//------------------------------// // Putting it Together // Story: Equestrian Aviation // by MrTyreste //------------------------------// "Yo Colton, got a second?" A woman in uniform approached the pilot as he worked below his truck in one of the base's many garages. The man pulled himself out from under the bottom of the vehicle only to get a quick glimpse of the one calling for him, and then rolled his eyes before throwing himself back under the truck. "Word's going around the base like wildfire, something about a fight between you and your lady last night. What the hell happened?" She asked before pulling him out from under the truck, causing the tools in use to fall from their respective parts of the automobile's underside. "Britt? What the fuck, dude?" Colton all but spat out as he reached back under the vehicle to grab his tools. "I really don't want to talk about it, so piss off." He said before trying to go back under the vehicle, but as he did he felt a hand around his leg forcing him back. "Dude, what's up? Second Lietenent of the USAF and you're all bent out of shape over a fight? You guys didn't break up, did you?" Britt was one of Colton's best friends from his hometown in Arizona, the only difference was that Colton had finished college before signing up for the officer's program at the Air Force Academy while she had busted her ass at BMT in Texas. Yet despite that she was still making almost as much as he was after her recent promotion. Yet his silence said it all as he slowly got off the ground and sighed. "She didn't want to date a G.I. anymore, I guess. So she told me to either resign or lose her. I didn't want to give up this job, so here I am single again." He mumbled, not wanting her to hear him in this current state of depression. "Resign or dumped? That's messed up, bro." The auburn haired sergeant stated. "Hey, I'll tell you what, come by my place later tonight. Allie's been reassigned so we'd have the barrack to ourselves. I'm thinking a little pizza and some Halo?" She grinned, trying to get a smile out of her best friend. "Halo?" He chuckled. "You'd think we played Copy and Paste of Duty like normal military kids." "Was that supposed to be a joke?" Britt raised an eyebrow as she tried not to smile. "Kind of." He rubbed the back of his neck. --- Colton's eyes shot open as he remembered just where he was. Once a pilot, now a pegasus pony in a strange world he was trying so hard to understand. His eyes were locked on the great hunk of destroyed metal and debris that was once a plane he piloted. A great chunk of the Everfree Forest, wiped out by this falling monstrosity, and he couldn't stop the feeling that he would be here forever. "Is he going to be ok?" Rainbow Dash asked, the pair of ponies watching this melancholy stallion from a distance as he mourned the destroyed plane and riverbank. "I'm not sure." Twilight said. "The memory spell works, but in small doses. I think he might have triggered one when he stared at this thing. Obviously I can't restore all his memories at once, or else it would likely fry his brain." Twilight tried to explain. "By the way..." She began. "I'm really sorry about earlier, at the library. You kinda caught me at a bad time." She blushed slightly as a small chuckle escaped her. "You're not living that down easily, Twi." Rainbow snorted. --- "Twilight!" Rainbow Dash burst through the library in a hurry after the incident with the plane crashing into the Everfree. With Colton in Fluttershy's care, and out of commission, she sought the one pony in Ponyville who could help with something like this. "We got a problem, there was a sonic boom and Colton-" She took a sniff of the air and nearly gagged before she whipped her head around trying to find the source of the stench. "Do I smell alcohol?" Rainbow asked, inquisitively. "What do you *hic* want now, Dash?" A slurred voice came from the other room. Rainbow trotted upstairs to the bedroom, only to find one very depressing Twilight and a half-empty bottle of dandelion wine. "Can't you see I'm...ow." She clutched her head before dropping the wine on the floor, causing the bottle to shatter as the contents soaked her wood floor beside her bed. Twilight's eyes grew wide as she reached a hoof, albeit lazily, towards the broken glass. "Aww, Berry gave me that." She whimped drunkenly. "Uh, Twilight? You doing ok?" She asked, wondering why the Princess' perfect student now had more alcohol in her system than blood. "Stallions are...ow...fucking dicks." Twilight slurred her words as she sprawled out on the bed, still reaching for the bottle's remains. "I took a break from studying the effects of interdimensional travel between our world and the human world, right? I thought maybe it wouldn't hurt to maybe see if I could find a date for a movie, maybe have a little dinner, even got the bottle of wine for the occassion." She still reached pathetically for the bottle's broken shards, the contents seeping into the floor and onto the covers falling off her bed. "My poor bottle, he was so young." She cried as she could practically hear the liquid calling to her. "I'm so sorry!" Rainbow stifled a laugh as the purple unicorn continued her love affair with the inanimate object. "Uh, Twilight, I don't mean to get between a unicorn and her drinks, but I really do need your help." Rainbow began as she tried to explain the situation regarding the Airman turned Pony. "Oh, let me guess, he's one of those badass military types that just suddenly showed up in Equestria who could take on some Eldritch creature in a fight just by sneezing on it and one of us is going to end up in bed with him. Probably you considering you're the one who found him, you both will get married, some crazy monster will show up that only he will be able to defeat and yada yada yada, am I right so far?" She ranted as she flailed her hooves and tail around