Author's Note

NOT DEAD!

My computer was giving me issues for a little bit when i returned home, then when i started writing this chapter i keptd feeling it was too short and i'd kept you waiting for so long i just decided to rewrite it and then edit the re write

But yeah, My computer BSoD and i thought it threw a hard drive, But as it turns out when the computer store looked at it they found out that when it tried rebooting it was booting into my ready ram USB's not my hard drive Nice one PC

Righto i'm back, I Didn't die! TAKE THAT CONSPIRACY THEORISTS

And i'm back, and immah writin. And immah sorry for taking so long on this one!

Its good to be back... Enjoy!!

Chapter 34 - -- .- -.-- -.. .- -.-- / .-.-.-

Appleloosa.

One Excited explanation later...

Axel sat in his chair with the wide eyed expression of the century. To be honest, This reaction was not to the Information dump Serenity had just dropped on his head. But rather, how his wife looked when she told him the story of her morning. This excited side of her nature very rarely came out. And when it did Serenity was a force to be reckoned with. This was her 'Adventure seeking' side, However. Her excitement was also attributed to the princesses recommending her to solve a mystery only she can supposedly solve in a timely manner.

Serenity's capture of the griffon escapee/fugitive Lambard Silentwing had sent her spiraling into the spotlight as 'A hero of Equestria'. So many ponies came to Appleloosa just to meet her. When things started to get really freaky and ponies started to ignore the couples personal space and privacy, Axel and Serenity had sent a desperate letter to Canterlot. The princesses had sent the mane six to disperse them all. Serenity was 'sqee'ing like a schoolfilly having met her idols... And the mayor was in tears and sobbing into his desk over the sudden tourism cut off... 'Oh the taxes, the BITS!' he'd moan. you could hear him from the street for days. But who could blame him? The sudden influx of Ponies had made more in a week than the town usually earned in six or so months.

But this seemed too good to be true. Moving to a new location, in scenic Neighagra falls no less, free of charge? And isn't Neighagra falls a nature reserve? And once more, Axel may finally have the chance to produce the self propelled wagon his father had dreamed of... Thats if all this 'Human' told Serenity was true at least.

Axel finally opened his mouth. "Are we sure he wasn't just lying to you? Don't get me wrong, Business around here is starting to go stale, but its a nice quiet safe town, I know we've both come to love it here." Serenity thought about it. But she replied with.

"He drew both Just wind and I pictures of vehicles from his world, and gave us short descriptions of how they work and what they were used for. But. To answer your question, no we haven't seen a real one up close yet."

Axel sipped his coffee, nodding to everything Serenity continued to explain. "Well then how can we be sure that they're telling the truth and not just trying to foalnap you or something? Need i remind you of the 'Las Pegasus weekly' incident?" They both cringed at remembering how Serenity was jumped and essentially foalnaped Serenity in a back alley. Axel couldn't help but smirk upon finding his wife that she'd knocked two of them out before the third and forth made off with her. They didn't get very far though. When Serenity Bit down on one of the assailants wings. Those two poor pegasai spent a week in the town clinic recovering from their crash landing on a cactus.

Serenity laughed a guffaw. "Come now love. Don't you think your being just a mite ridiculous, If the Princesses themselves are recommending you and I go there to live, even just for a short while until the Humans get on their feet. Don't you think its worth it? A change of pace? Nice soft grass and nature all around? Its the perfect environment to raise foals when we manage to get a moment to ourselves." Serenity asked her husband with a raised eyebrow and an almost pleading voice.

Axel sighed. It was true that their jobs had practically been full bore since their marriage. But the wagon wright had been steadily getting on top of his work load, opting to replace the Apples aging wooden wagon wheels with steel ones, rather than having to carve out four new ones every month. The sand and harsh rocky Appleloosian ground wasn't kind to transportation. The Apples themselves kept on fantasizing how'd they would 'Connect to the rail line and replace their wagon wheels with train ones.', And that would almost certainly end most of Axels business. With a concerned flick of his tail. He asked his spouse. "Did he at least show you the summons letters?" He asked.

