Truth be told, I was terrified as we ran across the runway; I knew that I was invisible, but still, to be doing something so radical and so illegal sent waves of both excitement and panic down my spine. Thankfully no planes were coming in to land at this exact moment, I could only imagine how much scarier this would have been if we had to watch out for taxiing aircraft.
“So where will we find the back door?” Twilight panted as she trotted alongside me.
“My guess is around the back of the building, in the Control Tower itself.” I huffed back.
Twilight said nothing and moved in the direction of the tower, I could tell by way of a purple haze that surrounded the vague outline of her body.
“Twilight, I can see some purple fuzz around you, is that normal?”
“Yes, it’s because you’re also under the spell. Anyone under the influence of Invisipone can be seen by anyone else under the affects of Invisipone.”
{I guess spells really do have names then, curious.} I thought to myself as we went.
I nodded, even though such an action was pointless, and continued our trek to the tower.
“How long will this spell last?”
“One hour for me, for you though? Hard to tell.”
“Comforting!” I wailed sarcastically.
Once we reached the flight tower, we came across the first obstacle that would require magical intervention.
A key-coded door.
“Great, now what?” Twilight grumbled.
“Use the same spell that you used before with my phone, but on that keypad. Try to find the code that unlocks it.”
The number plate glowed magenta, and Twilight got to work.
“One, nine, two, seven, four, nine, nine four, thank you very much…” Twilight mumbled to herself.
I was about to enter the code she’d spoken, when much to my surprise, the lock clicked loudly.
“Got’cha.” Twilight declared with pride in her tone.
After congratulating her for a second successful merging with human technology, I leaned forward and grabbed the door handle.
“Well,” I sighed, “Let’s get ourselves a ride to Brazil…”
Upon opening the door and walking inside, we found the first room to be empty. There were doors to male and female bathrooms, an elevator, and the stairwell that led higher up. Although quite cramped, it was less industrial that I’d expected, the floor was carpeted and the walls were painted a vibrant yellow. Here I was just expecting concrete, wires and pipes... I took note of the CCTV camera mounted in the corner of the ceiling, and pointed it out to Twilight.
“Invisipone stays on, no matter what.” I whispered.
“Got it. Where to now?” she replied.
“Let’s see where these stairs take us.”
We quickly and quietly crept up the stairwell, and came to realise there would be nothing but stairs for quite some time, as it took us all the way up to where the tower started to flare out. Soon enough though, we eventually came across an access door, which led to the various pipes that ran through the building.
“No use in there, we need to find some sort of control room, something that connects to the airport’s main systems.” I said.
Twilight said nothing, and simply followed me up the stairs. My heart was racing at this point, I was expecting a guard to come and catch me any second now, my hands would be visibly shaking, if they were visible. Next floor up, we came across what would hopefully be the jackpot, another door that was labelled ‘Server Room’.
“Let’s try in here.” I whispered.
I slowly opened the door, and luckily there were no people inside. However, there weren’t any computers either, there was just a load of routers, a shed load of wires, and other technical equipment without any clear way to interact with them without specialist training.
“Fuck’s sake... We’ll have to go to the very top. There will be people, but there will be computers, I know that for a fact.” I told Twilight, to which she reluctantly agreed.
As I left the room and headed up the stairs, I heard a groan of frustration from someone, and it wasn’t Twilight.
“Get back, quickly, against the wall.” I quietly hissed to the mare.
We swiftly slinked against the wall at the stairs just as a pair of feet came into sight.
“Graham do this, Graham do that… How about you do it yourself, you lazy bastard? Maintenance isn’t even my bloody job…” the man mumbled to himself.
This Graham, was a rather fat man with a very large nose, he had a big bald patch on the back of his head and a noticeable red wart on his chin. He waddled down the stairs to where Twilight and I were, and then down the stairs beyond that, so no doubt he was going to the maintenance room.
“Right, let’s move.” I whispered.
We continued up the stairs to the final floor, the Visual Control Room. Turning to Twilight, I told her the plan.
“Once I open this door, we get inside as quickly as possible. I’ll guide you to a free computer, where I want you to look for flights to Brazil, just as you did with my phone. Once you have the information, I’ll be trusting you to remember it without flaw. Then, we get the hell out of here and back to the girls, understand?”
