Shuttle ponies #2

"What happened to the ponies?" Ludmila asked as you did your inspection of Sergei.
"Drowned, ran away moved when the rain didn't cease and began to flood their city. Hell I don't know. I've heard some ponies say that Avalon's still there buried under water. But as they say, that's just an old mare's tale." You say as you point a wrench at her before getting back to work.
"Why she here with me?"
"She's next on the list Sergei.Why else would I know a visitor's name?" You say without an air of irritation.
"So what seems to be the issue Ludmila?" You ask as you finish reassembling Sergei.
"Believe term you use is "annual"" Ludmila said.
"Ah, just a once over for me to check for problems?" You say as she nods.
"Sergei, care to stay, you two seem to be friends." You say as you go get a ladder and a flashlight.
"Friends, we just met." Sergei said as he wasn't exactly sure how to respond to you.
You shrug and get to work, starting with Ludmila's rotors, considering they were the first critical part, the second being the transmission from her engines.
"Christ Ludmila, your rotors are ancient. how the hell have you been flying on these?" You say the second you look at the attaching points of her rotors.
"They were the best they had, killed the rest of the life on them to get here." Ludmila said as Sergei was surprised and you were not, as you owned the only shop that could get newly manufactured parts in the area you're in other than the shops closer to Canterlot where Galactus and C-17 bring you the parts.
"Alright, give me a while, I need to get you the new rotors. Let me see if I got them around." You say as you go walk off into the Mil warehouse of parts and rotorblades.
It takes you about six hours to go and replace all the things that are wrong with Ludmila.
"Ugh, well, there ya go Ludmila, all better, worn parts replaced, a new transmission case and transmission itself, rebuilt engines, brand new rotor blades and a slight avionics upgrade." You say.
"Anon, why such expense for her?" Sergei asked.
"Sergei, you haven't called in the free overhaul, since you're still here, and I can ask you about it, would you mind giving it up? I know you of all are incredibly charitable." You say catching both Ludmila and Sergei off guard.
"What?"
"Sergei I know you, even drunk you if you accompany someone they're your friend." You say reading him.
"Are you saying I like her?" Sergei asked.
"Wasn't implying are you? Sergei, of all the plane ponies around I give you the biggest discount, just forefit your overhaul, I know she can't afford to pay for the repairs and maintenance, and I don't feel like working her for the parts, she had just enough repairs to get here Sergei. Took me all of ten seconds to see that. Look at her, dirty, cold, fuel starved, have a heart buddy." You say tugging at his heart.
"Da, give her my overhaul." Sergei said almost reluctantly.
"Thank you Sergei. Thank you so much." Ludmila said as she kissed Sergei giving him something that he had longed for, love.
"No worrries. It's nothing." Sergei said as the two leave your shop.
You stand and look at the clock, and your schedule which you've smartly cleared for this purpose.
"Knew something good would happen scheduling them back to back." You say as you go and wash up in the sink.
After you wash, you get a call.
"Did Sergei come in for his check?"
"Yes Sasha he did, brought the Mi-8 with him. Think they're pretty friendly with each other." You say
"Good, now he will leave me and Lightning alone." Sasha said before she cut the call on you.
Now you just go home to Thunderbolt and Morgan.

2000 hrs. home.
"Morgan! Thunder, I'm home." You yell out as you enter through your door on the main hangar doors.
"Daddy!" Morgan yells out as she comes running towards you as you throw your arms up to slightly impede her crushing you.
"Remember Morgan I crush easily" You say as she hugs you.
"There's a letter for you"
"Please tell me it's not from Canterlot"
"No, it's from the An-225." Thunderbolt said as she handed it to you.
"Ah, Mriya. Did you read it?" You ask
"No, was addressed to you. Thought I'd leave it for you." Thunderbolt said as you opened the letter to read what Mriya had wrote.
"Anon,
We are pleased to say we are comings to Avalon's Shadow on Tuesday. Know letter may reach you day before, sorry. Mail service out where Sadie and I are, is slow to say best. See you soon Mriya and Sadie." the letter said as it had two different types of printing on it.
"Well shit, the shuttles are arriving sooner than I expected." You say as Morgan looks like she has other news.
"And we'll be hosting a few visitors from Canterlot. Luna's coming! Along with a new princess!" Morgan said overly excited for her pony friend to come and visit, where as you just grin and bear it. New princess meant Twilight, IE purple horse, and few meant six, plus Princess Luna means seven.
"We're not housing them are we?" You ask rather concerned.
"Oh heavens no. Just Luna." Morgan said as you find out you've been volunteered to house a princess.
A quick look around tells you that there's a fair amount of cleaning to do before your home is acceptable for visitors.
"Well, looks like we've got some cleaning to do." You say as you take some of your mess to your room.
"Cleaning? Oh no, Luna asked to stay with us like she wasn't there. Dad don't worry about it." Morgan said
"I'm still going to clean up my stuff, some of it's pretty rank." you say as she gets a whiff of a dirty coverall.
"Yea, perhaps you should clean up." Morgan said as you are.
"Right have to two eaten yet?" You ask as they bring out dinner.
"Take that as a no." You say as you drop everything to go and eat.

