"He's here. Grab your bags and let's go. We need to be there in an hour or he leaves without us!"
Rosa blinked her eyes at the sudden intrusion of sunlight into the van's interior. She hadn't been sleeping, but the door was shut and she had adapted to the gloom. She faintly remembered Sky Light waking her up as she slipped out of the bed to go check the trucker stop. Rosa had been staring at the blank iron roof inside of the van since then and trying in vain to recapture her dream. It had been one of the rare nice ones, where Lillian was okay and Rosa was still her guardian, and the most difficult part of her day was dealing with a sullen Benjamin. It had been better than the other sort of dream she had been having at any rate.
"Huh? What?"
"Pavo is here. I talked him into taking us, so move your rump!" Sky Light repeated.
That was one problem Rosa had been thinking about lately, but hadn't yet mentioned to her pegasus friend. It sounded like she had it solved already. "How did you make him take us?"
Sky Light shrugged a little and prodded Rosa in the ribs with a hoof. "Guy owes me a favor. This is it. Are you coming?" She leaned closer and peered at Rosa suspiciously. "You aren't getting cold hooves now that it's happening, are you?"
Alarmed, Rosa quickly shook her head. In a way she was even relieved. Sitting around the van all day and moping about the little girl had been doing her no good. Rosa knew it, Sky Light knew it - even the homeless ponies knew it on those rare occasions Sky had dragged her over. Going away and doing something meaningful, Rosa felt, was just what she needed to take her mind off things.
She scurried to fetch her backpack and uniform. Sky Light watched with a faint smile as Rosa started struggling her forelegs into the sleeves. "That's the spirit!" she cheered. "Road trip! Two girls out seeing the country! It's gonna be great!"
Her enthusiasm made Rosa smile a little, which was also a rare thing lately. It was unbelievable how hard Lillian's disappearance had hit her. Rosa had only known the girl for a week! Maybe it was love at first sight? Rosa shook her head and pushed the thought away. It was time to lay Lillian to rest and focus on Maribelle and herself.
The uniform was finally on and Rosa checked to make sure it was covering her flank. The homeless ponies didn't seem to care if people saw it - they all had cutie marks - but Rosa was still uneasy about showing hers in public too much. It took her another minute to get the backpack on her back, then she was ready to go.
Except for one thing. "I'll just drink some water and use the toilet real quick!"
The pegasus made room as Rosa jumped down from the van. "I'll come with. Might as well pee so Pavo doesn't have to stop for us, right?"
Rosa hurried to the concrete steps with Sky Light close on her heels.
The truck made a slightly scary sound when it started up this close to Rosa. She realized that she'd never been near one of those huge, loud machines while it was working. The nearest she had seen them was on this very truck stop, but the trucks had always been silent until now. The engine rumbled, sending vibrations up through the seat and into her hooves. Rosa could feel each stroke of each cylinder, or at least she imagined so.
"Relax, it's fine!" Pavo told told over the noise, spotting the mare's lowered ears and scrunched up muzzle. Rosa gave him a faint, grateful smile in return. She was sitting on the passenger seat and looking out the windshield at the ground far below. She had never realized just quite high up the cabin was.
"This is gonna be so cool!" Sky Light almost shouted right into Rosa's ear. The mare was sitting on Pavo's bed behind the seats and leaning over the backrest above her friend. Rosa glanced back and saw that her wings were fully outstretched. Sky was a little too excited, which made Rosa realize that this was her first trip in a truck as well. She'd said she'd been train-hopping and hitchhiking, but Rosa now guessed it had never been on a vehicle this big.
"It's just gonna take a minute to fill up the air tanks for our brakes and then we'll be off," the driver explained, examining the myriad little dials and readouts in front of him. Rosa couldn't even begin to guess what all those meant.
"Okay!" she answered, feeling like something was expected of her. The silence felt a bit uncomfortable, so Rosa asked the question which had been on her mind for a while. "Um, what kind of favor did Sky Light do for you?"
The man looked over at Rosa, then up at Sky Light. They looked back blankly, but then the pegasus shrugged as if to confirm it was okay for him to tell.
"She helped me out of a tough spot once. You tell it, Sky- I gotta get this paperwork sorted out." He grabbed a small booklet and a pen, and began copying some numbers from the instruments. Rosa saw him tear a circle of paper from the page, but she stopped paying attention when the mare above her tapped her shoulder.
"So, I was flying over the highway on one of my deliveries. This was, I dunno, a few years back," Sky Light began, loudly enough to be heard over the engine. "I saw this guy sitting in the emergency lane and walking around the truck, so I went to check it out."
Rosa had been afraid Sky Light's favour was something... sexual, but this sounded a lot better and more interesting. At first she had lowered her ears preemptively, but now she focused them on her friend once again. "Turns out the company forgot to replace his flat tire kit. No compressor, no spare tire, not even the hose to hook up to the truck's compressor."
