Schizophrenia, Ponies, Hermits and Commies do not mix well...
When a new psychotic pony moves to the small town of ponyville after spending much of his life in solitude out in the everfree forest, the once peacefull town gets a little shocken up. While many ponies are uncomfortabole around their new neigbhor, some of the towns more freindly residents try to reinstitute him into soceity.
Its cold. Or at least that's what May says. That's ok though, I never minded the cold, infact I almost preferred it to a warm comforting sunbeam at times. I can't speak for May however, but I get the feeling she agrees with me, more or less. She always agrees with me, and that's why I love her.
Truth be told, I wouldn't have even noticed the chilly winter breeze flowing over our little mountaintop home had she not been there to mention it to me. She wasn't always there for me though. there was a time when I was stranded out in this cold, deserted forest all by myself, way back before I even knew her.
I should probably let you know a little bit about myself before I begin, so without further adue;
My name is Wings, Wild Wings, or as most know me "Mad" Wings, probably because most ponies who have had the pleasure of meeting me have come to the conclusion that I was infact mad. I suppose it's all a matter of opinion. Though I have to admit, it certainly is catchy. Wild "Mad" Wings, I wouldn't mind going by that name at all. Other ponies can call me crazy all they want, ill relish in it. It's just another thing that I am and they're not.
I grew up in Stalliongrad, that being said I never was much a... pony pony... my social skills were... well... lacking, to say the least. These certain "friend making" abilities weren't always at the top of my concerns for most my youth. Doesn't matter, with the constant threat of war and the ever-demanding industry of the city, most pony's minds were elsewhere as well.
The relentless strife of our government to be the best and most powerful in all the known world landed me a decent job at a military test faculty, particularly that of a test pilot. Ironic work for a Pegasus if you ask me, but it paid well and frankly, I enjoyed it. flight has a much different feel when your also hauling two tons of ammunition through the air at supersonic speeds.
I supposed they preferred to use us pegasi for safety reasons. I mean with our ability to fly and all, there was much less a chance of some sort of injury or even fatality in the case of a... well... an accident. nonetheless One could argue that that's where my story began, with an accident.
I left my apartment that one faithful morning with full intentions to return to the comforts it held within, as well as to my fish, Stubs, who resided inside and kept me company over the years. However, as I always have been a little paranoid, I grant my farewell to Stubs and my few worldly belongings, just as I had every day. I did this because, just as I have felt every other day for much my life, today I had a certain feeling it would one distain by fate, and for once I was right.
Looking back, I probably would have extended my parting good by that morning if I truly did know the full extent of the days significance, but as I was already running late for a very important date in my career, I cut the parting shorter than I would have preferred. This has always torn at me, but there's no use fretting the past. That life has ended and a new one was just about to begin...
It truly is quite an impressive faculty. Stretches of airfield far and wide, gigantic hangers erected all across the grounds, con towers that scraped the skies. Even the production faculties that littered the neighboring lots of land were architectural triumphs. Yes Stalliongrad's first defense air base was something to be proud of, and I was proud to work there. Even if I wasn't actually enlisted into the military, just testing the planes that would soon fill the hangers and defend the skies around the base was enough to feel I was doing my part for my country.
Today they have me testing some new fighter plane. You believe that? A plane! For those pathetic earth bound ponies. If you ask me, the skis should be left to us pegasi. Sooner or later somepony in high command will see who really should be fighting in our mighty military, certainly no defenseless earth pony's and especially no unicorn weaklings .
I can see the newest innovation masterminded by the truly greatest power in the world, A FIG-110. It's a brilliant design, worthy of any great power, and today, I over all other ponies, am entrusted to test it! should be the ride of my life. (If I only knew...)
"You ready comrade wings?" a voice asks from by my side.
"Humm... Oh, yes, certainly sir." I reply to my flight leader as he gives me a uncertain stair.
After looking me over for a few moments he speaks. "Good, 'cuse this is your career right here, time to show high command you've got it and our engineers really worth shit. You'll be set for life if you manage to pull this off. Not to mention the good you'll be doing for the empire."
