The land around Sweet Apple Acres was dead silent that afternoon, save for the sound of a man’s heart getting shattered.
The last thing I had to remember him by, and it’s gone. Making his way forward, Gale started crying. She’s gone and it’s all my fault.
He wiped away his tears before placing a hand on top of destroyed driver’s side front fender, crouching to get a better look. Twilight said I crash landed. I thought she was exaggerating, but now? Now I’m not so sure . . . "This kind of damage ‘ll take months to fix.”The whole front clip is bent. Jesus, how hard did I land anyways?
He slowly moved further along toward the door from his crouched position, running his hand across the faded and smashed surface of the fender along the way. Glass is all gone, I’m sure of it. But what about the rest of the door?
Standing back up, he reached for the handle. Come on girl, help me out here. “Great, the hinges are junk.” After another minute of struggling he managed to open the door and saw the front seats. Damn, that’s a bit of blood right there . . . Grimacing, he leaned into the car and started searching for any of his effects that might have survived intact.
“Well there’s not much here that’s usable as is; but there are a few things that might be salvageable.” Backing up from the door, he turned and started back down the car.
He winced as he caught sight of the two foot long indentation in the quarter panel. Fucking hell that’s a big dent.
“At least it’s shallow.” Big Macintosh drawled.
Gale quickly glanced over his shoulder to see the farm pony staring at the quarter panel.
“Well, I guess there’s that.” he admitted with a sigh of defeat before moving around to the back of the car. His heart sank as he laid down to inspect the undercarriage.
“Dammit.” As he crawled as far as possible under the car, it’s condition finally started to hit home. “She’s all kinds of screwed now” Taking his time, he squirmed further under the car, careful not to bump into the several rocks that were probably holding it in the air.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever get ‘er back into driving shape, the driver’s set of leaf spring shackles are broken, the diff looks cracked, and there was a lot of general wear and tear to begin with.. All the while the front’s not looking much better.” he said, taking as close of a look as possible. “Good god, that snapped a torsion bar . . . ”
Big Macintosh was about to ask what he meant when Gale realized he didn’t know.
“Basically, the entire car’s suspension is shot, it’s a miracle the things sitting at the height it is, those rocks are probably the only things propping it up.”
Walking back behind the trunk, Gale took a look at the partially dented vinyl roof. Thank whatever god may exist that this wasn’t Sam Posey’s Challenger . . . Sighing he commented. “Well, that’s not that bad I suppose. I mean, it’s not good but it could have been much worse.” A thought occurred to him shortly before he started walking around to the other side.
Stopping where he was, Gale pulled out his keys. Seriously, when did I take these out of the ignition? Walking back to the trunk, he tried opening it. Much to his surprise, the latch still worked and it popped right up. Unfortunately most of the contents had been thrown around like farmhouse in a tornado.
Looks like most everything’s intact . . . “Huh, it’s not as bad as I thought.” Sighing, Gale started taking all of his belongings out of the trunk and setting them into a pile.
“So do you mind my asking what all this is?” Big Macintosh walked up, stopping a few feet beyond the pile.
“This? This is basically everything that I own,” Looking up at him, Gale continued. “I know it’s not much, but it’s what I could take with me when I left.” Sitting down, Gale started sorting out all his belongings into several different groups, all the while muttering to himself. “Electronics, clothes, books and shit, and . . . these . . . “
Big Macintosh had stopped short of asking what Gale was muttering about when he saw the expression on his face, but after a few minutes his curiosity got the better of him. “Gale, can I ask what those are?” Pointing a hoof at a group of two objects.
Closing his eyes, Gale mouthed something to himself before answering. “They’re the last things my father gave to me, and I hope I never have to use them for anything ever again.”
Well, that’s not very ominous. Big Macintosh thought before deciding it a good idea to get Twilight. “I think I’ll go an’ get Twilight, If you’re ready to head back that is.”
Without missing a beat, Gale responded. “Yeah, I’m not so sure I want to be out here much longer . . . Go ahead.”
Gale waited until Big Macintosh was out of sight before bursting into tears. God, but I wish I was dreaming! Why is this happening to me!?
After a few minutes, Gale gathered himself for one last inspection. This is a bad idea, I know . . . but I just have to see.
Slowly but surely, Gale stood back up and made his way to the driver’s door again. I’d hope the release worked, but that would be too much of a miracle. Just as he’d thought, it didn’t work. Why am I not surprised?
