Dragon in the Burning Woods: Continuation

Almost a month had passed since the arrival of the strange metal dragon. The event was nearly gone from Ponyville memory, but one mare held on to it. She had kept a piece of it in her cabinet. It was small, but undeniably worth keeping. Thoughts of the incident had kept her up at night, and she wondered what it could have been. I mean, metal doesn't just shape itself into something like that, especially not with glass eyes, and then start flying. Only then to crash and start leaking fire? Something must have made it. But what was it?

"Twilight, you coming down for breakfast?" asked Spike.

"No Spike, I'm fine." replied Twilight, not really listening to her assistant.

"Whatever."

Spike went back downstairs, his concern for Twilight growing. Ever since that dragon thing crashed, she's been different. She seldom came out of the library anymore, and she had read and reread every book in the library at least three times. She was looking for something, but what? The more the dragon thought about it, the more he realized that Twilight was going to overstress herself about what was probably nothing. He would have to confront her about it later.

But he wouldn't get that chance.

As the last book returned to its place on the shelf for the fifth time, Twilight was showing signs of sleep deprivation. Messed up mane, bags under her eyes, no attention span. Spike was accustomed to seeing her like this, but not to this extent. Not since the time travel incident. He hoped they wouldn't have a repeat of that event. Too bad.

"Hey Twi, you going to have breakfast today for a change?" he asked.

No response.

"Twi? You up yet?"

He went upstairs, but Twilight wasn't there. She was probably out talking to one of her friends. Maybe Spike could get a day off... Again, no such luck. As he returned downstairs, ditching his apron, his stomach cramped up, and then he belched out a scroll. Grabbing it, he began to read it.

Dear Spike,

You may be wondering where I am. I'm at the site of that crash a month ago. Bring the rest of the Pony Brigade there, I'm going to need them.

Twilight

As he set down the scroll, he knew that this wasn't going to be good.

The trio approached the clearing where the iron structure had come to a stop before. Twilight was there, placing some sort of gems around. Spike reached for one, getting a smack in the head from Big Mac.

"Ah wouldn't touch that if I were you. It looks like Twahlight's settin' up somethin' big."

Spike crossed his arms grouchily as he sat down. He still didn't know why he had to be there, he wasn't part of the brigade. Then again, he would have a better chance talking to dragons than anyone else here.

"Ok, that's all the preparations. I have an idea. This has been bothering me for a good deal of time, so I've decided to actually do something about it now. Remember the large metal thing that crashed here a month ago?" Twilight began.

Big Mac and Rainbow Dash nodded.

"Well, it's been bothering me that I have no idea what it could be. I want to try bringing it back here, so that we can maybe get some answers out of it." she finished.

"Um, Twilight, I don't think it can speak. It was just a slab of metal, anyway." Dash said.

"Well, maybe there's at least a bit of writing on it that can be of use."

There were no further objections, until Twilight was about to start casting the spell.

"Hold it Twi, it took a whole team of unicorns to get rid of this thing. How are you going to bring it back from scratch and on your own?" Rainbow asked, concerned that the exertion would cause her friend to explode.

"That's what these gems are for. By placing them here, I can use their power as a substitute for another unicorn's. I wouldn't say I'm bringing it back from scratch, either. I kind of, um... saved a piece." she answered sheepishly.

"What? Why would ya save a part o' that thing? That's just darn stupid." said Big Mac.

"Why? What damage could a piece like this one do?" defended Twilight, holding the piece in front of the stallion's face to show him.

"Hmm. Well, Ah suppose a piece like that can't do much harm."

Twilight nodded, and place the chunk of metal in the center of the gems. Horn glowing brightly, she gestured for the others to step back. She didn't know which orientation this thing would come back, she just hoped it would be in one piece. As she touched her horn to the metal, there was a flash from the gems, and then the mare felt herself falling quickly. She had no idea what was going on. This wasn't supposed to happen, not at all. But regardless, that's what occurred.

Then her hooves hit something solid. She recovered her senses, and then looked around. She was no longer in the forest with Big Mac, Spike, and Rainbow Dash, but inside the metal thing. At least, that's what she guessed. She was facing what she assumed to be the back, so she turned to look at the inside. What was there surprised her.

The entire thing was filled with a sort of artificial light, bathing everything in a yellowish glow. But the strangest thing was the ape-like creatures seated within. A couple of them were walking back and forth between the chairs, occasionally handing something to a seated creature. Twilight started forward, but was thrown to the side by a sudden jolt. As she regained her footing, a voice rang out.

"This is your captain speaking. We're encountering a small patch of turbulence, so I've switched the seatbelt sign on. Passengers are to refrain from moving about the cabin at this time."

Twilight looked around frantically for the source of the voice.

