Life with Spitfire

“Mayday”. What a strange word. When you hear it while being on the ground, you don’t give it a lot of your attention. You may hear it while playing videogames, or while watching the TV. And every time when you hear it, you don’t think that one day you may use it yourself.

Flight tests of our little sportsplane were going on. Day after day, more and more things in the machine were changing, however, the overall structure was solid as rock. The serial production of the machine looked perspective, and our design bureau began to build another two machines for an expanded test program.

It was a nice, cloudless day. I was passing above the city of Canterlot at a height of four thousand meters. However, I wasn’t lucky that day – at some point, the power began to fall, I felt a smell of smoke, and saw how the exhaust pipes began to throw fire out of them. In a few seconds, the hull of the engine of my plane began to burn – I saw how the fire began to beat out from the holes between the hull panels.

“Mayday, This is Fox Two, I have an emergency situation, the motor is on fire. Losing power, flying above the city of Canterlot, course five-four-two. Requesting emergency landing,” I said into the radio. I was surprised, that my voice was calm. In my mind, I was going mad.

“Roger that, Fox Two, we see you on the radar. Do you think that you can make it to the airfield?”

“Not sure about that, but I will try.”

“If you will not be sure, you are clear to eject. Fire teams are on the move at the airfield, too.”

As I received the transmission, my engine started to cough. I was losing power rapidly. Pretty soon, I began to lose altitude, too.

“That’s not good,” I groaned, as I saw how the altimeter began to spin counter-clockwise. As I looked around, I saw that I was going to hit the ground in the city. “Fuck, that’s even worse!”

So, while I still had the chance, I engaged the nitrous oxide system. That gave a dying engine a punch, and it worked for a few more seconds before it died completely. I was speeding towards the Canterlot’s roofs. So, I had to do something to avoid hitting the ground. I pushed the flight control stick to its limit, and downed the nose of my plane to gain more speed. The altimeter was spinning like mad.

“Three… Two and a half… Fuck, fuck, fuck!” – I shouted, while looking at the altimeter and the actual altitude gauge. I didn’t know, what my speed was, but when I felt the strong vibration, I understood that the machine had exceeded the safe limit of four hundred and sixty kilometers per hour. And, when the actual altitude above the city was just five hundred meters, I pulled the stick with all my might. I felt how the blood was flowing away from my head. I was losing consciousness, however, my grip on the flight control stick was hard. I gritted my teeth, trying to fight with the darkness that fell upon my eyes. I couldn’t see or feel anything, for that moment I was pulling the stick instinctively. And, at some point, my brain shut down.

After a few seconds of being unconscious, I felt how my senses were coming back to me. First, my vision returned, and I could finally see what was going on. As it turned out, my maneuvers had allowed the damaged machine to glide away from the city. Those were the good news. However, after that I noticed that it was very hard to breathe in the cockpit. As I looked around, I saw that the smoke was filling it, coming from under the front panel. I started to cough and decided to abandon the machine.

“Well, it was nice knowing ya’,” I said between the coughs and unbuckled the strapping belts. However, when I tried to lift my feet from the pedals, the pain had zapped through my body. I gritted my teeth in attempt to lift my legs, but the pain only grew stronger. And meanwhile, the plane was still losing altitude.

“Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I shouted in pain and frustration. I had to do something, but I couldn’t get out of the machine. My desire to survive became so enormous, that I decided to eject in any possible way. So, I gripped on the canopy emergency opening handle, and pulled it. With a loud “bang”, the canopy was thrown off the plane. However, during the opening, it’d hit the vertical stabilizer. The machine began to roll over. I understood that I had only a few seconds left to leave it, however the G-force wouldn’t let me out just with my hands. I tried hard to get out, but I could do nothing. At some point, I understood that I couldn’t get out from the machine. I remembered the old Soviet song, performed by Mark Bernes, which was called “The Enormous Sky”. It was telling the story about two pilots, who’d paid the price of their lives to save the peaceful citizens from their damaged machine. I remembered many strange things during these seconds. I wanted to live so desperately…

However, when I closed my eyes, I felt a strong grip on myself. I felt that something was dragging me out of my machine. I felt an enormous pain in my legs, as I was being dragged out from the cockpit. When I finally felt that I was free, I opened my eyes and saw, how my plane was going down. I instinctively tried to find the parachute opening ring, but I felt a strong grip on my hand. When I looked at it, I saw that someone was holding it. And, when I looked around, I saw that someone was holding me in the air, too. These “someone” appeared to be Soarin and Rainbow Dash, who were holding me by my parachute backpack. Meanwhile, Spitfire was holding my hand. When I finally realized that, I felt myself sick. And, when I heard a loud screeching sound below myself, and saw, how my plane crashed, I finally lost my consciousness.

I woke up in the hospital. Second after second, while waking up, my mind was filling with immense despair. The very first more-or-less powerful machine of our design bureau had crashed, and I couldn’t prevent it. While waking up, I kept my eyes shut, and gritted my teeth in frustration.

“Don’t grit so hard, or your teeth will fall off,” I heard a voice somewhere nearby. I opened my eyes and looked around. I found myself lying in bed. I was without my clothes, only in hospital robe and my underwear. On my right side was a window that leaded to the street. I remembered the sight – it was quite typical for Canterlot. I assumed that I was in Canterlot Central Hospital. On my left stood a table and a chair. Spitfire sat there, looking at me curiously.

