I stared at the crazy girl before me. And then it hit me. That’s why she looked so familiar. She pulled off the Spitfire look incredibly well. Almost too well.

“Are you stoned? You’re not Spitfire!”

I could see she was resisting the urge to punch me in the face. Not that it would do anything.

“Yes I am! Are you blind?! Because last time I checked I looked, sounded, and had the wings that make me Spitfire!”

“No I am not blind! Nearly was though but that’s beside the point! And while you do pull off the look pretty well you don’t have WINGS!” I yelled back.

A fist decided to kiss my face and knocked me to the ground. I heard a vague gong sound when her fist hit. I rubbed my check and checked my bio signs with my TAC pad. Well she had bruised my face pretty well but my cheek bone seemed alright. The girl was shaking her hand in pain still staring daggers at me.

“Dear Celestia, what is your face made out of?” She asked.

I rubbed the bruise, “Metal.”

She appeared to notice the gash on my arm, “Oh my gosh! What happened to your arm?” she asked; all the rage and malice gone from her voice.

I was still pissed about being socked in the face and spoke with poison in my voice, “What arm? And when did you become concerned with my health considering you nearly smashed my face in!”

“Nearly smashed your face in?! Your face nearly broke my hand!”

“Well maybe you should think twice before you decide to try anything next time.”

I pulled myself up to my feet and pulled a seat farther away from this hostile girl. I stared at the gash in my arm.

A long awkward silence followed. The girl stared at her feet while I examined my arm.

Finally she spoke up, “Are you OK? Is your arm alright?”

“It’s fine,” I muttered coldly, “And no I’m not alright.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Gee would you like that list in alphabetical or chronological?”

“Does it matter?”

“Fine,” I said, “I was skydiving when the jump went to hell and I ended up in the middle of the forest, separated from the rest of my jump group. On top of that I ended up finding you unconscious in the forest with a hungry panther getting ready to eat you. And while I was distracting it, it ripped open my arm. I got you here with the help of a guard. And when you wake up you punch me in the face.”

“Sorry, for that. I guess I let my rage get control of me. But I don’t like having my identity questioned!”

“You have not given me solid proof that you are Spitfire,” I said sarcastically. I looked at my arm and watched as the cut resealed itself.

“Alright,” the girl said confidently, “You want proof? Here.” She began to unzip the top of her uniform, exposing her shoulder.

“Look,” she said, “My cutie mark.” There was the profile of a stylized phoenix.

“That could easily be a tattoo,” I said, trying not to get too sarcastic or irritated with the nut else she punch something other than my face.

“Look closer,” she said.

I sighed, “Fine.” I tapped my TAC pad and scanned the tattoo. Wait, this wasn’t right. It wasn’t reading like a tattoo. In fact, it wasn’t reading like normal skin either. There was some strange energy emanating from it.

“This is odd,” I said, “It’s not reading like a tattoo. Do you have another one of those on your other shoulder?” I asked perplexed.

“Yeah,” she said, “Why?”

I pulled up a more thorough scan of her.

“Holy lord,” I said. Her physiology wasn’t anything consistent with a normal human being. Her bone mass was significantly less than a normal human’s yet judging from the readings they were 10 times stronger.

“And then there’s these!” she said opening up some flaps in the back of her suit. Two large orange wings spread out from behind her.

“Oh, now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be back in a few minutes,” I said, immediately fainting and falling to the ground.

***

I felt like a bomb went off near my head. Not the best feeling in the world but not unfamiliar. I woke up to Spitfire shaking my.

“Hey! Wake up!” she yelled.

I raised my arm up and held my head, “Shit, Ow. Goddamn it. Cat’s not gonna believe this.”

“Believe what?”

“Um, I found a girl that appears to be Spitfire since that appears to be the only explanation that makes sense. On top of that she has WINGS. That’s not something normal people have.”

She flared her wings, “What do you mean that’s not something normal people have?”

“Geez, ok. Just stop doing that! God, just put those away before I have a heart attack.”

Her face got a mischievous look, “What? This?” She swept her wings forward, the wind created knocked me to the floor.

I gripped the floor with my arm, watching the floor boards begin to crack under the strain, “Please stop doing that, Okay? Shesh, it’s not like it’s every day the captain of the Wonderbolts falls outta Equestria and into my world. God I need time to think!”

I walked over to the window. Gosh what a fucking day. I sincerely hope I’m high or stoned or decided to try sniffing paint or something because there was a girl with WINGS behind me. Please let me be stoned or if anything, let me be in the hospital again.

“Are you OK? I’ve never seen an Earth Kid like you freak out so much about seeing a Pegasus Girl like me,” she said.

I turned with slight violence, “NO! If I’m not high on drugs or in a hospital… Actually, punch me again just to make sure.”

