When Planes Are Deadly

by Pre-Animation Man

Rarity, Sweetie Belle and his friends are brought 19 years into the future, though in the same city they call home, and as bright as the future seems to them, they are going to find themselves in the middle of a situation which is very dark and scary indeed! Tribute to all the heroes and innocent bystanders who died on September 11th, 2001.

Hello, everybody! As you are aware, this is the 19th years of the September 11th attacks. So I am going to be making two tributes to the innocent victims of the tragedy, this being one of them. I do hope that this is up to snuff in terms of honoring the victims and remembering that fateful day, and God bless America, always.

THINGS TO NOTE:

That Twilight and the gang takes place in New York City made me feel it was thus fitting to write a tribute to the 9/11 victims that involved that movie.

I own none of the characters. They all belong to Hasbro.

When Planes Are Deadly…

Quite a bit had been going on both in terms of Rarity and his famliy. How so, you ask? For one thing, Diamond Tiara and all his kids had been fortunate enough to win the lottery and make it so they had enough money to at last leave the boat they lived in and find themselves a good, even if not opulent, NYC apartment to live in. They took to it like a bird to the air. Even better, it was in a building right next to the house Rarity lived in, so it was not at all hard for Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Tixie to visit their old friends and vice versa, which happened quite a bit from both ends. Obviously, both sides were only too happy about it. Diamond Tiara and his kids had all gotten a pardon for their past thefts, due to everyone in New York acknowledging it was the only option they had, plus they'd helped take out the evil crime boss Sykes, and thus deserved at least that, though some accepted that they were off the hook with more reluctance than others.

Additionally, just two weeks after all of this began, there was some kind of time warp of which was made by a special eclipse one night, and they were all teleported into exactly the own home each family lived in, except it was in the year 2001. On September 10th, to be precise. The funny thing was that none of them were any older at all despite being teleported forward in time, but they soon learned what accounted for that, as well as where and when they were, along with all that was so now that had not been so back in 1988, plus what had gotten them here and how it was permanent. Still, they quickly accepted it, and felt they had a very nice, bright future to look forward to. In fact, once they'd thanked everyone for how they'd filled them in on the lot of stuff they needed to learn and understand about this new time and millennium they were in, they'd all go to their respective homes, feeling that their lives had taken a turn for the better and that all the future held would be heavenly.

But alas, this would not be so. In fact, the precise opposite was to be the case, as they'd find out in the harshest and gravest of ways the next morning. What initially seemed like heaven would turn to hell, but none were aware or prepared for it. Especially since, at first, the day was a very beautiful one indeed, as evidenced by what they saw after waking up at 7 AM(they all did it at the same time by chance and coincidence)and deciding to, as a celebration of their new time in addition to their new life which had so many similarities to their old one to go with the new parts and how none were any older(right down to how Twilight was still a kitten like he'd been prior to the time warp), go to a nice IHOP restaurant for breakfast. And boy, did they enjoy their lavish breakfast there, each one being given their own dishes, even the pets! This was the life, and all of everything seemed to be looking up.

Once breakfast was done and Diamond Tiara had paid the bill, though, what was previously like heaven on Earth would become hell on Earth. See, by the time they'd finished breakfast, it was 8: 44 AM. And once the bill was paid and they'd left IHOP, having thoroughly enjoyed the good meals they'd picked and ordered, it had just turned from 8: 45 AM to 8: 46 AM. As they were on their way back to their respective homes, chatting along the way with much joy and cheer, a plane shaped shadow flew over them. They noticed, a bit confused, and when they looked up, it was Twilight who was the first to notice something amiss when they saw it had, in fact, been none other than a plane which flew over them. Twilight asked: "Uh, guys? Don't you think that airplane is flying kind of low?" "Yeah!" exclaimed Sweetie Belle. "Planes never get flown at this level!" "And wait! It's going in the direction of the North Tower!" Mash Buttons cried out. "What?" asked Diamond Tiara. "But that's impossible!" "But Mash Buttons's right!" Rarity cried. "Look! It's not stopping, either!" "And from what I see, it's actually GAINING speed!" Rainbow Dash observed, confused and surprised.

