Journey To A New Home

Chapters

Prologue - The Fall of a Demon
1 - Ressurection
2 - Recovery
3 - The Harsh Truth
4 - A Wardog's Pack
5 - Foreign Relations
6 - Finding Closure, Part One
7 - Finding Closure, Part Two
8 - Parting from the Ghosts
9 - Clarity
10 - Salvage

Prologue - The Fall of a Demon

"Goddamn it Chopper! Bail out now!" The cries of my flight leader and wingmen fought with the cacophony of alarms and warning tones that were sounding off in my cockpit. Already I was starting to loose hydraulic pressure and engine power. My controls quickly grew sluggish as they fell back onto the undamaged hydraulic reserves, providing me with the barest ability to move. I could still turn, climb and descend, but I wasn't going to be dogfighting any more.

BANG! WWWRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

Damnit, one of my engines just flamed out. At least this baby can fly on one engine. If F-15s can survive a flight with an entire wing missing, I'm sure I can make it on one engine. That's the story I've heard at least, about that Ustian mercenary pilot. Brought back his F-15 after a dogfight with most of his right wing missing? If he can do that, I'm sure I can keep this bird in the air a little longer. Just can't ditch it out over these houses, don't want it falling and killing a family.

"There's nothing but houses down below, I can't leave this plane yet." I kept looking around, but with my lower altitude and damaged cockpit, I couldn't see any place safe to eject. "Hey Kid, you see any place I can drop this plane?" I was hoping that Blaze, Nagase or Grimm could find me a place from their vantage points up high. I waited for a response from Blaze, but got no reply. A check on my fading radar indicated that he was caught between two Yuktobonian fighters and couldn't spare the time to reply.

"The stadium, Chopper. Can you hear me? Drop it into the centre of the stadium and bail out. Do you understand?" Nagase's voice was starting to crackle, I couldn't tell if she was getting emotional or if my radio was starting to fail as well. I looked around and saw the stadium to my left. I should be able to make it from this distance at this height with only one engine, provided nothing else fails on the way.

"Roger, good idea. Gives me some hope that I just might make it." As I started to turn my crippled bird towards the stadium, I remembered that they were still evacuating the civilians from the stadium. Last thing I want is for my aircraft to go off and kill our own people. "I'd better wait for the crowd to evacuate some more, though."

Once I started my approach on the stadium, I make a quick checklist of what I still had alive. GPS and INS, dead. IFF, dead. Radar, dying. Pressurisation, dead. Weapons release system, dead. Multifunctional displays, dying. Radio, starting to fail. Counter-measures, dead. Basic navigational instrumentation, still functional. I still had the barest of functions, but for all intents and purposes I was an F-15-shaped, jet-powered, self-propelled glider.

"All enemy stealth fighters destroyed. We've also called back the allied fighters." AWACS controller Thunderhead informed us over the radio. I checked the radar screen to confirm his statement, and got to watch as it fizzled out of action.

"A little too late, man. There goes the radar. My circuits are toast." I couldn't help but notice how glum I sounded when I said that.

"Look, forget about it Chopper, just bail out. Please, bail out!" Nagase was all but crying out, I could easily tell how distressed she was over the noise of the alarms and interference on the radio. I looked to the left and saw that the stadium was much closer now, and that I was much lower to the ground too.

"This is Thunderhead. Captain Davenport, are you all right?" I pointed the nose of my wounded aircraft towards the stadium and started my descent.

"There's the stadium. I'm dropping the plane over there." I secured the master arm switch to safe, out of habit, and ran a final check over my critical functions. To my horror, my ejector seat and canopy jettison system had now decided to stop functioning.

"Roger, now get out." Nagase's voice was still shaky, but had regained most of its calm confidence. I shook my head, knowing that my next words were going to smash through whatever barriers she and the rest of my team had risen. I noticed that Blaze was being very quiet for the time being, he hadn't said much throughout the mission unless he needed too.

"I can't. The electrical system's all messed up. The canopy won't blow. Ejection seat's not working either." I rested my head against the seat as my altitude started to rapidly decrease. I could faintly hear sobbing over the radio, but it didn't sound like Nagase, or Grimm for that matter.

"Alvin." It was Blaze. He was the one sobbing.

"Kid?" He never used my first name unless it was serious, like if I was to be reprimanded or something.

"Thanks for being there on my wing, for watching out for us." His voice was starting to break, something I had never heard before since our days back during flight training at Heirlark.

"Thank you for being my flight leader. It's been an honour." I could see his jet above mine, so I threw him a last salute. I wasn't sure if he had seen it, but I felt it was suitable as a last farewell. I tightened the straps on my seat, making sure I was strapped as tight as I could to my aircraft.

"Don't give up Chopper! Keep trying! Chopper!"

I chuckled as the stadium filled my disabled heads-up display.

"I'm gonna miss that voice." As I said those last words, the grass of November City Stadium grew ever closer. Steeling my nerves, I turned off my radio, closed my eyes and waited.

1 - Ressurection

Death is a peculiar thing to think about. Everyone has their own interpretation of it, of both the experience and what you may or may not get out of it at the end. Some people think that it all depends on the way you live and the actions leading up to it that dictate how. If you lived a long and full life, death should come as a pleasant ending to you, the final chapter of your story, and is something you accept and are willing to confront and overcome. If you lied, cheated, or lived an unwholesome live, then death serves as a punishment for your actions and as a way for you to somehow atone for your sins. For someone like me, death is something else entirely.

Death was something that lurked behind every corner, was hidden in every mission briefing and was loaded and armed in every weapon fired in my generation direction. It was something I acknowledged on a day to day basis, yet did my very best to avoid or dodge. For sixteen combat missions across the last few months, that was all I did. Whether I was supporting ground troops moving through the Yuktobonian desert, flying escort over our own lands, covering a prisoner escape or defending our air base from an attack, I was constantly on the lookout for death, doing my upmost to make sure I didn't fall into its grasp. But after three years of training, five months in an auxiliary fighter squadron, and sixteen combat missions in my first wartime deployment later, it was finally my time. I had hoped that I would somehow make it through the war, see it from start to finish without so much as a scratch, but I guess life works in mysterious ways.

While I had acknowledged and resigned myself to the fact that I may very well die, I never gave the actual act of dying much thought. I expected Death to be something painfully pleasant, where all your suffering comes to a final but quick climax. Whether you're lying on a comfortable bed, waiting for your weak heart to seize up and stop beating, or sitting in a crippled warplane hurtling towards the ground with a malfunctioning ejector seat, Death is something quick, painful, but merciful.

I didn't expect what I experienced though.

When my F-15's nose impacted the field in the stadium, I was expecting to hear the sharp crunch of aircraft-grade aluminium bending, as well as the distinct smashing of my nose-mounted radar breaking apart. I was expecting to see a flash of sparks as various electrical lines mixed with other lines and fluid pipes and ignited. I was expecting the sudden deceleration of my jet and the feeling of being thrown forward from my seat as the ground stopped my moving aircraft. I was expecting to smell the distinct odour of JP-5 fuel igniting, and the taste of my own blood as my body was quite literally torn apart by the horrendous amount of force it was experience.

I heard a loud popping nose. I saw a flash of purple and yellow light. I felt as if I was being sucked through a vacuum and dragged across the entire Osean continent, from Sand Island all the way to Beval, Nordland. I smelt a trace of ozone, and could faintly taste a bit of copper. All these barely lasted a second however, as the dark skies over November City and the artificial light from the stadium's light fixtures transformed into clear blue skies and bright warm sunlight. I peered through my damaged canopy and saw that I was still in fact in the air, gliding as my second engine had ceased to function right before impact. I was gliding under my own power now, with little to no manoeuvrability, no way to bail out, and no way to really land. I guess that whatever had happened was either a dream that my mind came up as my body lay burning amongst the wreckage in November City, or something really weird has just happened and that I am still in fact alive.

Another cursory glance outside revealed to me that the world was a lot more colourful than I remember. Though, I've spent three years in the snowy mountains of Heirlark AFB, and then a few months at the remote Sand Island AFB, the rest of my time above the environment with most of my focus on the mission instead of the scenery. Maybe I haven't seen an area ravaged by conflict for so long that I had forgotten what it looked like? That doesn't explain the medieval settlement that I just spotted to my right, the population of said town now distinctly visible in a large crowd, many of them with their arms in the sky pointing at something.

Pointing at me, as a matter of fact. There's no way that they could have possibly missed a sight like the one I was right now; a heavily damaged and smoking F-15 Eagle gliding across the sky and slowly approaching the ground. I wrestled with the stick and rudder to try and aim myself towards the side of the town. If I can put this baby down close to the town, the emergency response will be notably faster, and the chances of my immediate survival will dramatically increase. Through my efforts, I had now aimed my crippled Eagle towards a rather large clearing of recently cleared trees. I could see the rows and rows of tree stumps lining the earth, and the clearing had visible road access. Hopefully they have off-road response for emergencies.

The clearing reminded me of one of the more frustrating missions in my career. It was just a simple Barrier Combat Air Patrol near Akerson Hill; patrol the coastline covered in the Northern Air Defence Zone, make sure that no enemy forces sneak in from the direction. Easy mission, right? Wrong. Good old President Harling just had to take a grey flight to North Point in a C-5. Thanks to their lack of an IFF tag, they were fired on by our own missile sites. Nagase and the Kid had to navigate them through a small gap in the ADZ's coverage, only to be ambushed by Yuke fighters that were hunting for his flight. The fact that during the fight, a spy amongst the passengers incapacitated the aircrew, leaving the President's secretary to fly the damn plane. We fought them off, then had to practise our air-to-ground gunnery skills on a bunch of generator windmills, making a clear and safe improvised runway for the now crippled C-5.

At least I don't have to shoot at any trees or windmills this time.

The ground grew closer and closer, and I straightened out my approach. I reached for the emergency landing gear release, which basically forces the gear down and locks them into place with a shot of compressed gas. I also deployed my tail hook, in the hope that by it digging into the ground, it would slow me down even further. At the very least, whoever owns that clearing will get a free plough on my part. The jolt of the gear locking into place and the hook shooting free from between the engines gave me a shot of hope that I may indeed survive this after all. It would just be a matter of finding out where I am and how to get back.

Time slowed as my Eagle touched down onto the soft dirt. F-15's are in no real way able to use improvised runways, let me tell you that much off the bat. Instead of the smooth settling motion that I was used to when landing on a paved runway, I was being thrown around in my seat as the heavy wheels of the landing gear dug into the dirt and started tearing apart the earth. From the feel of it, the hook was not having much luck in slowing down, the occasional crunch and rip being what I assumed the root of a tree being torn free as I continued to slide through the dirt. My heart sank as one particularly loud crunch rang through my cockpit, and so did my stomach as the aircraft suddenly dipped to the right and yawed. My right main gear must have struck a stump head-on and been ripped free or something.

With more surface area on the ground, I slowed down even faster. I spin a little more, almost facing the way I came, with each stump that my nose impacted. By the end of my entire ordeal, the entire radome had snapped off, my right wing was missing, the intakes looked full of dirt, and I could only assume that I was leaking fuel or some other flammable liquid. Instincts and training kicked into overdrive, and I started to unstrap myself from the seat, securing my survival vest and equipment into place before I started attempting to free myself. A quick search in the cabin later and I found the lever I was looking for; the ground-canopy ejector. This only jettisons the canopy of the aircraft, meaning that a pilot could get free of the aircraft in such an instance where a total ejection was not possible.

I pulled the level, forced myself back into my seat and pressed my hands against my helmet where my ears were, waiting the brief few seconds between the activation of the fuse and the detonation of the explosive charge that should send my canopy free.

BOOM!

In a small cloud of smoke, the canopy flies away and lands a few yards to my side. A little dazed from the explosion, I wearily climb out of the cockpit and stumble away before collapsing to the ground next to the broken plexiglass that was my canopy. Rolling to my side, I study my wounded aircraft one last time, taking in the full extent of the damage. Holes from where the missile had detonated into fragments peppered the entire surface of the aircraft, sparing very little. It had practically shredded my exhausts, torn off half of my left elevator, completely skinned my left tail and broken off my left ailerons and flaps. No wonder I was having to fight for control in my last moments.

Speaking of last moments, I now kind of wish that I was dead. The adrenaline had started to wear off, and my nerves had switched from their 'fight or flight' mode to their 'injury detection' mode. I almost felt as if I was on fire or something to that effect. I guess that the crash and the events leading up to it had taken a major strain on my body, as I laid down on my back on the soft dirt. My head throbbed, my chest was tight, my arms and legs felt numb and heavy. I could only just move my hand and arm enough to lower the visor of my flight helmet down to cover my eyes and shield them from the bright sun.

Through my helmet, I could faintly hear the sounds of a crowd running up to investigate the remains of the crash. I didn't know if they were friendly or not, but I couldn't do anything to protect myself if they were. I tilted my head to the side ever so slightly and relaxed the rest of my body, the movement of my chest due to my breathing practically masked by the heavy survival vest I was wearing. To the casual observer, I may as well have looked like that I had very recently died, which is rather ironic considering recent events.

My visor, while tinted opaque black from the outside, allowed me most of the gathering crowd with little obstruction. Immediately, I knew something wasn't right. While they were very much humanoid, various numbers of them had features and parts that no human in their own right should ever have. For starters, they were all very different in the way of skin colour. I could distinguish purple, red, pink, blue, yellow, and many different colours. Some of them had wings sprouting from holes in the back of their clothing, while others had horns on their heads. I knew without a doubt that I was not in Osea any more...

A shout from the crowd drew my attention. At the cockpit of my jet stood a purple being, a horn protruding from their forehead. From my limited view, it looked female, her hair was dark violet with a pink streak through it. She had seen the scorch marks and broken metal around the edges of the cockpit, and was looking up into the sky with a hand rested on her chin, as if she was in thought. Her head slowly traced an arc in the sky, before her gaze landed directly at me. Our eyes locked, though through the reflective visor of my helmet she wouldn't have noticed, and she seemed to freeze. I laid as still as I could, trying to maintain the impression that I was either dead or unconscious, waiting for her to react. I could see and hear her shout something once more, but her voice was muffled from the ringing in my ears and the ear protection in my flight helmet.

I watched the girl, if that was the correct term for her, break away from the crowd and head towards me, another girl following close behind her. The second girl had pale yellow skin, with pink hair and yellow wings tucked in behind her back. She was more apprehensive in her approach than her purple-skinned friend. They stopped just a few feet away from me, and the purple one knelt down as she studied me closer. I could hear her muttering something, but my damaged hearing prevented me from understanding. I watched as her eyes flicked across my body and equipment as she took in my appearance. She turned to face her companion and said something, her friend reacting with a sudden change of attitude and rushing to my other side. I couldn't risk breaking my cover by looking at her, so I had to trust that she wouldn't do something aggressive.

