//------------------------------// // Departure! // Story: Ponies on a Plane // by Tartdefiance //------------------------------// Ponies on a Plane by Tartdefiance Part 1: Departure! The plateau near Ghastly Gorge had never been this crowded in late autumn. Half of Ponyville was assembling around an improvised stage where two ponies gave a speech, right next to a huge, strange metal construct reflecting the afternoon sunlight. The other half of Ponyville displayed an unusually reasonable behavior: They had decided to stay as far away as possible from that thing. It was indeed a very disturbing sight: Shaped like a giant, bulky “T” with a nose, a tail and one enormous, ominous airscrew on each of the two oversized wings, the custom-built beast looked like it had just arisen from a crazy engineer’s nightmare. And that was basically kind of what had happened. On a hastily built runway leading to a cliff, the monstrosity now reared its ugly head, a mockery to good taste in general and the unlucky bird its design was based on in particular. The thought that this metal monstrosity was actually supposed to fly seemed downright absurd. It was the direct opposite of all the light, swift or elegant flying creatures it was trying to imitate, especially of the delicate and graceful female pegasus who was currently sitting under its left wing. However, the construct shared a characteristic with the earth pony mare who was attempting to take the yellow pegasus’s photo: decrepitude. “Alrighty then, where were we?” Granny Smith struggled with the implementing of her old, vintage photo camera. True, the design of photography devices was never changed after their invention, so they didn’t look quite as modern as, let’s say, DJ Pon3’s DJ desk. But at least their functionality and the picture quality had improved drastically. As far as style was concerned, most ponies had nothing against old-fashioned, functionally adequate designs. If it goes smoothly, why change it? Granny Smith was one of the ponies following this phrase, although she didn’t limit it to visual enhancement. Furthermore, her definition of “smoothly” appeared to differ from the norms of the general public. On these grounds, her camera with pedestal did not only look old-fashioned, it actually happened to be a real pioneer model. Just like Granny Smith herself. She had begun slapping the rebellious old-timer. “You were about to take a picture of me, close to the plane, before it flies away?” Fluttershy smiled shyly, somehow creating a squealing sound. “Why yes, here we go. There’s no need to be nervous. Can you try to look a tad more… more… adorable? Sweet Celestia, not THAT much, you’re melting my poor ol’ heart! Now that’s what we wanna see… Hold on, Ah’ma get this runnin’!” The old mare disappeared under the blanket which momentarily served as light protection for the camera. Then she started mumbling unintelligibly. Fluttershy hold the pose. She really didn’t mean to upset Granny Smith, or anypony else who might be watching, by moving even the slightest bit. She could do this. Certainly, it wouldn’t take more than a minute or two... Meanwhile, the speech given by Twilight Sparkle and Pinkamena Diane Pie at the opening ceremony came to its end. “… wanted to thank you all for your support. Without Ponyville’s help, this top secret government scheme would have never been able to pull off!” Pinkie babbled while bouncing around happily. Twilight kept her from falling off the stage via levitation magic. “What Pinkie Pie meant to say is… Princess Celestia isn’t completely sure if all of Equestria is ready for this… revolutionary innovation. So she has given this unique project into Ponyville’s charge, because she trusts us the most. Also, that’s why we are starting our flight in the Ghastly Gorge on this exceptionally cloudy day. We do not intend to scare anypony…” the purple unicorn tried to explain. “And if our project is too heavy to take off, nopony but us will notice!” Pinkie interjected cheerfully, helpful as ever. Twilight Sparkle cleared her throat and dropped the pink earth pony back on the platform. “Any questions?” “Yes, here. Speaking of being too heavy, is there a reason you called your invention fat plane?” a filly with a lilac and white mane asked snappishly. Diamond Tiara was her name, as well as her cutie mark, as well as her most favored accessory. Her father prodded her disapprovingly. “You can call him only plane if you want, although he is a bit tubby…” Pinkie began her explanation, achieving scattered laughter in the crowd. “But his full name is FAT PLaNE, Fast Aerial Transportation of Pony Lot and Neighboring Equines. I first planned to call him FAT PLot, but then I thought of Zecora and all the other zebras... and donkeys, too! I wanted to give all our grounded friends the opportunity of flying really fast and really, really high! Oh, and FAT PLot was SUCH a silly name…” she giggled. Most listeners snickered without really knowing why. This was one of the rather specific effects Pinnkie Pie had on crowds. Twist, the filly with the red curls and the tremendous purple glasses, had put her hoof