Author's Note

Okay, It took one month for this chapter, and I want to use the Author's Notes to tell you why. If you are not interested in my excuses feel free to just skip to the story. Feedback is, as always, wished for.

So it was a busy month for me. School is being a pain in the arse with exams and presentations, and I had to set priorities. When I finally had time two weeks ago, I caught a nasty virus and was bound to bed for over a week, together with the afterglow of the headache, finishing the chapter became a no-go. In addition, I had a lot of plotholes and little things to fill as I revisited the story, and the Thumbnail also had to be finished.

But now I am happy that I can finally release this chapter and move on to the REAL story. I tried to make things more interesting in this chapter, since I felt that the Prologue was too "dry", so, enjoy and let me know what you liked and didn't like!

Chapter One: Takeoff

FarNeigh

I ran for my life. The jungle stretched for miles, an endless bubble of trees and herbs surrounding me, making even the blue sky barely visible. Branches cracked on every step and plants brushed against my coat as I raced further. Only one direction seemed not to be blocked: straight ahead. I kept fleeing, not even knowing who my predators were or why I was here in the first place.

"You cannot run forever Bolo. Just give up", a dark, sinister voice boomed out of every direction.

Sweat trickled down my forehead and fear started to spread in my mind, sending shivers down my spine. What was this place? How did I end here? My thoughts got interrupted.

"It's over Bolo".

A black shadow sprang out of the green, directly into my path. It had the shade of a Wolf, with a coat that looked like it was bathed in black fire. It stared directly into my eyes, grinning and showing the sharp, dangerous, fangs. Salvia hung out of it's deep black mouth and red eyes stared into mine, full of hunger. It Seemed that "Bolo" was on the menu today.

To stop would mean to die and oh boy, did I want to stop, but something, a force, kept me moving. I sprinted towards the beast, machete floating next to me, ready to fight. Wait, where did that machete come from? It didn't matter. I needed to concentrate. Bring it on, monster!

I lunged at the black beast mid sprint, my weapon floating right above me, ready to stab my opponent. The beast seemed to be unimpressed, widening its's grin, not moving a single bit. I closed my eyes and waited for the moment I thought I would collide with it, hoping for the scream of agony and the sound of ripping flesh.

But I didn't collide with anything, and landed directly on my face loosing grip on the machete, sending it flying wide, into the never ending sea of green plants. The monster had disappeared. What was going on here?

I turned around, colours started to fade, my vision formed a tunnel.

"Is this all you got Bolo? Is this how a great warrior looks like? Pathetic".

My vision faded more and more. My world was black and white now, except of one colour, red. I looked around me and noticed that I was laying in a pool of blood, it was everywhere!

I wanted to stand up, move, escape from this hell, but I couldn't. I was locked in place and all I did was stare down the path I came from, where two very familiar red eyes started creeping closer to me.

"What is it Bolo? Feeling tired? Good. Then stay put and finally die!"

The pair of eyes never stopped moving. My world consisted of nothing but darkness and this beast, hungry, mouth hung open once again, ready to make the killing blow.

I closed my eyes, tears started to roll down my cheeks. I was going to die, by this monster, and I didn't even know where I was. Why was this happening? Where were my friends? I would never see them again. It didn't matter, I was done for. I lay down completely and prepared for the end.

I doubted that being ripped to pieces was an enjoyable death, but hey, there was worse.

Something caught my attention. A single glimpse of light could be seen, even through closed eyelids. I opened my eyes and turned my head to the direction of it.

Silver! It was Silver and Trigger and Sunny and-! They were all here!

A cone of light shone down on them, in middle of an ocean of blood and darkness. I felt my heart skipping a beat.

A chill spread over my body, and a quick glance confirmed that the monster was still moving towards me with hungry eyes. Only a few feet left between us. It sure was taking its time enjoying this.

"Silver! help me!" I cried out, desperately.

Silver did not move at first, but looked at me with a smile on his face, as did my other friends. Without a word he reached into a bush behind him and pulled out my machete. He threw it towards me and it landed directly next to my body, now shining in a bright light that seemed to have no exterior source.

"You can do it Bolo" Silver said in a calming voice.

"We are always here for you", Trigger Happy added.

"Yeah!" Smoky shouted from behind Sunny, "I don't like the other guys anyway, it would seriously suck without you!" He grinned like an idiot, but shrunk back quickly after Violet shot him a deadly look.

