Fighting Never Ends

by Tx Avenger 218

Departure

The ceiling is a familiar place is it not? You go to bed, lie back, close your eyes and drift off into dream world. Then as your eyes - which some say they are the gateways into your soul - slowly open, the ceiling may be the first thing you see.

Letting out a long held in sigh, I blink a few times to get the sleep out of my eyes. Slowly I get up and make my way to the bathroom. Before long, the steamy hot water of the shower fills the small room as I stand there. Showers are usually relaxing, but most people never really take in the concept of the relaxed state you put yourself in when you submerge yourself under the water of a warm bath. The only reason why I’m taking a shower is because they’re quick, and my time table dictates that I be in the air towards the Griffon Kingdom within the hour.

After turning off the shower and drying off, I dawn my simplest of clothes, minus my shoes. I make my way towards the multi-locked door of my houses armory and promptly open it. In the middle of the room, my gaze immediately shifts to the assortment of equipment I laid out last night.

I pick up the body armor with the letters SWAT stitched onto the front and promptly fit to my chest. I also make sure to grab Rainbow’s and Philomena’s feather before I leave. After I finish tying the combat boots onto my feet, I equip my belt onto me and open up the smallest of the various black, pelican brand cases. I holster my new Colt M1911A1 XSE into the left. It’s a colt pistol modded with a stainless steel frame, onyx black grip, optional silencer and 16-round extended magazine. A standard magazine is what’s on it right now while the rest of the attachments are in the case. In the holster on my right, I have the Smith & Wesson Model 500 Revolver. One of two Combat knifes is in its sheathe behind me while the second is strapped to my left ankle, followed by the Colt Anaconda on my right ankle.

Next I sling both Galaxy and Redemption onto my back in the usual X-formation with a slow shing. I grab the gas mask and put it in one of my duffel bags. I open up the largest pelican case I have and marvel at the M4A1 Carbine equipped with a quad-rail system to allow up to four attachments on the barrel. Comes with a silencer, M203 Grenade Launcher, laser sight, flashlight, 4x red dot scope, 60 round magazine, and adjustable stock. Placing on the strap, I wrap it around me over my shoulder.

Since now I feel the weight of every piece of my weaponry on my form, I place the pelican boxes into my old duffel bag, filled with some food to last me over a week, medkit, my grapple gun, and some cigarettes that Twilight found. Never had I thought to smoke in my life, but with all the changes that have been thrusted into my life in half this year alone… I like the option.

In my second duffel bag, it’s filled with some frag grenades, various types of magazines, tear gas grenades, my Mossberg 500 shotgun, 2 full-auto Glock pistols, a Remington Model 700 sniper rifle, my compound bow, and some arrows.

I still feel nervous as hell, but this situation is inevitable… so suck it up. I roughly grab both bags and make my way to front door. I’m glad I’ve been doing plenty of exercises and lifts while I’ve been here, otherwise I’m pretty sure my back would have given out with all this weight. It’s not easy, but it’s a hell of a lot better.

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

Great. “Uh… it’s open!” I shout as I manage to squeeze through the door. I turn back around and begin locking the door again.

“Swift? Where are you?” Ahhh, Twilight… ever the curious and worried one.

“Armory.” I reply as I finish with the last lock.

“There you are.” She says as I turn around and see her poking her head around the corner.

“Here I am.” I chuckle as I spread my arms.

We share a light chuckle before the awkwardness comes forth like so many times between us.

“So… it’s time huh?” she asks.

My face contorts to serious as I nod, “Yeah, it is.” I lean down and grab both my bags.

“Oh here. Let me help you with that.” She interrupts my movements by wrapping both my duffel bags in her magic and lifting them up with ease.

I stare at her for a few seconds before I shrug. “Alright, thanks.” I walk to the door and hold it open for her, “Let’s get going.”

“Oh okay.” She says somewhat sadly as she trots out of my house. I close the door behind the two of us and promptly lock it before heading in front of the mare and leading her to where I will need to go. “Here.”

She floats up two things to my face. Notably, my cell phone, and what looks like a tape recorder. “Where’d you get these?”

