Crash Landing
Lightning flash was was sitting in the waiting room of his boss's office. He worked for the branch of the Equestrian Mail Service that delivered the mail to the individual town and city mail services. Specifically he delivered to the Griffin Empire along the overseas route. He had been told that there was a storm brewing just off the coast, right in the middle of his route. He was waiting for an updated map with his new route circumventing the storm. The receptionist walks out of the office and hands him a map with his route mapped out in red. His new route was mapped out in orange and was about 50 miles further out into the ocean then his normal route, which averaged thirty miles from the coast. He looks at the maps and turns to the receptionist. "This can't be right. 50 miles further over the ocean? What type of storm are the weather pegasi planning?"
She walks over to her desk and checks a paper. "Apparently it's time for the yearly hurricane test. Te expected to be they made a 70 mile buffer zone from the eye of the hurricane because the water and air temp. are expected to be slightly higher then normal."
"At least they accounted for growth because of the warmer temp's. I feel much safer knowing they at least think of the safety of others when they decide to place a hurricane right in the middle of one of the busiest trade routes in Equestria." She smiles at the sarcasm dripping from his words. He thanks her and turns to leave.
"Just one more thing. Your normal co-pilot called in sick and the only free co-pilot we have at the moment is a new recruit. His name is Thunder Hooves, and he is very eager to learn the arts of cross-ocean deliveries. Go easy on him."
She smiles before closing the door. Flash sighs and rolls his eyes. The thought of teaching a noob how to fly made him want to try to run the route by himself, but with the amount of weight that would be on his delivery chariot today this was definitely a two pony job.
Down in the loading docks, Flash finds his chariot all loaded up and strapped down. This chariot was his personal chariot, he had it custom made when he first got into the overseas routes. While the standard cargo chariots were good for short and medium range deliveries, for the long haul deliveries you wanted a chariot that was comfortable and lightweight while still being strong and aerodynamic. He remembered his first overseas delivery with a standard cargo chariot. His wings were sore for a week. Shaking off the memories he proceeds to check all the straps and cargo, making sure nothing was loose.
An hour later he signs the paperwork and hands a copy back to the loading dock foreman. He walks back to his chariot and gives the straps and supports one last check. 'Where is that blasted pony? He should be here by now.' As if on cue, a grey pegasus with a mane of dark grey and two streaks of pure white walks up.
"Whats up. I'm Thunder Hooves, are you Lighting Flash?"
'O dear Celestia, just kill me now. JUST KILL ME NOW.' "Yes, but just call me Flash. I am assuming you have absolutely no experience tandem pulling."
"Actually, I worked for a long distance moving company before this. I usually pulled by myself, but when we were weighed down of had an extreme distance I would pull in a side-by-side configuration with my brother."
'So, this might not be as bad as i thought' He walks over to the chariot. "As you can tell, this isn't a normal chariot. It was specialy designed for long hauls. I paid for this with my own bits. You will treat it as if you bought it yourself, understood?"
He salutes. "Yes sir."
"Good, then we will get along just fine. Strap in, were running late already." He watches as Thunder straps himself in with ease, showing he knows what hes doing. Flash smiles and straps himself in as well. He pulls the map out and shows it to Thunder. "There is a hurricane forming along my usual route so we will be taking this route here. I hope you aren't afraid of high wind and lots of rain." Thunder just smiles and shakes his head. "Good, lets get going." Flash stretches his wings to their full length. He had inheareated his fathers wingspan, power, and endurance, all of which were nearly twice the amount of a normal stallion. As he finishes stretching he gives the signal to take off and both stallions break into a gallop before taking flight. As he angles up to gain altitude, he feels the full weight of the chariot drag at his harness and hes glad he has and experienced co-pilot with him. As they reach their designated altitude they make the turn out towards the ocean. After about half an hour of flying time they start to loose sight of the coast behind them. Flash has time for one last glance before it dissapears below the horizon.
About an hour later they reach the part of there route that is the farthest from land. There hadn't been much talking, but as a huge storm front appears in front of them Thunder turns to Flash.
"I thought we were supposed to go AROUND the hurricane, not through it."
Flash shrugs. "Maybe it's just a small storm that broke off the main one." Five minutes later they they enter the first clouds and get their answer. It wasn't. Flash has to yell over the building wind and rain. "IT MUST HAVE BEEN WARMER THEN THE WEATHER PEGASI THOUGHT. THIS STORM IS OUT OF CONTROL." They had stoped trying to push through the wind and were spending all their energy just trying to stay airborne. After thirty minutes of fighting the wind and rain they suddenly fly into a slightly calmer spot in the storm.
Thunder Hooves shouts at Flash. "I DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH LONGER I CAN KEEP THIS UP."