Rosa frowned a little and interrupted the story with a question. "Doesn't the truck have two tires in each spot? Um- I'm sure I saw that..."
Her friend smiled proudly and nodded. "Yes, that's right. Nicely spotted. The trailers do, but the front tires are single." Sky Light paused and looked over to the human. "Pavo, why are there only single tires in front? That seems like a stupid idea."
Luckily he had been listening to the discussion because he was able to answer immediately: "It'd be much harder to steer that way."
"Oh!"
"Oh!"
Rosa giggled at their simultaneous exclamation and then the pegasus resumed her story: "Anyway, he was stuck. Blown tire, no replacement, no kit, nothing. He called his company but it'd be hours before someone could come all the way out there from the nearest garage." The mare paused and then tried to explain again. "Well, not their garage. They have contracts with some of the local truck repair shops, but the nearest one was a couple hours away."
It sounds like quite a predicament and Rosa winced in sympathy. "That's awful!"
"Anyway, I knew there was a different truck stop just a couple of miles away, so I flew there and borrowed some tools from the mechanic."
Rosa started to open her muzzle for another question, but Sky Light guessed what it was and shook her head. "No, it wasn't this place. It was a larger thing that had their own garage and stuff. Anyway, I got some tools and a kit to patch the tire and I flew them back to Pavo."
"The people just let you have it?"
"Sure. Why not? I got an honest face!"
Sky Light put on her best, most trustworthy smile and Rosa was forced to agree. "I guess."
"Then I helped change the tire-"
"Bah!" Pavo interjected at that point, "you just got in the way."
"Nuh-huh!" Sky Light denied smoothly "I helped plenty!"
They both ended up laughing and Rosa joined in, even though she didn't quite get the joke. The pegasus ruffled her mane before going on. "Anyway, he got the tire fixed, at least enough so he could make it to that stop with the garage. They took care of it quickly and he was on his way."
While her story concluded Pavo had finished fiddling with his gauges and turned partly in his driver's seat to look at both ponies. "I offered to pay her, but this loony just grinned and said it was fine. She said I can buy her coffee if I ever come over this way again." He grinned and his eyes twinkled in amusement. "Actually, that's how the tradition started."
"What tradition?"
Pavo finished this bit of the story, with Sky Light just nodding along: "I took a few pictures of Sky with my phone - while we were changing that tire. Showed them to my son and turns out he's crazy about 'trucker ponies'. I've been collecting photos ever since."
It was a sweet story and Rosa couldn't help smiling like an idiot. Pavo's son reminded her a little bit about Lillian, but she firmly refused to think any more about that and instead embraced the happy moment she was having.
"Well, this is it. Time to get going!"
Sky Light whooped as the engine roared and truck started to move, while Rosa looked out front at the asphalt sliding gently toward and under them. Pavo maneuvered the vehicle out of the parking spot and deftly around the other trucks, then he picked up speed.
Rosa's heart began to beat faster in excitement. A real road trip, just like in that movie she had seen! What was it called again? She almost smacked her own muzzle. 'Road Trip', duh! Except they used a car. She immediately decided that a truck was way better.
"So, get us to White Pigeon and we're even, deal?" Sky Light said, as if confirming their destination.
Pavo shrugged a little. "Yeah, but we gotta make a few other stops first and then return to HQ. I'll try and get an assignment close to White Pigeon, or else I'll find someone going that way who'd be willing to take you."
His plan sounded reasonable to Rosa and it was pretty much what they'd agreed when she and Sky Light had come to see Pavo that morning. Rosa had personally bought the man coffee and then said her goodbyes to her other pony friends. It had been a bit of a bittersweet moment, actually.
"If we can't get anyone to take you," Pavo was saying and Rosa focused her attention on him again, "you can take the train from HQ. It shouldn't be too expensive, it's only about a hundred miles."
"Sweet!" Sky Light replied and rubbed her forehooves together.
They drove in silence for a while, except for the truck's engine rattling away. The vehicle accelerated even more, causing a rush of exhilaration and adrenaline to flood through Rosa as she watched the road and things speed past. They went up on a concrete ramp as Pavo merged onto the highway, then he fiddled a little with buttons and levers around him and visibly relaxed. "Okay, this is about it for the next two or three hours. Then we'll take a little lunch break, okay?"
"Okay!" Sky Light climbed over the backrest and ended up on the passenger seat next to Rosa. "Move over," she said. "That thing isn't nearly as comfortable while we're driving."
Rosa looked down at the seat and noticed for the first time that it was moving up and down gently as the truck rolled forward. It smoothed out most of the jolts and allowed for a very gentle ride, actually. She happily made room for Sky Light.
"That's better," the pegasus sighed, then looked at her friend with a grin on her muzzle. "Who wants to play 'I spy with my little eye'?"