Pilot's Story

Pilot's Story

Chapter 13: Welcome To The Party

"Tommy what the hell did you do!?" James screamed as he fought with the aircraft's controls. Alarms blared and smoke filled the cockpit as the deck pitched down.

Tommy tore his harness off and turned towards the back of the cockpit. "We're on fire, but it worked James, the portal is open!" he yelled as he grabbed a fire extinguisher off the wall and rushed into the smoke, down into the cargo bay.

"That's... great. I'll just stay up here and try not let us die, sound good brother?" James yelled over his shoulder as he pushed more throttle to the engines and leveled out the aircraft. The smoke had gotten thicker, his eyes burned. He reached over to the side and pulled the window latch, instantly the pressure on the glass pushed the window wide open and fresh, cold air filled the cockpit, displacing the smoke almost instantly.

Ahead of him, hanging in the sky, the rippling distortion in time and possibly, space, rotated lazily, refracting sunlight. James had never seen anything like it, not that that was particularly surprising. He stepped on the rudder and nosed the damaged aircraft towards it, pushing full throttle to the engines as he fought for the altitude he'd need to intersect it.

"James, I can't put out the fire... I'm dumping the accelerator before we lose the plane!" the pilot heard his brother yell in his ear over the headset. He looked back over his shoulder and saw the ramp at the rear of the aircraft opening, saw his brother shoving a cart with the upper half engulfed in flames towards the void.

"Tommy, wait, how are we going to get back!?" He yelled into his headset as the cart rolled off the end of the loading ramp and tumbled into the open sky.

"I'll figure that out on the other side, we can't help Eva if we burn up on the way through. It's now or never James, let's do it." Tommy yelled back up through the radio. James saw the indicator wink out, showing the cargo ramp had closed.

"Now or never then..." he muttered to himself. Almost there, he hauled back on the yoke and brought the nose of the craft up. He wouldn't get far, as fast as it was shedding airspeed in a climb like this, but he would get far enough to crossover before the wings stalled.

'Just a few more feet...' he thought while gritting his teeth, the stall warnings screaming in his ears even over the roar of the engines, the clatter of the cockpit window rattling in the breeze. Contact, there was a bright flash of light--

~~

"Surprise!"

The lights in the library suddenly came up as Eva and Dash stood in the doorway. Dash proceeded into the room while Eva remained in the doorway, stunned. "What is--" Eva started.

"It's a party, silly!" Pinkie laughed as she bounced over to Eva "a 'welcome-to-ponyville' party, for you!" she continued as she grabbed onto Eva and pulled her into the room. Eva reluctantly followed into the semi-crowded tree-library. She saw Applejack, Rarity, Twilight, and... a butter yellow pegasus she hadn't met yet.

'She is cute though.' Eva thought as she looked at the pegasus, 'Wait... did I just... don't think about it Eva, that way lies madness.' She shook her head, "So Pinkie, who is that over with Twilight?"

"You mean Fluttershy? Oh, you haven't met Fluttershy yet!" Pinkie squealed, "Well let's just go over here and I'll introduce you!"

~~

"Bank angle! Bank angle!"

James was nearly thrown from his chair as the aircraft was caught in a crosswind. Out of his side of the aircraft he could see the starry sky, out of the other the ground. He bounced off his straps as he heard everything that wasn't strapped down crash against the side of the aircraft.

The altimeter dropped like a rock as he fought with the controls, trying to pull into the wind and regain control authority. The open cockpit window flapped violently in the turbulent air, James slapped it shut and locked it down as the aircraft started to level out.

"Terrain, pull up! Terrain, pull up!" the warning screamed.

"Shut up! Shut up!" James yelled as the engines started to surge. 'Air in the fuel lines!' He thought quickly as he pumped the throttle levers. The airspeed indicator started to climb even as the altimeter continued to click down.

The aircraft pulled hard to the left as the engines lost thrust on that side. Additional warnings flashed across the panel as the computers detected the flameout. James slammed his hand down onto the starters as the ground continued to rush up at him. "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday--"

~~

"Well, it was very nice to meet you, Miss Fluttershy." Eva said as she stepped away. The mare was adorable both in manner and appearance, no denying it. 'And she definitely lived up to her name. shy indeed.' she thought as she picked up a glass of red punch and sipped at it.

"This is actually kind of tame for a Pinkie party." Dash commented as she walked over to Eva. "Usually there's a lot more... stuff. You know, games, food, music. That kind of thing."

"That's fine, I'm not really a huge party kind of gal, ya know." Eva said as she took another drink, "Good punch though."

"I almost want to suggest spiking the punch, maybe liven Twilight up a little." Dash joked as she picked up a cup of her own, idly swishing the liquid around as she stared into the cup. The thin red liquid swirled and stuck to the edges of the wooden mug.

"It's better if you don't. Pinkie will get into it, and the concept of a drunk Pinkie Pie terrifies me beyond the capacity for rational thought."

"It was just an idea." Dash deflected.

"It's an idea that we'll both live to regret." Eva deadpanned as she gave Dash a severe look.