“Yes.” she whispered.
“Ready?”
She said nothing, and so I could only assume that she was. I placed my hand to the door, and after a deep breath, I pushed it wide open and we both slipped into the room. Almost immediately, someone noticed the door, a tall man with blonde hair, his fringe was swept across to one side, making it look like a golden ocean wave.
“Did anyone else just see that door open by itself?” he asked openly, looking around.
A woman responded, she had a bob cut hairstyle, dyed green on one side, and black on the other; her voice was raspy, not too dissimilar from Rainbow Dash’s.
“It’s probably just Graham messing around. I’m willing to bet he’s not even got his fat arse down the first flight of steps yet, he never wants to go down to maintenance.”
The golden-haired man laughed, and shook his head, tutting.
“What a silly sausage…”
Twilight and I made our way past the numerous people that were sat at monitors, talking to pilots over their headsets, and scuttled over to a computer without anyone nearby.
“Alright girl, get to work.” I ordered quietly.
“Duh...” Twilight muttered in response.
It would seem that the Invisipone spell also affected the colourful auras that unicorns created during magic use, because despite hearing her horn as it channelled magic, I saw no affect on the computer. But just like with my phone, and with the keypad, Twilight was eventually able to link with it; the screen started to lightly distort, and the cursor darted around as numerous applications and documents opened up. One of these documents was titled ‘LGW_Flight_Database.dbf’ which seemed very promising. Taking the mouse and clicking on it, the file was opened with a very complex application that displayed a shed load of numbers, country names, aeroplane company names, a clock, a radar, and what I guessed was a fight map.
“What do I do?” Twilight whispered.
I took the mouse clicked on a bar at the top of the screen that had a magnifying glass, which was clearly a search bar, and typed in the word Brazil. After loading for a few seconds, nothing came up.
“Come on, hurry up. I can’t hold this spell forever.” Twilight hissed.
“I’m thinking, I’m thinking…” I whispered back.
Listening carefully, I could hear Twilight rapidly breathing through her nose, and it became clear to me that she was panicking quite severely. With how untrusting she was of humans, being surrounded by so many now must have been utterly terrifying for her. I needed to work quicker, and get us out of this.
{What’s the name of the place with the giant Jesus dude? Favela? No! That’s a map on Call of Duty!} I angrily thought to myself, trying desperately to think of a name.
I had literally written the name of somewhere in Brazil earlier, and yet my mind had gone completely blank. Like Twilight, my own anxiety was getting the better of me, which only got worse as I heard the door to the control room open, causing Twilight and I to jump.
“There was nothing wrong with the damn keypad!” Graham called out.
I whipped around to see the large man sitting back down at his desk, and immediately reaching into a bag of Jacobs Crackers to stuff his face.
“How can you eat those? They’re so dry and tasteless…” the raspy woman asked, scrunching her face up.
“I like my crackers, okay Kendall?” he squawked.
“Pfft, I need to call you Polly from now on, you’re like a bloody parrot…” the woman said, rolling her eyes.
“Fat fuck.” the blonde man teased.
{Parrots live in Brazil… That blonde man’s hair is like an ocean wave, oceans are blue, there’s a parrot called Blu in the animated film Rio! RIO!} I screamed in thought, almost aloud.
Swiftly returning to the keyboard, I typed in the word Rio, and then sighed a breath of relief as the result we’d been looking for; before my eyes, was a collection of flights and their relevant information.
“Got you...” I sighed in relief.
Flight Seven Nine Two, a British Airways flight from London Gatwick (LGW) to Rio de Janeiro (GIG).
“It leaves in fifty-six minutes, from Gate Twenty-Two.” Twilight said, still magically linked to the system.
“An eleven hour flight, geez...”
“Well, if my mana runs out during that time, our deaths are on you.” Twilight muttered.
“Noted, thanks.”
Slinking away from the computer, we got to the door and opened it to escape. Just as we were making our way down the stairs, I heard the blonde man shout out in frustration.
“Okay seriously, who keeps doing that with the damn door!?”
