//------------------------------//
// A Change of Direction 
// Story: Wings 
// by BaroqueNexus 
//------------------------------//

A Change of Direction

At first, I didn’t regret leaving Ponyville. 
I felt sad, real sad. I knew that I would probably never see my friends again. We’d been through a lot, as friends, as rivals…as family. We were always there for each other, always loyal…
The humans have a phrase for that. Semper fidelis. I have no idea what it means. 
But I moved on. That’s not disloyal, is it? 
I mean, I wasn’t the only one.
When word got around Equestria that the portal spells had finally been released from the Canterlot Archives, people went crazy. I remember Twilight going nuts about it. She went on for days and days, so much so that even Pinkie Pie started to get annoyed with her, and that’s saying something. Princess Luna had convinced her sister to open the archives, and all sorts of magic got out. Spells that could make you live longer, spells that could turn you into animals…and, eventually, spells that could open portals to another world. 
At first, this whole portal thing was really weird and complicated. Some ponies went through and never came back. Some lost their sanity. A few came back fine, but they lived a lot shorter than they should have had. Princess Celestia was considering pulling the plug on the whole thing.
Then Twilight did it. I mean, she did it. She fixed the whole thing. I thought that was pretty awesome, but for an egghead like Twilight Sparkle, I guess it was to be expected. 
So what happened next, you might wonder?
We found the human world.
At first we were shocked. It was like a whole different world, but with humans. The ponies in this world were huge, and they didn’t even talk. The biggest stallion I knew was Big Macintosh, and even he was dwarfed by human ponies. They were shocked by us, too, but everything turned out pretty good. Princess Celestia called it “cordial relations between races of polar worlds,” whatever that meant. 
As time went on, all of us found out more and more about the human world. Even now, after thirteen years of living with humans, I still think they’re kinda ugly. I mean, they don’t have hooves or tails or wings or even cutie marks. There were no manticores, no minotaurs, no dragons, no pegasi, and no unicorns. The clouds moved all by themselves. It was so weird, living like that.
I gave living with humans a shot, but I hafta admit, it was pretty bad for a while. Humans are a messed-up species. They like to kill and hurt each other for no reason. Equestria had its wars, but they were like playground brawls compared to the humans. A lot of them didn’t want ponies there. Some threatened us. One got so serious that he scared Fluttershy into never coming back. 
I almost gave up.
But then I found something in the human world that changed me, changed who I am. I found that, even though they had no wings, humans could fly. They flew in metal birds that roared and spat fire like dragons. I saw a couple of them, what they called “airplanes,” a few years ago. On the ground, airplanes looked intimidating, but bulky. In the air, it was like watching the Wonderbolts. The planes dipped, ducked, and danced in the sky. It was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen. And I’ve seen some pretty cool things.
Things went uphill from there. After ten years of human-pony contact, more and more mares and stallions were coming to the human world to seek new lives. 
I was one of them. I liked Ponyville, but when I saw those planes, those metal birds that roared in the sky, it was like love at first sight.
I did everything I could. I found a human that knew about the planes, and one thing led to another. 
The human newspapers ran this article the following day:


PEGASUS JOINS AIR FORCE


New arrival from “Otherworld E” to fly over Tajikistan


It has been over ten years since the first talking pony arrived on Earth, and since then their lives and actions have become embroiled in our own.  Nowhere does this ring truer than in the story of Rainbow Dash, a pegasus from Otherworld E (known to natives as “Equestria”). Miss Dash has been inducted into the United States Air Force, and is scheduled to deploy within the month to aid in the growing conflict in Tajikistan. Twilight Sparkle, the unicorn ambassador of Otherworld E, spoke Tuesday from her seat at the United Nations, praising Miss Dash’s decision, stating that it will “no doubt facilitate relations between human and ponykind.” Skeptics disagree with the unicorn, among them former presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who criticized Miss Dash and Miss Sparkle for “dragging their kind into a war where they have no business.” President Joel Mitchell, in a statement from the White House the other day, agreed with Sparkle’s point. Staunch support for human-pony relations has grown since the USAF’s announcement, with supporters like Stephen Colbert, former President Barack Obama, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg participating in pro-pony events. 


I didn’t know what to think when I read it. Human news was news to me (no pun intended.) But I like said, humans are messed up. They’ll find something bad in everybody. And everypony.
But from then on, I didn’t care. I didn’t care that I was going to what my pal and squadmate, Forrest Starr, called “a veritable dunghole.” I didn’t care that I might never see my friends again. I didn’t care about anything or anyone or anypony. 
I didn’t care about anything. Except for myself.
Sounds like me, doesn’t it? C’mon, I know what you’re thinking. You’re probably thinking that I’m gonna say something like, I dunno, my whole world changed or my life was changed forever. 
I’m not one for melodrama, and I’m sure you just rolled your eyes when you read that. However, you’re spot on. 
My life did change when I flew with Stag Squadron, mostly because it almost ended.  
Then I began to regret leaving Ponyville…
I remember that night. The sky was dark and cloudless, but fire streaming across the horizon signaled the presence of our target. I had no regrets. I was point for my squad, Stag Squadron. They had faith in me. I had faith in them.
By the night’s end, I would be in tears, watching my human friends burn. I would be alone, injured, frightened. Me, Rainbow Dash, the bravest pegasus in Equestria, frightened. 
But not yet. Not at that moment. In that moment, I was one with the sky, and I didn’t anticipate the fiery chaos that lay ahead…