The ground looked far different from the air, something that had always fascinated Altair when he was younger. The fields and farms were like patches of light and dark green that came with the early months of spring, crisscrossed by roads and occasionally disrupted by winding rivers or streams. Of course, Altair was used to riding in an airliner, he had no idea just how cold the air at such an altitude was. At least, not at first. The teen adjusted his jump smock as he looked out the window of the C-130 Hercules while his fellow soldiers conversed, his parachute was fastened tightly to his back, while his reserve was equally secured to his front. His equipment was in his leg bag or stored within the jump smock. Both the smock and his uniform were colored in the pattern of the Fallschirmjager if the second world war, even the helmets were similar, though made of kevlar rather than steel.

Altair had done this all four times before, this would be his fifth and final jump afterwhich he would become a certified Onorussian Fallschirmjager. The altitude had become progressively higher with each jump, and this jump would take place at no less than five thousand feet. There were nearly fifty men in the aircraft, not including the pilot and crew. Most of Altair’s fellow soldiers were off in their own groups, the teen was no exception. He wasn’t the only sixteen year old to enlist, there were two others. They had been dubbed ‘The Peach Fuzz Trio’ by the older members of the unit.

“Fish!” Altair shouted over the noise of the engines as he looked over to his friend Finn from high school, though the others had given him the nickname Fish… They weren’t the most creative bunch. “One more jump!”

“Rock the fuck on, Wizard!” Finn shouted back as he continued checking over his equipment. “Those last four jumps were intense, and the one at three thousand feet made the harness so tight I felt like my balls were in a vice! I’ll be glad to get back on the ground.”

“Don’t worry, Fish! We’re gonna take the express elevator down!” Chimed in another member of their little group, a thestral by the name of Sound Wire, though the others had taken to calling him ‘Static’. He had gotten the name when he had accidentally dropped the platoon’s radio in a puddle after a particularly hard march through the swamps of the Changeling Autonomous Region.

“What the fuck are you even doing here again, Static!? You got your badge two days ago! You don’t even need a chute!?” Altair asked in a heckling voice, Static looked over at him with a smug expression.

“Practice! Besides, I gotta be there in case one of you humans didn’t pack your chutes right!” The thestral replied. “Though you never know, I might just not get to you in time if you keep talking to me like that.”

“Cut the chatter!” Shouted the company commander, a major by the name of Anton Adler. He was the son of an Air Force General, tall and grisled from experience, Altair and the rest of the trio looked up to him for guidance. “Get ready!” The order silenced all conversation in the aircraft as Altair reached behind him and grabbed the hook connected to his main chute. The others did so almost simultaneously, each of them appearing for more at ease than they originally had on their first jump. “Stand up!” They all stood up, each standing next to a wire that ran along the length of the aircraft. “Hook up!”

Altair took a moment to look out the window at the beautiful sight one last time, though he knew he’d get a chance to look again, he also liked to savor every moment in the air. The rush of jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft made him feel alive, more so than he had for a long time, like that cloud of darkness that normally hung over him evaporated. He snapped back to reality and clipped his hook to the wire beside him, standing in front of him was Finn, while behind him was Static.

“Check equipment!” Adler ordered, Altair felt the thestral looking over his equipment while the boy looked over Finns. They quite literally were watching each other's backs. “Sound off if you’re ready!” Altair could hear the other soldiers behind him shouting, each time their voices grew closer and closer.

“Nine okay!” Static shouted.

“Eight okay!” Altair added as loudly as he could, Finn continued the countdown until finally every man in the aircraft had sounded off as ready.

“Line up at the door!” Adler ordered as the side door of the C-130 was pulled inwards, sucking out what little warm air there was and filling the aircraft with the sound of rushing wind. Altair watched as Adler stood next to the door, a red light glowing beside him while the first man made his way to the doorway. “Remember gentlemen! This is the last jump! Don’t chicken out now!” Altair quietly looked out the window one final time, that was when the red light turned green. “Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!” Each yell was accompanied by a man jumping out of the aircraft, each time Altair took a step closer to the door. His heart was racing, his blood was pumping, his eyes were wide with excitement. It felt like an eternity, but finally Altair was the next one at the door. “Go!”

Altair jumped out the door and crossed his arms over his chest as he let gravity take over, he could feel the strap cable on his main shoot pulling free as he got further and further from the plane. He felt the strap go taught seconds before it pulled his main chute open, or, it was supposed to… As it turned out, the main chute failed to open. Altair felt his heart beating faster in his chest as he reached for the reserve, he gripped the metal release pin and counted off in his head, each passing second was filled with adrenaline.

He yanked the pin, this time the reserve opened without a flaw, quickly slowing his descent. Altair gripped the control straps as he started floating down to the ground. He knew he’d be hanging in the air for a while, but that just meant that he’d get a chance to look at the scenery. After a minute or two Altair saw Static fly up to him, he looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack, at least until he saw that Altair was fully awake.

