The Pony of the Mackinac Bridge
By Penguifyer
“Lights out again, south tower, east side.”
“Godammit, I just replaced it last week!” I shouted, grabbing the keys to my maintenance truck.
“It is winter. We closed the bridge yesterday due to falling ice,” Stan shot back.
“Yeah, but ice doesn’t fall on the top of the tower.”
“Just saying, last night was the first big storm of the season. Check the wiring while you’re at it. Something’s fishy about this.”
I waved him off, stomping outside the Bridge Authority building and hopping into my truck.
It didn’t take long to cool down though. Every time I merged onto I-75 and passed the southbound tollbooth, the sight of the Mackinac Bridge, five miles long and a total suspension span of 8000 feet, took my breath away. It was hard to be angry anyway; I was going to the top of the south tower.
After passing underneath the north tower and crossing the main span of the bridge, I turned on the hazard lights of my truck, pulled over by the base of the south tower, and blocked off the right lane of the highway with traffic cones, likely pissing off many drivers. With all precautions in place, I opened the hatch to the interior of the tower and wiggled inside. Thankfully, the Mackinac Bridge was built recently enough to include a working elevator, as cramped as it may be (sticking three people in there is a tight experience, let alone four). It only went up to within 40 feet of the top of the 552-foot tower, but it beat climbing through child-sized holes all the way to the top.
After a cramped elevator ride, shimmying through the steel cells, and squeezing up the final stretch, I opened the top hatch and crawled out onto the top of the tower. The view spanned for miles over the two great lakes and relatively flat Michigan terrain. I shook my head, reminding myself I had a job to do. Walking over to the east side of the tower, I stepped up onto a platform and opened up the red light fixture.
“Damn thing’s gone!” I murmured to myself, looking at the empty fixture. Confused, I screwed in the new bulb as a chilling wind blew by. Already cold from the wind, I slipped back through the hatch and into the tower.
I stood still and took a breather. Even the air inside the tower numbed my lungs. I relaxed by taking a deep breath. A shuffling noise echoed throughout the halls.
I froze. The tower constantly echoed with screeches of cars passing over the metal grid roads, but this sounded light and nearby.
Shifting off the ladder, I peeked into the cell to my side. A few juniper needles lined the floor.
Another shuffle echoed, causing me to turn my head towards the next cell. I crept over to it and peeked inside. More needles along with a small branch.
There was no way an animal could’ve crawled in and carried foliage inside. Something was real fishy here.
I continued on and peered into the last cell. A curled up pony with dirty white fur and a light brown mane laid on a bed of juniper and white pine branches. Recalling online articles about the new land Equestria, the pony’s smaller muzzle and rounder body implied she was female. On her barrel rested a folded up wing.
“Pegasus?” I muttered, trying to remember what a pony with wings was called.
“Huh?” The pony opened her eyes and lifted her head, ears perking straight up. Her high pitched voice confirmed my suspicion.
My job didn’t prepare me for this.
“EEEEEEK!” she screamed, jumping out of her bed. She grabbed a stick beside her and pointed it at me.
“Whoa, whoa! I’m not going to hurt you,” I assured, holding my hands up.
She poked the stick at me, shivering with fear.
I pointed to a patch on my work vest. “I’m just with bridge maintenance. I don’t bite.”
She didn’t move, holding the stick at me. To her side sat the light bulb, resting on the foliage.
“I was sent up here to change a bulb that went out last night,” I continued, glancing at the bulb. “I guess it’s right there.” Stepping into the cell, I crouched and approached her.
Slowing down her breathing, she dropped the stick and sat down. “I’m-I’m sorry.” Hearing her speak caught me off guard even though I knew ponies could.
“It’s okay,” I reassured, sitting down in front of her.
“It’s just,” she spoke up. “I’ve had a rough week. I knew stealing that light was a bad idea.”
I grabbed it and shoved it in my vest. “And I’ve stolen it back. Come on, let's get you out of here.”
I guided her through the steel cells and down to the elevator. Her smaller body allowed her to easily slip through the cut-outs separating the cells, except for her head which struggled to fit through the floor holes.
Neither of us spoke in the elevator. Her exhausted eyes spoke for themselves.
Once we reached the road, I helped her into the truck before collecting the road cones and hopping in myself.
Turning the heat up, I broke the silence. “So, how’d you get in?”
She directed the vent toward herself and stared out the window. “In what?”
“The tower. We’re used to birds nesting in the crevices and steel girders underneath, but they rarely get inside the tower.”
“Well, the hatch on top wasn’t locked.”
“True,” I replied, moving on to what I actually wanted to know. “Why the tower?”
“It’s been a long week.”
“That’s not an answer.”
She sighed. “It was the only safe place I could find.”
“How come?”
“When I was north of the bridge—”
“In the U.P., you mean?” I corrected
She paused. “What?”
“Upper Peninsula.”
