//------------------------------//
// Wings of grace 
// Story: My Life as a Suit Pon 
// by Prismfire Productions 
//------------------------------//

It took just a matter of minutes to get away from the tornado and plant, and when the suit thought we had gotten far enough away to be considered safe she landed, making my palms and feet hurt at the sudden contact with the ground through the suit. "That should be far enough away..." She softly said with a pant as she trotted over to a nearby apple tree and leaned against it, my back now being supported felt good on my achy muscles. "I feel bad for all who live in the path of that thing..."

"You aren't the only one..." I decided to talk via mental speech so I could hear my own voice, my words verbally being now that of the suit's creeped me out a bit. "So who are you, where do you come from, and why were you in the reactor room?"

"My name is Tammilya Vokner, and I am a pegasus from a land known as Equestria. Back home one of our Diarchs, who's name is Princess Celestia, controls our planet's sun and her sister Princess Luna controls our moon. Due to threats from her enemies, including Minotaurs from Tartarus and a demented bugpon, Princess Celestia had a special building built. This building, which she calls a Sol Dome, is run by graduates from her School for Gifted Unicorns that have a very high command and pool of magic potential..."

I cut her off before she could continue. "Princess Cel-what? Not to mention minotaurs, Tartarus and the what not are things found in Anciet Greece, so are you a time traveler? No, you can't be because magic does not exist."

"Yet..."'She paused for effect before continuing. "here you are stuck inside of a magical, talking, protective pegasus suit. Also, I never heard of this "Greece" that you speak of unless you are talking about the kind that cooks hayfries. However I have been to Fleece, nice country really especially the capital Baathans, good place to learn ancient Eques history. It is also close to Prance and Bridlely, so you could have a whole vacation without having to go very far."

I deadpanned. "So you are meaning to tell me you have ponified equivalents of countries here on Earth? Yeah right, that is the most ridiculous thing I have heard yet and proves I must be dead." I knew I was grasping at straws, but I was trying to find a logical explanation for all of this.

"If you were dead," She then pointed a hoof to the tornado. "That would not be there now would it...Now to get back on track, the unicorns' jobs is simple, due to specialized training, they harness Celestia's sun's power in the event she is unable to fulfill her duty. You see, the citizens are known to be thrown into a panic on what seems like a weekly basis over the littlest issues, so if she is incompacitated the magic stored in the Sol Dome will keep the sun moving like normal until she returns to her full strength..."

"So a backup system in case the main one suffers a failure?" I asked, once again interrupting her, a sharp irritated nod that made me slightly dizzy was her answer. "So how does the magic get stored anyway, some kind of large vat?"

"Kinda, and I will get to that shortly if you would kindly stop interrupting me..." She said with a small huff and I couldn't help but notice a slight Russian accent when she spoke when aggravated so I kept my mouth shut not knowing how she could hurt me in this state, and really, I didn't want to know. "Thank you sir," She said continuing. "but anyways, the reason I was in the reactor room was because back home we had a malfunction. Princess Celestia, in a foalish manner, got mad that a certain pink pony that I will talk to you about later ate her royal daily midday cake; her anger flared and a powerful blast of magic energized and shot from her sun and hit the dome."

"So like a Coronal Mass Ejection from the sun here, a major one can knockout electronics if it is big enough. Before you get mad, I'm just trying to find reference points so I can have an idea of the magnitude of the event that brought you here. No offense, but it sounds like this Princess Celestia you speak of is kinda childish to get mad at someone eating their cake, couldn't she get another one?"

"I know that is what you are doing, that is why I'm trying to be patient but it is starting to wear thin. As far as the cake goes, put yourself in her hooves; if somepony came into your house uninvited, ate your food, and then told you to your face "the market has got more" then left how would you feel?" I didn't say a word, regretting what I had initially said so Tammilya continued her story. "That's what I thought, now back to the incident, It was too much for our unicorn stabilizers to handle and the influx overloaded their horns. That, in turn, knocked them all out and one went through the air and hit me into the containment cell where the magic is stored. Reason I couldn't dodge is because my back was turned while I was collecting measurements. Instead of liquifying me like a thought it would, it made me black out and when I came to my senses I was in your reactor room having no clue where I was or how I got there. Not even ten minutes later you came in and when I saw you were unprotected I decided to save your life and the rest is history. Enough about me for the moment, how about you tell me a little about what kind of pony are you and about your Sol Dome since it is unlike anything I had ever seen."

