1700 hrs 'Abandoned' Hangar.
"Oi Strizh."
"Da Blue? There something needed?"
"I just wanna talk mate."
"Abouts what? Wait, what is sound?"
"Oi that's a scramble alarm. Sounds like a couple of 14s are goin up."
"Who exactly?"
"Looks like Blaze and Edge."
"Of course Sand Island. They take all credit now. Wasn't there somethings you wanted to talk about?"
"Not now. I'm gonna go check out the noise." Blue said as she went outside to see both Blaze and Edge flying towards a civilian airline with a single smoking engine. She wasn't the only one looking up towards the sky, you were too.
 
"Blaze, Edge, guide her to the runway."
"Yea, she's flying a little erratically, you sure you want us to bring her in?"
"Emergency declared, bring her in." You say on your radio making sure that this injured pony makes it to the ground safely. This slightly worries you as you don't know if there's ponies on this flight from Garuda.
"Garuda Flight 8492, this is Edge and Blaze of the Sand Island squadron. Can you see us?"
"Oi, I can see you."
"Flight 8492 are you carrying any passengers?"
"Only one."
"Follow us to our runway. Rex, only one passenger." Edge said as they met with the A350 in her descent towards Avalon's Shadow.
"Right, how's she looking?"
"Airspeed is stable, roll is all over the place, but she's holding steady, Flight 8492 follow Blaze to the runway."
"Edge ask her model. I'm not too good with air carriers."
"Copy, Flight 8492 state your name and model." Edge said as she was flying off the pony's wing.
"Belle Carbone, A350." She said in an intense amount of pain.
Everyone in Avalon's Shadow was called out by an emergency broadcast that got the runway cleared and the emergency crews on high alert for a pony who was coming in.
"Dad, is that the pony that's coming in? The one behind Blaze?"
"Yea, it is Morgan. EVERYONE STAY CLEAR OF THE RUNWAY!!!" you yell out making sure that the area is clear as for another very tense ten minutes as Blaze lands and clears the runway leaving only this A350 on one engine to land.
"She's coming in hot. Oh god this is going to be one hell of a landing." You say as you're hoping she doesn't completely smash herself into the runway. You're insanely tense as she's about to cross the runway threshold, and five hundred feet after that mark, she's on the runway and galloping hard. Everypony's watching this landing, and it's tense, the RAT on the A350 has been deployed to try and compensate for the loss of her right engine. You've got one hoof up to your mouth, and if you had fingernails still you'd probably be biting them as this pony looks like she's coming in both hot and overloaded. She makes it about halfway down the runway and then she stumbles, her right side giving way as she now drops to her skidpads and skids out to the second to last turn off. Where she comes to a stop. You, Sadie and Mriya run to her to check on the pony, as Mriya and Sadie help her up you're doing a rapid walk around, she's not scraped up at all, her skid pads are toast through, and her right engine is radiating a little too much heat.
"Mriya, Sadie help her to the shop. Are you alright? There anything else I should know about?" You say as you question her condition, you know about the compressor stall, but you need to know about anything else. There's only one passenger, but whoever that is can wait until you get her into your shop and out of pain before deplaning.
Since she's been brought to your shop and you change to control your robot and begin to closely examine the A350.
"Hey there sweetie, what's your name?"
"Belle Carbone."
"I'm Rex, that AFDX back there. I'll be taking care of you until I can figure out what went wrong with ya." You say as you hook a GPU to her so her right side speed breaks could retract.
"Merci, and my passenger?"
"Oh crap uh let me find some stair real quick."
"Merci." Belle said as you run off to push up a large set of stairs to her.
"You won't be moving much Belle, but whenever your passenger's ready to deplane, just send them down the stairs. Now let me take a look at that engine." You say as you walk over to her right turbine after pushing your tools and stands over to it. The turbine is still hot, but you're not a human so the heat doesn't bother you. You begin to take the turbine apart very carefully as you rarely take apart these turbines. You can hear Belle talking quietly to someone but you're so focused on trying to figure out what went wrong with her that you don't even care what or to who she's talking to.
