The Stranded Pilot

Ten minutes ago…

"Are you sure this is a good idea Scootaloo?" Sweetie Belle asked.

The 3 fillies were standing around a pile of wood in the Cutie Mark Crusaders Clubhouse. Some tinder was placed in the middle of some twigs, all in a garbage can lid.

"Yeah, it's gonna be great! Cutie Mark Crusader Fire-fighters! But if we're gonna be fire-fighters, we need a fire to fight. So here!" she pointed to the pile. "Let's start one!"

"Shouldn't we do this outside?" Sweetie Belle asked for the umpteenth time.

"No, because ma sister would see the smoke and stop us." Applebloom said, like Sweetie was an idiot.

"Yeah Sweetie, stop being such a foal." Scootaloo said, before hitting two pieces of flint together, producing a small spark and lighting the miniature campfire.

"Now, where's the extinguisher?" she turned and walked to the over side of the tree-house, followed by Sweetie Belle and Applebloom.

"Oh man, it was here a second ago…" as they searched through the unorganized mess, they didn't notice the small flames spread to a chair next to the camp fire. When they turned around with the extinguisher, the fire had spread to a table as well.

"Uh oh." they said in unison.

Sweetie nudged Scootaloo "Quick Scoot!"

Scootaloo fumbled with the extinguisher before spraying it at the small blaze. The only problem, party streamers shot out.

Scootaloo turned to the other two, who were panicking. "Oops."

Back to the Present…

Barely stopping to think, Maverick turned to Jet.

"We have to help!" he shouted, before running forward towards the tree-house. The door of the small house was on fire and had trapped the small ponies inside. He realised they must have climbed out the window and escaped to the roof, where they were now trapped.

He jumped high and grabbed the balcony edge, which was out of reach to ponies, and pulled himself up then, smashing the glass and jumping through the window. Most of the interior of the tree-house was on fire, and a thick fog of smoke hung in the air, pouring out the windows. He knew he would only be able to get the ponies in here, but then what? He could climb back out the window, but the only feasible way out for the three small ponies was the door.

Looking over it, he realised it would be weakened by the fire, and a pathway was roughly clear from the window to it. A plan formulated in seconds, and in a fraction of the time needed to think of it, he put it into action.

He leant out the window backwards, hands resting on the hot wood of the top pane.

He had to shout to make himself heard over the crackling of the fire "You three! Over here, quickly!" Their heads peered over the edge of the roof.

"But mister, we can't get out!" Applebloom shouted, panic stricken.

"It's ok; we can get through the door. Quick, can you get down?"

"No, we're stuck!" Scootaloo shouted.

"Ok, I'll lift you down." One by one, he lifted the panic stricken crusaders down into the blazing tree house. Once they were standing next to him, he reached out and grabbed a wad of tissues, handing them one each and finally taking one for himself.

"Cover your mouth- er, muzzles!" he shouted through the tissue.

The whole tree house lurched and a few pieces of burnt wood fell from the ceiling. It didn't take a genius to work out the tree was collapsing.

"Come on, we have to hurry!" he shouted. He began to move towards the door, but a flaming ceiling rafter fell down in front of them, making the crusaders scream. Knowing he had 30 seconds tops before the tree collapsed, Maverick was left with no choice but to grab the smouldering rafter with his bare hands and throw it aside. Remarkably, a splinter from the wood was more painful than the burns.

Waving the small ponies towards him, he made his way to nearly burnt out door. He looked back at the cowering ponies.

"Stand back!" he faced front, and with as much strength as he could muster, he kicked the centre of the door, causing it to split in half midway up, but not move. He tried again, weaker this time and coughing. This time the door blew outwards from the force of the kick, and the crusaders ran out and down the untouched stairs. Only too late, Maverick realised he would have to crawl through the doorway, it having been made for ponies half his size, but that wasn't an option. What if he got stuck? He looked back and coughed violently, the smoke getting the better of him despite the tissue.

The tree-house lurched again, making the roof at the far end cave in completely, sending up a wave of cinders and flames.

"Bloody hell." he muttered under his breath.

He only had a few seconds, and realised the window was his last option, short of going down in a flaming tree house. Staggering over to the window, he swung himself out and dangled down from the balcony, the hot wood scalding his fingers, before dropping down and crumpling to his side. Just like he had been taught in flight school.