Just after she said this, the plane in question hit the North Tower, and the giant explosion which resulted caused the group to gasp in shock and fright, with Sliver Spoon going: "Whoa, is it just me, or did that plane just HIT the North Tower?" Scootaloo barked: "It's not just you! It did!" "Oh, my God!" cried out Twilight. "Dear God, what's going on?" barked Mash Buttons. "Either a horrible accident has occurred, or this city is under attack!" Tixie spoke. "Guys, look! I think WTC 1 is on fire! Smoke's coming out!" cried out Sweetie Belle. "We have to do something, guys!" Rarity let out. "Of course we do! But we must hurry!" Diamond Tiara told her and everyone else. They attempted to try and get through the understandably panicked and fleeing crowd of New York City, but it proved most difficult for them, especially since they might have learned all they had to, but they weren't used to this big a crowd, given they were now living in a time 13 years past their original time. In fact, due to trying to get to the North Tower through such a huge amount of people desperately in addition to fearfully running for their lives and also making sure none of them lost sight of any of them all at the same time, as they had no choice, since they could not afford to be separated from the group in a time like this and didn't want to crash into anyone, it was 9: 03 AM when they had finally reached the North Tower.

"Finally, we're here!" Diamond Tiara gasped. "My God, do we have to hurry!" Mash Buttons pointed out. "Yeah, we don't know whether anyone has died yet or not, and we have to save as many as we can!" Tixie cried out. "So let's move it!" Sweetie Belle shouted, but just then, the bunch of them saw a second plane, which promptly crashed into the South Tower. "Oh, no!" Rainbow Dash cried out in terror. "Another one! And it just hit WTC 2!" "Dammit, there can be no question now!" Sweetie Belle let out. "This was no accident, chance happenstance or coincidence!" "Oh, no!" Scootaloo put in, and Mash Buttons let loose: "This was definitely planned, and this city is unquestionably under attack!" "Okay, we've got to save whoever we can in each tower," Tixie let out, "so how are we going to split up?" Diamond Tiara replied: "Rarity, Twilight, Mash Buttons and Sweetie Belle, you four are with me. We help who we can in the North Tower. Tixie, you take Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Sliver Spoon with you to the South Tower to salvage as many as possible at the same time we do exactly that in the North Tower. And we must do it with haste, for every second counts!"

Tixie nodded and did a hand gesture to make Rainbow Dash, Sweetie Belle, Sliver Spoon and Scootaloo all follow him. They did so, while Diamond Tiara made the same gesture, prompting Mash Buttons, Sweetie Belle, Twilight and Rarity to follow him. When the four ran at the same time he did, each group of five entered the tower which they'd been chosen to help the people in. We will be looking at the South Tower first, followed by the North Tower, despite how the North Tower was hit first.

So, in the South Tower, Tixie, Sweetie Belle, Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo and Sliver Spoon were all doing all they could to find anyone who was alive and needed a way out before being killed. I find it very needless indeed to say that it took them quite a bit of time, even splitting up to cover as much ground as possible, to find everyone who was still alive and lead them out of the South Tower before it collapsed completely, especially with all the fires, destroyed structural areas and horrid damage and choking smoke everywhere. Not to mention the tower's height. Thankfully, in the end, they were able to make it so that everyone who was still alive and not above where Flight 175 had smashed into the South Tower followed the lot of them, obviously rejoined after seeing to it that their splitting up would not make them become lost, since they couldn't afford that for obvious reasons, all the way down to the bottom of the tower and out through the doors. Both Tixie and the four kids he'd brought with him, as well as all of the people they'd been able to find and either lead out to the exit or save by leading non-injured ones to injured and/or trapped ones(so that the non-injured and non-trapped people could help the injured ones and/or free the trapped ones and see to their survival as well, of course), were out of the South Tower and still running by the time the doors to it they ran out of were able to close, or even begin to close, for that matter.

