//------------------------------// // A Peculiar Mode of Transport // Story: Gears in the Void // by Lab //------------------------------// Land and sky blurred as I tumbled through the air, head over hoof, after being launched by the mystic explosion I’d somewhat-inadvertently caused. Not going to lie—it hurt, but you should have seen how much airtime I got. This record was one that would remain uncontested for a long time. The ground smashed into me once, twice, two-and-a-half times, each impact accentuated with a grunt of pain. When my trip finally slid to a stop, my ears were ringing and every part of me ached like I’d gone hoof-to-toe with a heavyweight boxing champion. Even with the pain, I felt more alive than ever before. However, I still couldn’t bring myself to move, let alone stand up, so I laid there trying to catch my breath until a familiar tan pegasus wandered into my vision, worried about something. His mouth flapped like he was trying to talk, but I heard nothing. Figuring he was looking for some sign of life, I gave a small smile. He relaxed. “Can’t hear you right now, please come back later,” I said weakly. He rolled his eyes and mumbled something I wouldn’t have been able to hear even if I wasn’t deaf. He held a hoof to his chin until an idea flashed across his face. Softie laid down haphazardly. No, he must have been imitating how I was positioned. Then he stood up and gave me a questioning look. “Yeah yeah, I gotcha. Give me a bit, I’m a little sore.” My words were almost audible that time, so my hearing must have been returning. Pain coursed through me as I rolled onto my belly and got my legs underneath me. Shaky legs slowly pushed me up and made me wince. Softie dashed toward me as everything tilted to the right. His touch still surprised me, and I pulled away from the contact and ended up falling over the other way. The second attempt was far more successful, and Softie wasn’t even necessary this time. Not wanting to lose my balance once more, I flexed my joints carefully. Nothing seemed broken, luckily, making that the second time Equestria missed an easy chance to seriously injure me. Not bad for under a day’s worth of accidents. I laughed at the sight to my right. You could see each spot where I bounced, even the particularly rough half-bounce. Where I started my slide, some of the grass had been torn away. As for the junk heap, it wasn’t really a heap any more: it was more like a crater with metallic confetti scattered over a wide area. “—alright?” Softie spoke slowly, but his words were coming in clearly. “There we go. Uh, sorry about the mess.” A sigh of relief escaped my lungs. “No wonder you didn’t make any promises. Didn’t think I would have to be serious about telling somepony not to blow themselves up.” He shook his head and sighed. “Easily the most painful way I’ve seen to earn your cutie mark.” My face screwed up in pain from it, but I couldn’t help bouncing up and down in glee. “Are you serious? That’s awesome!” I turned and looked at it, grinning all the while. Three linked, grey gears rested on a stylized, steel-blue burst shape. I didn’t remember the show perfectly, but shouldn’t there have been some profound revelation on what I wanted to do with my life? Shit, did I have that thought while impersonating a skipping stone? “I’m glad you finally got your cutie mark, Miss, but you’re awfully beat up. Why don’t you come inside and get some rest? I’ll bring you to Ponyville later to see a doctor.” “I’ll be fine, I’m just a little sore. ” He didn’t look too amused at my attempts to wave him off. “Nothing is broken or bleeding. I think. Certainly no need to see a doc. Nope, not necessary at all.” “You were launched what must have been twenty meters! How can you be fine?” Oh good, ponies used metric. My hearing must not have fully returned, because no sound came from Softie’s stamp. “Earth pony vitality?” I shrugged. “Earth ponies may be sturdy, but that only goes so far. Don’t think it covers being caught in a blast that big.” “You make it sound like I haven’t been in an explosion before.” The confused expression on his face sent me into a giggling fit. “How big did it end up being?” “Didn’t see it, exactly, but I’m sure they heard it over in Ponyville. Maybe even Canterlot. What did you even do?” “I was trying to take apart a lamp to see how it worked. It may have still had light in it.” He sat down hard, a small ring of dust flowing outwards. “You purposely broke a spell pattern to see how it worked?” “Is that what they’re called?” “And you don’t even know what they’re called, that’s just perfect.” Soft struggled to stay calm. “To think I left a pile of those things sitting so close to my hotel. First chance I get, I’m getting rid of them.” “I’ll take them off your hooves.” Hopefully, my grin didn’t make me look too excited.. “No!” he shouted. Soft exhaled slowly and shook his head. “I mean, no. I’m sorry but I can’t risk that happening again. I’m not going to be responsible for any more self-injury you cause.” “Pfft. I know what I did wrong now. I promise there won’t be any more exploding.” He raised an eyebrow. “Probably.” His expression changed to exasperation, but he remained silent. “At any rate it won’t be as big as the last one, and you won’t have to worry about that eyesore of a junk heap anymore.” Seeing no change in Soft, I tried my best to make a face adorable enough for pleading. “Pleeeease.” “I’ll be back with the cart. I’m going to regret this...” Wait, that worked? Grumbling to himself, Softie turned and left. Good call on his part, my victory dance wasn’t graceful nor was it a dance by any definition. When Soft returned with the cart, its large size surprised me. A cart half that size would have still had room for me