“You said your phone has only so much life left in it and that it could be charged. I took it while you were gone and was able to charge it, and I found the other item outside your house.”

Hm, nice. I’ve always felt contempt and at ease with my phone, and the tape recorder can help keep my thoughts together on my journey. “Thanks. These will work.” I reply while placing both objects in my pockets.

“You’re welcome.” She casually replies. After a few minutes of walking, it gets too awkward for my tastes.

“So, will you be alright while I’m gone?” I ask her to strike up some sort of conversation with her to make this awkward silence go by faster.

She sighs, “Yeah. I’m pretty sure we’ll be fine. Before you came along, we had our share of misfortunes. Remember how I mentioned Nightmare Moon? Trixie? Gilda and even the parasprite infestation?”

“Yeah, I remember. Using an ancient weapon on the princess of the night, a boastful and arrogant unicorn while also dealing with a Ursa Major-”

“Minor. Ursa Minor.”

“Whatever. Continuing, a stuck up griffon, and some fuzzy little creatures that nearly devoured the entire town because somepony messed up a spell?” I try to remember the incidents that Twilight had mentioned before I came along. She turns away and blushes a little at the mention of her spell.

“Precisely. Even though you’ll probably be miles and miles away from here, we can still handle ourselves. Besides, your soldiers will still be here when you get back.” She breaks from her blush and says while adding with a smile. I was getting favorable reports from the soldiers stationed here. Occasional monster attacks with minimal damages inflicted.

“I’m glad to hear that.”

Again, the awkwardness returns. I know Twilight isn’t cool with the idea of me leaving and all, but it’s something I have to do. Plus it’d be a nice experience and change of pace from the usual stuff I’ve seen here in Equestria.

“Swift,” I turn to her, “Are you still alright with leaving? If you want, I’m sure I can try and convince the princess to-“

“Thanks Twilight. I appreciate your concern but I kind of don’t want to be cooked up here for the rest of my life. Back on my world, I would have liked the idea of traveling to the different countries that surrounded the one I was living it. Unfortunately, I was never able to because of… well, you know.”

“Being chased relentlessly?” she finishes up my words.

“Yeah, that. I don’t think I wanna miss this chance to experience something new here.”

“But won’t you miss us?” I stop, allowing Twilight to walk a few steps ahead of me before noticing my slight absence and turning back to me.

I sigh and kneel in front of her, “Twilight, of course I’ll miss you. I’ll miss you, Rainbow Dash, the apple family, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Spike, the cakes, the cutie mark crusaders, everyone.” I reach out and place my hand gently under chin to make her look at me directly, “But as much time is between us, no matter how far apart we are, I will never forget the family and friends that are here, waiting for me to return.” I say with as much sincerity in my voice as I can muster. I definitely mean what I’m saying, since I still can’t remember my childhood, the inhabitants of Ponyville are still the closest family I got. I’ll need to be careful so I don’t mess this up.

“Promise?”

I smile, “I promise.”

“Thank you.” We lean in and wrap each other in a hug.

“Hey love birds!” We jerk each other away in surprise at the source of the voice. As we look around, I manage to take into account that we were walking for longer than I thought, because we are at the makeshift airfield where my plane is housed. All of our friends, minus Rarity and Steel Verrier are already here waiting for me, no doubt wishing to bid me goodbye. Even the Cutie Mark Crusaders are here as well. Most notably, however, is the tall Alicorn sun princess surrounded by half a dozen Solar guards. “About time you got here!” Rainbow Dash yells.

“Huh? Oh yeah! Sorry.” Twilight apologizes and trots up to them. I stand to follow her as well.

“That’s fine Sugarcube.” Applejack greets Twilight, then turns to me. “You ready?”

I look around, seeing the comforting smiles that most of my friends are giving me, assurances that they support me and wish me luck without any words spoken.

Most are false.

I stop when I notice a certain pink pony sitting a little ways away with her back turned to us. Twilight sets my stuff down as I make my way towards Pinkie Pie.

“Pinkie Pie.”

