“Shit!”

An alarm blared loudly throughout the cockpit, flashing red lights filling every nook and cranny in the ship. The ship was quite small, about the size of a master bedroom, give or take, meant to hold only one passenger. Its right wing was set ablaze, black smoke coming out of the gashing hole, making the ship extremely hard to control.

“Come on, come on, come on!” the voice of the pilot shouted frantically, panicking as they tried to regain control of the ship. Their voice was female, holding a raspy tone. The pilot in question being a young cyan mare with a rainbow mane, all hidden under her pearly white suit, scuffed with dirt and scratches. A helmet wrapped around her face, only showing her face where she was sweating profusely.

“Dear, fucking Celestia!” she shouted. “Who in Tartarus took out my right engine?!”

As if her troubles weren’t already enough, she saw a red laser suddenly lock onto her other wing, aimed straight at her only working engine. Her eyes widened as she realized what was going to happen. A beam with the width of about one foot struck her other wing down, putting it in a similar state of the other wing.

“Fuck! Oh, fuck!”

The smell of leaking gas filled the cabins, signaling that her fuel tank had been hit. Shortly after, a loud groaning sound came from her left wing. Looking over, her eyes widened as she saw the metal plating slowly melt and peel off before the entire wing separated from her ship. The missing wing caused her ship to start spiraling counter clockwise, completely out of control.

“Oh no, no no no no!” she screamed as the ship descended at an increasingly fast pace. “Pull! Pull!” she shouted, pulling back as hard as she could on the steering wheel. It squeaked from the pressure before snapping completely, rendering it unusable.

She stared at the steering wheel that she held within her hooves as tears came to her eyes. It was hopeless. She was going to die.

Tossing the wheel aside, she reached into her front chest pocket to reveal a gold locket. Opening it up, it showed a picture of a purple mare unicorn, smiling kindly back at the hopeless pilot.

She shut her eyes, sobbing as she held the locket tightly to her chest. And as the plane came crashing down, only one thought filled her mind.

“I’m sorry…”

The sound of blaring alarms filled the room. Inside, a nearly unrecognizable ship interior was present. The door to the cockpit was completely blown off, hitting the back side of the ship. A wing was skewered directly through the middle, going through both sides as some sort of liquid leaked.

In the midst of all the chaos, a small figure twitched on the cabin floor. The figure looked to be a mare wearing a suit and a helmet, though the metal face covering had been torn basically completely off of the suit, only hanging on by a thread of suit fabric. Bits of the suit had also been torn off, scattered on the floor, some pieces not even showing as they had disintegrated during what seemed to be a horrific crash.

The mare’s coat was scorched black, barely showing the blue coat of fur underneath, much like her rainbow colored mane that rested on the floor, half of it completely torn off. Her body began to stir, causing a loud groan to escape her throat as she came to.

Slowly opening her eyes, she winced. Her body felt like it was on fire and she was pretty sure a few of her ribs were broken, too. As she breathed in through her nose, only the smell of ashes greeted her, causing her to cough and wheeze.

Slowly, she sat herself up and rubbed her head. After she stopped rubbing her head, she saw her hoof, stained red, revealing that she was bleeding. “G-great…”

She stood up, examining her surroundings before her heart dropped. Where am I?! Why am I here?! Thoughts barraged her head as she felt an overwhelming sense of dread. Quickly, she scanned her brain for any memory on how she got here. Her worrying continued to intensify when she realized something.

“Who… am I?” she spoke to herself.

A wave of feelings crashed down upon her, making her feel hopelessness and dread. She started hyperventilating, crawling into a ball and crying to herself. I don’t even know who I am! I don’t know how I got here, what I’m doing here, I’m probably going to die here, too!

She shook her head. No. I have to stay focused. I need to get out of here. It’s not hopeless yet. With a newfound sense of confidence, she brought herself to her hooves and looked for an exit. Okay, what is this? She asked herself. And as if it was second nature, her mind responded. It’s a GT-13. Galactic Traversal Version 13. She paused for a second. Wait, why do I know that?

She had a strange feeling that someone had told her that information before. Shrugging it off, she looked for an exit. Expecting it to be difficult to find an exit, she was surprised to find it almost instantly. Near the back side of the ship, there was a large gaping hole that revealed the outside. She would need to crawl through.

After walking over, she attempted to fit her legs inside and then her body. However, her bulky suit blocked her path, causing her to groan in frustration. Quickly, she stripped herself of the suit and tossed it aside before trying again.

This time, she barely made it through, wheezing in pain as the tight space applied pressure on her chest, crushing her already crushed ribs. Crying out in pain, she barely managed to fit herself through before flopping down to the floor below. Her face landed directly into a wet puddle on the floor, which showed to be made of sand. The taste of the liquid quickly told her it was gasoline. Ew…

As she got up, she looked down at the puddle and saw herself, causing her to pause. The gravity of the situation hit her again. She didn't recognize herself at all. This was the first time she had ever seen herself. Taking in the opportunity, as there probably wouldn’t be any other time to do so, she examined herself, spinning around to look at every detail on her body. She saw that she had blue fur along with a rainbow mane. She also saw that she was wearing an orange uniform of some sort. It had a name tag that read 'Rainbow D. Dash'. Her name was Rainbow Dash? She kinda liked it. It fit her looks.

Her suit also had plenty of front pockets and a couple of back pockets, which is when she saw something weird on her flank. Some sort of cloud with a multicolored lightning bolt shooting out of it? A cutie mark. Her brain told her. Yours.