Gale was about to try the hood latch when he heard a few sets of hooves approaching. Either I was moping around for awhile, or they’re quick. Turning to his right, he saw Twilight, Big Macintosh and Applejack.
How did they get back so quickly? . . . Turning back to the car, he began searching for the hood latch. Dammit, why isn’t this working? He kept trying to open the hood until they were within talking distance. “So, I see you brought some friends.”
“Gale I - I’m sorry this happened,” Twilight started, walking up and dropping her saddlebags. ”but I promise to do as much as I can to fix this.” Turning around to Applejack, she asked. “Is there anywhere you could put this stuff for him? There’s no way it’d all fit in the Library right now.”
“Twilight,” He started, turning to her with a bag over his shoulder. “I’ve been in your library and there’s plenty of room.”
“Gale, do you know how many questions it would raise for us to haul all of this through the middle of town so shortly after you got here?” At his blank stare, she continued. “You haven’t been here for very long so I guess you wouldn’t know . . . But a large number of ponies are extremely skittish and the way you acted earlier today probably didn’t help things much.”
“Well, can you teleport them there or some shit like that? I really don’t want to leave this all out here.”
It’s always my fault, isn’t it? “And I guess I’ll just have to be more careful around most peo-ponies . . . “ Wonder how long it’ll take me to remember that . . . I hope I don’t have to find out. Walking back to his pile, he shouldered what looked to Twilight like an oddly shaped Cello case.I’m not letting anyone near this.
After a moment of realization, Gale turned to Twilight asked. “Hey, you opened the door and got me out the first night, right? Could you get this thing open now?”
“Hang on,” Twilight replied before turning to Applejack. ”Aj can I ask you something?” Walking back where the Apples were standing by the pile of belongings, she approached Applejack, she said. “Aj Could you find somewhere to put most of this for now? It would cause too much of a scene to bring it all back this soon.” Applejack looked over at the boxes, then back to Twilight before asking. “Twi, I think you could at least try movin’ them for him, can’tcha? It seems obvious that this all means somethin’ to him, though he probably won’t say it.” Nodding in agreement, Twilight hollered over her shoulder. “Gale, we’re going back to the library for now, it’s getting late.” Before trying, and successfully, teleporting his things back to her room in the library.
Well that’s a way to avoid a question if I’ve ever seen one. At least my stuff is safe, . . . I hope. Deciding it best not to object, Gale slung a bag over each shoulder and started off towards town.
All the while, Applejack brought up a few concerns to Twilight. “Twi, are you sure this is a good idea? I mean I know he don’t look to dangerous but are you really okay with him sleeping in your main room?”
Chuckling to herself, Twilight responded. “With the way he handled figuring out sleeping arrangements last night, I have no doubt that he’s okay. At least, for now.” Twilight glanced down quickly hoping against hope that Aj didn’t ask what she meant by that.
“Hey, am I gonna get in trouble for walking by myself?” Gale called out from over his shoulder as he neared the main gate. “Because I really don’t want to spend a night in jail for doing something as simple as Jay-Walking.”
Strolling through town garnered Gale many a stare from passing locals. Twilight did her best to distract him from this by asking about his life.
“So when we spoke the other day you told me a lot of things about your people as a whole, but I still don’t know much about you.” Looking over to him, she continued, “So Gale, can I hear anything about you as a pony?”
Maneuvering around some of the mingling townsponies, Gale thought to himself. Ugh, I get that’s how their language works but damn will that get annoying quickly . . . Taking a deep breath, he began. “Well, there’s not much to tell in all honesty. I was born and raised in a small midwest town, moved to the big city for awhile when I was growing up, then moved out east for the latter half of highschool and college.”
Quickly taking note of the thinning crowd, Twilight wondered Huh, I wonder why everypony’s gone home so early . . . Looking back to Gale, she continued. “Is it common for your people’s families to move around like that?” The look on Gale’s face was enough of a response for Twilight. “That bad, huh?”
With a shake of his head, Gale replied. “No, it’s not like that. It’s just that, well . . . It was more the circumstances for why people leave that aren’t always good”- Lost in a moment of thought, Gale rambled on. -“Let’s see here . . . death in the family, divorce, pris-”
Looking back down, Gale stopped talking when he saw Twilight’s expression.
Wearing an expression of distress, Twilight carefully asked “Were any of those the reason for your family?”
“No, no, ours was more for a change of scenery.” Well, that and a few other things that you don’t need to know . . .
The conversation died out shortly after their exchange. They walked in silence until the library came into view.