“Hmm.” She shuffles away from me.

“Care to share why you’re mad?” I ask politely. Silence follows. After a minute,

“Why didn’t you let me throw you a party?!” she lightly yells at me as she turns right back around to me.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean,” she pokes her hoof into my chest. “Why would you not let me throw you a going away party? I wanted to make you and everypony else feel so much better about you leaving!” Tears look like they are on the verge of bursting from her eyes, “Why?”

I breathe out through my nose. We stare at each other for a few moments before I answer.

“Another reason to come back.”

She turns from sadness to confusion as to what I mean.

I smile as I continue, “Pinkie… for my state of mind, I’ll probably get the wrong message if you throw me a party about me leaving.” I quickly close her mouth before she can interrupt, “However, no party now will just make me want to come back even more and experience one of Pinkie Pie’s famous party’s.”

“R-Really?” she gently wipes a tear from her eye. I nod.

“Yes. Plus, if I do anything while I’m gone and I tell you about it, it’ll just give you an even bigger reason to throw-“

“An even bigger party!” she happily finishes up my sentence.

“That’s what I thought.”

“Oohhh! That means I better get started! I better start getting everything together so-“

I close her mouth. “Pinkie… do you really prepare like any sane person or pony I know? Or do you just pull out everything you need right from your mane?” She opens her mouth but I close it again, “Actually, scratch that. I don’t wanna know.” I let go. After a few moments of expecting her to go overboard again, I speak, “So, we good?”

“You promise?”

“I promise.” I reply with a smile and a nod.

“Pinkie promise?” she suddenly adds. Oh right, I forgot she does that.

“Pinkie promise, right.”

“Yay! Repeat after me.” she jumps once then back down.

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” She says while also doing the movements with her hooves as well. “Now you. Remember, you gotta do it just like I did.”

Hand movements and all. I take a deep breath, “Alright. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my- AHH!” I yell loudly in pain as I accidentally poke my eye. Wow! Really?!

“You okay?” Pinkie asks me. I rub my eye a little to try and force the pain away. It eventually does and I blink a few times till I can see again, barely.

“Yeah, ah. I’m fine. I just forgot to cut my nails. Is my eye bleeding?” We lean into each other so she can inspect it.

“Nope! Just really red. Like pink eye. Ohhh do you know how annoying pink eye is?! Nothing like Pinkie’s eye of course. How would you catch my eye?!” Pinkie goes to her usual bubbly random self as she seems really interested in pink eye, and her eye. “Well, I suppose if you wanna catch my eye you’d have to strap me down, get a scalpel and dig it into my eye socket so you can pop it out an-“

I grab her and immediately close her mouth shut. Okayyyy, mind scarring imaginative situation off the check list. “Let’s get back to the others shall we?” I ask her with a fake smile, images of what she said and her suggestion still fresh in my mind, it doesn’t help that being so close to her I realize just how big ponies eyes are. Seriously, they’re as wide as dinner plates!

“Mokoy.” I slowly walk back to the others with Pinkie still in my arms and her mouth closed. My friends look at us weirdly.

“Uhhh, Swift why are you…?” Twilight begins to ask.

“It’s Pinkie Pie. Do you really wanna know?” I ask her with my eyebrow raised. She shakes her head and trots over to the princess. Thought so.

I gently place Pinkie down and let her go. I keep my hands steady around her just in case she tries to be herself again. After I’m satisfied, I turn around and walk over to the princess. “Princess.” I give her a slight bow.

“Champion.” She returns the gesture. “Are you ready for your journey?”

“I wouldn’t be here right now and loading up my plane if I wasn’t.” I reach down to grab my duffel bags. I stop at the familiar aura of yellow magic surrounding them.

“Allow me.” she walks over to my plane, followed by my bags.

“Thanks, princess.” I jog up to my plane and jump onto the wing before opening up the cockpit. “One here, and the other here.” I point to the back two seats. She nods and gently starts shifting the bags into their positions. Reason I’m using my plane is because it’s fast, I’ve gotten better at it, and I can definitely use the firepower if things get… hairy. Plus the transportation would be a nice bonus.