Serenity sighed as her heart fell into her stomach. "No." The afore mentioned 'summons letters' are letters signed by the princesses themselves and closed with an enchanted wax seal that can only be broken and opened by the destined recipient. "Char said that in a logistical blunder he took the letters himself from the post office to his office. Then as he put it. 'Put them in a place so safe. He forgot where he himself put them.' " The sheriff looked up at Axel from across the tiny coffee table. "But he was assured by his NCO/Assistant that they would tear apart the building until they find them."

Axel looked into his wife's deep emerald green puppy dog eyes and felt his will to say 'no' sapping away quickly. 'Damn shes too cute when shes like this...'
"Sorry love. No letters. No moving. I'm not trying to be mean. I'm just trying to protect us. Moving the family business is going to be an astronomical task, and unless they can prove to me that they can move it without busting anything up, and that we're going to be safe and have enough space to raise a family. I'm afraid i believe we're best staying pu-" Axel was cut off by a 'bass-y' rumble that only grew louder and louder each moment. They could tell the sound was coming from the sky from inside the house, and it was coming from the north, but that was about it.

Both ponies looked to each other before running outside.

As they almost tumbled over each other and down the steps into the searing Appleloosian sunlight, Axel looked up. As Serenity looked to the main street of town to see what was going on and found everypony looking in the same direction as her husband. Looking up Serenity saw a blight silver glint diving down from the sky at an alarming rate of speed. At about one hundred feet it leveled off. And as it darted closer, it grew in both size and noise. As it got close enough for its shadow to flash over the towns main street, it caused a small panic and some of the townsponies dashed in every which way screaming 'DRAGON!'. As it howled over head a small tube was dropped from it. A tiny and (To be honest) rather adorable looking parachute opened up and the tube floated gently towards the train station.

The marvel of Engineering howled over the shops roof and disappeared, apart from its ear piercing sound.

Looking for the strange shiny flying machine. Axel found it and poked his wife to get her attention. When serenity looked to Axel he pointed to the machine. She caught sight of it just in time to see it perform a triple barrel roll. Before rolling inverted. And soaring into the sky during eight rolls. As it was almost out of sight. Two streams of thick white smoke started trailing from its wingtips and it stalled, falling sideways back towards the town below.

Again only one hundred feet from the ground did it pull up. It roared over town center, Screaming past Axel and Serenity standing out the front of the repair shop and Serenity could of sworn she heard a 'Yeehaw' as the vehicle passed by. Then it did another barrel roll before turning sharply and heading back north at high speed. Within about twenty seconds it was out of sight once more.

Serenity turned to a stunned Axel with an 'I told you so grin'. Clearing her throat she caught her husbands attention once more. "SO. About moving to Neighagra falls?"

Location. Two hours from Appleloosa.

Present Time.

The eardrum murdering monotonous roar of the three aircraft's engines drowned out all other sounds in the air as they continued on their mission to Appleloosa.

The radar operators seat in the back of the black widow continued to seat its Pegasus occupant. Whom was enjoying the sights from way higher than he usually would be able to fly (within reason). He was by far a fit pony. But compared to most of his fellow E.U.P guards he was of the 'slightly more marbled' variety. And compared to the element of loyalty herself. Well. She made him look like he'd done nothing but sit on his rump all day eating junk food. Then again. She made ALOT of the E.U.P Guards look that way.

Shaking his thoughts clear he resumed looking out the window. And was again reminded that this vehicle was Not designed for creatures of his body type. For the umpteenth time during the flight, the guards sound canceling headset slid off his head, and he was forced to fish around the side of the seat for the piece of kit whilst his sensitive hearing was deafened by the growl of the engines.

Squeezing his foreleg through the narrow gap between the seat and the cold wall of the plane and feeling his hooftip glance off the band of the headset. The Pegasus tried again and again to flick it forward out of the narrow space and onto the floor of his compartment. After half a minute he growled and opted to try using his wing to retrieve the blasted thing. Sitting at an odd and completely uncomfortable position between the seat and wall, whilst resting atop the radar set. He managed to unfurl his wing and began reaching around the side of his seat.

