THA-THUMP!
Stormy felt his body lift up off the seat before coming back down and shoving his head forward as the bus slammed on it’s brakes.
“Dear Sweet Celestia! What the buck!” Stormy yelled as his face met the back of the seat in front of him. He rubbed his muzzle and looked around, face flushing as he saw the people staring at him. The pegasus rearranged his wings, realizing they had flared when his body thought it was falling.
He looked to the woman sitting on his right who spat a feather out of her mouth and had a small wet spot on her shoulder. Stormy realized he had fallen asleep on her shoulder. “Sorry.” He mumbled and stared at the ground. Hearing the local bookworm holding back a laugh. The pony glared at Ed who never pulled his face away from the book. There were several feathers on the ground.
The lady looked at him then turned away and looked out the window. Stormy couldn’t read if she was mad, thought it was funny, or annoyed so he stayed quiet. “Wish I could just fly there.” He muttered, hoping no one heard him.
At the same time he didn’t want to go home, didn’t want to deal with his parents, or even his brother. He wanted to go back to being alone and just doing his job. That’s not an option anymore. He reminded himself. He needed to go by the library to check out some books on Earth, get a final health screening, and thank a guard for their help one last time.
The pony felt a tapping on his shoulder. “What gate are you supposed to get off at?” Edward asked, pointed outside where the sign for American Airlines sat.
Stormy closed his eyes, trying to remember, he knew it was the same gate he arrived at. “Six. Gate six.” He said after fighting with his memory.
“The one we just passed?”
Stormy jerked to look out the window, the bus was pulling over at gate seven; he grabbed the saddlebag and ran for the exit, prancing behind someone else who stepped down slowly from the van. He trotted for a bit still woozy from his short nap; he looked at his watch to see how much time he had before his flight. It was currently 8:29pm and his flight was at . . . the pegasus scrounged through his saddlebags, ignoring the books and pulled out his boarding pass . . . 9:15pm.
Stormy Skies thought back to his pre-trip warning, that he needed to be at the airport two hours before his scheduled flight. There was screenings and finding the gate among other things. The pegasus sped up, running through the sparse humans, weaving through and glad this was concrete and not that slippery material inside, as his hoofs got traction allowing his rear to twist and make sharper turns without the use of his wings. He hadn’t planned on this, it never would have occurred to him the huge spaces involved on Earth, he thought with his orientation ending at 5:30 that four hours would be plenty of time.
His head scanned up for the sign stating Alaska Airlines, but with the tall people around he might as well have been in a forest with the sign being the stars hidden behind their leaves. He thought about it though, the only thing they had done at the first airport was give him his ticket, technically he already had that, and from there it had a gate number he could follow.
Stormy took the first door into the airport he could find and followed the signs and the people with bags for the security checkpoint. Unfortunately he forgot about the change of flooring materials and with his first shift weight his feet flew out from under the pegasus. He pawed at the floor, trying to stop before he knocked someone over, humans weren’t as stable as a pony and with their height were probably easily damaged.
Stormy was going to try to roll onto his stomach and use his wings to fly up, thus stopping his forward momentum. The non-frictionless material of the floor did that for him though as he slowly stopped, still turning about. Just lying there, the pegasus got his bearing before standing, he had never been good with the whirl-a-tron, hence why he never worked on bringing up water to Cloudsdale.
Slowly getting back to his hooves, Stormy walked delicately to the security station, amazed at the line as it curled and twisted with at least fifty people in line. Where did they all come from? This is more than was outside. The line wasn’t fast either, he had met tortoises that moved quicker.
After what felt like an eternity it was finally his turn and was waved forward. Stormy placed his saddlebags in the grey container to pass through the grey box and stepped up to a weird cylinder. The two uniformed guards on the other side of the tube, something the pony still didn’t understand as there seemed to be so many uniforms for the same job, mimed what they wanted him to do. Stormy shifted his weight and raised onto his rear hooves, arms outstretched and the tube whirred around him.
The guard behind the desk and the one next to the tube gave each other obscure looks as the pony was waved out and to the side. “The x-ray had some strange readings, we need to check you as a precaution.
Stormy stood there as the guard moved his white gloved hands down the haunch then through the pegasus’ feather. The pony saw another guard going through his bag, stopping short as she lifted up the book he was reading before putting it back in.
