Even thought it was a 5-minute walk, it took Levi nearly 15 minutes to get there, due to him having to stop and take breaks from his aching legs and back. “Dammit Alan…” He groaned to himself in annoyance.
“Why did you have to send me here.” he said to himself, as he staggered slowly to Ponyville. “We couldn’t just have a nice, normal cook. We can make some money, and I can pay my damn bills, and everything would be alright.”
“But no! Of course not, something had to go wrong!” Levi said to himself, annoyed. “Now I’m in some place populated by ponies. Fantastic. But, credit where credit is due, that one was pretty nice.” Levi said, making himself laugh.
A short time later, Levi finally arrived at Ponyville, when he saw he had reached his destination he let out a sigh of relief and put his hands on his knees and took a small break. “Hell..yes!” He cheered to himself, as he began to walk down the light brown path that led inside of Ponyville.
Near the end of the path there was a bridge, similar to the one at Fluttershy’s cottage but bigger and wider. As he crossed it, the ponies that were walking around and about began to notice Levi coming over the bridge. When he reached the end of the path after the bridge, a bunch of ponies saw him and were whispering and muttering to one another. Some ponies pulled their children closer to their side, Levi saw all of this and stopped dead in his tracks and looked at the small crowd of ponies that started to form in front and around Levi. They weren’t close to Levi; they were about 10 feet away from him, which made sense given Fluttershy’s reaction when she first saw him.
“Hey, I need help!” He exclaimed. The ponies said nothing but just continued to stare at him, with confused and nervous expressions on their faces. As Levi was watching the crowd of ponies that slowly continued to get bigger and bigger, he saw some of the ponies had wings like Fluttershy but some had no wings and some had horns. ‘Unicorns?’ Levi thought, confused.
“Please!” He begged. “I think my back is fucked up bad! I need to see a doctor! Please I’m not gonna hurt you!” He continued begging, taking a few steps closer to the crowd.
Suddenly, a light blue pony with darker blue hair came running from around the corner of a building that was to the right of the crowd and Levi saw as a look of horror came across her face. Levi could tell something was about to happen as he looked at her horrified expression. “IT’S A CHANGELING LOOK AT HIS EYES! RUN!” The pony screamed, causing the crowd to almost immediately go from confusion to nervous to panic in a matter of seconds. They all began to scream, much to Levi’s confusion. “NO! STOP! WHAT THE FUCK IS CHANGELING!” Levi screamed over the screams of the crowd. Every pony in the crowd sprinted away from Levi and ran into their houses and restaurants and hid from Levi, under the impression that he was a changeling. “STOP! PLEASE!” He pleaded, running further into the town. He watched as the word quickly spread like wildfire that a “Changeling” was in Ponyville, this caused more ponies to panic and scream and run away and hide.
Levi ran a little bit further but the pain in his legs and back became unbearable, forcing him to a stop. A look of desperation formed on his face as he watched as every pony, unicorn, and flying pony ran and hid either in the clouds or in their houses. “Fuck…” He said to himself. He saw out of the corner of his eye as a pony’s curtain parted slightly to look at him, and when he turned his head to look at it the curtain closed shut instantly.
Levi saw in front a large building that looked like a house but he had a feeling it wasn’t. It had white walls with brown wooden stripes on the walls, it had a brown that looked like cake and white icing on the edges, and what looked like a tower on top with the top of it being a large pink cupcake with a candle stuck in the top of it.
This confused Levi even more. but before he could make a comment about the odd building, he heard one of the ponies shout from out of their window “LOOK! IT’S THE WONDERBOLTS!”
The ponies cheered out of their windows as heard a sound similar to a jet flying in the air and he felt a strong gust of wind. He saw a group of 6 flying ponies wearing blue uniforms with yellow lightning patterns and goggles. “What the hell..HEY!” He shouted up at the flying ponies.
“I’M A HUMAN AND I NEED HELP! I’M NOT GONNA HURT ANYONE!” Levi yelled up at them, he noticed one of the ponies broke off from the rest and flew off to the left but Levi brushed it off. “SOMEBODY HELP ME! I NEED A DO-”
<i> THUMP!