I felt a hand press against my right arm, and I groaned at the contact out of sheer reaction alone. My noise froze the two girls in an instant, and the purple one's eyes widened in shock. She leaned in a little closer, her hand reaching towards the top of my helmet. Through the subtle shift of my head, I could only assume she had seen the toggle for my visor and was attempting to free my face. I could just see the visor moving up slowly, and I braced my eyes for the bright light that was about to fill my vision. Once I felt it lock into its stowed position, I slowly opened my eyes to find a pair of dark purple staring at mine. I blinked, which caused the girl to shoot back into an upright position. She spoke frantically, and I rolled my head to see her pink-haired friend digging through what looked like a first-aid kit of sorts. Another girl, this one older with pure white skin and very light pink hair and wearing what looked like a nurse's uniform, knelt beside her and was studying my chest and legs.

Realising that those two were the closest I've seen to proper medical attention, I let myself relax and rolled my head back towards the purple girl. She was kneeling right beside my left arm, about an inch between them, and was talking to a large red-skinned man with blonde hair. I moved my arm, much to my body's disgust, and redirected her attention back to me. She looked me in the eyes with a saddened but hopeful and sympathetic smile. I could feel myself fading into darkness due to the increased pain I was experience, but I fought it off to get what I needed to do done.

"Help..... me...."

Then it turned to black.

2 - Recovery

Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape training. Five words that every fighter pilot dreads to hear, is scared to have to attend, but is thankful for if they ever need find themselves isolated or lost after being downed. The training basically teaches us how to keep from dying in the wilderness with the barest of equipment, how to keep from being captured by hostile forces, how to resist interrogation if captured, and how to escape from capture if the opportunity arises. SERE was two weeks of pure hell for me, plain and simple. With some stroke of luck, I managed to pass the course and escape from my captors with a few fellow pilots after spending two days in the forest being pursued and five days of imprisonment and interrogation. I still remember my successful break for freedom like it was yesterday. Myself and three pilots by the names of Jazz, Slag and Boiler were being taken for our 'execution' as we were being rather uncooperative during our interrogations. I guess they got sick of us telling a myriad of mother jokes and other insults after the fifth day.

We had arrived at the site of our 'deaths', and were being pulled off the back of the truck when I made the attempt. They had been stupid enough to use simple cable ties to restrain our hands behind our backs, and had piled us in a metal-tray utility truck for the journey. I had quickly found a sharp edge against the back end of the tray and was using the constant bumping and bouncing of the truck as a motion to saw through the weak plastic. By the time we had arrived, it was cut through enough for me to snap with a quick pull of my wrists. The other three pilots were already unloaded by the time they reached me, and as the guard reached to pull me from the tray, I pulled my wrists and grabbed at the M9 pistol clipped to his vest. I 'shot' the guard point blank and killed him, quickly using the surprise to 'kill' the remaining guards and free my comrades. With a load of blank-fire M4s and M9s, we jacked the truck and drove in the general direction of the last known friendly position. I tell you, the assessors were surprised to see a truck with four bloodied and beaten pilots with captured weapons driving up to the exercise command post that simulated a friendly checkpoint.

Thinking about my current situation, I realised that most of my SERE training would be pointless here. I was already captured, seriously injured, with no idea of where I am and where any potential friendlies may be, and a very slim chance of escaping. The most I could do was resist whatever potential interrogation may await me if and when I came around. I replayed moments of my brief time on the ground as the crowd had studied my wreckage. A lot of the civilians were just that; civilians. A few had construction hats, most wore pretty ordinary clothes. The only ones that really stood out to me were the nurse that was treating me and another woman in the crowd that I seen wearing rather official looking clothing. Aside from that, I saw no real emergency or military response to my arrival. Then again, there's no telling what had happened to me once I had blacked out. For all I know, local police might have arrived after while I was down and out to haul me to the local cells until such a time when I was able to be interviewed.

I was drawn from my own thoughts in the blackness by a faint beeping nose next to me. I focused on the monotonous beeping noise, the beat fairly steady in pace with no noticeable change in tone. Something about that sound was familiar to me, but I could not for the life of me place where I had heard it before...

Life...

It was a heart rate monitor, I was now sure of that. After recognising that sound, I could only assume that I was alive and being held in some kind of facility with medical facilities. That was a relatively good sign, it meant that I was being given medical care, meaning that whoever had me under watch was the responsible and/or treaty abiding type. I refocused on the sound a bit more, and could now faintly hear the sound of chatter nearby. It sounded distant, but given that I could only just hear the monitor that was presumably right beside me, it might just be a lingering after-effect of my crash-induced deafness. I changed tactics, and tried to move my head. I was both shocked and surprised to find it restrained in what now felt like a brace of some kind. Seeing I couldn't move my head, I moved my efforts to my arms. They moved a little, but I could distinctly feel restraints around my wrists. Understandable, given my method of arrival. One final effort, my eyes.

I forced my eyes open slowly, letting the artificial light from the room fill my eyes. They were blurry, but after a few blinks it cleared. I took in the sight of the room around me and was surprised to find myself in a room that greatly resembled a regional hospital. Off-white walls, various posters about hygiene and health care pinned on the walls, storage for medical equipment and fittings for additional equipment like oxygen respirators and IV lines. Maybe I had dreamt the entire transportation sequence to that strange world and have somehow miraculously survived the crash into the stadium. My hopes soared a little more when I spotted the silhouettes of two people through the translucent glass panel on my door. One man and one woman, the woman wearing what looked like a nurses cap while the man had the shape of a...

Horn...

Crap, I guess I didn't dream that sequence after all. Maybe I am alive in a different world. I moved my eyes around to take a little more of the room in, and spotted a control resting just under my right hand. How I didn't feel that earlier I had no clue, but from the look of it, it was a call button. I gave it a moments thought, decided on the 'fuck it' option and proceeded to press the button. Through the door, I could see the glow of a light illuminate above the door frame and cast light on the two figures outside. The nurse turned to face the door and then looked back at her companion, who nodded and walked off. The nurse seemed to give a sigh before I saw the door opened slowly. Through the gap, a white head with light pink head appeared and looked into the room. We made eye contact for a few seconds before she proceeded to fully open the door and step through, closing the door behind her.

It was the same nurse from the field, the one working with the butter yellow girl to assess and presumably treat my injuries. She stopped at the head of my bed and picked up a chart, reading my information from it and occasionally glancing up towards me every few seconds. She then set the chart back down and walked around to my left side, taking a seat on the edge of my bed. I don't know if it was her motherly-approach or something else, but I felt relaxed with her there. She smiled at me before she did something that blew my mind.

"Good to see you're awake, mister."

She spoke. She spoke Osean. She spoke clear Osean. She spoke clear Osean with no detectable difference in dialect or accent. Okay, I think I may be slowly going crazy...

"Are you okay sir? Not feeling too much pain I hope..." she trailed off as she looked towards me, probably expecting some kind of reply. I must look like some kind of idiot, probably because my jaw was practically unhinged in shock and as far as it would go. If not for this brace, it would have most likely hit the floor with the force of a Mark 84 dumb bomb. I had to answer, just in a way that would not betray my astonishment.

"What. The fuck?" I said, my eyes widening as I realised what I just said. I backpedalled. "I-I mean, what happened and where am I?" The nurse looked at me with an odd look before her features softened and started answering.

"So you can talk. I thought Twilight was starting to get over-stressed when she said that you had said 'help me' to her before you fell unconscious. Anyway, I don't exactly know what happened, but I can tell you that you are currently residing in Ponyville General Hospital."

"... Right..." I said, the information slowly sinking in. "And who are you, if you don't mind me asking?" She laughed a little at my question, holding a hand up to her chest.

"Oh, forgive me for being so rude. I'm Nurse Redheart, but most folks around here call me Red. I'm one of the head nurses of the hospital here, and I've taken you under my official care, given the unusual circumstances surrounding your... arrival." Oh yeah, the plane crash. Almost forgot about that.

"That's... good to know... I guess. I do apologise for any damage that my... arrival... might have caused. Was anyone else hurt or anything?"

"Well, aside from Rarity fainting and Twilight almost following her lead, the only injured pony at the scene was yourself." Oh phew, I wa- wait... pony?!

"I'm sorry, but did you just say 'pony'?" I asked tentatively.

"Well, yes. I mean, you aren't like any normal Earth Pony male we've seen before. After running a few simple magical scans to determine the extent of your injuries, we noticed that you have one real major difference that is out of the ordinary."

"And that being?"

"Well, we couldn't find any trace of the magical ability possessed by members of the Earth Pony genus." Well... this world has magic, and these humanoid beings are called 'pony's, yet they speak and act very much like humans. Guess that explains the wings and horns. "That is something that Ms Sparkle would really like to talk to you about."

"Okay..." I started, still sorting through this new batch of intelligence. I decided to file that stuff away for later and refocus on more pressing issues, namely my health and wellbeing. "So, how am I doing Nurse? Am I able to play the piano again?" I said with a soft chuckle. Good to see that my sense of humour is still intact. Redheart gave me a weird look for a second as she formulated her response.

"I don't see any real reason why you shouldn't be able to once you recover... why?" Hook, line and sinker.

"Well, I couldn't play it before." I started to laugh at my own joke as Redheart just stared at me for a few seconds. Then the joke hit and she started to laugh as well.

"I can honestly say I haven't heard that one before. I'll have to remember that for later." She said, calming down after the brief bout of laughter. She then reached over and collected the chart. "Well, you sustained severe bruising to the face and chest, as well as minor lacerations to the arms and legs. There were no major fractures, just a few hairline breaks along your forearms which shouldn't take too long to heal with the correct treatment. Your body in general was showing signs of extreme shock and fatigue, but given your appearance, that was easy to diagnose and treat. We had feared a spinal injury, but seeing that you move your toes during our little chat, I can safely say that our concerns were just that, concerns. I'll double check with the doctor to run a few more scans, but if all is well, we should be able to remove that neck brace in no time at all."

Well, I was basically in one piece, with a few scratches and bruises. Like they said in basic flight training, any landing you can walk or crawl away from is a good landing. With that in mind, I think mine was walking that line between what could be called a landing and what could be called a crash. Still, I survived, and at the end of the day, that is what mattered most. Like Captain Bartlett had said after taking that missile for Nagase, 'We can replace these things, it's getting the crew back alive that counts'. I thought back to what Redheart had said earlier, regarding one of the girls having a panic attack or something.

"Hey, Nurse. This Twilight, she wouldn't be that purple one who found me, right?"

"That's the one, yes. Why? Would you like to see her?"

"If that isn't too much trouble, then yes please. I want to thank her."

"I'll go fetch her for you then." Redheart stepped up from the edge of my bed and headed towards the door. But just before she left, she stopped and turned to face me. "You know, she's been rather eager to talk to you. She's been pestering me about if you had woken up yet. But that's just how she is, she's worrisome by nature. I'll be back soon. Better make yourself comfortable." With a smirk, she left my room.

3 - The Harsh Truth

Twilight Sparkle. Ponyville's resident librarian and allegedly, until proven otherwise, the saviour of Ponyville and greater Equestria three times over. Responsible for the defeat of a chaos lord called Discord, the banishing of another chaotic being known as Nightmare Moon, and the liberation of a place called the 'Crystal Empire' from the evil dictator Tirek. When I was first told about her while waiting for her arrival, I was expecting to meet some badass girl who could kick my ass five ways to next Sunday without so much as a lost breath on her part. Not the nervous but easily excitable bookworm that was standing beside my bed this very moment, who was just staring at me with a sense of hesitant curiosity from behind a notepad and pencil.

I swear, the silence in the room was driving me crazy. I wanted to say something, anything, to get her to start doing something, but every time I made the smallest hint of movement or activity, she would either jump back or start writing notes on whatever it was I just did. The last few minutes were spent just keeping eye contact, waiting for one of us to make first contact. I could start to see the slightest bit of frustration in her eyes; perhaps she felt that she dreamt me asking for her help back in the field. Maybe she thinks I'm not as sentient as I seem. Guess it's time to break that theory.

"Okay. This silence is killing me. Are you going to ask something or what?" I said flatly, shooting her a frustrated look. As expected, she flinched and took a few steps back away, before she regained her composure and walked back towards me. She averted her look down to her notes, and seemed to be avoiding the need to look at me again. I sighed and rubbed my face with my palm. "Sorry for the outburst, but one of us was going to crack soon anyway. Figured I might as well cut to the damn chase." I held out my other hand, thankful that Redheart had freed my restraints before Twilight had walked in. "Name's Davenport, Alvin Davenport. But you can call me Chopper, if you want."

She looked at my hand with obvious apprehension, before she took a breath, stepped forward and grabbed it. I started shaking it gently, then let go to let it rest back on the best. She looked to visibly relax after our greeting.

"I'm Twil-"

"Twilight Sparkle, yes, I've been told who you are and what you do." She recoiled at my remark, but I continued. "Nurse Redheart informed me that you were the one that spotted me. I wanted to thank you for that, actually."

"Oh, it was nothing at all, really..." I had to blink, because I swear she started acting like a typical bashful teenager; arms behind the back, fiddling with the feet, slight blush on the face, averted focus. "I just noticed that part of the cover to your vehicle, if that's what it was, was missing. The scorch marks around the edges hinted at a forced explosive ejection, so I mentally plotted the possible trajectories. It was just luck that you happened to have collapsed next to the missing component."

"But you noticed it in the first place. Without that, I might not have survived..." I trailed off, wanting to avoid that particular line of conversation.

"Well, you might have succumbed to shock but I really doubt you could have died from your injuries. Redheart told me that they were not as severe as they seemed."

"That's a good point." I took a deep breath, trying to regain composure after having flashes of my final moments over November City replay in my mind. I saw a glimpse of the stadium as I braced myself for impact.

"Alvin?" I was brought back from the quiet voice beside me. "You okay Alvin? You zoned out for a minute, something on your mind?" I shook my head.

"No, no, it's fine. Just taking this all in, that's all." I sighed and looked back up to Twilight. "I guess you have a number of questions about me and how I arrived here?" Her face seemed to light up at the very mention of questions.

"Oh! Yes, matter of fact, I do have some questions. You answered my first one already though, about your name. That brings me to the second question. What are you? You obviously aren't an Earth Pony, or a pony of any kind. Or any kind of race that we know of..." she trailed off into thought, before she regained focus and locked eyes with me. It was a little unnerving, to be honest.

"Well, I don't know everything, but I can tell you that I'm a human male. Scientifically speaking, and to my limited understanding, we are an evolved form of the great apes. From there, it gets a little muddled when you factor in the bits of missing evidence or the conflicting ideologies of the many religions out there." Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but I cut her off. "Before you ask, do not ask me about religion or evolution. What I just said there is basically all I know about that area." She huffed then looked to cross out something on her notepad.

"Now, where are you from?"

"Tough question. Am I still on Planet Earth?" The blank look I received from her practically answered my question. "I guess not. Well then, I come from another planet, called Earth. It's located in the Sol system of the Milky Way galaxy, if that means anything to you." The blank look remained unchanged, though her pencil was slowly writing down something onto her notepad. "Which given the fact that I'm on another planet with different history and likely a different approach on science, is probably the correct assumption." I said that last part more for myself, but the frustration wasn't lost on Twilight.

"You're probably right in that regard. We haven't done much study of our surroundings in space, aside from Princess Luna. But that's a given, as she has control over the moon and the night's sky." A princess controls the moon? Well, new planet, new rules I suppose. "Her sister, Princess Celestia controls the sun throughout the day."