“There we are.”

“Thanks.”

“Also Swift, before you go, I’ve been meaning to inquire as to the means we will communicate if the situation dictates.”

I smile a toothy grin, “Gotcha’ covered.” *Sharp Whistle*

As I let out a loud whistle, Ferus lands on my shoulder. “Impressive.” The princess says.

I smile and let my legs hang off the edge of the wing. “But I’m sure you want something to be a little more… instantaneous like with Spike’s fire right?” I ask her.

She nods, “Yes, do you have any suggestions?”

I look around to see if anything sticks out that could help me. Even though the landscape is beautiful, I got nothing. “Hold on a sec.” Ferus takes off as I move to the cockpit and search my duffel bags for anything. I stop as soon as I see my bow. If I remember correctly, for quick speedy messages to be transported, they would tie letters to bows and send them flying to different sections and relay the message. “Can you enchant this?” I ask while holding out my bow. She takes the high-tech bon into her magical grip and inspects it from different angles.

“This… will suffice.” She says with a smile. I nod and both her and my bow both glow just a bit brighter. In a flash of light, she returns the bow to my grip. “All you have to do is tie the letter you want to send to one of your arrows, and fire high into the air, whereas the magic will allow the arrow to appear in front of me, somewhat like my Spike’s ability you mentioned.”

“Perfect.” I reply and gently place it back on top of the duffel bag I took it out from. I also take the initiative and put my M4 inside as well. I turn back to her, “My bow only sends letters if they’re attached to the arrows right?” she nods. “And only to you?” she nods again. “Okay, making sure.” I reply and jump down from the plane.

“Is that everything?” Twilight asks me. I look around, my annoyance and anger slowly climbing at the absence of two important ponies.

“No. God damnit, where are they?!” I mutter the last part to myself. I told Rarity and Steel Verrier to be here before I leave and they aren’t fucking here. Damnit I swear they better have a good reason to-

“Swift!” Well just in fucking time.

Rarity trots up, carrying a large garment bag with her in her magic grip along with wearing a saddlebag, followed by Steel Verrier who is carrying a small wooden box with a small belt on top on his back. “Well it’s about time you got here.” I lowly say.

“I’m sorry, Swift. I needed to grab my-“

“I’m not looking for excuses.” I hiss at her, making both ponies recoil a bit. “I told you both I needed this stuff here before I leave and I meant it.” I say with slight anger in my voice as I cross my arms.

“But we’re here now.” Steel speaks up, taking a step forward. I slowly glaze over to him and stare. I don’t need this. I need to get going. I shake my head and look at garment bag. “That it?” I motion with my head.

She looks at the clothing for a second before turning back to me. “Ye-yes. I just finished it last night.” I walk over and zip down the bag. I smile at the clothing inside, made to my specifications.

I pull out my new black duster coat. I take note of its slightly heavier than average weight as I pull off my swords and put it on. As soon as it put it on, I smile. “Perfect.”

“Yes, my first non-stylish soldier oriented attire.” She slowly walks up and extends the slit clothing at the bottom of my legs with her magic, “Fire-resistant polymer, durable cloth material to prevent easy tearing, lining on the inside to help resist the cold, and inside…” she takes some small tweezers from her saddlebag and opens up to the inside of the duster, allowing us to see various metal looped rings inside. “Highest grade steel we could make on short notice melded together to make new chainmail armor. It’s not the outside that matters, this one time being the exception at least…” she says and mutters the last part herself.

“It’s what’s on the inside.”

“Precisely.” She says with a smile and stitches the opening closed from some thread in her bag. “I also took the liberty of stitching in a few holsters for any… weapons you come across.” She adds.

I open it up and look inside to see the different straps inside. Pistols are easy enough but it also looks like I could probably fit in my shotgun against my leg as well. I smile, “Not what I asked but a very nice bonus.” I look back at her, “Thank you, Rarity.” I look over towards the elderly pony that accompanied her, “You too Steel.”

“O-Oh, well. I-It was no trouble.” She hesitates a little on her words.

“Something wrong Rarity?”

