Fly By Night Pt. 1

Just a few more days and a few more miles. Gale thought as drove out of the motel parking-lot. A few more days ‘till the rest of my life, Jessy I’m comin’ home. He continued, turning right onto main street and headed out of town.

“And that ladies and gents was The Who’s ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ wrapping up the six o’clock roadblock. Remember to tune in tomorrow so you can be caller number five and win concert tickets to see AC DC’s last tour.” the DJ droned on.

That’s too bad, I’ll be out of signal range by morning. Gale thought as he turned onto the interstate headed out of town. Maybe the show’s syndicated, his thoughts continued, making a mental note to try that station the next day as he turned off the radio.

“Beautiful weather calls for beautiful music, time for my cassette collection." Gale said to himself sarcastically as he drove down the road in his beat down ‘71 challenger, a graduation gift from his dad for making it through college. A few hours passed, and a low rumble filled the sky as he turned off of the interstate and onto a smaller highway. I didn’t think it was supposed to rain until Tuesday, he thought while throwing the car back into third and gunning the throttle.

Less than an hour later Gale came up to an old two lane wooden bridge. “Oh jeez, can that thing even hold me?” he asked aloud as the car rounded a corner and he laid eyes upon the bridge in question. Unfortunately Gale would never know the answer because, while rounding the corner, his right rear tire blew out and sent the car into a wild spin. Damn bias ply tires! Gale thought as he desperately tried to regain control. Why the heck didn’t I get these changed in the last town? his mind second-guessing itself as he cranked the wheel to the left.

. . . Oh god. He groaned internally as he over corrected and sent the car careening to the left and off the road. This . . .  is gonna hurt, he thought, car busting through underbrush and roaring down toward a dirt pile by the lake front. As the car, brakes locked, went hurtling down the embankment and into the mound of dirt, Gale’s life flashed before his eyes. But instead of plowing into the mound, like he expected it would, the car instead shot up the mound like a ramp and flew out over the lake he’d intended to cross. “Oh Sh-” he started as the car flew into the air, but before he could finish his expletive there was a loud thunk and a flash of a bright white light.

“-it!” he finished as the car landed hard. What the he- He thought before the car slid sideways from the force of impact and rolled once, twice, three times before coming to a stop on it’s roof engine sputtering out of life and smoking heavily. It took about a minute for the adrenaline to wear off and for Gale to realize that he’d quite possibly acquired several broken bones, mostly from the impact and subsequent rolling over, and a large amount of cuts and scrapes, all of which could be attributed the the broken windows and lack of door panels.

As soon as Gale’s mind had made the proper connections and began functioning, he cried out in pain. “Aagh shit!” he said the latter half at almost a whisper from the pain. As soon as he’d said it, another realization came to the forefront of his brain. He’d been careening out over a lake, then there was some bright light, and now here he is on his roof in the middle of a field? Where the . . . Where in god’s name am I? His mind struggled to come up with an answer through the intense pain. “Help me!” He tried to draw out both words, though was sent into a coughing fit as he did. He hoped that maybe whatever saved him from drowning might be able to help him here.

After about five minutes, another problem became apparent to Gale. I’m upside down in a car, with multiple injuries, he thought, his mind now having some semblance of normality. If I have a concussion this is not gonna do me any favors, he continued mentally, not trusting his voice to work and to not attract unwanted attention. He’d already heard something move very fast near him, but he hadn’t been able to see it. Of course I’m not gonna see if anything sneaks up on me, he internally continued, if a bit snarkily. I’m only able to see directly to my left. He thought before his mind started to waver in and out of consciousness.

Another ten minutes or so later Gale began to hear bits and pieces of a conversation, as his mind returned to consciousness for a third time. He was barely able to make out the voices and even then he couldn’t tell what they were saying, but he could tell they were arguing about something. Maybe they're trying to find the best way to get me out? he thought, if a little bit too optimistically.

As Gale sat, upside down against the driver’s door, someone sat about twenty feet above the wreckage. Rainbow Dash had been unable to think for the past few minutes. She hadn't intended to use the return spell when she did. No, she’d intended to fly this metal contraption to the other side of the lake it seemed to careen towards. She was certain that whatever was maneuvering it couldn’t have meant for it to do that, mainly because she'd seen ponies handle runaway carts before, and that’s what this thing had reminded her of. Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that even though all she did was help who or whatever was operating this thing, something had gone wrong.

