Trot like an Egyptian
Jimmy checked his watch in a panic.
“It’s Sunday already?” he exclaimed, a sudden fear washing over him as he said it. The last few weeks, or was it even a few months, had set a clear pattern. Every Monday, he had ended up transforming into various characters from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, or from the spinoff Equestria Girls. Then, a few days later, he would reappear in his home, none the worse for wear, but with a noticeable gap in his memory. Furthermore, he had figured another thing out. Up to this point, they had all occurred in his hometown of Manteo, North Carolina.
“What if I can cheat it?” he asked, frantically. “If they only occur in Manteo, maybe I can avoid it by going somewhere else!” With this, he switched on his computer and went onto the internet, bringing up the website for Southwest Airlines. Whilst there, he booked a flight from Norfolk International Airport in Virginia-
“Mr. Narrator, the readers already know where Norfolk is. You’ve told them often enough.”
If you’d rather write the story, Diamond Tiara, you are more than welcome to try.
Sorry for that interruption. As I was saying, he booked a flight from Norfolk International Airport in Virginia to Los Angeles International Airport in California.
Having made the payment, he sighed, and relaxed in his chair. “I hope I can escape this,” he said, sadness in his voice. “Am I just cursed or something? Will this happen forever?” This was a state of affairs he dreaded, going from human to pony (or human to human) and back again, in a never-ending cycle. But hopefully he could beat it this time.
He got to the airport the next day and got through security, going through the food court and grabbing a quick breakfast, as he had left before breakfast to leave enough time to deal with the TSA officers and border police. Eventually, the flight was called, and he took his seat ready for take-off.
Things proceeded as normal as the flight flew over the country of the United States, but that day was to end in tragedy.
When the plane was flying over New Mexico, a storm suddenly brewed up. A violent storm as well, with thunderbolts and rain flying about.
“There wasn’t a thunderstorm forecast in this area!” a fellow passenger exclaimed. “What the hell is going on?”
Jimmy looked out of the window in apprehension. “The storm seems to be following us!” he said.
“Don’t be daft!” said a female passenger nearby. “Storms aren’t sentient; they can’t follow somebody!”
But then something weird happened. A bright light filled the window porthole, and a lightning bolt crashed into one of the engines. There was a crack as loud as a gunshot, as the engine spun and corrected.
Meanwhile, in the cockpit, the 1st Officer spoke to the Captain in alarm. “Lightning strike on No.1 engine, sir!”
The Captain looked over, to see the ‘engine fault’ indicator given on the display next to No.1 engine. “Shut it down,” he ordered.
“Yes sir, shutting No.1 Engine down,” the 1st Officer replied, throwing some switches in the cockpit. There was an audible whine as No.1 Engine slowed down and stopped completely.
The Captain activated his radio. “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” he said, with remarkable calm. “We have hit some unexpected rough air, and as a result advise you apply your safety belts for the remainder of the flight or unless ordered otherwise.”
Just as he said this, the seatbelt indicators switched on in the cabin. Jimmy quickly buckled his up, but his sense of unease was growing as the journey progressed.
It initially seemed they were in the clear. But they were wrong. Very wrong.
As the flight was nearing the border between Arizona and California, the remaining engines started to have trouble.
“Sir!” The 2nd officer called. “Engines 2 thru 4 are failing!”
“How is that possible?” the Captain demanded. “They were fine a moment ago!”
A loud explosion could then be heard outside.
“Engine No.1 has exploded, sir! Ailerons, Flaps, all unresponsive! Electricals failing!”
The Captain looked about. “It’s like somebody has disconnected every circuit on the plane.” He switched on the radio. “Ladies and Gentlemen, your attention please. We have encountered a severe mechanical fault and are attempting an emergency landing. Adopt the brace position immediately.” Just then, the aircraft lurched forward and went into a nosedive.
Jimmy looked about him in a panic. The cabin was in a state of chaos, as passengers were panicking and getting into position for what could well be a fatal landing.