“No.”

“Fine, I’ll do the next best thing.” I pulled up a bio report of all the substances in my blood. Normal amounts of iron, hemoglobin, white blood cells, all the normal things that should be in blood and nothing more.

“Fuck.”

Spitfire looked at me with a peculiar look on her face, “So where exactly in Equestria are we?”

I laughed, “Oh and that’s the funny thing! We’re not in Equestria!”

“Then where are we strange man?”

“You want the long or short explanation?”

“Short would be nice.”

“The planet Earth in the Sol system in the Orion arm of the Milky Way galaxy.”

“Maybe you are crazy. Because there’s no place called ‘Earth’ that I know of. There are Earth people but that’s it.”

“Alright,” I said, “You want to see proof of where we are? Here.” I stood up and motioned for her to follow. We walked down the hallway towards the front of the guard house. We reached the lobby, a simple place with several chairs that formed a waiting area with a front desk in the back of the room. A bill board sat on one wall, a few pictures on it. I pulled on my helmet to help read the Portuguese street signs.

I walked to the front door and held it open, “After you.”

She walked out the door and into the rainy weather. I looked at my TAC pad. Good, Natal was only just down the hill.

“I don’t see it,” she said, “What’s so special about this place?”

“One, follow me, two, put your wings away please! People won’t react very nicely to seeing a winged person walking around the town!”

“Fine,” she said neatly tucking her wings back into her suit. I raised an eyebrow on how easily they fit into her suit unnoticed.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I said. I pulled up a map of the town and found an over watch area where we could get a good look of the city.

“Come on,” I said and began following the route the pad gave me. There weren’t many people outside right now; most likely due to the rain. The town had the look of any other modern town. New buildings painted with solar cells to absorb energy from the sun. The only places that still used massive power plants were the cities. A few people who were walking outside gave us strange looks but said nothing.

“Why are they giving us those faces?” Spitfire asked.

“Not every day people see an orbital skydiver and a humanized Wonderbolt walking down street. Speaking of which why are you so calm with human hands and being human in general?”

“Humanized? What else would I be? Why.”

Thank god she couldn’t see my face, “I’ll explain later.”

We rounded a corner and came to a deck area. It was a wooden deck as far as I could tell that hung over the edge of the cliff. I walked up to the sign. Fortunately the translator in the helmet displayed the text in modern day English.

Rio Cliffs Observation Deck.

I walked up the railing and stared over. I motioned for Spitfire over. Cautiously she walked over to the railing and stared at the sight before her.

On the ground below was the city of Natal. The spires of skyscrapers rose into the storm clouds above. Lights sparkled like diamonds in the night. In the harbor was an Orbital Elevator located on a small island. A car descended down the cable; smoke and steam emanating from its surface.

Spitfire’s jaw dropped as she stared at the city before her. She didn’t seem to notice her flame like hair begin to fall down over her head in the rain. I looked around the large sprawling metropolis. Near the sea was a dome shaped structure with several rows of openings going up to the top. Ships could be seen taking off from it and heading up into orbit.

“Aw yes! Space port here I come,” I said.

Spitfire continued to stare at the city. Something was wrong. She was beginning to form a 1000 meter stare.

“Hey, you alright?” I asked.

She sniffed. She must have started crying at some point.

“Where am I?” she asked, “L-last place I remember being was the Cloudsdale Aerodome! And now I’m here in some alien world?! How am I supposed to get back?!”

How do you comfort someone who just dropped out of their world and into yours? There isn’t exactly a section in the phycology book about that.

I pulled my helmet off and rubbed the back of my head. Why do crazy things like this always happen to me? First it was the Space port, and then it was the boarding school, and now this.

“Well, how did you get here to begin with?” I asked.

“Well we were doing a new trick that required us to teleport before we collided with each other and for a bolt of lightning to strike right at the moment we teleported. We got the enchantment done so we could do it ourselves. Everything went well but I guess I didn’t teleport backstage as you can see. Oh my gosh! What if the rest of my team is here with me?”

“Well if they were wouldn’t they be within about a meter of where you were? You all jumped in close proximity with each other so that makes the most sense,” I said trying to calm her down.

“Maybe,” Spitfire said, “But how can I get back? I don’t belong here! Your world is years ahead of mine! I can’t stay here! Hell, I have wings while everyone else doesn’t! I can’t even fit in here!” She sat on the ground looking at the railing with her head in her hands.

I was probably going to regret this, “Listen, Spitfire, if you want I’ll try to help you find your way back.”

She looked up, “Really? You mean that?”

Stupid feelings getting me in all these situations again, “Yes, you can stay with me and my sister for the time being until you can return home.”

She stood up and clamped me in a bear hug, “Thank you so much! I, I, I hope I won’t be too much of a burden.”

