The Stranded Pilot

Howards felt his forehead being wiped with a wet cloth, and when he opened his eyes, he saw the yellow pegasus, and waved her away. He was sitting with one leg straight and the other crooked, making a sort of triangle.

"I have to stop doing that." he looked up at the newest arrival, Princess Celestia. She looked back at him.

He broke the silence with a question. "How do you know who- what I am?" he corrected himself.

"I have dealt with humans before. And before you ask, I think I have an idea as to how to came to be here. But first, can we travel to Twilights library?"

Howards shook his head "Rule number one: Don't leave the crash site. The rescue team is looking for me."

Celestia shook her head "This 'Rescue Team' you are talking about won't find you here. I'll explain when we get to the library."

Howards looked towards the wreck "What about my plane?"

"I'll have the Royal Guards close off the area and make sure no pegasi fly overhead."

Howards thought for a few seconds and nodded. He got himself to his feet, using his good arm and pushing himself against the tree. He stumbled, but straightened himself.

"One sec." he limped over to where he had dropped his gun and picked it up, flipping the safety on and sliding it into its holster under his arm, on his jacket. He turned and saw Applejack looking at him.

"What's a 'sec'?" she asked.

Howards stifled a chuckle. "It means 'second'. Where I come from, we say it when we want to do something before something else."

"And what's that metal thing you have?" asked the cyan coloured one.

Howards looked down at the gun in its holster, an object specifically designed to bring death and pain. He guessed that telling them that now wouldn't exactly win their trust. He sidestepped the question:

"I'll tell you later, but first, what are your names?"

"Well, mines Rainbow Dash, I'm the best flyer in Equestria." said the cyan one. He wanted to say 'Until I arrived' but dropped it, looking at Applejack.

"Well, ma names Applejack. I own Sweet Apple Acres."

"My name is Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia's personal student."

"A-and my n-names F-Fluttershy." said the yellow pegasus quietly.

"She looks after the animals." Rainbow Dash said.

Howards nodded. "My name is John Howards, pilot in the RAF."

"RAF?" asked the princess.

"The Royal Air Force" he replied. "For her majesty the Queen. Like you said, I'll tell you later."

Celestia nodded and spoke to her guards. Howards picked up his helmet and placed it under his arm, astronaut style. He nodded at the princess, and followed her and the others as they walked out of the clearing. He looked back at the wreck.

"Princess, I need you to tell the guards not to touch the plane."

She stopped and looked back. "Of course, but may I ask why?"

"Yes, but I'll tell you all about it when we get to the library. Well, what I'm allowed to say. It's very secretive."

She nodded again and they continued to the library, the 4 smaller ponies talking among themselves, 4 meters behind Howards who was following Celestia. He didn't mind being excluded from the conversation. He wasn't really the chatty type, and spent most of his spare time when he was serving either reading or drawing. When they walked into town, everypony they walked past bowed down for Celestia, but when they looked up and saw him, they gave him strange looks.

He wasn't surprised. If he saw a strange creature walking behind royalty a good 2 feet taller than everyone else, wearing strange clothes with an arm in a sling, he would look at it strangely too. Eventually they stopped at a rather grand building.

"This is the library?" Howards asked.

"No, this is Rarity's house, the Carousel Boutique. We have to pick up one more pony as well after this." said Twilight.

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at her. "You really think we should bring Pinkie Pie to meet him?"

"She's our friend, Dash, she should know. Besides, she has to meet him eventually. It might as well be now."

By this time, another, white, unicorn had stepped outside. She bowed at Celestia before greeting her friends, and whispering to Twilight. Twilight whispered back, and the unicorn he presumed to be Rarity cleared her throat and greeted him.

"Hello, my name is Rarity. My my, what are those things you're wearing?" Twilight face-palmed, then Howards realised it was probably more a face-hoof.

Howards looked down at his flight suit. The sleeve on his bad arm was completely gone, the other cut off at the elbow, but other than that it was in good condition.

"It's my flight suit. It's standard issue." he said.

"Well, I don't see how you can fly in that. In fact, I don't see how you can fly at all without wings." she was now looking at his back.

Howards stared at Twilight incredulously, but she shrugged. "I guess I'll tell you later." he simply said.

"Awful lotta stuff you're gonna be telling us later." said Applejack.

"Mm hm." he nodded.

The princess continued onwards, with Rarity joining the others behind him. They stopped once again, this time outside a large gingerbread house. Howards looked up at it. Yep, this was something that could only exist in a cartoon world. Twilight knocked on the door, and a bouncy pink pony hopped out. She stared at him, but simply started talking very fast.

"Oh boy, when did you get here? You need a Pinkie Party right away, even though you're not a pony, and how did you hurt your arm?"

Howards was taken aback by the rapid-fire questions, but luckily Twilight stood in for him.

"Pinkie!" the pink pony stopped bouncing and leaned towards Twilight.

"Yes?"

