The nurses were happy to see Vinyl awake and I backed towards the door. “I’ll give you ladies some room. I have to go to work now. I’ll see you later, Vinyl.”
I slipped out into the hallway. With any luck, the groggy wakeup period would make Vinyl forget all about the fingers. In the meantime, I had a while to figure out a good excuse.
As I left the hospital, one of my ears began to itch. I hadn’t quite figured out the complex musculature to make them twitch. In fact, I didn’t even have most of the instinctive movements that real ponies had. Pausing to use the glass of a shop window as a mirror, I scratched.
The window unpleasantly reminded me of what had happened to Steelie. I tried to put it out of my mind by making a few faces at my reflection. It only helped a little, and reminded me of how much I still had to learn about subtle nuances of pony expressions.
As I turned away, I glanced at a white pegasus stallion who hadn’t been moving with the street traffic during the few minutes I was busy with the window. His chest and legs looked thicker than average, as if he worked out a lot.
I headed down the street and entered the shop. I looked for a moment at Steelie’s workstation and winced. Now he would never finish the idea he had for steel wheels.
Sawtooth and Bucket said little, and didn’t comment on why he was gone. I wondered if they knew, or just knew not to ask.
The cart once again had a load on it, and I walked over to have a look. Bend was there taking inventory. I asked, “Where is this going?”
“Across town to get repackaged and put on the train to Vanhoover,” he said.
“I could just take it there.”
“It’s a long way.”
I remembered seeing a map of Equestria. I figured a trip to Vanhoover would take just about one whole day. “Would it be cheaper to ship it or let me fly it?”
Bend considered that. “I suppose it would cost less to let you take it. We’re worried about security, though.”
I had been considering what I would do the next time I was anywhere near drugs. If I could somehow get free enough to visit the police, tell them I was working for the mafia, cut a deal and somehow get their protection, maybe things would be better for me. Then again, maybe I would wind up dead.
This was an opportunity, however. If I could prove my innocence before Spangles contacted me, maybe it would speed up the process of getting me home. It was dangerous, it was stupid, but I was going to try my best to become a narc. It was the best way out of this that I could see, although I wasn’t sure if my mother would be proud.
Bend shrugged. “Well, I guess I’ll send a message to Vanhoover and tell them to expect you.”
He gave me the address and helped hook up the cart. I trotted outside and took off. Vanhoover was in roughly the same direction as Cloudsdale, just a lot farther. Turning northwest, I settled in for a long flight.
I looked at the castle while passing by. I’d noticed a common appearance among the burly guards that surrounded the place. Their armor was uniform, and most had white coats. I wondered how they managed to find so many ponies colored that way.
Passing beneath Cloudsdale, I wove between the rainbow falls. They looked haphazard to me, but I’d heard that the weather factory was apparently very good at keeping unintentional spills to a minimum.
I kept going for a while. Based on the movement of the sun, I calculated that I had flown without a break for a couple of hours. Wings are structured much differently than legs, and it was surprising that I wasn’t worn out completely from the effort.
There was a forest below, and I spotted a small lake nestled within the trees. Noticing a piece of clear land large enough to park the cart, I circled down.
I wasn’t sure it was safe to drink the water, but I wanted to just rest for a moment rather than quenching a large thirst. As I unhooked from the cart, I heard wings. Four griffons circled overhead and came in for a landing. I hadn’t seen them approach, so perhaps they had been following me. I felt a little bad about being taken by surprise. What good is paranoia if you don’t even look over your shoulder now and then?
“Just out for a flight?” one of them asked.
I gestured to the cart. “Business trip.”
“What’s in the cart?” asked a second one.
“I don’t know, actually.” I had been planning to look as soon as I could, but now that I had company, that might be a while longer.
“Are you friends with Tally?” I asked.
All four of them sneered unpleasantly. “You might say that.”
The griffons began to walk towards me menacingly. I did the only sensible thing and attempted a hasty getaway.