The thing is, though, that by the time both Tixie and his four kids and everyone who had been saved, whether they were running while holding injured survivors or just running, had all finally gotten out of the South Tower and were still running to get as far away from it as was possible, it was 9: 58 AM. Fifty-five gripping, pulse-pounding, heart stopping minutes had most definitely passed, though to those inside of the tower previously, it felt like an eternity, and just a minute later, when Tixie, Rainbow Dash, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Sliver Spoon, along with all of the ones they had seen to the survival and escape of, be they running or running and carrying the hurt but alive, a gigantic noise was heard. Although everyone who was still running kept doing so, they could tell all too easily what the noise in question was, and what it meant. Sure enough, when they'd all finally gotten a safe enough distance to stop, rest and look back while catching their breath, they saw the bottom half of the South Tower literally go down in flames and disappear in utter smoke, just as the top half had already done at this time.

It was easily the most nightmarish thing they had ever seen. They were stilled, scared and stiffened by it. All of everyone started to shed tears, even the usually cocky and stuck up(though now nicer than she once was)Rainbow Dash, the easily excitable, easily angered Sweetie Belle and the less than intelligent Sliver Spoon. Even the surviving people present who would generally rarely, if ever, shed even a single tear. It was impossible to tell whose tears fell into whose, as they became a puddle in a short amount of time. They all knew that not a single one of the people who had been in the area of the tower above where Flight 175 had struck had survived, and that they were gone as permanently as the tower itself was once the collapsing stopped. Even more so, in fact, since it still had smoke, debris and charred rubble remaining. We take a pause from this to see how the likes of Diamond Tiara, Twilight, Rarity, Sweetie Belle and Mash Buttons were faring in the North Tower, which means we rewind back a bit, since both groups went into each tower at the same time, though I will be sure to lead what you see next into what you just saw in the present.

Anyway, as Twilight, Mash Buttons, Diamond Tiara, Sweetie Belle and Rarity made their way into the North Tower, all were doing all they could to help anyone they could. Things happened in a very similar way to how they did with the group in the South Tower. Diamond Tiara had it so he and his group would split up to cover as much ground as they could, though in a way so none would get lost, as that was an utterly unaffordable risk at a time such as this one, and they searched long and hard in every last nook and cranny that they possibly could. That is, barring the region of the North Tower above where Flight 11 had plowed into it, since there was no way to reach there and going into what was, quite literally, the line of fire where the plane had hit was certainly not an option at all. As it was, it took them a long while, even with how people below where the jet had hit were all highly eagerly trying to escape and get out of the building while they were still alive, and for very good reason, but they were able to find anyone who needed help, be they trapped, injured or anything else, and also help lead those who were trying to run out as soon as possible to where the stairs that led to the bottom floor and the front doors were.

Additionally, they made sure to see to it the uninjured ones and free ones helped out with getting all of the injured ones out, along with freeing all of the trapped ones, some of which they helped with as well, of course, and they would also make sure that all five of them were grouped together once more. When this was all over and it was clear that it was high time to get the hell out of the North Tower, and hastily so, Diamond Tiara, Twilight, Sweetie Belle, Mash Buttons and Rarity led the people who were able to run, be they carrying someone in need of it due to injuries or not, right on down the aforementioned stairway, and despite how their hearts were all pounding with fear, they knew all too well not to shove, push or anything of the sort. It would only make things all the worse. And by the time they all go to the bottom of the North Tower and the doors on its first floor, no one's nerves could take too much more of this. Still, they were able to deal with the pressuring feeling of terror and vulnerability just long enough so that all of them ran out the doors and exited the North Tower, bar none.

