//------------------------------// // The Big Jump // Story: The Guardian // by NYChris824 //------------------------------// Two months after the commission "Hey Dan, have you seen much of Michael recently?" Twilight asked "Not as much as before, but I've been doing more work and he has some big event coming up." I said "Why?" "I've rarely seen him the past week. Just curious, you know?" She said. I nodded along. "He's just busy at work. Give him a week and he'll be back again real soon." Twilight looked around the room, ears flicking up and down, twisting trying to hear something. It was easy to read ponies sometimes. My small eyes and my lack on control on my ear muscles made it hard to hard me along with David and Michael "What's wrong?" "I hear a buzzing, kinda like a fly but it's a different pitch, a little deeper." It took me a minute to hear it, but whatever it was passed by a window. We ran over and looked outside. "That crazy son of a bitch!" I yelled "He built a fucking plane!" "How?" Twilight asked, a shocked look on the face, eyes wide. Looking at it, I could tell it wasn't hard. It was basically a redo of the Wright brothers, canvas on the wings and a wood frame along with two wings. The only difference is that Michael painted the German flag on the plane. "It's not overly hard." I said "Some fabric and some wood and at that point its trial and error. I wonder where he found the engine from." "Where did he store it at? He obviously didn't stor it here or anywhere near town." "Good question, ask him when he lands." I said, we watched him fly around town before he began to fly away. I waved at his back "Thanks for visit- oops there goes the engine." I said as black smoke began to come out. "C'mon we have to find him!" Twilight said as she ran off. "I hope he built a parachute." I said, slowly walking. *** Michael POV I watched the propeller lazily flap around in the breeze. The engine I pulled from some old pile of junk from the local scrapyard and I fixed it as much as I could. There was a small selection of books on engines and how to fix them. Still a twenty minute flight was a good start. I looked around the landscape before tilting the nose down to earn some speed. I double checked my harness as I came closer to the ground. I couldn't make it back to Sweet Apple Acres, but the fact that there were plenty of open fields to land in made up for it. I steered towards a field for make a quick landing. I couldn't find wheels for landing gear so I forced to make skids like helicopters had. I looked to my side to try and gauge how close I was to the ground. I felt the jarring hit as the skids met the ground. I continued to cruise down the field, burning speed. I heard a snap as the left skid broke apart and the left wing met the dirt. The plane began to spin around and I slammed further into the seat by G-force, I closed my eyes and prayed. *** Dan POV "Lets go check on Michael." I said, imitating Twilight. "Except I'll fly there and you can walk. God I wish I bought a motorcycle." Like the cars, the bikes were all from the 1920s, I've never ridden one, but I always wanted to. I finally found the field where Michael crashed, standing with Twilight and Dash, looking st his wrecked bird. "Probably something in the engine." Michael said, giving the engine a kick. "And you thought doing this without telling anyone was smart because?" Twilight asked "We can worry about that later." I said as I joined them. I turned to Michael "Why didn't you include me on this project." "How much do you know about flying?" He asked "The engine pushes the plane and the wings keep it in the air." "He's not wrong." Dash said "Extremely basic, but not wrong." "See? I can be a pilot. Where'd you get the engine from?" "Some car in the scrapyard. Also found the wires from there. Think the oil pressure went." "Getting back to the point." Twilight said, glaring at me. "Why did you think this was a good plan?" "Think about Twilight!" Dash said "That thing is way faster than airships, smaller and probably cheaper." "Not to mention that's just what humanity does." I added "What? Just go and build some flying machine for no reason?" "Well," I began "wrong. We did so to to fly with the birds and whatnot." "I was told the first plane was built because the Wright brothers wanted to drop rocks on everyone." Michael added "And could ya blame them?" I said "What were there names again?" Twilight said "Wilville and Orbur." "Way off. But getting back to the main part of conversation." I said, looking at the plane. "Is that thing safe? Like no leaking gas or oil or anything else." "There's some gas leakage but I shut the engine down before I landed. I'll drag this back and see what went wrong." "Dibs on flying next!" I yelled *** Three months later "I like to think we've seen a lot." I said "We've been here for, like, three months." James said. James showed up three months back. He, like everyone else, woke up near town. He also has never seen the inside of a tank before so he walked instead. His stroll took him close to Canterlot before he was found by some farmers in their barn. "And you spent a week walking." Michael said, taking a drag from a cigarette. James brushed the snow off his skin and stood up. "And you knew how to drive? I'm going in, it's way too cold for my black arse." "I'm going in too. We Californians hate the cold." I said. "Are you sure you want go through with this?" I asked James. "At least I have experience and Michael has a small amount too." "Positive. You remember what David say, yea? 