up. “Another question? Yes?” Twilight encouraged. “You said that this was super secret, but you also said earlier that you would take the scenic route to Canterlot around Cloudsdale,” Twist lisped, not so much posing a question as pointing out a flaw in the speakers’ statements. “Well, as I just said, we are going to fly above the clouds most of the time and land behind Canterlot to avoid unwanted attention, but we are sure the population of Cloudsdale will react very positively to a small aerobatic display. We visited the city a while ago and can confirm that they are used to a lot of air travel, so we won’t cause too much trouble…” Twilight bluffed it out like an expert. But she was about to get more friendly fire from Pinkie. “Plus, Cloudsdale is sorta in the way of our course over the clouds! And were not too sure about the range of FAT PLaNE yet, so we have to stay close to the direct route past the city in the sky, you know, just in case. Any more questions or inconsistencies?“ the pink mare chimed in. Twilight Sparkle forced herself to keep grinning, but was starting to sweat. Fortunately, she wasn’t the only one who thought this show had gone long enough. While the others were still thinking about asking questions and exposing illogicalities, Diamond Tiara’s father thrust himself forward and climbed the stage. “Fillies and Gentlecolts, as you all know, this event is brought to you by Rich's Barnyard Bargains and sponsored by me, Filthy Rich, since town hall is out of bits again,” he announced, whereas the Mayor of Ponyville smiled sheepishly in response to a couple of dirty looks, “thus I’m proud to present the bottle of apple cider for the initiation of this ship... airship, I mean, plane. May he fly save and well!” With this, he hoofed Twilight the bottle, and the crowd cheered loud. He then walked off to the aircraft to apply some stickers to a part of the plane’s tail. If there were by chance any ponies who caught a glimpse of the FAT PLaNE, they should also be informed that Rich's Barnyard Bargains by Filthy Rich, whose cutie mark was three sacks of money and who lived in Ponyville, a wonderful holiday spot by the way, was their first choice to buy everything they need. He was so certain that he had stolen the show. Cute. “Alright, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, you know what to do. Go!” Twilight Sparkle shouted elatedly and threw the bottle into the air. It was instantly entangled in a lasso. “Gotcha,” Applejack mumbled through the other end of the rope, then built momentum by swirling the bottle of cider through the air. After a little while, she let go. As all eyes followed the bound container soar into the sky, the rainbow colored flash behind them went almost unnoticed. Suddenly, the lasso was yanked out of the air and pulled into a risky loop culminating in an abrupt stop, right over Filthy Rich. Half a second later, the attached bottle barely missed him and hit his logos on the plane at full speed instead, bursting into thousands of pieces, while engulfing Filthy in a cloud of unpleasantly sticky apple cider. The impact of the former cider container was even powerful enough to loosen the struck part of the aircraft with the now soaked stickers. Or maybe the whole thing was just very badly built. “Aw YEAH, 100 points,” Rainbow Dash commented her assault. Mr. Rich was the first to find his tongue. “That tie… was new!” he stammered bewilderedly. The crowd jubilated and stomped their hooves nevertheless. Some ponies even called for an encore. All they got to see was Dash posing in mid-air, relishing the attention, though. Until she was ungently dragged down by magic. “You have an awful propensity to exaggerate sometimes, you know that?” Twilight groaned. Everypony was still cheering wildly, except Diamond Tiara and her father, who both looked somewhat miffed recently. “I regret nothing.” Rainbow Dash grinned. A loud, honking sound interrupted the commotion. “That’s the signal!” Pinkie Pie called out, “We’re taking off in a few minutes! All Elements of Harmony and Big Macintosh, meet me at the cargo ramp. Everypony else: SAFETY CLEARANCE!!!” They didn’t need to be told twice. After Pinkie’s sudden, hysteric and immoderately loud command, they had literally turned tail and fled. All but Twilight Sparkle, who was a little bit too confused at the moment. “Did our plane just… honk? Why would you install a horn… on a plane?” Although Twilight hadn’t asked her or anypony else in particular, Pinkie Pie was pleased to be able to answer the question. “Because, silly,” she enlightened her lavender friend with a comforting hoof on her shoulder, “we are not alone up there.” Pinkamena Diane Pie chuckled and bounced away. Twilight opened her mouth to object. Then she changed her mind and shook her head instead. Pinkie would always have a point. Or something incomprehensible that turned out to be some kind of point later. Sometimes, it was just truly difficult to comprehend anything Pinkie Pie did. Twilight Sparkle began walking over to the aircraft and sighed. Take this “newest” invention for example. Technically, it was one of Pinkie’s