2100 hrs. VTOL hangar.
"So Sergei what do you do here?" Ludmila asked.
"Me? I'm more of an adviser than a fighter. I tend to give advice to the young ones, and sometimes to the pegasai when they search us out." Sergei said very much playing a sage.
"Such an interesting job. I wish I had a use like that." Ludmila said as Sergei thought.
"Perhaps it would be a good idea if you stayed around here for a while, helicopter ponies are a rare occurrence around these parts, Anon seemed more than pleased to work on you." Sergei said now trying to get Ludmila to stay.
"Oh and what would I be good for here? A laughingstock?" Ludmila asked.
"No, the only one who has a capacity like you is Osprey, but fully loaded she cannot take off vertically, she needs a runway when fully loaded. You however do not. We have supplies being shuttled around Avalon all the time, you could help us shuttle those supplies, and make a decent living while you're at it." Sergei said using his wisdom for something bright for a change other than drunken bar fights.
"Are you asking me to stay Sergei?"
"Yes, I am asking you to stay." Sergei said
"But I have nowhere to stay, I could only afford the single night in the hotel, I barely managed to scrape up enough bits to get here to even see Anon."
"Then stay with me Ludmila." Sergei said as he grabbed her hoof.
"Sergei, I am not that easy." Ludmila said as she pulled away from him.
"No! No! I did not mean that, I meant take my room, I will sleep on the couch. My sister and her boyfriend shall be here shortly, I'm sure if you yelled my sister would beat my avionics all over a wall." Sergei said allowing Ludmila to let out a relieved sigh.
"Good, I was thinking it was going to be one of those stays again." Ludmila said
"I'm sorry you got that impression of me, I'll talk to Globemaster, see if you can help him. If he can't then I'll talk to IL-76, I'll find you work yet Ludmila." Sergei said as Ludmila blushed.
"Sergei, we're back. Oh, hello who might this be Sergei?" Sasha asked as she walked in with Lightning carrying the basket and whatever else Sasha did not want to.
"Sasha, Lightning, this is Ludmila, an Mi-8." Sergei said introducing everypony.
"Oh neat a helipone, haven't seen a helicopter in a while. I'm Lightning by the way." Lightning said as he walked off to drop off all the things Sasha had him carrying.
"An F-35, didn't think I'd see one here." Ludmila said as Lightning reappeared.
"Da, Lightning F-35B, he's a VTOL like Sergei and I. I am Sasha, Sergei's sister." Sasha said as Lightning flopped down on a couch.
"Say where you from Mi-8?" Lightning asked, being slightly insensitive.
"Far away, took three stops and entirety of rotor life to get here." Ludmila said answering Lightning's partially rude question.
"Oh, sorry. Didn't know that was kinda a bad question, Ludmila. It is Ludmila right?" Lightning said apologizing for being a bit insensitive.
"It ok, not many ponies care to ask." Ludmila said as Sasha was rummaging for something
"Lightning, get ass in here! You best not misplaced it!" Sasha yelled scrambling Lightning off the couch and running to Sasha.
"I swear I put everything you wanted in the bags!' Lightning yelled as he ran down the hall.
"Well, that was interesting." Ludmila said as Sergei now starts to laugh.

2200 hrs. Raptor's
"Hey Raptor, did ya need to go see Anon or something? You haven't said anything more than two words to me all day." Nora said as she noticed Raptor coming out of her room looking a little weak.
"No! I'm ok! Honest! I'm alright." Raptor said as Nora gave her a rather questioning look
"So you're alright?"
"YES! I mean, yea, I'm alright Nora." Raptor said catching herself from yelling at her roommate.
"Alright, cause you're acting really odd. I just hope you're alright, hate for there to be something messing up your avionics." Nora said as Raptor felt loved for who she was for the first time.
"Nora, I'm ok. Really I am. I may be having trouble expressing how I feel, but I'll work it out. Don't worry about me Nora." Raptor said saying a coherent sentence after this afternoon's choke.
"Well, that's great. Glad you're ok." Nora said.
"Thanks Nora." Raptor said
"No worries roomie, I'm gonna go to bed though." Nora said as she walked to her room as the airstrip erupts with you yelling "FUCK!"
"What the hell was that?" Nora asked.
"Sounded like Anon. Wonder what he forgot." Raptor said
"Maybe his shop's on fire." Nora said getting a giggle from Raptor.
"Wow I was joking, that's be horrible." Nora said as Raptor laughed even more.
"No you're right, it would be terrible, but could you imagine the look on his face if he saw it burning?" Raptor said getting Nora to laugh a little.
"Yea, that'd be a face I want to see. Night." Nora said as she went into her room.

