• Published 3rd May 2013
  • 20,345 Views, 1,647 Comments

Moving Day - Timothy48



Moving is hard, especially when it's to another country, and it becomes doubly difficult when you move there unexpectedly and against your will.

  • ...
57
 1,647
 20,345

PreviousChapters Next
Chapter 52 (Require Metallic Solutions)

Chapter 52

*Bang!*

“Fuck,” cursed Allen as he slammed the mower’s front cover down angrily.

It had to happen eventually, he sighed mentally to himself as he held a pair of shattered blades in one hand, and the object of his irritation in the other.

“Stupid, fucking rock,” he spat as he tossed the cantaloupe-sized rock up on the tractor’s platform and climbed up after it. Glaring down at it in disgust, he looked around at the field and shook his head.

Only managed to get about half of it done, and thanks to that rock, that’s all I’m getting done today, he thought bitterly to himself as he punched the starter button and felt the tractor rumble to life beneath him.

Settling his hearing protection over his ears, he pressed the play button on his MP3 player and let the next song in his lineup play as he put the tractor in gear and eased out of the field onto the dirt track that would take him back to the farm where he could hopefully make repairs.

But not today, he thought as he cruised along, I gotta get this tedded first. I’ll worry about replacing the busted knives and fixing the bent turtles later.

Rocks and other loose debris were one of the biggest causes of machine breakdowns in the field, next to general wear and tear. A rock the size of a cantaloupe hitting a pair of blades spinning at several thousand rpm could do a massive amount of damage. Thankfully for Allen, he had spare blades back at the farm, but only one spare turtle. Which meant he’d need to apply some heat and beats to the least bent one and hope for the best.

A blacksmith might be able to make me another one, but I doubt it would be very quick... or cheap, he thought to himself as he reached the southern border of his property. Slowing down, he made the right turn into his driveway and made a beeline for the machine sheds.

Coming to a stop, he was just getting ready to put the tractor into reverse when he saw Honeysuckle come galloping up the laneway as though the devil was after her. Throttling down, he watched her with concern as she came running up to him, her body covered in a lather from running and her mane flying about wildly, a look of unbridled terror in her eyes.

“Hey, what’s going on?” asked Allen in concern as he paused his music and pulled one side of his headphones away so that he could hear her.

Huffing and puffing, she pointed with a sweat-soaked hoof back the way she came and gasped, “Timber wolves... attacking the... others... sent me... to get... help...”

Allen stared at her for a split second as his mind tried to process what he’d just heard, when suddenly a bright, red flare shot up over the treeline, followed seconds later by a loud, blood-chilling scream, caught his attention.

Honey gave a panicked whinny and hopped from hoof to hoof as if unsure what to do before turning to Allen and giving him a desperate look.

Allen wasn’t paying attention to Honey, instead, he gripped the steering wheel tightly and slammed the range lever forward without a word, the tractor easily slipping from neutral into high range as he yanked the throttle wide open, the tractor’s engine going from a quiet burble to a deep-throated roar as dark, black smoke belched from the exhaust pipe.

Startled by Allen’s reaction, Honey stumbled backward and barely had time to open her mouth before Allen took off, his face a stone-cold mask of determination. Turning to look around, she spotted a group of ponies, pulling a pair of loaded wagons, coming cautiously down Allen’s driveway, and seeing that there was a pegasus amongst them, she took a deep breath and galloped over hoping that they could get a message back to Ponyville about the attack in time.

Allen meanwhile had the 806 going flat out, high range, 4th gear, TA lever forward, the old girl’s 361 cubic-inch, six-cylinder giving all 110 horses that she could as he tore down that laneway faster than he had ever done before, his rear tires kicking up dirt clods as he went. It was all he could do to stay in his seat as he hit various old ruts and dips, but he didn’t care, his friends were in trouble, and he wasn’t going to waste one precious second getting to them, even if it meant wrecking his equipment in the process.

Bursting past the windbreak, he spotted them in the distance. A pair of large, odd-looking, brown wolves had managed to get across the fallen oak tree and were circling Brulee, Clover, and Rye. Each stallion carried a hefty branch and were using them to try and keep the wolves away. However, there were three more wolves across the river that were nipping at each other as they jockeyed for position to try and cross. Unfortunately, Allen couldn’t see Penny, though as he looked, he spotted a third wolf tearing at a section of still attached oak branches as it tried to get at something under the remains of the tree's canopy. He hoped that it was Penny, and that she was safe.