“Holy fucking shit! Your main didn’t open!” The thestral shouted as he hovered next to Altair, the teen shrugged and gestured to the reserve that was holding him aloft.

“I’m fine, that was fucking intense though! Let’s do it again!” Altair shouted back, flashing a cocky grin and giving Static the ‘Devil Horns’ gesture with his left hand. The thestral shook his head and let out a relieved sigh. “Think they’ll make me go again since I didn’t do it with my main?!” Static shrugged as he noticed Altair was getting closer to the ground. He gripped the control straps and steered himself away from a patch of trees in the field where he was landing, eventually he touched down, rolling as he hit the ground so he wouldn’t break his legs. As soon as he’d come to a stop he had stood up and was wrangling his parachute.

Static landed behind him, watching as Altair pulled his chute closer and balled it up before unstrapping his parachute harness. He looked around and spotted several other members of his unit were doing the same. Altair unstrapped his leg back and pulled his assault rifle from within before adding the bag to the pile of discarded equipment. Altair grabbed the bundle of cloth and canopy and dragged it out of view, hiding it near the patch of trees under some fallen branches. The teen reached up to his helmet and felt the microphone for the radio, he pulled it down so that it was in front of his mouth before he switched on his comms. Of course, no one had broken radio silence yet.

With his equipment stashed and his weapon in hand Altair and Static both made their way over to the rendezvous point, their camouflage helped hide their movements in the green grass of the field that they’d landed in. Now that they were on the ground the orders were to only speak Thestralese for tactical reasons, though it was prefered they didn’t talk at all during missions. The two of them reached the others, who had set up a perimeter. Altair saw Major Adler, the man gestured for him to move to the left perimeter while Static was ordered to the right. Both soldiers compiled and moved to their respective positions, they would only wait here for another two minutes for any stragglers to find them before they would have to move on. At least, if this was a real mission. In actuality, in two minutes the training exercise would come to an end and finally Altair would receive his jump badge

Sure enough, during those two minutes the last of the unit rushed into position. Adler seemed to be pleased with their time, as the man stood up and pulled a whistle from his pocket. He blew into it, which signaled the end of the training jump. Altair and the others stood up, adjusting their helmets as they let their weapons hang on their straps.

“Gentlemen!” Adler said. “You’ve just completed your fifth training jump. You are all now certified Fallschirmjager!” The Major announced as he looked at all the soldiers under his command, he had a look of pride in his eyes and a smile on his face. “As soon as we’re back at the base, all of you will be receiving your jump wings and jump gloves, as well as a forty eight hour pass to celebrate!” There was excited chattering amongst the soldiers as Altair rubbed the back of his neck, he didn’t notice at first, but the major was walking over to him. “Corporal Occisor.”

“Sir!” Altair replied as he turned to face the Major, snapping to attention.

“At ease.” Adler ordered, the Corporal relaxed his posture as he stood there. “I saw from the plane that your main parachute didn’t open, I wanted to ensure that you’re in good health.”

“I am, sir. I feel on top of the world.” Altair replied as he pushed his helmet back a bit so that he could see a little better. Adler hummed, the Corporal was only sixteen, but he was nearly as tall as half the men in the company, standing at just over six feet tall. Despite his size, Adler knew that Altair was still a kid in some ways.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll enjoy having two days off to play video games or go to raves or whatever it is you kids do these days.” Adler said, trying to sound hip, and failing.

“I’m actually going to spend some time working with my dog, sir.” Altair replied, Adler nodded at the explanation. Meanwhile, the sound of truck engines in the distance told the group that their rides would soon be arriving.

“Alright then, Corporal. Carry on.” Adler said, Altair nodded and watched as the Major walked off to talk to some more of the men. Altair slung his rifle over his shoulder as several troop trucks came into view along one of the roads that ran next to the field. He and the others gathered their discarded equipment before walking towards the trucks, each of them seemed to have a new spring in their step. Altair tossed his gear into the back of the first truck with the other bundles of equipment, then made his way towards one of the other trucks where he pulled himself up into the back.

[♠]

The smell of cigarettes and beer permeated the air of the local bar, known as ‘The Ravenwing’, it was a bar that many of the paratroopers training at Fort W.C. Lee frequented. Music played from the jukebox as the latest graduating class of Fallschirmjager celebrated their final training jump. Of course, they weren’t the only ones there, as many of the soldiers had gotten dates for their party. For the peach fuzz trio there wasn’t much they could do, they were too young to drink, too young to legally smoke, and in the case of Static and Finn too bashful to talk to girls. Each of the soldiers in the bar wore their Olive Drab dress uniforms with their newly acquired jump wings pinned to their breast.