"I see... yeah, we didn't have anything like that back on Earth. We orbit around our sun, while our moon orbits around us. We also rotate on an axis during our orbit. Our orbit isn't perfectly circular as well. It's slightly offset, meaning for parts of the year our planet is closer to the sun, while in other parts its further away. It's for that reason why we get different seasons and different weather conditions." I waited for her to finish writing down this information. "At least, that's what we're taught in school and such. For all I know, it could be different."

Twilight finished up her last note and then crossed an item off her list while writing down something beside it.

"Okay then. What about that thing you arrived in? What on Equus is that?" I internally chuckled at her familiar but slightly different version of an expression I was familiar with.

"Well, that is... was an F-15C Eagle. It's an air superiority fighter aircraft, powered by two Pratt & Whitney F-100-220 afterburning turbofan engines." Twilight was rapidly writing down what I was saying. Normally I wouldn't be providing technical specifications of a front-line combat aircraft to a civilian, but then the information I was sharing was something a civilian could look up in an encyclopaedia or on an website. "It can fly at a maximum of sixty thousand feet–" Twilight's writing started to falter "– and can climb at a rate of fifty thousand feet a minute. Each engine can produce around fifteen thousand pounds of force, twenty-four thousand on afterburner." Her writing started to pick up pace as she started writing out what I thought might be equations to interpret the statistics. "With a typical load, it weighs about forty-four and a half thousand pounds. But the engines provide a thrust-to-weight ratio of one point zero four, which is typical for that kind of aircraft. The engines also allow it to reach speeds in excess of two and a half times the speed of sound." Twilight's pencil snapped at that fact. With wide eyes and open mouth, she looked up from her paper and straight into my eyes.

"T-t-two and a-a h-half t-times...?" Her voice was shaky, as if she had been told that something immensely sad or shocking had happened. I guess by her reaction, hearing that my jet could fly to such speed could qualify.

"Yeah, but that's at max output with a clean load. Very rarely do I ever actually need to fly at that speed. Plus, going that fast needs a lot of fuel, something that I can't carry that much on a regular basis." She just stared at me for a few seconds, before she shook her head and recomposed herself once more.

"Right, okay then. One thing that you said early on piqued my interest. What exactly does 'air superiority fighter' mean?" Oh. Yes... I was hoping she might not have picked up on that. Then again, they would have figured out what those long poles fitted with fins on my aircraft really were; AIM-7M Sparrow and AIM-9M Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. I drew in a breath as I pondered my response.

"Twilight, when was the last time you had a large scale war, where nations fought other nations?" She thought about this for a second or two, a few seconds longer than I was expecting.

"Well, the last documented war was the Griffon/Pony uprising, a few hundred years ago. There was a brief skirmish with the Changelings last year, during my older brother's wedding, but that only lasted a day and was fought off." A few hundred years ago... they've been at peace for that long? This was going to make this new admission hard to break.

"I see... Twilight, before I arrived, I was in the middle of fighting a war. It had only started a few months ago and was being fought by former allies: Osea, my home and the nation I was fighting for; and Yuktobania, a nation across the Ceres Ocean. I don't understand why they attacked us, or why we retaliated in kind. I was only fighting to defend my home, not invade them after we successfully pushed them back. Anyways, my F-15 is a weapon of war, called a fighter jet. It flies in the sky and supports surface forces, as well as keeps the sky clear of opposing aircraft. F-15's in particular are made to fight and clear the sky ahead of support and attack aircraft. I can carry upwards of eight self-guided high-explosive missiles designed for the sole purpose of shooting down and destroying enemy aircraft. They can be fired at and hit a target at roughly thirty-one miles away, well before I'd be able to physically see them." I took a moment to think, and study Twilight's reaction. Surprisingly enough, she wasn't writing any of this down. She was just looking at me intently, hanging off of every word I said. "You know how I said I was in the middle of a war? I was speaking literally; I was in the middle of a mission when I got transported across to here."

"Is that why your aircraft was pull of puncture holes and bellowing smoke before you crashed?"

"Pretty much." Twilight was about to go and ask something, but I saw her hesitate. I knew exactly what she was going to ask next.

"Originally, our mission was a ceremonial fly past during a speech to be made by our Vice President. It was some pro-war rally he was holding to gain civilian support for the war. Before you ask; even though they are weapons, jets like the F-15 can be a pretty sight to watch in the sky. In the right hands, they can be made to dance beautifully. Anyway, we completed our flyby and took up our station to fly our patrol. With leadership out and about during a war, we had to protect them one way or another. It wasn't too long after we started our patrol when our 'eyes-in-the-sky' reported possible hostile contacts approaching the stadium where the rally was being held. We flew out to intercept and visually confirm their identity when they fired on us.

The situation went down hill from there. Myself and my flight, we had to fight through wave after wave of enemy fighters. I remember pulling into a position behind an aircraft making an approach on the stadium, before I felt a sharp jolt run across my own. I'd been strafed by another aircraft, and his rounds had impacted in such a way that it knocked out one of my engines and shorted most of my critical electronics. It was by some miracle that I hadn't exploded as a result of my fuel igniting. Still, I was basically out of the fight by that point. Now, I could have ejected from my plane then and there, but I didn't. If I did, my wreckage would have landed on one of the thousands of homes below me, potentially killing a family. I didn't want that on my conscience. I instead kept my jet flying while looking for someplace to put my jet down. One of my flight members, Nagase, she recommended I put it down in the stadium. Only problem was that it was still packed with civilians. So I kept flying until it was clear.

By that point, the amount of damage I had sustained had wiped out my only lifeline: my ejector seat. Every combat aircraft like mine is fitted with a seat designed to be fired out and away from the aircraft in case of an emergency, like if you had sustained critical battle damage for instance. Each seat has a parachute that is clipped into a harness that the pilot wears. Once the pilot ejects, and gravity takes effect, the seat falls away from the pilot to free the parachute and deploy it, giving the pilot a safe way to the ground. Mine was broken. I was effectively trapped in my aircraft, resigned to my fate. Still, if it meant that I lost my life saving tens of thousands of others, it was going to be worth it. That's what we're trained to do, do whatever we can to save lives, even if it means making the ultimate sacrifice.

I waited until I thought it was going to be clear, then I guided my crippled aircraft into the stadium. I listened to the cries and pleas from my friends to bail out, to do something other than what I was currently doing. I braced myself, waiting for my life to end in a ball of flame. Next thing I know, there's a flash of light, then darkness, then I see I'm still gliding my damaged aircraft through the skies here. Looked like it was clear enough for me to attempt a crash landing, so I did. Slid to a halt, popped my canopy and made my way out of my jet. Passed out shortly after you found me, and then wake to find myself in medical care."

I sighed, catching my breath and letting my jaw rest from the sheer amount of speech I had just undertaken. I rubbed my eyes of the small tears that had started to develop, and then looked at Twilight. She just sat there staring at me but also staring into space, eyes glistening as tears ran down the sides of her face. Her arms were wrapped around her sides, like she was hugging herself. She sniffed and her eyes refocused on me. She said nothing as she stood up from the chair she was seated in and stepped over to me. I was going to ask what she was doing when she leaned over and started to hug me. I was shocked by the unexpected contact, but I did what I thought was right and returned the gesture.

4 - A Wardog's Pack

We held the hug for what felt like hours, but was really only a few minutes. Twilight had sobbed into my shoulder, the damp fur on her face leaving a damp spot on my flight suit; I guess my story about the war and my selfless sacrifice had tugged at a few heartstrings or something. It would make for a good book, I could only assume that much.

"W-w-why?" She sniffed, pulling away from my shoulder and wiping tears from her eyes. "J-just why?"

"Like I said, I don't know why Yuktobania attacked us, and I don't know why we retaliated to the extent that we did. That's just one thing about human nature, Twilight. Fighting and bloodshed is part of our basic nature. It used to be our default response, even over the littlest of things. Hell, in some instances it still is. Look at a girl the wrong way in a bar? You'll get a glass to the face or a knee in the gut. It's taken hundreds of years to evolve from the bloodthirsty maniacs we once were to the somewhat peaceful race we are now."

"Somewhat peaceful? I don't understand..."

I spent the next hour and a half outlining the various major events of our recent history: the discovery of Ulysses XF04, and the realisation that it was going to collide with Earth; the development of super weapons such the Arkbird, Stonehenge, Chandelier, Excalibur and Megalith; the Belkan War of 1995, including the destruction of the Excalibur and V2 weapons; the First Usean Continental War; the fall of the Ulysses fragments and the massive amount of casualties sustained; the Usean Refugee Crisis, the takeover of Stonehenge and the subsequent Second Usean Continental War; the ongoing Estovakian Civil War; and even Operation Katina. I even explained a little about the war I had been fighting in, the Circum-Pacific War, and even delved into what I knew about the aces of each major war: Mobius One, and an ace only known as 'The Demon Lord of the Round Table'.

"So, Mobius and 'The Demon' just disappeared after their respective fights?" Twilight asked, now onto her second notepad.

"Essentially, yes. I mean, Mobius returned for Katina at the request of ISAF, but it's said that he officially re-retired after the op and has vanished once more. As for The Demon, I saw this documentary a few years ago. The reporter who was making it traced down all these pilots who had supposedly fought against him during the war, including his former wingman, in the hope that they might know where he might have been. But he couldn't find him. That and the fact that Osean and Ustio officials had heavily redacted any and all reports that hinted towards the identity of that pilot, he was basically chasing a ghost." I sighed, thinking about anything else I could say. "At least Phoenix took up a career as a civilian stunt pilot after his service with the FCU's Unified Command."

"What about your and your friends? You haven't spoken much about them during our conversation." She was right, too. I realised that I hadn't spoken about my friends. I hope they managed to get to safety, or at least repel any remnant forces. "Chopper?"

"Yeah?" I shook my head, trying to refocus on the topic at hand.

"You zoned out for a second, was it something I said?" She sounded a little worried, like she thought I had offended me.

"In a manner of speaking, yes. But it's nothing to worry about. Just wondering if my friends are still okay, that's all..."

"What were they like?" Jeez, where do I begin?

"Well, there were initially three of us: myself, Kei Nagase and Jayson Edwards. Edge and Blaze, respectively. Edge was quiet, a little introverted if you didn't know her. But man, she would fight to the very death if it meant protecting someone she cared about. She was one of the few survivors of the ambush just before the war started. I still feel sorry for her, after having to witness something like that and then get thrown into a war she didn't really want to fight. She only joined up as a pathway into the Osean Space Administration, working towards a career as a technician aboard the Arkbird." I laughed a little as a few of the happier memories before the war came to mind. "Man, she would go on and on about the Arkbird, regardless if you mentioned it in passing during a conversation." I looked up at Twilight, who had a little blush on her face. Maybe it's something they have in common. "I think you would get along with her."

"I'd like to think that." She smiled a little at that.

"Then there was our flight lead; Blaze. I'm still amazed at the amount of prowess he showed during each and every mission I flew with him. He had to put up with a lot of shit from everybody, myself included. Blaze was the leader that the people above him hated, and the people below him loved. I think that's one of the reasons why Captain Bartlett and him connected they way they did, maybe he saw a little of himself in Blaze. And the way he made his jet dance, I could just sit down and watch it for days and days. He could take a training jet and make it move like a top-of-the-line fighter like the F-15, and not many people could do that. But it was the fact that he was extremely humble about his actions that made him stand out. Not once did he ever brag about his duty, in the sky or on the ground. Whenever we flew above our guys, the radio practically buzzed with celebration of our presence and general thanks for our service."

"He sounds like quite the ace. Why do you think he's that way?" I laughed a little as her question triggered a memory of a conversation with one of my friends prior to the war breaking out...

"Hey Aero," I started, leaning closer to the pilot seated beside me. He looked up from his tray of food and swallowed what was in his mouth.

"What is it now Chop?" He said deadpan, but with a very faint smirk.

"You hear the rumour about that new guy? 'Fire' or 'Flame', something like that?"

"You mean 'Blaze'? No, I haven't heard any chatter about him. What, is something going around?" His voice got very hush-hush. He and I were both suckers for a bit of fighter jock gossip. Typically it usually about which pilots managed to sneak girls onto the base or hide Perrault's stack of snacks he kept around the base, but sometimes it got interesting.

"Well, I heard from a buddy up at Heirlark that he went toe-to-toe with Magellan, the chief instructor pilot, and won." The spoon in his hand fell to the table. He leaned in real close to me, waiting for me to finish. "Hell, he broke Bartlett's record by five kills."

"No fucking way."

"Yes way. Bartlett's record has been standing since pre-Belkan War, only to be shot to pieces by a nugget." Aero let out a slow whistle as he took in the information. At that moment, the pilot in question walked into the mess hall. I watched as Aero studied him, and saw a flicker in his eyes. He was thinking about something...

"You don't think... no... maybe..." He started to mumble.

"What is it man?" I asked, grabbing his arm to make him focus on me.

"You don't think he might be related to... well... you know..."

"No, I don't know. Who?!" He leaned in for a whisper.

"Mobius One, or 'The Demon'?" I took in his theory and pondered over it, for a few seconds.

"Well, if he's related to them, then I'm the embodiment of Razgriz itself."

"A buddy of mine came up with the theory that he was a relative of either 'The Demon' or Mobius One. When I first heard it, I just waved it off as just some crackpot idea that eased the fear of being shown up. But, now that I look back on it, at all the times we flew... maybe Aero was onto something. I mean, nobody outside of their respective flights or commands knew the full names of each pilot, and even if they had no known family it doesn't stop them from having one from before or after their service. Also, Blaze seems to be at the right age to be the son or younger relative of either of those aces." I rubbed my face and let a sigh escape. "Great... now I'm sounding like Aero..."

"That's not a bad thing, is it?" Twilight said, chuckling at my statement. "So, that's Nagase and Blaze. Who was the third?"

"Ah, that would be Hans Grimm, known as 'Archer' to the rest of us. Probably the greenest nugget I've ever met, but he's also probably the fastest learning nugget I've ever met. I think he'd been at Sand Island for about half a month prior to war breaking out, he technically wasn't an official member of our squadron; only a junior airman attached to us for replacement pilot training. I'd never associated with him up until the air raid on Sand Island on the second day of the war. He took Captain Bartlett's reserve F-5 Tiger from the hangars and took off to help us in the middle of the raid. Blaze and Nagase made sure that none of the enemy fighters or bombers got a shot off at him while he was on the ground. Once he was airborne he jumped straight into the fight, and it made a difference. Ever since that flight, he's only been improving in his skill. Archer was officially made a member of our squadron, and was placed as my wingman."

I yawned and looked at the clock mounted on the wall. It had been a number of hours since we had started talking, and the better part of a day had passed. Now, as I looked through the window, I could see the sun starting to set. Twilight noticed my observation and looked at the clock as well, gasping with a little shock at the amount of time that had passed.

"Oh my, I had no idea we'd talk for this long. I guess you want some rest?"

"Yeah, that sounds like a good plan for now. Talk again tomorrow, perhaps?" I smiled at her, offering a little reassurance along with my proposal. She seemed to like the idea.