I held the door open for Twilight, whom pretty much burst into a sprint upon seeing the outdoors. I shut the door and bolted after her; I was a good runner, and it didn’t take me long at all to zoom past her.
We got to the fence to find the others still patiently waiting on the other side, Twilight disabled our invisibility spells and used the same one from before to allow us to pass through the fence. Once we had reached the others, Twilight fell to her knees and panted heavily, trying desperately to oxygenate her body. I on the other hand, was too full of adrenaline to be out of breath, I threw punches in the air and ran on the spot.
“That was so awesome! Holy shit, I’ve never felt so alive!”
The exhilaration coursing through me had never been so strong, nor had the sense of accomplishment ever been so intense; I had just crept inside an airport’s most important building, gathered vital intelligence, and then slipped away in broad daylight, completely and utterly undetected. I had just lived a moment from a spy movie, but in real life!
“What happened in there?” Rainbow Dash asked, her eyes wide with curiosity.
“Well, I was a ninja, and then I did some ninja stuff.” I said with a big grin.
“Come on, for real dude, what happened?” Dash persisted, desperate to know.
I ignored her and pulled some sunglasses out of my bag, which had been sitting on the grass by Applejack.
“The name’s Bond… James Bond…” I spoke seductively, lowering my sunglasses slightly with a finger.
Dash responded by hitting me in the arm, pretty hard actually.
“Tell me!”
“Okay, fine! I’ll tell you all about it when we’re on the plane.” I replied, rubbing my arm.
Rainbow Dash huffed.
“Fine.”
“Alright team, our ride is in about forty five minutes, give or take.” I said, continuing to bounce around in excitement.
“What do we do in the meantime?” Rarity asked.
“We wait.” Twilight commanded, still catching her breath.
“Boring! I want to race Callum and see who’s the faster species!” Rainbow Dash hollered.
To be perfectly honest, that was a pretty good idea. It would be cool to see how the two of us would compare, although against one of the fastest fliers in Equestria, I knew it would certainly be a challenge.
“I’m up for that. But no flying though.” I accepted, poking Dash’s wing.
“Eh, fine. I don’t need flight to make you eat my dust.” she gloated, rolling her eyes.
“Mind if I join y’all? I could do with stretching my legs.” Applejack requested.
“By all means!” I happily replied.
Pinkie then jumped forward and appointed herself as the referee.
“Follow me to the start point! First one to get back here wins!” she squeaked and bounced away.
We shrugged and followed her to where our old camp was, a good few hundred metres from the tree line. After some stretches to ensure no muscles were pulled, we waited for Pinkie to start the race. She jammed a hoof into her mane and retrieved a small airhorn, to which I stared at her, dumbfounded. Shaking my head and tutting, I remembered that this was Pinkie Pie, there could be anything hidden away inside that mare’s tangled pink mop; hell, one of the Orb shards could be in there for all we knew...
“Okie dokie lokie, is everyone ready!” she yelled.
I bent down like an Olympic runner, placing my fingertips against the dirt. Applejack and Rainbow Dash did something similar and we all focused on Rarity, Fluttershy and Twilight, all of whom were just colourful blobs in the distance right now, and were our finish line.
“Three!”
I stretched my calf muscles and wiggled my jaw.
“Two!”
I took a deep breath in through my nose, and then out through my mouth.
“One!”
I tightened every muscle in my body, ready for a sprint.
“GO!” Pinkie screamed.
The three of us bolted, my arms swung back and forth as I sprinted as a fast as I could, quickly gaining momentum and practically gliding across the ground. While I only had two legs, they were strong legs, and my method of sprinting? Somewhat unorthodox, and in my experience, highly effective. Ever since I was very young, I had spent most of my life walking on my toes, opposed to placing the ball of my foot down first, and over the years, this had tightened the tendons in my feet and lower legs. Having a broad frame and heavier weight had also helped to build up my calf muscles, and so, I had developed my own unique way to sprint. By leaning forward and running exclusively on my toes, I was essentially using gravity to perpetually fall forward, while using my strengthened feet and calves to violently catapult myself forward with every step; and in this race, it was working.
