"Vinnie, that was awesome!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed as we left the police in the dust. "You caved that chump's face right in, haha!"
I didn't answer. I wasn't entirely thrilled at the situation and what I just had to do to get us out of it so I had nothing to say. I really wasn't in the mood to celebrate anything and my main focus was to just get us out of there and find a place to hide for a little while. The girls seemed to take note of me trotting down the alleyway with my head hung low in shame.
"Vinnie, what's wrong?" Fluttershy asked. "You saved me!"
"I know, kid, I know!" I replied as I stopped to hug her. "I just...I wish I hadn't hit him as hard as I did. He didn't have bad intentions and he wasn't trying to kill any of us and...I really didn't need to hurt him as bad." I then turned to Rainbow Dash to tell her what I thought about her reaction. "Cloud, I'm disappointed in you. We're peaceful creatures and you shouldn't be so excited about what I just did."
"Wha-wow, Vinnie I'm sorry." Rainbow replied. "I just got all worked up is all."
"It can't be helped now but we shouldn't gloat when we have to resort to violence. I made a vow that I would renounce my old ways but what's done is done. Now we gotta find a place to lay low. We're wanted by the law now."
We were lucky enough to be able to find a less busy street as we left Westchester Avenue and headed South on St Ann's Avenue. It would be a lot easier to dodge the eyes of citizens here and by the looks of it, the old, rusted up cars that sat on the curbs covered in parking tickets outnumbered the people. This part of town was desolate, dark, gloomy, depressing, lifeless and as crazy as this sounds, just what we needed. The less people walking around who can see us, the better.
The weather wasn't looking much better and the dark clouds started rolling in so now we had two good reasons to find shelter. As plain dumb luck would have it, the girls and I were about to get our first big break. If we played our cards right, we could get out of the oncoming torrential downpour and I could take a nice pleasant stroll down memory lane in the form of a familiar eight cylinder friend. Trotting through an empty street often means coming across a fenced off impound yard.
"Vinnie?" Applejack said as she noticed me stopping in front of a chain link fence. "Whatcha lookin' at, buddy?"
Honestly, I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to my friends. I was staring through to the other side of the fence at something I was glad to see after being away from it for so long. It was a bittersweet moment as the state my finding was in was a sorry one to say the least and I felt my eyes watering up as I trotted up to the fence to get a better look.
"Vinnie, you okay?" Pinkie asked. "What's the problem?"
"It's my..." I began as I stifled tears. "M-my old s-squad car..."
It was a breath of fresh air to see something I was familiar with and find something we could take shelter in at the same time. Never in my life did I ever think I'd end up sleeping in a car but beggars can't be choosers. What we needed was a roof, a couple walls, dark tinted windows and my old stolen Chevy that sat in the impound yard was all that and then some.
"Cloud, Sparks, and Shy!" I began. "Fly the rest of us over there, will ya?"
Within a minute, we were all on the side of the fence we needed to be. The girls and I trotted over to the abandoned machine that would end up being our shelter from the cold, hard rain that was about to pelt us is we didn't get inside soon. Before we did though, I just felt compelled to take a good look at the depressing sight that at before us.
My once proud, tough and fast ex-police car was parked outside my apartment high-rise the day I left New York. Inevitably, I was later considered missing and my apartment re-rented out and my car towed here where it sat to rust for the last three years. The chrome bumper and grille was covered in ugly brown chips of rust, the black paint faded and peeling off, the tires dry rotted and the Chevy bow tie hood ornament it once had was yanked off. Not only was it so worn down from doing nothing but sitting motionless, there was also a parking boot attached to its left front wheel, and dozens of parking tickets were stuck under the windshield wipers. Basically, the city got tired of me not being there to claim the car or the parking fines it was stuck with so they just brought it here to rot. An absolute waste if you ask me.
It was a depressing sight and hard to look at. I continued to stare at what was once a big part of my life and whimper until I felt a hoof gently place itself on my shoulder. I turned around to see my good friend Twilight who was trying to cheer me up.