Stormy was not comfortable, not only was this taking much longer than it had before, the guard wasn’t the most gentle and touched more than one sensitive area. The pony thought every inch of his body had been run through, suppressing the need to shake, to let his fur fall back into natural position. And then he felt his tail lift, without thinking, or even realizing what was happening, he felt both of his rear legs lash out to buck the human.
Stormy turned around as quickly as he could, the guard was on his butt and looking shocked. The other guard quickly moved over to help his friend up. The pony could feel all the eyes on him. He was now afraid what would happen, he didn’t mean to buck the human, it had just happened. The guard did not look happy and reached for what had to be a phone on his shoulder.
The guard’s friend though laid a hand on his shoulder and waved the pony on. Stormy more than happily ran to his gate. More than happy to leave that incident behind him. It took more than a dozen minutes though to find gate C4. The seats around the gate were empty and the door behind the counter was closed. A brown haired woman dressed in blue stood behind the counter typing on a computer.
“Where is the flight to Washington?” He asked, not even able to see over the counter and not wanting to reach up and leave his stomach exposed.
The human looked around for a minute before looking down over the counter; she stared for more than a few minutes. “It just left.” The words came out hushed and quiet. The woman continued to stare.
Luna send me to Tartarus! He cursed. “When is the next flight?”
She shook her head and went back to the computer. “It looks like nine thirty in the morning. Normally it would cost a hundred dollars to change a ticket.”
Stormy’s head dropped, he ran through the numbers of how much money he had brought with him, and that would be the last of it, even now, with watching his money, it vanished quicker than a cloud in a tornado.
“I guess I could use a workaround for employees.” She kept glancing at the pony.
Stormy jumped. “Really? Thank you.” He enthused, humans really were great creatures. How do they have such bad reputations at home?
“Would I be able to get a picture with you first?” The lady beamed, eyes alight with joy.
His heart fell a little, not that it showed on his face. A favor for a favor wasn’t a big thing, he just remembered earlier in the day when that one had snuck a kiss on him. He didn’t have much of a choice though. “Ok.”
The woman came around from behind the counter, he finally saw her name as Annette who quickly hugged him and pulled out her phone to snap a picture. She then returned to her station and within seconds handed the pony a new ticket and then started doing something with her phone. “Just remember there aren’t any food places open between midnight and four.” She said as Stormy walked away, still intent on her phone.
Stormy felt eyes on him as he walked, and several more flashes. He began to feel even more self-conscious. He never liked being in public or under scrutiny, it would inevitably lead to the comparisons with his brother.
Stormy wandered around for a while, passing by more than one place for food as none of it looked appetizing. Eventually he found a bunch of chairs all looking at a screen, a woman in a red suit looked straight into the camera. He followed the news anchor as she shifted in her chair, the cameras always looked right into her face though, which even he could tell was covered in something fake. Words crawled along the bottom of the screen, he just barely made out “Equestria” before it was gone.
“We have an update on the incident in the Heibe province of Eastern China.” Stormy didn’t know how the person had memorized all these lines or if she just read up on it. “Smoke Stack, one of the pegasi hired by the Chinese President to help clean up the smog, has been moved from critical to serious condition tonight.”
“Video has surfaced of the incident Friday afternoon where Smoke Stack was beaten in public by a mob after kissing a local woman. We warn you that this video is not recommended for sensitive viewers.”
The screen switched to a grey stallion talking with a young human girl, she was holding his wing. A sign Stormy knew of a serious relationship and trust. She bent down as he fluttered up and kissed her on the lips. There was yelling and within moments the pony was surrounded by a mass of humans, the girl was tearing at one of the attackers only to get shoved away.
Other bystanders soon came and tried to help. Two Royal Guard unicorns teleported in at the same time several men in green uniforms accented with red ran up and started to subdue the mob. A hole opened in the crowd as the two sides started at each other and some ran off. The woman darted in while she had the chance and covered the pony’s body with her own.
Stormy felt physically ill, he couldn’t even think. He looked at the humans around him, wondering what he might do that would insult them and cause such a reaction. The pegasus shuffled his wings and swallowed hard. He could only imagine the reaction back home. That wasn’t his only problem though, Smoke Stack had been a classmate and coworker who had loved cleaning up after fires and fixing the environment. That pegasus had always been a bit weird but always fun, trying to get other ponies involved with more than just clouds.
