It was a long flight. Dusty glanced down at his bracelet a few times frowning. I really hope no one connects the dots that this thing isn't for fashion. Cause I am NOT pulling a Rarity… He shuddered a bit at the mental image he got of himself acting like Rarity. He liked her just fine as one of Rainbow Dash's friends but he would rather never fly again than do what she did.

Ugh, masculinity is fading with just that mental image….

He shook his head and focused as the signs started to show where he was.

Piston Peak National Park. Dusty thought, soaring over the forest watching, some of the creatures go about their business. Some bears and deer, a few rabbits.

He did a quick G-vertical as a geyser went off in the ground, laughing a little as some of the droplets hit him.

The park itself was gorgeous, and the air was fresh and clean.

Dusty looked down as he flew over the lodge, just catching a white-ish looking stallion telling a large red Earth Pony to wipe his hooves before he entered.

Yeesh what a jerk. What is he, the mud police?

Dusty began his trot as he came in for a landing at the Air Attack base.

It was strangely quiet. The stallion began walking off the runway looking around a bit. He could see a Unicorn in a tower cleaning the windows, looking half asleep.

There was a large grey dragon wearing headphones listening to a radio, looking at it intently, muttering: "SCORE!" every now and then.

There was a light yellow Pegasus, laying in the sun, singing a bit to another radio playing somewhere. Her voice was quiet as she relaxed, eyes closed looking like she was going to fall asleep.

These are the firefighters?

He jumped hearing a loud clang.

"OW! HORSE APPLES!" A voice yelled as Dusty squinted a bit, seeing inside a workshop a Unicorn kicking something aside. Guess it hit him somewhere… He thought scrunching his nose a little.

These were the great firefighters that Mayday's friend trained? They looked like they'd be more suited to watching it on TV then actually living it.

Dusty shook his head. Hmph… Great sunbathers is more like it… He started back towards the runway when…

"LEEEEEEEEERRROOOOY JENKINS!" Someone screamed as a smaller dragon jumped over Dusty's head, nearly colliding with him.

He screamed, and jumped back. "Whoa whoa WHOA!"

The dragon, who had no wings laughed as he landed upright from doing a somersault. "Oh yeah!"

"DRIP!" Another voice snarled as more dragons came into view. "What in Equestria is wrong with you!? You nearly took his head off!" One, wearing an armband with Piston Peak Air Attack on it growled at him, some sparks forming.

The dragon gave a sheepish grin. Dusty took note almost all of them had shades of yellow on them somewhere except for one who was a rusty orange color. "Black Out said it was okay to go!"

"I did?" A smaller one with brown eyes blinked, looking genuinely confused.

"You did?" The one who seemed to be in charge asked, raising an eyeridge.

"He totally said "It's okay to go dude!" The one called Drip said, making his claws make a movement as if mocking someone with a grin.

"Ugh…" The one with the armband rolled her eyes. "If I had a bit for every time I heard THAT one… We would be able to buy a gem mine."

Drip hummed in thought. "Well… If you let us start bugging the tourists to do stunts for hire Dynamite-"

Dynamite, living up to her name, blew a burst of fire into the air. It reminded Dusty eerily of Skipper's preferred way to get silence out of a crowd as it too made the two dragons jump back, Drip going silent.

"That's what I thought."

It's like looking at a female wingless Skipper… Dusty thought making note that maybe not ALL of the firefighters were lazy. "Um… Excuse me? I'm looking for Piston Peak Air Attack."

"You are there!" Drip cheered, jumping up, fear of getting fire blown in his face completely forgotten.

"Copy that Heavy!" Blackout said as they butted, heads blowing smoke rings.

Dusty blinked.

"Serving the beautiful V6 valley since 1926...You must be the trainee…" Dynamite rolled her eyes as she went over to the boys. "We heard you were comin'. I'm Dynamite… That's Blackout…" She gestured to the one who was mostly black in coloring but had yellow streaks along his spines. "Pinecone, Avalanche."

"HELLO!" A larger one who had similar coloring to Drip screamed. The rusty orange dragon nodded silently.

"And Evil Ke-numbskull overthere is… Drip."

Said dragon was doing a headstand before falling over. "Anyone see that?"

Dynamite face-clawed as Dusty nodded, clearing his throat, feeling a little awkward.

"It's nice to meet you… I'm Dusty, Dusty Crophopper-"

The Pegasus who had been sunning herself opened her eyes as they got wide. "Dusty Crophopper? DUSTY CROPHOPPER?!" She squealed.