“I… no, it’s nothing. Don’t you have to ask Mister Verrier something?” she quickly finishes up and motions to Steel. Before I can ask again, she turns tail and quickly trots to the others. Huh, weird.

“Yeah, well.” I turn to Steel, “Do you have them?” I ask.

He nods. He reaches back and carefully holds out the box to me. “Finished up the belt a little while ago.”

I grab the belt and shoulder it over my arm since its way too small for me. I grab the box and open it, lightly chuckling as I close it and walk a few feet from everypony. All this stuff… it’s good. Well-made… he’ll need it.

“Spike!” The dragon perks up at my shout. “Front and center!”

He hastily hops off of Twilights back and runs up to me. I kneel as I place the box and belt down on the ground.

“Yes?” he nervously asks.

“Spike, where I’m going, I won’t be able to visit or come back here in a moment’s notice. Call me paranoid, but even though the soldiers are here… I want someone I trust to handle this.” He looks confused. I grab the lid of box and open it.

“… What are those?” he asks. I chuckle. I’m not surprised that he doesn’t know what he’s looking at.

“These, are the first single-handed designs of gunpowder weaponry from my world, the flintlock pistols.” I say while pull them out. One in each hand, I aim down both to make sure the aim is correct. “Devastating pieces of weaponry with good accuracy along with an intimidation factor on how loud they are.” I place one down, “Only is problem is their long reload time. However, you may have helped me come up with a work around for that.”

Spike continues to stare at me with a wide and confused stare. Placing the second pistol down, I grab 1 of 20 small rolls of paper and cloth on the inside of the lid of the box and hold it up for him to see. “These contain the exact amount of gunpowder, the bullet, and the rest needed to allow the flintlock to fire. Since your teleporting flame doesn’t actually burn anything it transports, your perfect.” I finish saying. I hand the ammo to him, where he shakingly takes it.

“I… I-I-I-I c-“

“You can’t do it?”

“N… no I…” he’s completely at a loss for words. Not surprising. He’s never really held a weapon before, let alone fire one. What I’m asking of him is a major change in his life… but it must be done.

“Spike…” I say in a calmer sensitive tone as I place the bullet back into the box. He relaxes a little. “Do you love Twilight?” He hesitates but nods ‘yes’.

“Do you love Rarity?” Doesn’t hesitate there.

“Do you love Rainbow Dash? Fluttershy? Pinkie Pie and Applejack?” he nods again. “I’m glad to hear that, because I love them all too. But with all the dangers of the Everfree forest… I can’t be out there, and be here at the same time.” I gesture with my arms.

“I need someone. Someone brave, strong, courageous and with motivation enough to take a hit for the ones we consider as family.”

“But… Swift, are… are you sure I can…” I reach over and place a hand on his shoulder, “Spike, how old are you?”

“18.”

I smile, “I’m 16. From where I’m from, you would be old enough to own a gun.” I emphasize.

“But that’s-“

“Dragon years or no, 18 is 18.” I let the words sink in before continuing. “I need someone here to protect our friends, and family.”

He breaks contact with my eyes and looks down, thinking more on the subject I’m asking him to do.

After a few moments, I push the belt equipped with both flintlocks in the holsters and 10 of the bullet cloths along the sides. “Prove to me, that you can protect the ones you call friends and family.”

He looks up at me, a determined look on my face. “Prove to yourself… that you’re no longer the baby dragon everypony claims you are.”

Something changes. He no longer has that scared look on his face, now replaced with the same determination I had throughout my time here in Equestria.

He grabs the belt and slowly clicks it around his waist.

“I won’t let you down.” I smile.

I stand up and salute him. “I know you won’t.”

He returns the gesture. Before he turns around and leaves, I stop him by grabbing his shoulder, “Like a mother to her child, she’ll do everything she can to shield him from pain and horror. I don’t know the standpoint of mine, but I know some will try to take those from you.” I turn him around and look directly into his eyes, “Especially Twilight, and Rarity. Don’t let them.” He answers with a nod of yes.