Hitting a particularly hard rut, Allen was nearly flung from the tractor seat, however, he managed to stay in it, though the rock between his feet wasn’t so fortunate. As he came down, he must have bumped his MP3 player as he suddenly heard the opening riff to Mötley Crüe’s Kickstart My Heart playing in his ears as he reached the end of the laneway. Though he was only dimly aware of the music as the first verse started.

~When I get high, I get high on speed, Top fuel funny car’s a drug for me~

Cranking the steering wheel as hard he could to the left, a light, blue-tinged haze suddenly fell across his vision as the tractor somehow made the tight turn into the field, implement and all, without hitting either fencepost or tipping over.

~My heart, my heart, Kick start my heart~

Lining the hood ornament on the front of the tractor up with the wolf furthest to the left of the stallions like a gun sight, Allen focused all his attention on running the damn thing over. The song blaring in his ears as he closed the distance.

~Always got the cops coming after me, Custom-built bike doing 103~

The wolf barely had time to realize it was in trouble before eighty-five hundred pounds of angry American iron and steel slammed into its face at close to twenty miles an hour.

~My heart, my heart, Kick start my heart~

The wolf disintegrated as its face connected with the reinforced front grill of the 806, its shattered limbs crushed under the tractor’s tires as Allen spun the wheel and aimed his tractor at the next wolf threatening the group of stallions. The chorus kicking in as this wolf realized that it had made a horrible life choice and quickly tried to disengage, but Allen wasn’t going to let it.

~Oh, are you ready girls? Oh, are you ready now?~

You ain’t getting away that easily you little shit, snarled Allen internally as he adjusted his aim and ran the second wolf down just like the first one as it tried to retreat back to the tree.

~Whoa, yeah, Kick start my heart, give it a start~

By this point, the three wolves on the other side of the river had lost all enthusiasm in trying to get across and were beating a hasty retreat back into the forest, their tails between their legs and ears pinned low against their scalps as they watched their pack mates be viciously run down by the angry iron monster.

With the next verse going strong, Allen spun the tractor and discbine around to see where the third wolf had gotten to, and his sharp eyes quickly spotted it cowering on the other side of the canopy.

~Yeah, are you ready girls? Yeah, are you ready now, now, now?~

His target located, Allen kept his eyes fixed on the cowering creature as he maneuvered around to run it down, just like its companions.

~Whoa, yeah! Kick start my heart, give it a start~

Clearing the far side of the canopy, he was angling to run it down with the discbine when the wolf quickly scrambled up and over the fallen trunk and tried to get away. However, by this point, the three stallions had recovered from Allen’s sudden, and brutal arrival and weren’t about to let this wolf go without some retribution. The end result being that the wolf was forced to leap off the tree when three angry earth ponies began beating it mercilessly with their large branches to the point that the wolf felt some of its wooden hide shatter as a solid hit from Brulee sent it pinwheeling end over end out into the middle of the field, and right into the path of an angry and vengeful Allen.

For a split second, the wolf stared up at the looming iron monster, its six glowing blue eyes, and its unnatural roar, striking fear into its very core.

~Say I got trouble, trouble in my eyes~

Scrambling with all its might, the wolf barely managed to dodge away from the snarling metal beast that had managed to somehow easily kill its pack mates with only a single hit. Realizing that it couldn’t get back to the Everfree the way it came in, the wolf took off for the perceived safety of Sweet Apple Acres. However, Allen saw what the wolf was trying to do and wasn’t about to let the weasily varmint get away.

With the song reaching its final crescendo, Allen managed to cut the wolf’s final retreat off and force it to turn left, and straight into the barbed wire fence that split the field in two. Yanking the wheel hard to the right, Allen barely managed to avoid the same fate as the wolf.

Coming to a stop, Allen looked back over his shoulder and saw that the wolf was utterly entangled in the fence, having ripped out nearly twenty to thirty feet of fence with its initial impact and subsequent thrashing as it desperately tried to get free. However, the rusty old barbed wire held firm and like an anaconda, wrapped tighter around its prey, the metal barbs digging deep into the hide of the hapless wolf.

Seeing that the wolf wasn’t going anywhere, Allen threw the tractor in neutral, and throttled down, the engine quieting from a roar to a dull rumble. Leaping out of his seat, the cord connecting his MP3 player and headphones together caught on one of the spinner balls on the wheel and yanked them off his head as he hit the ground, running for where he suspected Penny to be hiding. The slight blue haze lifting as he ran, though at the time he didn’t pay it any mind, nor did he notice the headlights of his tractor start to lose their blue glow either.