"HIT THE DECK!" Drip screamed, as she trotted over ,leaping over them before standing in front of Dusty wings spread. The dragons ducked for cover as the stallion was left alone with her. She was up close, much taller than Dusty expected he had to look up a bit to look her in the eyes, she had a good head or so of height on him.

"The air racer!?"

"Uh-yeah-"

"I'm your biggest fan!" She squealed getting closer blinking a little as a small look of confusion came onto her face. "You're smaller than I thought."

Dusty turned a little red embarrassed. Not my fault I'm not FREAKISHLY TALL! "Um-"

"But that's okay!" She grinned before flipping her bangs out of her eyes. "I'm Dipper that's what everyone calls me!"

"Okay, well it's nice to meet you Mrs-" Dusty started.

"Miss." Dipper corrected.

"Miss?"

"Yeah."

"Miss Dipper."

"Yep." She got closer to his face. "Rawr!"

Dusty blinked before looking away. "Well it's nice to meet you… Um…" He looked over to Dynamite and her team. "I'm looking for Blade Ranger."

"He's out scouting for spotfires, he should be back in a few." Dynamite answered.

"Thanks."

Dipper giggled. "So what brings an air racer like you here?"

"Well um… I'm between races right now so I'm helping out a friend-"

Dipper squealed. "HOW SWEET! YOU REALLY ARE AMAZING!"

Dusty gave a sheepish look. "T-Thanks…"

"You're welcome." She grinned. "... You know… I am single."

Dusty blinked. That was a weird thing to say. "Um… Good for you?" He said, confused. This is weird… Dusty thought.

HE WILL BE MINE. Dipper thought.

Dynamite shook her head. "Don't mind her…"

"Okay…"

"This is the trainee?"

Dusty looked over to see a green dragon with black, white and orange feathered wings was now sitting next to Dynamite, his brown eyes narrowed.

Whoa where did he come from?

"Yep, this is him." Dynamite answered.

The dragon got up, looking Dusty over.

"Um… hi… I'm Dusty…"

The dragon nodded. "Windlifter…" he continued his stare before pulling away, closing his eyes.

"Hm… The drums…"

Dusty titled his head. "Huh…?"

"The one the Lakota call Hayoka beats his drum with the wind to make thunder and with thunder comes lightning and with lightning… comes fire."

"Um…"

Dipper trotted over to Windlifter. "I don't hear any drums, stop scaring our guest Wind-"

"Shh!"

The alarms went off.

"Attention all firefighters, a wildfire has broken out."

Windlifter gave Dipper a look as if to say "I told you so."

The Unicorn Dusty had seen earlier trotted up. "Come on boys let's load up!" He looked to the tower. "PATCH! Drop the needle!"

The Unicorn named Patch nodded, grabbed a record off a shelf and putting it on a player. Rock and Roll music came over the intercom as everyone started moving about the base.

"It's an actual fire?" Dusty asked.

"Oh yeah! You guys only hear about the big ones!" Dipper said as she hurried over to what appeared to be a loading area. Windlifter joined her, spreading his wings out as Dipper did the same.

The Unicorn trotted over to them, casting a spell that made clouds appear that were a pinkish red color.

Whoa…

Dusty looked to see where Dynamite and her crew had gone to see them suiting up with what appeared to be fake wings on their backs and hopping onto the grey dragon's back he had seen earlier.

Soon as that was all done they took off.

"I gotta see this." Dusty said as he followed after them.

He followed them out to an area of the forest, where a large smokestack had formed.

"Whoa.."

There was something moving in the distance, Dusty squinted a bit. What is that…?

Suddenly, a white Pegasus, wearing a red and black uniform emerged through the smoke, his wings catching the sunlight. Whoa!

He quickly went on to drop a reddish substance over part of the fire with clouds similar to Dipper and Windlifters that faded after they finished dropping the substance. "Dipper, set up for a drop and feed the head of the fire!"

"Copy that!" Dipper replied doing as told.

Dusty watched in amazement as the firefighters worked, dropping the red substance that was in the clouds before the clouds vanished. After Dipper finished, Windlifter took his turn.

Okay… So they are fit for firefighting… just misleading on their off time…

"Alright, let's get some claws on the ground, Cabbie!" the Pegasus shouted.

"Copy that!"

Dynamite and her crew grinned looking at the ground below them. "Let's do this Cabbie!"

"Let's ride the invisible elevator boys!" Drip cheered.

Cabbie rolled his eyes as he flew into position. "I will never understand why you gem crunchers would want to jump off a perfectly capable dragon!"

"We're not jumping off a perfectly capable dragon…" Dynamite started. "We're jumping off of YOU!"

They all cheered as they jumped off, gliding with the artificial wings until they came in for a landing.

"Alright, we're good!" She reported once they hit the ground safely.

