Pilot's Story

Pilot's Story

Chapter 14: Convergence

"Flaps?" James asked as he angled the aircraft towards a gap in the tree cover. The propellers thrummed through the airframe as the injured cargo plane descended.

"No go on flaps." Tommy called back as he pushed the flap actuator lever back into the retracted position, "Gear hydraulics look good though. I think we blew more than a few relays with the accelerator, I can fix it when we get on the ground."

"When we land, 'get on the ground' sounds too vague for my liking right now- The hell is that?" James interrupted himself as he caught sight an intense orange light off to his left. He made a mental note of the bearing as a second flare lit up.

"Looks like somebody heard your mayday and is signalling us." Tommy commented as the plane dipped even lower, a whine pierced the cockpit as the landing gear lowered and locked into position. "Gear locked, tire pressure looks good."

"Alright, here goes nothing, hang on!" James yelled as he abruptly pulled the propeller controls into the reverse thrust range, the plane dropped like a stone as it crossed the tree line, lift and speed spilling from it as the landing gear slammed into the soft grassy earth.

~~

"Celes, it's not that simple... you know that. These people, they don't believe me when I tell them you're safe. I know better but..." The man said, his voice soft and understanding.

"I know... I still don't like it, being cooped up down here. There's a whole world up there that I want to explore! To live in!" The female replied, her voice frustrated as she stomped at the ground. "It's not that I don't like your company, I just... I wish there was more."

The man sighed and slumped his shoulders, "I have a meeting with the directors, I'll be home later, just ask Icarus if you need anything."

The female slumped her head down as the man left, she turned to a grille in the wall, "Icarus, can you get me a friend?"

Eva's eyes opened and she became acutely aware of the pain radiating throughout her body, from the tips of her wings all the way down to her hooves, and all points in between. She looked up at the soft white ceiling above her as her vision came into focus.

"Ugh... I feel like I got hit by a train." She complained with a groan. She started to turn her head and stopped when the pain shot through her neck.

"Ya look more like ya crashed through an apple cart, if I'm to be honest."

"Oh, hey there Applejack, I uh... guess I wasn't really thinking when I dove after the flare-gun... where's everyone else?" Eva asked as she managed to finally get her head turned to the side to look at the orange cowpony. 'Definitely the hospital' she thought as her eyes flicked around the room.

"We took shifts, it was mah turn. I ain't too worried about the apple cart, better'n hittin the ground right? Still, why'd you do such a fool thing?" Applejack asked as her eyebrow raised inquisitively under her hat.

"The voice on the radio, I recognized it, he was in trouble... must have come looking for me, somehow. I had to signal him, couldn't get him on the radio, but those flares, at night, with a clear sky? Could see them for a hundred miles." Eva explained, her voice low, her words slow and deliberate as her tongue worked in her dry mouth. "How long have I been out?"

"'Bout three days now, hit your head pretty hard when you uh... landed." Applejack explained as she rubbed the back of her head with her hoof, "Didn't look real good when we found ya, doc did a real good job patchin' ya up."

"I hope I look better than I feel then, because I feel like I should be dead." Eva deadpanned as she leaned back and rested head on the pillow. She let out a sigh as she slid her eyes closed again. 'Three days, she didn't say anyone else had shown up in town either... they either didn't get the signal or...'

Her thoughts ended abruptly when she heard the door open, her eyes slid open again and she turned her head to see who she assumed to be the doctor trot in, carrying a clipboard in front of him in the soft glow of unicorn magic.

"You're awake, huh." The doctor said as he rubbed his chin with a forehoof, "So how are you feeling?" He asked as he looked over his clipboard at the bandaged mare.

"Like death warmed up. What's the damage, doc?" Eva asked, her voice slipping into a slight drawl as she closed her eyes again. 'Slipping into old habits eh lohengrin?' she mentally chided herself.

"Where to start, you dislocated both wings, ruptured six discs in your spine, bruised a kidney, fractured more bones than I care to count." The doctor listed off as he looked through his clipboard, "That said, most of the injuries were not as severe as they sound, you'll be sore for a while, I'm certain, but you'll recover."

"Are my legs okay?" Eva asked as she sat up in the bed, wincing as she did so. 'Definitely hurt the wings and spine...

"More or less why--" the doctor started before being cut off.

"Because I can't wait around, it's been three days, and he's out there alone." Eva interrupted as she pushed the blanket off of herself and slid herself awkwardly off of the bed and onto her hooves, "He came here looking for me, I'm not going to leave him alone out there."

She sucked in a sharp breath as she caught her footing, her head was still a little hazy but she kept herself upright. Standing wasn't much more painful than laying down, she discovered.