The ground rocketed toward them with alarming speed, the desert approaching below them, grains of sand being whipped up by the aircraft’s approach.
“Lift port wing!” the Captain called, and pulled on the stick. It was too late. The wing crashed into the ground and was torn off, flying into the air and bouncing along the ground until it came to a sudden stop.
“BRACE, BRACE, BRACE!”
The airframe crashed into the ground, and the remaining landing gear collapsed as the plane collided with something on the desert floor. With a groan, the metal holding the aircraft together sheared apart, the frontal fuselage rolling along in the desert sand and eventually coming to a stop. The rear portion then collided with it, the sound of tearing metal and screeching a truly horrible one to hear.
Several hours later, Jimmy regained consciousness, looking around him to see a scene of carnage. Parts of engine lay all around, and the seats and passengers were all tossed around like toys. He quickly touched the shoulder of the man next to him, only for there to be no response. It then became apparent that he was dead. Like all other passengers and crew. The horror of being the only survivor of the accident hit Jimmy like a tidal wave, and it took him all his effort not to cry.
Not that he had emerged unscathed. It was painful for him to breathe, indicating he had broken ribs, and his arm was covered in blood. Not only that, it was unresponsive, suggesting a break. Holding it over his chest, he undid his seatbelt, and stepped over to the safety door, pulling open the door with some effort after adjusting the handle on the door.
He staggered out into the cold desert night, the wind howling all around him and the dust flying into the air. As he glanced about, there was a loud whirring noise up above him, and he could see two helicopters circling the wreckage. Just to the north lay an obelisk and a pyramid-wait, what?
“There weren’t any pyramids in California last I checked!” Jimmy exclaimed, then yelled in pain at the exertion. “Fuck! I need medical attention.” He then waved to the helicopters circling overhead.
“HEY!” he shouted. “YOU CAN’T JUST LEAVE ME TO DIE DOWN HERE!”
The pilot of Rescue 2-3 saw somebody down below waving his arms and shouting to him. He switched on his radio. “LA Search and Rescue, I have located one individual in the desert at the crash site. He seems to be the only survivor, over.”
“Roger that,” his superior replied. "Get your chopper on the ground and help him aboard.”
“Yes sir,” the pilot replied, flying over and setting his chopper down on the ground, the sand whipping up all around the chopper as it reached the ground and shut its rotors off.
The pilot and several members of medical staff ran over to Jimmy, who seemed to be delirious. “Lightning....engine...” he muttered, over and over again.
“Hey,” the pilot said to him. “We’ll get you to safety, OK? We’ll get you to the hospital and then back home.”
Jimmy nodded weakly, but then collapsed into the sand, his hand falling onto the sand and onto a green object. “Why...me...the only...survivor...” he wheezed.
The green object suddenly vanished, and before anybody knew what was happening Jimmy was choking, his hands around his neck. “Get it off!” he gasped. “Help me!”
The pilot ran over, and grabbed a knife, trying to cut through whatever was causing this thing was. It was a necklace of some description, with large green beads connected by a green cable of some sorts. The blade was having no effect on the necklace at all, which seemed to be made of diamond.
There was suddenly a loud blast, and the rescue crew were thrown back through the air and landed on their backs. The pilot sat up, and what he saw both amazed and horrified him at the same time.
The man he had been treating had begun to change. The pilot swore under his breath, and shouted to the rest of the team. “I need to call this in!”
Meanwhile, the news chopper was circling overhead, a news reporter onboard looking on.
“We have just seen some sort of blast coming from near where the rescue crew were helping a survivor,” he said. “Camera, zoom in on the epicenter of the blast.” The camera zoomed in, to show a man with something around his neck. But something seemed wrong with his face and hands.
“What in the world are we looking at?” the reporter asked.
They weren’t the only ones who spotted the incident. At NORAD HQ in El Paso Springs, Colorado, the grid suddenly went wild. “Colonel Peterson!” a satellite operator called.