The three of them sat at a table off in the corner, Finn was drinking a cola while Static was more focused on his fruit juice. He was part Fruit Thestral, after all. Altair meanwhile was having no trouble drinking a chocolate milkshake, it wasn’t nearly as good as the ones he had in Canterlot, but it reminded him of home. He wished that he could return home now, but two days was hardly enough time to see his family, besides… He had brought Wolfy with him, and she would be thrilled to spend two days with him after four months of rigorous training.

“So, it’s official!” Finn chimed up as he looked at the two other guys at his table. “We’re Fallschirmjager!” The teen patted his chest a couple times. “I can’t wait until the Moon Flower pins get here, then people will know even when we aren’t in uniform.”

“I’m thinking about getting a tattoo.” Altair said before taking another sip of his shake. “Our unit patch or something, but they haven’t issued them yet.” Finn chuckled at the thought of the Imperator’s son getting a tattoo, but then again, the idea wasn’t a bad one. “Or maybe we could all get one, a couple peaches on our arms. Y’know? An inside gag.”

“Why not both?” Static asked with a raised eyebrow, the others smirked slightly. They all knew that they wouldn’t get tattoos, but it was still an interesting prospect. “Did you hear about that school in Canterlot? Wants to let Caribou refugees go to class with regular students?”

“Bullshit.” Altair and Finn said in unison.

“It’s true! They had some big rally about it, sounded like some Pro-EOL shit was going on.” Static added, Altair leaned back in his seat with a slight scowl.

“God damn it, this is just how it started on Terra.” He said as he looked at the others. “They start letting refugees in, and you know those damn pussy school boards are gonna fold if the refugee’s parents start complaining.”

“I say ship them all back where they came from.” Finn grunted as he too got more comfortable in his seat. “Oh, I know, it sounds racist but I don’t give a shit. It needs to be said. We’re better off without them, fuck that ‘We’re all the same.’ bullshit.”

“You know people used to say that about Thestrals, right?” Static chimed in with a smarmy expression, Altair looked at him and crossed his arms.

“Did Thestrals kidnap people into slavery, mistreat women, and behead people they didn’t like?” Altair asked, Static paused, then shook his head. “You see? Apples and oranges. Thestral society was superior back then, just like Onorussian society is superior now.”

“Never understood why some people’s assholes got all clenched whenever you say that one society of people is superior to another… That’s just how nature works.” Finn added before he finished off his cola. “Boohoo, it hurt someone’s feelings. So what? I say keep the Caribou out of our schools.”

“I agree, I’m just trying to play devil's advocate.” Static said with a shrug, Altair sighed before he too finished off his drink. The three of them turned their attention out to the crowd of dancing soldiers and happy people. “We shouldn’t talk politics though, you know how the Major gets when he hears that stuff.”

“‘You kids barely have peach fuzz on your cheeks! How do you know anything about politics? Blah blah blah!’.” Finn said in his best impression of the Major, luckily the man in question was a good thirty or so feet away. “Say, don’t you need to call that girlfriend of yours?” The teen looked at Altair with a raised eyebrow. “I bet she wants to know how your test went.”

“I know, but how the hell am I gonna mention that my main chute failed on the last jump?” Altair asked while he adjusted his tie. “She’s already worried as it is, I don’t want her to think that worry is justified… Well, anymore than it already is.”

“Just call her and leave out the part about almost dying.” Static said simply, Altair sighed… He really didn’t have much choice at this point, the longer he put it off the more likely it was that Cassidy was going to start worrying. Altair stood from his seat and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Alright, I’ll be back.” He said simply as he began walking towards the door, he walked through the crowd, ignoring most of the other people before he eventually reached the exit. He pushed the door open and stepped outside into the cool humid air of a spring evening. It smelled like fresh rain, and the road was damp. The area around the base was pretty much a small town, so there weren’t many buildings other than the bar in the general area. Altair walked around the side of the building, into the parking lot. There were a couple trucks and cars parked there, but aside from that it was empty. Altair stopped under a streetlamp and pulled his phone from his back pocket, then punched in the security code. He put in Cassidy’s number, then put the phone to his ear. It rang two times before it picked up.

”Hello?” Cassidy’s voice came from the other end.

“Hey, Cass!” Altair replied cheerfully. “I just wanted to call and let you know I finally got my wings!”

”That’s great! I knew you could do it!” Cassidy replied, Altair leaned against the bar as he continued to hold the phone. ”I passed my finals as well, so we both have something to celebrate!”

“Really? Well, that makes this two times better!” Altair smiled as he spoke, the cool air and Cassidy’s voice helped to quell some of the more passionate emotions that had started to simmer inside the bar. “How was your show at the club?”

