//------------------------------// // Chapter 02: Crash... of Destiny? // Story: Flight of Destiny // by Pink_Flash //------------------------------// Darkness... What can I say about it? Inside the darkness... I don't have to worry about anything... I barely think at all... I sometimes wonder if it'd just be better to stay here... to not wake up... no worries... no responsibility... I don't have to stay in touch with friends... eat... or drink... it's just the darkness... no pain... no fear... no suffering... just the darkness... My first sense to come alive is sound. The first thing I hear is crackling. Not the kind of crackling you'd hear from stepping on dead leaves... it's... fire. My next sense is smell... confirming the fire... Then touch... I can feel myself upside down, my hooves dangling above my head. I wish I could say the next thing I felt was something pleasant... that'd be an absolute lie. It seems all of my nerves came alive at the sametime. The amount of pain... indescribable. Pain just... coming from all regions of my body all at the sametime. If it were a pleasant feeling, I'd say it'd be inspiring how much the body can feel, and from so many different places. To make matters worse... on top of the pain, I'm freezing cold. Shivering... which just makes my supposive injuries all the worse. I felt like screaming... the agony of it... but I can't... my body won't respond... I know I need to open my eyes... I don't want to... they feel like anchors are attached to them anyway. It'd be so much easier to just... let go. It's ok... no one is expecting me back anyway... just go back to the darkness... that was better... But... somewhere deep inside me... buried beneath the pain... the will to live. The desire to breath, the will to go on, the burning passion to fly! I'm going to be a Blue Angel, damn it! A Blue Angel wouldn't give up! My eyes flutter open. Sunlight pouring in through the shattered windows of my cabin. My vision is blurry... I can see enough to tell that I'm strapped into my pilot's seat... the entire plane ended up upside down. My right arm won't respond at all... I fumble with my belt with my left arm. It's not as simple as pressing the button on my belt... my hand being replaced with this soft pink hoof. Luckyily, or unluckily, my hoof is small enough to press the release for the belt. At which point gravity does it's job. I flop onto the floor. Well, I say floor, but it's really the ceiling of my airplane. Upon hitting the 'floor', I scream in agony. Having found my voice as my high pitched wail cuts through the silent sky. After a few seconds... that pass as if minutes... I gasp, holding onto my arm. There definitely is something wrong with my arm... Having been distracted by my pain... I now notice I'm laying in a small puddle of some kind of liquid. I bring my hoof up to my face... it's blood. A lot of blood. A lot of MY blood. I've lost a lot of blood... that's why I'm so cold... With my good arm, I begin to pull myself out of the wreckage. Pushing glass aside so I don't add to my injuries... of which I don't have a full grasp of. I really don't know how hurt I really am. As I pull myself from the wreckage that was once my airplane, I notice where the fire is. It seems one of my engines are on fire. I'm so cold... I, against better judgment, pull myself towards it. Just dragging myself over. Gritting my teeth in pain. Then flop down next to it. The warmth... oh the warmth... feels so good... 'I'm... just gonna rest a moment...' I tell myself. Sleep overwhelms me. I really had no chance of resisting it. My broken, and battered body... the pure exhaustion. I sleep dreamless sleep. No blue pony... no pink one claiming to be my mother... and no boss calling me precious. Just darkness. That darkness teasing me with no pain, or suffering... I don't need you... I don't need your mercy... I don't know how much time passed by the time I wake up again. The fire had died down significantly, but I'm warm. I can see a little clearer now. Allowing me to actually survey my surroundings. I don't think I wanted to see it... my Baron... my beautiful marvel of science... the plane that I worked so hard for... in pieces all around me... I spent years risking my life for this plane... doing aerial shows for blood thirsty crowds that only wanted see the pilots crash... gone... I gulp, holding back tears as I look at a piece of my plane. 'I'm alive because of you... your final gift to me...' Tears escape my eyes. Looking down, my tears landing on the metal I'm holding. Seeing my reflection for the first time in the hunk of metal. A small pink and white pony boy. Large emerald green eyes, my mane seems to be half pink, and half white. I seem to be much smaller than the ponies I saw in my dream. My voice seems to be much higher pitched as well. 