Flight commander Fringe was your standard tough, mean, and sometimes just plane brutal Stalliongrad stallion. However, often he takes these "standards" to the extreme, and doing as such, he commands a good deal of respect. Even I must pay my tribute to the stallion, for he is much more so than I myself could ever be.
"I'm quite aware sir, I'll do the motherland proud." I say trying to sound as patriotic as possible .
"Good man." Is all he says as he walks off to try and find a good view of the air show that I was about to put on.
I climb into the cockpit of the newest and boldest product off the production lines (even though the government didn't exactly request any built yet.) All my flight training concentrated into one masterpiece aircraft," this should be fun." I say to myself as if there was another pony in there with me, about to accompany me as we climb into the skies far above our proud nation.
Scattered across the airfield I spot pony's of all sorts of work preparing for my flight, "for them, for the motherland!" I mutter, almost unaware that I'm still talking aloud as I start the engine and prepare to taxi to my designated landing strip. Won't be a long wait until I'm in the air. After all, for the time being, I'm on top priority at the Stalliongrad 1st defense air force base.
I take off and ascend into the vast blue sky. From there my subconscious takes over, and all goes into a bluer, I become one with the beast of a machine and we know what to do. I throttle forward after pulling a few maneuver stunts above the base and start heading westward towards the mountains. In order to test the true maximum air speed, as well as a good cursing speed for the aircraft, I would have to fly strait for a little while.
Back at the Stalliongrad 1st defense airbase chaos has shown its ugly face. Generals as well as media alike flock the conning towers, and control stations. there are ponies everywhere running amuck throughout the once orderly military facility. Even a simple aircraft mechanic practically got mugged by investigators in search of a story to feed the fat media pigs.
A voice is heard over the bases loud speaker system, "All we can release now is that a test aircraft has recently gone off the map." it states in a very authoritative tone although it's trying desperately to calm the insanity down that has descended upon its airfield.
Inside the main control tower panic is rampant as officials run around checking radars and listening to all recent communications between the airbase and any aircraft within a hundred miles. There are many violent conversations present in the room. two generals argue over the cause of the "disruption" that is obviously much more so and running across an entire military base in the form of mobs trying to get information. A government council member is scolding a base official for a truly horrible performance by an aircraft that was supposed to be "all that". An aeronautical engineer is practically in fetal position shaking in the corner trying to figure out his fate for his apparently faulty design. Probably nothing but just a little reprobation, but when the government is always watching you, jobs like these can get a little stressful.
Over an intercom in the decent sized control room, last minute distress calls are played, with an origin somewhere over the vast mountain ranges that lie just to the west of the United Socialist State of Stalliongrad.
All that is made out is a scratchy voice, clearly worried and trying desperately to save itself.
"I'm go... ng dow... maday ma.... maday.... ove... the .......... mountains, maday ma........ing down, cant bail..... repeat I ...nt bail out.... going down"
The same 15 seconds or so of radio contact is playing on a loop as analyst try desperately to figure out the location of the pilot in distress, and even more importantly the design of what would have been the nation's newest technological advancement, but they have no such luck.
Down in a field a certain flight leader is scowling at the sky.
"DAMN IT WINGS!" He curses towards the heavens. "You're mad wings, mad! we were so close. Why couldn't you just come back like every other damn time! Hunh?, why you gotta go and crash that damn piece of shit! Why you just gotta go and die! You bastard! You hear me! YOU BASTERD!"
I remember it clearly, the day we first met, May and I. Apparently she had lived in a small cabin down in the woods with her family for all of her life. Until the fire clamed everything she had that is. She never truly did explain the full extent of her prior life and I don't ask. Were together now and that's all that matters.
When I found her she was practically starving on the slope of the hill that I've managed to make a comfortable home for so many years. Naturally I took her in, fed her, gave her shelter and warmth. in turn, she gave me company, something I've been deprived of for so very, very long.
