//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: "Is anyone receiving?" 
// Story: Winged Defender 
// by Lt Rainbow Slash 
//------------------------------//

I was confused. I had been flying in the Arctic. Everything up there was white. The sea ice, the tundra covered by snow, everything. So why were there green hills covered in trees and grass, and in the distance cartoonish snow capped mountains? Dead ahead I could see a runway about a kilometre distant. Except it wasn't CFB Resolute Bay. There was a runway, three large fuel tanks, and a large hangar.

I'll figure out what happened later. I'm running out of fuel as it is. I thought looking at my fuel gauge. 

I quickly corrected for my drift and came in to a textbook landing.

I taxied over towards the hangar, spotting two additional Arrows, one of which, upon closer inspection was an CF-200B two seater. I went over and parked beside them and shut off my jet, but not before I glanced at my GPS and noticed that I had no signal. Clicking over to my radio display, I saw that I was not receiving any radio traffic whatsoever as well.

Damn.

I reached over and shut the jet off as well as pop the canopy. As the hood opened I removed my oxygen mask, and promptly noticed the appendage that I used to do so.

The heck! What happened to my hand! I thought as I looked at the gloved nub attached to my arm.

I brought my other hand over to pull the covering off and found it had suffered a similar fate.

Then how was I flying the jet a second ago!? I thought in confusion.

I pushed my 'hands' together and imagined grabbing the glove on my right 'hand' before pulling them apart, slipping it off and to reveal a round, light blue…thing. It kind looked like a hoof. I took the other glove off to see my other hand was similar.

"What th-…OK, my voice changed too?" I said in a voice much raspier than my own.

I reached up and removed my helmet, causing a lock of red and orange hair to appear at the top of my vision.

"Seriously. What the hell!" I exclaimed. "What the fuck was that pink shit!"

I took a deep breath, and tried to get my anger under control,

Ok, lets just keep calm and figure out what happened. OK, so I can grab stuff with...these. I thought reaching for the stick and imagining grabbing it. I then moved my former hand around and the stick followed.

"OK that explains how I was flying. I guess I gotta get used to this voice too." I muttered.

I began to undo my harness and realized I did't have a ladder. As I shifted and undid my harness I felt something that felt like an arm being rubbed on my back.

Wha… I stopped as I moved and got a look at my back.

"I have wings." I said flabbergasted at the two blue feathered appendages attached to my back. A huge smile appeared on my face as I began grinning like a maniac.

"I HAVE WINGS! YES! ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! I can FLY!" I exclaimed. After all, what pilot wouldn't want to be able to fly without an airplane.

I quickly finished undoing my harness and stood up to find that I couldn't balance on two legs. Looking at my legs I realized they were jointed like a cat's or some other four legged creature.

Okay, well lets try this. I thought, before poking my wings. I quickly found the muscles to extend my wings.

Grinning like a maniac, I spread them before jumping off and gliding over the ground.

WOW! I'm flying!

Then I hit the ground. It hurt.

OOOwwwww.

I struggled to stand back up on all fours and finally got a good look at myself.

I was still wearing my green flight suit which had some how changed to fit my new body. My wings were poking through a pair of holes as was my rainbow tail. I appeared to be covered in a short, light blue coat of fur.

"Huh." I muttered. The best thing I could come up with was that I was a small horse. More of a pony. Which plus wings made me a pegasus then.

I took a step to head for the hangar before I stumbled and fell. Getting back to my hooves I realized I would have to re-learn how to walk.

After five minutes of practising, I had it down. It was basically like crawling on my hands and knees, except that it felt like balancing on my fingertips and tiptoeing.

I spotted a smaller building beside the hangar as I tuned back to what I was doing.

It looked a lot like a small officer's cabin like mine at CFB Cold Lake. I walked over to the door and opened it with my weird sticky hooves. My eyes widened at the inside. On the wall by the entrance was a framed picture of my Dad and I. I felt a surge of sadness, before I crushed it. I would see him again. I had to.

I took a deep breath

I walked (cantered?) to my room. To my surprise, all of my cloths had changed to fit my new form. Deciding not to question it, I changed out of my flight suit into a more comfortable pair of cargo pants and a T-shirt. I walked out the front door heading for the jets.

When I got there I did a walk-around of each jet and found they were in top condition, except mine which had a couple of cannon strikes on the fuselage, but otherwise was fine. After that I headed to the hangar. When I got there I was in for a treat. Inside was full of every single type of weapon that you could put on the Arrow minus the nukes. AIM-120 AMRAAMs, AIM-9X Sidewinders, AGM-65 Mavericks, and Paveway series laser-guided bombs. You name it, they were all in that building.