"Well, if you want to do so, then I guess I'll be here in the morning. It was nice meeting you and talking to you Chopper." Twilight waved and left through the door, closing it behind her. I let myself sink into the bed and started reflecting on the last day or two's events. One minute I'm seconds away from dying in a fiery crash during an air raid, the next I'm flying my crippled aircraft through a peaceful countryside, and then I'm in medical care and talking to a human-like being called a pony. I would have liked to believe that this was some weird version of an afterlife and that I had indeed died in that crash. But since I could still feel tired, hungry and sore from talking hours on end, I had to reject that theory and accept that I had in fact transported myself to a new world.

The space around me was dark, almost pitch black, and deathly quiet. In every direction, all I could see was black, yet there was enough light for me to see myself in full detail. There was a sense of depth to this place, as if I were in a room of sorts with clear walls. The feeling was practically unexplainable.

"Hello?" I called out, and I could hear my voice in perfect clarity. There was no muffling, but no echoing either. It was strange. "Hey, is anything or anybody out there?" I waited for any kind of response. A shout, cry, scream, chirp, any noise that might mean a presence other than myself. I felt a cold shiver down my spine, and turned to see if there was anything behind me. When I did, I jumped out of sheer shock and surprise. It was enough to send me down to the ground on my ass, and I quickly crawled back to make distance between it and me.

The shape was clearly distinguishable as another one of those 'ponies', but it was different. It had both a horn and wings from what I could see, and a distinctly feminine shape. Her dark fur was a dark blue, almost midnight blue if anything, with long, deep blue hair that seemed to float and move with an non-existent breeze. She wore a long flowing dress that was a shade darker than her skin. Her eyes were captivating, yet intimidating; it felt like she was searching through my soul for the meaning of life while giving me an Emmerian kiss...

"Good evening, Lieutenant Colonel Davenport..." And there goes the kissing feeling. Now she was truly intimidating. Only two, possibly three, other people... ponies know my name. And this chick... mare isn't one of them.

"Sorry if I'm a bit blunt, but who the fuck are you?" I shouted the last bit as I started taking a few backward steps away from this newcomer.

"Relax, Lieutenant Colonel. I will not and cannot harm you here. You have nothing to be afraid of." Her voice alone was giving me the shivers. Coupled with her stature and stance, and the fact that she knew my name off the bat without me telling her or hinting to it... "I don't know if you've noticed, but there is no place for you to hide or escape to here." Freaky mare has a point.

"Okay, you got me. Sorry about the freak out there. Just, I didn't tell you my name or my rank. And for that matter, I'm not a 'light bird', I'm just a Captain." Her eyes seemed to glow for what seemed to be a few seconds, before they returned to normal and focused back onto me.

"Osean Military guidelines state that in the event of a combat death of service personnel, a two-rank posthumous promotion may be granted as recognition of meritorious service or if the circumstances surrounding their death are deemed meritorious in their own right." That statement sparked something in my mind, more specifically the moment I had read that in one of the manuals given to me in basic training. I looked around the place where we stood and thought about what happened when she had recited that statement. It clicked.

"We're in my head, aren't we?" I smirked, crossing my arms.

"We could be, there is only one way to find out." She smirked back at me, mirroring my stance. I looked to the blank space beside us and concentrated. In a flash, there stood my F-15 Eagle, painted up in the markings of Wardog Squadron with my kill count sprayed onto the space below and in front of the cockpit. Five arrowhead silhouettes formed the top row, with tally marks counting to fifteen filling the columns below first four. A lone tally mark sat below the fifth arrow.

"Yep, definitely in my mind. But how?" The mare in front of me started to walk around the parked fighter jet, and with a click of her fingers, the midnight blue dress she wore vanished and was replaced by a midnight blue flight suit, complete with a crescent moon patch on her shoulder. She stood over by the cockpit, and turned to look at me.

"I guess I should introduce myself. I am Princess Luna, ruler of the night and caretaker of the Dreamscape."

Author's Note

Just a quick FYI, different nations in the Ace Combat universe have parallels to real world nations (taken from the Ace Combat wiki and personal opinion:
Osea - United States
Yuktobania - USSR (Soviet Russia specifically)
Belka - Germany (Mixture of Nazi and Berlin Wall era)
Emmeria - Canada/France/Italy/UK mix
Estovakia - Soviet-era Yugoslavia
ISAF/FCU - An alliance similar to NATO/EU, made up of various European-style nations

I list them because there will be times I will have to substitute words in a reference to reflect that of an Ace Combat world: French Kiss - Emmerian Kiss, American Football - Osean Football, In Soviet Russia... - In Soviet Yuktobania, and so on.

Also, for the purposes of this fic, Luna is fully reformed as far as speech is concerned (I can't write old English consistently to save my life).

Chopper's Jet (undamaged, replace 016 with 008)

5 - Foreign Relations

"I guess I should introduce myself. I am Princess Luna, ruler of the night and caretaker of the Dreamscape."

This place has magic, human-like beings named after an animal that can harness said magic for various tasks, the weather is controlled by said beings, and now I'm meeting a member of a royal family who can supposedly converse with people... and ponies in their dreams. Go figure.

"As much as I'd like to say that I'm pleased to meet you, the sheer fact that we're in my head is just a little bit disconcerting." She turned to give me a genuinely surprised look.

"One cannot peer into the dreams of others back where you come from?"

"Lady, the closest we have to that kind of thing involves a lot of science and guesswork. We can't see dreams, but we can detect if someone is in fact dreaming. It's a step in that direction, I think." She sighs and turns her attention back onto the F-15.

"It's a wonderful craft, is it not? The speed it can achieve and the agility it possesses would certainly put some of our best fliers out of business." She gives off a few chuckles as she pauses. "I can only assume what Rainbow Dash would think if she ever had the chance to see this in action." I've gotten over the shock of realising that I'm in a dream, and that she's in my dream, and have moved to a state of frustration and anger.

"Look, enough with the admiration of my jet, can we get back on the topic of being inside my fucking head?" I look at the jet, and with a small flash it vanishes, leaving the 'princess' visibly disappointed. "Sorry, but priorities, okay?"

"Right, I'm sorry. I should have realised that being from a land with no known dream-walking capability, that performing such an act on you would have less than desirable effects." She offers a weak smile at me. "Shall we start anew?"

"If you feel that's necessary, then go ahead." I cross my arms, my frustration clearly evident through my stance and my voice. She just nods her head and snaps her fingers. Instantly the space around us lights up and is filled with various different projections, displayed in such a high quality that I would have sworn I was watching a show on an HDTV. As I watched some of the pictures, I noticed that each of them was from a first-person viewpoint, and that on closer inspection, they were of moments in my life. We were watching my memories. One 'screen' had a memory of my first day on Sand Island, another the day I received my acceptance papers from the OADF. One particularly large screen that was at the forefront of the space was replaying what I saw during my final moments; the air raid over November City. A sniffle drew my attention away from my memory, and I saw Luna standing beside me with a few loose tears in her eyes. The memory froze at the moment I 'impacted' the stadium, and faded away into the darkness.

"It never gets easier watching that particular memory..." She looked at me, and before I could say anything she started to talk once more. "When you had initially passed out, your mind had also started to replay memories and dreams you have had in the past. As a guardian of the Dreamscape, I was surprised to see that somepony was dreaming at that time of the day. I didn't expect to find what I did, but I can only imagine what you were feeling during that time in your life." She sighed again, using her hand to wipe away the tears that were threatening to fall. "When I watch these dreams, I can only gather so much from them. It is much like watching a movie; the emotions and feelings you experience are completely those of the viewer, and not always the same ones shared by the director or writer. I cannot know for sure what you were experiencing fully as you faced what you presumed to be your death."

I shook my head as I finished watching another memory, one of the day where we were assigned to cover the rendezvous of OFS Kestrel, OFS Buzzard and OFS Vulture. I could feel the emotions return to me as I watched the flash of the first burst missile light up the dull skies over the fleet.

"It's not something I'd want to wish upon anyone, that's for sure. Nobody should have to face their mortality until they need to. I woke up that day thinking I was going to go back to sleep in the same bunk at the end of that day. I thought that the flight was going to be simple, with no major issues. Even when the enemy started to attack, I thought that the odds would once again stack in our favour and we would overcome the enemy's advance. I didn't think that maybe..." I left that thought trail off as a new memory started playing, the night we celebrated the sinking of the Scinfaxi submersible aircraft carrier. I watched as myself and Grimm partied hard as I caught a glimpse of Blaze and Nagase standing off to the side, a mild blush on Nagase's face as Blaze kept on talking with a drink in his hand. "Now, I don't know what to think anymore." I looked at Luna. "There are things that I want to know that I can't possibly find out now. I don't know if the others managed to fight off any remnant forces, or if my 'death' affected them so much that they ended up being shot down themselves..."

"I may not have the answers you seek, but I can certainly put you in the right path to finding out." Luna spoke up, placing her hand on my shoulder. "Sleep well, Chopper, for we will be meeting once again very soon..."

I awoke to the aroma of something that smelt like pancakes and orange juice. Opening my eyes confirmed my theory, as I saw Nurse Redheart pushing a tray of food through my door and to my bedside.

"Jeez Red, you keep this up and I might just have to request you for outpatient care." I laughed as I pushed myself up to a sitting position. She shared a laugh as she transferred a tray of food from her trolley to a table that she wheeled to my bedside.

"Sorry Mr Davenport, but I'm afraid that Ponyville Medical doesn't offer house calls." She started to say, her tone filled with the sound of an official. But I saw the glimpse of a smirk before she continued. "Besides, I'm sure you'd much rather the care of someone who doesn't have to empty bedpans or handle hazardous waste for a living." She started to laugh again.

"Red, you sure do know how to let a guy down gently. Don't make me crash land again just to get your attention; F-15s don't go cheap in these parts, I would assume." I chuckled as I started my assault on the delicious-looking breakfast. Redheart looked over my chart again as I started to swallow my first bite.

"I wouldn't go making any plans, you've got the Princesses coming to visit you in half an hour." The piece of pancake I had just consumed decided it wanted to rejoin its brethren on the plate, and so started to force its way back up my throat. After a quick and painful negotiation with it to stay in its place, I gave Redheart a look that could only be deciphered as 'you gotta be shitting me.' "That's right, both Celestia and Luna are coming to meet Ponyville's newest addition. Twilight Sparkle had sent them a letter shortly after she left yesterday, I guess that you've made such the impression that they can't wait to meet you."

Looking back, that half an hour was probably the longest half an hour I've ever had to experience. The flight from Sand Island to the Razgriz Straits in northern Anea felt faster. Shortly after Redheart dropped that bomb onto me, Twilight came in and started running me through basic etiquette in regards to having royalty visit. I swear, she had a checklist that was as long as two of me if I were to stand on myself. She was checking everything was up to standard, and I mean everything: sheets were folded and tucked away, unnecessary equipment stowed into their places, the valves on the IV bags and lines facing the 'right' direction. Now, the attention to detail that Twilight was expressing would have been appropriate if, for example, she was wiring up the fuse and guidance components of a 'Big Blue One-Oh-Nine' with a JDAM kit; I would be worried if she didn't. However, it was a royal visit. I can understand if she wanted to tidy the place up and give me a rundown on the basic 'P's and Q's' of conversing with royalty, but I severely doubt that the princesses are going to mind if one of my socks is a little higher than the other.

Thankfully, I wouldn't have to deal with that much longer. Twilight was In the middle of going through her checklist one last time when the door opened, revealing two new visitors. They were flanked by a group I could clearly identify as guards, though I don't understand why they were dressed in old-style Centrium armour. If anything, it was a clash with the apparent modern-style medical technology they have here. Though, with a different world, maybe they have different ways of doing things. Still, that old bronze armour wasn't going to be stopping any bullets any time soon.

"Princesses!" Twilight exclaimed in surprise, dropping her checklist and running over to.... hug one of the princesses in the doorway. What the hell? I get half an hours worth of how to address royalty and how to act proper around then, all for her to throw all that in my face and embrace said princess in an embrace more suitable for family.

"It is good to see you, Twilight Sparkle. It has been quite some time since we last visited each other." The first princess spoke, her tone very motherly and caring, yet also carrying a sense of authority in it. She was tall, easily six foot three, and had both a horn and wings, much like the princess I met I my dream last night. She was different though, as she was slightly thicker in her build, if I had to put a word to it, it would be maternal. Her fur was also pure white, her dress a shade darker than her fur. The dress fit her form fairly loosely, but also worked to accentuate certain features. My gaze shifted to the second visitor, the princess I knew from my dream, Princess Luna. She wore the same attire that she wore when we first met, though her fur and dress seemed lighter in the daylight. She also looked a little more nervous than she did in my mind, her eyes darting around the room and her hands slightly fidgeting with themselves.

The first princess finished conversing with Twilight and turned her attention to me.

"And you must be Mr Davenport, the new arrival that Twilight has told me much about." She smiled at me as she took a seat on the side of my bed. I looked over at Twilight, who wore a slight blush on her face at this princess's statement. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Princess Celestia, guardian of the day and ruler of Equestria."

"Captain Alvin Davenport, Osean Air Defence Force. Pleasure to meet you ma'am." I decided to fall back on my training in regards to meeting and conversing with heads of state. After Twilight's little break in her own protocol, I figured I might do things my own way as well.

"Twilight told me in great detail about the manner in which you arrived, as well as some of the information you had shared with her in your conversations. I must say I received quite the shock when I heard about your actions prior to your arrival." She wore a slightly saddened expression as she told me this. "I will admit, it raised some alarm when I heard that you were a 'guard of the skies' and that when you arrived you were in the midst of combat, but given everything else that Twilight has told me, I must say that I have no concerns regarding your future here in Equestria."

Celestia's statement triggered a train of thought in my mind. I had been magically transported to another world, and that same magic might be able to send me back. But as far as everyone back in Osea is concerned, I am well and truly dead. I had a lot to return home to, and yet I had nothing to return to either. How would I explain my apparent survival? Hey guys, I actually managed to survive that crash into the stadium: the canopy blew at the last moment and I was able to jump clear of the wreckage before it crashed. Even if I said something like that, I couldn't explain the fact that I am basically unscathed. Nobody could completely heal from something as improbable as jumping clear of a crashing fighter jet.

"I can't begin to understand the amount of stress and pressure that you are experiencing right now, having cheated certain death and finding themselves in a new world. However, I can only make the suggestion that you embrace this second chance that life has seemingly provided you and make the most of it." Celestia gave me a gentle smile. "I can only assume that this happened as some form of recognition for your heroic sacrifice. I wish you the best in your future endeavours, whatever they may be." I pondered over her words as I thought of a response.

"Well, thank you for that ma'am. I'm kind of still processing what's going on, but it's all for the good at the moment. I do have a myriad of questions to ask, but only a few that really stick out as a priority." I looked between the three visitors in my room. "If any of you could answer them, that would alleviate my concerns."

"We'll try our best Chopper." Twilight spoke up from the side.