'Am I a child...?' Examining closer... I have a serious head injury. Not to mention what ever other injuries my body has. I also have my own blood soaked into my fur, from having fallen in a puddle of it. I peer over to my right arm. It's still there thankfully... I try to move it... I can move my hoof a little bit, but the appendage itself seems to be derelict. With what medical knowledge I know from the military, I deduce that it's dislocated. 'This is gonna be fun...' I think to myself with oozing sarcasm. I begin to drag myself towards a few trees. Using my hind hooves to help move myself forward. I find a particularly barky Black Cherry tree. I'm not 100% that it's a Black Cherry tree... but it looks like one, so I'm calling it that. I wrench a piece of bark free of it's trunk. Then sigh as I look it over. 'This should suffice...' I begin dragging myself back over where the fire is. I want to stay warm while I do this... I sit up on my rump as I reach the fire. I place the piece of bark in my mouth. My ears automatically flatten against my head as I whimper... knowing what was coming next. I pause, and take a deep breath as I move my good hoof over to my right one. Taking hold of my right hoof. I psych myself up. Panting a few times and lift my right hoof up rapidly. With a loud 'POP' my shoulder is relocated. The pain if this act is immense. I scream out in agony, and fall to my side. I pant more, and whimper. Tears forming at my eyes. I lay there... whimpering, and crying... I haven't actually cried in years... After a few minutes... the pain dies down. I continue to the lay there, and begin staring into the sky. The sun seems to be directly overhead. So I guess it's about noon. How long was I out? Hours? A whole day? I don't know how long I lay there for... but eventually, my belly complains. I turn my head, looking into a random direction. Looking for a path... someway to go. It looks like there is some kind of old path. It doesn't look very beaten... but it might lead me to help. I roll onto my belly, then begin climbing to my hooves. My right arm hurts... but it's responsive for the most part. I wobble and shake a little as I f ind my center of balance. I feel like a new born standing for the first time... that's not too far from the truth. I begin to walk. I watch my hooves for the first few steps. Thinking that if I watch them, that I'll somehow not trip. It's not that hard though. For the first time, I smile. I'm... not actually that bad off. Maybe it's the head injury... sure my body aches... but my right arm wasn't broken... I can walk, and I have a lead out of here! Sigh. Why do the fates hate me? It's at that moment I hear a sound... a small 'snap' sound. That really cliche movie horror 'snap'. The one you immediate identify as a twig having been stepped on. I immediately whirl around towards the sound. Lurking in the brush is this... log...? Is a log really stalking me? Head injury for the win... I smile and giggle at it. A log... stalking me? How silly. My smile fades instantly as the 'log' begins to stand up. My ears droop as my eyes widen. Standing before me is a strange combination of wood... and a wolf. I can only gulp as the creature takes a step out of the brush it was hiding in. For a moment, I freeze up. I suddenly hear my old drill sargeant's voice ringing in the back of my mind. "Don't just stand there, you slack jawed pigmy marmoset!" My eyes widen as the creature lifts a heavy paw and swipes at me. I snap out of my stupor, and duck under it. Then scramble back towards the plane. Rushing through the area. The wolf hot on my tail. 'The cockpit! It's too small for him to fit through the window!' I rush back towards the plane. The timberwolf leaps at me... but as it does, I trip! Falling on my face, the timberwolf overshoots me. Tumbling on the ground. Confused, it looks around as I run passed it. It growls and gets back to it's paws and gives chase once again... but it's too late. I slip into the window of the cockpit. The wolf stuffs his head into the window trying to get at me... I move to the other side of the cockpit, the other window is busted as well. I easily slip through the other side. As I slip out of the cockpit, I trip on something. Looking down, I see it's the panel from one of my plane's wings that pivots. I get an idea. The wolf pulls it's head free of the cockpit's window. It leaps up onto the plane, seeing me down on the ground. It then leaps down at me. However, I leap down on the plane's panel, like a seesaw, the other end rises up, and smacks the wolf in the face, causing it to slam into the hard ground, making it whimper. I know that won't keep the wolf down for long... I grab hold of