“The identity of the woman in this video is still unidentified.”
“This incident comes on the heel of Princess Luna’s visit to Beijing to discuss trade negotiations with President Huang. Princess Celestia is expected to make a speech from New York in a couple of hours.”
“What is your take on this Jeremy?” The camera zoomed out and an elderly gentleman with thin hair and a pouty expression appeared.
“Thank you Jenny.” He nodded to the woman. “This makes things more complicated. The trade agreement was not expected to go through as the Equestrian government has stated that it refuses to trade with any country that does not pass laws for the equitable and fair treatment of its citizens. But this shows the tensions that still exist.”
“An action group at UC Berkeley, a place famous for its activists has already promised a campus wide protest for tomorrow to fight what they call the unethical treatment of Equestrians at their school by having different graduating requirements based off of race. While places like Egypt and Iran are calling for their complete removal from the planet by any means necessary.”
“How long do you think this mentality will last? They have helped with several natural disasters.”
“It may last for decades. Look at how long humans have been distrustful of each other. And these are aliens, it will take more time for humans to trust such strange creatures. And incidents like todays grade fixing scandal out of MIT would only make it worse.” A symbol with the same letters popped up on the screen.
“You mean where the faculty artificially elevated a pony’s grades to keep her in good standing?”
“Exactly. This is still a delicate and complicated situation. The number of visitors to either world is still strictly regulated by total population.” The image of a school was replaced by a graph with squiggly lines. “There are roughly two hundred visitors from Equus on Earth at any given moment; most of them in schools or private contractors for specialized kinds of work. But those visas are incredibly rare, and not restricted to Celestia’s subjects.”
“It is no different on their end with maybe seventy five humans on their side at any given time. Diplomats, archeologists, scientists, diplomats and such.”
“Why so few? There must be more that could be supported.”
“Because Jenny, there are still quite a few safety guidelines and concerns. Especially for long term contact.”
“Thank you for your time Jeremy.” The image shifted back to just the woman. “And now to sports. The Santiago Sharks won their third game this season against…”
And just like that, without even blinking the woman had changed topics, as if nothing had happened. Stormy felt tired, he felt unsafe as small alien eyes watched him. Looking up he saw rafters plenty large for a pony to take a nap on as he stifled a yawn. He didn’t feel like sleeping near these people, he didn’t feel they could all be trusted.
The pony heard some speaking behind him. “They ain’t to be trusted. Look at all those requirements just to offer some trade. They aren’t as helpful as they seem, what have they done for the little man?”
Stormy barely heard this as he flew up to the rafters. Looking down he saw several people stare at him. The pony took this time to walk over to a different area, someplace people hadn’t seen him fly to.
The pony finally stopped after several minutes, when no more humans seemed to be tracking him. No longer was Stormy tired, instead he was worried and confused. How could the people who had been so nice to him be related to the ones who hospitalized a pony for kissing someone? It made no sense, the two were polar opposites. Then he realized not once had they talked about the people responsible, never on any of the news had they discussed potential punishment for any of the incidents.
He was no longer tired, as least not enough to go to sleep. For a while he sat and stared at the ground, watching people milling about and talking. It didn’t help his mood though as he wondered which were the volatile and which were the helpful. Again, he questioned the wisdom of his decision, dreading the comments when he returned to Equestria.
His body built up energy from the stress and all he wanted to do was go for a fly, something that was not an option, not with the only air space already taken and him not wanting to be seen for a while. So despite hesitating, Stormy reached back into his bag for the book, blanching at the thought but at a loss for anything else to do.
The air was uncomfortable though. For some reason the building was getting warmer as the night went on and more humid. Do they want summer showers in here? If they don’t remove this water that’s just what they will get. He remembered when a classmate had tried bringing a cloud inside for a nap and one thing led to another with the classroom getting flooded.
Reaching into his bag he noticed an unfamiliar blue shape next to the black of his book. “Spark Notes: The Hunger Games.” A Small piece off green stuck out from one of the pages, Stormy pulled it open. A ten dollar bill had been used as a bookmark, a small piece of paper on the same page.
For if you get confused reading “Hunger Games.” This will tell you the basics of what it is.
Good Luck.
There was no name, but it was obvious who it was from, which only made Stormy more confused. So he settled down with his other book and the bottle of water, hoping morning would come soon.