Tears of fear started to be replaced by tears of joy. My friends were here. I was not alone. I could do this!
Not wasting any time on channeling magic, I extended my right foreleg and quickly grabbed the shining machete. The Beast noticed my movement and increased its pace.

Yea, it's not so funny when the pray has a chance to fight, isn't it?

The dark form leaped at me, mouth wide open and forelegs pointed in my direction.

"You are weak, Bolo, weak! Just fucking die already!"

The leap was exactly what I was hoping for. I pointed the machete with the tip towards the sky, ready to stab anything coming from above. The Beast saw this and its expression turned to fear, but the jump was made and there was no way it could stop the inevitable.

I did not close my eyes this time. They were locked on the now pleading counterparts of my enemy. With a satisfying crunch the machete pierced the upper half of the beast, where the heart was. The face of the monster turned into a pained grimace as its chest connected with my blade. A deafening growl of agony echoed through an endless space, before the cry started to get quieter and quieter until it finally died down. I could feel a last breath from the monster lying on top of me and it went limb.

"You are mad, Bolo. Mad. You can't run forever, and you won't! You little fuck! YOU WON'T!", the voice boomed one last time and a loud thunder resonated in every direction.

The Beast, still weighting down on me, began to dissolve into black pieces. Colours came back into my vision and the wildlife around me blossomed again, now containing colourful flowers and birds, singing on the trees, while light shone through gaps in the wall of tree crowns. I watched the scene in front of me in awe, completely stunned by its beauty.

Warmth spread over my body and I stood up, facing my friends.

"We are always here for you, always!" Silver said, still smiling

"Thank you guys, thank you so much!"

"Oh, and in case you didn't notice", Smoky spoke up, "it's a friggin' dream, so get your flank out of the bed!"

Tears of joy streamed down my face as I chuckled. My vision faded once again into an endless white space and I woke up.
________________________________________________________________________________
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

My alarm rang like a bomb siren in my head, I was drenched in sweat. Not even caring to open my eyes, I simply smashed on my nightstand until I hit the "Off" button on top of the clock.

Ahh, much better. I stayed like this for some minutes until the throbbing in my head seceded enough for me to open my eyes. I opened them ever so slowly and was greeted with the bright rays of Celestias sunlight shining through my window. My clock showed that it was 9 am. There was no way I would get back to sleep with the sun and this headache, so I sat up and tried to clear my thoughts.

"oooh, I will never drink again".

After finally managing to get out of the bed and putting a fresh shirt on, I moved down the stairs, still a bit wobbly on my legs. How much did we drink last night? It didnt seem like that much, but this hangover surely had achieved a spot on my top ten list.

I cut the corner to the kitchen area and saw my older brother standing at the kitchen counter as I entered.

"Here is my drinking star, had a good sleep?" Silver shouted with a devious grin after I took my place.

"Silver. Please. Just...okay?" I tried to form a sentence, but only single words croaked out of my mouth. "Can, can I just have a coffee and a box of painkillers, please?"

"Everything for you, you Master of the Longdrinks, King of the Sambuca shots, Element of-"

"Silver! For Celestias sake, I beg you. My head feels like somebody is having a rave party in there, the entire contents of my stomach are screaming to get out, and I had the weirdest dream of my life. So please, just make me a coffee and bring me the painkillers".

We always did this to each other. What is more amusing than teasing the next best pony with a giant hangover? Of course we never took it serious, it was just for fun after all, and it's ones fault for drinking too much anyway, but today was different. This dream I had, and the pain of a thousand suns in my head made it impossible to think straight and I simply was not in the mood for this.

The dream.

It felt so real, I never experienced something like this. I could still feel the overflow of emotions in my body, next to a lot of other, rather unpleasant things.

"Wow, last night must have really messed you up, a coffee and painkillers coming right up".

Silver looked a bit concerned now, and stopped the teasing, I was glad that he understood when to stop. Finally some good news.

"tnks", came my muffled response as I laid face down on the table, head between my forelegs.

Now was the time to recover, and to think about that damn dream that I couldn't get out of my head. Who was this dark voice shouting at me? Why did it feel so real? How did I-

"Bolo! Here you are, I was already wondering if you would ever come out of your room", Trigger Happy shouted cheerfully as he walked through the doorway. How in the world are these guys pulling off such an energy after that night?

"I tell ya, as long as you are alive, the whiskey industry won't go bankrupt, that's for sure!"

I was in hell.

"trger, plz", was all I could groan from between my forelegs as my head began to innerly explode again.

"haha, that bad?"