The doctor took a few steps back to give Eva room, Applejack stepped closer, "Who?" she asked.

"My wingman."

~~

"Relays are burnt out, that's where flaps and navigation went, accelerator must have fried them when it surged." Tommy said as he plucked the charred plastic cube from the electrical box. "I can probably scavenge non-essential systems for spare parts, nothing looks like it'll keep you from firing the engines back up."

"Doesn't help much." James said defeatedly, "She's stuck hard, need a tractor or a team of mules or something to pull her out of this mud." James said as he walked back up the lowered ramp at the aft of the aircraft. "We need to unload the truck, see if we can make it to civilization and resupply."

Tommy shut the relay box and turned to face his brother, "And if we can't find the supplies we need?"

"We pray that Eva's aircraft is still intact and fly out in it." James explained, "Unpack the guns, we're leaving in twenty."

~~

"Rainbow Dash feels real bad ya know." Applejack commented as she followed the limping pegasus through the hospital lobby.

"Not her fault, she didn't know I was going to jump." Eva deflected as she stepped into the sunlight, her hurried pace slowed only by the pain in her joints. Her wings twitched with each stinging step 'I should totally have to deal with pain from parts I shouldn't even have...' she thought to herself in annoyance.

"Yeah but you know Dash." Applejack offered by way of explanation. "What are you movin so fast for anyway?" She asked as she trotted to keep up with Eva.

"I'm gonna try the radio on my plane, it's more powerful than the handheld units, I'm going to try to raise him on that." She explained as she approached the DC-3, still sitting in the field near the hospital, the polished aluminum skin shining in the sunlight.

Applejack followed her, not letting the pegasus out of her sight, not while she was the one keeping watch over her. She couldn't deny, however, that part of it was curiosity, both about this strange new mare, and about what exactly it was her apple cart died for.

"Twilight?" Eva asked in confusion.

Applejack looked up, standing halfway inside of the airplane's door was the lavender unicorn of mention. "Hey Twi, what are ya doin in there?"

The unicorn pulled her head out of the open door and turned to face the orange mare and gray pegasus, "Oh hey girls, there was a report of a strange pony poking around here last night... So I was going to investigate." Twilight explained as she levitated a small slip of paper in front of her, "This is all I found, but it's written in some other language."

бензин

Eva looked at the note in slight confusion. "That's Russian... and where did you find that?" She asked as she limped past the unicorn and up into the tail of the plane. She looked around, slowly scanning her eyes across the interior of the dimly illuminated cargo hold, looking for things out of the ordinary.

"It was stuck to the wall next to the door, you can read it? What does it say?" Twilight asked as she followed the older pony into the plane, "I mean, it looks similar to the writing in stalliongrad but the characters are not quite... right." she explained.

"It means gasoline, more or less. And I'll tell you how important that is in a minute" the pegasus said as she limped up towards the cockpit, her eyes still scanning back and forth as she walked, taking in any changes since the last time she'd been aboard. Nothing seemed out of place, nothing missing.

If anything, it seemed cleaner. Not that she typically kept her aircraft untidy, she just... didn't always get around to cleaning as often as she probably should.

She reached the cockpit despite the dull ache in her joints from standing on the slanted deck. She reached a hoof overhead and toggled the main power switch, the instrument panel lit up immediately, the gauges followed shortly thereafter, voltage, amperage, engine temperature, outside temperature, fuel level--

She did a double take, the fuel level indicator was at maximum for all four tanks. She continued over the remainder of the panel as she tossed the thought around in her mind. Oil level checked out full as well, she should have been down to at least half.

"Twilight... Did you refuel the plane? I know we'd talked about it but I didn't have the money yet..." Eva asked as she turned away from the panel and towards the orange and lavender mares standing in the cockpit doorway.

"Not yet, I still haven't completely figured out the molecular structure, this really isn't my field of expertise, so I've been reading up on it... why?" Twilight asked as she broke herself out of her explanation.

"Someone did, tanks are reading full, fuel, oil, batteries are at full charge... at least according to the instrumentation." Eva explained as she powered up the radio. A dull hum started to fill the otherwise silent cockpit as the vacuum tubes heated up.

"But who would know how?" Twilight asked in confusion. Her eyes turned towards the instrument panel, attempting to discern what it was that Eva had seen.

"Nopony should know how" Eva answered, and then hesitated, "I just said no'pony' didn't I? You guys are rubbing off on me."

"Could be" Applejack commented, "'Less you were always this reckless and you didn't pick that up from Rainbow Dash."

"Could be a little of both." Eva admitted before she keyed up the microphone, "Pegasus Five-Five-Zero to any station, is anybody receiving?"

