//------------------------------//
// Getting To Know You 
// Story: Detour 
// by Jetset0099 
//------------------------------//

	There was darkness all around Jake as he laid flat and motionless. The only sound he could hear was the constant beeping of a heart monitor. He concluded he was in a hospital, then it all came back to him. How he had hit his head on the yoke during the landing and then collapsed in front of everyone.
"Oooh goodie! He's ok! Now I can throw him my Super Duper Spectacu-"
"Shhhh! Be quiet girls, I think he's waking up." said Twilight.
He couldn't recognize her voice, but the next voice he CLEARLY recongnized as the orange pony from his little encounter a while ago.
"I reckon he is. Mister, hey mister, wake up!"
With that he opened his eyes and gazed up at the white hospital celing.
"Ugh, where the hell am I?" he said.
Twilight spoke up and turned to face the stranger.
"Ahem, uh hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia's personal protigee." Rainbow Dash was sitting in a corner, and rolled her eyes at the statement.
"Anyways, you're in Ponyville General Hospital after suffering a small concussion and a deep cut to your head above your left eye."
Jake looked around at everyone else in the room. "These must be her friends." he thought. Then he turned back to Twilight and sat up in his bed.
"Um hi everyone. My name is Captian Jake Weston of American Flightline and I...." Then it clicked in his head. "Wait, Twilight was it?" She nodded. "You said you were Princess Celestia's student, well if you know her so well do you know where the hell she is? She said she'd be here when I landed. Unless she ditched me or something."
Twilight was stunned at this statement.
"Wait, why would she do something like that?!" she asked.
Jake was a little iterated at the Sun Goddesse's lie that she'd wait for him. 
"Well she kinda teleported onto my aircraft before I landed here and helped me bring it down safely, she was pretty good at flying it considering she'd never seen anything like that before."
"I'm flattered to say the least." 
Everyone turned and gasped. Before them in the doorway of the room stood Princess Celestia, accompanied by a grumpy looking Luna. Everyone bowed except for Jake, who felt very awkward at the moment. Then he cleared his throat and addressed the Princess in a somewhat annoyed tone. 
"Well it's good to see you again, I thought you ditched me at the field. Well I guess you kinda did. But what happened? Why weren't you there?"
Celestia had a look of shame on her face due to the fact that she had let somepony in need down like that.
"Jake I am so sorry I left you. As I was teleporting I was so focused on the situation at hand that I didn't focus on WHERE to teleport to. My natural instinct just teleported me back to Canterlot Castle's throne room. After arriving, my magic was too drained to come back to Ponyville via teleportation, so I took Luna and boarded the Royal Chariot to get here as quick as possible. I'm sorry for any trouble I caused."
Jake felt like an idiot to assume she had just ditched him. He thought to himself, "she's the ruler of a God damned nation, do you think she'd revert to doing something assholes in high school do to each other?"
Planning out his apology as he went, he spoke in a very solemn tone. 
"I...I'm sorry for assuming you of all peop-uh ponies 'man I have to watch that' would do something so low. I was a fool for doing so."
Celestia smiled and said, "You have nothing to be apologetic for, I made the error."
Jake turned to the other six ponies and spoke to them. 
"Well I guess I'll be here for a while. The C-130 is bogged down to the belly, and even if it wasn't, I don't have enough room to take off again. But lets say I had both of those problems fixed. It wouldn't matter because I'm out of fuel. Not a drop left." He looked out the window and chuckled to himself. "Man the stuff that can happen in a day."
It was Rarity's turn to speak up now. 
"Actually darling, you've been passed out for about sixteen hours now. It's nine in the morning."
Jake was stunned to say the least. 
"What?! It was only a little cut!" Then he turned to Celestia. 
"Wait, I thought you said you came back as quick as possible. Wouldn't you have been here by now?"
Celestia replied, "By the time we got back here, you had been emitted into the hospital and were still unconcious. Being royalty I wanted to lay low until I heard you were awake so I could actually talk to you. So me and Luna stayed on the outskirts of town until I heard you'd awoken." 