When once they had run far away enough from the North Tower to feel even remotely safer than they had before, however, the amount of time it had taken Twilight, Sweetie Belle, Mash Buttons, Diamond Tiara and Rarity to find all of those people and help them, combined with the time it took for the ones who could move to help the injured and/or trapped ones and the time it took for all of them to exit the building and get where they were all amounted to the fact it was 10 AM. So as soon as they had reached where Rainbow Dash, Tixie, Sweetie Belle, Sliver Spoon and Scootaloo were, along with all of the people they had helped rescue, they would immediately see the tears in their eyes. "What in the world?" exclaimed a completely confused Rarity. "Guys, what's going on?" asked Twilight to them, to which Rainbow Dash replied: "Look…behind you…" between chokes, gasps, weeps and sobs. Twilight, Rarity, Diamond Tiara, Mash Buttons and Sweetie Belle turned around to look in the opposite direction, and no sooner had they done so than were they shocked beyond description.

Almost instantly after they saw how the South Tower had clearly fallen and turned to nothing but a pile of ash, rubble, debris and smoke, they all began to shed tears. "Dear God…" let out Mash Buttons. "No…" gasped Sweetie Belle. "This isn't real…" Twilight wept. "This can't be real…" a soft cry from Diamond Tiara consisted of. "This isn't…this can't be…happening…" Rarity sobbed in a soft but clearly sad and tearful way. "All those innocent people up there…" Indeed, she was all too painfully correct to note that the fact that the South Tower having collapsed meant that all of the people above where Flight 175 had slammed into it, beyond their help or anyone else's, were all now dead. There were no survivors, and they had all been killed. So much innocent life lost. It tore at everyone seeing such a ghastly, horrid, unspeakable sight from the inside out-emotionally and mentally, that is. The fact that the people they'd saved from the North Tower also saw how the South Tower was now gone, and so was everyone above where Flight 175 had hit it, meant all of those innocents in question had indeed been destroyed. Needlessly. Cruelly. Unfairly. And of course those people shed tears like Twilight, Rarity, Diamond Tiara, Mash Buttons and Sweetie Belle were doing.

While they were lucky to have suddenly stopped moving in a place which was out of the way of the fleeing crowd of New York City, they quickly snapped out of it when they all heard a very audible broadcast which could be heard throughout this part of the city, and the reporter who was giving the report in question said: "This disaster is going from bad to worse, I am very sorry to say. Prior to the collapse of WTC 2, which occurred at 9: 59 AM, another plane, the one called Flight 77, to be exact, was flown straight into the Pentagon. It happened at 9: 37 AM, and I regret to inform you that 125 people in that building were killed, as were the 64 innocents in the plane which had been hijacked by terrorists, as was the case with the two that hit the twin towers here in New York City. And quite a few people in the Pentagon who survived were still injured badly. This is an increasingly grave, dark and terrible day by the second, and it is almost as if all hell has been let loose here on Earth."

"Oh, no! The Pentagon, too?!" cried Rarity. "You mean that place in Arlington County, Virginia?" asked Sliver Spoon. "Of course!" Rarity gasped. "Dear lord, it's been attacked too!" let out Mash Buttons. "Please, God!" Diamond Tiara shouted to the sky as he and the others cried further, and for good and understandable reason. "Tell me that this is just the worst nightmare ever concocted! Please tell me this is not really happening!" "This can't be true…" Twilight sobbed. "I…I can't believe that this is really happening…" "Neither can anyone here, child…" Mash Buttons told him. "None of us want it to be anything but a nightmare or a hideous, unreal illusion, but it's undeniably reality. I wish, so very badly, that I could say differently…but I cannot…none of us can…" She felt floods of tears come out of her eyes and flow down both sides of her face, and so did her friends and the people around them who they'd saved from the twin towers on the spot. And things only got even worse for all of them when they heard another reporter say the following.