after loading up all the scrap. Any larger and it would have taken two ponies to pull. Or just Big Macintosh. Resting on four solid wheels, the cart was made entirely of wood and nails—not one other bit of metal was in sight. “You sure you’ll be fine pulling something this big with your injuries?” He pointed at the simple harness. “I said was fine. Looks easy enough. I’ll be sure to bring it back when I’m done.” I gave the yoke a quick once over and nodded, satisfied. He hesitated, shuffling his hooves and doing his damndest not to look me in the eye. “Here’s the thing. You’re already taking the trash away, so I figured I’d let you use the cart I was trying to get rid of. I wanted to sell it, but I think this would be a far better use. That way you don’t have to come back when you’re done. Just head down that road over there, and you’ll be in Ponyville shortly after nightfall.” Pow, right in the self-confidence. “Don’t worry, I got the message. You won’t see me around here again.” My sagging shoulders made dragging the cart slightly more difficult. It wasn’t that unbearable to be around me, was it? He called after me, “I’m sorry, it’s just, well, I haven’t known you for a day and I already need a break.” Two-hit combo! “Alright, you can go now.” He didn’t need to be told twice and he flew back to his hotel. I muttered, “Why not go in for the knockout and say I won’t find anypony who’ll tolerate me?” “You won’t find anybody who will tolerate you. Seriously, what’s with the ‘anypony-somepony’ nonsense?” “Thanks Dave, I can always count you. Where’d you disappear to anyways?” “I was more than a little stunned thanks to what you consider science. You got lucky. Good distance, by the way.” He climbed onto the cart as he spoke, hoisting himself over the side with ease. “I know, right? It was fun though. I’d say earning my cutie mark was a fair tradeoff.” I removed the yoke and tossed the first lamp into the cart, earning a startled “Watch it!” from Dave. “Nice ass emblem. Fits you, I guess. Did you happen to see where the pieces of that one lamp went?” “Well, judging by the velocity I traveled at and the far smaller mass of the object… why would I have any clue?” The second lamp hadn’t fared so well, it was little more than a sparking lump. “Not that I won’t be looking for it. If it’s intact, I might be able to learn a bit more about it, and I think I can safely remove a pattern if I work slower.” “A lot slower.” “We’ll see how long it takes me to get bored at that speed. It’s not going to be just a five-minute trip to Ponyville.” ”Such a stupid name.” “Figured you’d say something about it eventually. I don’t know why they named all the towns like that, but I’m just going to ignore it while I’m here.” “I can’t even think of what ‘Ponyville’ might be a play on.” Dave chuckled. “Can you imagine a town named Humanville or Manville?” I rolled my eyes. “You’re not the first to mention Humanville, though I don’t think I’ve seen the other one anywhere. Manville almost sounds plausible. Oh! What about Manhattan? That starts with ‘man’.” ”That doesn’t count and you know it.” Soft Down didn’t reappear for the two or three hours it took to locate all the scrap. My hopes were he’d at least come out to apologize, but he was probably still a bit wary of the still-smoking crater I had left. Note to self: ponies don’t like other ponies blowing up their land. In hindsight, I probably should have found a way to write those notes down. I found the pattern from the detonated lamp several paces away from where I had ended up. It was mostly undamaged—a small section of the pattern had taken on the corroded appearance some of the other devices had. Dave tilted his head to the side as he examined the metal. After a moment, he said, “Looks like it deteriorates when it uses up enough energy. That would explain why some of them didn’t work at all, you know, before you launched them into the stratosphere.” “I would be glad to know if any made it that high. Whatever metal this is, it’s sturdy. The explosion barely did anything to it.” I flexed it, surprised that much more force was needed than earlier. “The fresh stuff is stiffer, but I think I can still work with it.” “Just don’t blow us up again. I felt that last one a bit.” He shuddered and ducked behind the wall of the cart. “I don’t like feeling things. Maybe anger at your shenanigans and amazement when you make it to the next day, but nothing physical.” “You get used to it.” My tongue stuck out the side of my mouth as the metal twisted in my hooves. White energy sparked up the tools and my legs, leaving behind small, tingling sensations that rapidly faded. Occasionally, a surge would burst outward in a faint sphere and disappear into the air, leaving a funny taste in my mouth each time. Shnozberries perhaps? “Hey, check it out, Dave. I made a dinosaur!” I chuckled as I held my mangled creation up to him. It wasn’t what I had been trying for, but it really did look like a brontosaurus if you squinted, had the sun in your eyes, and had your head at just the right angle. “I’ve seen socks that look more like a dinosaur than whatever that is. Maybe you should start with a fresh one and actually try to do something productive. Hey, we could even head out like we were supposed to.” I sighed in defeat and bowed my head. “Yeah, you’re right. Soft really doesn’t want me around, so why wait?” “There, there.” Dave patted me. Even though I couldn’t feel it, knowing he was doing so was still reassuring. “You’re getting back into this whole, crazy, social thing. Even I would be a bit rusty if I were stuck in your shoes. Well, nowhere near as rusty as you, but still a little.” “I just didn’t think it’d go this badly. Sure, he didn’t try to shoot me or anything. I doubt he