the panel and drag it down the length of the plane. As I do, the ground beneath me slowly elevates. I notice a part of the ground that is even with the top, or rather bottom, of the plane. Looking to the side, I see a boulder. With the plane on my left, and the boulder on my right. Sizing the boulder, it looks roughly 100 pounds. Not too big. I stuff one end of the plane's panel under the boulder, then the other end off the edge of the plane. Then rush back down towards the wolf. Who is back on his feet. The wolf snarls angrily. Angered by the fact it was tricked. I spin around and rush back up the elevated slope. Hoping it follows me precisely. At the top of the slope, I pause for a split second. I fear that if I run along the panel too soon, the wolf will skip to the panel, and catch me! The wolf leaps at me as I pause, but I begin moving down the panel as it jumps. It grunts in frustration and begins chasing me. I run to the end of the panel, then turn to it. The wolf seems to have a smirk as it slowly approaches me. Thinking it has me cornered. As the wolf moves along the panel... our combined weight on the panel... begins to shift the boulder. The wolf licks it's lips... suddenly, the boulder slips off the panel. The wolf's eyes bug out as it's suddenly launched like a catapult! Sure... because I was standing on the end of the panel that was hanging off the side of the plane, I ended up falling, and hitting the ground. It hurt... but the wolf got it harder... he ended up landing on the part of the plane that is on FIRE. Now... I know I'm in a new realm... but if it's anything like my old one... wood plus fire equals BAD. After I hit the ground, I rub my head... the wound on my head throbbing. I then look up to see the wolf rolling around, trying to put the fire out. Now's my chance! I quickly get up and start running towards the pathway I saw earlier. As I run... I can hear the wolf whine pathetically... it's whine really weak sounding. I stop running. Turning back to the wolf, I grit my teeth. I was in the military...! Why do I care about this creature? Shaking my head, I run back to it. I begin kicking dirt on it. To smother the fire. I manage to smother the bigger portions of the fire with the dirt, and use my hooves to put out the smaller bits. I then look the creature over. I'm not really a veterinarian... so I'm not sure how to tell if this creature is stil alive or not... but it is making movements. Good enough for me. I turn to leave. Having shown mercy on the poor wolf. However... as I move to the pathway... another one of those wolves is blocking my path. "Crud..." I look back to the plane. I can use the cockpit trick again. But this time, since the first wolf jumped on top, I can go down through the fuselage, and exit through one of the- Suddenly, the wolf that was on fire... it limps passed me. "W...what...?" The wolf takes a threatening pose... but not at me... at the other wolf...? The second wolf tries moving around the first one. But the first wolf just keeps moving between me, and the second wolf. The second wolf tries to rush me, but the first just tackles it! I blink and watch the event unfold... the two wolves roll around biting, and scratching. It quickly becomes apparent that the one protecting me is losing... the burns must've taken a major toll on it. I look around. Finding a loose pipe from my plane. Taking hold of it, I run up and THWACK the opposing wolf! It yelps in pain. It turns to me, growling. But my guardian leaps on it again, biting it remorselessly in the back of the neck. "Get 'im Guardian!" I yell. I ready the pipe to strike again. Going to help the thusly dubbed wolf 'Guardian'. I crack the opposing wolf a good 3 more times. After a few more minutes, the opposing wolf lay defeated... possibly even dead... Guardian then looks at me. I gently put the pipe down, showing I have no intention of fighting him... or her... Guardian approaches me. I smile up at him or her. "Thank you..." Guardian then... nuzzles me...? I pant a few times. The whole ordeal just... taking it's toll. "Phew..." I smile up at the wolf. "I'm glad to have a friend..." The wolf licks my cheek, and I giggle at it. I sadly don't have time to enjoy the affection. I see eyes... 3 sets of eyes stalking in the darkness. One by one... 3 more timberwolves begin to emerge from the darkness. My eye twitches... as Guardian, alarmed, spins around growling. Guardian seems to do the same math I did... Guardian turns to me, and picks me up by the scruff of the neck with his/her mouth. It surprisingly doesn't hurt... Suddenly, things become blurry as Guardian flees with me in his/her mouth. The trees are nothing but blurred images as Guardian carries me at a high speed. I notice movement to our