As they approached the library, Twilight turned to him and said. “Look, I know I ignored your question earlier Gale, but the truth is that I couldn’t have opened it.” At his confused expression, she clarified. ”The night you got teleported here and crashed, when we found you I tried all I could think of to open the door. After a few minutes it became obvious to me that brute force wasn’t going to work, so I began trying some of the lock tempering spells I know. After a few minutes of doing that I came to the conclusion that I was just too tired to move an object as heavy as one of those doors probably is. I only just realized that there was another reason.”
Gale cut her off by opening the library’s door and saying. “I still can’t get over the irony of a tree becoming a library . . . “
Glaring at him, she sighed before continuing. “Well, I realized it earlier-” Once again, Twilight found herself cut off as a blur of a pegasus came crashing through the doorway between them before slamming into a bookcase.
I’ll tell him later . . . Glancing over to Gale, Twilight sighed. “Would you like to handle this, or shall I?”
Dropping his duffle bags, Gale started toward the fallen pegasus only to be startled as she hopped right back up, brushed herself off, and walked back to them.
Okay, whatever these ponies are made of, I want some.
As she walked over, Twilight, who it seemed was just going to ignore her entrance, struck up a conversation. “Rainbow Dash, what brings you here?”
Taking a second to gather her bearings, Rainbow responded. “Oh, well I was over watering the flower garden at the town hall and I overheard the mayor saying something about you and Gale heading back here again. So I thought I’d stop by.”
Well, at least she’s not being asked to spy on me. Satisfied with this answer, Twilight went on. “Is she still going on about how I’m quote ‘A nuisance to society’?”
“Yeah, she’s probably never going to let that go.”
“I mess up [one spell!”
Closing the door, Gale walked over to, set his bags beside and promptly fell onto, the couch and said. “You know, I sort of want to know what you’re talking about, but I’m also slightly frightened.”
Twilight’s ear twitched as she replied. “It’s really nothing to worry about, just an accident.”
Walking to one of the other couches, she asked.“Rainbow, are you going to join us?-” Without looking over her shoulder,Twilight could tell Rainbow was about to leave. Before she could, however, Twilight quickly added. “- Come on, Gale’s a nice pony.”
“Ehem. Once again, not a pony.”
Twilight tossed a glare at Gale before continuing, “Rainbow, don’t you think that, if anything, Gale deserves an explanation?”
A wave of emotions washed over Rainbow before she sighed and agreed. “Yeah, I guess he does.” She then made her way to where the two were seated, all the while thinking. This is a bad idea . . .
Sitting back down, Rainbow began. “So, Twilight asked me to help her test some long distance teleportation spell because I’m the fastest flyer in the world,”
“I don’t recall that being a reason.”
Rainbow glared at Twilight for a second before starting again. “Anyways, we tested a few smaller scale spells for a few days so I could get used to the effects.” She stopped talking long enough to grab a glass of water off the end table. “Thanks again Spike.” Downing her drink, she continued. ”So the day we’d decided to do the final experiment I happened to be on call for the weather team, and I had to go all over town just to help clean up other ponies’ messes. Ugh, I still can’t believe Carrot Top made such a big scene about her rainstorm being ten minutes late, I mean it’s not like it’s-”
“Ehem, I think you’re getting a bit sidetracked there Ms. Dash.” Reaching into one of his bags, Gale started fishing around. “Please continue though, and don’t mind me. I’m just seeing if something’s here is all.”
“Right. Like I said, I was having to move all over town, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when right as Twilight was ready to cast the spell that one of the other weather ponies called out to me and I had to see what they needed. Before I left though, I told Twilight to be ready so she could cast it as soon as I came back. Long story short, I was kind of flying back a bit too fast and yelled for her to cast it before I was stopped.”
“Well, that doesn’t seem like much of a bright idea.” Still feeling around for something, he mumbled to himself. Where did they go?
“Considering how much everything went to Tartarus from there on out? You’re probably right.” Levitating a glass of water to herself, Twilight interrupted. “But it’s not all her fault either. The spell I was using hasn’t been used in a very long time, I’m not sure of quite what caused it to backfire in such a way, but I do intend to find out.”
Once they stopped their tangent, Rainbow began again. “So as I was saying, Twilight accidentally cast the spell too early and I got sent farther through what looked like a cloud tunnel. I’m not sure how long I was in it though because when I got out it looked like it was late in the afternoon.”