After a few minutes of internal debate, her thoughts were interrupted by a drawn out and agonized cry for help. “Help me!” Whoever it was drew out their cry and then broke into a fit of coughing.

Oh Celestia! she started to panic at the thought that whatever was operating this contraption was injured. Oh Celestia, I’d better find Twilight! Her mind screamed and she took off for the library at barely subsonic speed.

About a minute later found Rainbow Dash careening into the door of the Golden Oaks library. “Twilight!” she shouted, slamming the door open and startling her. “Twilight you’ve gotta come quick! I - I don’t know what happened, but you need to see this.” She stammered, tumbling into the library proper and catching the sight of her friend. Startled by Rainbow’s entrance, Twilight got up from her desk and trotted over to the main room. “Rainbow what are you-” she started, but pausing she got a look at her. “Rainbow, what’s wrong?” Twilight asked, walking up to her and putting a hoof on her shoulder. “You look like you’ve been through Tartarus.” she finished, taking a step back and looking her over.

“Oh Celestia Twilight!” Rainbow shuddered. “Your spell. It sent me somewhere else and there was this thing and it was-” Was all Rainbow could manage before Twilight gripped her in magic and brought her in for a hug.

While hugging her Twilight calmly asked why she’d taken so long to get back to the library. When Rainbow Dash answered by saying that she’d been interested in this other world for a few hours, Twilight couldn’t find it in her heart to be angry with her friend. “Dash, I need you to calm down, okay?” she asked, trying her best to sooth the shaking pegasus. “You said saw something fly into the air. . . what happened next?” Twilight asked.

As soon as Rainbow finished processing Twilight’s question she bolted upright. “Oh Celestia!” she cried, “I left him!”. She got up and raced to the door, “Twilight, you’ve gotta help me!” she shouted as she was enveloped in a purple glow. “There’s no time! He could be dying!” she yelled, struggling hopelessly against the spell.

Startled by her friend’s violent outburst, Twilight walked over to Rainbow and in as calm a voice as she could muster asked “What do you mean he could die?”

Rainbow, looking scared and confused replied, “Whoever was using that- that thing.” she stammered, pointing a hoof toward the edge of town. “Now are you going to help me or not?” she asked, trying her best not to freak out any more than she already was.

Twilight ran over to the door, open it, and said “Rainbow, you know the way. Can you pick me up and take me there?”

Several minutes passed before Gale heard a pair of voices approaching. They, he was sure there were at least two, were coming up on his location reasonably quick but they were still too far for him to make out what they were saying as he slowly slipped back into unconsciousness. He held on as long as he could and managed to yell for help on last time before he passed out.

Gale was never really a morning person. Getting into a near fatal car wreck didn’t seem to help that, nor did waking up in an unfamiliar hospital bed with no clue how he got there along with several casts and a large amount of bandages covering him. “What happened last night?” he groggily asked, opening his eyes and wincing at the sudden pain caused by the bright overhead lights. “Where -” he started trying to sit up, only for a stab of pain to cause him to fall back. “What the hell happened last night?” he sputtered out once he’d gotten a good look at the hospital room he’d woken up in. He spent the next hour or so just listening to the sounds of all the monitoring equipment, which consisted of an older styled heart monitor and a blood pressure cuff.

Okay so I’ve been in some kind of accident. He thought, trying to piece together the events of the night prior. Must’ve been bad if I’m in the hospital. Oh god I hope Charlene’s okay. He continued, debating what to do next. Is there a call nurse button in here? He wondered, taking the time to examine the room once again. Oh there it is! His thoughts concluded. He rolled over, grunting, and pressed the button with his right hand, his left immobilized by a sling.

Not three minutes later a doctor opened the door and entered the room. What . . . the hell? Gale asked himself mentally. Is that a. . . a horse? What kind of painkillers do they have me on?

“- and I assure you sir that we’ve done our best to ensure a speedy recovery, for here at Ponyville medical it’s our job to be there for everypony.” The doctor said, snapping Gale out of his thoughts.

“Huh, what?” he asked, completely confused as to just what was going on. “Can you repeat that Mr.-?” he continued, just managing to sit up, and rub his temple. “I’m having a hard time trying to understand just what the hell happened to me, and how I ended up in a world of mini- horses.” he finished with a second glance to confirm that the doctor was in fact a mini-horse with a white coat, sized to fit, covering his front half, and for some bizarre reason a perfect image of a stethoscope on his backside.