"Hey Belle, how much are you carrying and were you over your Gross weight?" You ask as you've got her fuel injectors removed and they're perfectly clean so this flame out had to be due to something else entirely. There wasn't damage to her turbine blades, not even a scratch on the front fan, so this is a baffling situation to you.
"Well, the turbine's fine, you just overloaded yourself and your internal computer probably tried to compensate for the extra weight you were carrying, drowned out the flame. You're going to have to offload fuel here to make MTOW. Other than that, I'm gonna have to replace your skidplates. They're fried."
"How long is that going to take?"
"I can probably retrofit Mriya's to fit you, it's going to take a good portion of the day to get that done though. Your passenger's welcome to explore around for a little bit, but if they get yelled at by anyone for getting in the way, they've got to come back her. I'll retrofit those pads just as soon as I get this turbofan back together."
"Merci." Belle said as you shrug and get back to work. It takes you the same amount of time it took to dismantle the turbine to get it back together, though retrofitting skid pads meant for Mriya meant cutting these ones down and attaching them, hopefully they wouldn't be too bad, or perhaps Sadie or KC's pads would be a closer fit, because you know if you use Mriya's you're going to have to cut them down. Though that's what your mind is focused on, though you catch a glimpse of a human walking around in your shop it's hardly a secondary thought as you're more concerned with Belle Carbone than any human that may have found his way into this city. People find there way here all the time, then normally get freaked out and go live in the woods around the city because you and the ponies don't bother them and they don't bother you.
"So where was your destination Belle?"
"There was none monsieur, my pilot and I were out exploring."
"Ah explains the overload on fuel. Like I said earlier, you're not leaving Avalon's Shadow over your MTOW. Well that pilot of yours is pretty good for keeping calm while you came down."
"Merci, but he had control for the approach."
"Heh, he's obviously very skilled. You're lucky to have him." You say as you measure her skid pads
1800 Hrs. Avalon's Shadow.
"Hey what's goin on in thea Morgan?"
"Dad's doing what he does best. Repairing a pony. She probably has something wrong with her engine and wasted her skid pads."
"Bugga. That's got to ave been painful."
"You're telling me Blue." Morgan said as they stare at the closed doors of your shop. Normal procedure for what you do. Lightning was out doing recon for Sasha, and of course who does he go to for information? Morgan of course.
"What happened? We heard the mayday on the general channel, and then almost like a sound of screeching metal."
"Oh an A350 came in hot and had a flame out in one of her engines. She's in the shop right now."
"Dam, a flame out. Wait, what is she?"
"An A350, one of those passenger ponies. ya know she's kinda like Sadie except she carries ponies and such."
"Oh, huh, pretty rare to see an airline pony here. You get a good look at her?"
"Lightning what do you think? I can see her right now if I wanted to." Morgan said as you notice her presence in your mind.
"Morgan, not now I'm busy."
"Pardon?"
"Talking to my daughter. It's nothing Belle." You say as you try to shut Morgan out.
"Well apparently her name is Belle. That's about as far as I got before dad kicked me out."
"Huh, at least you've got that much. Well I'm going to be informing Sasha now. Take care Morgan. Oh Blue you're out and about." Lightning said as he walked back to his hangar.
"Well he's awful cheery."
"Not if you knew what I did."
"An what do ya know Morgan?"
"Lilya's due sooner than expected. Dad got his estimate wrong."
"An what's the revised estimate?"
"Soon. And you didn't hear that from me ok? Dad's going to give me enough hell if he finds out I told anyone." Morgan said as she's had enough of being outside and decides to go and check on you, though a small moving things catches her attention but then is quickly disregarded as she enters the shop.
1830 Hrs. Edge of Space
"Well there's somethin Ah ain't seen in a while. What are ya doin in here little man?" KC said as he noticed this human that walked into his bar.
"I...suppose that I would be here to...get some...food I suppose...and drinks...lots of them.Though, haven't seen in a while? I..I've only been here a day at most..you mean..there are others?"
"Yea there are some others around. They don't show up much here. Ah'll get ya a menu. An what's yer poison?" KC said as the man was looking up to him.
"I...uh...well..I'm not sure what kinds you have here. If you have something comparable to a...scotch, or a pretty high-proof whiskey, that'd be great. On the rocks, if possible."