To my left, I caught the glimpse of a rainbow coloured mane and knew that Rainbow Dash was right beside me, I could hear her hooves colliding with the dirt beneath us as she galloped. To my right, I could hear the heavier pair of hooves of Applejack, as she was right on my tail; being an earth pony, her species was naturally stronger than the other two pony races combined, and her never-ending farm work had led to that strength becoming vastly amplified. So despite Rainbow Dash being thinner, and lighter on her hooves, these two species of pony were equally matched, and with my own human traits in the mix, we all displayed three completely different forms of athleticism, and none of which was inferior to the other.
This was intense, and the race was going to be very close.
A few yards ahead lay a fallen tree, about waist height. Pinkie had decided that this would be a part of the track, to make an obstacle for it. As we approached, I noticed Rainbow Dash jump up and flap her wings, giving her an enormous boost, she cleared the log with ease and shot forward, taking the lead. It was obviously a totally unfair move, but it only made me more eager to win; I vaulted the log and kept on running, we were so close to the finish line now, and I certainly wasn’t going to let foul play stop me from showing my worth.
Giving it all I had, I tapped into my last reserve of energy and burst forward. I gave one final push of desperation to win and zoomed forward, coming alongside the cheating pegasus; noticing that we were neck and neck, Rainbow Dash went into a final push of her own, and try as I might, she overtook me by about a metre and emerged victorious from the tree line.
Panting loudly with defeat and exhaustion, I hurtled past Fluttershy and skidded to a halt, very nearly colliding with Rarity, who had jumped out of the way in the nick of time. I dropped to my knees and trembled as I gasped for air, deeply heaving as I gradually paid off the oxygen debt; I had my limits when it came to stamina, and the climax of this race had surpassed them.
“Oh yeah! I did it! Woohoohoo!” Rainbow Dash cheered once she had caught her breath.
I tried to speak up, but I still needed a minute to get my breath back. The prideful pegasus pranced in circles around me, giggling and sneering.
“Stick to marshmallows, two-legs! I’m the fastest around here!”
“Only ‘cus you cheated!” Applejack puffed from behind us.
“Did not!” Dash shouted defensively, insulted.
“You used your wings... When you jumped over the log... T’was a... Dick move...” I wheezed.
“No I didn’t! At least, I don’t remember doing that! Look, I’m a pegasus! If my wings came out, then my wings came out, but I didn’t fly, and that was the agreement! So I still won, fair and square, deal with it!”
“We are so having a rematch.” I grunted.
It was then that Twilight stepped over and decided to kill the vibe.
“The fate of our very world hangs in the balance, and you’re all here debating the results of a completely pointless race! It’s perfectly clear that Rainbow Dash won, and the human can’t handle losing, end of story. Now, if any of you actually care about Equestria and our extremely important mission, you would have noticed the plane over there with British Airways written on the side of it. That’s the one we need to take, and it leaves in no more than thirty minutes. So get your things and make a move!” she ordered, stamping the ground with her hoof.
Well, there went the ‘nice Twilight’ from this morning. Despite her barbed comment, however, she did have a point; we needed to get over to that plane before it took off. Everyone gave the unicorn a foul look for her sudden change in attitude, to which she promptly ignored and turned around, using a spell to literally burn a hole through the metal fence.
{So much for saving mana...} I thought, concerned.
“Don’t worry, we’ll have a rematch another time. It’ll be a pleasure to beat you twice.” Rainbow Dash teased.
“I’ll hold you to that.” I muttered in response.
Now fully recovered from the race, I properly got to my feet and went to check on Fluttershy, who genuinely looked like she was about to cry; I guessed that the sudden change in Twilight’s demeanour had upset her more than I realised. I gave the pegasus a warm smile and asked if she was alright, which she responded to with a small nod, not that I was convinced. Everyone else was clearly irked too, but Fluttershy, being the most socially anxious of the group, had obviously been affected the most.
“Alright everypony, it’s time to fly!” I announced merrily, staying positive.
It then dawned on me that I could now say ‘everypony’ completely unironically, without it being weird. This pleased me greatly, and I gripped my backpack straps with a smile on my face. The lot of us followed Twilight through the sizzling hole in the fence and I instructed Twilight to cast the invisibility spell onto us, as we’d be in eyeshot of plenty of humans until we got into the cargo hold.