“Yeah, whatever. I found a rundown shack and camped out in it until a group of wolves booted me out.”
“Ouch,” I interjected.
“So I went south and found a similar rundown house.”
“There are no wolves in L.P., from my understanding.”
“Bears,” she mumbled.
“Damn,” I chuckled. “You can’t catch a break.”
She continued. “When I found the hatch on top of the tower, I knew it’d at least be safe. So I made a bed and stole the bulb, using it for heat since building a fire would’ve suffocated me.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t camp out on one of the nearby islands.”
“With the lakes frozen over, they’re not safe either. The only safe one makes me uncomfortable.”
“Oh, Mackinac Island?” I asked. Giving it a little thought, the island banned motor vehicles a while ago. Instead, your Amazon Prime package got dropped off by an Amazon delivery horse-drawn carriage. “That makes sense,” I giggled.
A couple of silent minutes later, we arrived back at the Bridge Authority building. After bringing her inside, I led her to a sofa in our lobby and handed her a blanket we had lying around.
“Coffee, tea, hot chocolate?” I asked.
“Do you have any chamomile?”
“Sure do,” I consoled, noticing her tighten the blanket around herself. I walked over to our coffee station and prepared her tea. It was definitely a coffee morning for me.
Returning to the sofa, I handed her the tea. She grabbed with both of her hooves as I sat down next to her. “Do you mind if I ask one last question?”
She took a sip of her tea. “Fine. I don’t have anything better to do.”
“What brings a pony like you this far north into Michigan?”
She stared at her tea for a second. Taking a deep breath, she set it down on the coffee table and looked away from me. “Last summer, I decided to travel across the U.S. for a year. I’d been saving up money for it for a while before then, but I finally bucked up, got my passport, and bought the ticket.”
“Did you like what you see?” I interjected. “Sorry for the extra question.”
“I did, honestly. I know it probably is the same with our world and you guys, but to us, your world is like a fairytale.”
“Really?”
“Take that bridge… what is it called again?”
I chuckled. “Mackinac Bridge.”
“Yeah, why does it exist? The city on the south side doesn’t even have a thousand residents and the city north of it has like twice that, which still isn’t much.”
“It exists because when it didn’t, traffic backed up for sixteen miles. Come on, where are you from?”
“A place called Cloudsdale. And yes, it’s a city in the clouds.”
“How do you compare to something like that?”
“By building a five-mile bridge. No pony would ever think to build something like that.”
We sat silently for a moment. I couldn’t challenge her.
She continued. “By late fall, I was traveling up the west coast of the state, sightseeing the trees and whatever. When I got to Traverse City, my friend I was traveling with told me she was stranded in the next town south. Being the pegasus I am, I flew there on a moment's notice. When I got there, I couldn’t find her. And when I flew back, all of my stuff was gone. Passport, money, all of it was gone. I flew all over the area trying to find her but never did.
“When the snow came, I looked for someplace I could at least camp out at until I made a plan. A week of bears, wolves, and freezing temperatures later, I heard about the storm and decided the tower was my last option.”
“Did you ever ask anyone for help?”
“I don’t know. It’s one thing to be stuck in your hometown; it’s completely different being in a whole new world. I mean, some of the humans I saw on the street thought I was an animal.”
“To be fair, I only know about you ponies through internet articles.”
“I get it,” she scoffed back. “I guess I’m just desperate, hiding in a bridge and all that. It’s pretty pitiful for a weather pony like me.”
I put my hand on her back. “To be honest, I don’t think it was a bad choice. I’ve seen skyscrapers and monuments all over the country, and those things are interesting and all, but those skyscrapers are there for business and monuments don’t do much apart from being there. That doesn’t stop me from appreciating them, but it is a caveat in the back of my mind.”
I set my coffee on the table too. “What I love about this bridge is that it’s the thing that unifies this state. Without it, there’s an awkward separation between the two peninsulas and those in the U.P. wouldn't be able to access the government or colleges in the rest of the state. It’s a superstructure made purely for the state as a whole, and I love being someone who keeps it open.
“I guess it’s fitting you’d take shelter in it. Although I’ve never thought of it as a shelter, I do think it’s for people like you who are desperate and want another chance.”
She rubbed her eyes. “Sorry, I’m about to pass out.”
“I never caught your name.”
She looked at me and smiled. “Winter Breeze.”
“Jack,” I smiled back. “You can sleep there all you want. I still got a day's work ahead of me.”
“I still don’t know what I’m gonna do tonight,” she noted.
“You can crash at my place if you want.”
She nodded before falling over and pulling the blanket around herself. I walked back over to Stan and sat next to him.
“You actually gonna take her home?” he prodded.
“You act like you wouldn’t let me stay at your place if I needed help.”
“True,” he smirked, turning around his chair.
I reclined in my chair and waited for the next call to come in. “Damn bridge never ceases to amaze me.”