Chapter 8: Problem
Fluttershy floated through the cottage to the door with a small bag of birdseed in her mouth. She looked over and saw Mitch laying on the couch with his hand on his forehead, and set the bag of birdseed down to talk.
"Everything alright, Mitch?" she asked.
"No. Everything is not alright. I'm bored as hell." Mitch said in reply.
"Language, Mitch," Fluttershy reminded him.
"Love and tolerance," Mitch said, remembering the talk they had that morning. "three days, still. Time as a pilot usually goes fast. Flying the planes makes hours seem like minutes. And it only seems like every other day FedEx wants us to fly a load of cargo out of Detroit. Sometimes I wish time would slow down, so that I could enjoy my life a bit more. But now, it's coming true. And I wish everything would go super speedy like it always did in Detroit."
"I spend most of my time tending to the animals. I was just going to refill my bird feeder, when I saw you like this."
"Work! I need a job! Flying planes from Detroit to other cities was my job on Earth, and that's how I spent time there! What time is it?"
"Um," Fluttershy trotted to a window to look at her sundial outside. "1:49,"
"There's still several hours of the day left. Several hours to work!"
"Um, where would you work, though?"
"On a farm. Like I did when I was a kid." Mitch was excited. "There is a farm somewhere, right?"
"Um, yes, Sweet Apple Acres, just up the road. It's an apple orchard. Mitch?"
"It'll be just like the good old days."
"Mitch?"
"I was on a wheat farm, you know, but I think I'm fully capable of picking apples."
"Mitch?"
"Oh, I just can't wait to get started! Where was it, again?"
"Mitch, listen! Oh, I mean, that is, if you don't mind."
"Yeah, what?"
"I got a letter from the hospital saying Mike's recovery has been very fast, and he can be let out early."
"When?"
"3:00,"
"Great! Is there anything else the letter said?"
"Yes, um, he had slight genital damage because one of the machines accidentally fell on him." Fluttershy's wings suddenly opened, and Mitch burst out laughing.
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Mitch was on another stroll through the Everfree forest, when just like yesterday, Rainbow Dash swooped down in front of him, holding a cupcake.
"Heya, Mitch! I got you a cupcake!" she said, handing it over to him.
"Where'd you get it?" he asked.
"Sugar Cube Corner, where else?" she asked.
"I don't like Sugar Cube Corner's cupcakes."
"What?!" Rainbow Dash trotted in front of Mitch and stopped. "How do you not like cupcakes?"
"I like cupcakes, I just don't like their cupcakes. They taste kinda weird."
"Weird how?"
"They taste like blood. You can have the eleven cupcakes I didn't eat last night." Mitch walked around her, but she stepped in front of him.
"How do they taste like blood?"
"They're sugary, and-"
"SUGARY! You think a cupcake tastes like blood because it's sugary!" Rainbow fell on her back, laughing at Mitch's remark.
"They also taste high in iron. Too high, I mean." that shut Dash up.
"No, they don't," Dash protested. Mitch rolled his eyes at her again.
"I think it might have to do with her 'special ingredient', whatever it is. Do you have any idea?"
"No,"
"Well, whatever it is, it's high in sugar and iron."
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3:10, that day
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"It should be right over here, come on!" Twilight led Mitch and Mike through the woods towards the plane so they could get out of here already. They came into the clearing where the plane had crash landed.
"Oh no!" said Twilight
"You gotta be kidding me," Mike said, throwing his head back.
"No, no, no, no! This can't be happening! Not now, not this plane! No! NO! NO!!!!" There was a problem here, a very, very big problem.
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4 hours earlier
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"This is a bad idea, Applebloom," Sweetie Belle complained
"Don't worry about it, Sweetie," said Scootaloo.
"Look!" Applebloom exclaimed, "There it is!" she was pointing a hoof at the huge plane in the open field. The Cutie Mark Crusaders climbed through the large cargo door to reach the cockpit.
"Shouldn't we be at school right now?" asked Sweetie. She was eager to get out of this. "Hey, Scoot, I hear Rainbow Dash is doing a big display over the schoolyard!" Scootaloo gasped.
"She is?"
"No, she isn't!" Applebloom cut in "She stopped flyin' and went to Sugar Cube Corner."
"I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to Sugar Cube Corner!" Scootaloo said, and flew off.
"I think I'm gonna go, too." Sweetie Belle said, and started to trot off the aircraft.
"Huh, ya big baby! Thought you'd have more guts!" Applebloom teased.
"Hey! I'm no big baby!" Sweetie said back.
"Then get over here and lets try to get piloting cutie marks!" so, Sweetie Belle trotted into the cockpit of the plane, and sat in the co-pilot seat, with Applebloom in the pilot's.
"Right, so, uh, how do we do this?" Applebloom asked.
"Try these levers here!" said Sweetie Belle, pushing one of the levers in between the seats upwards all the way. The right engine at the back of the plane began spinning from electricity, until the afterburner kicked in and it let out a horrible racket.
"What's happening?!" Applebloom yelled over the roar of the engine.
"The fan thing at the back! It's spinning really fast!" she gasped. "If it's spinning really fast, it's throwing air behind it, right? Well, isn't that what Pegasi do when they flap their wings?"
"Right!" yelled back Applebloom, and pushed the other two levers forward, starting up the other two engines.
"Nothing's happening!" yelled Sweetie Belle after a while.
"Uh, try some of these buttons!" the two started pressing random buttons, until the cargo door at the back closed, and the cockpit door closed, locking the two fillies in. The engines suddenly got louder, and the plane started skidding forward to the hill in front of them.
"Yes! They must have tah be closed fer safety!" Applebloom yelled, though she no longer had to.
"What do we do when we get to the hill?" asked Sweetie, as the plane got closer to the hill.
"It'll be like one of them movies, right? Where we go off a cliff and then fly?" Applebloom said.
"I don't think that happens in real life!" exclaimed Sweetie Belle. The nose of the plane began to go over the edge of the hill.
"So what do we do?" asked Applebloom in a panic.
"RUN!" yelled Sweetie Belle, running to the cockpit door and pulling on the red handle.
"Help me with this!" she yelled. Applebloom jumped on the handle, and forced it down. Sweetie pushed on the big metal door, and it opened with ease. The two jumped out just as the plane started to slide down the steep hill, and ducked as the wing passed over them. The plane hit a large rock and went sideways, which caused the wings, rudder, elevator and all three engines to snap off, as well as the cockpit door.
The two fillies watched the aircraft roll down the hill, until it finally came to a stop on the bottom, where the ground went up and became another hill. This wasn't just a steep hill, it was a valley.
"Hey guys, I was at Sugar Cube Corner, and I thought I heard Dash screaming... What is that down there?" Scootaloo asked, pointing a hoof in the direction of the plane sitting in the crook of land.
"And what is that? And that? And that?" she began pointing at the pieces of plane that had fallen off, and then stopped.
"Ohhh, you guys are in big trouble!"
"Well, this is a problem, wait, what'd you say 'bout Rainbow Dash?" asked Applebloom.