trying to make her point, Rainbow Dash only blinked in confusion. "Ok Twilight, I didn't want to have to do this, but you left me no choice." Rainbow sighed as she hoisted her friend onto her back and trotted towards the bathroom, trying her best to keep the drunken unicorn from falling over. When they reached the bathtub, Rainbow ran the water at its coldest temperature and waited. The tub took no time at all until it was filled to capacity, and Rainbow turned the water off immediately. "Oh Dashie, it's that Hearth's Warming party all over again. Have I been a naughty filly again this year?" Twilight asked in a sultry tone, trying to bring up memories Rainbow Dash really wished she could forget. "What are we gonna--eeep!" Without warning Rainbow bucked her into the tub of ice cold water and she hit with an explosion of energy erupting from her horn. And it slammed Rainbow Dash into the wall behind her. --- "I still wish you hadn't turned the water that cold!" Twilight Sparkle exclaimed, still reliving the annoyance from yesterday. "I wish you hadn't brought up the party. You know I was really drunk at the time." She shouted back. "You know I can hear you, right?" Colton shouted back towards them, causing the mares to blush. "And now I'm interested in that party of yours." He laughed as he stood up on his hooves and trotted over to them. "How's the whole memory thing going?" Rainbow Dash asked, concerned for the confused stallion. "Got anything yet?" "Only that I'm apparently single and played something called 'Halo.'" He said. "Other than that, nothing. So do you know how I got here, Miss Twilight, was it?" He turned to the lavender mare. "It might have been a doorway of some sort, kind of like with Applejack's husband. I'm still trying to work out the details myself, which is why I cast that spell earlier when I was-" She stopped for a moment and her face flushed. Suddenly, she had an idea of how Colton came to be here and how he ended up a pony. Rainbow could only stare for a moment before placing her hoof to her face and sighing deeply. "Please don't tell me he's here because of some mishap with drunken, horny unicorn magic miss-fires." Try saying that five times fast, she immediately thought to herself. "Ugh, magic, ponies, I seriously want to just go home." Colton sighed. "Listen, I'm going to go back to the library to do some more research I started when Johnny first arrived. Why don't you take him down to Sweet Apple Acres and see about getting him a job. It might do him some good to be with someone from his own world." --- "So...husband, huh?" Colton asked, wondering just who this Applejack was and who this Johnny was going to turn out to be. "Yeah, strange thing, he showed up one day in her barn and the two ended up becoming inseparable after a while Only unlike you, he stayed a human." She explained, remembering the details like it had been yesterday. Johnny had saved her sister and the CMC from a burning shed and had later even tracked down her ex-boyfriend who had put the kidnappers up to the task. They had their fights, sure, but when he finally asked her to marry him she couldn't help but say yes. Finally they arrived at Sweet Apple Acres, but only to find the place had even more trees and an even larger barn than ever before. "Wow, now that's a house." Colton beamed at the sight of the Apple Family's beautiful farm house when an orange mare in pigtails sporting a brown stetson came galloping up to them. "Well howdy, Rainbow Dash. Didn't expect to see you today. What can I do ya for?" The mare said with a soft smile on her face as she turned slightly to the blue stallion. "Howdy, pardner. Name's Applejack. See yer a friend of Rainbow Dash, here. Well you're more than welcome on our farm as long as ya like." She extended a hoof to his. He smiled as he touched his hoof to hers before placing it back down on the ground. "You like the new orchard? Applebloom helped me and Big Macintosh plant all these trees last summer. Can't tell ya how much business we've been getting since-" She stopped to notice Rainbow Dash snickering slightly as she looked at her friend's hair. "Uh, what's with the new look, AJ?" She giggled, but tried her best not to laugh. "What? Can't a mare have a little variety now and again?" She said matter-of-factly. "My stallion happens to like them, but not as much as he likes my hair down, see?" She shook her head back and forth as though trying to hit her pegasus friend with one of the braids, to no avail. "So, Rainbow Dash, I have some news. Johnny and I are..." She stopped before hearing a loud crash. "Celestia, damn it!" A gruff, albeit soft voice came from behind the farmhouse. A tall stallion, towering over even Colton, came limping from behind the house. He had a tan coat and sported a black mane with a white streak down the side of it. "Consarn it, darlin, watch your language! We got guests here!" Applejack said angrily before turning back to her friend and Colton, smiling a tad embarressed. "I'm so sorry, Jackie. The switch still takes some getting used to." He laughed as he limped over beside Applejack. "Wait a minute..." Rainbow Dash pondered a moment before eyeing the stallion's flank. A Celtic knotwork in the shape of a cross, colored green and black, adorned it. There was only one who had a symbol like that on his body. "Johnny? You're a-" He raised a hoof as though to silence her and laughed. "Long story, RD." Applejack laughed as he kissed her on the cheek. "Did you tell them, yet?" He asked her, and by the sudden surprise look on her face he guessed it was a no. "Oh, right. Well RD, big news time." She took a deep breath before looking to her husband expecting a signal of approval before turning back to her friend with a the biggest grin on her face. "I'm pregnant!" She practically bursted with joy. Rainbow Dash said nothing, only sat onto her haunches as her jaw dropped.