"Okay then. First off, what did you do with the wreckage of my jet? Secondly, where am I going to stay? Third, is there any possibility of me returning home?" They all looked deep in thought before Twilight looked through some of her notes.

"Well, the salvageable pieces of your jet are being stored at Sweet Apple Acres, nearby where you crashed. A squad of guards are standing watch over it, keeping prying eyes away from it. And I guess you can stay with me at the library, you can stay in the guest room for however long you're here for." Twilight said with a smile. I relaxed a little, knowing that the remnants of my fighter were under secure watch and away from the public. I couldn't imagine the reaction if they got injured after tampering with pieces of the jet they shouldn't tamper with; namely the weapons, countermeasures, radar or engines.

"As for your return," Celestia started, "since we do not know exactly how you came to arrive here, and only the circumstances surrounding your arrival, we cannot say for sure that we could return you. Though, I am puzzled as to why you would want to return there." She gave me a curious look, pondering my third question.

"Well, it's not a matter of if I want to. It's not like I can go back anyway; to everyone who knew me, I'm dead. They saw me crash into the stadium and knew that I couldn't eject. How do I explain surviving something like that?" I let my statement sink in to the others, before I continued. "I just was curious to know if it was possible, that's all."

We spoke for another half an hour, discussing my life back home and other things that Twilight had shared with the princesses through her letter. The two of them, Celestia and Luna, both were not what I was expecting in the manner of leadership and royalty. They were benevolent and showed genuine care and love for their nation, and both truly put the interests of their populace first and foremost. It was almost a complete inversion of the leadership I had been exposed to back in Osea, were the president makes all these promises in the hopes that he gets elected, then proceeds to either not follow through on his promises or do the complete opposite.

Nurse Redheart, and the doctor in charge of my case, paid us a visit and gave me the news that I was ready to be discharged and was only required to avoid heavy strain on my body as I was still recovering from the bruising. Both the princesses and Twilight were pleased to hear this news, and were more than willing to assist me in gathering my things and help me over to the library that would become my residence for the foreseeable future.

6 - Finding Closure, Part One

I woke up with the sun rise, my body clock still in the routine that military training had instilled. I think at this point I must be physically incapable of sleeping past six in the morning. The rays of sun shone through the window as I started my usual morning routine... well, as usual as it can be in a new world with completely different ways of doing things. For one, mainstream electricity in this town was mostly reserved for critical infrastructure or commercial business, such as hospitals, restaurants, and the library I was staying in. Twilight explained that electrical supply was widely available in major population centres, while smaller townships usually resorted to more 'eco-friendly' means. Not to say that the way that the power was generated wasn't 'green' in any form; they were using technology and techniques that was commonplace in my own world, like wind farm turbines or hydro-electric dams among other things. Not to mention that this world had the whole 'naturally-occurring magical energy' thing going for it.

That said, there was a surprising disparity in the way of other major technical breakthroughs. A world that had modern (in my experience) medical technology did not have self-propelled vehicles available for the general populace; the majority of these people still used animal-drawn carriages and carts. They used literal air-ships, by which I mean a sailing ship combined with a zeppelin, for long range travel, and steam-powered trains for regional commercial travel. The mash of technology from various eras that I knew from my own world constantly surprised me, this was most apparent whenever Twilight and I discussed the similarities in various areas of tech.

It had been a few days since I had left the hospital, and Princess Celestia had said to me that she would use what's left of my aircraft to check for any latent magical energy in an effort to trace back to my world. I had thought about what I may do if they ever did discover a way to access my own world. I certainly couldn't go back, I knew that much. But I would just want to see how much of an impact my sacrifice had made. Most importantly, I wanted to know that the rest of my squadron had survived the air raid after my crash. I couldn't live with myself if I found that my friends had died shortly after I had.

I reflected on that as I made my way downstairs to the kitchen towards the back of the library. It was here where I found both Twilight and her assistant, a dragon-like boy called Spike, sitting at the table eating breakfast. Well, Spike was eating breakfast as Twilight scrutinised a scroll in her hands, her eyes darting back and forth as she read the text with such an intensity that I thought might set the parchment alight. I took a seat and poured myself a mug of coffee.

At least one thing is identical in each of our worlds.

"Morning Chop," said Spike as he finished the last of the food on his plate. "Sleep well?"

"Well, it's better than the bunks back home, I'll tell you that." I smiled as I sipped from my drink. I took a glance at Twilight, then looked back to Spike. "What's up with her?"

"Letter came through from Celestia while you slept, a few minutes ago actually. All I saw was your name on it before she snatched it out of my hands. She hasn't touched her food or anything since, I think she's read that letter twenty times by now." Hmm, a letter from the princess about me. That certainly piqued my interest. I stood up from my seat and walked over to where Twilight sat, and lowered my head to above her shoulder. With a quick breath, I shouted.

"Twilight Sparkle! Exam is over, parchment on the desk now!" I embraced my inner drill sergeant as I utilised a trick that Spike had taught me, something that was guaranteed to get Twilight's attention away from whatever she was focused on. The trick's effects were amplified as Twilight was still drowsy from the early start.

"I'm sorry professor!" She shouted as her hands slammed to the table top with the parchment in hand. A few snickers from myself and Spike were enough to bring her back to reality. "Oh... very funny Chopper."

"Good morning to you too Twilight. So, letter about me, huh?" I wanted to get straight to the point.

"Oh yes. Celestia sent this just a short time ago, she said she figured out a way to access your world. She's asked me to inform you that you are to meet her today at her palace in Canterlot whenever you are free. All we have to do is just let her know when you're ready and she'll send a carriage here to take you there."

"I see... well then, I guess I've got to get myself ready then. Might as well get this over and done with." I finished my coffee and made my way back to my room. The day after I was discharged from hospital, Twilight had introduced me to all of her friends. One of them, a white woman/mare by the name of Rarity, had nearly fainted at the sight of me in my sage green flight suit. She forcibly dragged me across to her boutique where she proceeded to size me up and design a whole range of clothing for me. While at first it was quite the shock, I was extremely grateful for her work. She had made me a few sets of civilian attire, mainly shirts, trousers, shorts and jeans. After seeing her work, I asked her if she could recreate something else, namely my service dress attire of the Osean Air Defence Force. I gave her a quick description of the different pieces of uniform and insignia it features, and after half a day, I had a new set of 'Air Force Blues'.

It was this uniform I changed in to, after all I was heading to meet royalty and I wanted to look my best. Rarity's attention to detail was amazing, it really was. She had made everything down to the standards, including my captain's bars, wings and service ribbons. The uniform fit perfectly, and looked extremely sharp. All I'd need are a set of starts instead of bars and I could have easily passed for one of the high commanders of the OADF. Hell, Rarity even recreated the garrison cap complete with OADF insignia. Granted, Twilight and Princess Luna did tap into my memories to see the full uniform for reference, but it was a great effort they all put in nonetheless. I may be dead in their eyes, but I felt that until I really died I was still part of them.

That and the ladies love a man in the 'Blues'.

I must say, Twilight wasn't kidding when she had told me about how majestic Canterlot is. When we were approaching, I couldn't help but worry about the mere fact that the entire city was located on the side of a mountain. But when we landed and started making our way through the town proper, all my worries were lifted by the sheer spectacle of this place. Make no mistake, this place was easy to pick up as the place where all the 'high society' types live, much like the city of Neptune on the south-east coast. A lot of nobles, celebrities, and millionaires called Canterlot home. But as we neared the Royal Palace, the feel shifted from fame and stardom to politics and leadership. I had to double-take at what I had to guess was a courthouse; the overall design reminded me of the same building in Oured.

"...nd the AWACS unit with the callsign Thunderhead could not confirm nor deny your location at the time of the attack."

"...ow a flight of four aircraft with Osean Air Defence Force markings clearly visible..."

"... after reviewing after action reports, it was also found that the aircraft seen in the images match the same types flown by War..."

"Eighty-four ninety-two, eighty-four ninety-two. Is that all you have to say? There is no squadron in our military with that number!"

"Chopper?" Twilight's slightly worried voice jolted me from the memory. I hated that day, no... I hated the entire week after that. We got scrambled to Bana City to drop neutraliser bombs in the city after terrorists detonated a series of chemical gas weapons. That was an awful day, all we could do was fly around while people below us suffered in retaliation for something that the Osean forces didn't do. If that wasn't enough, we were then deployed to strike a munitions faction covered by a radar network. At least we weren't sent to attack a civilian population in retaliation for their retaliation; I swear I would have gone AWOL and defected to Nordennavic immediately. "Are you okay?"

"Sorry," I said, shaking my head to clear the memories, "Just thinking of 'Operations Wisdom' and 'Operation Fork Dance'." I had told her about the attacks and the circumstances surrounding them. She nodded her head in understanding. "I still can't understand why command was going for our throats back then." I looked down at the ground and clenched my fists in frustration and anger. "We were the pillar of Osean morale, the core reason why we were doing so well in that damn war, and they wanted to hang us out to dry."

We made it to the entrance of the palace shortly after, and I couldn't help but inwardly share the pain for the guards who were on constant watch at the gates and throughout the complex in its entirety. Just because I was a fighter pilot doesn't mean I was just limited to flying planes; oh no, during officer training and the like, our instructors would teach us a thing or two about 'ground pounder living'. They had told us at the time that during wartime deployments overseas, we would sometimes need to maintain security watch at hangar spaces or along the perimeter during alert periods. To simulate this, for one week the instructors had the pilots or crew that weren't scheduled to fly on that day sit a simulated security watch on the base's perimeter, with complete issue of uniform, armour, rifle and other equipment a guard would carry.

Thanks to this, I could understand and emphasize with what the guards had to deal with every day and night; the constant threat of falling asleep at your post, the danger of having the Officer of the Watch infiltrate your sector and find you asleep, and the ever-present feeling of facing a verbal ass-tearing from your commander for being asleep while on duty. So, as we walked past, I gave the guards a subtle nod as if to say, 'I feel for you, and share your pain, brother.'

Whether they understood this, or thought I was just nodding at them for no good reason, I would never find out.

The journey through the palace proper was surprisingly rather fast, but then when your guide is someone who is a private and personal student of one of the rulers, you learn not to question every last detail. In no time at all, we found ourselves standing in a small line outside of the throne room. Twilight shared with me that every few days, Celestia holds a 'day court' in which citizens can see her personally to make statements or claim grievances with whatever may be happening in their lives. There were only a few such people ahead of us in line, including one man, or stallion (I still haven't worked what was the norm here, even with Twilight's help), who seemed to give Twilight and I the stink-eye every time he looked at us. After the fifth glance, I had enough and asked Twilight about it.

"That is Prince Blueblood," she said, with a detectable venom in her voice when she spoke his name, "he's one of Celestia's nephews. Adopted, but still technically royal family." She let out a quick sigh as Blueblood once again glared at us briefly before continuing. "It is thanks to unicorns like him that give the rest of the royal family and the nobility a bad reputation."

"Sounds like a typical federal politician back home; stuck up, self-centred and in it for the wealth." I smirked, before I caught a very dirty look from the prince. That does it. He's got some kind of problem with me. I excused myself from Twilight before taking a few steps to the prince. Immediately I saw that my action caught his attention, and I could see him sizing me up. "Hey, Prince Blueblood. I couldn't help but notice you looking my way a number of times earlier. See something you like?" I smirked at him, enjoying the slightly flustered reaction I received from him. He obviously wasn't expecting confrontation like that.

"As a matter of fact, it is more a question if I see something I do not like, and that is quite the case here." He scoffed at me, before gesturing at my uniform. "How rude of an Earth Pony such as yourself to be wearing a uniform entitled for only the finest of our Pegasai fliers. It's a disgrace if you ask me." He obviously either didn't see the OADF insignia, or just doesn't care. Either way, I wasn't going to let that go. But before I got a chance to put a word in, he spoke up. "And to be wearing the insignia of a Captain of all ranks, you make me sick!" He reached over and tried to pull the insignia off of my uniform, but I snatched his hand and pulled it behind his back, then spun him to face the wall and pushed him against it.

"Hey buddy, didn't your mother teach you not to pick on members of the military, or are you just looking for a fight?" He moved his mouth to reply but a tug on his arm stopped him. "if you were so offended by my wearing it, you would have noticed that it doesn't bare any of this nation's insignia and the like. That means I'm from another country. Now where I'm from, my military doesn't care what or what you are as long as you have the drive and desire to succeed. That is why I can wear this uniform." I pulled him away from the wall and spun him to face me, pinning his free arm in a way where I could still control him. With my free hand, I pointed towards one of the service ribbons on my chest. It was red with gold trim along each end, with three silver clasp affixed in the centre of the ribbon. "See this? That's a 'Combat Aviation Ribbon'. I earned that after my first combat mission. You know what happens in combat?" I paused for a second, before I spoke up again in a quieter voice. "People get killed. Now, one of those clasps represent ten kills in combat, and I have three. I trust you can do the math." I let go and stepped back away from him. "You of all people should know better than to go insulting a member of a foreign nation's military. However, seeing how ignorant you are to even notice the subtle differences, I'll let this particular issue slide." I looked around at the small crowd of guards and others that had gathered around during our little altercation.

With a huff, Prince Blueblood straightened out his clothing and faced a nearby guard. "Inform my aunty that I shall reschedule my visit for another time. Something has come up that I must take care of..." With that, he turned and walked out of the hallway. Every set of eyes nearby locked onto him as he walked out of sight, before locking back onto me. Internally, I prepared myself to be tackled by the guards and held in custody for assaulting nobility. I didn't expect the quiet round of applause that arose. I looked over to Twilight, who was the only one not clapping. Her face had visibly paled, and she looked like she had been paralysed in sheer shock. I don't blame her, to be honest. Before I was able to bring her back to reality however, another guard peered out from the door and looked at both of us. "The Princess will see you now." I shrugged and grabbed Twilight's hand to lead her into the throne room, still in her daze.

The sheer space and size of this room was intimidating. It had to be as tall as one of the Globemaster hangars I saw Heirlark, and maybe as wide as one too. At the opposite end of the entrance there was a large throne, where Princess Celestia sat and read a parchment in her hands. As we approached, our footsteps alerted her to our presence and she glanced up from whatever it was she was reading. I could see her eyes do a double-take at us before her face lit up and she dropped the parchment onto the small table beside her.

"Ah, Mr Davenport, how wonderful it is to see you. I trust your travel here was not an issue?"

"Ma'am, I've been flying fighter aircraft at supersonic speeds in the middle of combat. I would like to think I could handle an open-air carriage pulled by some of your Pegasus guards, but then I would also like to say that the mess hall is the same as five-star dining." I smirked at my remark, then continued. "After I got over the fact that there wasn't any real danger of me falling out, I quite enjoyed the ride." Celestia smiled at me, then saw that Twilight was still pale and paralysed in her shock.

"And what is with dear Twilight?"

"We met Prince Blueblood. He insulted me, my uniform and my nation. I introduced him to the wall just outside of your throne room." I saw her face flash with surprise and a trace of anger. "Don't worry, all he's suffering from is a puncture to his inflated sense of self-worth." Celestia sat down on her throne and held her face in her hand. A textbook facepalm if I must say.