"Ah can do that, jus a warning though it might be a bit stronger than yer used to. Ya got a name?" KC said as he grabbed a bottle of scotch off the wall and pushed a very tiny menu to the man, along with the cup that was most likely the size of a fifth to the man.
"A..Ark...And...strong is fine...my nerves are shot from bringing her in.."
"Heh, jus hold on to yer socks."
"These...and...as spicy as you can get'em."
"Now Ah ain't made those since Rex was able to eat meats. Ah'll get them started." KC said as he disappeared off to prepare the hot wings. When KC returned with a decently sized plate of hotwings he saw that Ark had drank all the Scotch and looked a little baffled
"Can Ah get ya a refill an Ah may have forgotten the exact recipe fer the spices an may have gone overboard on em. Ah don't remember if Ah was supposed to use Habanero or Ghost peppers." KC said as he set down the plate.
"Please do." Arc said nodding as KC grabbed the Scotch and refilled his glass only to watch him take a bite of the wings.
H...Hot...T..These are perfect! Th..Thank you...I..d...didn't quite catch your name as well."
"Mah name is KC. An Ah'm glad ya like em. Anythin else Ah can get fer ya before ah just keep a watch on yer glass?" KC said as he was about to depart and Ark was holding just a bone.
1930 Hrs. Your shop.
"Well, I've done all I can with you Belle, I suggest you get those pads replaced when you get back home."
"Merci, and the invoice?"
"Well there's two options, I can send it to Garuda Airlines, or you can take care of it. Option's yours." You say as you switch back to your AFDX. Belle is rather quiet as she isn't sure of what she should do as you walk towards the doors.
"Well, I'll give you some time to think about it. You're now just under MTOW, try to keep it that way. It's not often a pony comes flying in here on one turbine and confuses the hell out of me with that. You're very lucky to have a skilled pilot aboard, otherwise there'd be a nice long burn mark on the runway."
"Non, I will handle the invoice."
"Well alright. I normally gouge the crap out of out of town ponies, but since you managed to baffle me, I'm not going to. So that's going to be a standard Turbine inspection, which would normally be a thousand bits, but since yours were so easy to access, I'll cut that in half, but those pads aren't going to be cheap. They run at 250 each, so our grand total is 1500 bits. Without the labor of course, so let's add another 750 for the labor, and we've got 2250 bits." You say as Belle goes into her saddle bags and pulls out an appropriate amount of bits.
"Next time you stop here in Avalon's Shadow I do hope it's under better circumstances." You say as you place the bits in your office and open the doors.
"Merci, but please do not tell my pilot."
"Not a word. Do try to keep your MTOW in mind next time, you're not designed to fly overweight." You say as you've opened the doors enough to let Belle out and you see a human and laugh to yourself a little.
Morgan walks into the shop as you're standing in the doorway watching Belle walk out to the runway.
"So she had a flame out and destroyed her skid pads?"
"Yea, funny thing is there was absolutely nothing wrong with her. Other than the destroyed skid pads."
"Then how'd she flame out?"
"Overweight. I mean she was a few hundred pounds over her max gross weight, which explains the incredibly hot landing."
"Huh, is there something I should know about going on?" Morgan asked as Belle looked towards you and winked.
"Oh, we're just scaring the hell out of her pilot."
"And her pilot is?"
"A human. Didn't think I'd see one that's a pilot in a long time. Come on, I need to go harass your brother." You say as you walk home with Morgan following you.
 
2000 hrs. Hornet.
Raptor and Nora are just watching the sunset out on the beaches.
"This is nice isn't it?"
"Yea, this is. Why didn't you do this earlier Raptor?"
"You were still mad at me Nora."
"This would have helped."
"And now you tell me."
"Don't get too upset you didn't know." Nora said as she was lying on a towel out on the sand.
"I know, but you could have told me."
"So this would have been the first thing you said? I don't think so."
"Ugh, why do you know me so well?" Raptor asked as Nora only looked back at her with Really? written all over her face.
"Okay I get it. No need for me to figure out how to be selfish." Raptor said getting Nora to smile and enjoy the sunset.
Somewhere between Orel and Avalon's Shadow: Time unknown.