"I'm sorry, Vinnie." Twilight said. "I know how much this machine meant to you. Though it sits here now, we can at least give it a purpose one last time. We can use it as shelter. It won't decay in vain."
As sad as I was that my once pride and joy was disintegrating into nothing but a memory, she was right. The rain was coming in just a few moments and it was gonna come down hard and it was starting to get dark too. There wasn't any time to dawdle. The thunder was booming and the rain had just started. We had shelter and we were gonna use it.
"Girls, let's get in the car." I said as I reached for the door handle. "We're staying here for the night."
Another stroke of good luck. The door was unlocked and even more, the interior light came on meaning that battery still had some life left in it. If we need it, I could probably hot wire it to start the engine and turn the heater on.
"Oooh, comfy!" Pinkie said as she took a seat in the back.
"Very." Rarity agreed. "It's just like my plush sofas back home."
"Heheh, yeah I yanked out the hard vinyl seats and replaced them with what you're sitting on." I replied. "The car was used to haul crooks to the city lock up so they didn't need anything extravagant."
"Oh my goodness, I could fall asleep any second." Fluttershy said. "These seats are so soft."
"Looks like this is home for the night, guys." Rainbow Dash said.
"I dunno about y'all but I ain't gonna fret." Applejack said. "Sure whoops the tar outta sleepin' on the wet ground."
"Hey girls." I said as I just got an idea to pass the time. "You wanna see something really cool?"
"Sure!" Pinkie beamed.
"Okay, see this thing right here? This is the police radio the cops used when they owned this car. After I *ahem* took possession of it, I started using it as somewhat of a lookout. You know, back in my days as a...criminal."
"You've gotta forgive yourself someday, dude." Rainbow Dash said.
"It'll take time, kid. But anyways, let's just see if this thing still works. Maybe we can hear something juicy."
I then placed my hoof over the main dial on the radio and turned it until clicked and the unit turned on. The green, yellow and red lights blinked on and off as the automatic scanner flipped though the channels. I was about to find out that the seemingly innocent act of switching the device on was about to cause somepony a lot of pain.
"Oww, my head!" Rarity screamed as she held her head in her hooves.
"Gaaaahhhh, make it stop!!" Twilight shrieked in pain as she immediately followed suit.
Somehow, the radio frequency was interfering with Twilight and Rarity's horns and it was causing them a great deal of pain. It seemed to be harming Twilight more though. Rarity was expressing strong discomfort but something was seriously wrong with Twilight. I could do nothing but watch as my dear friend as she squirmed and convulsed in the passenger seat next to me. Few things in life really scare me but when I saw her eyes roll back into her head, I knew this would scar us for life.
"Dude, shut it the fuck off!" Rainbow Dash shouted.
"I'm trying! I'm trying!" I replied as I switched the dial to no avail.
"Man, quit yer messin' 'round and shut that damn thing off!" Applejack shouted. "They're gonna keel over if that shit keeps up!"
I was panicking. I desperately tried to shut off the CB unit that was hurting my friends but no matter what I did, the device just screeched away. I pressed every button, turned every dial and even gave it a few good smacks with my hoof but it was still on. Just when it seemed like things couldn't get any worse, sparks started flying from Rarity and Twilight's horns.
As quickly as the commotion started, it came to a sudden halt. Twilight and Rarity's eyes glowed a bright white as a hush fell over the rest of us. The radio was still on but it was silent as well. The stoic look on the two ponies' faces and their glowing eyes were scaring the shit out of myself and the others. Though the situation looked bleak, we would actually find that we were about to get our biggest break yet.
"He...llo...Twi...kle...can y...hear me?" A familiar voice came from the radio though the static. "...Twil...I'm trying t...pathic...please answ...hello?"
"Is that Princess Celestia?!" I asked as I adjusted the squelch knob to clear the static. I then picked up the microphone and pressed the key down in order to transmit. "Your Majesty, is that you?"
"Vincenzo!" Princess Celestia exclaimed. "How can you hear m...well the better question is, are you all alright?"