"I do apologise for my adoptive nephew's antics. He feels that just because he has a title, he expects everyone to bow down to him and do as he desires. What did you do exactly?" I recounted my actions to Celestia, who actually gave a bit of a chuckle after hearing that he decided to turn tail and leave. Just after I finished, Twilight snapped out of her daze and erupted at me with the force of a fuel-air explosive.

"YOU JUST ASSAULTED PRINCE BLUEBLOOD! DO YOU KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF PRINCESS CELESTIA FINDS OUT THAT YOU DID THAT TO HIM?!" She was really red in the face, and her breathing was deep and fast. All I did was nod my head in Celestia's direction, and Twilight visibly calmed down at the sight of her mentor. "I'm sooo sorry for that outburst your highness, I apologise for Chopper's actions and I am accepting any form of punishment you bestow on him."

"Relax my student, Chopper has told me all about his encounter and I feel that Blueblood actually deserved that reality check. He does not realise that his remarks could have started some serious diplomatic issues, or that would be the case if Chopper was a citizen of a nation from this world. Which brings me to my reason for calling you here Chopper. We have found a way to reach your world."

Author's Note

Wisdom and Fork Dance

7 - Finding Closure, Part Two

I started feeling this major case of déjà vu as time slowed down. Celestia's simple statement had sent my mind into full afterburner, trying to make sense of the fact that she had actually reached my world. But as I thought about it, she had only said that she 'reached it', not necessarily said that she could send me back. I tried to form a coherent response to her, but all I was able to get through my mind was:

"What?"

Ten points for originality there.

"My sister and I have used parts of your aircraft that had strong magical residue, namely the nosecone and engine intakes as you explained in your discussions with Twilight, and were able to use the energy signature in combination with a locator and viewer spell to see into your world. After further refinement, we are now able to view up to a month's worth of past events, up to the current day in both our worlds." Her tone dropped slightly as she stepped down from her throne and walked towards me. She placed a hand on my shoulder and looked into my eyes. "I know you said you were in a war, but I had not anticipated something so... violent." I could feel a shiver through her hand. "It is a very different kind of war you were fighting, one I cannot fully understand the scale of. The wars I remember in my time have always been more political affairs, with the occasional skirmish here and there. Casualties, while high, were slow to build up. For your world, however... the amount of lives lost in a single battle can almost dwarf that of three or four battles in ours. That and your conflict seems so much more... impersonal. Yes, you are soldiers and you are trained to kill without second thought. But the means in which you fight, it's very disconnected."

Her words actually hurt me to think about it. Yes, she recognised that as a fighter pilot I am trained to kill and destroy the enemy. And I did. But to hear that how we acted on our missions and what we used to fight from someone else that hasn't seen anything like that is disturbing. I never once thought about how a missile is designed to detonate before impact and shower the fuselage with shrapnel, with the intent of ripping the aircraft apart or killing the pilot. I never considered that the smart-bomb I was dropping was designed to detonate after impact, meaning that the people I dropped it on got to see the very weapon that would be killing them. I never wondered if the sub-munitions in the dispenser I just used would actually detonate, or whether they would fail and be left for some person to find and potentially detonate by accident. Now that I did, and was hearing about it, it made me feel sick.

"Though, as war often does, it can also bring out the best of us along with the worst." Celestia spoke up again, a small tear forming in the corner of her eye. "I... I watched your 'death', Chopper, and the events that led up to it. I will say that after hearing it from you, I was moved. But seeing it first hand... I..." She didn't say more as she embraced me into a hug, leaving both myself and Twilight shocked at her very un-Princess like actions. After a few seconds, she pulled away and wiped her face clear of the tears that had fallen. "Sorry... I just had to express how I felt about that. What you did Chopper was honourable and very valiant of yourself. Had you not done what you did, a lot of lives could have been lost."

She watched my death. She saw the air raid...

"Ma'am, if I may ask... what happened after I..." I trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence. Her mood brightened up a little, and she turned to walk to a doorway off to the side.

"Follow me, I'll show you."

Celestia, Luna, Twilight, and myself sat around a table in one of the Princess's private meeting rooms. Luna had joined us shortly after we departed from the throne room, as Celestia explained that her ability to dreamwalk was somewhat important in the use of the spell. Now, we sat around the table, holding each others hands as both of the Princesses horns began to glow.

"Now, It is a form of memory spell that we are using, so we will be able to move around freely in the space, but we will not be able to interact with anything. Other than that, we shall be able to experience everything as if we were there ourselves in the first place. Are we ready to go?" We all nodded in reply, and a flash of light burst from her horn.

Immediately I could tell that we were above November City, and I saw Blaze's aircraft splash an enemy F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter into the river below. I looked beside me and I saw Twilight, Celestia and Luna floating beside me. Both of the Princesses watched the battle in the skies with recognition, while Twilight soaked in all of the detail surrounding us.

"Chopper, I didn't know it was this bad." I didn't know it either. There were small fires springing up around the city, presumably where enemy aircraft had crashed after we shot them down. Pangs of regret started to hit as I realised that we hadn't considered the civilian population until it was too late. We then heard a wondering boom followed by a whining noise behind us. We all turned to see an F-15C Eagle, with the number eight on the nose fly out of a cloud of smoke with a steady stream of smoke trailing behind it. Bizarrely, I heard Grimm's voice through my head as if I was still on the radio with him.

"Are you alright? You've been hit."

"Ahh, it's nothing big. I'm not wounded. I should be able to keep this plane in the air a little longer." I didn't realise how calm and relax I had sounded when I was hit, and to be honest it was a surprise. The girls and I watched on as the events leading up to my death replayed in front of us. We often shifted around the town, trying to maintain a line-of-sight on my crippled aircraft. Finally, we ended up 'standing' at the sideline of the field where I was to crash, facing the direction I was arriving in. By now, tears were streaming from Twilight's eyes as she sobbed, while Celestia and Luna watched on, knowing what was to come.

In no time at all, I could see my Eagle swoop down and make its final approach into the dirt.

"I'm gonna miss that voice." I had no idea that the impact was that violent. I guess a clone of the aircraft or something had been made when I teleported across, because I could plainly see the jet explode and shred itself into pieces when it hit the ground. Shrapnel splinted into the air and landed all across the stands, tearing up the empty plastic seating and the collapsible stage that the Vice President was making his address from. I was more than relieved to know that my choice of letting the stadium evacuate before I crashed had paid off.

"CHOPPER!" The anguished cry from my team caught me off guard, and I looked up to see three more F-15s circling the stadium, one of which was visibly wavering mid-flight. I focused on it and saw that it was Nagase's craft, the number seven painted on its nose. We shifted location again to the top of a nearby skyscraper and watched as more Yuke aircraft made their approach. As I listened to the enemy chatter, I noticed that they had a major inflation of morale after shooting me down. They now sounded cocky, and they pounced on my friends in an instant. But there was something different about the way that Blaze, Nagase and Grimm flew. Their jets seem to fly sharper, as if they were like F-22s with advanced thrust vectoring. In no time at all, the three of them had managed to destroy, no... annihilate half of the new arrivals. Listening to the enemy freak out like that was immensely gratifying, if I was completely honest. Their newfound ferocity forced the remaining Yuke aircraft to retreat and fly away, but not before the reinforcing aircraft arrived. When I saw those F-16s fly over the stadium and perform the 'missing man', I cried.

We now sat back around the table and silently reflected on what we saw. The second we had returned, Twilight jumped from her seat and latched onto me in a tight hug, crying into my shoulder. I wasn't sure if it was the act of seeing my death, seeing the act of war in that sense in general, or both, but I didn't dare question it. I just thought about how my three friends changed after my crash. It was as if a switch had been flipped, or something had taken control of them. The way they flew after my crash, it actually scared me. At least the were able to secure the city and win.

"That... eased my biggest worry." I said, looking to Celestia with a gentle smile. "Thanks for showing me that..." She smiled back at me, but then looked away with a solemn expression.

"There is one more thing I want to show you, Chopper. I had stumbled across this as it happened yesterday, hence why I called you here urgently. I feel it only appropriate to show you." Her voice was low, and quiet. it reminded me of how Twilight's friend Fluttershy spoke on a day-to-day basis. We relinked hands and in no time we found ourselves transported back to my world.

It was raining, heavy enough to warrant umbrellas, but light enough so the rain didn't disturb the surrounding area with its noise. I looked around and within a second knew exactly where we were standing, and what we were about to witness. We were standing in the middle of the Oured National War Cemetery, amongst a sea of white headstones. Each headstone represented a member of the Osean Military that had fallen in service of our nation, and there was only one reason that I could think of Celestia bringing us here.

My funeral.

Sure enough, I saw the small gathering of men and women in Air Force uniforms, surrounding a casket that had the Osean Flag draped over it. As per ceremonial instruction, the pallbearers started folding the flag as the honour guard let off the customary 'six gun salute', each rifleman firing three salvoes into the air together. The gunshots punctuated the mood that the silence and the rainfall had generated. I watched as an officer, a Major General by the look of his insignia, took over ownership of the flag and carried it towards my parents. My mother took the folded flag with shaky hands, as my father rested an arm around her shoulders while keeping her dry from the rain with an umbrella. Beside them sat four very familiar faces. Blaze, Nagase, Grimm and Pops, all in their service blues.

Blaze was unnaturally stoic, even if he was fairly quiet around us he always had some display of emotion visible. Yet, here he was with the blankest look of his face and empty eyes. Nagase was trying her best to stay calm, but I could tell that she was fighting a loosing battle. Tears threatened to break free from her eyes, but she didn't dare to wipe them away. Grimm... he knew that he was my wingman, and that his job was to protect me. I could clearly see that he was blaming himself for what happened. Truth is I don't, not in the slightest. But it hurt me to know that I couldn't tell him that. Pops just sat there watching over the ceremony; I could tell he was shaken by this as well, but as our mentor, he was playing the strong-man card and wanted to be the one to counsel the others.

My casket started to lower into the ground and the gathered officers and guard parties started to file away, until only Blaze, Nagase, Grimm and Pops remained. Nagase couldn't hold it in any longer and let the tears flow, burying herself into Blaze's shoulder. He in turn wrapped his arms around her and held her to comfort her. I could now see a few tears in his eyes, clenched shut as he began to cry as well. Grimm started to pace around, his hands balled into fists as he started to curse out the empty air around him, venting his emotions. Pops just walked to the edge of my grave and knelt down beside the edge. From his pocket he pulled out a coin; the squadron's challenge coin. He held it to his heart for a second before he leaned down and placed it on top of the casket. The four of them started to walk off into the distance as my vision started to cloud...

Once again, we're back at the table The room is dead silent, each of us internally processing the events we just saw. Twilight is still seated beside me, and she has her arms wrapped tightly around me again, like she had after seeing the aftermath of the surprise attack at the stadium. Across from us, Celestia and Luna are both wiping tears from their eyes.

"No matter how many service funerals you attend or witness in a lifetime, it never gets any easier." Celestia said as she stood from the table. "I shall have a room prepared for you so you can stay the night. I feel it is only appropriate that you spent the night here so you can process what you have seen today. If you have any questions or concerns Chopper, do not hesitate to seek either myself or Luna."

"Thanks ma'am, I'll keep that in mind."

"Chopper, in light of the events, I would much prefer it if you simply addressed me as Celestia when it is just the four of us." She smiled once more before giving a worried look at Twilight. The young unicorn woman had sobbed herself to sleep on my side, and was now dozing softly. "I can tell for certain that she has developed feelings for you, their nature though I cannot tell for sure. But I can only assume that seeing what you have had to go through in the last few days has only drawn her closer to you. She may not admit it, but deep down she really cares for those that she considers a friend."

After leading the half-asleep Twilight to the room that Celestia had ever-so generously provided them, I prepared myself for the night's rest. My chest was still a little bruised and sore, but it would only bother me if I moved it the wrong way or if someone/somepony hit it. Given the death grip that Twilight had me in, it was understandably a little sore. It took me a few minutes to get her to let go of me and put her in her bed, but I had to admit that she looked quite cute when she finally settled down to sleep. That revelation in its own right stopped me as I was unbuttoning my shirt. She isn't technically a human being like me, but then she had enough striking similarities to be considered as equal to a human. Looks, personality, attitude, they were all there.

I shook my head clear of these thoughts and resumed my undressing. Once I was in the bed, I let the comfortable mattress take me away into the land of sleep, something that still didn't come easy even though I knew my friends survived the attack. Instead of feeling worried for their lives, I now felt guilty for leaving them behind to fight while I received a chance to continue life in a seemingly peaceful world.

8 - Parting from the Ghosts

Once again, I found myself in a dark and blank space. However, I knew this time that this was in dreamscape, and I knew that I should expect company any second now.

"Chopper." That voice. That wasn't Luna. "Hey Chopper, you there?" No... it couldn't be... could it? I gulped, then turned to face the source of the voice. There before me stood Blaze, Nagase and Grimm, dressed as they were when I saw them at my funeral. "Man, you look like you've seen a ghost." That wasn't too far from the truth, I thought as Blaze unwrapped Nagase's arm from his waist and approached me. When he embraced me, it felt real. In the back of my head I knew it wasn't, that it was just a figment of imagination brought to life. That didn't help keep the emotions at bay at all.

"Damn it man, you aren't supposed to me making me cry you know!" I said through my tears. "That's my job." We separated from each other and I looked at Nagase. She had a small smile on her face as her eyes glistened from tears of her own. She eagerly wrapped her arms around me and started to sob into my chest. I held her and rubbed her back, comforting her and letting her empty herself of the emotion. I looked over to Blaze who was giving us a small smile.

"She misses you already, you know." He looked down for a second or two. "It's already too quiet up there..." Nagase let go and stepped over to Blaze to hug into him once more. Grimm took this chance to barrel into me and knock me to the ground. He too embraced me in a chest-crushing hug, before he started crying into my chest.

"Gah, Grimm. Chill out man, it's okay!" I managed to get him off of me and back on his feet. He then helped me up. While he had stopped crying, he was still clearly upset.

"It's not okay! I left you exposed and open to attack. If I managed to shoot that Typhoon down sooner you wouldn't have been hit!"

"And then you would have left a gap in our coverage, which would have given the enemy a route to attack those civilians. You know that. And you know that my death means that hundreds of innocent people live; that's the cost of war." I rested a hand on his shoulder. "Ever since the surprise attack on Sand Island at the start of the war, you've been there on my wing and looking out for me. You've watched my back and I've watched yours. Over that stadium, we were stretched thin and outnumbered six-to-one. I didn't expect you to be there for me all of the time. We had to split up and cover our own sectors. You need to understand that this, me getting shot down, was not your fault."

Grimm sniffed a little, but gave me a nod in understanding. I turned my attention back to my flight leader and his wing-woman and rolled my eyes at them. Blaze gave me a puzzled look in reply. I sighed audibly and dramatically.

"Should've known that it was going to happen sooner or later. Funny how death brings out emotion in people." Now both of them looked confused. "Kid, Nagase, how long have you had it for each other, and be honest with me. Saint Hewlett? Eglin? Wait, don't tell me, it was Glubina, right?" I swear, if their faces got any hotter and redder, they would be able to distract an AIM-9X Sidewinder without any issues.