had a gun, but that’s besides the point. I couldn’t even stay up the entire night to make sure nothing happened to him. Passed right out.” ”To... whatever the pony hell is with him! He made it just fine without your help. This world hasn’t gone to shit. You can take it easy. It’s not like you can even explain why you’re so intent on keeping them safe. I’m the only one would believe you, and I already know.” Running down the street telling my life’s story to each pony that looked my direction hadn’t been in my plans in the first place, but Dave’s words really drove it home. Other than him, there was nobody to confide in. “Tartarus. I think they use Tartarus as a hell.” ”Really? How much else do they have from Greek myth? Never mind, I don’t want to know if there’s a chance we have to deal with Cerberus or hydras.” “Well, we could always swing by Froggy—” ”What did I just say? Enough of that, though, we’re talking about you creeping out the ponies. Knock it off, and leave that to their law enforcement.” “Alright, fine. But if—gah!” My forelegs spasmed as energy surged through them, and my work ended up a small distance away. It felt like an electrical shock, but with more of a lingering sensation. ”Maybe you shouldn’t have been fidgeting with it instead of focusing on our conversation. You know, I didn’t think it was possible for it to look less like a dinosaur.” “Yeah yeah, laugh it up, asshole. I’m still trying to get used to not having a steady supply of hints.” “Yeah, that’s right, isn’t it? They still haven’t shown up again?” “Not a one. Wherever they came from, they’re almost definitely done with me." It was still weird not feeling nagging suspicions to go someplace to find stuff. "Let me toss this in back and we’ll shove off.” The mess of tangled metal was casually tossed into the cart, and I took up the yoke. Before I could start moving, the harness nudged me forward, and a faint shimmering surrounded the entire cart. Its contents shifted slightly and the movement stopped, the glow vanishing as well. “Well, that’s interesting.” Dave looked down at something I couldn’t see. “I think there might be more to your ‘dinosaur’ than we thought. Let’s check it out.” My jump didn’t entirely clear the side of the cart, and no amount of flailing kept me from falling. Dave facepalmed. “Open the tailgate, genius.” Despite the dull ache from landing on my back, I laughed at my slip-up. “My bad.” Opening the rear gate caused the cart to move slightly, and the motion was enough that whatever made it move earlier reoccured. It stopped again when I jumped into the rolling cart. With a poke, the sculpture rolled onto its side, and it sparked violently before enveloping the cart with magic and easing it forward. The empty yoke lifted up as if it were being used by an invisible pony. “Isn’t this what the snowplow did when Twilight hit it with the 'Come to Life' spell in ‘Winter Wrap Up’?” Dave observed before noticing the incredulous look I was giving him. “What? I haven’t watched all of them, but that was one of the ones you put on yesterday. This thing is moving much slower though, so I don’t think we have enough power.” I nodded in agreement. “I can fix that. Time to test my theories on removing the patterns.” Four minor accidents later, I had gotten down the technique for not injuring myself and now had a sizeable stack of resources to work with. The replicas were far from identical, and some of them had vastly different effects, but I learned most of the outcome came from what was in contact with the cart. Some minor adjustments later, I had ten chunks of metal that could push the cart. After testing, I found two of them worked better than the original for some reason. I also figured out linking two together was as simple as binding them with a loop, and the cart rolled forward at a noticeably higher speed than when two patterns were used when not attached. What would happen with all of them tied together? The tailgate slammed into my spine, and I almost toppled over the back as the cart lurched to an insane speed. Luckily, the rough terrain bounced the cart enough that it disrupted the spell. It almost went really bad, but I figured I could make it work. Slowing down was as easy as lifting the group up one cluster at a time, and when the final one was removed, the yoke would drop and abruptly brake the cart. The difficulty of rocking turned out to be an advantage I could exploit to steer clumsily. It wasn’t a perfect system, but it would do what I needed it to: hurtle recklessly down a dirt road at breakneck speeds. “We should make it orange again. That was a pretty neat discovery.” “But then we won’t go as fast.” It would be more difficult to learn if the magic wasn’t pushed to its limit. Or maybe it was the lack of danger, and therefore fun, irking me. “And I don’t remember the orange one. Should we go show Soft what we did with his cart?” “It’s yours now. He all but said he was giving it to you. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to see the look on his face, though.” The rattling of my cart must have drawn Softie’s attention away from the counter. He wandered through the front door and just about tripped over his open jaw as I rolled past. “See, told you I wouldn’t kill myself!” Instead of waving back, he promptly retreated inside, muttering something I couldn’t hear. “Almost perfect. I think I would have rather had the jerk faint.” He pointed down the road we needed to use. “Chauffeur, Ponyville please.” “At once, sir.” The two of us chuckled as the cart turned around and zoomed off down the road, my inexperience with the throttle causing the speed to erratically jump around like a teen learning how to drive stick. “I just hope Ponyville is ready for this thing.”