She smiled a little as she finally had something that she knew about herself. Her smile was cut short when she saw something laying besides the puddle, shining in the sunlight. Picking it up, it was revealed to be a gold locket of some sort. It had the words ‘Good Luck!’ engraved in the gold covering. Was she on some sort of mission? It felt like it. She was the only one around and it looked like the ship only fit one person.

When she flipped open the locket, her heart stopped. Inside of it was a pony. A purple unicorn with magenta and violet striped hair, holding a kind, caring smile, looking at her. Huh. She had never seen this pony in her life, but there was something about her… She felt her heart flutter, and all of a sudden she had an intense feeling of grief. Like she had let that pony down for some reason.

As she stared at the locket, a teardrop landed on it. She was crying. Why am I crying? I don’t even know this pony… Suddenly she felt like punching herself for being stupid. No… I know this pony. Maybe a good friend? She still felt angry at herself. Maybe… a lover? Her mind felt more at peace with this answer. My wife..? Yeah, that feels right. She carefully put the locket in one of her pockets so that it would stay safe.

After she was done looking at herself, she left the wreckage and finally saw the condition of the ship. It was completely torn up, bent in angles that made it nearly unrecognizable as a flying vehicle. Pieces of metal were torn off, scattered across the desert floor behind it in a large crevice that was made from the crash landing that separated the sand apart from each other. The heat had caused it to get so hot that the sand nearby the center of the crash site had turned to glass, spiking outwards.

“Jeez, how did that happen?” she spoke to herself.

So now she stood there. Outside a ship wreckage. The only surviving and noticeable form of life for what seemed like miles in each direction. She gathered her thoughts to brainstorm what to do next. Okay, her name was Rainbow Dash. Her middle name started with a ‘D’- whatever that stood for. She had a beautiful wife who was a purple unicorn. Now what?

Panic entered her mind. She still had no idea what to do. There was no life in any direction, only endless desert. The sun was still blazing down on her back, causing her to sweat profusely in her clothes. Get yourself together, Rainbow! So what? You’re stranded out in the middle of nowhere? No sweat. Well- actually I’m sweating a lot- but that doesn’t matter! So you’re out here in some desert you don’t know where. Still! You flew here. You were probably selected to go on some mission or something out here. You should know what to do! Think!

She dug through her mind looking for any clues that she could use. Her brain had been answering her questions thus far. She should be able to find something that she can use, right?

…Right?

After minutes of pacing around in circles, nothing came to her mind. Suddenly, rage surged through her veins. “Damn it!” She kicked the sand in frustration.

Then, all of a sudden, a large pulse-like feeling was sent through her head, like an intense headache that brought her to her knees. Then, her vision turned white.

~~~

“Damn it!” she saw herself yell out, kicking the sand up in frustration. “There’s nothing but sand and rocks! No life, nothing!”

She started pacing in circles. “C’mon, Dash… You should know what to do. Use that brain of yours and think!” She kept walking for what seemed like minutes. “Come on… what would Twilight do?” she thought out loud. “She would look for any sort of distinction in the environment - like a stream of water or something - and follow it. But there’s no stream of water. No distinction. Just desert in all directions!”

She started panicking again. “It doesn’t even change in altitude! It’s all flat! It all looks the same!” She calmed herself down. “I can’t panic… not now. Panicking is how you lead yourself to make irrational decisions, that’s what Twilight always told me.”

After pacing around for a bit longer, an idea crossed her mind. “The best thing I can do here is to pick a direction and follow it… But I have to make sure I know what direction I’m going, or I’ll end up accidentally going in circles… How can I track my path?”

She looked up and saw that the sun was setting. “That’s it! I’ll follow the sun! Of course, I’d have to follow it when it’s sunset and not sunrise, but it’ll work! I just have to hope I make it somewhere in time.”

She pulled out her locket and looked at it. “I’m coming home, Twilight.”

~~~

Slowly her vision dispersed until she could see her surroundings again. She was lying on the floor with sand in her hair. Quickly, she sat up and shook the sand out before standing up again. Was that me I just saw? I mean, it was me, but that’s impossible… It doesn’t make any sense. I guess I’ll just do what I did? I look like I remember more than I do right now.

She looked around for the sun, finding that it was blaring directly above her. It was currently noon. She’d have to wait.

Though, she did see where her other self went off to… No, it’d be too risky. She thought to herself. When she looked over to where she had went, suddenly she felt a strange, uncomfortable sensation. It was as if a huge magnet was pulling at her, threatening to rip her apart. It gave her a headache and her vision went blurry, making her catch her self as she stumbled around.

As she solidified her ground, she looked in the direction once more and the pull seemed to grip her even harder. She was put into an almost trance-like state, where she stared blankly forward. Subconsciously, her legs carried her forwards.

It gave her an unsettling feeling of comfort, and so like a moth to a light, she followed the path that her other self had once walked, pushing through with determination in her eyes. She was going to make it back home. Back to her wife. She will get back. No matter the cost.

Author's Note

I wrote this quickly to get the thought off my mind. This is the unnamed story I was talking about in my most recent blog, and I have a huge story planned for this one. I hope you enjoyed this first chapter (even though it was more like a teaser for the story).

As always, feedback is welcome!

EDIT: Finally rewrote it to more like I imagined, with some feedback taken into consideration (you know who you are).

Version History:
V1.0 - Wrote quickly to get my thoughts jotted down.
V2.0 - Completely rewrote the entire chapter to better fit what I was going for. I might come back again to rewrite some parts as I was getting slightly tired towards the end of writing this (which usually means I write with less quality, meaning I'll probably have to rewrite some stuff to sound better).