"Yep, little Bolo here really pushed himself last night", Silver said as he sat down on the opposite side of the table and shoved a mug of wonderful dark coffee and a glass of water with a dissipating painkiller tablet to me. I tried to levitate the glass, but once again pain shot through my head, as if my horn turned 180 degrees and was about to drill its way into my brain.

I decided to simply grab it with a hoof and the water went down with one go, as soon as the tablet completely dissolved.

"Welp," Trigger said and patted me on my back "I guess you're getting too old, was nice hanging out with ya, really good times", he chuckled and winked at me on his way to the doorway.

"But if you two would excuse me, I'm goint to practice and shoot some stuff, so I will see you two in three hours".

He was out of the room before I even could respond.

"Did, did he just call me OLD?" I asked Silver with an baffled look

"I hope not. If you are old, what am I?".

that brought a little laugh out of me. Ow, okay, resting, not laughing, I got it, brain.

The rest of the morning went over smoothly. I drank three cups of coffee, the painkillers kicked in after a while and one cold shower later I felt a lot better.

It was Sunday, which meant I had nothing to do, and I was really glad for it since it finally gave me time to think about the last night in peace. Sitting at my computer I tried to remind myself of the events. We drank a lot, danced a lot, Smoky got slapped by a mare he tried to hit on again. Pretty standard night.

My thoughts kept recapping little pieces of the last night when it hit me like a lightning bolt.

"The tickets. The mysterious stallion. five pm!" I cried out and a quick glance on my watch gave me a good reason to panic. It was three pm! If this entire ticket thing was not part of the wierd dream I had, then I was in a bit of a hurry.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuck".

I ran around my room, throwing clothes around and opening every drawer in the room, searching for my shirt from last night, devastating the floor even more in the process..

As I finally found the shirt, I immediately checked the pocket for the tickets, and took them out. Fortunately I seemed to not have lost them on the way home.

Good, Tickets check. Now comes the hard part. How do I convince 5 ponies to go with me on an adventure trip far away from home by jumping from a plane, which is leaving in less than two hours?

I looked at the tickets in my hoof and went through the offer again. Two weeks of action, on a tropical island, for free. This was insane. Why would anyone just throw around tickets for such a trip in a nightclub? Why us?

So many questions, but the biggest of them all was yet to even be asked. Would I even really try to go on this trip?

It was true that I wanted some action, but this seemed a bit too dangerous and risky, even for me.
Of course I wanted to give the other guys a chance to experience a real adventure and some time out of the city, but what if something would happen to them? or if one decided to just not come with me, would I go with only a part of my friends? or even alone?

University wouldn't start for another month, and Sunny was on vacation, nothing was holding us back. I just had to be convincing, really convincing.

The time kept ticking, a decision had to be made.

I turned off my computer, put the tickets in my shirt pocket and went downstairs again. My destination was the living area, where I could already see Silver and Trigger, returned from his shooting practice, laying on the big couch, watching TV.

I approached them and prepared for the next hours which would be able to change our lives.

"Hey guys. So, about that adventure we talked last night..."

________________________________________________________________________________

"I still can't believe you convinced me to do this", Silver said as we ran through the streets of Manehatten.

"Come on Silver, don't be so grumpy, it'll be fun!" Trigger answered for me, a bit out of breath.

The moment Silver finally agreed on coming with us we started to pack. I made sure to grab the most vital things I, and I hoped the others would have enough brain to do the same. Our destination was Violets house now, but calling a taxi would have taken too long so we had to run, and that was not easy with all these saddlebags. At least I and Trigger had our magic to make it a bit easier, poor Silver.

"I really hope it will be worth it, Violet is going to kill me for even asking her".

"Aw, come on Silver", my own breath was slowly running out too, levitating while running is not an easy task, "It's time you finally do what you like, she will have enough time to command you around once we are there".

"Yea, be the stallion in the relationship for once", Trigger added with a smirk

"You think that she is? and I am? and- oh, it is on!" Silver said and doubled his speed.

We had him exactly where we wanted to. Luckily Silver didn't care to turn around or he would have seen mine and Trigger's grinning faces of victory.

We arrived at Violets house fairly sweated and gasping for air, and it took us a minute to regain our ability to speak before we knocked on the door.

"yes, hello?" Violet said opening the door, "oh no, what are you doing this time?" She seemed to have noticed our saddlebags and offroad clothes and already looked pissed.

"Violet, baby! you uh- remember that idea of us having a bit more action in our lives, right?"