"Huh? What does that mean? Where are you?"

Then it hit her. She hadn't resummoned the thing, but rather brought herself to it in the past, before it crashed. Which meant she was on a large, flying metal dragon thing that was going to crash into the Everfree Forest. She had to warn these apes.

Running toward the front, she was blocked by one of the apes that was handing things to the seated ones. With a large cart in the way as well, Twilight just decided she'd need to wait for it to get out of the way. It moved slowly, so Twilight decided to listen in on what it was saying.

"More coffee sir? Anything for you ma'am? That'll be three seventy five." it would say, or other similar things.

Reading the labels on the cart, Twilight couldn't make out much, but she read the words "Coca-Cola", "Canada Dry", and "Sprite". She wondered what that meant. She understood "Cola", so she assumed it to be a drink. As she tried to decipher the other labels, it hit her: not one of these apes had acknowledged her presence yet. Even after her yelling out and running up the aisle.

"Excuse me, can you let me past?" she asked the ape standing in front of her.

It ignored her.

"Excuse me? Can you hear me?" Twilight asked again.

Again, no response.

"Alright, that's enough."

With a flash, Twilight teleported past the the cart, and began to walk up to the front. Reaching the complete front of the cabin, she read the sign on the back of the door.

Cockpit. Flight Crew Only

Flight crew? They were flying?

Well, what did she expect, she had seen the thing fall from the sky, after all. But to she felt the need to enter this "cockpit". She tried the door, but it wouldn't open. She tried working it with her magic, but to no avail. She would just need to break the door down. Stepping back, she braced herself to hit the door.

Instead, she sailed straight through it. Tumbling to a heap on the floor, the mare found herself looking straight at a large console covered in buttons and switches, as well as four large levers. Two apes were sitting on either side of it, and she could see through the glass eyes from before. It hit her now, they weren't eyes, but rather windows. The ape on the right turned to the other one.

"Hey, you figure we'll need to land in that shit up ahead?"

"I hope not. Suggestions?" said the other one, in a light accent similar to Applejack's.

"I say alternate, that would be safer, don't you think? Anyway, policy is no landing in storms. Still, your call."

"I think we can make this one, if there aren't any storm cells. Are there?"

"Let me check... No, not a single one. Just heavy rain. High winds, too."

"Aw... What the hell, we'll make it."

The two started to just make small talk, so Twilight stopped paying attention. She looked around the cockpit some more, but nothing really stood out. It was still a mystery to her how she wasn't limited by the physical barriers of this metal thing, aside from the walls and floor. She was about to turn and leave for the cabin when she heard the left ape speak.

"JFK Tower, this is Southwest Flight 589, we're 'bout fifty miles out. Makin' a full stop landin'. How 'bout gettin' us a runway?"

Twilight couldn't hear a response, but evidently the ape did.

"Alrighty then, you heard the lady. Line us up Mr. Dubnik."

The other one nodded and grunted a reply. Twilight could feel the thing start to tilt again, and naturally started to freak out. Surprisingly, none of the apes did. She was nearing her wits end when the tilt stopped, and they were on about a thirty degree angle. Only when they started leveling out did she regain her composure.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain again. We've begun our descent to New York, the weather outside's lookin' pretty nasty. Lots of rain, lots of wind. This'll be fun, don't you agree?" he said, and Twilight could hear his voice being broadcast in the cabin. The captain laughed a bit at the groans of displeasure from the cabin.

"Alright Dubnik, bring us... what the FUCK!"

Twilight spun around, and saw only lightning building up on the outside of the craft. She had no idea what was going on now, her spell wasn't supposed to have caused any of this. The captain said something else now, panic in his voice.

"Mayday mayday mayday, this is Southwest Flight 589, this is Southwest Flight 589, this is Southwest Flight 589. We have encountered a massive storm cell out of nowhere and are going down. Controls responding minimally. Autopilot disengaged, surfaces still unresponsive. We're gonna crash, we have no chance to recover. Position unknown, estimating 30 miles south of JFK. This is Southwest Flight 589, this is Southwest Flight 589, this is Southwest Flight 589."

Twilight wasn't sure what most of that meant, but it was obviously bad. In the cabin, she could hear others screaming. There was only one thing she could do. She hoped it would work. As the magic began to flow through her horn, another flash, identical to the one from the gems.

Staring out the windows, she saw that they were in Equestria again, since she saw Canterlot pass by to their left as they shot straight towards Ponyville. She had to stop this thing before the impact. She cast her spell, and the craft slowed rapidly. She heard a few crashes from the cabin, but she had to maintain the spell. Looking out the window, she saw the forest still approaching rapidly. She wouldn't be able to stop it in time. It was still going to crash.

She estimated ten seconds to impact. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

Then everything went black.

To be continued...