The problem is Stormy is seeing us as one race. Equestria is a world with several species that are very different but each member seems to share roughly the same mindset as the rest of its species. Earth is the opposite, one species but different groups have different mindsets.
Furthest distance traveled? From the USA to Europe. Probably St. Petersburg was the greatest distance from home.
5805720 dang that's far. Heard it is beautiful too.
5805851 doesn't even have to be that. League of Legends where you control what would look like gods, so many option.
5805637 very true. how would that be noticed in such a setting?
Humanity, always about me rather than you
Use dashes to indicate interruptions in text. Periods just end up confusing everyone.
Depending on what you mean by farthest.
In one trip (with two layovers) Dallas to Shenyang. Lived there for almost 3 years with my wife (who I met there).
Farthest from 'home (Texas/Oklahoma): I stayed a week in Chengdu during the Spring festival of '09.
As far as the beating in China, that actually could happen if the aggressors were migrate workers. There is some of a hostility from lower income types who have no chance -- too poor -- of getting a 'good' wife to foreigners 'taking their women'.
One of the reasons I typically carried a metal collapsible baton with me if I were out and about in the streets in the evenings. The other being is that I typically had more cash than most did.
5806539 THANK YOU!!! Sorry, but yeah. I am glad someone caught the cultural reference Study a lot about Japan and China and it goes so far over most people's heads.
5806161 the ellipsis in this instance is used to show a slight pause while he looks and thinks, not an interruption. I rather love those dots as they can convey so much.
5806063 Not always It can also be all about "us" and not about "them". Anthropology stuff Keeping resources within the community, and then you can have me vs you within that community. At least from what I have seen.
5806539 But that makes it a little harder to make the okie jokes (kidding, well, ribbing. I do have family from there). Now what were you doing in China?
5806627 oh aye, that is true. I've seen the best and worst of humanity in relation to my voluntary work.
5806682 Can you elaborate? I love new information, especially from a different perspective.
5806752 I am a voluntery first aider, I help provide medical cover. You meet dozens of people willing to give up their time & money to give public events the medical cover they need. But i've also seen hatred and greed. I can;t really go into details due to laws and things- but you see all sorts of people with injuries for very diffrent reasons.
Just that while there is darkness, there is light. And where there is light there is darkness.
I think you were pretty realistic with how you portrayed the news. Also it was a pleasure reading the chapter! Looking forward to the next one!
5806868 Thank you very much and I understand about details. I never knew there was such a thing. Would have expected public events to have to provide their own.
Furthest I've ever been? Well from living in the UK that would likely be New York, the Island of Malta taking second place. Still, I have travelled to plenty of places nearer by such as Germany, France, Switzerland and other European countries. I would like to travel more but I'm not exactly in much of a position to right now.
On the chapter, it was good. Not nice considering the topic covered near the end but good to get the necessary evils in there. Still, overall can't help but feel Stormy's experiences so far have been either negative or neutral in nature, would be nice to get a few more up beat events in, colour things a little more.
5807556 Wow that sounds like some fun travel.
I think he has seen a bit of good, but that is mostly related to a few people. Several have stood up for him. Can you be more descriptive on what you mean by upbeat?
Washington, DC to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
5808105 wow. Why to Malaysia?
5807743 Well I guess what I mean is the majority of situations seem to have left Stormy either confused or worried. There's nothing wrong with that, its honest and realistic for the scenario but I'm holding out for, well... its hard to say it in a way that doesn't sound like flowery egotism, especially in the face of some where as seemingly idyllic as Euestria. I guess I'm waiting on the discovery and acknowledgement of our achievements as a species. The great things we've accomplished and created in spite of a floors and the hardships of our world, how history is biased towards the recording of wars and that while we don't have magic in the most conventional sense, beneath the surface we have our own brand of it; we just had to make it first.
I know all this stuff is much further down the line, if it is going to be there but it would be nice to get a few more solid pictures of it every now and then. And sorry if that was a little drawn out, I have a bit of a habit of rambling on when trying to explain how I see something.
5808362
My parents both worked for the Foreign Service, so we traveled there as diplomats.
5806627
A elipsis would also be fine, but you didn't use one. You only have periods there.
5809851 No, that was a perfect explanation, I liked it and it helped. It also might not be as far as you think it is. The basics are already in place. (yeah, that could mean as many as ten or more chapters away, but they are there).