"What are you doing?"

"Well, you see, I gave it a bit more thought, and then Bolo had this great thing just ready to go and-"

"What. Are. You. Doing?", once again, the stare of a million deaths aimed directly into Silvers eyes.

I could see he was beginning to get really uncomfortable with this, and it looked like he was going to back out again, but he held his composure and retorted the stare into the eyes of his marefriend

"Pack your stuff Violet, we are going on holidays!"

________________________________________________________________________________

We only had one hour left when we arrived at Smokys place. Violet kept talking about paying Silver back and that this will have consequences on the way, but that's just the way she worked. I was sure she would realize how awesome this idea was once we arrived.

I rang the doorbell and waited for Smoky to arrive. Doubts were already forming inside my head. What if he wasn't even there? What if Sunny flew home already? there was no way we could get to her in time.

An opening door interrupted my thoughts.

"Hey guys, what's u-", he stared blankly at us and our packed belongings

"Isn't it a bit early for camping?"

"No camping. Is Sunny still here?" I asked in a harsh tone. We were really running out of time here.

"Uh yea, but what is this?"

"We're goin' on vacation, jungle, action, go pack we meet here in ten minutes, plane leaves in less than an hour, no time, ran long to reach you in time".

All this running really worked me out, It was hard to speak full sentences without gasping for air, and it didn't seem like the others were better off. Except Silver, but he has always been strongest of us three anyway.
.
He looked at me for several seconds, I could see the gears grinding in his head by looking at his face alone. Had I been too direct? I was about to snap him out of it when he regained his composure,

"You know, you could've just used the phone, right? To tell me?".

The phone. I didn't once consider the damn phone.

Now it was our turn to look at each other.

Did Smoky just outsmart us? SMOKY? Violet in particular looked as if she just wanted to dissapear in a black hole out of emberassment and her blush was clearly showing. But no time for this, we could bemoan this incident later, and since no one of us wanted to deal with Smoky and his now quickly growing grin of absolute victory, only one thing was left to do.

"Smartass", we said in unison and went inside.

His place was a mess, and when even I consider something as a mess, than it really, really was. The entire interior looked like the home of Discords messy twin brother, no scratch that, it looked like Discords messy little brothers cubbyhole, the sight was amazing and disgusting at the same time.

Violet nearly fainted from the view alone, fortunately I and my brothers were used to his place, so we only grimaced once. Nothing in existence should be possible to habituate to such a mess. Nothing except Smoky apparently.

He immediately began to pack with the aid of Silver and Trigger, while I and Violet went into the guestroom. I nearly tripped on a definitely used bong on my way, but we reached it unharmed. Smokys mess was already an adventure in itself, we could just try to stay here for two weeks.

Nah, that was too dangerous, no one except Smoky himself would survive that.

Entering the room I immediately noticed something different. It was clean!

The entire floor was clear of objects, the walls were without stains and even the window curtains looked like they have been washed for once. My jaw dropped to the ground. Sunny did all this?

"S-Sunny?"

"oh, hey", came a muffled tone from the inside of a big wooden wardrobe.

Sunny stepped out of it and checked the interior again before closing it.

"Alright, finally finished, you wouldn't believe the shock I had after waking up in here! I've been cleaning since I woke up".

I slept in this room often enough to think that actually cleaning it could only be done by Alicorn magic. I checked Sunnys flank to make sure that her cutie mark didn't change, and indeed, the bright sun with a smiling face was still at the same spot on her light-yellow coat.

"Don't be so surprised, I just couldn't stand this mess. So, what's up? Are you going on a camping trip?"

I was about to explain everything, but could stop myself in time. There was no way I would convince Sunny the same way as the others. She has always been a rather shy pony and I knew that traveling was definitely not on her list of hobbies. A careful approach was necessary.

"Actually, yes! We're going camping!"

I could see Violets glance from the corner of my eye, but I just gave her the "just play along" eyes.

"And you will come with us".

As soon as I finished the sentence Sunnys eyes shrunk to pinpricks, but I just smiled. I knew what to do.

________________________________________________________________________________

Twenty minutes left.

The airport was pretty far away, so we decided to take a cab, there was no way we could have reached it in time running. The plan was to meet up with sunny at the parking lot, she would pack her stuff on our drive. I always envied Pegasi, they save so much money with their wings.

The traffic was dense, and time was running out as we drove through the busy streets. The designer boutiques and nobel restaurants looked busy as always. I could see Violet staring after each shop we passed, she was a proud city pony, and I couldn't blame her for already missing the world she was used to, but hey, some time out of city would do her good.