When I first saw her I couldn't help but notice an amazing resemblance between her and a major high school crush I had, a mare which I could never find the guts to even talk to. That was something that ate away at me for years. Nonetheless this new mare, May Flower she went by, stunned me, even in her famine and detest conditions, I was taken in by everything about her, from her beautiful smile, to her silky dark black mane with that one white streak running down off to the side. I loved that streak. It drove me crazy the day she died it out with some wild berries she had managed to collect out in the forest, but naturally, I never told her so. I still loved her endlessly.
She was basically everything I ever wanted in a mare, even the part where she would actually like me right back. Our lives were complete out there in the wilderness, we were happy. May Flower and Mad Wings, alone in peace and harmony together forever.
I awoke in a twisted heap of metal and a pool of dried blood, not quite sure what had happened or where I was. I groaned as the many aches and pains of my broken body suddenly make themselves very apparent. Although my mind wasn't quite working right yet, I realized I need to get out of whatever it was I was resting in. I dragged my poor, scared body through fire and flame to escape the twisted scrap and shrapnel that was once the mighty machine of war, my FIG-110. One that would never get its taste of battle. Although at the time I could barely recall who I was, much less where I was and why I was there. Those memories took some time to come back to me.
For some time I was convinced I had finally arrived in hell after a life filled to the brim with sins, but this was not the case, not yet anyway. Maybe in some alternative reality I had died, but as far as I could tell, I was still alive and kicking, or more half alive and limping for the time being.
Once I finally managed to escape the wreckage, I spent much of the day dragging my crippled body through an infinite forest that spanned endlessly in all directions and covered an entire mountain range in an eerie green and a relentless darkness.
Eventually I ran across what seemed like a small abandoned village, for a few days, maybe it was a few weeks I rested there. time had become an illusion, seconds and hours seemed to morph together. I wouldn't have be able to tell a moment from an eternity should the need arise. All I could say is I stayed there until I could gather up the strength and supplies I needed to move on to someplace else less... well... creepy. (you've ever see a ghost town? those places can be pretty freaky.)
Eventually though I had, up and running, my own little sanctuary atop a grand hill. I specifically chose the location thinking it would be the easiest place for a rescue team to spot and retrieve me. I was a fool in thinking that a rescue team would ever come, especially after a few weeks of them finding nothing of me.
It was quite alright though, I was starting to enjoy the peace that being alone had to offer. I journeyed through the region for many months without finding a single trace of a still living civilization, and frankly, I felt wonderful in doing so. It was as if I owned the entire forest. I was the king of the world.
-------------------------------------------A long time after that-------------------------------------------
Its been long, too long, eternities even since I have seen hide or tail of a single pony besides occasionally running across my own tracks. I wonder if other ponies even exist, could all my memories of society and civilization be illusions? Lies made up by my subconscious to keep me sane? It seems very likely. How could I have ever been so foolish as to think that I wasn't alone in this world. I guess I should settle down somewhere with that being the case...
I've spotted a mountain just north of here that might be comfortable to settle on for a few weeks, just to rest my spirits before moving on. Or maybe to stay upon as a permanent home, I haven't quite decided yet. Doesn't matter right not, I'm not even there yet.
"You know what?" I ask myself. I have taken a strong habit of talking to myself after being alone for so long. "this isn't actually that bad. I've got all the time in the world to myself and my thoughts. I could get to enjoy this with time. and I suppose, time is something I've got plenty of..."
I lived on that mountain for years all alone. I spent most that time simply sitting on my favorite rock and thinking, sometimes not even putting in the effort to do that much. I probably should have spent more time searching for food, but eventually one will get used to hunger. I had enough food to get by and that's all that mattered.
I believe I reached enlightenment at one point in time while sitting on my rock gazing out across the endless horizon that faded off into the distance once it broke apart from the towering mountains that sat monumentally behind me. I respectably lost all knowledge of exactly what I was thinking at the time of my mountain top revelation within an hour of my holy discovery. It wasn't quite as disappointing as it should have been though. Although I couldn't remember for the life of me what revolutionary thoughts had popped into my head that day, I still knew the magnitude of their significance. That part I wouldn't forget till the day I died.