Please don’t be dead, he silently begged whatever god was listening as he rushed to the tangled branches that had formed an impromptu safe haven for the unicorn mare.

“Penny!” he called as he rushed over, desperate to find her, “Answer me!” he called out as he desperately searched for her amongst the fallen branches.

“Allen! I’m over here!” he heard her call out, though her voice was weak and scratchy. With a partial sigh of relief, Allen pushed his way through the stubborn branches until he reached her.

Pushing aside a final, cracked branch, Allen finally got a good look at his friend, and he grimaced at what he saw. Penny’s auburn mane was a mess, filled with twigs and dead leaves. Her normally immaculate business jacket and shirt were torn and dirty, her glasses were nowhere to be seen, she was covered in scratches, some of them pretty deep looking, and she was favoring her left foreleg.

Reaching her, he carefully began to clear some of the branches away and gently asked, “What happened?”

Penny tried to push herself to her hooves as Allen removed the last branch between them, but she fell back to the ground with a pained hiss, her front left leg flaring with pain.

Fighting back tears, she looked up at Allen and made to answer, but paused as she saw that his eyes were faintly glowing. However, when Allen blinked, the glow disappeared and Penny shook her head, thinking that she was seeing things due to blood loss.

“Timber wolves attacked us while we were working on picking up the branches that you cut earlier. One of them bit me on my foreleg and tried to drag me away from the group, but Brulee managed to hit it in the head with his branch and it let go. I... couldn’t get back to the safety of the group, so I sought shelter amongst the downed branches on this tree, hoping that Honey would find help in time,” she gave him a weak smile, “and it seems she did.”

Gently picking up her left leg, Allen carefully inspected it. He grimaced, Shit, that doesn’t look good, he thought as he looked the mangled limb over.

The wolf had done a number on her foreleg, blood was flowing freely, staining her light gray coat crimson, and upon closer inspection, Allen saw that some of her leg bone was exposed. Thinking quickly, he pulled his shirt off and swiftly wrapped it around the open wound, tying it as tight as he could, and eliciting a hiss of pain from Penny, as he cinched it down.

Doesn’t look like the wolf managed to break her bone, but we’re gonna need to get her to the hospital ASAP.

The sudden sound of flapping wings made Allen look up through the remaining branches of the tree, and spot a squad of pegasi in various armors come in for a quick landing.

One of them, a mare, quickly took in the scene and barked out orders, “Cherry, Azure, and Sky! You three go keep an eye on that timber wolf! Blaze, Nimbus, Spear you three secure this side of the crossing and keep any other wolves from getting across! Doc, you’re with me.”

Striding over to where Allen and Penny were, the mare unfurled one of her wings, the sun glinting off a sharp metal blade that extended along her wing, and made several slashing motions with it. Several smaller branches immediately fell to the ground as the wing-blade made a clean cut through them and opened up access to the spot where Allen and Penny were huddled in.

Stepping aside, the mare waved ‘doc’ through and the second pegasus hurriedly pushed his way inside.

Sensing that he’d be more of a hindrance than a help, Allen scooted past the pony medic and exited through the newly created opening. Standing up, he looked down at the mare and felt his eyebrows crawl upwards in surprise.

Cloud Kicker? What are you doing here?” he asked incredulously upon seeing the previously goofy, and flirtatious mare acting in a more commanding role.

Turning her attention to him, the sunlight almost blinding him as it reflected off her red-coated armor, she gave him a nod in greeting and replied, “We were out training when we saw that somepony had shot off a distress signal from this general direction and as we were the closest unit we responded. On our way here we intercepted a pegaus hauling tail back towards Ponyville with a message that timber wolves were attacking a farm out past Sweet Apple Acres and that ponies were in danger. So we told him to continue on with his message and that we would move in to assist in the defense until reinforcements arrived...” she paused as she took in the carnage around them, “though from the looks of things, it seems that the threat has already been contained.”

Allen slowly nodded and looked around himself. “Yeah... I guess you could say that.”

A grunt, and a hiss of pain interrupted the two as the pony medic called out, “Hey, a little help here? Her legs pretty banged up and there’s not enough room for me to pull her over my back to get her out.”

Rushing back in, Allen worked to help the medic get Penny out from amongst the fallen branches and out into the open. Gently setting her down, he asked, “Is she going to be okay?”

