The Last Flight

Chapters

Chapter 1: The Last Flight
Chapter 2: A Discovery
Chapter 3: Learning from Ponies

Chapter 1: The Last Flight

“Now boarding Delta Airlines Flight 456, heading to New York City. If our first class fliers would make their way to the boarding desk now, we can speed things along.” a woman spoke. A few people woke up their sleeping friends and family members. The laptops of businessmen were put away and the books were closed. I glanced around, and checked the time on my watch. 1:30 in the afternoon, Eastern Standard. I turned off my phone, knowing from previous experience how useless most electronics were if you were flying for a short period. The flight wouldn’t be more than two hours, hopefully just an hour. It certainly cut down on gas, but the tickets weren’t cheap either. My name is Tom Clayford, and I was to meet up with a few friends over in New York. We had a small group that got together and went to places such as Canterlot Gardens or Bronycon. We spent more money than we should have, but it didn’t really matter. The whole group was getting together as a celebration, to put it simply. We had all enlisted into the American military the same week. Within the next month, we were going to be taken in for training. We were gathering together one last time to catch up on the latest season of Friendship is Magic. I heard the woman call for people flying in the economy to please come to the front.

Sighing, I stood and pulled out my ticket and walked to the front. I fell in the back of the line. In front of me stood two men in casual wear, laughing and joking. One of them, the taller of the two, seemed to be having a heart attack every time he laughed. Shaking my head, I looked down at my ticket. Seat B-15. As time went on, the line began to grow smaller and smaller, although it seemed to take a few hours. When I reached the front, I barely spoke to the woman at the desk, just telling her what she needed to know, and showing her my ticket. I was motioned to take my luggage and carry-on down the plane’s boarding hall. When I reached the plane’s boarding doors, I noticed where other people’s luggage already was, and put mine with them. I stepped through the plane’s door, and walked to my seat. I put my carry-on luggage and sunk into my seat. A few minutes into the flight, the flight attendants were giving basic safety rules. I sighed, and drifted off to sleep, having heard this whole run-down a thousand times.

I woke up to screams, and a breathing mask around my face. My eyes grew wide in panic, and I looked around. The plane felt that it was taking a nosedive, and many people were bracing themselves against the chairs. Instantly, I was able to figure out what was going on. We were crashing, and I was going to die. The passenger beside me was crying. It made me want to cry. There was so much I had left to do. The flight attendants were nowhere to be seen. I gave one look out the open window, and saw how close we were to the ground. I gave up, and closed my eyes. Then we hit into the ground. The plane crumple, and I managed to open my eyes. I looked around. The man beside me was missing, and I noticed my leg was trapped underneath part of the plane’s roof. I heard people crying, and I noticed blood on my hands. My blood, as I noticed by putting my hand to my forehead. I tried to lift the metal off my leg, but could only scream as the metal gave evidence the fact that my leg was broken. I couldn’t do anything but lay there and listen to the screams. There was a man standing and looking around. I tried to call out to him, but it only came out as a whimper. The man staggered and hit the wall, and muttered something. He reached one of the emergency doors, and stepped out, leaving it open. From what I could hear, there weren’t many people outside the plane, but they seemed to be organizing something. A warmth finally crept into my senses, and I noticed a fire at the back of the plane. I faintly noticed there had to be something more than an ordinary crash, but I was slipping into darkness. I tried to keep myself and listen on the voices, but as time went out, I couldn’t. I slipped into darkness.