"I didn't even think we--" Dash started before a crackle of static from across the room interrupted her.

"You left the radio on?" Eva asked as she walked over to the shelf in the corner that her duffel was still leaning against, the portable two-way was sitting on the shelf, the red light was lit, indicating it was still powered on.

'-ayday, Mayday, November-Niner-Two-Three-Two-Quebec Heavy, Engine flameout, attempting restart."

Eva grabbed the radio off the shelf, she recognized that voice, would recognize it anywhere. "Copy, November-Nine-Two, there is no ATC, no Tower. If you're in range you should be able to see the lights of the town, clear landing area approximately five hundred yards--" She started to explain when she was interrupted.

"Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, November-Niner-Two-Three-Two-Quebec Heavy, Engine flameout, attempting restart. Position unknown, heading due north." the message repeated.

"--and you can't hear me, great." Eva muttered as she dropped the handset. "Dash could you--"

"Already on it." Dash said abruptly as she bolted through the door and into the night.

Eva turned around slowly, feeling the eyes staring at her back, she faced the crowd of ponies standing there, staring at her. Twilight stepped forward, a look of concern and confusion on her face. "What was that all about?" she asked.

"It ah... It looks like I'm not alone anymore."

~~

"Anything?" Tommy yelled as he pulled himself back into the co-pilot's seat. He started strapping himself in as the craft bucked and jumped through the turbulent air.

"Thought I heard.... something, can't raise anyone now though. No nav beacons, no GPS." James explained as he throttled the engines up slowly, trying desperately to keep the struggling craft in the air. The wind whistled around the plane as the asynchronous hum of the engines reverberated through the airframe.

James hit the landing lights and was surprised to find himself low over a forest, trees stretched to the horizon as the injured aircraft skimmed along, the turbines howled into the night.

"Any idea where we are?" James asked as he eased the craft higher into the sky, the airframe continued to shudder, the engines were running but not running well.

Tommy looked up at the sky and frowned in confusion, "I don't recognize any of the constellations... wherever we are, whenever we are, it's so far removed from where we left... I've got nothing."

"Well... I had a return on the radio for half a second, couldn't make it out, might be Eva, might be somebody else, but with GPS returning nothing and without autopilot beacons they might be our only chance. Look for a clearing, we need to land and shut down before we break something we can't replace" James said solemnly.

~~

"What are you doing?" Twilight asked while watching Eva dig through her duffel bag with her head.

Eva pulled her head back and brought with it a red plastic case, "I'm going to give him a signal he can't miss!" she yelled as she half-ran half-flew out the door and into the night.

Her wings flapped awkwardly as she fumbled the case into her front hooves, the mismatched flapping holding her aloft enough to let her focus on opening the box. "He can't miss this, might not have heard me on the radio... but he'll see this." she said to herself as the case finally split open.

The flare gun tumbled out onto the ground, followed by the pack of flares. "Rainbow Dash! I need you!" she yelled into the sky as she opened the breech of the flare launcher, she slid a flare in before she snapped the breach shut with a satisfying click.

"I couldn't see anything from up there-" Dash started as she dropped to the cobblestone road beside Eva, her mane frazzled from high speed flying.

"No time, take me up, high as you can. I'm going to signal him!" Eva interrupted as she flapped her wings in emphasis, her forehooves fumbling around with the flaregun as she held a spare flare in her mouth.

"You really need to learn to fly on your own." Dash deadpanned as she grabbed Eva around the chest and pumped her wings hard, taking the pair into the air; at first slowly, and then with steadily increasing speed, steadily increasing altitude.

Dash clenched her jaw as she flapped her wings, fighting gravity with the added burden of an entire other pegasus weighing her down, still winded from her mad dash through the sky in search of... whatever it was that had called Eva's radio. She spared a glance at the ground, hundreds of hoof lengths below. Even burdened, she was no slouch.

Eva clenched her teeth around the base of the spare flare as she raised both of her forehooves in a double hooved grip on the flare gun. "Closh yer eyesh!" Eva yelled around the flare as she pulled the trigger. The orange gun bucked as a bright orange flare shot higher into the sky, bathing the town in a pale orange glow, turning the gray and cyan pegasi a fading orange as the burning flame flew higher and higher.

She pressed the release catch and flipped the barrel open to eject the spent flare when, to her horror, the gun slipped out of her hooves and tumbled towards the ground. She stared after it for a moment, her eyes locked on the tumbling orange plastic as her hooves reached out for it...

She launched herself out of Dash's grip, shoved herself down off of the cyan mare's chest, and dove after the flare gun, her wings flapping powerfully as she closed on the falling flare-gun, closed on the ground. She reached her hooves out, the tips ever closer to the tumbling plastic, the wind whipped past her ears, her mane flattened against her neck. She pumped harder.

Contact, she latched onto the flare-gun and curled her body around it, she shoved the second flare into the vacant chamber with her teeth and clicked it shut. She chanced a look at the ground, less than a hundred feet, less than a second. 'I hope you see this...' She thought as she rolled onto her back and pulled the trigger. The bright orange flare joined its brother in the dark night sky.

She closed her eyes.

Impact.