Griffons have large, powerful wings. They aren’t as maneuverable as a pony, but have more in the way of pure thrust. I learned that in the book I had read about pegasus flight. It gave tips for racing against griffons and the natural abilities ponies could use to their advantage.
In level flight, the top speed of the two species was similar. Since the forest around the lake was blocking my way, I had to gain some altitude first.
My breakaway wasn’t nearly as large as I had hoped. Griffons are better at vertical climbs. I glanced back, realizing that leveling out into a flatter trajectory would only loose me more ground. I was stuck, but couldn’t just give up.
The five of us had probably passed five hundred feet when I felt the first grip of claws around my back legs. I managed to shake off the first attempt, but after that they were all over me. I saw talons slicing through the air towards my face and instinctively pulled away from them. Basically, I fell straight down.
The sudden reversal made me feel far heavier than normal, and the griffons dropped me. Remembering a little experiment I had conducted with a scale, I tried to increase my personal gravity. Tucking my wings and legs tight, I hurtled towards the ground so fast that I was forced to close my eyes to slits to protect them from the wind.
Ponies are smaller and more aerodynamic, and there was no way a griffon would catch me in a dive. All good things must come to an end, however, and the ground came rushing up to meet me.
I had no idea what kind of maximum performance my wings were capable of. I felt like I was going way too fast to pull up gently, but fear for your life makes you decide to do weird things. With a quick reversal of as much gravity as I could and spreading my feathers as wide as they would go, I tried to slow down.
There was so much force from the wind on my wings that I thought they would rip off at the joints. Gritting my teeth at the strain, I changed the angle slightly to convert some of my downward velocity into lateral motion. The trees were getting bigger and bigger as I began to actually fly instead of fall.
I zoomed through the forest canopy, still not level. I wasn’t going to slam into the ground with my head, but it would still be a pretty fast impact. The trees suddenly disappeared and the ground sloped down towards the lake, giving me another few feet to descend. I skipped off the top of the water once before my hooves penetrated the surface and I tumbled into the chilly depths. It was a sudden—but survivable—stop.
I halfway hoped the griffons would crash while trying to follow me down. No such luck. As I raised my head out of the lake, I saw them land on the shore and stand scowling at me.
I figured a creature that was half bird and half cat probably didn’t like water. Sure enough, it was only reluctantly that the four of them flew out to where I was treading water and began their attack.
Taking a gulp of air, I dove. Opening my eyes, I could see them waiting on me to surface. I could only hold my breath so long, but if I came up I would be at their mercy.
I wondered if I could try another steep climb. The only way it would work was if I could get some surprise by popping out of the water suddenly. It’s hard to gulp in fear of a desperate plan when you’re holding your breath, but when you’re scared enough anything is possible.
I was able to shoot out of the water fast enough to surprise the four griffons. I didn’t get nearly as high as last time, however, and they began to grapple with me again. I attempted the “drop like a rock” trick a second time, but all I succeeded in doing was pulling all of them into the lake.
It felt like I might have a slight buoyancy advantage. Not only was I lighter, but I had fewer feathers to become waterlogged. Before I could figure out a way to act on that, talons painfully raked my side. I aimed a kick in the direction the attack had come from and felt my hoof connect with something.
The griffons may have been taking turns breathing while keeping me underwater. All I could see was a swirl of bubbles and a confusing rush of body parts as I struggled. Something tinted the water red. Blood? Was it mine?
The first terrified scream was loud enough that I heard it even underwater. I was quickly released and struggled to the surface. A different voice cried out in horror. The griffon beside me was yanked out of the water roughly by a huge set of jaws. Not far away, an enormous creature with four heads had risen out of the water. I tried to remember it from mythology. A hydra?
Two of the monster’s heads were currently occupied with chewing on my attackers. The remaining pair of griffons and I turned to flee, our own clash forgotten. I glanced over my shoulder in fear. One of the escaping griffons was snapped out of the sky. The still-hungry fourth head turned towards me.
Once again, gravity was on my side and I managed to dodge out of the way, only losing a few hairs out of my tail. I shot into the trees, only slowing down once I saw the hydra hadn’t left the lake.