One of the flying ponies slammed into Levi at full speed, sending him flying for a few seconds but he began to tumble and roll on the ground until he slammed into the hard wall of one of the ponies' houses. Levi roared in pain as he laid there against the wall, unable to move from the agonizing pain in his arms, legs, back, pretty much everywhere on his body.
This was the worst pain Levi had ever experienced, and if his back wasn’t fractured or messed up in some way it was now. Without a shadow of a doubt. The ponies landed in front of him and a few seconds later a pony with dark blue hair landed after the rest, Levi knew he was the hit who had done this to him. The ponies all came out of their house and watched the Wonderbolts confront Levi, “What are you doing here Changeling!” she demanded, with venom in her voice.
Levi began to sob from the pain and he felt pathetic, lying on the ground in front off all these ponies crying out of pain. “Please…please don’t hurt me…” He pleaded weakly, flinching whenever the main Wonderbolt stepped towards him. The pony pulled off her goggles, revealing her strong orange eyes and barked “Why are you here! I won’t ask you again!”
Levi looked at her with pleading eyes and responded with “My name is Levi Cronell, I’m a human. I fell out of the sky and I need help…”
The main pony cocked her head at him and asked “Do you even know what a Changeling is?” Levi was barely able to shake his head.
The main pony looked back at her fellow Wonderbolts and the dark blue haired pony took off his goggles and spoke up “What if he’s lying?”
“If he was a Changeling he would’ve changed back already. There’s no way he’s not.” She argued. She looked around and saw the crowd of ponies forming around them and she said “We’ll talk in the sky.”
“What?” Levi asked confusedly, as she gently wrapped her hooves around him, careful not to hurt him. She turned to her teammates and nodded at them and they all went into the sky, with the main pony carrying Levi’s weak and limp body bridal style.
The ponies watched, clapping and cheering, as the main pony lifted him up into the sky. A short time later, when they were high enough in the sky where the ponies on the ground looked like ants, the main pony spoke “So, you’re Levi right?”
He nodded. “What are you doing here? Nopony’s ever seen a human before so that’s probably why they panicked.” She explained.
“I’m a human. I have no idea what the fuck a Changeling is. Just don’t hurt me again.” Levi responded, hoping to earn some sympathy from the pony.
She turned to her teammates and asked them “Where’s the hospital at?”
“You can’t be serious Spitfire, he could be lying for all we know.” One of her teammates with yellow hair argued.
“You think a Changeling is smart enough to think of a name like ‘Levi Cronell”.” Spitfire responded, making a good point to her teammate.
“Where are you from?” The yellow haired teammate asked.
“Tuscaloosa” Levi answered, choosing the longer name in the hopes it would convince them more. “See” Spitfire said.
“Now I’m gonna ask you again, where’s the hospital?” Spitfire asked, in a demanding tone compared to the first time.
Her teammate sighed and pointed behind her and responded “That way.”
“Then let’s go!” She exclaimed, putting her goggles over her eyes. “You're gonna be alright Levi.” She reassured him.
“Thank you so much Spitfire.” He said, graciously.
“It’s what Wonderbolts do!” She responded, beginning to fly with her teammates to the hospital.
Some time later, Levi was admitted to the hospital and was being given liquid morphine to ease his immense pain. After what had happened in the town, the last thing he wanted was visitors, but he was happy to see the person who walked in the door.
He was resting his eyes on the bed, enjoying the time with no back or leg pain which was a time he took for granted. “Hey” Spitfire greeted, walking over to Levi’s bed.
“Hey yourself.” He replied, sitting up in bed. Levi decided to go ahead and ask the burning question that’s been on his mind ever since he got here, “Spitfire?” “Yeah?” She responded.
“Who did this to me?” Levi asked, surprising her with his straight forward question.
“Depends, what are you gonna do if you see him again?” Spitfire asked.
“Nothin’” He answered.
“It was Soarin, just don’t do anything to hurt him. He’s one of our best, if he’s out it’s gonna be bad for us.” Spitfire said, getting a chuckle from Levi.