"Well thank you then for your concern. Im stuck here for awhile I think. As I said, the plane isn't going anywhere."
Applejack's interest perked up at the reference of his plane again. 
"What exactly is that contraption that we saw yesterday. It was like a giant metal bird of some sorts." she said. 
Jake had a confused look plastered on his face, and Celestia caught wind of it. 
"We don't have 'aircraft' here in Equestria. We have hot air balloons, but nothing like everypony saw back there. Please explain to us what it is. Even I'm not to sure and I'm curious to know."
Everyone sat down and directed their attention to the captain. Jake began his explanation.
"Well how do I begin. What you saw back there was a Lockheed C-130 Hercules, or just C-130 for short. Basically it's a machine that lets me fly myself along with heacy cargo long distances across the country. It uses fuel to power the four propellers on the wings. Two on either side. It's hard to describe exactly what it is without showing you. So when I get out of here, I'll show you the plane." He turned to the rest of the ponies in the room. "You all can come too I guess. But we haven't been properly introduced yet. You know my name, but I don't know any of yours."
Twilight took the role of introducer, and stepped forward. 
"Well you've already met me. But these are my closest friends. This here is Rarity. She runs a fashion store in town called the Carousel Boutique." The purple maned unicorn batted her eyelashes and waved to him. 
Twilight continued, "This is Pinkie Pie, she works at the local bakery, Sugarcube Corner." The party pony bounced up and down at her name being said.
"Yuppers, that's me! Ooh Im gonna have so much fun planning your Welcome to Ponyville party!"
Twilight rolled her eyes. 
"Er yeah ok, anyways, this is Fluttershy, she takes care of animals and is, well uh...shy." The pegasus had her face hidden in her mane and looked down at the floor. 
"This is Applejack, she runs Sweet Apple Acres just outside of town, and from what she's told me, you two have already met." Twilight tried to suppress laughter at the thought of this new pony being attacked by her friend. She could be very "intimidating" at times. 
Applejack however, looked the opposite of intimidating as she spoke to him. 
"Ahm sorry for assumin' things when ah should've asked first and got the details. Mah brother forgives ya too after ah told him why that happened to you and that hittin' our barn was a mistake."
Jake was confused. "Wait, what happened to your brother?"
"Well when y'all hit our barn, some debris came flyin' down an' fell on top o' him. He has a bump to his head an' his left front leg was beat up mighty bad. But it didn't break, an' I'm  assumin' he'll be right back up in a weeks time. Nothin to worry about."
The pilot opened and closed his mouth a couple times, unsure of what to say. 
"I need to go apologize to him. I never intended for anypony to get hurt. 'Huh, their lingo is rubbing off on me already.' I'm sorry for any trouble I caused you. I also intend to work off my debt and pay you back for the damages somehow."
Applejack grinned, "Well thank ya kindly parter, it'd be nice to have someone to take over doin' Big Mac's chores while he's out."
Twilight spoke up again. 
"Well now that's all settled lets continue. This here is Rainbow Dash, she's the weather captain here in Ponyville."
"And?"
"Oh yes, and she's the fastest flyer in Equestria."
"Darn right I am! And I'm sorry for assuming things too. But watch where your going next time got it flyboy?"
Jake rolled his eyes. 
"Yes ill try to be more careful next time...if there is a next time." Jake sighed and turned to Twilight, who only had one more pony to introduce. 
"And last but not least, is Princess Luna. She is Celestia's sister and the co-ruler of Equestria." Luna looked at Jake and spoke. 
"Charmed. I heard all about your arrival on my way over here. I must say, you made my day hearing about how much you scared my sister by asking her to take control of your aircraft."
Celestia looked annoyed.
"Oh Luna, you would've been just as scared as I was. Anyways, now that we have the introductions out of the way, I would like you to show me that aircraft in greater detail than I saw before."
"Well I'd love to. But I'm stuck here in this hospital until they release me."
Celestia laughed and held up his release form in a yellow aurora of magic and said, "Jake, being the ruler of Equestria has it's perks." She stepped aside and gestured towards out the door. 
"Shall we?"