He rolled to the side as the flaming tree house fell sideways to his right, almost crushing him. He crawled a few metres away, and rolled onto his back. He ripped off the tissue tied over his mouth and gulped down fresh air, clearing his lungs. The smoke was still pouring into the sky from the remains of the tree house.

A minute later, clouds formed over the tree and a huge downpour soaked the tree house. He saw Rainbow Dash fly down, and sat up to look around for the first time.

There were now a dozen ponies in the clearing. His rescue attempt had only taken five minutes, but it had been enough time for the smoke to draw more attention and Jet to get help from Sweet Apple Acres. He was stopping other ponies that had been attracted by the smoke at the clearing entrance; Applejack and Big Mac were comforting the shivering fillies, draping blankets over them. Their coats and faces were blackened from the soot, and a nurse was carefully looking them over.

"Nice rescue."

Maverick looked back around and saw Dash standing above him.

"Just another day in the office." he said, wishing he had a pair of sunglasses to put on in a bad-assed manner, but settled with closing his eyes. He erupted in another coughing fit.

"That sounds healthy." Rainbow Dash said sarcastically. "Hold on, I'll get the nurse." she trotted over to the nurse.

Maverick looked around. Jet had been joined by another Royal Guard and the other ponies at the entrance were pointing at him and chattering noisily, he guessed about his rescue.

So much for a low profile.

Rainbow Dash walked over with the nurse pony and Applejack in tow.

"Ah can't thank you enough for saving Applebloom over there, sugar cube. Ah don't want to think what woulda happened if ya hadn't shown up when ya did." said a relieved looking Applejack.

Meanwhile the white nurse pony had set down a doctor's bag and pulled out a stethoscope.

"I don't know anything about humans, but I'll try my best. Please lift your shirt." Maverick did so and the nurse pony placed the stethoscope against his chest "Breath in." Maverick did. "Breath out." Again Maverick did as asked. "Well, from what I can tell, you should be ok; you've got quite a bit of smoke inhalation, so try not to do anything too athletic for the next few days."

"What about my hands?" Maverick raised his hands; both of his palms were blistered badly and the splinter was still there.

"Hmm. Looks like mild burns. I have some cream here, but you don't need bandages. First, though, we need to deal with that splinter." she rustled through the bag, eventually producing a pair of tweezers and a small bottle of cream. She gently pulled the splinter out, producing a drop of blood. She then unscrewed the lid from the bottle of cream and covered his palms with it. The light green cream was cold and soothing.

"Thank you…" Maverick said when she was done.

"Nurse Redheart." she filled in.

"Thank you nurse Redheart." Maverick smiled.

"My pleasure." she smiled back and packed up her bag. Maverick turned to Dash.

"Called it."

"Called what?"

"I said if I went out I would get hurt."

"Well, you saved ma lil' sis, so ah think it was for the best." Maverick turned and saw Big Mac making his way over.

"Can't help but agree. Do you kno-" Maverick was cut off by shouting from the clearing entrance.

"But I'm her sister! I have to see her!"

The three ponies and Maverick looked at each other. "Rarity." they all said in unison. They made their way over, Dash helping Maverick stand up as he coughed again.

"Please, ma'am, we have to confirm you are her sister." they were able to hear the pegasus guard say and saw he had outstretched a wing.

"It's ok, we know her." Applejack said to the guard. Big Mac nodded at him as well.

"Well, ok then." he lowered his wing and stepped to the side, letting her past. She didn't stop to greet her friends, but ran to meet Sweetie Belle.

"Oh my goodness, are you three ok?" she shouted, pulling Sweetie into a hug.

"Mmmph!" Sweetie tried to speak, but was muffled by Rarity's hug. Rarity loosened her grasp on her. "I said, Maverick saved us!"

"Yeah, he didn't even stop ta think, he just jumped onto the window, climbed up, helped us down and kicked the door out!" Applebloom added, coughing gently.

"Ah'll say. When me and Big Macintosh arrived, we saw the door fly outwards and the little fillies here run out." Applejack joined in.

Maverick held up his hands modestly, gesturing for them to stop. A second later, they heard two more voices at the clearing entrance.