~~

The old military cargo truck bounced and shook as it traversed the forest, the old diesel engine letting out a roar to rival the most angry beast as it pushed through the gaps between the trees. The headlights cut through the darkness below the forest canopy.

"Just make a road huh?" Tommy asked with a smirk as the heavy steel bumper plowed through a small tree and shook the truck. The engine revved up as the drive tire momentarily lifted off the ground, the truck jumped forward when it caught traction again.

"Unless you've got a better idea, this is all I've got alright? Besides, we can follow the carnage back to the plane." James answered as he shifted the truck down a gear, the truck slowed and the ride smoothed out slightly, "If you've going to be a baby though, I guess I can slow it down a bit."

"Oh don't slow down on my behalf, old guy, I've still got a few years before I need to worry about brittle bones and so on." the younger man needled.

"I'm fifty, not eighty, you want to try me? Ok-- the hell is that?" he cut himself off as he slowed the truck down, "Did you see that?" he asked as he pointed ahead and to the left of the truck. The bushes moved in the distance, something was moving behind them, heading in their direction.

James stopped the truck and killed the ignition, and then he heard it.

"Aiiiiiiieeeeeee!"

"I hear that, sounds like a lady screaming. Shall we?" Tommy asked.

James grabbed the rifle off the dashboard and leaned out of the truck and yelled, "Hey! Hey miss! over here!"

"Timberwolves!" The voice yelled back, closer now, much closer. It was distinctly female. The rustling in the brush was now at least two distinct objects, the nearer he assumed to be the woman screaming, the latter the wolves, he'd never heard of timberwolves, but wolves were wolves.

Or so was his reasoning. He opened the door completely and slid out of the truck, he dropped to the ground and brought the rifle to his shoulder, sighting in on the second disruption in the brush, "Hurry up, get inside!" he yelled as he disengaged the safety.

A flash of blue and purple burst from the brush to his left and launched itself up into the truck's cab, he heard the growling drawing dangerously close, he pulled the trigger, five rounds leaped from the barrel in rapid succession, he was idly aware of the spent casings impacting the still open door.

The rustling in the bushes paused as a loud whimper pierced the forest. James flipped fire control back to safe and scrambled up the steps and into the truck. He threw the rifle up on the dash as he latched the door with his other hand, and then turned to the middle.

Tiny. Blue. Horse. A pony. There was a little blue pony balanced awkwardly between Tommy's lap and the floor between the seats. It was wearing a pointed magicians hat, and a cape.

"T-thank you for... what are you?" The pony asked. It was the same voice as the woman. The gears in James's head started to turn as the details clicked into place.

"There's a talking pony in my truck. On any other day this might seem strange." James said before he turned his head forward and, deciding that there were some things he just wasn't ready to deal with, fired the engine back up and slid the truck into gear.

The pony, for her part, stayed silent as the truck bounced through the forest, heading steadily towards the direction of the signal flares. "So. You're a pony. We're Humans, and this is a truck." James started, glancing towards the- 'There's a horn sticking out of her head, so she's a unicorn pony. We didn't travel through time, we traveled into a children's storybook.'

"I'm Tommy," the younger started, "that's my older and socially inept brother James." He looked at the little unicorn, her voice sounded like an adult, though he had no real frame of reference for her species. She looked like if she stood on her hind legs, her head would be about face level with an average adult, and based on how heavy the half of her on his lap was, she was at least one hundred and eighty pounds. She didn't seem injured, just fatigued, likely from the running.

"I'm Trixie, and I'm really... tired." She said before slumping headfirst onto Tommy's lap. Her hat fell the rest of the way off her head and Tommy paled, there was an ugly red gash on the back of her head.

"Hey James, speed it up a little bit, she's got a head injury and I can't do anything about it, there might he a hospital wherever it is that we're going, this girl's clothes look machine stitched, if these ponies have that kind of technology they must have medicine as well..." Tommy rattled off as he pressed his fingers to the side of the collapsed mare's neck.

James up-shifted and steered the truck onto a dirt path, a game trail or a road, he couldn't tell, but it lead in the direction he wanted to go. "I feel like the astronaut in planet of the apes, only, you know, horses." He commented to himself as the speedometer climbed. "Is she breathing alright?"

"Looks like, her pulse is strong, I'm not sure what the pulse rate is supposed to be for her species but she doesn't look like she's going to die on us... still I don't want to leave a head injury untreated." Tommy answered. "She is adorable though isn't she?"

"She didn't know what we were, that doesn't bode well for the human race." the older said, "I can only hope Eva's alright, who knows what a group of these things could do if they decided they didn't like you."