Lightning Flash nods but yells back. "WE HAVE TO KEEP TRYING, WERE TO FAR OUT TO MAKE IT TO LAND AND WE CAN'T TURN BACK AFTER COMING SO FAR, WE WOULD NEVER MAKE IT."
Thunder puts the most determined face he has on and nods.
After five more minuts in the slightly calmer patch their hit by a sudden gust, sending them into a flat spin. Flash groans as the G-forces try to pull him and Thunder out of the harnesses. Flash tries despreatly to stop the spin, knowing the alternative is to crash of to ditch it. He tries every trick he can think of but its no use, he can sense the ocean getting closer with every second. He finally decides to yell something he had hoped he'd never have to yell. "WE CAN'T SAVE HER, DITCH THE CHARIOT."
Thunder nods and reaches down to release the straps. Within moments hes free and the wind and G-forces fling him out of sight. Lightning Flash reaches down to do the same, but the G-forces had pulled the straps tight and the rain had swollen all the ropes, leaving him unable to untie the harness from from the chariot. He screams Thunder's name but he knows even if he could hear him, the wind is too strong for him to be of any help. He resigns himself to his fate and relaxes, waiting for the impact, when the uneven pull, caused by one pony instead of two, actually stops the spin. He looks down just in time to see land beneath him and pulls up, hitting soft wet sand. He slides twenty hooves before the chariot flips and lands on him. He hears a snap and screams in pain before sliding head first into a rock, sending him into darkness.
Lightning Flash groans as he slowly comes back to consciousness. He tries to remember where he is through a wave of pain. He remembers pulling his chariot with Thunder, then spinning and crashing. He tries to roll over but yells as another wave of pain hits him. He opens his eyes to see his chariot laying sideways in the sand, just in front of him. He manages to get his hooves under him and stand, looking around. Hes on a beach somewhere, although he's never seen this beach before. He stretches his stiff muscles, but stops when he gets another wave of pain. This time hes able to locate where the pain was coming from. His wing is broken near the base and hangs limply onto the sand. 'O crap, this is not good. That's going to take forever to heal, assuming I can get it set right'. He spots a strap from his harness and very carefully folds his wing up and ties it in place.'There, that should keep it out of the way for now. Now to check on the packages.'
He walks over to the back of the chariot to find half the cargo gone, along with the emergency beacon. 'Well there goes any thought of a quick rescue. What were those weather pegasi think, putting a hurricane in the center of a shipping route, especially with all the extra heat to fuel it. At least they seemed to get it under control fairly quick. Hmmm, I wonder if they called in the wonderbolts to help with that. Maybe mother is out there right now.' Although he knew nopony knew he was missing yet, he couldn't help but hope that maybe somepony would fly overhead and spot him. 'I wonder if Thunder managed to make it out of the storm alright. f he did, he could get news out that I'm missing and start a search party. Mother and Father would start searching immediately. But untill such time I have to survive, or else the only thing they will find is my body.'
Flash explores the beach he had landed on. About a half mile from the crash sight there was a fresh water stream, and further up a large cave. As far as he could tell there were no local inhabitants. He walks down the beach in the oppisiot direction and finds a large patch of berry's and a few fruit trees. He makes a mental note to gather some up later and store them where he could easily find them. As he's exploring he looks up and realizes it's almost night and he hasn't found shelter yet. He returns to the chariot and undo's the straps holding what is left of the cargo on. The cargo falls out and he pushes it into a pile out of the way. He then walks over to the underside of the sideways chariot and gives it a swift kick, knocking it upside down. "There you have it, instant shelter." He stacks the pile of cargo at the opening in the back of the chariot to make a doorway small enough to keep the cold at bay, but large enough for him to squeeze through. Standing back to study his work, he nods to himself, satisfied that it would do fine as a temporary shelter. He squeezes his way through the small gap and curls up for the night.
He's woken in the middle of the night by a strange shuffling noise, followed by some sniffing. He tenses up as he realizes the sniffing is coming from the gap he crawled in through. He could sense movement through the gap, but he could also get a sense of size as well. He suppresses a gasp as the thing moves past the gap and he realizes its at least twice as big as him. The creacher moves on eventualy but Flash doesn't get any more sleep that night.
The next morning Flash slowly crawls out from under the chariot, wary of the strange creacher from last night. He does a quick check to make sure it's not around, before jumping in shock. The creacher had left tracks. Tracks that looked very familiar. Tracks that were identical to Pinkies full grown pet allagater, except MUCH bigger. This gater had to have been twelve hooves long and four hooves wide. "O no. This is bad, very bad. Very, very bad. Pinkie had to build a special pen just to keep gummy from eating all the little woodland animals, and he was only six hooves long. O this is extreamly bad."
