The Next Town
He flew head first into the fray as the mighty griffon bared its claws, and ended the life of his wingman and best friend. He could only watch as the beast turned on him, about to end his life. But he felt no horror, no fear, this happened way too often. This was getting repetitive and obnoxious. Just before the claws dug into his shoulders, however, he closed his eyes and felt the familiar tugging that signaled awakening.
He could feel himself return to consciousness and he sighed as he remembered the nightmare that he would have at least once a week for the past eight years. This freaking PTSD was just a pain sometimes, but at least it didn't affect him worse than these freaking nightmares.
His eyes opened as he took in all of his surroundings as he would every morning. He had a military-spec room; better than barracks by a long shot, being a training sergeant in the Equestrian National Air Force had its perks. The bed was stiff, but a bed, and it was blandly furnished, with a small, barred window, bedside table, some chairs and his own bathroom; once again rank perks.
He glanced out the window and could see that it was still before the princesses had switched roles, with Luna's night still ruling the sky. So he began his normal morning routine.
He checked the letter that he had kept for the past eight years that had also haunted him for the past eight years. The royal seal that adorned it was still broken in the same place as when he first opened it.
You are no longer to go by the same name and title; from now on you are to take on the identity of your wingman, Geronimo, and you have been promoted to training sergeant due to your special talent for aerial maneuvers. Your family has been informed that you died in the accident, so you are not to contact them, for if you do you will be found guilty of treason. Disguise yourself so that nopony will recognize you.
In Peace and Harmony,
Princess Celestia
Ouch, that was just as painful as the first time. But for fear of banishment/imprisonment/death he did as instructed.
He grabbed several bottles of military-spec hair dye, the dye completely covers any color, lasts 30 hours exactly, unless washed out; it was designed to aid in disguises so that a pony could quickly change identity. He covered his cutie-mark with a shade of red that perfectly matched his coat, then drew a target on over it, simulating a different cutie-mark. Then he took a brown dye and ran it through his multi-colored mane.
Satisfied with his appearance he began putting on his specially modified dress uniform; because this was a special day.
"Wake up Geronimo! You know today is the day, right?" A familiar voice called from the hallway, Geronimo couldn't believe that this headstrong stallion was taking his place. He had been his assistant and Geronimo knew that this day was coming but he just couldn't believe that it was today.
"Hold up," Geronimo shouted at the door, "I'm coming, Hotshot." This stallion had been with Geronimo since the first platoon came to be trained. He was only one year younger than Geronimo, and had joined at the same age, but was under-trained, however he showed promise, so Geronimo had him promoted to his own assistant, so he could teach him everything he could.
Geronimo then entered the hallway, bringing the cocky face of the new training sergeant into view. A look of confidence that he saw in the mirror every day looking back through the eyes of another pegasus. "You are so much like me that it is scary," Geronimo laughed, "now can you tell me what the plan is today?"
"Well I will take the first part as a compliment seeing as you were one of the four best fliers ever in the history of the ENAF," he said with raised brow, "as for your question, it is exactly what you told us to do. We are stopping at the next town to drop you off so you can start your new life, speaking of which wouldn't you like to do more research? I know you got discharged, but, really just picking a random town and diving in headfirst and without any knowledge of it? That seems stupid."
"Diving in headfirst with very little knowledge is my specialty, and I won't know nothing, you are going to tell me the name of the town, and send a letter to the princesses that that is where you dropped me off."
"Well I guess that I have no choice then." Hotshot sarcastically replied. "And the name of the town is, Ponyville."
"Hmmm... Well let's see what it is like, shall we?" Geronimo said gesturing towards a porthole in the gigantic, war-based airship that they had been aboard for the past few weeks, and when Geronimo received his honorable discharge.
They peered out over the now light-bathed landscape, seeing a small, quaint town, bordered on either side by trees: one set of trees was a forest and the other was painstakingly organized into neat rows.
"Ohhh look an apple orchard!"
"Thank you, 'Captain Obvious'!"
"You're welcome, 'Sergeant Sarcasm'!"
"Hey I am a sergeant now that you are leaving!"
"Don't let it go to your head, Hotshot, now let's land this thing."
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Applejack was busying herself with her daily chores when she saw something very out of the ordinary.
"Hey, Big Mac, did y'all see that?"