5810149 so you are referring to the fact there are no spaces in between the periods? just saw it, no clue how that happened.
5810014 dang, that is quite cool.
5810491
Indeed
5807376 Nar, they hire in First Aid organisations as they don'tg have the staff trained. Some events that are large enough have a number of diffrent organisations. (it can cost ~£600+ just for one person to be trained)
An example is York Racecourse (Equestrian), the primary First Aid providers are "Saint John Ambulance" and then the National Health Service (in the form of one or two ambulance crews). Then they have some FAs dedicated for the jockes and a few for any concert events aswell.
5810491 Well I'm cool with that. It's always fun to get a new chapter on a story as interesting as yours here.
Heck, this story introduced me to the larger deaf culture which was new to me, even a little challenging.
5811828
and to be honest, it is still a challenge after studying it.
Do you mean you left from California and went to Pennsylvania and Alaska, as in you live there? I've only been to California once. It was fun cuz I live, like, a thousand miles from the nearest ocean. I live in Arizona, and I've been to England, France, Germany, Spain, New York, Georgia, and Mexico.
I travel locally a lot more. I go to Colorado every summer, and I've been to Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, and this one town just over the US Mexico boarder.
I love the fact that this chapter really opened the window a lot on the world view. Really gives an example on how realistic you're going to make this. Your mentality on how humans would treat ponies and how ponies would react is almost exactly like mine.
I like it!
Eagerly awaiting the next chapter.
5825242 Nice! Would love to have visited that many places outside the US. And yes, my home is in California, usually (but those were two different trips). Also lived in Minnesota but that is different. And my travel is usually only in the state (which isn't a bad thing with mountains, beaches, San Francisco and LA all in driving distance). And have to mention this song, you said beaches and Arizona so don't blame me.
I don't really know how real mine is but thank you. The biggest complaint I hear is how so many stories only occur in the US, that and I wanted to see how people would react with the human/pony relationship (curiosity) and am surprised no one seems to care. And humans all seem to react differently so far.
5825402 Well that's just it, isn't it? Most authors wan't to stick to what they know, especially when writing fics involving humans. Since most of the MLP fandom is in the US, naturally that's where most of the stories will be based. I find your story to be realistic because in the real world nobody is the same. Half of the world always wants to kill the other half because it's impossible to get everyone to agree on anything. You depicted this really well when you wrote about the pony in china getting attacked and people debating over it. Also when you mentioned certain countries having the very radical beliefs of "Get every single pony off the planet" while other countries were hosting Celestia and Luna for political speeches. The only issue that I have, and keep in mind that it's a small one, is that I think the news team would have made a bigger deal about the pony being attacked. From what I read, it sounds like this is a first time thing in the relationship between humans and ponies. While it is true that in our world today most news channels will only briefly touch on the subject of car bombings and murders and suicides because they do happen virtually every day, when some new form of terror arises, like when ISIS became a big thing, people will talk about it for weeks, months even. I just think the news would have made a bit more fuss over an attack on an Equestrian. The chapter was still fine though!
I also mostly travel in-state mostly. Though California is a lot bigger than Arizona. It only takes about four hours to drive from Tucson to Flagstaff, and that's practically all the way across the state. That's what my family does every spring break. We drive up to Flagstaff because Tucson, my home town, is obscenely hot sometimes. Flagstaff is the best place in the state for skiing because of its elevation.
5825469 Yay someone who understands the evils of heat. And I do mean triple digits above 110.
The portal has been open five years already and the attack happened almost a week before is the thing, it really is somewhat old news. To which the pony was in a little bit of shock. This could also be a 24 hours news program since after nine is an odd time for regular news, it wasn't yet ten. And there was an analysis part he missed. And it may not seem like it but I like the debate, some things aren't always the most thought out and this gives ideas
And now for the fun question. How do you know this isn't from experience?
5825514 Well yes, I did assume that there must have been some form of longer analysis, and the news anchor did say update, but I was just saying that at first glance, it seemed like a very recent thing. Even though the anchor said the pegasus was moving from critical to serious condition, that really isn't much of a time frame to work with. People in hospitals with moderate to severe conditions can have a lot happen with their condition in a very short amount of time. And let's not forget that when it happens to somebody important like a visitor from another world, people will try almost too hard to find some way to tell the world that the victim's condition has "changed". Do you remember the shooting at the Albertson's here in Tucson where Gabriel Giffords several other innocent people were shot? It was a terrible day, and I remember I was driving with my mom and brother towards my grandmother's house to spend the day with family when we heard about it on the radio. Every station was saying something different. The one we were listening to even said that Gabriel had died before the official statement was made. Several other sources had completely boggled stories, saying things as absurd as over thirty people dead.