There's the click clack of the railway car against the tracks, and a lone pony sitting on a railway flatcar, with the wind rushing past her. She would point herself into the wind and close her eyes.
"I am coming 19. There is one place I have yet to have looked. That is where this train is taking me. I'll be there soon. I hope for your sake and mine that you are still alive." She said to herself before opening her eyes and sitting back down at the awkward angle that keeps her from lifting off the railway car with only one good wing.
 
0425 Hrs. VTOL hangar.
Sasha woke up near immediately as she was wracked with pain.
"Lightning get up!"
"What? Is it time?"
"I thinks."
"Oh shit, I'll go wake Rex, SERGEI LUDMILA! IT's time!" Lightning yelled as the lights in their hangar went on.
"We gettings Sasha to shop, Get Rex."
"What the hell do you think I'm doing?" Lightning said as he skidded by the door to just get out and run to wake you up, it takes him all of thirty seconds to reach your home and pound furiously on the door.
"REX GET UP!!!!! I think Sasha's about to have our baby."
"Oh fuck, Lightning get her to the shop, I've gotta go get my mom."
"Right, Just make it fast." Lighting said as you scramble to your hooves and bolt out the door to go and get your mother so she can assist you in delivering Lilya.
By 0430 you're knocking on Patches' door, not pounding furiously like Lightning was, but loud enough for her to hear.
"Who's knocking on my door this early in the morning?"
"Mom, Sasha's going into labor, I need some help."
"Rex?"
"Yea, and the baby's on the way."
"I'll be there in a minute. You go and calm her down." Patches said as you could hear her going around and grabbing things from her hangar while you run to your shop as Sergei and Ludmila are waiting with Sasha for the doors to open.
"Hurry up Rex, she not waiting."
"Sasha, you don't think I don't know that? Sergei, Ludmila, thanks for helping out." You say as you dodge a kick from Sasha and push the hangar doors open and flip the lights on. After you got her inside Lightning is up and holding her hoof, which means he's going to be hearing Sasha's wrath. And she let him have it, though he didn't understand a single word of what she was saying as much of it was profanity and a few things you refused to tell Lightning just to save his own ego.
"Rex, what's she saying?"
"Well the basic jest of what she's saying is you're a fucking asshole for knocking her up and making her bear your child. There's things I'm not repeating."
"And those are?"
"Like hell I'm tellin you son." You say as Patches arrives and completely pushes you out of the way.
"Sasha, I need you to breath, take deep breaths, and when you feel the next contraction push."
"Da, Lightning you fucking asshole why the fuck are you making me endure this pain! I'm going to murder you!" Sasha said then screamed right into Lightning's ear.
"Rex?"
"Well, if something goes wrong, she's gonna murder you, let's just leave it at that."
"Oh." Lightning said as you were the assistant for Patches getting her whatever she needed as you did your best to tune Sasha out, but the screaming was excessive.
"Sasha, now comes the worst part, her wings have to come out."
"Fuck. It bad enough."
"Sorry sweetie, she's gotta come out." Patches said as you cover your ears
You, Lightning, Sergei, Ludmila and Patches endure Sasha's screaming and yelling for the next two hours with the shop doors shut, you've shoved seat cushions in your ears, Patches is too focused to even notice, Lightning is pale in the face, Sergei and Ludmila, well Sergei is horrified and Ludmila is in a little bit of awe. At the end of those two very stressful hours, it ends with Patches holding a Yak-141 no larger than a grown pony, in her forelegs as you hand her towels to clean off the fluids that are on Lilya.
As Sasha's breathing calms down Patches looks up to her and says "Congratulations, it's a girl."
"Give to me, please. I wantings to see my Lilya."
"Of course dear. You need to rest, she'll stop crying when she's in your arms." Patches said as she handed Sasha Lilya. Though Sasha was exhausted and laying on a bed of whatever soft things you could find in the shop, seeing Lilya for the first time, you've never seen Sasha smile so broadly before.
"Thank you. Boths of you, for bringing Lilya into world."
"My pleasure, She looks just like you Sasha, though she's got Lightning's eyes."
"She does, Lightning, looks." Sasha said as she held Lilya in such a way that Lightning could see her. When Lightning got his first glimpse of Lilya, his doubts and fears practically melted away, along with all the nerves this night had entailed for him.
