//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Watch The Road! // Story: Ponies Meet New York // by Caddy Finz //------------------------------// "Okay, look, Vinnie." Rainbow Dash said, trying to calm me down. "We've all been to Manehattan before. What's the big deal?" "Cloud, you don't understand!" I said as I frantically paced back and forth. "That's only one borough! New York City makes Manehattan look like friggin' ponyville!" A gasp erupted from my six friends as they processed the comparison I made. It's true though. The city of Manehatten, Equestria is indeed a big town but it's nothing like New York. This place dwarfs Manehattan in both land mass and population density. This was no joke we were dealing with. After three years of living happily in Equestria with my friends, I was back and six ponies whom I deeply cared for were along for the ride. "Whoa there, just take a seat and calm down, pardner." The level headed Applejack said. "Just how much bigger is this place? Can ya give us a better idea?" "There are eight and a half million people in this city, Jackie." "Eight and a half million?!" Everypony gasped in unison. "But how?!" Rarity asked. "How can one city be so enormous!" "Incredible!" Twilight exclaimed. "That's Canterlot, Manehattan, Fillydelphia, and Baltimare combined!" "I told you, girls." I said. "You can't underestimate this place. The sheer size is beyond what any of you are used to. Here, I'll show you what I mean." I then picked up a small stick off of the ground and proceeded to draw a general schematic of the city in the sand near the river that we got ejected from. Having lived in this city for nearly my entire life, I could accurately depict the sizes of all the different boroughs and they were drawn to scale with one another. Three years away from here wasn't enough time for me to forget anything. "Okay, girls." I began after I spat the stick out of my mouth. "This is New York City and it's made up of five different boroughs. Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Staten Island and The Bronx which is where we are right now. These boroughs are broken down into a ton of different neighborhoods. Some of them are nice looking and fairly safe. Others...not so much." "I-I can't believe it!" The flabbergasted Twilight said. "If these places you've drawn are all properly to scale, then this city is bigger than any other we've ever imagined!" "And that's why I can't let any of you out of my sight. One moment, we're all trotting down the street together and the next, you get caught up in a crowd and end up twenty blocks away from each other." "Oh my goodness!" Fluttershy gasped. "I don't even want to look!" "Flutterbaby, listen to me." I said as sweetly as I knew how. "You can't afford to not keep your eyes open here. You need to keep on your hooves and always be aware of your surroundings." "O-okay." "Just be brave and do exactly as I tell yas and we'll get out of here just fine." "Okay". "Vinnie?" Pinkie asked. "Is this where you went into the portal that got you into Equestria in the first place?" "No." I replied. "It was a water fountain in Central Park over in Manhattan. Apparently, there are more of these though. Um, hang on a sec." Just to figure out weather this portal we went through was still active and could be used again, I trotted up to the shore of the river we came out of and looked down into the water. I couldn't see more than a few inches down due to the murky quality of the water so I kicked a small rock over the bank and waited for a flash. If I had learned anything about these portals, it was that they always flashed brightly for a second or two when something disturbs them. There was nothing and because of the smell coming from the putrid water, I wasn't keen to jump in and find out. "Can't we just get back in there and go through it that way?" Rainbow asked me. "It only makes sense to me." "Two things wrong with that." I replied. "First of all, this is way too deep and dark to go into which makes it dangerous. Secondly, thi-" "Um, Vinnie? Pal...have you forgotten who you're talking to here? Danger is my middle name!" "Lemme finish, kid! I'm getting to that! Did I ever tell you about that city in Eastern Europe? The one where the nuclear reactor blew up back in eighty-six?" "Uh yeah, I think so. Why?" "You jump back in there and the next thing you know, you're crawling back out with a big ugly tumor and a third eye...if you crawl out at all. We can't afford to spend any more time than we already have in there. Trust me. That water isn't much safer than the fourth reactor's cooling pond." "Oookay, point taken." The fact that we were near a river though, was a big help as it would help me better figure out exactly what part of The Bronx we were in. We were also just under a highway overpass and that was a decent indication. Exactly which highway though was still up for debate and we weren't going to find out unless we got a move on and looked around more. Our only goal was to get to Central Park and find the fountain that changed my life before and still we weren't sure that would work. "Girls, let's get on over to that street over there so I can get a look at the highway above us." I said. "I wanna see if I can spot any signs." "Also, everypony." Twilight began. "I'd like to reiterate that we should all stick together. Vinnie knows this place and we need to trust him when he tells us what to do and where to go. Capiche?" "Heheheh." I chuckled as the girls and I made our way to the nearest street. "I've taught you well, Twily-san." Me and my friends trotted towards the first street we saw and when we were out from under the overpass, I could get a better look at the road above. I couldn't quite see the street signs up there and the traffic was extremely thick as always which further hindered me from seeing them. I shifted my attention to the street down at our level and luckily, it didn't take me long to find a clue that was a familiar, green sign. "Hmm..." I said as I read the sign in question. "Bruckner Boulevard...*gasp!