“What’s going on?” Peterson demanded.
“Massive signal spike in the California desert,” he replied. “Huge signature!”
Peterson sighed. What could have created that. “Do we have any assets in the area?” he asked.
“There’s a tank column on exercise in the area, call sign Raider 2, sir.”
Peterson switched on the radio.
The tanks of Raider 2 streaked across the desert, throwing up huge dust trails as they raced along the desert floor, rolling past sand dunes and over small wades.
“Raider 2-1, do you read me, over?” a voice asked over the radio.
The commander took the microphone. “Raider 2-1, who is this, over?”
“This is Colonel Peterson of NORAD. We have detected a massive signal in your area, and want you to check it out. Grid coordinates as follows; 34.5803° N, 115.8745° W.”
“34.5803° N, 115.8745° W. I copy, over. Out.”
“Wait, isn’t that the ghost town near here?” the gunner asked. “You know, Bagdad?”
“I can’t think why anything would be out there,” the driver commented. “There’s nothing left.”
“Whatever it is, we need to investigate,” the commander answered. He then activated the radio. “All Raider units, this is Raider 2-1. We are to divert to 34.5803° N, 115.8745° W. I repeat, we are to divert to 34.5803° N, 115.8745° W. There has been a massive energy spike in the area, and we get to be the lucky bastards to check it out. Let’s go! Let’s go!”
With that, the engines of the tanks kicked into high gear, and roared off into the Mojave Desert toward Bagdad.
Jimmy screamed in pain as the necklace activated. Too late, he had realized who this belonged to.
His body seemed to be on fire as his face started to break apart, the bones cracking and reforming as his nose and mouth merged together into a muzzle. His eyes changed color to a deep purple, and his hair changed to two tone blue and green, the colors of precious stones. His entire body shrank in size, followed by his fingers shrinking into his hands, which then morphed into hooves. His elbows suddenly inverted, becoming backwards jointed as his arms shifted position to be next to his body, changing into a pair of forelegs.
“Why...can’t...I... escape!” he cried, as best he could, before realizing to his horror he was no longer speaking English. This was followed by his toes shrinking into his feet, which in turn shrank into hooves, followed by the joints in his legs inverting as they morphed into back legs. Suddenly, a tail exploded from his backside, the same colors as the mane, as his neck cracked and forced his head forward.
But he wasn’t he for much longer, as his manhood vanished, two lumps replacing them instead. A white headdress suddenly appeared on her head, with a golden front piece with the symbol of the crescent moon fitted to it. Next to the necklace, which now fitted her properly, a loose white dress appeared, the sort of thing an ancient Egyptian would have worn, and two braids appeared in her tail. This was followed by a pair of wings sprouting from her sides, folding up next to her sides.
Finally, her entire body turned scarlet, a coat of fur materializing all over her.
Raider 2-1 suddenly arrived on the scene, the tanks stopping next to the wreckage. The commander ordered a halt, and walked over to the pilot of the rescue chopper, who seemed to have gone into shock.
“What happened here?” he asked.
The pilot, who looked to be in shock, gulped. “Plane crashed, we tried to help survivor, but then he changed into this...thing!”
The tank commander nodded. “I’ll take a look.” He saw the news chopper circling overhead, and headed off over the sand to where he saw this strange pink creature which looked like it was straight out of Carry on Cleo. “Freeze!” he shouted. “What are you, and why are you here?”
It shouted back at him, in a female voice, and in a language he didn’t understand.
Somnambula looked around her in panic, these groups of loud, shout creatures looking at her. “What do you want with me?” she asked them, but they didn’t seem to understand a word she was saying.
Just then, a massive purple creature with the face of a human, the legs and features of a cat, wings, and a horrible purple tail appeared on top of the pyramid. It screeched at all of them, a horrible noise that sounded like breaking glass.
Somnambula quaked in fear.
To Be Continued......