“Don’t worry about that,” I said prying her off of me, “But what we should worry about is getting back to my house.”

“You don’t live here?”

“No I live…This is gonna be hard to explain, but all I can say right now is I live REALLY far away.”

“Oh, uh ok.”

“Come on; let’s get back to the guard house before Officer Delgado returns.”

***

We returned back to the guard house. By the time we got back it was 10:00. Not that we could really tell the time since it had been raining for the past day as far as I knew.

After sleeping the night through we woke up and found some food in the fridge. We talked a lot. Mostly me explaining Human History to her and how our universe worked and just how far away my house really was. Explaining the complexities of the solar system and current politics was the most difficult part.

“Wow,” Spitfire said, “Your world sure is complicated. How do you know so much about it? Even I don’t know that much about Equestria as you do about your world.”

“I took a lot of advanced classes in my school.”

“Heh heh, you remind me of Princess Celestia’s protégé, Twilight. She knows practically everything.”

“Well I have a lot of extra time too since I can’t get a job yet.”

“Wait, you don’t have a job yet?”

“Laws in the Jovian moons prevent students like me from getting a job. Most of them are high risk and the ones that aren’t require a lot of schooling.”

“You’re still in SCHOOL?!”

“Yeah, which is something you’ll have to attend when I go back in four weeks.”

“Ugh, I hated school.”

“Tell me about it.”

We shared a laugh. It felt nice that she finally wasn’t planning on punching me in the face again and wasn’t hostile to me anymore.

“So how are we going to get to this ‘Ganymede’ as you called it?”

“Well first we need to get to the space port in Natal. From there we can board a transport to the moon. Hopefully somewhere in between there we can hook up with my sister. Lord knows she’ll probably kill me for not contacting her but C'est la vie.”

“You speak Prench?”

“Prench? What? No it’s a French expression that means-”

“That’s life,” we both finished laughing.

“See? This place might not be as alien as you think,” I said.

“Maybe. You might be right.”

The door to the guard house opened and Officer Delgado stepped in. He placed a coat on the coat rack before returning to the front desk.

“Ah! I see you got your friend to wake up,” he said.

“Hello Officer,” I said, “Did you catch the escapee?”

“No-well yes but not me personally. He was spotted in Natal when an officer there shot him with a long range Taser round. Sent him flying to the pavement. So who is your friend? I forgot to ask before I left.”

“Oh, uh,” I said. Spitfire looked at me with a pleading look, “She’s my cousin.”

“Oh ok. So I take it she’s alright?”

“Just fine,” Spitfire said.

“Great. So you two live around here?”

“Uh, no,” I said, “We were actually getting ready to head out and meet my sister at the space port in Natal.”

“Well if you need a way down to the city there’s a cable car that runs down to the outskirts from up here,” Delgado said.

“Cool,” I said, “Well thanks for the help earlier but we best head out. Places to be, things to do, people to meet.”

“I hear you. Good luck!”

“Au Revoir!”

Spitfire and I stood up and walked out of the guard house and into the town.

“So when are we going to this ‘Natal’ place?”

“Natal is that city we saw earlier, and not yet. We can’t go around in our flight suits, me especially since mine comes with a helmet. We’ll need to get new clothes and a bag to carry them. But first we’ll need money and I know just how to get some.”

“Ok, how?”

I looked at the TAC pad and searched for the nearest ATM. It was on the street a few blocks away in a small strip mall.

“By using my world’s modern technology and innovations.”

***

We reached the strip mall’s ATM. Fortunately it was covered so we were able to get out of the rain.

I stepped up to it and activated the user interface and selected a language.

“Good Afternoon,” the machine said in a smooth synthetic voice, “Please identify yourself.”

I pressed the speaker button and responded, “Jett Halsey.”

The computer beeped and held up a hand scanner screen, “Please place your hand on the scanner to confirm your identity.”

I placed my hand and waited for the computer to confirm my identity.

“That’s so cool,” Spitfire said behind me, “Equestria doesn’t have anything close to this. Though there is this one guy.”

The computer finished its scan, “Welcome Jett Halsey. You have three accounts at registered to you. Please select a function.”

“Withdraw 50000 from Thalia Halsey’s private savings. Transfer the funds to my account and place it all on a card.”

“Is 50000 as much as I think it is? Because if your currency is anything like Equestrian money that’s a lot.”

“Yeah that’s a lot.”

“How do you have so much? My Wonderbolts salary only pays about 100000 Bits per year!”

The transfer was complete and the money began its transfer to the smart glass card.

“One of the only advantages that comes from being the son of an Admiral and a CEO of one of the largest space plane companies in the system,” The transfer finished and a smart glass card popped out of the ATM, “is the credits.”

I pocketed the card, “Come on, we’ve got some shopping to do.”