Velvet Kiss: A Fledgling's Trail

by Velvet Kiss

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Velvet boarded her plane at the crack of dawn, needing to take the day after her debacle in the warehouse to pull a few strings back with her family to secure a flight. She carried her saddlebag as usual, black with a red stripe and buckle. Inside she had the essentials: A Swiss army knife, a serrated military-grade knife, a pocket-sized handgun, two clips, and a series of energy bars and bottled waters. Velvet's encounter with her assailants had prepared her for the worst, and she was ready. As she boarded her small, single-seat aircraft, she took a deep breath, looking out on to Ponyville's beautiful horizon.

It's funny... One can only appreciate the beauty of home when she's boarding a plane to take her to Celestia-knows where armed with a wimpy handgun and a granola bar.

Annoyed with her melodramatic pause, her pilot called back to her.

"Hey, miss! I'm not getting paid to sit around waiting! Just because you're some hot-shot princess or something doesn't mean I need to take this! I'm a respected p-"

"Shut the hell up, Ace. I'm coming."

Velvet got into the plane, laying back. She felt a bit crowded, but she wouldn't let that get to her. She needed to do some research. She took the mobile phone from the side pocket of her saddlebag, and opened it up. In the midst of her tinkering with it earlier, she had made the background a picture of herself and Sparkling Spoon at the beach. The picture was taken a few years back, during their summer vacation. They enjoyed the scenery of the beach, as cliche as it might be. Velvet loved feeling the warm breeze flow through her hair, taking in the salty air from the ocean. She felt the hot sand between her hooves, the shells laying, scattered. Sparky, however, just liked to observe the stallions.

Velvet opened up the folder that sparked this trip, as the plane lifted off. She began inspecting the files once more, her first chance to really inspect them. First, she looked at reports. They looked very professional, very well made. One thing caught her eye. A very repeated phrase: Project Genesis. It sounded very vague, very eerie. It was all over the papers, everywhere.

"Project Genesis is coming along. We have secured the the test site and secured the population"

What the hell...Securing the population? Ten bits says that's a fancy way of saying there'll be a mass burial in a few days...

With that, she looked at census reports. Obviously, they weren't by any government, or the island would have been charted. No, these were made by the same ponies. Which brought Velvet to the question:

Who ARE these ponies...?

Velvet looked through the mobile some more, to no avail. All she could find were some thermal readings and other geographic things. All she knew about the area was that it would be warm, it was full of forest life, and she would be landing at the biggest clearing she could near the coordinates she had. Velvet turned off the phone and placed it back in her bag, laying her head back. It would be some time before they reached their destination, and Velvet could use all the sleep she could get.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Velvet quickly rose her head from a rude awakening; her pilot yelling at the top of his lungs to get her up. She quickly obliged, and surveyed her surroundings from the small window in the side of the ship. And there, she saw one of the most horrifying sights in a very long time.

Smoke.

Coming from the plane.

That she was on.

Velvet panicked, grabbing her saddlebag in an instinctual effort to make a fast escape. She went to her pilot.

"You want to tell me what the hell is going on, fly boy?"

"We were hit, miss. Bad,"

"Hit by wha-"

Velvet's question was quickly answered for her as the sound of anti-aircraft rounds flew past them.

AA guns? They've got bucking AA guns?

Whatever ponies were on this island, they obviously didn't want company. And they were damn good at shooing it away. Velvet quickly felt the plane descend, feeling the pressure change in her ears. She quickly scrambled for something, anything, to keep her alive.

"Have you got any parachutes?"

"Sure, go ahead and jump if you want to get stuck on one of those trees and get shot by one of these assholes!"

The pilot had a point. She would get stuck on one of those trees, and there's no way she could survive a fall from one of them if she unclipped her chute from there. Even if she did, she would break a leg, and wouldn't be able to survive. Looks like she would have to get lucky on this one. Really lucky.

The plane quickly descended as Velvet heard the sputter of the engines failing, looking out the front window to see the ground quickly approach. She pulled out the mobile, taking one last look at Sparky, before the plane made contact with the island, and everything went black.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Velvet got lucky.

Really lucky.

She opened her eyes, spitting out blood. She found herself on the dirt, the plane behind her.

Heh...Must've crashed out the front window... Velvet one, seat-belts zero....

Velvet got to her hooves, and went back to check the plane. She found the pilot, his head smashed against the dashboard of the ship, his blood still fresh, dripping. She sighed, patting him on the back.

"Thanks anyways, Ace... You were an asshole, but you got me where I needed to go..."

Velvet looked out to the sky, now dark, the stars gleaming. There was no way that Velvet would want to go anywhere at this hour, and she should probably give the grunts on the island some time to lose their edge after shooting down the plane. She found a small area, heavily wooded, and not too far from the wreck. She smiled, crawling under a few trees to make her camp for the night. She didn't want to light a fire, in fear that her attackers would search the area, or see the smoke from their camp which, according to the mobile and GPS, was about a mile east.

She ate one of her energy bars, and drank half a bottle of water. Velvet knew how to take care of herself, and surprisingly, none of her equipment was damaged when she went through the window. She ducked her head under the trees, and yawned. She needed another nap.

Hopefully tomorrow will be smoother.

Velvet closed her eyes as she heard the hoofsteps of what sounded like a military squad, surely with the ponies who shot her plane down, come to check for survivors. She gripped her handgun, and hid in the trees as best she can as she closed her eyes.

Hopefully.

Comments

[floppy.chiptunes]

A very good story so far. You're very good at writing, I'm looking forward to read more chapters

[Natr1x]

Wasn't velvet a pegasus why would she need a parachute? It feels as you ignore the pony setting with handguns and airplanes and stuff. I have nothing against this because its still a good story but when pegasi suddenly can't fly it gets a bit ridiculous.

Also I like it when vampires are a bit more undead like when they don't need to breathe and are sensitive to the sun and stuff but thats just a personal preference

[Velvet Kiss]

721147 thanks for the feedback!

You're absolutely right. I failed to take into consideration her wings. But, thinking about it now, the saddlebag she had on wouln't allow her to spread them, and she couldn't survive without its contents.

And making her less undead simply makes her a better character.

[Natr1x]

721855 Well if you do decide to edit the story and get rid of the plot hole or something I think that the easiest way to fix it would be to give pretty much the same reason as to why she couldn't parachute. Something like that she would have become a target and ripped apart by the aa guns. I don't think the saddlebags would be very practical because then you would have to keep her grounded for as long as she wears them and besides there has been pegasi in the show who have flown with saddle bags on but then again it could also be smart since you would be able to just add the explantion in the next chapter so you don't need to go back and change anything. Sorry if I sound too criticizing it really is of very minor importance to the story.

[66666666666666666-]

I'm really liking this!!! Keep it up.