Chapter 23 - KinderGarten Colt

Aggh, that was fucking dumb. Why am I such an idiot sometimes? I probably should've just walked. I opened my eyes to find myself in a small but cozy shack, with someone just in the corner of my eye. The pony realized I was awake, and imediately rushed to my side. Wouldn't ya know it, it was Crystal. Thank fucking god I'm okay. I tried to get up, and to my surprise my wings actually felt rather good.

"Hornet, thank goodness. I was beginning to think that it didn't work." she said.

"What didn't work?" I aked.

Her face went from happy to guilty faster than you could say surprise. "i'm really sorry. I didn't want to do it but, I-I, I killed you."

"Okay then, for a minute there I though it was- wait, what?"

"I had no choice! I could see why you were here, and the only way to have treated what you had was with necromancy."

"That still doesn't explain why you 'killed' me." I said disgruntledly.

"Look, I would have something else if I had a choice, but there wasn't. I, had to turn you into an abomination."

"WHAT?!"

"It wasn't anything serious, you're still technically yourself. On the outside, it will look like nothing has happened, you won't even notice the difference."

I still wasn't convinced."What DID you change then?"

"Well, for starters I replaced your wings with griffon wings. They're much more sturdier (and a lot less broken) than your old ones. Your teeth got smashed when you crashed, so I replaced them with sharper dragon's teeth. To be honest they make you look a whole lot sexier *giggle*. "

"Anything else?"

"Oh yes, your cutie mark. I didn't change it myself, but I can assure you that you'll like it."

I looked down to my cutie mark to see that it had changed from the Equestrian Guard shield into something different entirely. It was the USAF emblem with two knives crossed behind it. I calmed down, smiled and looked back to Crystal. "Thank you for what you did. Even though you did kill me, I won't hold it against you."

"Thank you Hornet. So, what are you going to do now?" She asked.

"I think I'll head back to Cloudsdale. Spitfire will probably be wondering where I am."

"Okay, you do that. Maybe next time you drop by we can just talk, and hopefully you won't be near dead again."

I chuckled. "I'll try. Good to see you again Crystal." I said before flying off. Hmm, new wings huh? They feel alright, I think I'll take 'em for a test flight. I decided to try and fly as fast as I could back to Cloudsdale, while doing some acrobatic tricks at the same time. To be honest, it went rather well, considering I ALMOST crashed into the ground. After finsihing my joy flight, I arrived at the Wonderbolts HQ. I went in to find Spitfire pacing up and down, most likely waiting for me. She heard the door open and looked up at me.

"Hornet!" she said as she went up and hugged me, nearly choking me to death. "I was worried when you didn't come back last night, what happened?"

"Well long story short, I crashed. Crystal found me and took me in. Sorry I din't tell you why I was going there."

"It's okay. The doctor told me about your wing condition, and when I found out I was shocked. You really got lucky there, if Crystal hadn't found you, you probably would have died."

"Well I didn't, thankfully. Now is there anything you need me to do, or can I get some well deserved rest?" I asked.

She paused to think for a moment. " I have a job for you. It should be rather relaxing, but I hope you have good children handling skills."

My eyes widened. "Wait, you don't mean..."

She nodded. "Yes, foalsitting."

"Really, I mean really? you want me to look after Solemn, after everything I just went through? Shouldn't that be Shadow's job?"

"Well, yes. But he's gone out with Soarin and Ni on a bachelor party."

"Huh, never wouldv'e picked it. So how long do you want me to look after the kid?"

"Just until I get things ready for her training. Shouldn't take more than an hour or two. I don't have to get her right now, but you will have to look after her eventually."

"No, it's fine. you can get ther now. Just don't expect me to do anything I don't want to."

I waited for a few minutes until Spitfire came back with Solemn.

"Okay, here she is. Solemn, I want you to go with Hornet. He'll look after you while I get things ready for your training."

"Alright, I'll go. But if he does anything boring, I'm leaving." The little filly said. Spitfire smiled and then left.

"So," I said to Solemn " how do you feel about going to Ponyville?"

"I guess we could. But I wanna got to sugarcube Corner first!"

I laughed. "Alright, deal. Grab what you need, and we'll get going." After flying to Ponyville, we arrived at Sugarcube Corner. "Ah, here we are! Sugarcube Corner, the best candy in all Equestria!"