I don’t know if I was dreaming or not. I guess it didn’t really matter, because I was waken up again soon. The voices were gone, and I couldn’t tell what was going on. I couldn’t feel my leg, and the fire was getting closer. I finally managed to lift the metal off my leg. I tried to stand, but only fell back down. I noticed that I was still bleeding out, and nearly laughed at the fact that I wasn’t dead yet. I slipped back into nothingness once again. This time, I knew I dreamt. A soothing voice was the only thing that I heard. There was only darkness, and that voice. “Do not be afraid, child. You have nothing to fear. You’re time is drawing near in this world, but greater things will await you. Do not be afraid,” the voice faded, until I was just seeing the darkness again. I woke up, but I felt…different somehow. I stood up, managing to support myself this time. I looked around, but saw none of the bodies remaining. I slowly walked over to the emergency door. I had to shield my eyes from the brightness that swarmed in at the door. I stepped out and looked around. There was nobody around. The plane seemed to look fine from the outside, but I wasn’t why. I noticed a small village-looking speck in the distance. Looking around, I noticed this place didn’t look like New York City as well. A flat area surrounded the plane. The grass was nearly a “perfect” shade of green. A few trees stood in the west, and a few animals scurried on them. I re-entered the crashed plane, and searched to find my carry-on. I managed to find it, where I had left it when we took out. I didn’t know what was going on, but I didn’t care at this point. Maybe I was dead, like the voice told me, or maybe I was still alive. Either way, I decided to leave plane and slowly headed towards the speck in the distance. Maybe somebody would be able to explain to me what was going on here. For some reason, my cell phone wasn’t picking up a signal here, so maybe they would have a phone in the village. I put my bag on my back and began walking.

Chapter 2: A Discovery

The walk took longer than I expected. By what seemed to be mid-day, I didn’t feel any closer to my goal than when I started. The speck was only a reasonable distance closer, but enough to make out that it was indeed some sort of town. The clouds seemed abnormal, but I couldn’t place my finger on what it meant. I opened my bag. All I had put in there was my newest camera, some spare batteries, and a large supply of butterscotch that was supposed to last me about a month. I rummaged through the bag, for some sort of food. I grimaced at the fact that I didn’t have any. I was already getting stomach cramps, so I decided to put butterscotch in my mouth as I slumped against a tree. It wasn’t practically hot, but it wasn’t what you would consider cool. After a few minutes of staring at the sky, I could have sworn I saw something fly across the sky. It seemed to be going too fast for a normal plane, and it was obviously smaller than one. Maybe it was some sort of military experimental jet, I thought to myself. Maybe they could see me, I thought and stood up. I began waving my hand as high as I could, and began screaming, louder than I thought was ever possible. The object seemed to turn my way, before jerking off again, in the direction of the town.

I sighed. Well, at least the town had some sort of planes, maybe I could get home if there was a pilot there to help me. I shouldered my bag again, and continued on my path. After a while of walking, I noticed a gravel path that was fading in from my right. I had to stifle a laugh, after I figured out I hadn’t been on a path at all. I decided to start following the trail, and hopefully it would take me somewhere. At the very least, I wouldn’t be walking in circles. As I kept walking on the path, the town became more and more vivid. It didn’t seem too large, but something about it seemed familiar, as if I had seen it before. It became dark, and I decided to sleep on the path. I knew I wasn’t too far from the town, but I doubted many people would be there to help me at eleven at night. I laid my bag down, and spread laid across the small path. I closed my eyes, and slept.

“Who…what are you?” a voice crept into my dream, and I slowly opened my eyes. The morning light swarmed in my eyes, and I began to sit up. “Excuse me? What in Celestia’s name are you?” the voice repeated itself. My eyes opened wider. The voice was mentioning Celestia, but that could only mean...I rolled over. In my face was a purple-bodied pony. It had a similar mane, with a deeper purple, and a single pink stripe through it’s mane. A purple horn stuck out from her head. “What the hell?” I questioned, to both myself and the pony. “Where am I?” I asked the creature. It tilted it’s head to the side. “You’re in Ponyville. How do you not know that? You still haven’t answered my question, either,” the pony seemed to be growing annoyed. Ponyville? That was impossible, that would only mean one thing then, but I couldn’t be sure. “Uh, I’m a human. You know what that is, don’t you?” I queried, and only got a shake of a head as a response. “You must be a new animal. Fluttershy is always wanting to meet some new animals. I’m sure she’ll be happy to find one that speaks too. Come on, and follow me,” the mare began to walk in down the path, excepting me to go with her. “Wait a minute! I’m not an animal. I don’t even know what’s going on here,” I called out to the pony.