"This is John Howards, he's a human, and we're taking him to the library so we can talk to him."

"Okie dokie lokie!" with that she set off for the library, bouncing all the way. The others began walking after her.

Instead of not talking, Howards stepped close to the princess and whispered, making sure the others couldn't hear.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? If you've dealt with humans before, you know we're not like you. My job is something your… ponies have no need for."

Celestia nodded and whispered back. "You have to tell them that. And my student Twilight Sparkle wishes to study you."

Howards didn't like the way she said that. Celestia saw his face and laughed. "Don't worry. She just wants to ask you questions about your race." They reached what he presumed to be the library. It was a large, apparently hollowed out tree with several windows, a balcony and a sign with a book on it over the doorway. Twilight opened it and walked in, followed by the princess. The others waited for him to enter so he did.

He had to duck down, resting his hand against the top of the doorway, like he was pushing himself down. He stood up again inside, and looked at Twilight for direction.

"Do you want to sit down?"

"Sure." he sat down on a stool.

"Hey Twilight, hey guys- whoa, what are you?"

Howards turned around and jumped up, knocking over the stool, when he saw a small purple dragon.

"Uh, what." He looked at Twilight. The ponies laughed at his reaction.

"That's Spike, my assistant." said Twilight.

He looked at Spike. "Nice to meet you Spike." he held out his hand and Spike shook it.

"So, John Howards, how did you get here?" ask Celestia.

"I was hoping you could help explain that. I'll tell you my story, to see if that helps."

Celestia nodded and Twilight was somehow lifting a notepad and quill in mid-air. "Magic" she said simply when she saw him staring.

Howards shook his head and started telling them his story:

"It was 1:17am. I was on a Royal Navy aircraft carrier-"

"What's an 'aircraft carrier'?" Rainbow Dash butted in.

"Well, humans can't fly by themselves. We don't have wings like you do, or magic." He said, looking at Twilight and Rarity. "So a hundred years ago, 2 brothers built a machine that could fly, called a 'plane'. Ever since then, people have been inventing better and better planes. Faster, bigger, fancier. But, they have to go forwards fast to take off, unlike you Rainbow Dash, so can only land and take off in certain places. SO we make huge boats where they can take off and land in the middle of the ocean."

He looked at Rainbow Dash, who seemed to be thinking this over. He continued:

"My mission this morning was to test an experimental plane. Normally they use petroleum, a fuel that takes a lot of work to make, but this one is specially adapted to use electricity." he stopped when he saw the blank looks on their faces. "You guys don't have electricity?" they shook their heads. He sighed. "I have a LOT to tell you." he continued with his story.

"I was testing it in a lightning storm, to see if it would still work." he noticed Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash both looked unhappy at the mention of this. "Eventually, I got hit by lightning, and everything went white for 5 seconds. When the whiteness went away, my plane was in serious trouble. I tried raising- sorry, calling for help from the carrier or the rescue team. I couldn't hear anything, but transmitted a mayday. I don't know if anyone heard me."

"They did." Celestia spoke up. Howards looked at her and it suddenly made sense. That was how Rainbow Dash had found him.

5 hours ago

Princess Celestia was woken by someone knocking on her bedroom door. It was a Royal Guard.

"Princess, we have an emergency. The Weather Control Team has requested your presence."

The princess shook herself awake. "Of course, right away."

The princess made her way down the palace corridor with the Royal Guard. They didn't speak, but made their way to one of the palaces observatories that the Weather Control Team used as their headquarters. She stepped into a room full of maps and little plastic clouds and pegasi that could be moved across them.

Several unicorns were in the centre of the room in a circle, using their magic to communicate with the grounded weather teams (Pegasi aren't allowed to fly in lightning, except for extreme circumstances). At the moment their attention and everypony else's in the room was being taken by a communication coming in.

"...I have been hit by lightning, I am going to attempt a crash landing …"

"How long has this been transmitting?" asked Celestia, turning to the unicorn in charge of the communications.

"It started transmitting a few seconds before you arrived, but there was an earlier transmission, roughly 2 minutes ago. We can't get through to him."

"…Maverick out."

The transmission changed to another voice.

"HQ, I can see the object sending the transmission. It's fast, and appears to be made out of metal. There's a creature in there, it's just seen me. I'm moving away." the transmission ended and there was chatter among the Headquarters.

"A flying metal object?"

"With some sort of creature inside?"

"What is it?"

"Quiet please!" Celestia spoke loudly, getting their attention. "Whatever or whoever sent that message, they said they are probably going to crash. I want flight crew's ready to take off as soon as the storm ends and search for it." She was about to go when the transmission picked up something. A loud smash. She stopped and turned, listening to the intense beeping. After a few moment of silence, the voice came up.

“This is Maverick, I am now attempting a crash landing, location unknown, approximately 10 miles from first broadcast . My wing has taken heavy damage.”