"Oh, my God! Another plane has crashed, though this one did not reach its target, but all of the innocent bystanders inside have been killed! I've just been informed that Flight 93, which was meant for either the White House or the Capitol, has been made to crash close to Shanksville in Pennsylvania, at 10: 03 AM, four minutes after the South Tower tragically collapsed, taking all of the ones above where the plane hit with it! The passengers inside the plane were more keen on what was going on than the ones in the previous three, as they lived long enough to hear what was going on via the plane's radio and tried to tackle the terrorist pilot hijacker, who knew he'd not be able to reach his target, and thus crashed his plane where it was above the ground of at the time he was tackled by the brave, heroic and selfless passengers, which happened to be the borough of Shanksville. They all, unfortunately, died as soon as the plane smashed into the ground. But their gallant efforts and noble intentions will be neither forgotten nor in vain, as had the plane reached its target, many more innocent people would have lost their lives, as well."

While they knew it was good that they'd stopped Flight 93 from reaching its target, the fact all those innocent people inside who made sure it wouldn't still lost their lives made it so that Diamond Tiara, Rarity, Tixie, Twilight, Sliver Spoon, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Rainbow Dash and Mash Buttons were all quite promptly moved to further tears nevertheless. After all, it may not have resulted in as big a loss of innocent life as it could have, but it certainly resulted in a loss of innocent life, to go with the other losses of innocent life which had already occurred. For exactly these same reasons, all of the people they'd saved and who'd heard this were also crying more, well aware of the tiny bit of silver lining here in this still EXTREMELY dark, black cloud of tragedy, but equally aware of how the ones who'd stopped the plane from hitting its Washington D.C. target still were claimed by death. By the time that the tears of agony, sadness, rage, shock and mourning for the dead and lost innocent humans was in any way paused, it was because of how a suddenly noticed addition to this horror of a day snapped the crying ones out of it.

To be more exact, it was 10: 28 AM now. And at this exact moment, the ones who were crying for the loss of life suddenly heard a gigantic rumble of a noise which alerted them on the spot, and made it so, despite their tears still coming down, they weren't crying anymore, at least for a moment, and in fact, were startled to hear this noise. While all hoped to God that it wasn't what they thought it was, said hope was to no avail. For no sooner had they all turned around to face the other way and see what that noise was and where it was coming from than did they, to their utter shock and complete aghast horror, see that the North Tower was collapsing, just as the South Tower had beforehand. Everyone's eyes opened quite widely and they were stilled as they saw the unspeakable, unthinkable and terrible beyond words sight that would forever scar them and anyone else who saw it. Granted, those who didn't see it but knew of it would be scarred as well, but not to the extent that the ones who saw it like these ones did would.

As the top of the North Tower fell and the fall of that tower continued beyond where Flight 11 had struck it, everyone watching knew both that everyone still in that tower was now dead and there was nothing they or anyone else could have done about it before, nor could do about it now. And their shock wore off just enough so their heartbreak, tears and very sorrowful mourning for the dead came back, and they were silent safe for the new small noises made from their crying. The rage boiled back inside all of them, too, and they wished there was a way they could have prevented this while making sure none of the vile monsters who had arranged this act of pure evil succeeded in their terrorist hijacking schemes. The tortured internal feelings all were going through only increased as the amount of the North Tower left decreased, and when all that was once the North Tower was gone, their anger, sadness, terror and shock reached a brand new level, if that was possible by this point.

In fact, they were speechless at how scared, sad and shocked they were, as well as how furious and vengeful they were feeling. In terms of the latter feelings, some more than others, but in terms of the former feelings, all of everyone equally. They did, however, snap out of it once again, and this time for a much longer period, when they were hearing calls for help needed with getting anyone who was trapped but alive out of the rubble or any other part of the horrific mess of destruction made, as well as how some doing their job were having much difficulty but fully wanted to move it along faster. So they all, whether they were feline, canine or human, put all of their emotions aside and went over to do all they possibly could to help, which those who they were helping, worker and innocent in need alike, appreciated highly.