Leaning forward, Gale interjected. “Wait, do you have any idea what time it could have been?”
“No, I don’t. All I know is the place I’d ended up at, or maybe it was in, looked incredible. The everything had such a vibrant color to it, I don’t know what else I can say about it.”
The central U.S. in the fall . . . Gale interrupted her once more to add. “Yeah, that part of the country is real nice right around this time of year.”
“Hay yeah it was! Anyways, I went flying off to the west looking for anypony, or any place I could think of. Obviously I didn’t find any.”
“But,” Gale questioned. “you did see something that caught your eye?”
“I was getting there actually. So yeah, I saw this thing, which turned out to be you, I guess, moving down a road.”
As she continued, her hoof drifted up to scratch behind her neck.
“So yeah, I saw you start swerving all over the place and then you shot out across the water. I remember thinking something like ‘That can’t be good!’ and trying to grab it.”
Gale blinked for a few seconds before interrupting again. “Wait, wait, wait, just hold up a second. You’re telling me that you just decided to try and lift an object that is not only larger than you, but much heavier?”
Momentarily halting his search, Gale brought his hands up and said “The fact that you even managed to do so for as long as you did boggles my mind, but I have a question.”
Her curiosity getting the better of her, Twilight asked first. “About what?”
Giving her a sideways glance, he continued. “Why?” Raising an eyebrow, he went back to searching his duffle bag.
“What do you mean ‘why’?” Rainbow asked, dumbfounded. “What was I supposed to do, let you. . . you know . . .?”
Looking back up at the two, Gale finished her sentence. “Die? That’s what you we’re going to say, right? Well, I don’t know about you two, but I can swim better than most of the people I knew could have dreamed. It came naturally to someone raised along a coastline, like I was.”
Deciding to continue his search later, Gale moved his duffle bag back beside him and continued. “While what you said makes me think highly of your peoples for raising you to value life. I’m afraid you misinterpreted my question.”
“How so?” Rainbow asked, seeming to get annoyed.
“You assume I was asking why save me, what I meant was why follow my car in the first place. In all seriousness, I’d been going along a single stretch of road for well over thirty miles and I know I passed several different cars, so what made mine so special?”
Once again, Rainbow reached up to scratch her neck with a hoof. “Um, well I had been following you for a little while, but mainly because I wondered if you were going towards another town.”
listening to their conversations, a few pieces seemed to fall into place and Twilight suddenly became suspicious of her pegasus friend. Gale caught her slip of the tongue at the same moment as Twilight, but they both held back until they knew for sure.
Deciding to see where this went, Gale asked another question. “So, what drew you to my car anyways? I mean, I know she’s got an exhaust leak, but I doubt you would have found that interesting. Unless you somehow heard the music I listen to, which isn’t impossible I might add, but highly unlikely.”
Seemingly relieve that the subject had been somewhat changed, Rainbow made yet another slip up as she answered. “Well, I thought it looked cool. All roughed up like that.”
Realizing what she had done, Rainbow made a move to get up saying she needed to get another glass of water. While she went into the kitchen, Gale and Twilight exchanged a glance that told them they knew exactly what the other was thinking: She’s hiding something.
Deciding not to push his luck, Gale feigned becoming tired in an attempt to convince Rainbow to head home. “I don’t know about you, Ms. Dash, but I’m kind of beat after today.” Gale stifled an actual yawn as he continued. “Maybe we can finish this tomorrow, I’m ready for bed.
In a manner of complete coincidence, Twilight had the same idea as Gale for the second time that night. Getting up from her position on one of the sofas, she stretched before saying. “I think Gale’s right on this. I’ve had a long day too.”
Once she got the message, Rainbow Dash got up and started for the door. “Okay, I’ll see you around Twilight, oh, and you too Gale.”
Once she’d left the library, Twilight walked towards the stairs. ”Okay Gale, you get the bed in the guest room, Spike agreed to sleep in the hallway.” She nearly whispered as she ascended the staircase. “Just be careful not to wake him in the middle of the night. The tree’s fireproof, but I doubt you are.”
Making his way up the stairs, Gale wondered aloud. “I don’t know about you, but Ms. Dash seemed kind of defensive earlier, what do you think?”
Twilight waited until he caught up to her on the second floor before she answered. “Why do you keep calling all of us, save the princess, ‘Ms.’? But yeah, I do think she was a little off tonight.” Walking to the door for her room, she commented. “Well, we should probably continue this in the morning.“
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I am pretty beat.”