The Brothers Don't

Zephyr trotted in place nervously. "Well, turn the doohickey around! It can turn around, right? I mean, it's not like we're on train tracks!"

Spitfire guffawed. "We're on an extremely important rescue mission, Soldier. We're not just going to turn around because of some stowaway."

"Oohhhh boy." Zephyr shivered and looked around. "Okay, well, just let me out. I'll fly home!"

"You'll fly five hundred miles?" Spitfire asked, looking him up and down. "Doesn't look to me like you could fly for a straight five hundred feet."

"I've been known to surprise ponies," he said. He tried to sound jovial, joking around, but the pitch of his voice was too strained and his eyes wouldn't stop darting from wall to ceiling to wall of the craft's underbelly. "Seriously, just throw me out the emergency exit, I don't care, just get me off this thing!"

"Hey, calm down," Spitfire said, holding out a hoof in Zephyr's direction. "We don't like this situation any more than you do, but because of your negligence to stay with your unit, the consequences are clear. You'll have to stay in the craft with the pilots until the Princess and her friends are rescued by us."

Zephyr perked up. "Fluttershy?" he said.

"Oh right, that's it, you're Fluttershy's brother!" Flash Sentry said, nodding slowly. "I knew I recognized you. You came to the Royal Wedding, right?"

"I most certainly did, and I was the life of an otherwise stuffy party, but this is neither the time or the place for lighthearted reminiscing!" He stepped closer to Spitfire. "You're on a mission to rescue Fluttershy?"

"Yes, she's one of six primary targets," Spitfire said. She frowned. "I probably shouldn't be telling you any of this. Just one more reason to make sure you stay on the plane."

"Oh, no, no no no no no no!" Zephyr shook his hoof wildly inches from Spitfire's snout. "I won't tell a soul, I swear on the Sun, Moon, and Stars, and you are going to let me off this thing before it flies a mile farther." His lips were pursed, his eyes held wide.

"What?" Flash made a face. "You... I thought for sure you'd want to come with us and help rescue your sister."

"Please refrain from giving Mister Breeze any more bright ideas, Sentry," Spitfire snapped. "Zephyr, sit back down on that cot and get a hold of yourself. I'm going up to let Captain Armor know that you've joined us."

Zephyr's irises shrunk. "Oh please, no! Anything but that! There's gotta be a way to open up the ramp and just let me out before he finds out, right?"

"The pilots did say something about an emergency lever..."

"Sentry!" Spitfire shouted.

"Not so loud!" Zephyr hissed, pressing a hoof over Spitfire's mouth. He looked up. "Do you think he heard us?"

Spitfire smacked his hoof away. "Sit down now, Soldier! That's an order!"

Zephyr rolled his eyes. "Pff! I don't have to obey you! What, I don't get to go back to the Crystal Empire but you get to tell me when to sit down?"

Spitfire stared incredulously. "Yes! That's how authority works! What did they even teach you in Canterlot?"

"I don't know, I wasn't paying much attention," Zephyr said. "But I did hear something about a lever!" He dove between Spitfire and Flash and bolted for the tightly closed hatch.

"No!" Spitfire glared at Flash. "Go get Shining, now!"