Much later on, when it was nighttime, here were the facts to be noted. Although Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Mash Buttons, Sweetie Belle, Diamond Tiara, Tixie, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Sliver Spoon had indeed done all that they possibly could and everything in their power to help with as many things as possible, as had everyone they'd saved from the Twin Towers who weren't injured, the problem was that in spite of how their efforts were certainly not fruitless and helped save quite a few lives, and even though the same went for the other heroes doing their jobs and doing all they could to help those in need(like firemen, the FBI, police, etc), there was still a great deal of death. And undeniably so. No one present wanted it to be true, but it could not be ignored, denied or in any way looked at anything that even RESEMBLED a different way. And when those who did all they could, be they human, cat or dog, finally came to the point where they could do no more, they would yet again cry for the dead innocents who had been so cruelly ripped from the land of the living by terrorists who were, when all was said and done, abominations and monsters who wore the skin and flesh of human beings.

And while those terrorists were most certainly in hell, given that they'd taken their own lives in the process of taking all those others, this changed not that so much had been changed for the worse, scarred and destroyed about not only innocent life, but also all of America, New York City or otherwise. So for the innocent life lost and the tragedy that struck America both in terms of its psyche and in terms of its being a happy, safe land(and on a day which started out so brightly and beautifully, no less), as well as all of what this terrible happenstance meant and, of course, would mean in the near future, those who had previously helped now wept. Wept for all of the dead who did nothing but ride in planes they didn't know were going to be hijacked and work in buildings they didn't know were going to be attacked by those planes. As well as those who would now be scarred, saddened and changed for the worse by their loss thanks to all of the death, pain, suffering, shock, horror and injury.

There was no question that this was a traumatic and worthy of being from hell event, and in a way, it was indeed from hell. Mash Buttons cried hard into Sweetie Belle's chest, with Sweetie Belle, who was also crying, holding her to his chest with one of his front paws and comforting her. Twilight was held by a crying Rarity as he cried into her chest, Rarity comforting him as it happened. Sweetie Belle at the same time cried into Rainbow Dash's chest, with Rainbow Dash holding him to her with one of her front paws and doing all she could to comfort him as she cried, too. Even as the two had their share of differences, this was far too important, serious and horrid to let any such things get in the way of their grief, sadness and fear, as well as their attempts to cope with each other's help. Some things surpass stuff like quibbles, differences, arguments, disagreements, rivalries, dislikes and hostilities. And this was easily one of those things.

Additionally, Diamond Tiara and Tixie would hang their heads as they silently stood still and cried, and much the same went for Scootaloo and Sliver Spoon. In the latter's case, he may not have been too bright, in contrast to his name, but even he understood and knew enough to know just how serious and severe, not to mention tragic, terrifying, terrible and wrong this was, despite otherwise being dense most of the time. Though they hadn't the time or the energy to focus on it enough to see if it was real, the ten of them suddenly felt something on them that felt quite a bit like the shining beams of the moon and in a form that represented the souls of the dead innocent people and the touch of God, all of whom were looking down from heaven upon them and all of the other brave heroes, along with all of the other hosts of heaven and souls in heaven, likely as a way to signify that they had done all they could and deserved commendation for their bravery and selflessness, especially given the risks they took. Additionally, it was to indicate that Osama Bin Laden and all the other still living Al Qaeda monsters, who of course had arranged, planned and organized all of what had happened on this fateful, frightful day, would not get away with it, and, one way or the other, they were going to pay for their monstrous crimes. Whenever it would happen, whatever it took, whoever did it, their unforgivable sins of pure, irredeemable, vile and unrepentant evil would not go unpunished at all. Even if they tried to run from their fate, they'd not be able to outrun the hands of time and karma, nor elude the wrath of God or the punishment of hell that was now inevitable for all of them. Especially their selfish, heartless and completely hellbound leader, the aforementioned Osama Bin Laden.

This would come as a comfort later on, but right now, nothing could comfort them or anyone else. All they could do now was cry. By the time that Diamond Tiara, Tixie, Rarity, Twilight and the six kids went back to their apartment home, it would be the early morning.

THE END