//------------------------------// // Unplanned Landing // Story: An Airliner in Equestria // by TopGunBrony //------------------------------// 7:51AM 1,100 miles east of the US east coast 34,000 feet AGL Robert and the other passengers on board Flight 7893 were asleep, the aircraft having reached its cruising altitude roughly an hour and a half ago. Breakfast was to be served in less than forty minutes. In the cockpit of the huge airliner, the pilot, Captain John Mitchell and his co-pilot, First Officer Rick Mason were calm and relaxed as they monitored the instruments as they kept the plane on course. They had received no storm warnings, and the skies were mostly cloudy. After ten minutes, they noticed a mass of dark clouds ahead of them, which they thought looked like developing storm clouds. Sure enough, the air traffic controller came on the radio. “United Seven-Eight-Niner-Three Heavy, New York Center, we just received Doppler radar data on a developing storm approximately twenty miles ahead of your position, looks too large to divert around, advise you maintain current heading and climb and maintain flight level three-six thousand feet to overfly the storm, over.” the controller said. “Maintain current heading and climb and maintain flight level three-six thousand feet to avoid developing storm, United Seven-Eight-Niner-Three Heavy.” John replied, acknowledging the controller's instructions. John then turned the altitude hold dial on the autopilot control panel to put the aircraft at 36,000 feet. The plane then began climbing, its trim tabs being automatically adjusted by the autopilot system to maintain a steady climb rate. John then flipped a switch just behind the throttle quadrant to turn on the seatbelt sign, which turned on with a distinct 'ping'. “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your first officer speaking, we have just been informed that we will be experiencing some turbulence here shortly and for that reason, the captain has just turned on the fasten seatbelts sign. We ask that you remain in your seats with your seatbelts fastened and seat backs in the fully upright and locked position until the captain turns off the fasten seatbelts sign, thank you.” Rick said to the passengers over the intercom. All at once, the passengers who were in the lavatories hurried to their seats and fastened their seatbelts upon their return, the flight attendants doing the same. The other passengers were awakened by the copilot's announcement and got ready for the bumpy ride ahead. Twenty minutes later, the plane entered the newly-developed storm, lightning flashes visible in the clouds below. “Wow, that is quite an awesome sight!” Rick said. “Yeah, it i-whoa!” John replied as the plane jolted from the first patch of turbulence. Just then, Rick spotted a purple glow ahead of them. John also spotted this and they both looked at it in awe and curiosity. “What is that?” John asked. “I have no idea, thunder sprite, perhaps?” Rick asked. “Nah, those are usually a lot bigger, last for less than a second, and they're usually blue and red.” John replied. Suddenly, the purple glow grew bigger and turned from purple to white as it grew intensely brighter, to the point at which the three-man cockpit crew was forced to shield their eyes. “CRAP!” John exclaimed as he turned his head away and threw his arms over his eyes. Several seconds later, the light faded and the crew removed their arms from in front of their eyes. They looked around and noticed that the sky around them was now sunny and clear. “Hm, that was weird, I wonder whaAAT THE HELL?!” John exclaimed as he looked down at the instrument panel. “What is it?” Rick asked. “The...the navigation system's out!” John said, pointing to the navigation display. Rick looked and noticed that the display was blank, except for the heading, which was now at 156. He then looked at the primary flight display and became even more confused. “Not just that, look at our altitude!” he said. John did and was surprise to see that their altitude was only 5,000 feet. “Hm, that doesn't make sense, everything was working well when we took off.” he said. “Hm, maybe we should turn...back...to.....New......York?” John said, his voice trailing off as he stared out the windscreen. “What is i-oh, my.” Rick said as he looked out and saw what John was seeing, instead of the thick clouds of the storm over the North Atlantic they were flying over just minutes ago, they were now flying over a large forest. Looking around, they saw a deep gorge to their right, and to their left, in the distance, they saw what looked like a huge castle on the side of a tall mountain. “Wh-where ARE we?” Rick asked, bewildered by