"Hey Lilya, it's your daddy. You're so beautiful, just like your mother." Lightning said in a very soft tone as you and Patches look to each other and smile.
"Rex, thank you."
"Huh?"
"I needed this."
"Because of Celone?"
"Yes, it's been so long since I've gotten to do that, thank you for cheering me up."
"Hey no problem. You needed it." You say as the two of you are washing the fluids off yourselves.
"She looks like a little angel. I just hope she turns out that way for them."
"I hope so too."
"Well, I'll say my congratulations again and head home. This timing was really inconvenient."
"Is anything about a new foal?" You say
Patches only smiles as she walks past them congratulating them again and heads home, probably to sleep, or go about her day, either or you don't know.
"You're welcome to spend the rest of the day here resting Sasha, I'm sure you're going to have tons of visitors. "Nyet, I want go home, be in own bed."
"Well, I'm sure you'll have plenty of help getting there." You say as the first batch of visitors walk up to your shop. It happens to be Alyona and Terminator.
"Is possible to see Lilya da?"
"Sasha? Two visitors, Alyona and Terminator." You say as you turn back into the shop as Sasha's being draped across Lightning's back.
"Da, come helpings Lightning carry home." Sasha said as Terminator rushed over to help Lightning carry Sasha out of the hangar while she was still holding onto Lilya.
"Such beautiful baby. She just like you."
"Spasiba, she like mother." Sasha said as Terminator got a look at her before carrying her out and back home.
And this left you to clean the shop up a bit. Well, more of hose it out, and that you set out to do as everyone was surrounding Sasha, Lightning and Lilya who was sound asleep in her mothers arms at this point.
"So that's why you weren't home this morning."
"Yup the little one is born."
"So she a 141 like you thought?"
"Yup. She's a Yakovlev." You say as Thunderbolt stands next to you rubbing her eyes.
"Well, there's one thing done and out of the way. Now I wait on another."
"What?"
"I'm expecting a Yak 1 to show up in Avalon's Shadow sometime in the near future, and I've got questions for her."
"And who might this Yakovlev be?"
"A very dear friend of my mother. I just want to make sure before my mom has a breakdown." You say as you've cleaned out your shop to the best of you ability and now have to wait for it to dry, which luckily there's nobody on the list today which means no work needs to be done. While you're just sitting outside with Thunderbolt half passed out you can't help but to hear the unmistakable noise of wings flapping
"There's only two ponies that willingly fly up to me, and I'm going to guess that it's you Luna. Only one question, why are you here?"
"I heard that Lilya was born today. Rex, I am not the princess of the night for nothing."
"You knew? Well, I'm sure you're eager to see Lilya, they're at home. Sasha got carried." You say as you looked over and down at Luna.
"Thank you. And how are Falken and Twilight doing?"
"They're fine. Please don't tell us what goes on in their dreams."
"Then I shan't. Though are you not concerned?"
"Of course I am. Go find Sasha before you have to fly over everypony to see her. I'm sure Sasha will be happy to see you, that is if she's not way out of it." You say as Luna only smiled and trots off towards the VTOL hangar.
"Well, that was an interesting little conversation the two of you had."
"Eh, does it really matter?"
"No, not really, let's get you some rest dear, you look exhausted." Thunderbolt said as she let you lean on her while she walked you home.
 
0900 hrs. VTOL hangar.
There's a crowd outside of Sasha's hangar, and there's only a very few ponies allowed in, Princess Luna was among them, since Sasha and Lilya were asleep on the couch
"She looks very much like her mother."
"Yea, I know. It's going to be tough for me to say no to her."
"And why do you say that Lightning?"
"Because it's a smaller version of Sasha, and I can't say no to her."
"In time you will learn to put your hoof down." Luna said as she was talking to Lightning.
"She's such a precious little thing." Lightning said as he looked upon Lilya who still wrapped in the towels and blankets that you gave them at your shop, was resting peacefully on Sasha's chest while they both slept.
"Yes, she is. Do you know how long she will stay that small?"
"I don't know. It varies on the pony. She could stay that small up to a year. Otherwise I dunno, I've heard Patches was small for about three months before she became full sized" Lightning said