right. "Guardian! Look out!" Guardian deftly dodges one of the other wolves that made a lunge at us. Guardian expertly weaves in and out through trees. Trying to lose the other wolves... but it's going to be a nearly impossible task. With me covered in blood... how does one in my condition lose wolves? Guardian rushes through bushes, up and over logs... and even crawls through a hollow one, trying to lose the other timberwolves. As Guardian leaps through a tree that is close to falling over... a timberwolf comes from the brush. Far too fast for Guardian to react! The timberwolf slams into Guardian, a defeaning 'CRACK' sound... the type of sound you hear when you break a tree branch... I go tumbling across the ground, and slide to a stop. I shake my head, and look up. Seeing the timberwolf that took Guardian down... he's... huge... roughly 2.5 times bigger than Guardian. I scramble to my hooves and start backing away from it. Looking to Guardian... I see him/her shakily getting to his/her feet. I then look back up at the timberwolf who's growling... and snarling... doing the various things wolves do when they think something in front of them looks delicious. I look behind me... there's an opening out of the forest... I look back to the timberwolf... the idea of running comes to mind. I... can't... I can't run... I can't leave Guardian... A few tears form at my eyes. I grit my teeth. "YOU WON'T WIN!" I scream at the big wolf. The big wolf blinks in surprise, seeing such a tiny morsel just yell at it... it seems rather amused. However, Guardian sees it as an opening. Guardian leaps on the big wolf's back, and bites into it's neck. The big wolf cries out in pain, but easily throws the severely injured Guardian off. Guardian hits the ground with a whine. The big wolf starts clawing at Guardian. Beating on the defenseless wolf. I watch in horror... 'The big wolf is killing Guardian... then it'll come for me... what do I do?!' Shaking my head. I take a deep breath... I suddenly remember the tree. The tree Guardian was jumping over just before that big wolf showed up... It's ready to fall over... my eyes widen. I then rush over to the tree. 'If I can knock it over...!' I put my forehooves on it... and push. "Come on...!" I slam my weight against it several times... but only succeed in hurting myself. "No!" I keep trying... repeatedly throwing myself against the tree. WIth no success... "It... it can't end like this!" I can only hear Guardian whimpering, and crying out as the big wolf mercilessly beats on him/her. I begin to sob as I hit the tree over and over again... the tree doesn't budge... After giving it one final slam... I slouch against the tree... unable to make it budge. "I'm... I'm sorry..." Tears are streaming down my face. My ears droop... as I sob onto the tree. My only friend out here is about to die... and there is nothing I can do about it... There's movement behind me. Spinning around... it seems one of the other wolves finally caught up. It lunges at me. "Eep!" My eyes go wide, I manage to move to the side, avoiding the wolf. The wolf hits the tree. It shakes violently. I watch, my eyes widen. 'That's it!' I look over to Guardian. Guardian looks like he/she is still alive... 'I... I can do this!' I dash away from the new timberwolf. "Ok ugly... come get the yummy pony." I turn to it as it's stalking me... moving towards me. Guardian's pained cries getting quieter... Only motivates me! "Om noms, right here!" I yell at the wolf as I back into a bush. Vanishing from sight. As I disappear into the bush, I immediately rush behind a tree. The wolf thinking I'm in the bush swings it's hefty claws into it. Tearing it to pieces, only to be baffled when I'm not there. 'You're going down!' I think as I then make a mad dash towards the tree that is almost falling over. I gather as much speed as I can as I jump at it. I wrap my hooves around the base of the trunk, clinging to it. The wolf notices my movement, and spins towards me. By the time it does, I'm already clinging to the tree. "Come and get me, you ugly bastard!" I yell at it. The wolf growls. Frustrated by how long I've managed to stay away from it. It runs at me, leaps into the air... as it leaps... I let go of the tree's trunk. I fall to the ground as the wolf hits the tree trunk head first. There's a series of loud cracks. The wolf lands next to me with a hard 'THUD'. I look up in time to see the tree give away. It tips over... 