We arrived at the Airport with five minutes left on the clock. Sunny already stood near the giant glass clad entrance building, waving at us. It was a alien sight seeing such a cute Pony in this kind of outfit, but she seemed calm, which was definitely not the case when I slowly told her everything about the trip back at Smokys place. Big Planes were landing and taking off around us, I even saw some Airpony 800's!

There was no time to admire the scenery though.

"okay, listen up",

I played last night back over and over, but couldn't find any info on how to find the pilot or our flight in any way, so there was only one option left

"We have less than five minutes left to get to a information counter, ask for our flight, find it and get it in time. Good? Good. Let's go".

We ran through the big glass entrance doors and across the entry hall. Everywhere ponies looked at us, and I couldn't really blame them, six ponies dressed up for a Jungle trip running through a crowd of suited up business ponies.

"Uh, can I help you?" the unicorn receptionist mare addressed us, clearly confused.

"Yes, we have a flight to catch, it's really important. The departure is in two minutes, five pm. to the Western seas".

"Okay, let me see...ah yes, here it is, there is a flight taking off on the old runway number nine, but-"

I couldn't hear any more of her words, since I was already running towards the Gate area, with my friends following close behind. One minute, we could still do this.

I cut the corner at runway number nine and nearly tripped. Goddess this was a long hallway, I doubted that we were even near the main complex anymore.

Exiting the door marked "9" verified my thoughts. We found ourselves quite far away from the main runways, in front of us was just a long dirt runway and a little wooden shack. A sound of glee escaped my mouth when I saw a propeller plane waiting on the runway.

We quickly made our way to the shack and I wasted no time knocking as I entered it. The interior seemed to be a improvised office, with a simple wooden desk and a lot of paperwork randomly stuffed into lockers. A grey unicorn Stallion was sleeping on a chair behind the desk.

I rang the little bell next to a sign that spelt "Safe Flight - Pilot".

Safe Flight huh? I hoped he would live up to that name. The stallion woke up, clearly startled..

"Oh, uh", he cleard his throat before speaking up, "my Name is Safe flight, how can i help you?"

This smooth voice, I recognised it. The grey fur, those green eyes. Had the mysterious pony from last night been a unicorn? I didn't remember, and I had more important things to deal with anyway.

"Hi, My name's Bolo, these are Sunny, Silver, Smoky, Violet and Trigger Happy, we were told to catch a flight at five pm?"

"Oh, so you are the Hoof Island group! Nice to meet you all, but what are you talking about? Five?"

"I was told the plane would leave at five!"

"Nonono, this baby isn't starting for another hour or so".

Another hour. This entire time, we still had an entire hour left.

I dropped to the ground, and heard five bodies doing the same behind me.

Safe Flight leaned over his desk.

"Uh, we can also start in two if you want"

I swore myself to never be punctual again.

One hour later we sat inside the plane, which seemed to be an old modified version of the Neigh-Antonov. It sure seemed to be well preserved for its age, on the outside at least, the interior looked like it had been shot apart several times already, and only the benches on which we sat seemed to have any stability at all.

I had nothing to do and checked my gear for the fourth time now, just to make sure.

Clothes, check. Provisions, check. Passport and money, check. My most trustworthy machete and a bowie knife, just in case, double check. I had everything I needed.

Safe Flight`s voice sounded out of the on board loudspeakers.

"Attention dear passengers here is your captain speaking, we are about to start. The safe exits are to your left and right or any other hole you can find to climb out. In case of an oxygen dropdown nothing will drop from the ceiling, so just hold your breath or something, and if you look under your bench you will find a swimming vest...wait, I forgot those, alright, no swimming vests, but hey we are just trespassing a ocean, it's not like we will encounter any water",

He chuckled. We didn't. Atleast I wasn't only one thinking that his humor really lacked the funny part.

"Anyway, have a comfortable flight and fasten your seatbelts, the ones that are still usable that is".

The engines roared and started to hum, soon we were in the takeoff position and our speed increased. Ironically Sunny looked the most fearful, after all, she was the one with wings. The little "speech" of our pilot didn't seem to have calmed her down either.

We closed in to the end of the runway and soon the tingling sensation of the start ran through my body. I closed my eyes and started daydreaming about the next two weeks. The sun. The beaches. The action!

I didn't regret anything. This was going to be awesome. This was going to be good.