"Ohmygoshohmygosh! Yes!" I exclaimed as I began cantering around examining the weapons and finding they were all factory new and ready to be fired off of a jet. There was even a weapons tractor to pull them out to my plane should I need to, and a ladder on wheels so that I could get into my jet.

Further back was spare parts. Like enough spare parts to build a whole Arrow!

I left the hangar behind and headed for the fuel tanks next. As I approached I spotted a hose off to one side. Upon closer inspection, it could easily be used to refuel my jet, and there was even a meter showing how much fuel was in the tanks, which happened to be full.

"Geez. There's enough fuel and ammo for a squadron to operate for two weeks, let alone just me. This'll last me a year if I was flying every day!" I mused.

I headed back to my cabin. As I entered I glanced at the clock. It was five, so I headed to the kitchen to see if I had anything to eat.





I woke up the next morning around ten. It was nice to be able to sleep in. I almost never got to, being in the military and all. I got up and got dressed in my usual cargo pants and T-shirt. Admittedly getting dressed was really awkward as a quadruped, but I managed. As I got dressed I spotted something on my flank.

"The heck? Why do I have a tattoo on my ass?" I asked no one in particular as I looked at the image of a cloud and a multicoloured lightning bolt on my flank, "Weird."

With a shrug, I headed to the kitchen to find something to eat. I had been away from my cabin for a while, as it was my flight's turn to be posted to the far north for a month. Hence I didn't have much to eat.

"Well where am I supposed to get food from then? Eat grass?" I grumbled.

I decided I would go for a walk to see if I could find any berries and edible plants.

Before I left I stopped a holster for my standard issue pistol on my left leg. I had discovered that by using the same magic grabby thing that I used in my jet, I could use to fire my gun. I also glanced at my wallet on top of my dresser, to find it was now a bag filled with a bunch of gold coins. I chucked it into my saddle bags and moved out of my house and decided to head southwest.

The going was fairly easy as it was mostly grassy hills and woodlands. After ten minutes I came upon a dirt road.

"Where there's a road, there's civilization." I thought out loud before deciding to follow it east.

After another ten minutes I came over a hill to see a good sized town in front of me. The houses looked like something from Switzerland except with thatched roofs. And, much to my relief and horror, it seemed to be populated by a multitude of pastel creatures, like myself at the moment.

What the!? OK, Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic! OK. At least I don't have to worry about not fitting in. Did the everyone just turn into ponies or something? This is just weird! I though to myself.

I continued down the road and into town. As I entered I spotted a sign that said "Welcome To Ponyville!"

"Ponyville? Really?" I muttered, shaking my head before proceeding into town.

As I walked along I noticed that there were a few ponies that had horns, some with wings like me, and few with neither. I got a few strange looks as I trotted along but no one stopped me.

So apparently unicorns are a thing here too.

I continued to trot through town until I came upon what appeared to be the town market. I found a stand selling apples. Behind it was a Stetson toting orange mare with a blond mane.

"Well howdy there Rainbow!" She said as I approached.

Caught by surprise I had a hard time formulating a response, but part of me just told me to go along with it. "Ummm…Hi."

"Nice day ya got here, ya get up early ta' clear the sky?" She said.

"Uhh…" What! Do they control the weather here or something! "Yeah."

"What'chya wearing there?" She asked looking me over.

Oh shit! none of the ponies I've seen have been wearing cloths! Come on, come on, what do I say?

"Yeah…I was just...uh...seeing how comfortable they were!" I stuttered.

She looked at me funny before backing off. "Alrighty then. Jus' don't let Rarity see you wearing that, she'll have one of her 'crime against fashion' episodes. Anyway, you here to get some apples?"

"Yes please. Umm, how about a dozen?" I asked looking over the apples.

"Sure. It's on the house, just something for my friend." She told me

"Really? Wow thanks! See ya!" I said thankfully as I loaded the apples in my saddlebags.

As I left my mind went into overdrive, trying to sort out what just happened.

I moved between the stalls and bought more groceries.

What is wrong with these ponies? And where did 'Rainbow Dash' come from? They don't know my name and it certainly isn't 'Rainbow Dash'!  I thought to myself as I loaded the rest of the food into my bags.

I left town the same way I came in. Without any distractions my mind wandered.

"So let's see here. I was coming in for a landing, and all of a sudden my jet gets teleported or something, I find I'm in a land full of talking ponies and that I some how became one, and for some reason they're calling me Rainbow Dash. Am I hallucinating? Dreaming? Am I dead? It...It all feels so real. OK, what ever happened the best thing is to take it as it comes and not lose my mind. After all, I am the best fighter pilot in the world!" I though out loud.

When I got back, I stored the food in my kitchen before heading out to check the jets.

I walked over to my Super Arrow and examined it more closely for any battle damage. I couldn't see any from where I was so I headed to the hanger to get the ladder when I realized I had wings. 