I then turned to Twilight and Rarity who seemed to be feeling a little better but still expressing discomfort. Not only was it a relief to make contact with somepony back in Equestria but also that my two horned friends weren't in so much pain anymore.
"I think we're okay for now." I replied. "How are you doing this though?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing!" Celestia answered. "I was trying to communicate with Twilight telepathically. How am I able to hear you?"
"I think your signal got crossed with one from this device I'm using. She's tried to use her horn before but magic doesn't work here too good. I think this is hurting her though so we don't have much time."
"Oh no. Alright, I'll try to make this quick. Is there any way I can talk to her?"
"I'm right here, Princess." A tired and pain-stuck Twilight said as I hoofed the mic over to her. "We're stuck in Vinnie's ahh...native land and we're trying to find the portal that got ow...him to Equestria in the fIRST place."
"Oh my goodness, that's a relief." Celestia said. "That means one of you knows how to navigate through it. Okay, so we have just one option. My sister, Cadence and I will go to the pond and try to reopen the portal."
"Give us a couple of days and we'll be there for it." I replied. "We needed to find shelter for the night but in the morning, we shou-"
"Ahh, it hurts!" Twilight cried while Rarity opened the nearest door to throw up. "Please, make it stop! Please, it hurts so bad!"
"I'm ending the signal now!" Celestia said. "Just hang in there, dear, I'm coming!"
Not wanting to allow my two friends to go through one more second of this than they had to, I pulled the radio from the bracket that mounted it under the ashtray and ripped the wires from the back of it. At long last, the device fizzled out and the pain the two girls were enduring seemed to come to an end.
"You two alright?" Pinkie asked as she embraced Rarity.
"I-I think so." Twilight answered. "I'm just glad we heard from the princess. Rarity, how are you feeling?"
"I'll be fine, darling." Rarity replied as she wiped her mouth. "Please excuse me for that, everypony, that was just making me so sick."
"Don't sweat it Rares." Rainbow Dash said.
"Alright then, girls..." I began. "So it looks like we're all okay. We're all exhausted now so we need to just relax and get some sleep. We've got some traveling to do in the morning so the more rest we get, the better."
"I concur." Twilight agreed. "We're in a safe, dry place now so let's all get some shuteye. Goodnight."
"Good night, everypony." I said. "Don't worry. We'll get through this and we'll be back home soon."
"Goodnight, Vinnie." The girls all said in unison.
Things were starting to look up. We had a nice, warm car to sleep in and we also had a plan and knew what needed to be done tomorrow. Just like the others, I was very tired and it didn't take me long to drift off to sleep. These comfortable leather seats will do that. I'm just glad I didn't tell the girls what these seats were actually made of. I'd never hear the end of that one."
"I had a wonderful time with you, Vincenzo." My beautiful girlfriend, Jennifer Sachentov said to me as I walked her to her front door after a nice dinner. "I told you before though, I'm a simple girl. You don't have to take me to the Broadway Ritz. Especially on a second date."
"And I told you to just call me Vinnie, babe." I chuckled in response. "You say you're simple but that doesn't mean you don't deserve the best."
"And that's why I like spending time with you so much. You're such a sweetheart."
"Thank's babe. Seriously though, I really like you a lot. So are you free on Friday? I was thinking we could go dancing or something."
"I am and there's nothing else I'd rather do."
The two lovebirds we were had ran out of things to talk about and were now just staring at each other in awkward silence. No other girl ever made me feel weak at the knees like this. What I had with Jenny wasn't just another fling. Our relationship had true meaning to it and I wanted to spend every moment I could with her.
"Vinnie?" Jenny asked.
"Yeah, Jen?" I answered.
"You're pretty tall you know."
"Heheh. Yeah? So?"
"So come closer. I wanna tell you something."
"Uh, okay. Heheheh." How's this?"
"Closer."
"Alright, sweetheart. How about this?"
Before she said another word, Jennifer, who was only five feet eight compared to my six feet four pulled me in for our first kiss. In all my twenty five years, I had never met a girl who's side I never wanted to leave. I never wanted this kiss to end and I would need to tell her the truth about what I do for a living once the time is right. It's too soon now and I really don't want to lose this girl. In due time.