I was quite at peace with myself without the need to worry about any sort of pressure that society is so good at efficiently placing upon all its victims. Something I needed no longer worry about. My life had taken its own path separate from that of all the rest of the world, and I loved it. It was final, if I ever did find a way back to civilization, which I highly doubted even existed at the time, I would decline it.
I remember looking up into endless space on those starry nights long before may had arrived. I remember seeing the moon hang high in the sky and I couldn't help but feel as if someone else was there, someone saying "I'm there right there with you buddy". I could never tell if the noble, almost royal sounding voices in my head were angry at somepony, or just plain sad. No matter what though, they always had a certain hint of malevolence.
I was at the peak of my spiritual awareness for those countless years. Every aspect of life contained a certain miracle to it, the sensation can't be explained, just as it can't be replicated by silly mortal wants and needs.
Those days were days of wonder. They always said you never know what you have until its gone and looking back I would give anything to get those days back. As much as I loved May, I loved my solitude even more. May was a break from the eternity of peace, and a nice one at the time. Nonetheless, universal law says everything must end, as did my life of freedom from the world. Regret would be useless as I had a life to move on with and there was nothing else I could do to prolong my second life. It was time I moved on.
Everything must end, even eternities of solitude. After who knows how many years of living alone as a hermit, I just so happened to run across, to my great shock, another pony! Not a pegasus like me but instead one of them unicorns. A mare that went by the name of May Flower. Apparently ponies existed after all.
Although all your entire life can build up to one point, there is always that one little incident that will send your life down a certain path for all eternity, contrary to the one you may have previously been following. I suppose if one were to try and trace the entire existence of my forth life, (I say forth dew to my first life being that in which I inhabited Stalliongrad, second being my days alone at the beginning of the world, as I came to know my mountain home as, and third being my hermit life with my love May Flower.) it would probably lead directly back to the day May and I met Derpy Hooves.
There is little story to our lives in the mountains. We survived, and occasionally we "partied". Mostly we simply sat and talked, a task that would become excruciatingly hard had we not practiced for at least a few hours a day. Lack of communication ultimately lead to lack of vocabulary, but we got by. Our lives were very ignorant towards the outside world to say the least. To put it lightly, we were just about aware of society as it was of us. For the most part this became the average day for May and I prior to the "incident" as she came to know it.
We were talking about who even knows what out front the little cottage I had built for us on top of the cliff overlooking the forest that we've came to call home. This was our average day and we had been particularly used to days like it by then. What we had not been used to however, was falling packages from the sky.
Call it fait or dumb luck, whatever caused it to happen, did a good job to send a cardboard box labeled "FRAGILE, HANDLE WITH CARE" hurtling towards earth and placing itself perfectly between the couple who had been simply sitting and talking, smashing into the ground upon which one could here whatever the box contained smash into two hundred thousand little pieces.
Not too long afterwards a grey pegasus mare with a bright blond mane wearing a mail carriers satchel came diving out of the clouds, scolding herself the whole way down. She landed several feet in front of us, staring at me with a facial expression I couldn't quite make out. I wasn't sure what to say as the only other pony I had ever talked to in ages (excluding myself) had been May.
Eventually the grey pegasus whose face I could only describe as derped spoke. "You wouldn't happen to be the emperor of the Griffin kingdom would you?" she asked.
I had no response right away, at the time I was trying to figure out whether or not "derped" was actually a word, and if it would actually apply to the situation. I wasn't sure at the time, my vocabulary had been lacking to say the least, but that simple grunt "derp" was the only word that came to mind when I looked at this mare. It seemed to fit her very well.
Once again she spoke, " 'Cuse if you are, your package is here."
"No" Was all I could muster, "No I'm not the Griffin kingdom's emperor."
"Oh well that's too bad because we could always use some crystal glasses." May joked looking through the shattered remains of the cargo this derped pony had been carrying, to which there was no response from the pegasus, not even a slight smile.
"No need to be ru-" may began only to be cut off by our new acquaintance. "have you seen a box full of crystal glasses around here lately?" she asked in a completely serious but still confused tone.