“I am so going to blue out by the time we get to Brazil...” she spat.
“We don’t have a choice now, do it.” I enforced.
Too nervous to challenge me, she obeyed and cast Invisipone onto us. We fazed out of sight and like before, I could see the purple haze around the others, ensuring we wouldn’t lose each other. I decided to speed up and jog the way there, ensuring we were moving nice and quickly, but still slow enough for everyone to comfortably meet my pace. Making our way to the British Airways plane, we spotted a baggage cart beside it, with two men that were hauling people’s luggage from the cart and onto a conveyor belt, which fed directly into the cargo hold, our destination. We made it to the baggage cart and the others crowded around me.
“We need to get on that belt, and fast. They’re almost done loading the plane, and that’s our only way in.” I explained to the six, but not loud enough for the men to hear.
Rainbow Dash didn’t need to be told twice, she crept past the two men and hopped onto the belt, sliding up and into the plane. Even for her, I honestly hadn’t expected her to be so blasé about it, but then again, she was very much the sort of pony to live by the ‘who dares wins’ mantra. After seeing Rainbow get on, Applejack and Pinkie went on after her with confidence, followed Fluttershy and Rarity.
“Is that the lot?” one of the men shouted to the other.
“Two more!” he called back.
“Twilight, get on.” I hissed.
She was motionless, most likely petrified by the sheer size of the plane, and the plethora of overstimulating sounds that surrounded us. I was left with no other option than to give Twilight a firm shove, startling her.
“Don’t touch m-”
I cut her off by grabbing her muzzle tightly.
“Get on that belt, right now. Or you get left behind.”
Briefly terrified but able to focus, Twilight obeyed without question. She hopped onto the belt and I crept on too, and together we slid into the cargo hold, where I was shocked to see yet another person inside, organising the suitcases so that they were neatly stacked to one side of the compartment. Thankfully, the other girls had the common sense to keep their mouths shut, and were all huddled away from him. Once the last suitcase was stored and stacked, the conveyor started going in reverse, to which the man hopped out and rode it down. The cargo bay door then closed in on us, and we were sealed away, we had done it.
Twilight deactivated the invisibility spells to reabsorb some of the remaining mana from them, and immediately stormed up to me with her lips drawn back into a snarl.
“If you ever lay those disgusting fleshy claws on me again...” she began.
“You froze, and I had to get you moving again. I wouldn’t have had to touch you, if you hadn’t chosen that exact moment to lose your damn spine.” I bit back, genuinely annoyed with her.
The mare stepped to me, and firmly planted a hoof against my chest.
“Firstly, watch your tongue. And secondly, I’m not joking, if you ever grab my muzzle like that again, you’ll be guiding this group without any of those fingers” she spat.
“I did what was necessary, now get off me.” I replied with disgust, pushing her hoof away.
“Necessary? Oh, I’ll show you necessary...” she growled, her voice full of venom.
She removed her hoof and turned away from me. At first, I expected that to be the end of it, nothing more than an empty threat; and then without warning, Twilight lifted her hind legs and bucked me square in the sternum, completely taking me by surprise. I dropped to my knees and let out a low rumble of pain, and before I could fully recover, Twilight tackled me onto my back, and attempted to stamp at my head repeatedly with her forelegs.
“How’s this for necessary? Huh? You runt! You pink-skinned slime! How’s this for fucking necessary!?”
“Twilight stop! What the heck is wrong with you!?” Rainbow Dash shrieked.
I blocked the blows by covering my head with my hands and wrists, and it took every fibre of my being not to hit her back. But there was only so much I could take, and as Applejack and Rainbow Dash attempted to remove the mare from assaulting me, I lunged forward and grabbed a clump of her mane, forcing her to look into my eyes as I spoke to her through gritted teeth.
“I’ve been playing it real bloody nice with you, Twilight. But if you attack me like that again, I will retaliate.”
“That’s enough, simmer down y’all.” Applejack ordered calmly.
Twilight pulled back violently, but before further ruckus could commence, Applejack pushed her way between us and put her mouth to the unicorn’s ear, to which I was faintly able to hear what she said.