"Well lets try it!" I said. I hopped and began flapping my wings. It was surprisingly easy to hover.

After five minutes of failing, or having minor successes, I finally got into a stable hover.

I hovered back to my jet doing my best not lose control, before landing carefully on top and spotting several cannon strikes on it.

Now for those of you who don't know, cannons are not machine guns. Guns fire solid slugs, cannons fire explosive rounds that can easily shred most airplanes and ground targets. You think a .50 cal is big? Those are nothing compared to a 20mm high-explosive cannon shell, or as it is affectionately called, the twenty Mike-Mike.

I began to examine each one closely to see if they would affect my jet's performance in the air. Two shells had impacted just behind the cockpit and were of no consequence, but three others had hit along the right wing root, and on further investigation, made it so the wing was structurally compromised and would likely break off if I did any high-G manoeuvres.

"How the hell am I supposed to patch that up?" I muttered before heading into the hanger to see if I had anything to fix the problem.

After rummaging around in the hanger for a few minutes, I found the parts and tools I needed.

Well that's going to be extremely useful! I thought as I walked over to a panel that matched the damaged part, as well as grabbing the tools I would need.





"That should do it." I said to myself, as I finished my repairs.

It had taken me all of yesterday afternoon and this morning for me to take the damaged section of metal and replace it with a brand new one from the hanger. It was a sloppy job, but that's what happens when a pilot with rudimentary knowledge of aircraft maintenance has to do it. Don't ask me how I had managed it, but I had.

"Well then time for a test flight."

I walked back across the tarmac to my cabin and some how managed to put on my flight suit and G-suit. Going back to my Arrow I used my newfound hovering abilities to get into the cockpit.

I grabbed my helmet and let it rest in my head as I began to strap in.

A glance at my fuel revealed I would need to fill it up before I could go flying.

I quickly ran through the start-up checklist before I flipped the ignition switches and started up my Arrow. I taxied over to the fuel tanks and shut it off again when I got there to avoid any unfortunate accidents.

I put my helmet back in the stick and fluttered down to the hose. I grabbed it in my forehooves and dragged it up to the refuelling port on top just behind the cockpit. I plugged it in and opened it letting the inflammable aviation fuel flow into the jet.

When it was full I pulled the hose out, and put the plug in and replaced the hose.

I flew up to the cockpit and put my helmet back on before doing my last pre-flight checks. Satisfied that everything was was in working order I taxied to the end of the runway and was about to ask for permission to take off when I realized the I was the only person around with a working radio.

"Alright lets get this bird in the air!" I thought out loud as I opened the throttle and began to roll down the runway.

I watched as the indicated airspeed (IAS) rose on my HUD. As soon as it reached 180 knots I gently pulled back on the stick causing my jet to leap into the air.

I gained some altitude before I rolled right and began to test the G-loads put on my repair job to see if it was safe. Long story short? It was perfectly fine.

OK that's enough for now. I thought, after ten minutes of high-G turns and rolls. I quickly looked around to get my bearings.

I noticed that during my manoeuvres I ended up above Ponyville. I began to turn back towards my base when a radar proximity warning sounded in my headphones.

I glanced at my radar and saw that a small contact the size of a missile was closing in on my six.

One of the pegasi getting curious probably. Let's see if it can keep up with a super-sonic fighter jet! I thought to myself as I  opened the throttle and watched as my speed began to build up.

I glanced back at my radar display and saw that despite my speed the blip was keeping up.

Can they even fly at mach .9? I thought in awe.

As the blip came even closer I open the throttle to full afterburner and watched as the contact began to drop back, until I was satisfied that the interloper had given up as it dropped off my radar.

I glanced at my GPS (which wasn't working except for displaying my beacon that was at the base) and got a heading on the runway.

"Well that was exciting." I thought out loud while shutting off my jet, "If that was a pony, it was hauling ass! Mach .9? that shouldn't even be possible!"

With that last thought, I engaged the lock on the jet and decided to call it a day.





"Well lets see about getting home." I muttered to myself. It was the next day, and I was finishing off a couple of apples for breakfast.

After I finished, I walked into my room and began to grab what I would need.

"OK, as much as this feels wrong, no clothes this time, I don't want to attract attention, I'll still bring my pistol just in case, and saddlebags to carry anything I get."

Over the last two days I had practiced flying with my new wings and found that with a little practice it came rather easily. Of course it wasn't without it's fair share of crashes and bruises.

I left the cabin and headed for the town. Partway to the town I cut through a small wooded area.

ROWR!!

"What th--Oh shit." I turned around to see a large lion creature with bat-wings, and a scorpions tail glaring at me.

I quickly flapped my wings to hover three feet off the ground while I drew my pistol from it's wrist holster with my right hoof.