As we went in, something in my mind clicked. Sugarcube corner, isn't that where...oh crap. I opened the door and Pinkie Pie came out of nowhere, scaring me half to death and causing me to fall back.

"Oh,hiya! Howyoudoing? Hey,Iknowyou! IsawyouatTwilight'slibrarynottoolongago! Who'sthefillywithyou?Doesshelikecandy? OhboyohboyIhopeshelikescandy!"

U'mm, hi. My friend Solemn and I thought we'd rop by and maybe get some sugar in our systems."

"Oh,I know you, You're Rainbow's daughter aren't you?" she said, finally slowing down her speech. "come on in! There's plenty of things to choose from! What would you like?"

15 minutes (and a lot of pinkie pie talking non-stop) later...

"Bye, Cya! Hope you come back again!" Pinkie shouted at us as we left. with a bag of assorted goodies each.

"Okay, kiddo. What do you want to do next?" I asked.

"Hmm, rainbow let me read one of the Daring Do novels, and I really like them. Do you think we could go to the library and get a few of them?"

"Sure, I don't see why not. Let's go."

As we walked over to the Ponyville library, Solemn turned to me. "So, are you like my dad? Are you from another world too?"

I paused. "Yes I am, Why do you ask?"

"I always wondered if there was another world, how did you get here?"

"Funny thing that, I got here the same way I left my old world. Put simply, I crashed."

"What did you used to do?"

"Me? I used to fly, not with these wings though. Back where I came from we didn't have wings, at least not organic ones. We built ours from metal, and put them on large engines so they could lift us."

"So you couldn't naturally fly? That would suck."

"Hah, don't you know it. I was happier when I was flying than any other time in my life."

"Did you ever know my dad before you came here?"

"Full of questions, aren't you? No, I didn't know your dad before this. Tell you what, since you're so filled with questions about me and Shadow, maybe we can sit down and have a chat about it some time. Deal?"

"Deal. You know, you remind me of my dad a lot."

"Is that so?" I asked.

"Yeah. If I could, I'd probably make you my uncle."

I chukled. "Tempting, but I think one Shadow is enough for you and Rainbow. Alright then, enough stalling, let's go get your books."

We walked over to the Ponyville library to find Spike watering some plants outside and Twilight on the balcony upstairs. Spike turned to see us. "Oh, hey there. If you're looking for Shadow, he just left with Barry and some others. Said they were having a bachelor party or something, but I didn't hear much about it."

"Actually, I'm here to pick out some books for Solemn here. Rainbow got her to read one of the Daring Do novels, I'm assuming you know which ones we're looking for."

"Yeah sure, of course. one sec, Twilight! where are the Daring Do books?" he shouted.

Twilight came down the stairs, levitating some books. "They're right here. Hello, didn't expect to see you back so soon. Did you find your friend?"

"yes I did, we had a nice chat together. Now if you don't mind, my little friend Solemn here would like to check out some books."

"Ah yes, I see now. One second....Done, here they are. Bring them back when you're done please, a little while ago Rainbow checked out some books and 'forgot' to return them."

"don't worry, I will." Solemn said.

As we left the library, we sat down and Solemn opened up one of the books. "Do you mind if I read one of them here? You can read along if you want."

I smiled. "Sure, why not. We still have some time until we have to go back anyway." She opened the book and began to read aloud.

One very good book later

"...The end."

"Well, that certainly passed the time well. Better get you back to Cloudsdale, let's roll."

We flew back to Cloudsdale and arrived at the HQ. We went down into the sanctum and found Spitfire touching up on some hoof to hoof combat with Blaze.

"We're back, and we come bearing candy!" I shouted. They looked up at us, and Spitfire used this to her advantage and made a surprise attack on Blaze.

"No fair, I wan't looking!" She complained.

I laughed. "Don't expect the enemy to fight fair Blaze, remember that."

She smiled. "I will."

Spitfire came over to me. "Well, since I've got everything ready for training, I guess I'll take her off your hooves. I'll see you later, I'll also take you to meet the rest of your squad tommorrow."

"Right, see you all later." I turned around and trotted off, munching on a block of chocolate as I went. As I walked through the streets, I came across none other than Shadow's dad. "Hey, what are you doing here?"

He turned to me. "Oh, hello Danie-ahem- Hornet. I was on my way here to see my son, do you know where he is?"

"Sorry, he left this morining. Apparently he's having a bachelor party with some of his friends."