I spent a few minutes calming down. I wiped my forehead with a wing, although it didn’t seem to help much. Maybe if the rest of me wasn’t soaked.
Checking over my body, I found a few scratches in my side. With my wings folded, the injury was hidden. There was a little blood, but the cold water had helped stifle it.
Venturing back out of the woods, I saw that the hydra was gone and the surface of the late was still. Without taking my eyes off it, I carefully hooked back up to the cart and flew away. This time, I was very careful to check for any followers.
I was getting hungry by the time Vanhoover came into sight. I felt a little tired, but attributed it to the shock of fighting for my life. It was lucky that the place I was going was near the edge of the city, because I certainly didn’t want to fly any further than I had to.
There was a house that looked a little shabby. I compared the address on the mailbox to the one I had memorized, and walked up to the door. My knock was answered by a thin stallion who looked like he might be a little jittery.
He stared at my face for several seconds before nervously asking, “Who are you?”
“My name’s Miller.”
He nodded, still staring at me with wide eyes. “Oh, okay.”
The two of us went to the cart. It contained familiar-looking bags with powdery contents. As we carried them through the front door, I paused, looking at a mirror on the wall. There was dried blood all over my face. I lifted my wing, spotting a stain on the feathers that had transferred from my injury. Wiping my face had been a mistake.
“Can I use your restroom?” I asked.
The pony was quick to nod. “Anything you need.”
Well, since he was offering, I went ahead and took a quick shower. It was a little weird using a random pony’s bathroom, but not having clothes to worry about made it a little easier.
I opened the door The pony was standing there, still looking nervous. “I finished unloading the cart,” he said.
“Thank you.” I nodded. “Listen, I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
He nodded quickly and we stood there awkwardly for a moment. “Well,” I said, “I’ll be going, then.”
I went back outside and hitched to the cart again. My stomach was rumbling, and I decided to go find something to eat.
It was now early afternoon. It had taken a little longer to get to Vanhoover than I anticipated, although I certainly couldn’t be faulted for failing to plan on getting jumped by four griffons and a hydra.
I found a little restaurant and parked the cart. As I walked towards the door, two uniformed unicorns blocked my path. They were both fairly large, a good portion of it being in the width dimension.
“Mr. Miller, we’re with the Vanhoover Police. We’d like to ask you a few questions.”
I looked back and forth between the two of them. There was a lot of both to take in. Too many donuts, I figured. Unsure how to respond, I said the first thing that I thought. “But…I was just about to have lunch.”
This did not seem to phase them. My mind was racing, trying to figure out what the two overweight cops wanted with me. If it was about the drugs, why hadn’t they busted me with the evidence back at the house?
“Would you like to come downtown and answer a few questions?” asked one.
“No, not really. I’m tired after flying here from Canterlot. I’m hungry, and I still have to fly back today.”
“That wasn’t a question,” growled the other officer.
“Am I under arrest?”
The pair of them glanced at each other. Maybe they hadn’t expected me to be so difficult. Neither had I, but faced with some law abiding ponies for once, I was being a little pushy. It was only fair, though; they were pushing me. Luckily not physically, because they weighed a lot more than I did.
“You aren’t under arrest.”
“Then good day to you, gentlecolts.” I turned and went into the restaurant. I sat at a secluded corner table and picked up the menu. As I was reading, I heard two chairs slide out and two significant posteriors settle into them. I lowered the menu. The cops had joined me at the table.
“Do you know what this is?” asked one of them. He placed a small object that looked a little like a snow globe onto the table. The inside of the glass was completely frosted with white.
I shook my head. The cop said, “It’s a truth-teller. I’m sure you can guess what it does.”
“I have no idea.” I rolled my eyes.
The globe suddenly flashed red. Both police ponies smirked. “You’re lying.”
“I’m also wondering why you want to talk to me so badly.”
Without a pause, the police launched into questioning. “Mr. Miller, what do you do for a living?”
It was the second time they had called me by name. That worried me. For a pony who hadn’t been around that long and didn’t have an official ID, they sure had caught onto me fast.