"Alright Dynamite, get a line started, let's stop it in it's tracks."

The team quickly got to work, moving debris and slashing through fallen tree's with their claws to create a barrier.

The Pegasus looked over the progress and nodded to himself… Jumping a bit when Dusty flew by him. "HEY!"

"Uh, sorry!"

"GET OUTTA THIS AIRSPACE!" He yelled.

Dusty tried to apologize but yelped as he got covered in the reddish substance coloring him mostly pink. "Oh… Uh oh." Dipper grinned sheepishly.

Dusty coughed a little wobbling a bit as he tried to get balanced again.

This is embarrassing… He thought.

The Pegasus rolled his eyes.

What an IDIOT.

The Pegasus turned his attention back to the fire before noticing down below a herd of deer running by, one was falling behind and a tree was coming down.

He narrowed his eyes swooping down and picking the deer up with his front hooves with claw like devices that were attached to the end of them and getting it out of the way of the falling tree and setting it back down.

He sighed in relief, flying back up to join the others, seeing the job was done. His eyes then landed on Dusty again, a glare fixed on him.

Dusty gulped.

My luck just really sucks right now…

After the fire was completely out Dusty was brought back to base… and got the pinkish red substance washed off with a hose… with cold water.

"WAH! THAT'S COLD!" he yelped.

"Take it like a stallion!" The Unicorn using it said as he made sure to hit the wings as well, turning the spray down slightly to not damage them before turning it on full blast.

"GAH!"

"There." He grinned turning it off. "That oughta do it."

Dusty shivered, shaking the water off of him. Evil… EVIL Unicorn!

The Pegasus from earlier walked over, still having a bit of a glare fixed on Dusty.

"Just wait a few minutes to dry off then you can fly back to the lodge and be with all the other tourists and watch where you are flying next time."

He turned away to leave.

"W-Wait I'm not a tourist I'm-"

"He's the trainee, Blade." Windlifter interjected.

Blade stopped, turning around to Dusty, giving a questioning look.

"You kidding me? You're the one Mayday talked about in his letter? You're the Artificial Pegasus?"

Dusty nodded, gulping a little. "Yes…"

Dipper trotted over. "He's not just any Artificial Pegasus Blade! This is Dusty Crophopper! You know, that famous racer?"

Blade rolled his eyes. "And?"

I'm doomed… Dusty thought.

Dipper gasped. "And?! Blade, he raced all around Equestria. Didn't ya Dusty? Go on tell him!"

"Um… Yeah I uh… I guess… yeah… I did that."

"Was all of Equestria on fire?" Blade asked, raising an eyebrow.

Dusty gave Blade a look as if asking: "Are you insane?" before answering slowly. "Was all of Equestria… on fire? … No?"

Blade shook his head before looking over the Unicorn that had cleaned Dusty off.

"MARU!" he shouted.

Maru looked up from his work, lifting up the welding mask he was wearing. "WHAT?"

Blade gestured to Dusty with his wing. "Rip off his racing gear!"

Dusty's eyes got wide. "WHAT!?"

"And cut his tail short!"

"... WHAT!?"

Maru grinned evilly, readying his blow torch. "Mehehehe."

Dusty gulped. "Um… Can't we um… NOT do that!?" MY TAIL!

"Too late!" Maru shouted as he levitated Dusty over, cutting his tail short. "Snip snip!"

Dusty yelped in surprise as he saw what was cut off hit the floor. "HEY!" He frowned. "... Please tell me that's gonna grow back…"

"In time, but you won't want a tail that long when going into fires." Maru said as he took Dusty's wings off to work on them. "Can get caught on a tree or catch fire and then FWOOSH, up in flames."

Dusty cringed at the mental image. He's just as bad as Dottie with being vivid and specific…

After a bit, Maru re-fastened Dusty's wings on and gave him his fire suit. "There, got the special feathers on, give 'em a try."

Dusty flapped them, yelping when they moved a bit too quickly as he hit his head on one. "OW!"

"Outside genius!"

Dusty rubbed his head. "Noted." He looked ahead seeing a wall with several pictures on it.

"Hey, you got a Wall of Fame just like the Jolly Wrenches." He went over to it looking at the pictures smiling a little. "What's the deal? What do you gotta do to get your picture up here?" He asked looking over to Maru.

Maru looked at him before going back to putting his tools away. "Crash."

Dusty frowned. "Oh…"

"Dangerous work, but that's the life of a firefighter." He replied looking over to him. "They fly in when others are flying out… Risking their lives for ponies they don't even know."

Dusty looked back to the pictures and lowered his head a bit in respect.

"It takes a special kind of pony."