Pilot's Story

Walk in the Park

Pilot's Story

Chapter 12: Walk in the Park

"So, do I need a permit or anything like that? This seems way too simple, nothing is ever this simple." Eva said as she lugged the guitar case onto her back. The stiff case bounced with each step down the cobblestone road.

Rainbow Dash gave her a strange look, "No, of course not, why would anypony need a permit to play music?" She said as she pumped her wings and hovered in the air next to the gray pegasus. "What's the deal with the straw hat anyway?"

Eva narrowed her eyes and looked around, "Just trying to keep a low profile, don't want a bunch of ponies swarming me when the story gets out about what I did at the train."

"You're about to go play music in the park and you're trying to avoid attention?" Dash asked with a laugh.

"Well, I didn't say it was the most well thought out plan..." Eva admitted as her hooves clopped against the stones, "Besides I like the shade."

"I guess, but that hat doesn't make a very good disguise, I don't think there are a lot of blank flank adult pegasi in Ponyville, so you're going to stand out anyway." Dash explained.

"What what?" Eva asked as she curled her head around and stared at her flank, "What about it?"

"You don't have a cutie mark, that's... kind of important. Wait, you went this whole time not knowing what the mark on everypony's flank is?" Dash asked incredulously.

Eva wingshruged under her guitar case, "I guess so? What's so important about having butt artwork?"

Dash cocked an eyebrow at the other mare. "Your cutie mark is a representation of your special talent, it appears when you find out what makes you special and unique!" Dash exclaimed.

Eva blinked, "Okay... well I'm a damn good pilot, and I already know that, so what's there to find out? Besides, I wasn't born a pony, so maybe it's not that simple for me?"

Dash sighed, "Maybe, I guess nothing like this has ever happened before."

"I'd have been okay with it never happening..." Eva muttered under her breath as she shrugged the guitar case off of her back and onto a park bench. She cleared he throat as she popped the snaps open, "So, you think this will work?"

"Well, you're good enough, if that's what you're worried about" Dash said with a shrug, "there's enough ponies here... I don't see why not."

Eva nodded her head as she delicately twisted a tuning key, then strummed. "Perfect." she said mostly to herself as she listened to the vibration. She looked over at Dash and her face scrunched up slightly as if in thought before she finally smiled, "And now I know what to play."

Closing her eyes she drew her hoof across the strings, she held the note and bent it as she started to sing.

"I put myself on a limb and I feel it giving way from the weight of the rain. If I break or I bend, I get myself together again, put my face to the wind."

"It might be a long, long way to my golden day, that's a chance I'm willing to take. Theres no chain, no cage that I won't break. In this long, long leap of faith."

"I close my eyes and I walk right to the edge, throw my hooves to the sky. Oh, I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid to live this life through my dreaming eyes."

She cracked her eyes open and looked over at Dash, smiling a little as she took a breath. A number of ponies had gathered in the clearing, listening with interest as she sang, a few had even put coins in her guitar case.

"It might be a long, long way to my golden day, that's a chance I'm willing to take. Theres no chain, no cage that I won't break. In this long, long leap of faith..."

"To a rocket I've been tied, I'm ready for the screaming ride, it's full of fuel and I just lit the fuse. I'm a ragin' burnin' ring of fire and I get hotter as I get higher and I'm tearin' a hole right through this sky of blue.

She closed her eyes again as she started in on a solo, the notes building up much like the lyrics themselves until reaching a crescendo. She slipped back into the original tempo as she continued to sing.

"Oh, There's no chain, no cage, that I won't break, in this long, long leap of faith. In this long, long leap of faith."

Her playing sped up as she began to draw the song to a close, her face tinted red from the exertion and concentration of her playing.

"To a rocket I've been tied, I'm ready for the screaming ride, it's full of fuel and I just lit the fuse! I'm a ragin' burnin' ring of fire and I get hotter as I get higher and I'm tearin' a hole right through this sky of blue!

I'm tearin' a hole right through this sky of blue!

In this long, long leap of faith..."

As she finished the song she let the last note fade out on its own as she took a breath, letting herself relax as the small crowd tapped their hooves on the ground. 'Pony version of clapping?' she thought as the sound slowed and then stopped completely.

She looked over at the case to see a number of coins sitting in it, more than the first time she'd checked. "Thank you, thank you all very much, I'll be here all.... day?" She finished awkwardly.

"Well that was something. Haven't heard singing like that in... Oh, centuries I think. You're that mare with the, wassit, aeroplane, that's it, Douglas DC-3 right?" the brown stallion asked in almost frantic rapid-fire as he pushed through the crowd.

Eva stared at him, her mouth half open as she tried to process this... individual, the gears in her brain turned as she tried to come up with something to latch onto, something intelligent say. "You sound British." She failed.

"And you sound American" he replied with a grin that Eva found to be infectious. His messy brown mane added to his charm, she found it hard to be annoyed despite the situation. He flipped a silver coin into the guitar case and turned his head to stare at the hourglass Eva had just now noticed on his flank, "Well look at the time, I'd love to stay and chat but I must be going, we'll have to do this another time."

"I uh..." Eva started as the brown pony seemed to vanish back into the crowd, her mouth worked up and down uselessly as she tried to think of anything to say; she came up empty. She shook her head and looked down into her guitar case and froze as she saw the coin he'd left.

She poked it with her hoof, it was real: a nineteen-eighty-six American silver eagle coin. This was not something that a pony should have, this wasn't something most humans would have. "and... the mysteries keep piling on" she muttered under her breath as she started to strum again.

"So just like that, you're going to cut and run? Betray what you stand for?"

"I was here to serve, to do good. Not to stand as a pawn to the whims of some jackass jockeying for a promotion, and I'm not going to get thrown under a bus for him like James. No, I'm not betraying what I stand for at all, I've been betrayed."

"You've been staring at that coin for an hour." Dash said flatly, "are you expecting it to grow wings and fly away?"

Eva blinked and looked up, the crowd had dispersed as the sun went down, gas street lamps lit up the park in a soft glow. She had scooped the coins into a pocket on the side of her bag, quite a bit of heft for a day of playing in the park, and put her guitar away.

Still, that one silver coin.... "I'm just surprised, didn't expect to see one is all" she answered as she flipped the coin back into the guitar case and closed the lid. She hefted the case onto her back and looked up at the sky, contemplating just who that strange stallion was...

"Well, you did get quite a few bits today, I guess you'll be good to pay Rarity tomorrow then?" Dash probed as she motioned for the older mare to follow her.

"That... and maybe get a little fuel for the DC, there's got to be money in high speed courier work even here. I suppose passengers could work too, I'm not a huge fan of live cargo though..." She explained as she followed Dash in the direction of Twilight's tree. "Probably ought to see if I can find somepony who has the wiring I need to properly repair that magneto and get the engines running good..."

"Well, at least you've got plans..." Dash said while rubbing the back of her head with a fetlock.

"Now all I need to do is make the plans work... and figure out who that stallion was."

"We'll be on station in half an hour, you're sure this will work?" James asked as he set the autopilot and released the control yoke.

"Yeah I'm sure... pretty sure, I mean... Yeah it should totally work." Tommy rattled off as he typed furiously on his laptop, checking and re-checking last minute equations, "I mean... I wouldn't have let it get this far if I didn't think it would work. Yeah, we're good, I'm going to start warming up the accelerator right now."

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