The mini-horse doctor took a step back, presumably to gather his thoughts and replied, “My name is Dr. Steady Hoof. My team and I have been working for the past two days to make sure you didn’t end up either dead or paralyzed from some sort of magical incident that occurred.” He continued slowly, “You were brought in by one Twilight Sparkle and her friend Rainbow Dash, both of them said that you were involved in a crash landing of some large carriage as they described it.” At this point he stopped, looked at Gale and asked, “Would they be able to come in and check on you?”

It took Gale a couple of minutes to process the information he’d just been given. “Give me a minute.” He groaned, still getting over the fact that he was talking to a miniature horse who could: One, talk. Two, claimed to be a doctor and three, was telling him that there were other miniature horses that wanted to see him. What the actual fuck is going on? he thought as he looked at Dr. Steady Hoof. I’m in some sort of dream . . . I have to be. “Screw it, let ‘em in.” he said, startling the doctor with his response.

The doctor walked over to the door, paused and turned back to Gale “Oh Celestia, where are my manners? What is your name, sir?” he asked.

“My name’s Gale. Gale Howard.” Gale replied, wondering just what in the world he’d gotten himself into. Of course he didn’t have to wait long because the doctor opened the door, said something about not needing guards to somebody on the other side, and stepped aside to let two more mini-horses into the room.

“Well Gale, I’d like to introduce you to Miss Twilight Sparkle and Miss Rainbow Dash.” Steady Hoof said, turning back to face him and shutting the door. “These two brought you into the hospital about two and a half days ago and practically haven’t left the lobby since.” he said with a small chuckle, before turning to the purple unicorn know as Twilight. “Now Miss Sparkle there is the problem of medical bills, you see I can’t necessarily charge Gale here as he has no means of payment, but I can’t just offer my services for free; no that would cause a scandal.”

A unicorn? Okaay, definitely dreaming. Gale thought as the two walked into to room. A pegasus too? Okay, what the fuck? Mind reeling, Gale  found himself unable to focus on their conversation. His thoughts were interrupted by the light blue pegasus that was standing in front of, and staring at him.

Rainbow Dash wasn’t quite sure what to make of the creature in front of her. She’d seen a glimpse of him two days prior when she’d stopped his vehicle from going into a lake, and possibly drowning him. She’d seen him laying in bed almost all of the day prior, and she still couldn’t see why Twilight was so afraid of him. “Hey Twilight?’ she asked, looking over to her companion, “I don’t see what the big deal is. He doesn’t seem real tough, hay I could take him on single hoofedly.” she said, the pride in her voice already getting on Gale’s nerves, but instead of freaking her out by standing up and staring at her Gale decided on a different approach.

He instead slowly looked up, glared at her and said as politely as possible, “Miss, if you could kindly stop staring at me? I’ve had a rough week and you're not quite helping.” His sudden statement caused Rainbow to backpedal a bit away from him and stare in fear. “Thank you, miss.” he said standing up to his full height of 5’10”. Okay mini-horses are definitely mini. He thought as he looked down at the now more demure pegasus. “Look I didn’t mean to startle you,” Gale said, noticing that Twilight had ended her conversation and was about to step in. “but I just woke up from what I’m being told has been a near three day stay in a hospital that I don’t recognize that’s populated by mini-horses.” He said trying to keep the fear and anger out of his voice, “So forgive me if I seem a little upset.”

Twilight, ever the scholar, decided right then that she’d have to educate him on Equestrian culture. “Mini-horses?” she asked, rather indignant, “We prefer the term ponies.” she said, walking over to the window. “As to where you are?” She continued, opening the blinds to reveal a nearly pastel colored landscape. “You’re in the land of Equestria, home of all ponies and ruled by the princesses Celestia and Luna.” She finished, frowning when she saw the expression on Gale’s face. “Is there something wrong?” she asked, before her brain started putting pieces together.

Gale’s mind beat hers though and he said, “The last place I remember being was directly in front of a two lane bridge on the Western end of Missouri.” He stated, voice wavering as he continued, “It definitely wasn’t as pastel as wherever I am now, though.” He sat back down as he finished speaking, shrugging in defeat. After about ten minutes he sighed and said, “Guess I’ll never win those concert tickets.” Dammit all.