She stopped and turned around. She stared at me for a while, seemingly trying to figure out something. “You don’t seem like one of Fluttershy’s creatures, or any of them here in Equestria. You still need to come with me though. Maybe I have a book or something on…what did you say you were? A humon?” she tilted her head to the side again. “Uh, ‘human’ is how you pronounce it, but I guess that’s close enough,” I told her. She nodded and began walking down the path. I fell into step beside her, and she looked over. “You walk on two hooves? Isn’t that uncomfortable?” I shrugged and responded with a question of my own. “How isn’t walking on four le- four hooves uncomfortable?” she opened her mouth, and closed it again. Most of our walk was done with little talking, which the pony who she addressed herself as Twilight Sparkle, making my assumption even more closer to the truth, pointed out as we reached the town’s entrance. “You’re pretty quiet. Is that something normal for humons to do?” she questioned, without stopping. “Humans, and it depends. Some people are, some others aren’t,” I answered, and she nodded. As we stepped inside, I felt eyes were already on me. Looking around, I noticed pony galore, and any glimmer of Earth, much less America, was gone. Somewhere in my mind, I knew where I was, but I couldn’t believe it. I could hear a few mutters, and few hushes.

She brought me to a building, made basically out of a tree. In the front stood a sign with a door over it. I already knew what this was, but she informed me anyways. She opened the door, a purple glow engulfed her horn, and the glow also engulfed the door, before being opened. “What was that?” I questioned her, and she laughed. “Unicorn magic. I believe I have a book a on the basic races found here in Equestria. Come inside, and I’ll find it for you,” she stepped into the room. The room was quite large inside, even though it seemed to be quite small from the outside. Bookshelves lined the walls, and I sighed, figuring out why there was a book over the sign now. A green and purple lizard-like creature was walking down a set of stairs. “Twi, what is that thing?” he said, obviously not caring that I was there as well. Twilight gave him a look, and he shut up. Twilight walked over to me, levitating a book in mid-air. I began to open my mouth to question her “magic” once again, but decided against it. She laid the book down, and I stood there. Her brows furrowed, and I decided this was the book she had wanted me to pick up. I already knew the basics of the ponies due to the show, but maybe the book had more knowledge that I needed to learn. I opened the cover, only to find the pages were covered in dried slobber. I winced, and Twilight noticed. “Uh, I guess you aren’t used to turning pages with your mouth then, are you?” I glanced over at her, and shook my head. “We have hands to do that with,” I told her, raising my left hand. Decided it wouldn’t matter, I slowly turned the pages with my hands. After reading over the descriptions, I didn’t notice much I didn’t know already. I put the book back down, and opened my mouth to ask something, when there was a knock on the door, with the sound of hooves hitting the wood.

Chapter 3: Learning from Ponies

Twilight walked over to the door and open it with her magic once again. She stepped outside, and she began to talk to a pony that was out of my sight. The conversation seemed to be her answering a few questions. A few times she would glance my way, before speaking back to the unknown pony. After a while, she stepped back in and allowed to door to shut. “Who was that?” I asked her as she returned to her bookshelves, putting back the book who had given me earlier. “Oh, it doesn’t matter. It was just somepony I knew, who was asking something. Don’t worry about it though,” she glanced at me. I thought about pressing the subject, but decided against it. “Alright, this is nice and all, but would you know why I’m here? I’m not from here, if you haven’t noticed,” I fished for an answer from her. She stood there for a second with her back from me, moving some books around, before she spoke. “I wouldn’t know. There is somepony who would though. I can try to ask her what she knows about your…situation. Are you sure it’s not just some sort of am..am…amnesia? It’s becoming more common these days,” she seemed to be trying to avoid the fact that she didn’t know. “No, it can’t be that. I remember a plane crash,” I noticed her confused look and added, “It’s a vehicle that can fly, kinda like a bird or a pegasi. Anyways, that’s all I recall. That and a voice, and the fact that I was still in the plane when I woke up,” I continued and looked at her. “You said you woke up in one of these…planes? Maybe if you went there, you could figure something out,” she proposed the idea carefully, as if she weren’t sure.