'YES YES YES YES!' The tree lands with a thunderous force. A pained... scream like yelp pierces the air. I look over to the wolf next to me. It doesn't seem to be moving... unconscious, or likely dead. I move around it. "Guardian?!" I rush towards Guardian. I see the tree did in fact land on the big timberwolf... but only it's hind quarters. It's even still conscious! It can't get at us though... trapped under the tree like it is. I look to Guardian. He/she is just... in terrible shape. "Guardian...?" The wolf stirs a little. Opening it's eyes, it looks at me. "We... we gotta go... the others will be here soon..." I tell Guardian as if the creature could understand me... it might even be able to, for all I know. I can only cringe as Guardian slowly gets to his/her feet... using only 3 feet... the fourth seems to be too injured... With every step... Guardian whines, or whimpers in pain... I lead Guardian towards the clearing. As we step out of the forest... we notice... it's not a clearing, so much as it's... a cliff... Looking down... it's roughly 150 to 200 foot drop. We definitely can't go this way... But there's hope... I can see a town in the distance... one of the towns I saw from my plane. That hope is quickly dashed... the remaining two timberwolves arrive... Guardian, like before, immediately turns to them. Growling angrily... but... his/her legs give out... and he/she falls to the ground. I watch, shocked that Guardian finally went down. He/she had done so much... I forgot that he/she is still just an organism. This time... I move in front of Guardian. Looking down solemnly at the wolf. "You did your best..." I turn to the two wolves. Standing tall before them, defiant, and courageous. I do one last analysis of my surroundings... 'One of the trees has a dangling vine... If I can squeeze passed the wolves... and get to it... I can pull myself to safety. From there... after I buy myself time, I can try to think of a way to save Guardian too...' I nod, believing it to be a good plan. I take off running to the left, running along the side of the cliff. Hoping that if I give them a wide enough radius, I can get passed them... sadly for me... the wolves, with everything that's been going on, are hyper alert. They react immediately... I don't have time to even take 3 steps. Their anger, and ferocity gets the better of them... As the wolf tackles me... I quickly realize that they greatly over estimated how much I weigh. It put way too much force into it's tackle... we both go spiraling over the side of the cliff. Guardian scrambles to grab me... but... he/she was just... mere inches off... I can feel the wolf's fangs sink into my shoulder. It wanted my neck, but the spiraling effect sort of threw off it's precision. I look over... the cliff wall speeding by us... The ground is quickly getting closer. As we fall in mid air, the wolf lets go of my shoulder. I guess it wanted a better bite than that... 'I want my death as painless as possible, thanks.' I manage to pull my hindhooves up, and shove the wolf away... I really didn't mean to... but I shoved it into the cliff wall. The wolf skids off it a few times. A few outstretched rocks slamming into it. I wince as it shrieks in pain... and finally... the wolf slams into a ledge that was stretched out from the wall. Wood shattering... I look away... Too painful to watch. 'It was a good run... I almost made it.' I smile solemnly. I close my eyes... so I don't have to see the ground coming. 'Never did get to meet the mare in my dreams... if she was even real... Always thought I'd survive a plane crash... I sure hope Guardian is going to be ok...' I relax... ready for the impact... but something catches me. I quickly open my eyes. I'm about 70 feet from the ground. I look around. Nothing seems to be above, or below me... I then look behind me... I see two pink feathered wings... and... they're attached to me?! 'W-when did I get wings?! Were they there the whole time?!' "Heh... heh!" I smile big. Gliding through the air... My wings are just unfurled. And gliding. 'I can only guess it was some pegasus instinct...' I smile big. "This... is AWESOME!" I giggle like a foal as the wind blows through my mane. I close my eyes, and take a big deep breath. "This is amazing!" The sense of euphoria is so overwhelming... that I temporarily forget about Guardian. The sense of glee within me... I knew I liked to fly, but this is just... better than sex! I blink. "Guardian!" By the time I remember Guardian, I'm about 40 feet from the ground. "H-how do you turn this thing?! There's no tiller!" I frown. "To turn a plane... the pivoting panels on the wings cause the plane to tilt side to side. Must be the same science." I try rocking my body back and forth, to get myself to turn... but sadly... it seems feathered wings are different than giant metal ones... I promtly spin out. "NO NO NO NO NO!" I begin to plummet. "WAAAAAAAH!" My hooves flail in the air... and slam into the ground... It's at this exact moment that I make an important discovery... the ground... is hard... very hard.