"Oh, ok. I was actually going to ask him about that, but I'm guessing it doesn't really matter now. So how are you doing Hornet?"

"Oh I'm fine. Want to have a chat?" I asked.

"I don't really see why not. What did you want to talk about?"

"Well actually I was hoping we could have a chat about you and your career, I was a big fan of your's back when I was a kid. Had a poster of you in my bedroom and everything."

"Look, I know you're interested in this, and I can understand why, but I'd rather not talk about it. I'm sure you understand."

"Of course. Forget I said anything about it, although I did have one question I was hoping you would answer: Why did you quit?"

He sighed. "Family. You see, When Landon was just born, I was at the top of my career as a NASCAR driver. His mother wanted us to be able to raise a family without the hassles of being a celebrity, and loving her as much as I did I agreed to it. I quit shortly after that, but unfortunately the family did not go too well after that."

"What happened?"

He looked down at the groud with a saddened face. "Not long after I quit, when Landon was only two years old, his mother died. Unfortunately, without her loving care and guidance towards parenting, the family quickly tore itself apart. Landon later took up NASCAR to try and show me up, the rest I'm assuming you know."

"Jeez, that sounds horrible. Sorry I asked about it." I said.

"It's alright. You helped me try and make my son love me again, and for that matter I feel comfortable talking about this to you. I'd actually like to talk about you for a bit, if you dont mind."

"No, I don't mind one bit. What did you want to know?"

"Well for starters, your family. What was your family like growing up?"

I smiled. "Hah, let's just say it was 'challenging" to say the least. I grew up in Vegas with two older brothers, Jake and Rielly, my mother and father along with one of my cousins. My brothers were pretty cool, they were good athletes, decent education, etc. They joined the army together and made it into the Marines. That's right, the USMC. They were pretty protective of me, and treated me like any good brother should. My cousin was never really around when I was home, always working so I never really got to know him better. My mother was the most caring person you would have met, my dad on the other hand was another story entirely. He grew up in a rough neighbourhood, and because of that he was kinda harsh on us. My brothers and mom always stood up for each other, especially me when we got into trouble with him. I think it was because I was the most 'fragile' in the family, but then again my dad had been through quite a bit in his life. Anyway my brothers made it into the marines and they suggested that I join the army as well. Not being as tough as them I declined, but they were damn persistent. They took me through the induction courses and I did decently well, but not well enough to cut the mustard. Not wanting to let them down I went and tried to join the air force, with much more success. I died in-flight while testing out a new jet prototype."

"Your family really loved you didn't they?"

"Yeah they did. If I could I would bring them here, especially my brothers."

"By the way, what happened to your family?" He asked.

"Well, my cousin moved out when I was about 9, apparently he got a job working somewhere in the Pacific. One of my brothers got injured during combat when I was 11, and they both got pulled out to stay with the rest of the family. My mother...she died when I was 14, her and dad got into an arguement one night and he hit her; a little too hard. I moved out when I was 16, and settled down close to an airforce base. That's really all I can remember about it."

"What about now? In this world? Are you close with anyone? Family, friends things like that?" He asked.

"Well I wouldn't call them 'family' per se, but the Wonderbolts seem to be pretty close to it. I found one of my old friends from earth yesterday, so that's a plus. As far as being 'close' to someone, I actually have two."

"Really? That sounds risky."

"It was, but it got sorted out not too long ago. Here's the catch. One's a Wonderbolt, Spitfire, and the other is a necromancer by the name of Crystal Tears."

"A necromancer? I didn't think those existed, even here."

"Well you better start believing." We sat at the HQ stairs and continued to chat until dark. Shadow's dad had quite a few things to say about him and his past, not all of it was pretty. "Well, I better go. Good to see you again, see you around."

"Like wise. Goodbye."

I trotted into the HQ to find Blaze asleep with Solemn on a couch, with books lying next to them. Cute. I walked upstairs to my room to find Spitfire laying in it, waiting for me with a rather seductive look.

"What took you so long?" She asked.

I laughed and climbed in with her. She pulled me over and hugged me tight. "You really like being in charge, don't you?"

"Yes I do, and I'm guessing you would know about that from your time in the academy."

The academy, how could I forget?

Just to be clear, this is the USAF emblem I've been referring to. PS: Biggest chapter so far! God I really need to step up my game in terms of chapter length.