their situation. “I have no clue, but what I do know is that we're not where we should be.” John replied, his voice also filled with confusion. “New York Center, United Seven-Eight-Niner-Three Heavy declaring an emergency!” John said. Nothing but static was heard. He tried three more times, but the result was the same. “Dammit!” John exclaimed. “Maybe we can find somewhere to land and get some help figuring this out.” Rick suggested. “Good idea, but I don't see any airports around here, do you?” John asked. “No, and the nav system's out, so there's no sure way to tell.” Rick replied. Robert and some of the other passengers looked out the window, confused by what they saw. Robert thought as he checked his watch, noticing that only ten minutes had passed since he fell asleep again. He looked and saw a large white castle on the side of a huge mountain. “Wow, that looks beautiful!” Robert said as he got out his camera and took a picture. Just after he put his camera away, he saw something that truly confused him. A cyan-blue...flying horse!? had flown up next to the airliner, positioning itself just above the wing, just outside Robert's window. The Pegasus, which had a mane and tail that were colored like a rainbow, turned its head and looked at him as if with great curiosity. Robert stared wide-eyed for a second and, got his camera back out to take a picture. He figured by the look of her rounded snout that the Pegasus was a mare. Robert became even more baffled when the Pegasus...posed?...just before Robert pressed the shutter release. Robert looked at the screen in surprise at the picture that was taken. The Pegasus had apparently positioned herself as if she was relaxing on a lawn chair or hammock, her head facing forward. She also had turned her face towards him and flashed a silly grin, winking just as the picture was taken. Robert lowered the camera and saw that the flying mare had gotten closer, close enough for him to see a red, yellow and blue-striped lightning bolt under a cloud on her flank. Robert thought as he looked on. Robert saw her...giggling?...apparently at his reaction. He then gasped in surprise when the Pegasus waved her fore-hoof back and forth. In a friendly gesture, Robert waved back and watched as the Pegasus turned and flew off, headed in the direction that they had flown from. Robert thought with a sigh as he laid back in his seat. The other passengers on the same side of the plane had also seen this and taken pictures, and most had also waved at the Pegasus after she did. Meanwhile, in Ponyville... Twilight watched in amazement as the portal flashed into a white light. She heard a loud roar and looked up to see a huge machine with wings fly out of it. She noticed four blue round objects on the wings, two per wing, and what looked like smaller wings on the back end. She watched as the behemoth flew on, headed over the Everfree Forest towards Appaloosa. Twilight thought as she had Spike take a letter. As Spike wrote, she saw Rainbow Dash flying towards the machine at high speed, astonished that something so huge could even fly to begin with. “What was that?” she wondered out loud. Meanwhile, 5,000 feet above the Everfree forest Rainbow Dash had been flying over the area when she heard a loud roar coming from Ponyville. She flew towards the noise and saw a large white and blue machine that appeared to have wings fly past her at high speed. She decided to follow it and check it out. She noticed a pair of blue round objects hanging from each wing and that the body had a hump in the front of it. She flew in closer, marveled at the speed at which this thing was flying, considering its size. She noticed that the sides had a row of windows running down the entire length with five doors spaced evenly along the entire length, plus another row above it on the hump with one door in the middle. She also saw the word 'UNITED' in thick, bold letters just below the upper row of windows next to a logo that looked like a fancy red and blue 'U', just behind a set of large windows that looked like the place where this machine was controlled. She closed in even further, positioning herself above the left wing while looking through one of the windows at the interior of this strange machine. She noticed that the inside was filled with rows of seats, and in these seats were strange, hairless beings that apparently wore clothes. She saw one of the males that was sitting next to the window she was looking in lower what looked like a camera and look right at her. He stared at her with wide eyes for a few seconds before the camera was brought up again. Rainbow then had an idea, and positioned herself so that she looked like she was