I stand back up and we both head over to the group consisted mostly of our friends. The little fillies happily trot up to Spike and examine his new attire. “Wow, Spike! What’s that? Where’d you get those?!” The crusaders ask him. He looks up at me for an answer.

“You can mention them, just don’t brag or let them out of your sight. Do what you can to make sure I don’t regret this decision.” I say in a low voice, focused on the style of ‘serious but content’.

“These are my new weapons. Swift got them for me because…” he trails off as I begin making my way to my plane.

“Go on!”

“Wait, ah- Oof!”

Applejack suddenly gets pushed right in front of me with her flank pointed right at me. I raise an eyebrow in question. …Huh, all that work on the farm definitely payed off. And then some.

“Ow.” She gets up off the ground, shakes her head and stares at Pinkie Pie sternly, who smiles nervously in return. As soon as she turns to me, her anger disappears, “Hehehehe, sorry about that Swift.” Applejack chuckles nervously before calming down. “Anyway, Ah just uhh… Ah wanted to give you something before you left.”

“Really? What is it?” I ask while kneeling. She reaches behind her and pulls out a black Stetson hat. It looks a lot like the one she’s wearing right now, except this one has a band that’s a lighter shade of black around the middle area of it, plus it’s a bit straighter along the edges. I reach out and slowly take the hat.

“It’s mah lucky hat. Ah only wear it on special occasions. Since you’re going and all, I figured you might have better luck with it.” She explains.

As I look at the band, I grin as an idea pops into my head. I take out Philomena’s and Rainbow Dashes feather and slip them onto it. Once they are properly secured there, I slowly place it on my head. Gliding my fingers along the front edge part of it, I feel content and awesome. A badass cowboy hat, guns, swords, and duster… I’ll probably be making one hell of a first impression. “Nice, I love it. Thanks Applejack.” I say with a smile.

“Yer’ welcome. Just… be careful out there.” She asks with sincerity in her voice.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” I walk over to my plane and climb onto the wing. “Is there anything else anypony wants to give me before I leave?! Once I fly, I’m not coming back for a long time.” I shout to everypony. They all look around at one another and expect one of them to walk up.

No one does.

“Alright then.” I mutter and head to the cockpit.

“Wait a second!!” I turn around at the sudden outburst from Pinkie Pie.

But then again, when doesn’t she have a sudden outburst of something. “I just realized I didn’t get you a gift!”

“Pinkie Pie, what are you talking about?” Twilight quizzically asks her friend. Pinkie suddenly grabs Twilight by the cheeks on her face and stares into Twilight’s eyes.

“Don’t you see! You gave him his new weapons and armor! Fluttershy got him a pet! Rarity his new clothes! Applejack his new hat! Rainbow Dash her feather! Even the Princess got him new position!” Pinkie yells and explains each pony as she pops up right next to them out of nowhere. She even appears from inside of Celestia’s hair when she mentions her. “I never got you a gift!” she pops out from inside of the cockpit. “I need to get you something really really quickly before you leave.” Before she can talk off, I manage to grab her tail at the last second as she continues to try to move through the air.

“Stop!” I yell at her. She stops struggling and hangs low by her tail. “That won’t be necessary, Pinkie.” I close her mouth before she starts getting hysterical. “You already gave me a gift I will never forget.” She looks at me confused and so do the others. “Let me explain.” I clear my throat,

“Forgetting the fact that you being here is a gift itself that I’m sure none of us will never take for granted, being as how such an interesting character you are.” I gesture to everypony, who all nod in approval. “There’s also the fact about your family.” That gets her interest outright.

“What about my family?” she asks.

“Tell me, how often do you keep in contact with your family?”

What’s weird, is that I’m still holding her by her tail and she gets into a near perfect position of the thinker. “Hmmmmmmmmmmmm… I send a letter every week to see how they are doing. I used to send a letter everyday but then they told me that their mailbox kept getting full so I had to send a letter every other day but it still kept getting full. So finally it was decided, one letter a week.” She finishes with a smile.

I just stare, “Yeeeaaaaaahhhh, right. In any case, I remember you telling me how you used to grow up on a rock farm correct?”