I'm so shocked by her ignorance that all I can do was point to where May was kneeling down over the few pieces of crystal that weren't completely obliterated by the impact.
upon seeing the scene the pegasus just let her derped face fell into a deep, self loathing scowl. "Aw that's too bad. you know those were supposed to be a gift from the princess to the Griffins, Oh well, guess I'll have to go back to Canterlot and get some new ones." she groaned.
"Canterlot eh..." May quietly pondered to herself.
"You're from Canterlot?" I asked a little louder so the mare could hear the question.
"Nope, I'm from Ponyville"
"Ponyville? never heard of it." I bluntly stated
"that's ok, I didn't know there were ponies living up here either." the grey mare replied, now allowing her tongue to slip out of the side of her mouth.
"Um...ok, well I'm Wings and this here is May" I said gesturing to where may was then lounging on a lawn chair we had made out of a fallen tree trunk.
"Hi there Wings, hi May" she said more to the fallen log than to my mare. "I'm Derpy."
Of course her name was Derpy, what else could it be with a face like that.
"Well you're a long way from Cantolot. Would you like to come in for some lunch?" "Ok than." Derpy said trotting along behind me into the humble little cottage on top of the world. "You wouldn't happen to have any muffins would you?"
May only grunts at the thought of company as she gets up to set another spot at the table for our unexpected guest.
The rest of the day immediately filled up with interest. Infact, not since I first met May had I felt as excited as I was then. When your alone for so long a little unexpected visit can become a very big deal. Derpy told us much about the world (as far as she could recall it at least) and even more so about her little town Ponyville. She made it sound like a really nice place. Friendly pony folk of all sorts and everything one could possibly need, much unlike the environment I had grown up in and have come to detest so.
"You really outta come by for a visit when you get the time." Derpy said in between ferocious bites at the remainder of her muffin while walking out the door. She then proceeded to collect her ex-shipment, open her wings in a boner like fashion and then trusted herself into the air with a gust of wind flying back towards May and I. I never noticed it before, but watching that grey pegasus disappear into the distance I realized just how lonely I really was.
"Maybe we really should go see Poneyville sometime." I suggested to May as we went back inside to finish off our muffins we managed to make made just for our guest out of some hillside grain and what little magic May could conjure.
"You see one other mare than me and you wanna go chassin right after her! What am I to you, just some old rag you can throw away whenever you please?!" she screamed before slamming the door in my face before I could enter. I had never seen Mays jealous side before, but then again, I haven't seen another pony since I met her either.
"No babe, I don't mean it like that at all. I just think it would be nice to see some other ponies for once. It'd be good for both of us." I say trying to comfort her insecurity. All I can here is her sobbing "You don't love me."
I decided to give her some space and go for a fly, something I hadn't exactly been able to o in a long time since May felt she always needed to be right by my side and she wouldn't let me carry her while I stretched my wings. She could be a little paranoid sometimes, she was always thought someone was out to get her, gravity being no exception. Honestly a little fresh air and some distance from her suffocation felt good, it felt natural, it felt normal.
I have always been in awe of the sunsets that I saw from my home way out in the mountains. We had a beautiful view of the world, the rolling hills and vast fields far below, set ablaze by the infinite atomic power in the sky with an array of colors reflecting through the smooth clouds. I always loved to have those minutes to think, as I sat and watch the great ball of fire descend over the horizon into the abyss that lay under the world.
As we laid on the grass out in front of the cottage, May say me thinking as I stared out into the world. Not my usual philosophical stare, but more of a longing stare. I wanted to leave, I really did. I've been trapped up there for who even knows how long and now I knew there was somewhere else to go. I had to go there, I had to get away, I wanted to fly away.
"you really do want to go, don't you?" She said looking down at the ground, shuffling her hove in the dirt.
"Well I've been alone up here for so long. It's been ages-" she cut me off.
"Alone! what about me?!"
"We've, I meant We."
"Sure you did" she muttered. She had trouble letting go of things like this.