"Well, it was actually before we arrived to Sand Island, actually. Jayson and I were in the same group of nuggets, and we became close friends shortly after we arrived." Nagase looked up at Blaze and gave him a small smile. "It wasn't until we found out we were both being posted to Wardog at Sand Island when I realised there was something more. Back then I was unsure if he felt the same way though.."

"Yeah, took me a while to realise it myself actually. I guess it was after she were shot down at that POW camp when I realised how much I missed her and cared for her." I started to think back on our CSAR mission with Sea Goblin, and how there was a difference in the way Blaze was flying. I can now even remember seeing him pull a aileron roll after we pinpointed Nagase's position. "That night we brought her back, well, that's when I made my feelings known."

"I see..." I said, thinking back to the night after the mission. The two of them had left the mess early and headed off to someplace else. "So... that explains the noise I was hearing from your room late that night..." I said to myself, but loud enough for them to hear. "I just thought that Pops was checking the suspension on one of the tugs outside..." Sure enough, the red on their faces returned in full strength. "Nah, I'm just kidding with you, there's no way you... possibly..." I trailed off as I caught the tense vibe between the three of us. "... Wait, you mean to tell me..." I couldn't help but grin at that. "Good on you two, good to know that the squadron's spreading the love!"

"Still the same old Chopper, huh." Grimm said to me as we watched the pair blush madly.

"Man, you know me. Keeping it real like always. At least you guys have each other, look after them for me Grimm."

"Will do Chopper." I patted Grimm on the back as Blaze and Nagase stepped towards me.

"I hate to say this, but this is the time where we part ways. For now at least..." Blaze started.

"Hey, don't you dare forget about me. If you ever do, I've got a disk in my room with my name on it. It has a full eighty minutes worth of my rants and remarks. Play it if you ever feel like you need to hear me." Nagase got a little chuckle out of that.

"Shame we can't play it over the aircraft radio for Thunderhead. He'd really enjoy that." She said with a laugh.

"Please don't remind me of him." I said as I lifted my palm to my face. "Oh, before you go; you gotta tell me something. It's been bugging me since before the war started."

"Oh, and that is?" He said with genuine interest.

"Are you by any chance related to either Mobius One or the Demon Lord?" Blaze just stood there for a few seconds before he started to laugh. And I mean really laugh.

"Who gave you that idea?" He said as he regained his breath.

"Aero and I were discussing it after hearing that you kicked Magellan's ass in a sortie. He said that you had to be related to them because of your skill."

"I can understand why. But no, I am in no way related to either of them. If it helps, I have an older second cousin on my Dad's side who's in the Republic of Emmeria's Air Force. Can't for the life of me remember his call sign though, something to do with luck or charms." I deflated at the news, but hey, at least I can say that Aero was full of shit. I gave my three friends all one final hug as we said our goodbyes.

"Hey Kid!" I said before they started to walk off.

"Yeah Chop?"

"... Bring them home."

I woke with a slight start to find that it was still reasonably dark outside. A quick check of the clock confirmed that it was past midnight, but I had no real feeling to go back to sleep anytime soon. As I reminisced about the dream I just had, I remembered that there was somebody I could still talk to this time of night. With a slight boost of energy, I dressed into a simple set of clothes; a tank top and my repaired flight suit unzipped to the waist with my sleeves tied around; and made my way towards the throne room. The one person I could talk to about my dream and also about my future here was there.

Princess Luna.

It didn't take me long before I found myself at the doorway of the throne room. There were already a few distinct differences about the place though: the two guards watching the doorway wore midnight purple armour and both had black fur as well as bat-shaped wings; the doorway itself was alternating tones of blue and black; and the carved-wooden sun doorhandles were now metallic-white crescent moons. I shrugged and made my way to open the door before I was interrupted by one of the guards.

"Sorry, her highness is having a rest break at this moment. Nopony may disturb her." One of them said gruffly.

"Look, I would like to talk to the Princess regarding some dreams I'm having. It's kind of important."

"Nopony may disturb her." He said again.

"Look, just poke your head in and tell her that 'Chopper' would like to speak with her. It's that simple." The guard rolled his eyes but gestured to his companion across the doorway. The second guard did as I recommended and waited. When he looked back at me, he nodded. "See? How hard was that? Now, thank you for your gracious hospitality gentlemen, but I have a meeting with the moon." I smirked as I made my way inside. Once inside, I took stock of the many changes that had taken place. Much like the guards and doorway, the entire room seemed to have changed from a solar motif to a lunar one. Rather apt given who was on the throne right now.

"Good evening, Chopper. I am rather surprised you are not asleep, given the current hour." Princess Luna said as she stepped down from the throne.

"Believe me, I'd still be asleep if it weren't for a dream I just had." I noticed Luna's face light up at the very mention of a dream. "Figured I might come down and talk to the master about it."

"And that is a wise choice on your part, I must say." She turned and started to lead us towards the room where we had visited my world. After fetching a drink of each of us, we sat down and made ourselves comfortable. "So, tell me about this dream of yours."

"Well, I'm not entirely sure it was a dream in the traditional sense. All that really happened was that I got to speak to my team, about the crash and a few other things. It was weird, they seemed to know that I was dead, yet they still treated me the same as if I was still alive." I leaned back in the chair, looking at the ceiling.

"Did you notice anything in particular about your friends?" Luna asked me, her tone strangely mirroring that of a psychiatrist.

"Well, Nagase was a quieter than normal. Grimm was beating himself up over my death, because he thought that by watching his sector left me vulnerable. Which I will admit is a fact but given the circumstances was necessary. Blaze just seemed very accepting of the whole ideal, he was upset but he wasn't letting it show."

"Chopper... how did you feel after seeing that your friends did indeed survive after your death?" I looked back at her, and she was giving me an analytical look. If she had a notepad, glasses and either a sweater or cardigan, she would have easily passed for a shrink. Still, her question did get me to think.

"Well, I felt like the weight on my shoulders had lifted. I felt guilty knowing that my death could have very well led to their own. Now, I feel relieved."

"So, you would say that you received closure in the fact that you now know that they lived?"

"Yes, I'd say that would be about it. But what does that have to do about my dream?"

"Do you feel that your friends would want some closure about your death as well?" It all started to fall into place. "Maybe after you found that they had lived, you subconsciously started to feel guilty with knowing that they would have to live without your being there, and without the same feeling of relief you had after finding out they lived."

Now that I thought about it, it really started to make sense. Even though I no longer felt guilty about potentially but indirectly being the cause of their deaths, I now felt guilty about the fact that I had left them behind. They would have to fight the war without me, and after the loss of Captain Bartlett and shoot down Nagase, it would hurt them even more. Loosing one and almost loosing another had pushed us as a group close to the breaking point, and now I felt guilty of being that 'straw that broke the camel's back'.

"Perhaps your dream was fuelled by a desire to comfort your friends and tie up the loose ends you had left behind. Though, there is only one way I can be fully certain of myself. Would you be okay if I looked into your dreamscape and watch over that dream myself?"

I woke up with my head on the table, with heavy eyes and a sore face. I had given permission for Luna to look into my dreams, but she needed me asleep to do so. All I really remember was hitting the table before waking up.

"Sorry about the sleeper spell, but it requires the recipient to be unaware of it happening, otherwise the spell would not take hold." Luna gave me a sheepish smile, which I returned. "However, that is not the concern right now."

"Huh-wha?" I was still a bit tired and drowsy, more from the impact on the table than the remnants of the sleeper spell.

"You didn't have a dream, but a vision."

9 - Clarity

"A vision? A vision of what?" I was befuddled. Visions usually indicated foresight of some kind, either by precognition or something along those lines.

"Well, magic works in mysterious ways in this land. It is a chance that the harmonious magic that emanates from this city and the world in general picked up on your inner turmoils and acted in a manner that would ease and remove those negative feelings. By the looks of this, it acted by granting you a realistic dialogue with those you are close to; your fellow pilots. It is not the first time I've seen this kind of magical interaction with the mind, but it is fairly rare." Strangely enough, what she said made sense from a logical point of view. "I wouldn't worry about it too much though, that's just the nature of magic. Think of it as a step above a lucid dream."

"No wonder you're considered the master of dreams. You have an answer for almost everything. Maybe you should be a part-time psychiatrist when being a ruler gets too dry for you." I let out a particularly big yawn, and remember that it is still night and I still have sleep to catch up on. "I appreciate your help Luna, I really do." I stand up to leave, as does Luna. With a final goodnight, we part ways and I make my way back to my room, dwelling on what she had told me...

"Morning guys," said the pilot as he walked into the mess hall for breakfast. After grabbing a tray, he sat down with his two fellow pilots. "I had the weirdest dream last night. I guess all these g's are taking toll on my mind. What do you think, Kei?"

"I know how you feel, I also had the weirdest dream. Grimm here also had one. He was about to share it with me before you arrived though." She gave Blaze a small smile as she turned her attention back to her food.

"I bet mine was weirder than both of yours combined." Grimm piped up, his brows furrowed.

"Well, unless it involved the three of us talking to Chopper from beyond the grave, don't count on it." Two sets of cutlery dropped to the table as two sets of eyes widened and focused on Blaze, who's face now registered a mix of shock and confusion. "Wait, you're telling me you both had the same dream?" Both Nagase and Grimm nodded slowly, leaving Blaze legitimately confused. "What was the last thing he said to me?"

"Bring them home." Both pilots answered at the same time. Blaze just leant back in his seat as he soaked this revelation in. What were the odds of the three of them having the same dream at the same time? Shaking his head, Blaze decided to change topic onto the coming mission, the details of which he received shortly after waking.

"Okay then... now, today we'll be ferrying over to Yuktobania in preparation for Operation Footprint, our contribution to the assault on Cruik Fortress..."

I woke to the sound of curtains being opened, shortly before a bright light assaulted my face and filtered through my closed eyes. With a groan, I rolled to escape the light and tried to fall back asleep.

"Sorry Chopper but we've got to return back to Ponyville this afternoon." The voice of Twilight Sparkle foiled my attempts, and sounded far too cheery for this time of morning.

"Damn Twilight, if we're leaving this afternoon, did you have to wake me up this early? Can't a guy sleep in?" I groaned as I sat up in my bed and rubbed my face.

"Well, I've scheduled for us to take a tour around Canterlot, a walk around here might do you some good. That and it's been a while since I've paid a visit to my parents." She turned and smiled at me. I swear, if smiles could be used as weapons, they would be on par with a JDAM bomb; variable payload, precision guided and very effective at destroying entrenched positions. Like me in my comfortable bed.

"When do we leave?" I sighed as I swung my legs out of the bed and onto the cool marble floor.

As we walked through the town, I couldn't help but soak in the sights. It was like walking through the King's Castle in Gracemeria; just on a much larger scale. Everything was remarkably clean, the passers-by were pleasant and the atmosphere was calm. I think I stopped seven times to gawk at different statues and landmarks, much to Twilight's chagrin.

"At this rate, Chopper, we'll have to turn around and get our things for the train." She said to me after the seventh stoppage, taking my hand and leading me away as if I were a disobedient or distracted child.

"Like I said Twilight, I've never seen anything like th-" I stopped as I caught glimpse of a pair of guards walking up the pathway towards us. I had seen a number of guards ever since my arrival, and they always fascinated me. After talking with Twilight about the guards, the old bronze plate armour was worn for ceremonial purposes mostly, with guards using equipment and uniforms similar to what ground troops or police officers would wear for day-to-day duties. The two guards approaching us however looked different. They both were wearing flight-suits, as they were both pegasai types in the air-guard, adorned with identification patches and a patch on their left arm that must have been a recreation of their marks.

It was the mark of the left flyer that caught my eye instantly; I had to blink a few times to make sure I wasn't seeing things. It was one of the more ambiguous marks I've seen, but I didn't need to know the owner of the mark to understand what it was. The mark was a ribbon in a figure eight, half blue and half dark grey. While abstract, it was the representation of what was called a Möbius band, a shape that is non-orientable, having no inside or outside surface and no top or bottom. Sure, it was nothing special on its own, but it was where it was used and where I saw it last that made it special.

This flyer's mark was identical to the mark used by one of the most revered aces in recent history: Mobius One.

"Chopper, what is it?" Twilight pulled me from my stupor, and I looked at her with my trademarked confused expression.

"Thought I saw something from my world... I'll tell you about it later, let's get to your folk's place." Twilight just gave me a look before we continued our walk. Before long we arrived at the front door of a rather ordinary house; two floors, brick construction with tiled roof, well kept garden and yard, and a letter box with the family name written on it. It was rather cliché in a way, given the resemblance to the stereotypical family home back on Earth.

Twilight started to knock on the door, and on the third tap the door swung open, leaving Twlight's closed fist in the air where the door used to be. In its place now stood a rather tall man, or stallion to use the correct terminology, with a blue coat of fur and darker blue hair that was combed and parted to one side. I caught a glimpse of his stern expression before he registered the sight of Twilight, and his face instantly lit up.

"Twilight! How good to see you!" He exclaimed as he stepped forward to embrace her. This must have been her father.

"It's good to see you too Dad!" Yep, definitely her father. "Is Mom home?"

"Of course, she's in the kitchen cleaning up after breakfast. Did she know you were coming?"

"No, we just happened to be in town visiting the Princess and thought we might take this chance to pay you a visit. I hope I'm not interrupting or anything?"

"Of course not! Actually, Shining and Cadence are here as well. Shining's just returned from some exercises with the Royal Guard, wanted to get a properly cooked meal after a few weeks in the field." I watched Twilight's eyes light up at the mention of this 'Shining' person; he was most likely an older sibling of hers. "So, are you two going to stand out here or are you coming in?"

No sooner had I been introduced to the rest of Twilight's family, I had found myself seated across from Brigadier General Shining Armour, 'Captain of the Guard'. The title associated with the rank really threw me for a loop, but after a quick clarification, I understood that he was technically senior to me. The fact that he made Brigadier General and was younger than me, while I was only a Lieutenant Colonel through a posthumous promotion, was what still had me confused. Sure, he was married to a Princess, but that doesn't really explain how someone so young could have an entire military unit under his command. Then I was told that the Royal Guard were akin to a national police and law enforcement organisation with the side job of protecting the leadership of the nation, a cross between the Osean Federal Police and the Osean Secret Service, but also a separate arm in the overall military order-of-battle, meaning they were alongside the Army, Navy and such.

Yeah, it was still confusing even after the third explanation. Realising that it would take a lot more information for it to sink into my mind, we changed topic to my service history. Seeing as he was also military, I didn't have to hold back as much as I thought when I shared with him stories about my training and missions, as well as recent history, much like I had shared with Twilight. He was a little sceptical about how far our technology had progressed, but accepted it when I said that magic and the like that I had seen here was non-existent back on Earth. It was talking about some of the other aces in my recent history when I was reminded about what I saw earlier today.

"Hey, this will seem a little off-topic, but would you happen to know about a flier that has a azure mane, and has a blue and white ribbon as their mark?" I watched as Shining's arms widened a little in recognition.