“Look around, Twilight. You’re scaring your friends half to death! Fluttershy’s crying, and Pinkie Pie doesn’t understand what the hay is going on. The way you just attacked Callum? It came across like you have a gosh-darn mental problem. Now, you’re supposed to be leading us on this here mission, so buck up and lead us. And the next time I tell you to simmer down, you simmer the fuck down. Okay?”
The farm pony took a step back, and despite giving a malicious glare, it seemed that Twilight would have peace. She wrinkled her nose and went to sit in the far corner of the cargo hold, against one of the suitcases. Rainbow Dash then flew over to my side and helped me sit up.
“Dude, are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” I mumbled.
Applejack approached me too, and demanded to know what caused all this. I answered faithfully, and explained how Twilight had frozen by the belt, to which I gave her a shove to help regain her senses.
“She then started to yell at me, so I grabbed her muzzle to keep her quiet. After that, she got onto the belt, but as you can imagine, she wasn’t all that fond of me by that point.”
“That’s it? Here I was hoping you’d given her a slap. It’s about time she gets one.” Rainbow Dash groaned.
Applejack on the other hand, wasn’t too impressed with me.
“Callum, she hates you enough as it is. Now you’ve gone and made things worse, especially with you threatening to retaliate if she ever pulls a stunt like that again. I don’t know if you meant it or not, but I’m warning you now, regardless of how Twilight’s behaving at the moment, if you hurt my friend, then we’re going to have some problems, you and I.”
“Yes, Applejack.” I sighed, not wanting to rock the boat.
AJ nodded, and went off to console Fluttershy, whom was completely beside herself, weeping and spluttering, with Rarity and Pinkie Pie already trying to calm her down. The poor thing simply couldn’t handle the conflict, and deep down, neither could I. Sniffing loudly, I looked up to the ceiling of the cargo hold to prevent the tears from welling up in my eyes. Rainbow Dash noticed that I was upset and pressed up against me, opening one of her wings and draping it over my shoulder.
“Hey, don’t listen to her. Applejack just likes to play the mother in this group.” she said to me.
“What do you mean?” I asked, sniffing again.
Sitting down with me, Dashie elaborated about how Applejack had been playing the motherly role since their arrival on Earth. Day in, and day out, she had cooked for them, told them when to go to bed, when to get up, and so on...
“And as you’ve just learned, my friend, she’s damn good at scolding us. But don’t take it to heart, she’s just trying to make sure everyone’s okay, Twilight included. But, she can go a little overboard I guess.”
“Why does she do that?” I questioned with great curiosity.
“Oh she’s always been like it, I guess it’s from bringing up Applebloom, so she’s had a motherly mode since, uh...” Rainbow Dash stopped and looked at the floor quickly licking her bottom lip and shuffling uncomfortably.
“Since what?” I pressed, tilting my head.
“Look, dude. It’s really not my place to tell you, it’s AJ’s. She’s still very sensitive about it and very rarely has a conversation about it. She’ll tell when she’s ready to.” she told me, giving a small sigh through her nose.
I nodded and didn’t press the matter any further, nor did I need to. It didn’t take a genius to work out what Dash had meant, every brony on the planet had speculations over what had happened to Applejack’s parents, but it was commonly accepted that they had died, and Rainbow Dash’s comments just now had all but confirmed it. It perfectly explained her motherly behaviour, because she had literally had to step in as a mother for Applebloom. I remembered yesterday when I planned to fake my own death, and she’d started to get emotional. It was quite heart breaking to think about.
Without warning, the plane’s engines started up and the whole cargo hold began to gently rumble, Fluttershy squeaked loudly and bolted towards the nearest pony possible, which was Rarity.
“What’s going on?” she yelped.
The others started to look around frantically, full of fear.
“Alright everypony, calm down! The plane’s just starting up, that’s all.” I called out.
That calmed them all down, besides Twilight.
“He’s lying, this was all a trap! This is some sort of murder chamber, we’re all going to die!” she yelled.
Fluttershy screamed and sprinted to the cargo door, which was now closed. I angrily cursed at Twilight under my breath and dashed over to Fluttershy to comfort her, placing a hand on her shoulder and telling her to look at me; she did as I asked, the poor thing’s pupils were like pinpricks.