”It went alright, a little different than what I was expecting though. I guess headlining is different than just singing for fun.” Cassidy replied, Altair sighed softly and looked at the ground for a couple seconds.

“Sorry I couldn’t be there.” Altair said with a bit of a guilt ridden tone. “I would’ve brought flowers and all that stuff, you know?”

”I know, don’t worry about it Alley Cat.” Cassidy replied, the warmness in her voice transferred all those miles and made Altair feel at ease. ”Hey, do you want to talk to your parents? I bet they want to hear about this too!”

“No… I’ll tell them later.” Altair admitted quietly while he kicked his foot against the ground. “I… I, uh, I should get going…” He said, he heard a slight hum on the other end. “I’ll call you tomorrow, alright?”

“You better!” Cassidy replied in a joking tone. ”Don’t make me come out there and get you!” Altair smirked for a couple seconds.

“Love you…” Altair said.

“I love you too, Alley Cat. Now go have fun, I can hear music in the background.” Altair could practically hear Cassidy smiling through the phone line. His smile was even fainter this time, as he hung up the phone he felt that smile fade away. He slipped his phone into his pocket and looked up at the sky, then sighed through his nose. Now that he thought about it, he hated being away from Cassidy more than he cared to admit. There was that cloud of negativity again, reforming over his head. The teen shook his head and took a deep breath. He looked over to the parking lot when he heard the sound of a car pulling in. It didn’t pull into a spot, rather it stopped in the middle.

It looked like it was nearly twenty years old, an OMC Spidermonkey. It was a cheap car produced by the Onorussian Motor Company, small and easy on fuel. From the looks of this one though, it had seen much better days. The original paint, which was powder blue, was dotted with rust spots. The windshield was cracked and it sounded like a belt needed to be replaced in the engine. Altair watched as the driver rolled down the window with a window crank, because the Spidermonkey didn’t come with power windows. There was a pegasus mare sitting in the driver's seat.

“Excuse me!” She called out, Altair walked towards the window and stood there. “Can you help me? I’m a little lost.”

“Sure, where are you heading?” Altair asked, he noticed that the passengers in the back of the coup like car shied away from the window.

“To make history, hopefully!” The mare said cheerfully, Altair raised an eyebrow at her. “My group and I are trying to make a difference, you see? I’m driving these passengers to Canterlot for a very special reason!” The mare looked over her shoulder at the passengers, Altair peeked at the window again. He thought he spotted a horn, so he assumed there were unicorns in the car. “We need to get to the highway, but I need to take a route that’s really fast!”

“Got a map?” Altair asked as he leaned against the car window, the mare nodded and reached over into the passenger seat. She spoke to whoever was sitting there, then Altair spotted something that didn’t make sense. A cloven hoof. Ponies didn’t have cloven hooves, nor did Changelings, and a Minotaur had no hope of fitting into a Spidermonkey. Altair leaned a bit lower, sure enough his suspicions were confirmed. “What the fuck?” The pegasus turned and looked at him with a raised eyebrow, there were three Caribou in the car. One looked like the mother, as well as two kids in the back seat. “Get them out of here.” Altair said as he took a step back from the car.

“I don’t understand, you said you’d help!” The mare said with surprise.

“Holen Sie sich diese Kreaturen weg von mir!” Altair shouted as he pointed at the back seat, the pegasus apparently spoke Thestralese because her face went pale before she put the car in drive and sped off. “Verdammtes Ungeziefer!” Altair bellowed as the car peeled around a corner, he panted as he listened to tires screeching in the distance. Images of his mother being left behind ran through his head, stories and footage of the war soon joined it as he stood there, stewing in anger and hate.

Altair looked at the ground as he felt the emotions begin to fade, he reached for his phone and was about to call Cassidy… He needed someone to talk to, but he stopped halfway through dialing her number. The boy stared at her picture on his phone for what felt like an eternity before he turned it off and put it back in his pocket, instead standing there in the parking lot by himself. This had been the first time he’d encountered a Caribou outside of Canterlot, his anger and hatred had overcome his rational thoughts that not all caribou were bad. For whatever reason that had happened, Altair wasn’t sure how to process his actions. He made a mental note to himself to reflect more on it at a later date. For now, he turned back towards the door and began walking that way, intending to meet up with his friends once more.

Author's Note

How's it going lovely dovelies? Here's another chapter, hot off the metaphorical presses. I've been having a bit of a journey in self discovery lately, as such I've tried to incorporate that into Altair's story, as that's pretty much what it's like to be a teenager, isn't it? Anyway, that's all from me for now. I might try some new stuff next chapter, then again, I might not. I've got a trip coming up.

As for your clip of the day, this is what kind of inspired me to do part of this chapter, as well as the music choice. It's a cool animation, even if it isn't as lighthearted as my usual picks.