The big, red workhorse looked up and glanced around, before going back to his work. "Nnnope."
"It was one of them thar, blimpy-contraptions."
Once again Big Mac looked at his sister but he had obvious skepticism in his eyes. "Eeeyup..."
"C'mon it looked like it was landing over here on the edge of the west field."
Applejack led her rather confused brother to the place she pointed out.
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"Well then, I hope, I will see you around Hotshot."
"Uhh... Geronimo? You never told me what happened when you lost your-" he was cut off by Geronimo's expression becoming suddenly cold enough to freeze an entire ocean.
"You can ask the others, if you see them, just never bring it up with me. Ever." and with that his face went back to its overconfident, happy self. "See you later."
Just as they finished their conversation the door to the airship closed, leaving Hotshot to his thoughts, 'I guess that I will never know what happened then..." He let out a sigh as he returned to his quarters in order to write a letter to the princess.
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Big Mac's jaw dropped just as he emerged from the field to see a giant, military airship taking off, leaving a single pony in full military attire saluting the vessel.
"Eeeyup..."
"Howdy pard'ner!" Applejack said in a friendly tone.
The military pony standing there, who was apparently very high ranking, due to his abundance of medals, donned a pair of reflective Aviator sunglasses and turned to face the two farm ponies. He began to speak but stumbled slightly through his words.
"ha- er,.. I... Ahem. Sorry, allow me to try that again. I am Sergeant Geronimo, drill sergeant, trainer, and I was one of the Mustangs of the 51st squadron." He said with an air of power and importance, as though the farm ponies would understand or care.
"Pardon?" Big Mac drawled.
"It means that I was one of the four best fliers in the world at one time and have been training pegasi to defend and fight for this great nation for the past eight years because of it."
Geronimo watched as the orange mare with green eyes, and the Stetson on her head, raised one of her eyebrows suspiciously at him. This change in demeanor made Geronimo's head spin, 'She cant be seeing through me that easily, can she? My disguise is flawless. The only part of that story that was a lie was the part about my name, everything else was dead on, what is she suspicious of? Could it be-'
"Flier?" her sweet accent twanged off derailed his train of thought.
And then he realized what she said.
His ears drooped and he gave the other two a cold glare. Applejack and Big Macintosh could almost feel the temperature of the early morning air drop a few degrees, just because of the way this pony was looking at them.
"Uuuuuuhhhhh... Yeah, well, ah thought ya had ta be a pegasus to be in the Air Force." Applejack apologized, hoping that he would explain what was going on without resorting to violence.
Big Mac took several steps forward to protect his sister, in case this 'Sergeant' became violent.
"And what, pray tell, is telling you that I am not a pegasus, hmmm?" He said, his voice dripping with angry sarcasm. "How can you be so sure?"
"Y'all don't got no wings." Big Mac said to the almost violent pony. "In case ya didn't notice, pegasi got wings."
Geronimo twisted his head around and undid two buttons, on specially installed flaps on the back of his uniform; one on either side of his back. He looked back at the two earth pony farmers that he was talking to, and stretched his wings to their full extent.
Revealing two uneven, feathery stumps that came out of the slits in the uniform specially designed to accommodate a pegasi's wings. The scar tissue at the ends, showed that there was at one point, large, powerful wings mounted on these stumps.
"Who is to say that I am not a pegasus?" and with that he walked off towards town, leaving two shocked, confused, and awed earth ponies, trying to comprehend what it would be like to lose a part of them that was that much of who they were.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Sergeant Geronimo received your letter informing him of his honorable discharge, and had us put him down in the next town we came to. The town that we dropped him off in was a small, semi-rural town by the name of Ponyville. He has commanded me to relay this information to you.
Your Loyal Servant,
Sergeant Hotshot
"Well I hope this is good enough." Hotshot said to himself as he carried the letter to the ship's communications unicorn, who was responsible for sending messages throughout the fleet, and the country. "Hey, send this to the princess would you?"
"Sir, yes sir!" the young mare replied, eager to do what her superior officer told her.
Ignoring the youth's enthusiasm Hotshot began to think. 'I wonder if I will ever see Geronimo again? And why do I feel as though something bad is going to happen to him?' shaking the thoughts from his head he continued down the hall to the training room where he was about to start training the new recruits.