My point is is that there wasn't that much information to work with regarding the condition of "Smoke Stack" the pegasus, and given my previous experiences with news stations trying everything they can to get more listeners or viewers, chances are they're wrong. Also the odd hour for the news further supports it being a recent event since "pony gets attacked by mob for kissing human" is something that every news station in the world would be covering as soon as they had any information at all to work with, regardless of how unfounded they're sources are.
5825514 Also yeah, heat is terrible! My friends dog died last summer from a heat wave that topped 112. My mom's electric bill in the summer is scary!
My longest journey was to the U.S., 9 hour plane flight. However, the UK felt stranger than the U.S. and the 1 hour flight was a bumpy ride compared to the long flight. I like flying more than I expected.
5844100 Where in the US? How is the UK stranger than the US? Should Americans just act weirder?
And yeah, flying is pretty fun. One hour flight musta been one of those propeller driven planes, those can be scary
5844470 Well, I am rather a fan of UCLA, and yet hate it. What I would suggest is look at several things. Looks at the cost, the in-state vs -out-of-state tuition, that can be a huge thing. Look at what you want to study like sub specialty, that way you can study what you really want to do. I will not sell you on one, I made that mistake.
I do know UCLA has a wonderful brony club, not that I am biased or anything I know it is also more focused on the science and math stuff than other fields, because the japanese department sucks. There are a TON of things to do which can be a good thing or a bad thing. I can get in touch with some of the CS people, or if you have any specific questions I will gladly help.
5844257 I was there twice, once on a tour in the East, including NY, Washington DC, Chicago, and once close to Chicago with a family.
They drive, as they say, 'on the right side of the road' and there's no proper bread. Wait, there's no proper bread in the U.S. either. ('Proper' meaning in different shades than white or yellowish white. Maybe I just looked in the wrong places.)
Like this.
youngstarswiki.org/typo3temp/pics/Bildschirmfoto2012-0_44bcc2686c.png
Additionally, when you mention that you're German:
U.S.: Answer: "Oh, my great-grandparents are from Germany, too!"
UK: Answer: "You're from the Continent?"
I thought it was funny. I like both places.
5848261 We have other breads, something like this: thebreadfactoryinc.com/images/concha3_250x249_250x249.jpg but that could just be because of the close relation to Mexico. There are not a lot of bread shops.
And that is funny, and very interesting
Needs a little editing.
" Diplomats, archeologists, scientists, diplomats and such.”
“The identity of the woman in this video is still unidentified.” etc.
Nicely done. This was the first time we've got to see some of the inevitable darker aspects of the ponies coming to Earth, but in a brilliant and realistic way, that doesn't evolve putting the main(or mane, if you prefer.) character in any direct danger. I'm starting to really look forward to what happens next.
5928957 Thank you not sure it is that brilliant though.
Wish I had some grander ideas or other aspects that would make an impact.
Farthest I've traveled? Well, I've seen quite alot of the world. The longest single journey I'ce taken was across the Pacific Ocean to New York.
6123616 Atlantic? Pacific is over California. Or did you travel from Asia?
6125028 2.bp.blogspot.com/_7OAQ5TRzANc/TPsu_arEpWI/AAAAAAAAACY/85iMwIXBEgs/s1600/flight+path.png
(Apparently not the Pacific, but the Arctic)
6125085 South Korea? Nice! And that would be the shorter path
I've been from my home in Ohio to Germany twice. Both trips were fine, except for a layover in NY's JFK that was a complete toilet. I sympathize with Stormy in this chapter.
What's the farthest I've ever traveled? I live in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, and I have traveled to the United States of America frequently. I once flew there via Japan, and the flight back from LAX to Melbourne non-stop is about fifteen hours. The very longest trip I've taken though was one time when I flew from Melbourne to Hawaii, then to LAX, then various interstate hops, then from New York to England, then to Singapore, and finally back to Melbourne. So a complete circuit of the world, which is just about as long as you can get!