

“Alright everypony, calm down, the plane’s starting up, that’s all.” I called out.

That calmed them all down, besides Twilight.

“He’s lying! We’re all going to die! This is a murder chamber!” She yelled.

Fluttershy screamed and sprinted to the cargo door, which was now closed.

“For fuck sake Twilight…” I muttered under my breath.

I jogged over to Fluttershy and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Fluttershy, look at me.”

She did as I asked, tears were in the corners of her eyes.

“Twilight doesn’t know this world, she makes all the comments and assumptions because she’s scared, just as scared as you are. But you are safe. I promise you.” I told her soothingly.

“Oh now look at the human! Filling Fluttershy’s head with lies, so she doesn’t call for help!” Twilight continued to yell.

I gently patted Fluttershy’s shoulder before walking towards Twilight; Applejack frowned at looked from me to Twilight constantly, checking to see if she should intervene.

“Th-That’s close enough…” Twilight stuttered.

It was there and then that I realised she wasn’t simply afraid of me, she was one hundred percent terrified of me; as much as this fact saddened me, I felt like I could use it to my advantage in the many days to come.
I walked right up to Twilight, who in turn backed up to the edge of the cargo hold and gulped; I squatted down and looked her in the eye, my nose had stopped bleeding but my entire lip area was still covered in drying blood, I basically had a blood goatee.

“Listen here… You don’t like me, and from here onward, I don’t like you either, but for the sake of Fluttershy and Pinkie, I’m not going to start a fight. Like Applejack said, no violence for them. But you are causing Fluttershy to freak out, if you really care about your friends, you’d shut up and stop filling their heads with fear.” I hissed to her.

She didn’t speak, she didn’t even blink, her quivering lips were the only sign of movement.

“What makes you think I want you dead so badly? If this were a ‘murder chamber’ as you called it, why would I have jumped in with you?
I don’t know what Celestia has told you, but if you truly believe that I want to kill you, then what she’s told you is wrong.
Now, if you want to be reason for our deaths, sit here and be the paranoid little bitch you’ve been since we met.
Alternatively, if you want us to get to Brazil alive, and progress in protecting your world, then get to the centre of this cargo hold, and cast your pressure stability spell. I want to hear nothing from you if it isn’t positive, are we clear?” I finished.

Once again, she was frozen solid.

“Are… We… Clear…?” I asked again, tilting my head on one side.

She nervously nodded and gulped again.

“Good…” I whispered, in such a calm, quiet tone that it sounded rather psychotic.

I stood up and clapped my hands, causing Twilight to flinch.

“Alright everypony, I’ve got some good news and some bad news!
Good news is, we’re not going to die! Bad news is, none! It’s all good!” I called.

Pinkie cheered and pulled a party horn out of her mane and blew it, causing the others to laugh. I headed over to the group and sat down next to Rarity; the others all in turn sat around me.

“When do we take off?” Dash asked.

As if her words had triggered it, the aeroplane started moving, a slight jolt at first, and then a smaller continuous shake.

“Right now it would seem.” I said, almost having to shout due to the volume.

The plane’s engines started to screech as the vehicle began to zoom across the runway.

“Hey Twilight, do you want to get your spell up and running before we drift off to an eternal slumber?” I called over to the purple unicorn, who hadn’t moved from her last position.

She got up and slowly waddled over to the rest of the group. She sat down without uttering a word.

“What’s up Sparkler? Why the long face?” Pinkie chirped, tilting her head on one side.

Before anything else could be said, the aeroplane left the runway and we were all temporally lifted into the air, Pinkie decided to jump at the same time and was sent flying to the other side of the cargo bay, Rainbow Dash simply flapped her wings so she was unaffected, Twilight slid a good two metres across the floor, Fluttershy and Rarity held on to the suitcases so not much happened for them, while Applejack hurtled forward into me, we tumbled around a bit until the plane finally levelled out.

I ended up on my back with Applejack on top of me; she didn’t seem to notice I was there.

“Whooee! Now that was a take off!” She cheered.

“Applejack.” I said with a dull tone.

She looked down and saw my head being half flattened by her chest.

“Oh, hehe, howdy there partner.” She chuckled.

She stood up and hopped to one side so I could stand up, I looked around to see the majority of the group back where they were before, except for Pinkie, who was nowhere to be seen.

“Is everyone alright?” I called.

Everyone gave nods and there was a ‘yes’ or two, and then I heard a mumble from behind me; I turned around to see a pile of suitcases moving, I hurried over there and moved the cases aside to find Pinkie Pie giggling out of her wits.

“Oh my gosh that was so fun! Can we do it again? I flew! It was super fun! Please can we do it again!?” She squealed in delight.

I laughed at her enthusiasm and pulled her out of the pile, I checked her over to ensure she wasn’t hurt, and then we walked back to the others.

“Can we get the spell up yet? It’s cold as my mother’s heart in here!” I joked.

Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack and even Fluttershy laughed at the comment and all agreed that the temperature was dropping, and that the air was getting quite thin.
Twilight’s horn began to glow and a large spark of energy landed on the ground in the middle of us, it expanded into a large bubble and it became easy to breathe again. Twilight then used another spell, which caused a reddish pink light to shoot from her horn into everyone, and I suddenly felt a great sense of warmth, it was like I had been wrapped in a large woollen blanket. I looked at the others to find they all had a slight orange glow around them, it almost made them look cartoon again. I looked at my own hands to find they had the same glow, it was like the thick black outlines in Borderlands Two, but in orange instead.

“This is some freaky shit right here…” I mumbled to myself.

Rainbow Dash heard me and giggled, she gave me a nudge to get my attention.

“So how long until we get to Brazil?” She asked.

“About five to seven hours, maybe more.” I replied.

Being a very impatient pony, my estimated time brought a frustrated sigh to Dash; but I saw the time given as an opportunity to learn more about real life Equestria compared to the show.

“Hey guys, how about we take time to tell some of our best life stories and cool stuff that’s happened in our lives?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” Rarity asked.

Before I could answer, Pinkie came over to me and hugged me.

“I have loads of life stories, I’ll start with my first one! I was born on a Tuesday…” She said.

“You know she won’t stop right?” Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyes.

“I have an idea!” Rarity piped from out of the blue.

“And that is?” I queried.

“Let’s see how long you can cope with Pinkie telling you her entire life story!” She sang, banging her hooves together.

“That’s a great idea!” Pinkie squeaked, “I’ll start right now!”

“Now now, let’s not decide on that too-”

“Now then, as I said, I was born on a Tuesday.” Pinkie interrupted, “From day one I liked sugar! Ponies tell me I have no way of knowing I liked sugar because I didn’t actually eat any, but I know deep down in my Pinkie heart that I loved it! But I wasn’t allowed to eat any as a foal and I was forced to stay on my mother’s milk for months, which was a real bummer as I love sugar! Anyway…”

This was going to be a long plane journey…