After only a few moments he felt his primaries brush past the head band, Acting quickly he wrapped his wings 'fingers' =((-Authors note: I know that sounds weird but Pegasus ponies primary feathers are flexible and pegasai use them like fingers.-))= Around the headband and pulled them from the dark crevasse beside the seat. "Yes!" After taking the head gear into his mouth he folded his wing and sat back down, Placing the accessory over his ears and sighing in their immediate effect at blocking the deafening noise.

It was then that he noticed the quiet voice addressing him. whilst he listened into the quiet voice and was trying to figure out what it was trying to say. He heard a faint tapping above his head, Tilting his head back and looking up. He noticed a green bar tapping against the compartment wall behind his seat.

Reaching up he took possession of the green bar and brought it down to his eye level. Squinting to read the very fine dark text. He read aloud. "Granola Bar with fruits." His curious inspection of the green bar was abruptly ended by a loud yell cutting through his headset speakers.

"WHEN I SAY TURN THE HEADSET VOLUME UP, TURN IT UP CLUSTER CLUCK!" After recovering from his minor panic attack the pegasus was addressed once more at a far more 'inside voice' volume. "Righto, our head screwed on now? Sorry. But i hate repeating myself more than thrice. And i was trying to get your attention for like. Five minutes." The pegasus' aggressive reply was cut off by the voice of the gunner.

"Ease off his ass captain. He probably doesn't know how to turn the volume up and down on these things. That being said. Hope you like the granola bar. A lot of the NCO's are fighting each other like packs of hungry wolves for a chance to eat something as sweet and crunchy as that."

The pony's attention was drawn once more to the snack. As he gripped it to open it. Their aircraft was shaken violently by an explosion so loud even the noise canceling headsets failed him.

The radio through the headset speakers was filled with a mixture of pained and confused yelling.

Meanwhile.

B17 'Cattlecar'

The Co-pilot looked up from his smartphone as he continued to scroll through to the next page of his Ebook. With an audible groan he leaned forwards to the dashboard.

The captain looked over from his traditional view outside his windshield to see his number two aggressively tapping the glass lenses on the gauges for engine number one. "One's still misbehaving hmm?" He too leaned over to see the gauges whilst asking. "Over temp or under?"

The copilot slammed his clenched fist into the top of the dashboard. "Under again! Bloody things saying that engine one is only 2*C for engine temp. And its telling me that the water and oil cooling is at -1C and 5*C" The copilot undid his seat belt, Picked up a small portable oxygen bottle from beside his seat and stood up, unplugging his oxygen mask from the cockpits connection he plugged his mask into the small bottle he carried with him. He walked over around the back of the Pilots seat in order to see his set of engine gauges. And much to his disdain, they read the same. "That mechanic is getting Such a backhand when he get back there. He gave us a faulty aircraft!"

The pilot then looked to the gauges for engine two and cocked his head. Releasing one hand form the controls he tapped his engine gauges. And the response was alarming. "Tim." The pilot addressed his counterpart. "What do your gauges for engine two say? Please tell me the temperature isn't dropping rapidly..."

The copilot picked his oxygen bottle up once more and placed it in his jacket pocket before leaning down and checking the captains gauges, and in a confused mix between a hobble and a jog returned to his seat and buckled himself in. Disconnecting from his small O2 bottle and plugging back into the massive one behind his seat.

He looked at his gauges and muttered an obscenity before looking over the captains back and out the left side of the cockpit "Nup. engine twos doing it now. I don't think its the gauges cappi." The pilot and copilot both checked their throttles and found them at the same cruise position they left them in at the start of their flight. They both looked to each other in confusion.

Their confusion was shattered and quickly replaced with alarm when their plane started an orchestra of wailing and beeping warnings. A flashing red light in their dashboard grabbed their attention.

"SHIT! Cappi. Engine one and two are overheating." Looking out over the left wing the copilot saw two streams of black smog erupt from their respective engine nacelles. "We've got oil leaks-" The copilot was cut off by a rainbow prismatic flash that was so bright all colour faded to white in his vision. Followed by an indescribably violent explosion. He was left deafened and blinded as he felt the aircraft lurch suddenly left.

He felt sick.

His vision was a blinding white

His hearing was nothing but a migraine inducing ringing.

His only senses not deprived being that of motion.

And they were in a downward spiral.