“That would work, but I don’t even know where the plane is anymore,” I admitted. She paced back and forth, before stopping and sighing. “I don’t know then. I’ll talk to Celestia to see what she thinks what we should do. For now, you’ll have to stay here in Ponyville. The amnesia may have more effects, ” she decided. “I already told you it wasn’t amnesia, and where am I going to stay?” I already assumed what the answer would be, but I wasn’t sure what she would say. “Well, there is a spare bed upstairs. I’m not sure if you would be able to fit in it though. Beds here have been fitted more to the size of ponies. We can figure something out tomorrow. I’ll introduce you to some of my friends tomorrow as well,” she nodded as she stopped talking. She directed me upstairs, and I noticed that her assumption was correct. The bed was not nearly large enough for a human, but it seemed to work well for the ponies. At the time, the lizard hadn’t seemed familiar, but after Twilight addressed him as Spike, I mentally slapped myself for not recognizing him. The upstairs room was smaller than downstairs areas. It barely had enough room to move, but two beds sat there, in opposite sides of the room. Twilight laid down on one of the beds, and I took to the other. I couldn’t sleep, and just laid there and stared at the ceiling. I didn’t know how long I laid there, but it had to be a while. I tried to think back on what happened during the last days. I assumed that I wasn’t dead. If it was, this didn’t seem very death life. As my mind tried to make sense of what had happened, I slowly fell asleep, even as I tried to keep the sleep at bay.

The voice returned in my dream, the same one from the crash. “You were barely saved, child, but as you know you are not in your world. You’ll have to find new friends during your life here. You can try and find a way back to your world. Whatever your choice is, make note that it won’t be easy. You’ll also know who I am when the time comes, no matter what you choose to do,” the voice spoke in a soothing voice. Just like last time, it faded out as I woke up. When I woke up, I sat up. I noticed Twilight wasn't there, and decided she must have already gone downstairs. I thought about the dream and the voice. After some thought, I decided to get up. I realized that in my exact same clothes two days in a row. The blood stained ones as well, and the sweat soaked ones. I decided to question Twilight about the ability to get my clothes washed. I walked down and saw her running back in forth from the kitchen into the living room. Spike was still asleep somehow, even through the noise that she was making. She saw me and tried to apologize. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I tried to make something to eat, but I didn't know what humons ate, and I didn't know what to do. I tried to cook something, but decided it wasn't right, so I tried again. Then I broke a glass and I had to clean up the shards, and I was still trying to cook an-“ I cut her off, laughing softly. “It’s fine. I don’t enjoy eating breakfast in the first place. The glass didn't cut you did it?” she shook her head, and sat down on her floor. I knew that some of the food the ponies ate were not something I could imagine eating, but there was always the chance of finding more…earthly food.

This was, of course if Pinkie actually baked goods. I opened my mouth to speak, but was cut off by Twilight. “Oh, I never got your name yesterday. It was so late, and I was so busy,” she slowly seemed to be calmly down from her panicked state. “Oh right, I’m Tom Clayford, or just call me Tom,” I told her. She nodded, and I sighed and tried to tell her what I was planning to in the first place. “Uh, is there any place where I could get my clothes washed? Do you guys do that here in Ponyville?” I asked her. She thought for a second and then nodded. “I’m pretty sure Rarity could wash them. She might be able to make you new clothes too. We need to start introducing you to my friends anyways. I hope they don’t overreact though…” she trailed off into thought, before jerking her head back up. “Alright then. Let’s go,” she nodded, and began to walk out the door, without waiting to see if I was following her. I paused for a second, trying to take in WHAT had just happened. I wondered if she was like this every morning. I jogged to catch up with her. When I managed to catch up, she looked over, and then slowed her pace down, and apologized. As we walked on, we reached what looked like the boutique. Hopefully I would be able to get something washed, at the very least. I just hoped that the other five, which I assumed who she was going to have me meet, were more sane than the show had always portrayed them.