“I probably won’t be strong enough to fight him, I mean he threw me into a damn building.” He said, chuckling. Spitfire gave him a sympathetic look which Levi almost immediately noticed.
“Hey, don’t feel bad for me.” Levi said, looking into her orange eyes. “It wasn’t his fault anyway, he thought I was a Changeling and If I was that was the right thing to do.” He explained.
“I know that but, nopony deserves that.” She added, with a sympathetic look in her eyes. Levi said nothing, which prompted Spitfire to clear her throat and ask “Anyways, what are your injuries? Are they bad?”
“He said it’s a miracle I'm not paralyzed and I don’t blame him, I thought for sure I was out for the count.” Levi responded.
“Anything fractured? Broken?” She asked.
“One of my arms is broken, there’s 5 fractures in my spine, and there’s a big cut in the back of my head.” Levi answered.
“Damn…” She said, running a hoof through her hair. After about ten seconds of comfortable silence, Levi decided to say what he felt needed to be said “Thank you, truly.”
“It’s nothing, I do this kinda thing all the time.” she responded, degrading her own accomplishment.
“No I mean it, I’d probably be worse off if it wasn’t for you trusting me.” Levi insisted.
Suddenly, the doctor who had originally seen him swung open the door and walked in and said “Mr.Cronell, Princess Celestia needs to see you.”
“I’m sorry, who?” Levi asked, confused.
“Princess Celestia. The Princess.” He answered, talking as if Levi was an idiot.
“He’s a human Doc, he doesn’t know.” Spitfire chimed.
“Oh I’m sorry! Would you be willing to take him their Captain?” The doctor asked.
A short time later, after the doctor disconnected him from the morphine, he had to have his arm wrapped in a cast and be pushed out of the hospital using a wheelchair which he hated. However, the second the hospital doors closed, Spitfire picked up Levi and flew him to the castle to meet the princess.
After about a good five minutes of flying, Spitfire decided to take a break and slowly went back down to the ground and laid Levi on the grass. Where she had decided to stop was in the middle of a large forest, Levi had wanted to stay away from forests after his encounter with the Timberwolf back at Fluttershy’s cottage, but he supposed fate had something different in mind.
Spitfire was panting and was covered in sweat, she tore her goggles off and laid down, leaning against a tree. Levi managed to do the same by scooting his body over to the tree next to hers and leaned against it. “You’re..so damn heavy..” she said, taking breaks between words to catch her breath.
Levi looked at her and smiled, saying “You gonna be alright?” in a joking tone.
She looked at him, her face flushed from sweat and heat, and answered “I’ve done worse…I’ll be fine…I just need a break.”
“If you say so.” He responded, leaning his head against the tree and staring off into the sky. Admiring its beauty and watching the clouds move gracefully. This for some reason made Levi think of Alan, which made his heart sting in regret and worry. ‘What if he’s dead?’ Levi thought. ‘What if he didn’t make it, or he’s lost..dammit! I can’t keep thinking about this!’ He thought.
“Mind if I ask you something Spitfire?” Levi asked, turning his head to her once more.
“Go ahead.” She responded.
“Do you have somebody you’d do anything for? Someone you’d die for if need be?” Levi asked.
“Yeah, my parents, probably my team.” Spitfire answered.
“Damn, you must care a hell of a lot about them don’t you? It’s like there your family or somethin’.” Levi added.
“They practically are.” She replied. “I mean I dedicate half my time to them.”
“Yeah..” He responded. “Mine’s my best friend, he’s practically my brother.” Levi said, sadness filling his eyes.
“Who is he?” Spitfire asked.
“His name is Alan. We were..messing around with some chemicals and there was an explosion, I got sent here and he wasn’t with me. I’ve been worried sick about him since.” Levi explained, looking up at the sky again imagining where Alan could be.
Spitfire gave him a look of sympathy and responded with “I’m sure he’s out there somewhere, I’m sure he’s just as worried about you as you are about him.”
Levi smiled at her, he knew she was right, and in that moment he knew what he had to do. Once he recovered from his injuries, he was gonna find his brother. No matter the cost.