"First of all, I'm a human not a pony." I felt her tense up for some reason when I said I was a human, but decided to put that off until later. "Second of all, my name is Jim. Third of all, that was not a "Sol Dome" you were at, but the Airtseuqe Nuclear Plant where I am a Nuclear Physicist. The plant was was supposed to be a brand new design that would increase electrical output from the available fuel rods, but more than once during construction I cited several dangerous cutbacks to the construction team but each time they were overlooked because they assured me that everything was safe. Way I see it is that tornado is going to test those faults to their limit, I just hope the cooling tower doesn't crumble and collapse. On another note, when can I be let out of the suit?" 

She didn't respond at first, just took a long sad sigh and that made my hope drop to rock bottom and what she said next only further dampened my mood. "Unfortunately...only Her Highness can undo the zipper, it is enchanted to fully protect whomever is inside in the event of a runaway reaction occurring by sealing them in. However I hope we can find a way back soon, otherwise you won't get out...you will literally become me. The reason that is the case is because I was only designed to handle the fallout of such an event for four days, after that I need to live so the pony inside, or in this case you, slowly becomes fused to my form. Right now we are having a "service-service" mutualistic arrangement but it would become a parasitic form of "service-resource" beyond that four day window."

"So you are telling me that unless I get out the suit in the next 96 hours I am gonna die...basically anyway..." I hung my head, the suit's, as I stared at the ground. In this moment I realized that I was starting to have a little better sensory feel for the outside environment in some places, like my palms and feet which were in the hoof slots, since it seemed like a I could actually feel the ground beneath me; another major difference was the fact that my back no longer hurt in between the shoulders and a quick flex made the wings slightly move. "So what will it be like as you?"

"Live the rest of your days as a pony...as me...work in the Sol Dome, praise our Diarchs, a real simple and easy life really." The answer, accompanied by a shrug, made it seem like it was a rehearsed answer. "Let's worry about that later though Jim, right now we have more pressing matters at hoof, like making sure your coworkers are safe." That logic was sound, I couldn't argue with it, and after a brisk nod the suit spread her wings and took off again. I noticed one big difference compared to the first time, the movements didn't hurt my shoulders, for my sanity I chalked it up as getting used to the movements. A few minutes later we got back to the reactor, the tornado already off in the distance and a light cold rain had started falling. "Ok Jim, you need to tell me where to go."

"My coworkers can wait, let's circle the large tower right there a few times first, I want to see if there is any structural damage. I can already see that the cooling ponds are empty, and this rain will help but when the rain stops that is going to become a major problem due to the heat output causing a full blown meltdown." Before I could continue the suit did something I would not expect, she flew up to above the cloud layer and started stomping on the clouds, as she did I could hear the storm intensify and about 15 minutes later she stopped. 

"That should fill it up, back home pegasi like myself have a natural ability to control the weather, that is why I was able to do what I just did." She then descended from the cloud layers and started circling the cooling tower, both of us noticing several large cracks near the top that creeped along like mangle strands of spider silk and stopped about a fourth of the way down from the top. "That doesn't look good..." She softly said as we landed. 

"Looks worse than it actually is..." I said with a visible sigh of relief. "Thankfully it is going to stay standing, now to shift focus...I want you to stop that tornado before it reaches the next town to keep the fallout to a minimum, can you do that?"

Tammilya nodded. "Yeah I can, hang on because you are about to be taken for the ride of your life." She took off at a speed that nearly broke the sound barrier from the get-go, rapidly closing in and wrapping around the now-EF3 tornado in a tight rotation opposite to the tornado's and slowly started to weaken it. "I don't know if we can pull it off in time!" Panic was evident in her tone, gripping her like a slow acting venom.

"Yes you can but you have to trust me." I said keeping a calm facade but the town coming into view on the horizon was slowly raising my panic levels so I went with a plan so stupid the only person I knew who would have even attempted to do it would have been Evil Knievel. The town sirens started screaming like banshees in my eardrums snapped me back to full attention to my surroundings. "Fly up and dive bomb the center, find a way to destroy it from the inside out. Hurry because we have maybe 15 minutes at the most before we are looking at a radioactive tornado hitting a densely populated area."