There was another minute of thuds and juddering noises until whatever it was spoke again. “Damn, damn, DAMN!”  A mechanical sound could be heard and the quiet filled with a noise of vibration before a loud crash and the transmission cut out.

There was silence for several seconds. "Where do you think that is?" asked Celestia.

The head cartographer walked over to a map on a table. He pointed to a dot over the ocean, surrounded by a dozen warning signs and storm clouds. "This was his first transmission. He said he travelled 10 miles, so that could be anywhere…" he got a compass and used it to draw a large circle around the dot. "…on that line. But my guess is that it's somewhere over land, so that means he crashed somewhere here." He traced his hoof along the line overland.

"Ok." said Celestia. "Get your teams ready to search as soon as the storm clears." she turned and walked out of the room. "He needs our help."

-3 Hours Later-

Princess Celestia was sitting in the Royal Carriage, about to depart for the area where the object had crashed. As she was about to leave, the head cartographer ran out of the palace with the head communicator.

"Princess! We received another transmission, from the same source." He nodded to the unicorn, whose horn started glowing and they heard the transmission.

"Rescue Team Whiskey, do you read?" there was a pause "Anyone?" another pause "This is call-sign Maverick. I have crashed landed in an area of thin forest, location unknown. If anyone can hear me, please send help. I have seen a small settlement, unknown direction, and will head for it in 2 hours if rescue does not arrive."

Celestia looked at the cartographer, who pulled out a map. He pointed at a small town.

"This is the only settlement he could be talking about."

Celestia looked closely and smiled.

"It's always Ponyville isn't it? Thank you." she nodded at the two ponies and set off in the carriage. She wrote a letter to her student Twilight Sparkle, asking her to get her pegasi friends and look for the object in the forest.

The Present

Howards nodded. "That sounds like what happened. But the thing I don't get s how a bolt of lightning transported me to another world."

"Ahem." everyone and everypony in the room turned their heads to Twilight and Rainbow Dash, who were blushing. "I may have a confession to make." Twilight rubbed the floor with her hoof. "Me and Rainbow Dash were doing an experiment with some clouds last night, and it may have, sort of… backfired. Just a little."

Celestia raised an eyebrow at this. "Hmmm, that explains the unexpected storm. So, I presume the lightning that hit your plane, in your world, must have transported you here."

Howards thought about this and nodded "I can't think of anything else that explains it. So that's how I leave!" He stood up "Twilight just needs to use that spell again." his face fell "But I'm not going anywhere without my plane."

Fluttershy spoke up "A-and I don't t-think you should go w-with an injured arm." she said meekly.

Howards look at his arm. "I guess not." He looked up. "So I'm stuck here until my plane is fixed and my arm is better."

"And I learn the spell." Twilight said quietly.

"Sorry?" Howards asked.

"Well, the spell backfired, so I'm not entirely sure how I did it. But while you're here, can I learn about your race?" she asked, changing the subject.

He sighed "Alright, I guess. But what am I going to do while I'm here?" he realised some and face-palmed. "It's out of power, and if you don't have electricity, I'm going to have to find some way to power it." He sat back down. "And where am I going to stay?" he sighed again. Twilight spoke up.

"Well, you can stay in the library basement. It's the least I can do for bringing you here."

"And if you don't mind me saying so, darling, but that apparel isn't very fitting. Perhaps I could make you some clothes for your stay here." Rarity said.

"And I can throw you a super duper party!" shouted Pinkie Pie.

"As nice as that sounds, er, PInkie Pie, I don't think it would be a good idea." Maverick said.

Princess Celestia nodded in agreement, and Maverick continued.

"What about food though? I don't eat hay and flowers." he asked.

"Well, I can give ya some of ma apples." Applejack said.

"Well, it appears my student and her friends will accommodate you well until you can leave." the Princess said, before a scroll appeared before her face and she read it. "I have to go, so you'll have to tell me about everything else some other time, and I think we should all go so you can get some rest. May I speak to you before I go though?"

"Of course." He held open the door for all the ponies, thanking them each for their help. He thanked Fluttershy for bandaging his arm, and Celestia stopped before walking out. She looked at Twilight and Spike who got the message and left the room. She whispered to him:

"I know about the violence of your race. I know you're not like that, but eventually you will have to tell Twilight and her friends. Especially while you're carrying a gun." she stared disapprovingly at the M9 in his holster.

"I know. I'll tell her gently and show her I'm not violent. And I'll hide the gun."

Celestia nodded and asked a final question.

"On the transmission you said your name was 'Maverick', but now you say your name is John Howards." she said, speaking at a normal volume.

"Maverick was my nickname for the mission."

She thought about this, then nodded and walked out the door.

Howards thought about his next move. Saying his name was Howards sounded formal around these, ponies, so he guessed he might as well give himself a new name. Maverick sounded good. But now, he wanted sleep. Surprisingly, being unconscious in a crashed plane isn't very refreshing.