relaxing in a bed or on a cloud. Ready for my close-up! Rainbow thought as she put a smug grin on her face and winked, just as the camera's flash went off. She giggled at the being's shocked reaction. Rainbow thought as she inched herself closer and waved a fore-hoof. She smiled as the being brought up his arm and waved back. Rainbow thought as she turned away and flew back towards Ponyville. As she did, she got a look at the large vertical fin at the end, which was blue and had the same logo, but in a gray color. Minutes later, the forest that the plane was flying over had ended and they were now flying over a smooth desert. “Hmm, this terrain seems pretty flat, don't you think?” Rick asked. “Yeah, it looks like we might be able to land on it.” John replied. “Yeah, and there's a town nearby, maybe we can ask the locals for help.” Rick added. “Good thinking, let's do it! There's even a railroad line leading to it that we can use as a guide!” John replied. Rick then announced this plan to the passengers as John began preparing the aircraft for landing. He began descending as he reduced airspeed to 190kts and began slowly lowering the flaps using the lever on the right side of the throttle quadrant. He overflew the town and circled around to the edge of the large open plains. He turned towards the town again at 1,000 feet and reached for a large lever on the center of the instrument panel, pulling it out and down to lower the landing gear. He then set the autobrake system to MAX and armed the spoilers. John skillfully guided the plane on an approach to a spot near the edge of the flat area. At 176kts, the main gear touched down, throwing sand up into the air behind it. John didn't use the thrust reversers for long, for he knew that on this type of terrain, the sand and rocks could be thrown up by the engines. The plane finally came to a stop 50 yards from the town, which was just to the right. “Whew...well, we made it!” John said as he shut the engines down. “Yeah...we did!” Rick replied. Meanwhile, Sandra, one of the flight attendants, opened the door and looked around. She saw a crowd of what looked like colorful horses, some wearing western outfits, gathering around the aircraft. She froze in astonishment and curiosity when they all looked up at her. She noticed that some of them had horns, which meant that they were unicorns, and some others appeared to have wings, and thus, must have been Pegasi. “Y'all OK up there?” she heard one say, which amazed her even more. “Y-yeah, we just need a way to get down from here!” she shouted back. Sandra thought. “Don't you worry none, we'll get somethin' ta git ya down quick!” the same pony yelled back. Five minutes later, the same crowd of ponies began moving hay bales into a stack just below the aircraft's main exit door. What really puzzled Sandra was the fact that they were floating into place, surrounded by a colored glow. When she noticed that the unicorns next to the stack had a similar glow on their horns, she realized that they were using their horns to float the hay bales into place, apparently with some kind of magic. “Kate, come check this out!” Sandra called out. Kate came over and peaked her head out next to Sandra. “Wow, what are they doing?” she asked. “They're making a set of stairs or something out of those hay bales that we can use to climb down.” Sandra replied. “Wow, this is definitely the craziest flight I've been on.” Kate said. “Yeah, you said it, girl!” Sandra replied. Over the next few minutes, the stack became a sort of makeshift stairway, and eventually, the final bale was placed on top, the top just a couple of inches from the bottom of the doorway. “OK, y'all should be able to climb down now!” the same pony from earlier called up. “OK, just so you know, there's over four hundred of us on board this aircraft!” Sandra replied. Kate then turned her attention to the curious passengers. “OK, everyone, the locals here have just stacked a pile of hay bales for us to use to climb out, so I want everyone to be careful on the way down.” she announced. Everyone began unfastening their seatbelts and got up out of their seats as they prepared to disembark. Robert thought as he got up and followed his fellow passengers towards the exit. Everyone left their luggage where it was since they didn't know the extent of the situation. Slowly, but surely, they carefully climbed down the stack of hay bales, the kids among them being helped by their parents. After five minutes, everyone was on the ground. Needless to say, everyone was confused as to how they ended up here after they had been flying over the North Atlantic just minutes earlier, having left New York just a few hours before that.