"Hang on!" She tilted her wings and began a rapid ascent, the sudden change in altitude and pressure making my ears pop and nearly making me blackout but I somehow managed to overcome it when her flight level stabilized and hovered above the dark gaping mawl of the monster below us. "Ok I am about to attempt the dive bomb, you ready in there?"

"As ready as I'll ever be, I don't have a choice in the matter so let's save everyone's lives. " She nodded and bolted downward, and as bad as instinct urged me to shut my eyes, a nagging part of my brain told me that was a bad idea so I kept them open as the black hole of destruction got bigger and bigger in my vision. Before we entered, the suit suddenly banked left and started kicking away a large swath of clouds in front of the vortex. As much as I tried to convince myself otherwise, I could feel every strike on the clouds, which felt like a combination of cotton and Egyptian silk against my palms and feet. This in turn got me thinking that maybe I didn't have four days after all, but my inward reflection was cut short by the suit getting my attention.

"Sorry I didn't do your plan Jim but I just thought of that one on the fly." She said with a pant and she slowly hovered in place and we watched the last of the tornado dissipate. "Rainbow Dash would be so proud of that I did..."

"I assume that is one of your friends or is your senpai or something along those lines, however I have to ask you a question, is it normal to start feeling accustomed to you and feel things on the outside of you? I am also curious what made you think of that plan, it was brilliant and far more effective than mine would have been." I had made sure to ask while she was standing on the ground taking a breather to give her wings, and my shoulders, a small break before we took back off.

I could feel the corners of Tammilya's muzzle pull up in a prideful grin. "I thought about the fires that would have errupted if it had hit something major, just as oxygen is a fire's fuel source, tornadoes need cloud bank to move along. By removing the cloud bank, I removed the path it could take. The answer to your other question is also simple, it is normal to feel accustomed, that way you have a basic idea of what I feel just in case we can't get you out in time." She said as we slowly flew back towards the plant, no need to rush now that the preliminary crisis had been adverted.  "So there is nothing to worry about right now, still got 92 hours to get me back home and you out of me. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Princess Celestia offered to make you a pony and have you stay in Equestria, no offense but you do not seem happy right now."

For some unexplained reason I took offense to that. "Would it be better than I got now? I have no family, no friends, and a shitty as hell boss that couldn't give two shits about anyone but himself. Hell, he basically told me to do the suicide mission in the reactor room while he was the first one to the shelter. ln fact it is his fault for the shortcuts that were used, including not having enough suits available, just to line his fat pockets."

"I am sure if you think long and hard enough you will find someone or something you will deeply miss if you cannot get out of me, and I suggest you use the spare time you have thinking about that subject. Well, in the present you can look on the bright side, you can now do something your boss can't...you can fly..." She said with a tone that showed she was trying her best to help keep me calm and not have a mental overload. 

"Ok, I'll try..." I took a few deep inhaled to focus, and the thing is her tactic was actually working. Although I would never admit it outloud, I would be a lying man if I said that I did not start singing "I Believe I Can Fly" in my head after her last remark. My mind eventually did turn to thinking about what I would miss, the first thing that came to mind was my job. Sure I dealt with a lot of bullshit but I loved doing what I did. That got me thinking, did they even have radioactive isotopes in Equestria? If not, I was basically useless since I had no other skills to speak of. As we flew, I spotted a field of roses off in the distance to my left, my mind remembering how that was my deceased mother's favorite flower, and how I would go to the local Festival of Roses to pick up a dozen to place on her grave when her birthday came up. That was the point that hit my soul and sent an icy cold chill up my spine, if I could never return, her grave would fall away to obscurity and be forgotten to the winds of time. "You know Tammilya...there are a few things I would miss now that I've thought about them. The question on my mind is this, how are we going to get back to Equestria?"

All traces of a smile, and good mood, vanished from Tammilya's complexion. "That is the question...now isn't it..." Silence then sunk in as reality had showed us that cruel slap to the face, unsure as to what fate had in store.