'We have tanks for a reason.' Besides I was planning to back home. Follow me dad's footsteps." "He'd be proud of you." "He already was." James walked into his room and I kept walking. "Hey Jackie." I said and gave her a hug. "Hey there yerself." "Haven't seen you in a while, what's up?" "Doin' nothing like I've been doing for the last month." "Lucky you." "How about you? Still planning to join?" She said. "Yea. We all are." *** "We've all decided that we're going to join the army." I said. We planned to tell everyone at dinner. "All of you?" Vinyl asked. "Yep. Consider this my four and a half month notice. Give or take two weeks." "Even David and I." James said. "And me." Michael muttered. "You're not joining the Air Force?" Twilight asked "Given how insanely different the Air Force here and the Luftwaffe is. I won't have any sort of learning curve. "Neither would I." I said "Using a bolt action rifle would be a just a little different from an M4 and M16." "So when do you all leave? I need to plan the party!" Pinkie said. "Sometime in the spring." Michael said "we missed the last group shipping out to basic." "Besides; how bad can basic be?" James said "It's basic that's not hard. Combat is horrid, but also some of the best moments in your life. Even then we'll just be sitting around mostly. Like that one time when several guys attempted to earn their parachutes by jumping on a third story window." *** Five months later It was early spring when we left. We boarded a train headed to Evermore Springs, a town between Batlimare and the Foal River. "See ya later dude." Dash said to me. "I'll show up again real soon." I said to her. I moved onto the last person with us to show goodbye. "I'll be back in a few months." I said to Vinyl "Yea well, you quit and you were a shitty repairer." She said, pushing my arm. "Sure I was." I said sarcastically, as I rolled my eyes "I can handle small parts with precision. I was the best damn repair man you had." I gave Vinyl a hug goodbye and stepped on the train. We pulled out and began our trip across the country. "You guys ready?" I said "We won't be back here for until midsummer. Move over Mike." "What's it gonna be like?" James asked, sitting across from me. "No clue. Unlike home, there's a lack of military TV shows about basic. Some on current things or past wars. It's the regular army, it's not like it's BUDS or Ranger school. It'll be more like I what did." "So what'd you do in basic?" "When you first get their you get your haircut, clothes and medical tests. Then started off learning about ranks and Marine history, kinda felt I was back in school. We moved onto drilling and hand to hand. The fourth week was basically swim class since that's our heritage. Week five was some more testing and learning to rappel. Then we started to learn about guns and we spent a week on the range learning about them. Week seven was using live rounds; I remember some guy put a bullet in his foot and was recycled." "Gee thanks for that story." James said, sarcastically. "We got a week off, but by that I mean we cleaned building and did laundry. I didn't understand but don't question things. Then they taught us some more survival and combat stuff. Did some more PT and began the Crucible." "The what?" David asked. "It's this fifty something hour grinder that tests on everything and you get a few hours of sleep. After that I got my globe, anchor and eagle and made a full Marine. Hoorah." "We had a similar experience." Michael said "Only less combat and more on planes. I placed in the top 10 of my company and had the chance to be a pilot." "I was top 30. I was tempted to join artillery but that has a lot of math. I was considering doing something with tanks or LAVs. I've considered going to Annapolis and becoming an officer." "Would be a second leftutenant?" James asked "That's lieutenant." I said, "I think I would be a little higher since I have experience. Even if it's a normal lieutenant.". I closed my eyes and fell asleep. *** "Hey wake up, we have arrived." I heard Michael said, nudging me. I sat up and looked out the window. Sure enough there was a platform and a mural on the wall that said Evermore Springs. I turned my attention back to the car and noticed that it was filled now, along with the rest of the train. "Perfect. You know what's next." "Yea, bus time. Do they have even have buses?" Michael said as we stood up and joined the line to leave. "They have trucks so I do see why not. There's an officer, I think.." "Mares and gentlecolts. Welcome to Evermore Springs. Out front we have plenty of buses to take to Camp Warwick. Thank you." "He seems nice now, just until you fuck something up." I said "Officers don't do the training." James said "Yea, back home. We'll see soon." *** "Did I do this right?" The man next to me asked. I glanced at his bed, freshly made. His rucksack sat on top of his footlocker, his next item to handle. I walked over to it and walked around like my first name was Gunnery Sargeant. "Straighten out the top of this and redo the left part." I commented as I stole a glance at the look. 1655. "We have five minutes so no real reason to rush." "Alright. Thanks." "No prob." I said. I was quickly seen as an old man amongst these baby faced, despite being covered in fur, recruits. The fact I have seen war firsthand added to that fact. "Drill Instructor on deck!" A voice shouted and we all ran up to our beds.