"You know what I meant." I muttered back in a joking whiney voice. She managed a smirk at my corny remark and even a little chuckling when I started to tickle her with the tip of my wing. Once I reached her ribcage with the feathers on the end of my wing she could barely beg me to stop through her laughter. I relented to give her some time to breath only to have the wind knocked out of me myself when she rolled over on top of me. I could feel her blushing as she nuzzled my nose. We sat there in each other's arms while I watched the sun finish setting over the vast horizon and continued to lie there under the light of the full moon for hours until we fell asleep on the soft ground in the peaceful summer night air.
I had a dream the other day. Not one of those dreams after which you awake drenched in sweat and gasping desperately for air. No this one was mellow and soothing to my fragile subconscious, although it was still unnerving and left my mind ill at ease.
In this dream I was sitting in a long wooden canoe. It was drifting sideways down a calm river, with the bow and stern pointing at either bank of the waterway. Looking up I noticed that I was approaching a split in the river. I didn’t care where the two sections of it ran and at the time I didn’t care, why should I have?
When I turned around I noticed river had been running red where I previously had been floating. Sitting in the middle of the small craft, I stared for a while at the bloody scene out curiosity. Eventually I turned back around again to see that the breakage in the river was much closer and, to my surprise, the current was moving much faster. Up ahead was a large sharp rock between where the two sections of the river separated.
My canoe continued to float sideways toward the large grey obstacle at an ever accelerating speed. Having traveled in this type of craft many times before, I knew all I had to do to regain control was to move to either end of the canoe so that it would turn in the respective direction and float down that section of the river. Yet, I couldn’t decide which end of the small boat to commit to. I didn’t want to make a mistake I couldn’t reverse, so I just sat there in the middle, awaiting the inevitable crash. At least I knew where that would take me…
“I know what holiday is, I meant where did that even come from? Especially in the middle of… well, you know…” May started to blush after saying this.
“…Sex?” I said, trying to finish her sentence.
“Yah, sex… Is that really what you think about when we’re doing it?”
“Apparently so” I say chuckling a bit. “Actually, I’ve just been thinking lately, about that Pegasus that came by a while back.” It had been a few months since Derpy had quite literally dropped by. Neither May or I had seen hide nor tail of another living soul since, which was to great relief to May.
“Well that’s so much better” May said sarcastically putting her hoof to her forehead. She had been well accustomed to my “smooth talking” abilities by then.
“Don’t you think it’s about time that we moved on?” I asked her, my wings starting to fold back down dew to the length of the conversation. “We could go somewhere else for once.”
“We’ll talk about this later” May sighed, knowing that if she couldn’t stop the conversation from happening, she could at least delay it for a while…
About a week later may found herself packing her belongings and preparing to leave our little threshold. We were going on holiday to Ponyville.
I had the dream again, the one about the canoe, only this time it ended a little differently.
As I saw the large rock approaching, I climbed to the bow of the narrow wooden craft. It started to turn respectively, heading forewords past the left side of the rock and down that section of the river.
Eventually the current began to slow again. The sun was shining down from the western skies, and I was heading slowly toward it.
The river bank was teaming with foliage and other life that reflected in the calm water. In awe I reached out to touch the barely rippling reflection of life but pulled back when I felt my vessel begin to tip. I looked back to the shore and tried to touch the reflections origin, but as I was drifting at least 50 hooves from either bank of the river, I could only grab air.
After I failed to touch the green shore, I looked back over the side of the canoe. Its walls were higher than that of any canoe I’ve ever been in before. Once again I stuck my hoof out for to water. Again the craft began to list, but I didn’t care. If I couldn’t touch life, by all that I knew and loved, I was going to touch its reflection.
I was mere inches form touching the water when I awoke. May had finished packing and was calling to me that if I still wanted to go, I’d better get my flank up. Excitedly I shoot out of bed and gave May the biggest hug either of us had seen in a very long time the moment I saw her.
“You ready to go?” I asked, barely containing my excitement.
She sighed as an “I guess so” escaped her lips.
~The author says; I know it’s been a while since I’ve done any work on this story, but I think I’m going to commit a little bit more it, Feel free to leave criticism, it’s always appreciated here, If I’ve improved any as a writer, hopefully this chapter was a little bit better than my other ones, so, well, that’s about it. Goodbye dear reader, until next time.