* Bruckner Boulevard! And that's Expressway 278! And this is the Bronx River! I know exactly where we are!" "You do?!" Twilight excitedly asked. "Yeah! Manhattan is about five miles west of here! Okay, just follow me and we-Pinkster! What the hell are you doing?!" "What are we waiting for?!" Pinkie Pie hollered back as she jumped over a chain link fence that bordered the road. "If we're gonna get somewhere, we gotta hop skip and-" Screeeech! Honk! Honk! "Pinkie!!" The rest of the girls and I screamed in unison. Fearing the worst, we all bolted over to the fence that our crazy pink friend had foolishly hopped over. Before we could reach it however, our worries were put to rest by the sight of a pink blur bouncing right back over and rejoining us on our side of the fence. I have never seen Pinkster this scared before and until now, I had yet to see her hyperventilate out of fear. "Pinkie!" I yelled. "What the hell did I just tell you?! You need to follow me and not leave my sight! You could have been killed!" "Vinnie, I-I'm sorry, I didn't kno-" "Yeah well you know now! That's a freeway on-ramp full of two ton machines going sixty miles an hour! You wouldn't stand a chance, do you understand me?! You would have been splattered! Do you have any idea how stupid that was?! How do you think me and the girls would feel if we had to watch your guts get tossed around that road?! If something would have happened to you, I'd never forgive myself! You need to stop and- *sniff* you can't just-*hic* don't put us thro-" I couldn't help it. I ranted and raved to try to get my point across as Pinkster hung her head low in shame until I broke down and threw my forelegs around her, holding her tightly. Having lived most of my life not caring about anything, I cherished my friends more than anything and the mere thought of what could have just happened was literally making me sick to my stomach. I was stuck in one of the biggest cities in the world with six mares who I saw as nieces and they saw me as an uncle. Weather I liked it or not, this was going to be a long, tough journey and we couldn't afford to throw caution to the wind like that. "I'm sorry, Vinnie!" Pinkie sobbed. "I swear it won't happen again!" "Pinks, for that brief second, I thought you painted the highway. I can't stress this enough...stay close to the rest of us! Capiche?" "Got it." "Good. I love you, you know that." Now that my point was drilled into everypony's head, I trotted over to the fence and used my hooves to push some foliage out of the way to get a good look at what we were dealing with. Not one square foot of road was without a car or truck and every one of them was doing at least seventy miles per hour. Three lanes that unless we could somehow get across, we would be stuck here. Three lanes that had instant death written all over them. If one of us were to get hit by a vehicle, the rest of the traffic wouldn't stop. Our carcasses would keep getting plowed over and over until we were turned to liquid. Crossing this on hoof is out of the question. "Sparks, Cloud Speed and Flutters!" I said as I suddenly got an idea. "You three will have to carry the rest of us over this. Are you up for it?" "You heard the stallion, you two!" Rainbow said as she puffed out her chest. "C'mon, let's do this!" We quickly put our plan into action and one by one, those of us without wings were being carried to the other side by those who did. Gem was the first to be brought over and for safety's sake, I had all three of our winged comrades carry each pony at the same time so in case anypony lost their grip, there were still two sets of hooves holding on. After Rarity, Jackie was next and then Pinkster was carried over and safely placed back on the ground. Now it was my turn. Dash held onto my right foreleg, Twi onto my left while Doctor Flutters got behind me and wrapped her forelegs around my chest. If I'm honest, it made me a bit uncomfortable as Fluttershy used to have a crush on me. I lost count on how many times I had to gently decline her asking me out. Over time, she seemed to accept that this was more like an uncle and niece relationship and it was to stay that way. Still though, I didn't care for the position we were in at the moment. The poor kid needs to find a stallion. I then made a mental note to talk with Cadence about that when we get back. "Hey Flutters, keep your hooves above the waist!" I barked as the three slowly lifted me off the ground. "Don't get fresh with me!" "Sorry, Vinnie." Fluttershy replied. Slowly and steadily, I was carried over the crowded interstate that would be my death if the girls carrying me made a wrong move. Each second that passed was hundreds of cars, trucks and buses that rocketed down the asphalt. I usually made it a point to not look down but I couldn't help myself. Now that I was directly over the center lane, I even noticed that a lot of the traffic had decreased it's speed and I could see a lot of the passing vehicles had their brake lights flashing on and off. An even closer look at the faces of some of the drivers looking up at us was an indication that we were drawing attention to ourselves and we needed to hurry up and get out of sight. "Vinnie?" Twilight asked. "Yeah, Sparks?" I replied. "Are those big rolling machines down there those so-called 'cars' you told me about?" "Yeah and I used to have one of my own. I'll tell you about that later though, 'cause if we don't quit distracting the people driving down there, there's gonna be an acc-" Beeeeep! Beeeeep! Ka-thump! "Oh Crap!" Twilight gasped. "That yellow one just smashed into the back of that white one with the blue stripes!" "White with blue stripes?" I repeated. "That doesn't sound good." Whooop Whooop bwip bwip bwip bwip bwip!! Oh no. That's a siren. This is bad, this is really bad! "Alright, pull over, ya moron!" A man's voice shouted over what sounded like some sort of loudspeaker. "Oh shit, it can't be!" I looked back down to see the commotion and sure enough, we had drawn the attention from the drivers below and caused an accident as a yellow taxi cab had bumped into the back of another car. This would turn out to be a problem for us as the white sedan in question had the all too familiar slogan "Courtesy, Professionalism, and Respect" painted on the the side. The car also had about a half dozen red and clear light boxes arranged in the shape of an arrow head sitting on the top and they quickly switched on as it pulled to the side of the road and stopped. If the driver gets out and sees us, there's gonna be trouble. "Girls?" I said as my heart began to race even faster. "Get me down and let's get outta here! It's the NYPD!"