"We're her parents. We have a right to see her." said a male voice.

Scootaloo stood up and waved. "Hi mom, hi dad."

The guard stepped aside and let two pegasi through. One, Scootaloo's father, was light red, the other, her mother, butter yellow.

"Oh Scootaloo, we're so glad you're safe." they both ran over and hugged her.

"Mom, dad, you're embarrassing me!"

Her dad let go and looked Maverick over. "We can't thank you enough for helping."

Maverick smiled. "No problem." he turned to the three Cutie Mark Crusaders. "But how did that fire start?"

"Well, uh, we were trying to get fire-fighting Cutie Marks." Applebloom admitted guiltily.

"So you set your clubhouse on fire!" Rarity asked incredulously.

"No, we only made a small campfire, but I got a party fire extinguisher. Then it sort of, got outta control." said Scootaloo.

"Well, all that matters is that you three are safe." said Scootaloo's mother, ruffling her hair.

The ponies at the clearing entrance began to disperse, and Dash moved the rain cloud from over the tree house. All that was left was a brightly coloured, smouldering mess. The leaves on the tree had been burnt into non-existence, and the branch's that had previously held the tree house had burnt and snapped. It was a mess.

Maverick decided now would be a good time to leave quietly. He made his way to the clearing entrance and past the Royal Guards, nodding to Jet.

"You did good getting help." he said.

"Not as good as you." Jet said back admiringly.

Maverick continued on his way back to the library, but stopped when he saw a shadow over him. Putting his hand over his eyes to block the sun, he greeted the cyan pegasus hovering above him.

"Hey Dash. What's up? Other than you of course." he smiled at his own joke.

Dash giggled "Why'd you leave?"

Maverick shrugged. "It felt like the appropriate time." he remembered something and looked at his watch. It had been twenty minutes since he left Crash Clearing. "Bugger! I was supposed to wait for Fluttershy at the clearing. There's no way I can make it there before she leaves."

"No problem. You're talking to the fastest flier in Equestria here. I'll go meet her!" she flew off.

When Maverick was halfway there, Dash met him again. "She's on her way to her house, and I said you'd meet her there."

"Thanks Dash." he set off to Fluttershy's.

"I'd come with you, but dealing with animals isn't really my thing." Dash said as a goodbye, and flew high into the clouds, out of sight.

Maverick spent the rest of the afternoon rehousing the woodland animals Fluttershy had gathered. She couldn't find anywhere suitable, so she had decided to take on the extra animals at her cottage. Mostly it just required placing small rabbits and whatnot into empty burrows and giving them some food, which he found relaxing. Certainly a change of pace to the high speed dogfights and vast explosions he had imagined when he signed up, 5 years ago at the age of 21. Then again, what about this world wasn't?

After he had helped house the animals and thanking Fluttershy for her help, he went back to the library, planning to spend the rest of the day reading, drawing and charging the planes battery.

After a hot shower of course. He still stank of smoke, and could only imagine how he must look.

Maverick closed the basement door behind him, a towel wrapped around his waist. Same as last time, the water had turned a dark grey running of him, and he felt refreshed. He was surprised by a small wrapped bundle on his bed. He unwrapped the string and unfolded the paper, and saw a neatly folded shirt, identical to the one he was wearing, but un-torn and clean. Attached to the paper was a note:

Thank you again for helping Sweetie Belle today. Here is the shirt I promised. Please do try not to rip this one.

Rarity X

Maverick smiled at the gesture. She must have delivered it while he was in the shower, and when he picked it up it revealed his name in stitched handwriting on the chest pocket.

"Now this, this is cool." he smiled.

He towelled himself off and dressed himself in the new shirt and the original trousers. He felt good as grabbed a pot of ink, quill and a scroll Twilight had given him, and placed them in his flight vests pockets.

Grabbing another half a dozen apples and crunching them happily, he set out for one of the hills around Ponyville. On the way, he got friendly waves from several ponies, and even verbal greetings from some. Evidently news of his rescue had spread like wildfire through the small town. It reminded him of those old small towns in America were everybody knew each other. It made him smile.

He reached the hill and found somewhere suitable. He placed the scroll on a flat rock, looked into the sky and began to draw.