0845 hrs. Your Shop
"Morgan, you could have told me they were coming today." You say rather tiredly from cleaning your home all night.
"Well, I didn't see the point." Morgan said.
"Ugh, Princess Luna is oh I don't know a PRINCESS, which means we had to clean the hangar." You say as you hear the roar of engines overhead.
"Great, Mriya is here, today of all days, think I'll take a sick day." You say as you get up to go and greet Mriya and her little one.
"Momma want off now!" Buran said as Mriya walked towards you.
"Wait until I stop Buran, No need of you getting damaged." Mriya said.
"You must be Mriya, and the little one is Buran if I'm not mistaken?" You say as she crouches down enough for Buran to get off of her back.
"Yes. I am Mriya, and the little one is Buran. Has Sadie made it here?" Mriya asked as you shake your head.
"You two are the first, Those two large hangars are yours. Two ways to do it, you and Sadie in one, and the kiddies, or you and your kiddies in one." You say as you begin to walk over to them and hear a sonic boom above.
"Who in the name of?" You say as you see a similar orbiter to Buran coming down to landing.
"Challenger! You make it here." Buran said excitedly.
"Yea, no thanks to your directions Buran. Follow my tracker you said, It'll lead you right to me you said." Challenger said walking up.
"What? You here aren't you?" Buran said as the two of them fist bumped.
"Yea, I'm here no worries. Ain't a competition, even then I won got here on my own." Challenger said laughing.
"Only because you come from orbit. Where is sister and mother?" Buran said jealous of his friend.
"Before I entered blackout, they said they were ten minutes out, and that was eight minutes ago." Challenger said as another set of engines were heard above the strip.
"She's late. Damn Columbia probably had to pee again." Challenger said as he looked up at his sister and mother.
"Ahem. I'll wait until they get here for introductions." You say holding off introducing yourself to Challenger so you can do it all as one group.
As Sadie is walking up, so is Morgan and a few ponies, actual ponies not what you're used to.
"Bugger All." You say as you're now caught between two groups, one that's coming to live here and another for a visit.
"What?" Challenger asks as you've got your hands on your face.
"Forgive me, today's just really badly timed for me." You say as you suck it up and greet Princess Luna.
"Princess, I see you brought more company than Morgan told." you say as Morgan smiles and can't stand still due to her excitement.
"Forgive me, my sister sent them with me, it was meant to be just me, but they got attached to the trip." Princess Luna said as you nod.
"I'm sorry Princess, but I've got something else to do right now, I'm sure Morgan will help you." You say as you turn around and attend to the shuttles and carriers behind you.
"Today's going to be a bear. Anyways, I'm Anon, Avalon's pretty much over dedicated mechanic. I'm happy to see that you all made it here safe." You say introducing yourself.
"Ah earlier you were saying housing arrangements, since we all here, perhaps we can go over them now?" Mriya said.
"Of course, we have to very large hangars that should provide you all with adequate housing. Now we can separate it into families or by type." You say.
"Prefer if by family. Had communal at last home, not enjoyable." Mriya said.
"Much as I enjoyed our situation there, I'm gonna agree with ya Cossack, If ya have the facilities for me and the orbiters to be under one roof so I can keep an eye on em, that'd be great." Sadie said as you got the feeling she can be a bit long winded and insensitive, like using the NATO name for Mriya.
"Da, one of reasons why separate better." Mriya said as you whole heartedly agreed.
"Right, so we'll go down to the hangars and decide who gets which one. I do hope you'll find them to your liking." You say as you begin the walk to the hangars.
"Anon."
"Yes Sadie?" You say
"Ya met Challenger and Colombia yet?" Sadie asked.
"Well, I introduced myself, they haven't yet. Going to be hard for me to tell them all apart except for their voices." You say as you walk noticing a different type of foot fall behind you.
"Can I help you Stalker?" You say without turning around.
"How did you know I was behind you." she says
"I can tell the differences between their hoof falls, my foot steps and regular ponies. What do you want? I'm kinda busy." You say as you hear her trot up to you.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm"
"Twilight Sparkle, I know. Who else would she send with her sister here to Avalon's Shadow?" You say cutting her off.
"You mean Princess"
"Sunbutt? Yea, I can guess she sent you. Not very hard really." You say making fun of Celestia in your tired and annoyed state.
"Are you alright?"
"Today's just a crap day for me. I've got you all here and I'm moving in the shuttle carriers and their shuttles." You say irregardless of what Twilight's going to say.
"Would tomorrow be a better day to talk?"
"You're here to talk to me?" You say as you look to see how close to the hangars you were, the shuttle ponies were racing to the hangars, their mothers calling out after them to be careful.
"Yes, would tomorrow be a better day?"
"I don't know. Probably not." You say