“Yeperu. I can name a tooooon of different types of rock. There’s Carbonatite, marble, sulfur, granite,”

“Pinkie…”

“Phyllite, quartzite, slate, gneiss,”

“Pinkiiiiiiee…”

“Travertine, Shale, Limestone, Flints, Coa-“

“PINKIE!” I yell at her face. She recoils and immediately shuts up. “I’m on a short time here. Let me get to the point, alright?” I sternly ask her. She nods vigorously. “In order for the Equestrian military to gain it’s new gunpowder based weaponry, we need a chain of suppliers to support the components… all of which can be obtained from a rock farm.” I finish with a smile.

Her fearful look for some reason changes to confusion, then amazement. “Wait, you mean-“

“Yes, Pinkie Pie. Your family is the first suppliers of gunpowder in Equestria. Even if they have morals or whatever that’ll make them not accept the money for the powder, they will still be written down in history as the first suppliers of gunpowder in Equestrian history.”

After a few moments, it’s obvious she’s speechless. Holy shit, that’s the first. Pinkie Pie, speechless. “Uhh, Twilight? Could you please?” I hold out in reference to her grabbing pinkie.

“Yeah sure.” She warily reply’s. She takes the pink pony in her magical grasp and carefully brings her down to the ground. Yet she’s still keeping a watchful eye on me. What’s with her?

I shake the thought away and head to the cockpit. I take off my swords and slide them onto the side of the pilot’s seat carefully so they don’t get caught or poke anything important. I turn back to the others.

“Well, that looks like about everything. I guess now I’ll say, I’ll see you all when I get back… whenever.”

“Farewell, Champion. I wish you well and good fortune on your journey.” The princess wishes me luck. All her guards and soldiers line up on the side of my plane and one by one, they all salute me. Even Spike joins in as well. I salute them all back. Once I make sure that no pony is in front, I startup my plane and watch as the propellers start spinning.

“You get back in one piece! You hear me Swift!?” Twilight yells over the sound of my planes engine and spinning motors.

“I will! Wish me luck!”

“Good luck!” All my friends wish fortune as well on my trip. I smile as I grab the lid on the cockpit and slide it shut.

“Alright, pressure systems… green. Flaps… working. Turn system… perfectly tuned. Weapons… ready and waiting to be armed. Fuel gauge… empty. No surprise there. Hehe.” I chuckle. A regular pilot comes by and sees this, he’ll freak out especially if he’s in the air.

The gauge spikes suddenly before dropping to normal. That wasn’t supposed to happen. After my first near death crash, I’ve take every precaution I could find when it comes to making sure that I won’t actually crash. The sudden movement of the gauge needles like that can’t bode well. I pick at the meter for a second before shrugging. I don’t have time for this. I need to get moving ASAP.

I slowly begin my acceleration down the now makeshift runway. As another precaution, I started farther back from the first time I started. With the small bumps and beats of the ground below, my heart beats faster and faster and before I know it, the cliffs edge comes into view. I calm my breathing and gently pull the controls back. Just as I meet the cliff, I’m airborne.

I grin a smile of accomplishment as the clouds come into full view and the earth below me becomes harder to distinguish. As soon as I’m over the clouds, I sigh.

Now my journey to unknown lands commences. Let’s see what else this world has to offer me than Equetria.

-------------------------------

And so his journey starts. Hope y’all like where this is going. I sure as hell do.

Also something came up that’s been picking at my thoughts.

Is Swift still proclaimed as the sort of… Gary Stu?

I remember back when I first started people immediately jumped to the conclusion of him being the all around badass good guy with a cool head. Naturally, I can’t blame you. When I started, that was my main focus and never really thought of the ideas that I have now, especially him becoming the Champion of Equestria.

But I digress, now I’m curious of what you all still think of Swift? Is he still the Gary Stu character at first made to be?

Or is he different and more refined than before?

Place your opinions and comments below. Thank you all for your input.

Also, Season 4 premiere… nice. Especially since some moments of the episodes may seem a little… suggestive. Still awesome though.