Answering the question, I said, “I’m an employee at Canterlot Machining and Carpentry.”
“Why are you in Vanhoover?”
“I was making a delivery for work.”
“What was it?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t load the cart.” It was a truth, although not exactly the one they had asked for. The police may have noticed that I didn’t give a straight answer, but they didn’t follow up. Whew, just barely managed to avoid that one.
“Have you ever killed anyone?”
I almost had a heart attack. The answer was no, but I hesitated before saying so. I was not exactly innocent, but I wasn’t a murderer, either. The police seemed disappointed that the shock question hadn’t gotten me to break.
I faked an exasperated sigh. “Look, where I’m from this would be an illegal interrogation. I don’t really know how Equestrian laws work, but at the very least it’s unethical. Come back when you actually have something to charge me with.”
Ignoring my third sentence, the police kept asking questions. “So you’re not from Equestria?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Where are you from?”
I stared at them. “If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.”
Both cops looked at the globe. It remained white.
“Also, you’re both fat.”
Still white.
In a huff, both cops got up and left. I hurried through my lunch, worried that insulting a police officer might be illegal. I still wasn’t in cuffs by the time I finished, so got the cart and headed back towards Canterlot.
Maybe it was just the two cops that had talked to me, but I felt very uncomfortable going forward with my plans to snitch on the drug operation. I wondered if I would have been more forthcoming to nicer police officers. I realized that talking to Spangles was much different than communicating with law enforcement.
On the way back, I kept my guard up but wasn’t attacked again. I turned up the paranoia to maximum. Remember kids, it's justified when they really are out to get you.
All the effort I put into being hyperaware of my surroundings left me a nervous wreck by the time I got back to the shop. The falling night didn’t help, and it was fully dark by the time I got back.
The shop was closed, so I left the cart and a note for Bend. Maybe I would get a bit of overtime for being gone all day.
I trotted back to the apartment, giving my tired wings a rest. My scratched side ached just a little. I thought back on the day, trying to figure out what I might need to plan for. For example, what if Tally asked me if I had met up with some of his “friends”?
I knew for sure that three of the four griffons were dead. I felt lucky to have survived. As a matter of fact, that had been the biggest direct threat to my life that I had encountered in Equestria so far. That didn’t mean I could get lazy now. In my current situation, I’d be a fool to think there weren’t any more things or ponies out there that wanted me dead.
I went up to my apartment. Unlocking the door, I spotted a single white feather lying on the kitchen counter. There was also a letter that had been slipped under the door.
The envelope was unmarked. I put it down for a moment and looked at the feather. I couldn’t imagine why it was there. I also doubted it would have landed in that spot by accident. Whoever it belonged to had deliberately placed it there so I would notice. What was this? Somepony wanted me to know that they had been in my apartment. I quickly checked everything I owned, which didn't take long. Nothing was missing or out of pace.
Returning to the counter, I picked up the letter and was preparing to open it when there was a knock on the door frame. In my haste to check everything, I hadn’t closed the door yet. I turned and saw Vinyl standing there.
“I see that the hospital let you go,” I said.
She nodded. “Everypony was so nice. I feel like I was a little unworthy. Heck, I’m lucky that I’m not in prison right now.”
“For what?” I asked.
“I stopped by and talked to Octavia earlier. She said that she told you what I was doing.”
I glanced away. “Sorry. I didn’t want to say anything.”
I realized Vinyl was having a hard time meeting my eyes as well. She said, “I just feel that it’s easier now that you know. I hated to have to hide things.”
I paused and took a deep breath. “Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something like that. I have something to show you. Something I haven't shown anypony.”
I invited her to sit. She watched with curiosity as I stuck my head into the closet and found my cell phone. I placed the device down in front of her. I pressed the button on the side. Nothing happened. The battery was dead.
“What is it?” she asked, looking at the shiny dark screen. “Some kind of little black mirror?”
“I…um…yeah. That’s right.”
You should go ahead and tell her. What are you afraid of, Miller?
Shut up, subconscious! I don’t see you fighting hydras!