Flash follows the tracks back to the fresh water creek. The same fresh water creek that he had seen earlyer. The same creek that came from the cave. 'So it lives in the cave. That isn't good. I was at least hoping he would live further away then this but at least now i know where he lives. I'll have to be careful from now on.' Flash walks back to the chariot. 'I'm going to have to find a safer place to take shelter with that thing on the loose, but first things first. I'm going to have to set my wing before it heals wrong.'
Flash starts collecting what he needs to set his wing. He hunts around until he finds two pieces of drift wood long and straight enough to make a splint. He grabs a length of rope from the chariot to tie the splint, and a stick to bite on so he doesn't bite his tongue off. he hunts around for a medium size rock small enough for him to move but large enough to have some weight to it. 'I really wish i had some painkillers for this.'
He push's the rock over to the chariot and stacks the splint ans rope within easy reach. He lifts the rock up and places his broken wing underneath before slowly lowering the rock. He flinches at the pinching, but he knows this is nothing compared to what was coming next. Taking a deep breath, Flash leans away from the rock until the pain starts to overwhelm him, then he PULLS until the broken wing stretches and pops back together. He quickly grabs the splint and somehow manages to tie it even with shaking hooves and the awkward angle. He lifts the rock again and releases his wing, collapsing into the warm sand. He has just enough energy to crawl underneath the chariot before passing out.
Lightning Flash groans and rolls onto his hooves. He crawls out from under his chariot and spreads his broken wing to check the splint. He grabs another piece of rope and ties it tight around the splint tight enough to make him wince. He takes a strap from the pile of cargo and makes a sling out of it, putting it around his neck and wing. He looks up and notices it's noon already. 'Wow, I had better start looking for shelter. It's going to be dark soon.' He sets off down the beach in search of anything he could make into a passable shelter.
About a mile down the beach and a quarter of the way around the island, he finds a tree. Now the island was covered in trees from the wide beach all the way up to the summit of the island, but this tree's branches where extremely large and wide. Some were within reaching distance from the ground but most of them were around the same height in the air, about fifteen hooves up. 'If i can find some way to get up there i could make a floor between those branches and be safe off the ground. But how do i get up there?' He walks around the tree until he comes to the back. There is a palm tree bent over towards the tree with only a short jump between the two.
Flash walks to the base of the palm tree and starts to shimmy up it. About half way up it starts to level out and Flash stands up, walking out to the end of the tree. He jumps onto a tree branch and slowly walks over to the trunk. 'Wow, this must be twenty hooves wide, if not more. This will be the perfect place to set up shelter. Now i just need some wood to make the floor.' Flash jumps down and heads back to the chariot.
When he arrives back at his overturned chariot. He crawls underneath and push's up until it's on its side again, then he kicks it onto its wheels. He walks around and examines the chariot for damage. 'Hmmm, one of the harnesses broke off on impact but the other one seems ok. I could load this up with any wood i find then pull it to the tree. Once i get there i can disassemble it and use it for parts. Good thing father taught me basic woodworking.' He goes out into the woods looking for suitable branches and such. What he finds stuns him.
Flash walks up to the little wooden hut. The door was busted off it's hinges but the rest seemed ok. 'What is this doing here? Who made it?' He walks inside. It's almost bare beside a small pile of hay and a book. He walks up to the book and opens it. All of the pages have been destroyed by water except the last one.
"Day 238. I've been on this island for 238 days. The lonelyness is starting to drive me crazy. Wilson won't talk to me anymore. He just sits in the corner and stares at me. I try to ignore him but it's hard to do, there's nothing else to look at. I've decided to build a raft and try to float away. I haven't started started building it yet but I will as soon as I have enough wood. Found a baby gater today. I named him George. He left me an hour ago and never came back. I miss the good old days when i could soar through the skys, delivering packages. But those days are gone forever. Without my wing, I'm nothing but an earth pony, not even, I don't have Earth Pony magic. I never had a green thumb or strength. Now I'm talent less and useless. I've run out of room in this journal and will be starting a new one."
Flash reads in silence. When he finishes he walks over to the corner and sees a deflated hoofball with a face drawn on it in what looks like blood. 'Hmm, so this must be Wilson. The poor pony that wrote the journal must have gone crazy. I wonder how he lost his wing and if he ever made it back.'
Flash looks around the hut. 'This wood look to be in ok condition. I can use this for my shelter. And that hay doesn't look to comfortable but it probably beats sleeping on wood.' He starts disassembling everything and over the next few hours he packs everything on the chariot and heads back toward the tree.
Author's Note
20 Bits to the pony that gets the reference first.