"So Friday then?" Jenny asked after we broke our kiss.
"Y-yeah babe." I stuttered, the blush on my face quite apparent. "How about seven?"
"Heheheh. You're cute when you're nervous. It's a date."
"Awesome. Well...goodnight, babe."
"Good night, handsome."
I then turned around to the waiting taxi cab that was to take me back to my place. The date was a huge success and my heart was soaring from what just happened. It almost seemed to good to be true. Just as I reached for the door on the cab, I was just about to find out just how true everything that just happened was.
"Oh, Vinnie?" Jenny called over to me.
"Yeah, hon?"
"It's time to go."
"W-what? We just got back. What are you talking about?"
"Vinnie, wake up. It's morning. We need to get going."
"Ahh! Whoa, what just happened?"
"Vinnie, are you alright?" Twilight asked as she looked intently into my eyes. "Did you have a bad dream?"
A dream is indeed all it was. I was still in my old car, stranded in The Bronx with my friends from Equestria and we still needed to get a move on. We needed to get going if we were to go back home where we belonged. The longer we sat there thinking about it, the more daylight we were burning. It was time.
"Yeah, I was dreaming." I replied as I opened the door. "It wasn't bad though."
"Care to share with us?" Rainbow Dash asked.
That was always something we enjoyed doing. Whenever we had a dream that really caught our attention, we liked to talk about it and share our thoughts about what they might be trying to tell us. Hell, we even got Twilight to spill the beans over a dream she had about this fella she likes. Some Pegasus guy from Cadence's guard squadron I think.
"Well..." I began. "It was about my girlfriend I had years ago. I haven't dreamed about her in over fifteen years and we broke up back in ninety-two. I've thought about her from time to time but I eventually moved on. It's just so weird that I'm dreaming about her now though."
"Perhaps it has something to do with your date with Ms. Harshwhinny." Rarity suggested. "You haven't been on a date in over twenty years so you may have subconsciously brought back some old memories."
"Hey yeah, that does make sense. Jeez, it kinda sucks that I had to get ripped away right then. I hope she's still in Ponyville when we get back."
"So you like her?" Pinkie asked.
"Yeah...I do." I replied.
"Well I'm glad you've finally opened up and gave dating a try." Twilight said. "It'll be good for you."
"Yeah and it'll be good for her too." Rainbow Dash interjected. "I'm telling you guys, that mare needs a stallion in her life."
"How do you figure?" Fluttershy asked.
"I got one word for ya...uptight."
"Eh, I like her." I said as we trotted towards the gate of the impound yard. "She seemed pretty sweet to me. She's classy and that's what I like."
Soon, our winged comrades carried the rest of us over the gate and we were on our way. By the looks of it, it was around seven o'clock in the morning so at least we could cover some ground before rush hour. If we're careful, we can keep the number of people spotting us to a minimum or hopefully none at all...yeah that's not gonna happen. They call it the city that never sleeps for a reason.
We quietly continued down St Anne's Avenue and I decided to take a right on East 137th Street where we would then go left on Willis Avenue. That way, we could try taking the Willis Avenue Bridge that leads right to North-East Manhattan. The further we went though, the harder it looked like it was gonna be. Luckily, we hadn't gone far from the impound yard where we found my car. The more I thought about it, I came to realize we really needed it if we were going to blend in. The cops want us and everybody around has a cell phone.
"Girls, change of plans." I said. "We're not gonna make it unless we take my car. We're gonna need it to blend in or we're gonna get nabbed."
"If you think that will help, then that's what we'll do." Twilight spoke up. "Ok, girls! You heard him! Lead the way, Vinnie."
I then proceeded to cross the street back that led back to the impound yard with the other six in tow. There was about to be a problem though as I had stupidly broken my own rule by failing to pay attention. I was about to find out how big of a mistake this really was.
"Vincenzo darling, look out!" Rarity shouted.
Honk! Honk! Slam!