At that, the...thing, roared again and charged me. I levelled the barrel of my trusty Glock at its head and squeezed the trigger.

"BANG!---BANG!-BANG!BANG!"

The first round impacted the beast's right shoulder, the second and third missed and took a chunk out of it's ear respectively, while the fourth was dead between the eyes.

I watched as the thing fell and slid to a stop a foot in front of my fore-hooves which were now firmly placed on the ground.

I holstered my pistol. Then something hit me from behind.

"Ow!"

"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry! Oh, it's you!" Said the butter yellow pegasus as she got off of me.

"I heard loud noises and a Manticore roaring so I came to..." She trailed off as she noticed the dead 'Manticore' lying beside us.

"Oh m-m-my... Wa-what happened too him?" She said before moving over to help the Manticore.

"I shot it."

"You shot it? But Rainbow, you don't have a bow." She said.

"Uh…yeah, whatever, I gotta go." I said turning to continue my way to town.

"I'll come with you." She said, beginning to follow me.

"But I hardly know you." I replied looking over my shoulder.

"What? Rainbow? It's me Fluttershy." She said, trotting up beside me.

"Sorry, not ringing a bell."

"But we've been best friends since kindergarden!" She said, almost panicking.

"Sorry, but I just got here. I've never been to Ponyville in my life. Except for last sunday." I stated confused, flapping my wings and beginning to take off.

"Oh my gosh, I must have given you amnesia when I hit you!" She exclaimed

"You didn't give me amnesia. You must be confusing me with somebo-somepony else." I deadpanned as I stopped and looked at her.

"Quick we have to go see Twilight! She probably has a spell to restore your memories!" She exclaimed grabbing my foreleg and dragging me towards town.

"No. Wait! Lemme go!" I struggled for a minute as she dragged me along, before giving up and letting her do as she wished. She had a surprisingly strong grip.

A few minutes later we came to a large tree that appeared to be a dwelling at the same time. 'Fluttershy' went up to the door and knocked. It was answered by a short purple and green lizard like creature...that talked.

"Hey Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash. What are you guys doing here?" He asked.

"Oh Spike! It's horrible! I ran into Rainbow and gave her amnesia!"

"AGH! For the last time, I DON'T HAVE AMNESIA!" I yelled in frustration.

"We need to see Twilight!" Fluttershy finished.

"OK one sec, I'll go get her." he said letting us in before running off up the stairs.

You have got to be kidding me.

Half a minute later a purple unicorn came down the stairs.

"So what is this about Rainbow having amnesia?" She asked, walking towards us.

"Oh Twilight! It's horrible! I ran into her and now she can't remember anything!" Fluttershy explained.

"Are you kidding me!" I burst in, "I remember my whole damn life!"

"You do?" Twilight asked, with a confused look on her face.

"Yes." I said in exasperation.

"Well thats a relief!" the purple unicorn said as she turned to Fluttershy

"Are you sure?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yes!" I all but yelled.

"Eep!" She squeaked hiding behind her pink hair.

"Oh. Sorry." I replies sheepishly

"Wait a second...Rainbow Dash?......Rainbow?" Said the purple unicorn, but I wasn't paying attention as I trotted towards the door.

Suddenly I felt myself lifted off the ground.

"The heck!?"

"Rainbow Dash! Since when do you curse!?" she exclaimed as I was spun around. I saw that her horn was glowing the same colour as the aura that was surrounding me.

Is she levitating me?!

"Listen Purple. I have no idea what or how you are doing that, but if you would kindly put me down I'll be on my way." I said as my temper began to flare up.

"Purple? What has gotten into you Rainbow?" She said in confusion.

"One; my name isn't 'Rainbow Dash', two; nothing, and three; heck isn't even a swear!"

"If you're not Rainbow who are you?"

"Raina." I said.

"Pardon?" Twilight said with a confused look.

"My name is Raina. Best fighter pilot in the world!" I boasted.

"That's a strange name."

"BWAHAHA!!!! O-o-oh, right!  And 'Twilight Sparkle isn't!"

"Well Rainbow, sorry to end your fantasy but we need to get you back to normal. Please stay still, this will just take a second." She said as her horn shone brighter and she began to approach me.

"Wait! What!! No no no no! Stay away!" I yelled as she got closer.

I began to squirm and thrash my body trying to escape.

"GET AWAY! DON'T TOUCH ME!!"

As her horn got closer and closer I began to scream...but it wasn't coming from me and it was slowly getting louder and louder.

"AaaaaaaaaaaAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" 

A cyan and rainbow streak came whizzing through the window above my head before impacting the bookshelf across the room.

"THUD! CRUNCH! CRASH!"

As the dust cleared, I opened my eyes and glanced across the room. There upside down was a pegasus pony who looked just like me!