“Hey, listen to me. I’ve been on planes before, Twilight hasn’t. Every assumption she makes is out of fear, but Twilight doesn’t know this world, she makes all these outlandish comments because she’s scared, just as scared as you are. But you are safe. I promise you.” I told her soothingly.
“Oh now look, he’s filling Fluttershy’s head with lies so she doesn’t call for help!” Twilight continued to yell.
I gently patted Fluttershy’s shoulder before walking towards Twilight with my fists clenched; Applejack frowned at me with apprehension, presumably checking to see if she should intervene or not.
“Th-That’s close enough…” Twilight stuttered.
Her bloodshot eyes couldn’t hold back the tears they were holding as I loomed over her, and it was there and then that I realised that she wasn’t simply afraid of me, she was downright terrified of me.
{Geez, what the HELL did Celestia show to this poor creature?} I thought.
As much as I was saddened by the sheer state of her, I felt like I could use it to my advantage, both now and also in the many days to come. She backed up to the edge of the cargo hold and gulped, and I squatted down in front of her and looked her in the eye.
“Listen here, and listen good… You don’t like me, and since you just attacked me? Well, I don’t like you either. But for the sake of Fluttershy and Pinkie, I’m not going to start a fight. But let me make it absolutely clear, you are really starting to piss me off. You’re scaring Fluttershy half to death, look at her, she’s terrified! If you have an ounce of love or respect for your friends, you’d pack it in.” I hissed, glaring at her intensely.
She didn’t speak, she didn’t even blink, her quivering lips were the only sign of movement.
“What makes you think that I want you dead so badly? If this were a ‘murder chamber’ as you put it, why would I have jumped in here with you, huh? Use your common sense for fuck’s sake! Now, if you want to be the reason for our deaths, then by all means, sit here and continue to be a paranoid waste of space. Alternatively, if you want us to get to Brazil alive, and progress in protecting your world, then get your arse out of this corner and cast your pressure stability spell. And I don’t want to hear a damn peep out of you if it isn’t positive. Are we clear?”
Once again, she was frozen solid. I brought my face closer to hers and slightly tilted my head.
“Are, we, clear?”
Nervously, she broke eye contact and looked to the floor, nodding in defeat.
“Good…” I whispered in a calm, somewhat unsettling tone.
I stood up and clapped my hands loudly, causing the unicorn to flinch.
“Alright everypony, I’ve got some good news and some bad news! The good news is, we’re not going to die! Bad news is, it’s an eleven hour flight, so if you need the bathroom, you’re screwed!” I called.
Pinkie merrily cheered, pulled a party horn out of her mane, and blew it triumphantly; I silently thanked her as it caused the others to laugh, helping them to relax further after Twilight’s antics. I headed over to the group and sat down next to Rarity, and the others all joined me, Twilight included.
“Do you know when we’ll actually take off?” Rainbow Dash pondered aloud.
As if her words had triggered it, the aeroplane’s engines began to rumble loudly, there was a sudden jolt, followed by a continuous rattling as the plane hurtled along the runway.
“Right now!” I hollered above the noise, grinning.
I leaned to Twilight and told her to get the pressure spell up, as the plane was a few seconds from soaring up into the air, and once we were above the clouds, breathing would start to be a challenge. Before she could cast it, the aeroplane left the runway and we were all tossed backwards, Pinkie decided to jump with excitement and was literally sent flying into all the luggage, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were both unaffected by simply taking flight, Twilight and Rarity both slid over to the suitcases and latched on to them for stability, meanwhile Applejack was catapulted into me and we tumbled around together until the plane eventually levelled out.
“Whooee! Now that was a take off!” Applejack cheered, too excited to even noticed that she was on top of me.
“Applejack.” I mumbled, my face full of fur.
She looked down and saw what little remained of my head that wasn’t under her chest.
“Oh, hehe, howdy partner!” she chuckled.
She got off me and hopped to the side so I could get up. Worried about the state of everyone else, I frantically looked around and was relieved to see that everyone was unscathed, except for Pinkie, whom was worryingly nowhere to be seen.
“Is everyone alright?” I called out.