oldest works. She was still a little filly when she had begun to add together all the parts, following a blueprint she had seen in her dreams… As far as Twilight Sparkle knew Pinkie Pie, it sounded incredible enough to be true. Anyhow, little Pinkie couldn’t find a sufficient energy supply, and later dumped the whole thing because it was “too clumsy”. The pink filly hadn’t even considered using magic as possible energy source. FAT PLaNE would have never seen the light of day, if she hadn’t told Twilight about the project several months ago. Back then, Twilight actually just wanted to know where Pinkie got her muscle powered flying machine, but it resulted in a spontaneous lecture in aerodynamics. In which Pinkie Pie mentioned the plane as counterexample. Twilight Sparkle hadn’t even really started to explain how the construct could be lifted by magic, but it turned out the idea alone was enough for Pinkie. She had immediately run off, keen on trying something new. And this, Twilight could understand. New things sure were throughout exciting. The realization had struck her a while after she had settled down in Ponyville this summer. Since then, it was “another day, another adventure”. For instance, Twilight Sparkle had just impulsively participated in the annual Running of the Leaves for the first time, and ranked 5th. Now she would board a plane for the first time, and she was absolutely confident. And absolutely lost in thought. Fluttershy had watched her walking between her and the camera in silent horror, but she really didn’t want to say anything, taking her pose into account. Besides, Granny Smith hadn’t succeeded in taking her photo for the last ten minutes, she surely wouldn’t succeed in the next ten seconds. Really, there was no need to… Click. BOOM! “Eep!” Fluttershy squeaked, suddenly dazzled. The flash and small explosion also jolted Twilight out of her daydreams. Dizzyingly, she turned around to meet Granny Smith’s gaze. The earth pony’s sooty muzzle slowly turned into a grin. “Here’s the pic for ya passport, young lady!” she prattled as she thrust a fresh, slightly burnt photo into Twilight’s hoof. Taken by surprise, Twilight Sparkle took a look at it. “Ah almost got ya whole face in profile. There seems to be somepony else in the background, though... and somepony’s house... and some trees... and a what’s-it-called-again? But Ah’m sure it’s OK, or you could cut it out, Ah guess.” The old earth pony dusted off her face with a blanket and former light protection. “What’s that odd thing good for anyway? Y’all know, when Ah was young, we didn’t need no fancy-schmancy whatever-it-is to do whatever-it-does, we used to do things ourselves!” “Um, it’s a plane, and it flies, you know, just like I told you...” Fluttershy didn’t mean to bother. “Back in my days, when we wanted to fly, we had to wrestle a manticore into submission! Good ol’ times. Now it’s all shiny new technology and what not. Well, gotta go. Y’all fillies are always welcome at tea. Cya!” Granny Smith had packed the remains of her antique camera together and wandered off. “Actually, we’re drinking tea with the princess today... But, but I’m sure tomorrow is fine!” The butter-colored pegasus waved her goodbye. Twilight was still staring at the picture while trying to comprehend what just had happened at the same time. Fluttershy glanced over her shoulder. “I’m sure Celestia doesn’t mind that you’re on the photo, too... I think it looks nice,” the pegasus reassured her unicorn friend. “It does?” Twilight Sparkle looked up. “Regardless, I’m sorry for disrupting your photoshoot... regardless. I was thinking about our air journey, and... wait, didn’t you say you wanted to present some of your animals to Celestia? What’s with the photo?” “Well, um, you see...” Fluttershy stuttered, “It’s more like my animal friends were very unhappy about Ponyville’s last Winter Wrap Up being late... um, again. So I thought, maybe if I moved them to Canterlot, Princess Celestia could install something for them in her castle’s garden. She did willingly, so I wanted to bring her a gift to... you know, show my appreciation...” “So you bring her a gift for accepting a gift? Oh, Fluttershy, that’s so typically kind of you!” Twilight laughed, levitating the picture by her side. “And I didn’t even know that Princess Celestia is one of your most loyal fans!” “N-No, it’s not like that!” Fluttershy blushed deeply. “It’s just, I don’t consider animals things, and I wanted to give the princess something she could hold in her hooves, to keep me in mind... oh my goodness. No, no, wait! It’s because, since we’re visiting the next Grand Galloping Gala, I thought I’d give the animals in the garden something as a gesture of friendship... s-some more friends? And, um... a picture of me... in front of a plane...?” “Calm down, I was merely joking.“ Twilight smiled soothingly. “But enough chitchat, it’s time to enplane!” - End of Part 1- Credits: My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic © Hasbro Picture sources: Cover:        MLP:FiM S1 E11 - Winter Wrap Up Photo:        Equestria’s first Photobomber and fat plane