“Hi there, Spits. Looks like I’ve found myself in some deep shit, haven’t I?” I asked tiredly.

“Well, the blood vessels in your feet didn’t survive the excessive pressure the G-force gave you. I’ve noticed how you tried to get out of the plane using just your bare hands before I’d pulled you out, so I asked the doctor about it for you,” she said and got up from the chair. After her words, everything in me started to boil.

“Does that mean… That I will never walk again?”

“What? No, of course not! What gave you that thought?”

I lifted my trousers to give my legs a good look. They looked awful – my feet were blue, perhaps of the blood that came from the destroyed blood vessels.

“That doesn’t look good…” I said, being hypnotized by the look of my legs.

“It sure doesn’t. However, I’ve asked a few unicorn doctors about your situation, and they said that they will replace your old blood vessels with artificial ones. Nanotechnologies of Earth have a wide range of applications here in Equestria right now,” Spitfire said with a smile. “I don’t know how it works. It just does. You’ll have an operation tomorrow.”

“Huh, cool… At least, I will be able to walk and fly again,” I said with a relief. “And does that mean, that I can do top pilotage?”

“Of course. Your new legs will be better in almost all aspects.”

“Wonderful, wonderful…” I smiled and gave Spitfire a look. “Hey… Thanks for saving me out there. I wouldn’t even need a grave if I’d crashed.”

“No problems, pal. We with our squad were flying around the area, so it was our duty to save you. And thank you for not ejecting above the city, by the way – the plane could’ve caused a lot of trouble, if it would crash out there.”

“Geez, thanks… Though, I did everything solely on my instincts,” I blushed and brushed my hair.

“Well, you did everything right, so I don’t care, were it your instincts or not,” Spitfire’s voice softened, and she came to my bed. She sat near me, and hugged me tightly. “I was worried about you, Nick. I never thought that someone so close to me will be only a few seconds away from his own death.”

“At least now everything is okay. Everything’s over. However, I miss my plane. It was sleek and shiny…” I said with a sigh, and after that, returned the hug. I felt my eyes watering, and how a few teardrops ran down my cheeks. “Nobody had saved me like that before, Spitfire. You… You did the thing that even I couldn’t do. I…”

“Shut up, Nick. For a single second.”

I stopped talking. I felt the warmth of Spitfire’s fur on my face and her warm breathing on my neck. She smelled like petroleum. I liked the smell of petroleum…

“I don’t care what you can do and what you can’t. You are my friend for a good reason, you know that? You are so close to me that I don’t even know what to think. I can say words like these only about a little amount of ponies around here. For another time – you may not have magical abilities, ability to fly or enhanced strength. You are awesome in general. I don’t need anything more from you. Just… Be yourself. Do you understand that?” Spitfire said quietly into my ear, and I nodded.

“You are… You are just so good, that sometimes I even think that I don’t deserve a friend like you. I am a small man with my own little deeds, good and bad. I just can’t do anything about these thoughts. I just can’t!”

“You don’t need to. All of us have our own sins. All of us are so imperfect… And nonetheless, everyone deserves a friend. Do you want to know, what fancies me in you?”

I nodded. After that, Spitfire released her hug and backed off slightly, so she would face me.

“Yes, you are a small person. You have your own little dreams and goals. But you make these dreams come true. For example, your desire to fly,” Spitfire wiped teardrops from my cheeks with her palm, “Of course, you have no magic in your world. You even don’t have wings like we do. And nonetheless, you’ve learned how to build airplanes – the machines that allow you to fly. You build these machines, after all. And when everything went wrong, your first move was to save the machine and the ponies on the ground. You didn’t think about yourself until you just knew that you can’t do anything about the situation. That’s the second thing – you were thinking about how you could turn the situation so no one would get hurt. I saw that, when we were fighting with thugs, and I saw that again. And what about your capabilities…” Spitfire grinned, “Well, when your legs will be fixed, we can train at the Wonderbolt’s base. We can move your flight test programs there, and I can train you – both physically and your pilotage. What do you say?”

I was shocked. I never thought that I could get myself an invitation to test my tech and fly with Spitfire on a regular basis. So, the answer was obvious.

“Yes… My answer is yes, Spitfire. Thank you so much, it’s a great honor to me.”

“No problems, mate. See you soon. With your new legs!” Spitfire smiled and got up from my bed. After that, she waved me her hand and walked out from the room. I was smiling silly.

“Looks like someone’s got a crush on our cap?” I heard a voice from the side of the window. I saw a rainbow hair peeking out of it.

“Maybe, Rainbow. Hi, by the way!” I said, still smiling. After that, the window opened and Rainbow Dash climbed inside. Soarin followed after her.

“Hello there, mate,” he said, and shook my hand. “Feeling okay?”

“Well, a slight pain in my knees won’t kill me. I’m in one piece, the day had been saved by you three – everything’s awesome!” I replied happily.

“That’s the spirit! Now, tell us, what happened out there?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously. And for the rest of the day, we were talking about the details of the accident, and I felt myself relaxed. In a next few days, I got myself new blood vessels…