"Oh, that must have been Major Sky Twister of the Flight Corps. Despite the massive amount of peace we've had, he's considered one of our top aces, the stallion has earned dozens of kills on exercises we've held both internally and externally with our allies. He's looking to transfer to the Wonderbolt Flight Display Squadron, change of pace from a combat posting. He's pretty well known both in our own corps and overseas, to the point where he has the nickname of "The Ribbon". Why?"

"Well, his mark is practically an exact copy of an insignia patch of a famous fighter squadron back on my world, ISAF's One-Hundred-And-Eighteenth Tactical Fighter Squadron "Mobius". It's squadron leader was a pilot only known "Mobius One". And it just so happens that his nickname was also "The Ribbon"."

"That's really... interesting actually. Two combat aviators with the same mark, same kind of notoriety, and same nickname... but on two different worlds." Shining scratched at his head as I thought of what I might have missed. I jolted upright as I remembered a critical detail.

"Oh, thing is, Mobius One supposedly disappeared after his final mission during Operation Katina. Official word is that he received a 'Very Honourable Discharge' and moved from North Point to Faxa Bay in Wellow, which was five years ago. Rumour was that he got sick of the military lifestyle and moved to a peaceful country. How long as this Major been a part of the Flight Corps again?"

"Well, about five years, not counting time spent in academy and training. Rose through the ladder really quickly for a pony his age, too quick come to think of it..." I leant back in my chair, letting our discussion sink in. I shook my head and let out an exasperated sigh.

"Maybe I'm just overthinking things, it's not the first time that I've seen stuff similar to my world here, and it probably won't be the last..."

Twilight and I arrived back at Ponyville early that evening, after spending a few hours with her family. We would have spent longer, but I couldn't help but be reminded of my own family and how I left them behind when I 'died'. Twilight picked up on this and made the decision to leave early, citing that we had to make our way back to the castle and get our things for the train.

It was good to be back in Ponyville though; Canterlot made this town feel very small and quiet, and in a good way. After all I'd been through, I could use some peace and quiet for once. After a small supper, Twilight decided to call it a night. I didn't feel tired and wanted to get a few things off my mind. I asked if she had some spare paper or something that I could use to write some things down; she happily obliged, suggesting that I could write down accounts of my missions and other memories for 'research purposes'.

Yeah right, I kind of saw through that suggestion. I'm sure she just wanted something new to read and absorb into her all-knowing mind. Still, documenting my past did seem like a good idea. Now I just faced the problem of where to start: I could barely remember what I did when I was a child, and my senior schooling years weren't that interesting. Basic training and my life at the Air Force Academy was fairly dry, and it wasn't until my posting to Sand Island where things started getting interesting.

Guess that's where I should start...

10 - Salvage

I had to hold back tears once I stepped into the main barn of Sweet Apple Acres. No fighter pilot should see their plane, their baby, in such a wrecked state. As I walked slowly around the entire frame, the entire experience could be likened to that of driving past a car wreck: you know you shouldn't look, but you just can't help it.

"If you were wondering, the weapons and ammunition that were still attached were moved to another place under guard." I didn't respond to Twilight's statement as I kept studying my aircraft, taking in every little detail of damage: the right main landing gear had snapped off shortly after impact, a snapped right wingtip, the entire underbelly had multiple small tears and holes from the various rocks that marred the ground where I landed and the nose cone was crushed after hitting the dirt when the gear snapped. Then there was the damage from the dogfight beforehand; shredded left stabiliser fin, halfway-snapped left elevator, shredded engine exhausts, missing aileron and flaps from the left wing, and various holes along the centre of the fuselage and left wing root from cannon fire and missile fragments.

To be perfectly honest, it was a miracle I didn't blow up over November City. This amount of damage would have surely caused some kind of fuel leak which, when combined with the severed electrical system sparking like fireworks or a fuse, would have resulted in a catastrophic explosion...

"Chopper? Are you alright?"

I wanted to say I was alright, but I wasn't completely sure of it myself. Hard to lie when you don't believe in the lie yourself.

"I... don't know, Twilight. I'm still coming to grips with how lucky I really am right now..." I tore my gaze from my jet and started walking over to the barn doors where Twilight stood. I could clearly tell from the look on her face that she was worried for me. "I don't understand how exactly I survived as long as I did back home... that kind of damage would normally destroy a jet mid-flight. Yet, I was able to keep it flying for another five or so minutes before I came here." I sighed and walked through the door, and started the small trek to the field where I landed. The large trench that my jet had dug when it landed was still there, being tended by one of the farm's workers. "Nor did it explode when I landed here. Instead, I was able to get out and away safely. I just don't understand it."

Twilight trotted up to my side and sat down, both of us just looking at the trench.

"Maybe that's just it. You were lucky." I laugh a little at her statement, shaking my head in disbelief. It isn't until I see the downtrodden expression on her face that I stop and look at her with a level face.

"Twilight, fighter pilot training basically instils you with knowledge and reason behind everything and anything that can happen in your jet. Sure, things may happen that could be considered a fluke, but there is always a reasoning behind it. For example, a mercenary pilot lost his right wing in a dogfight back before the Belkan War of '95. Leaking fuel and with half of his controls missing, he managed to fly it back and land it safely. The reason: he flew fast enough to turn the body of his jet into a wing and maintain lift. Some called him lucky, but us pilots considered him smart for doing that."

"I don't understand..." Twilight looked at me with a lost expression.

"As pilots, it's our responsibility to know what our aircraft are capable of and to know how to control them in every possible circumstance. During flight training, our instructors made it very clear that 'luck' never existed anywhere near an aircraft. Sure, there were times where pilots and aircrew had near-misses or came extremely close to severe injury, but they could be explained away soundly and logically. 'Luck' was an excuse to say 'I don't know what happened and I don't care'."

"That's a very... pessimistic thing to say. Of course luck exists. It can be compared to chaotic magic in a way; it's unpredictable and is known to circumvent or break any and every possible law that ponykind has ever conceived." Twilight approached the front of the aircraft, and pointed out a string of holes where enemy cannon fire had impacted along the front engine intake. "Now, you said that these aircraft guns can fire at a rate of a thousand rounds per minute, right?"

"If I remember correctly, it was a Eurofighter that landed the hit... it uses thirty-mil rounds... yeah, the cannon that hit me fires at a rate of one-thousand-and-three hundred rounds per minute."

"Right... with that rate of fire, I'll assume that pilots generally fire second-long bursts when in combat." Twilight looked at me and I nodded to indicate that she was correct. "Now, that means that in that second, you had up to twenty one bullets flying towards you. Ten of those landed along your aircraft here, but stopped just before they reached the cockpit." I approached the area she was talking about and saw that the string of fire did actually proceed along the intake and stop short just before the end of where the canopy sat. "Now... a number of things could have prevented the remaining shots from hitting and killing you instantly: the pilot could have missed with the first half or second half of his shots, the gun might have ran out of ammunition in the middle of the burst, some of those rounds could have penetrated in the same place... all of those things were out of your direct control. There was no real way you could predict or anticipate what could have happened. Sure, you might be trained to act on any and every contingency... but training can only go so far. Sometimes all it comes down to is luck."

I sighed and thought about Twilight's remark, and the more I thought about it the more I realised that she was right. I had been extremely lucky to not have been killed mid-flight; though, I would have died anyway if I hadn't transported across worlds like I did. Even with previous missions, our squadron had been lucky. We were out of range for the first burst missile attack that levelled two of our carriers at once; we had the Arkbird back us up when the Scinfaxi attacked Sand Island; and I was lucky to be on the ground when we were attacked before the war began...

"Has there ever been a time where you're wrong, Twilight?"

We spent the new few hours on the farm going through my wreckage, removing critical components and identifying the parts that needed to be fabricated and repaired. After seeing the reinforced plexiglass canopy completely replaced with a mixture of magic and machining, I was confident that we could get my jet in flying order. I was thankful that only one engine was completely destroyed; we could just use the remaining engine for a reference for parts and placement. The only issues I could see being a problem would be fuel and avionics; to my knowledge, neither JP-8 nor Jet-A1 existed in Equestria. No fuel meant no flight, and no flight meant no return to the skies where I wanted to be. Sure, there would be nothing particular for me to do while up there, but at least it would mean I could fly. As for the flight computers, well... I had no solution for that at the moment.

"So, this is what all the fuss is about." The brash voice pulled Twilight and I from our work, and we looked over to find a group of four pegasai (evident by the folded wings behind their backs) dressed in flight suits. Only, the thing that caught my attention were the flight suits that they were wearing; almost skin-tight and coloured a vibrant blue with a yellow lightning bolt design running across the torso and the legs. I stood in confusion as the lead Pegasus, a yellow-coated mare with aviator sunglasses perched on top of her head, started walking up towards us with her eyes fixed solely on the wreckage. She stopped in front of the dismantled and crushed nosecone, then looked at me. "Damn, I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't seen it... you are one lucky flyer."

I chuckled in agreement and approached her with my hand extended. "You've got that right... Lieutenant Colonel Alvin Davenport, 108th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Osean Air Defence Force." To my surprise, she reached forward and gripped it firmly but professionaly.

"Lieutenant Colonel Spitfire, Wonderbolt Flight Display Team." She introduced herself with a genuine smile, her eyes flicking over my attire. I was wearing my own flight suit; graciously repaired and cleaned by Twilight's friend Rarity and was even affixed with my new rank insignia.

"Pleased to meet you, and just call me Chopper." I said, noticing how the other members of her team spoke amongst themselves while casting glances at the wreckage. I took the moment to study the rest of her team. Among the three other members that came with her, I could see another mare and two stallions. The mare had an aqua coat, and ice-white hair that sat in a wind-blown style, while the first stallion had a sky-blue coat and dark blue hair that sat spiked up. I recognised the last member of the team, the same stallion that I had seen as I was leaving the castle at Canterlot; Sky Twister. I masked my surprise at seeing him, and turned my attention back to Spitfire. "So, I guess my arrival here made you curious?"

"Well, we were in a show up in Cloudsdale when we caught news of what happened; this is the first chance we've gotten to come down after returning back to base at Canterlot." She looked over the wreckage once more and then back to me. "So, what exactly is it?"

"That, Lieutenant Colonel, is an Osean-built Lockheed Martin F-15C Eagle; an air superiority fighter aircraft. Self propelled and designed for fighting in the skies." I explained, gesturing towards what was left of my jet.

"Impressive... how does it move? From here it looks like the wings don't flap up or down."

"They don't; we use jet combustion turbine engines and focus the exhaust to push the aircraft through the air. The air flows over the wings much like yours, though in a more lateral fashion. There are small flaps on the wingtips that help me roll from side to side, and the smaller horizontal fins twist up and down to control pitch."

Spitfire focused on the corresponding parts of the aircraft as I explained, and from what I could gather she was visualising how the ailerons and elevators worked in her mind. "I guess that makes sense. What about its speed?"

"Well... at high altitude it can go past Mach 2.5, however it's around Mach 1.2 when you get lower..." I noticed how her eyes widened at the measure of speed; it must be a similar unit of measurement then. "Though, it sucks up a lot of fuel to keep it at that speed, so it's generally saved for combat or other urgent circumstances."

"Impressive... much faster than any of us can go... what's your G limit?" She was clearly interested in the aircraft, and I could tell she was waiting to find an area that she could possibly win. I hate to be the one to disappoint, but she wanted to know.

"The airframe's designed to take nine G's maximum, but my body can only take around six or seven sustained G's." Her brows furrowed, thinking of another question. "And before you ask: I can climb as high as sixty-five thousand feet at fifty thousand feet a minute; fly as far as three thousand four-hundred-and-fifty miles one-way with a full fuel load, but my combat range varies depending on payload and mission type."

Spitfire looked back over at the wreckage and let out a slow impressed whistle. "Damn, that's... that's something. How do you fight in it though?"

"A mixture of self-guiding explosive rockets and an automatic cannon with a high rate of fire..." Chopper answered, satisfied with his simplified description of the AMRAAM and Sidewinder missiles and the M61 Vulcan gatling gun, "as well as technology that allows me to 'see' the enemy before I actually see them. If you're smart, the only time you'll see your target is when it explodes." Spitfire's mouth formed an understanding 'oh' before glancing back at her fellow flyers. She nodded at them and they all started walking around my jet, occasionally talking amongst themselves.

"You know, us ponies are a fairly peaceful race. It's been a while since there's been a major active conflict that our military has had to get involved in. For your world to have developed something like this, it must be quite tough to live on a daily basis. Though, from what you've told me about this 'fighter jet', you don't seem to use much magic."

I scratched my head at this observation, and silently wondered if she was going to have a meltdown much like Twilight did when I broke the news to her. "That's because there is no magic where I'm from. Everything is engineered by hand with tools and technology, and it grows more advanced as the years pass. Before these jet-driven F-15s we had propeller-driven aircraft made of sheet metal and steel frames, which replaced the fabric and wooden framed aircraft before them. The human race has only been flying for just over one hundred years now; which, when you consider that civilised humanity has been around for well over three millennia , is only a very small section of time. I mean, some of the stuff that we can do these days would be considered magic to some people, but not like the magic here in Equestria."

"I see... still, my other point still stands. Your home must be dangerous if your people felt the need to create stuff like that." Spitfire crossed her arms over her chest, and I shook my head.

"Jets like these serve has a handy tool in the bigger picture of world stability and politics. Its basically the concept of 'having a bigger stick than your opponent', but with the added fact that combat aircraft can serve as a deterrent and defence as well as an offensive weapon. I mean, yes, there are aircraft that are designed for the sole purpose of attacking, but just having that in your arsenal can be enough." I mirrored her stance and fixed her with a firm expression. "If you knew that your enemy was equipped with things that could bring about your demise without you being able to counter that threat, would you still consider fighting them?" Her lasting silence was all that I needed to hear. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try and work out how much of my jet will be able to be rebuilt."

"Right... Soarin', Fleet, Twister; let's get back to the base and leave this guy to do his work." I watched as they walked out and sighed to myself once they were gone. The tone I had taken with Spitfire when I was making my point to her had caught me off guard. Yes, my argument made sense but then I'm also not a typical member of the military. I grew up during the Belkan War and the Second Usean Rebellion, and saw on TV the kind of horrors that war produced. But I also saw the effectiveness of having a deterrent in place against conflict had in warfare. The nuclear bombings in ninety-five and the hyper-lethal Mobius Squadron were enough to bring wars to an end and force negotiations to take place.

"You could have been a little less harsh with her, you know. It's not her fault that we aren't a race born and raised in conflict." Twilight's remark drew me from my thoughts, and I shook my head to clear it.

"I know... it's just she didn't seem all that approving of it, even if she was impressed by my jet. And I can see why she thinks that; I really do. But she seemed to assume that we 'shoot first and ask questions never' instead of opting for the peaceful route like your leadership does."

"Give her some time; perhaps if the two of you interacted more, she'd be able to see how similar your ways of thought are in regards to diplomacy and the like."

"Maybe... come on, let's get to work."

Author's Note

Sorry for the long wait guys, just been caught up with a lot of stuff since the last update.

I hope to have the next update out with less of a delay.