The girls gave me some affirming nods, and then a loud muffling came from the luggage behind me. I turned around to see some of the suitcases wobbling around, I hurried over there and moved the cases aside to find Pinkie Pie giggling out of her wits.
“Oh my gosh that was so much fun! I flew! Can we do it again? Please can we do it again!?” she shrieked in absolute delight.
I laughed at her enthusiasm and pulled her out of the pile, after briefly checking her over to ensure that she wasn’t hurt, we walked back to the others and sat down. Rarity then pointed out that she was getting cold and feeling a little short of breath.
“Yeah, it’s cold as balls in here.” Rainbow Dash added in agreement.
“Twilight, would you please work your magic? You know, before it gets as cold as my mother’s heart?” I requested.
There were a few chuckles towards my comment, along with the others agreeing with Rarity and Rainbow Dash about the dropping temperature. Twilight’s horn began to glow, and then a small bubble was emitted from the tip. The bubble grew quite rapidly, until it at last enveloped all seven of us, immediately making it easier to breathe. Once it had stopped expanding for good, Twilight went and cast the Thermic Hide spell. From her horn, came a reddish pink light, which again amassed at the tip. It then shot suddenly at great speed into Rarity, who immediately relaxed, as though she were suddenly a whole lot warmer, and her pearly white coat now had a slight orange tint to it.
One by one, Twilight continued casting the spell until the other girls had received it too. Quite amusingly, their new glowing outlines almost made them look like cartoons again; it wasn’t too dissimilar from the cel shading on characters in the Borderlands games, only in orange instead of black. Finally, I received the spell, to which I was immediately granted with a sense of great warmth. It was like I had just sat down by a roaring fireplace, shortly after being outside on a cold winter’s day. I closed my eyes for a moment and cosily drank in the sensation, and then looked at my own hands to find they had the same thick glowing outline.
“This is some freaky shit right here…” I mumbled, prodding at the back of my left hand, totally mesmerised.
Rainbow Dash overheard me and giggled, she gave me a nudge to get my attention.
“Pretty cool, huh?”
I nodded, and the pegasus budged up closer to me, ever so faintly pressing into my side. Twilight was quick to explain that the orange colouration was only temporary, and would wear off in a few minutes. I thanked her for the explanation, and took in the visual effect until it eventually faded away. Despite feeling awkward at first, I found myself enjoying Rainbow’s physical presence, and allowed myself to press back into her. She gave me a friendly grin, and then looked around the cargo hold.
“So, is there like, any way to make this thing go faster?” she asked me, “Or are we really going to be stuck in here for eleven whole hours?”
“I’m afraid so Rainbow.” I huffed with amusement, “It’s going to be eleven long hours, possibly even more if there’s bad weather.”
“Ugh, not cool.”
Being an impatient pony by nature, the estimated time brought a frustrated sigh to Rainbow Dash. Meanwhile, I saw the time given as an opportunity to learn more about real life Equestria, compared to the show.
“Hey guys, how about we take this time to get to know each other better? We could share some life stories and learn a little more about our worlds along the way?” I suggested.
“Why, that’s a swell idea!” Applejack agreed, grinning.
Pinkie hopped up, scuttled over to me, and wrapped her hooves around me.
“Oh, I have loads of life stories, I’ll start with my first one! I was born on a Tuesday…” she sang.
“You know she won’t stop now until she gets to present day, right?” Rainbow Dash droned, rolling her eyes.
“I have an idea!” Fluttershy piped up from out of the blue.
“And that is?” I replied, raising my brow.
“Let’s see how long you can cope with Pinkie telling you her entire life story!” she giggled, lightly knocking her hooves together in playful excitement.
“That’s a great idea!” Pinkie squeaked, “I’ll start right now!”
“Hey now, let’s not decide on that too quic-”
“Now then, as I said, I was born on a Tuesday. And from day one, I liked sugar! Ponies tell me that I have no way of knowing that I liked sugar, because I didn’t actually eat any until I grew up some, but I know deep down in my Pinkie heart that I loved it! But I wasn’t allowed to eat any as a foal, I had stay on my mother’s milk for many many moons, which was a real bummer, as I love sugar! Anyway…”
This was going to be a long plane journey…