The medic looked up at Allen’s worried face and gave him a confident grin. “She should be fine, though she’s probably going to have some scaring on this leg, and it might ache when a weather front moves through, but so long as we get her to the hospital quickly, she should make a full recovery.” Turning, he yelled back over his shoulder, “Hey, Cherry! Bring me that flight stretcher you got! We’re gonna need to fly this one back to Ponyville ASAP!”

One of the pegasi, a cherry-colored mare, with a blonde mane came running over. Reaching the group, she began unfolding a wooden and canvas-covered contraption while the medic tended to Penny.

“Oh, I’m assuming this is yours?” he asked, hoofing Allen’s blood-covered shirt back to him.

“Yeah, thanks,” replied Allen as he accepted the blood-soaked garment. “So... what happens now?” he asked, a sudden tiredness falling over him as he sat down heavily on the ground.

Cloud Kicker replied, “We’ll secure the area, and get you all to the hospital to be checked over. Then we’ll get this tree here,” she pointed at said tree with a wing, “cut up and removed so that the wolves won’t be tempted to return again.”

“I don’t need to go to the hospital,” grunted Allen in reply, “the wolves didn’t touch me. My tractor did all of the touching,” he grimaced as he looked back towards said tractor.

The front grill was pointed towards the group, and Allen could already tell that there was some damage. Deciding that rest could wait, he tiredly levered himself up and walked unsteadily over to it, Cloud Kicker following along at his side just in case he stumbled.

Reaching it, he reached up and shut the tractor off. No point in leaving it running anymore, he thought, as he picked up his mp3 player and put it in his pocket as well as set his hearing protection on the seat. Before beginning to look the old girl over for damages. However, he quickly felt his brows knitting together in confusion as he took notice of various pieces of wood, tree sap, and other detritus stuck to the tractor.

“What the fuck?” he muttered as he noticed a pretty large stick wedged between the bent cast iron bars on the front of the tractor. Pulling it out with a grunt, he turned it over in his hands. “Where did this come from?”

Cloud Kicker peeked around his legs up at the stick in his hands and replied, “Probably from one of the timber wolves. I mean, you did just say that you ran them over.”

Allen dropped his hands to his side and looked down at the pegasus. “What?”

“Timber wolves? You know, the monsters that you said you just killed?” she replied, a confused look on her face.

Blinking, Allen turned around, and with the stick still in hand, marched purposely over to where the two pegasi were carefully watching the now-still wolf as it lay entangled in the barbed wire.

“The wolf seems to have run out of energy ma’am, and- Sir! Stay back! It’s still dangerous!” shouted one of the pegasi guards as he jumped in front of Allen, preventing him from getting any closer to the dangerous magical construct. Giving the guard an irritated look. Allen reluctantly complied and contented himself with observing the creature from a relatively safe distance.

The so-called ‘wolf’, seeing Allen’s approach, began to whimper and twist in an attempt to get free of the entangling wire. However, even though it was rusted from years outside, the wire held firm as it dug further into the wooden hide of the wolf.

Taking in the wolf’s wooden features, Allen felt his lips pull back in a snarl as his frustration mounted, and the terrified wolf, seeing Allen’s snarling face and barred teeth tried even harder to get away, though with no success.

Coming to stand next to Allen, Cloud Kicker commented simply, “Yep, that’s a timber wolf.”

Allen felt his irritation mount. ‘Timber wolf’, of course it’s another fucking pun, everything else around here is a fucking pun. Why would this be any different? Stupid fucking moron, you just had to assume something called a ‘timber wolf’ would be the same here as in your world. He shook his head in disgust and turned to leave, the stick still in his hand, though by this point his knuckles were white from how hard he was clenching it.

Stalking away from the trapped wolf, Allen went back to his tractor and stood there silently for a moment as his body tried to figure out what it wanted to do with all of the emotions running through it at that moment.

“Allen, are you okay?” asked Cloud Kicker gently from, what she hoped, was a safe distance.

Taking a deep breath, Allen looked down at the stick that he was holding, and then without warning, he cocked back his arm and threw the stick with as much force as he could towards the Everfree. The stick pinwheeled through the air before falling gracelessly into the river with a distant *plonk*, the current quickly carrying it away downstream.

Taking several deep breaths, Allen turned around. “No, I’m pretty far from fucking okay,” he replied angrily.

Taking an involuntary step back at the anger in his tone, Cloud Kicker forced herself to stand her ground and reply evenly, “Alright, then what can I do to help?”

Taking a deep breath, and letting it out, Allen felt the anger leave his body, as well as what strength remained, as if his anger was the only thing keeping him going, and he all but collapsed into a sitting position in the grass, his head falling forward to stare at the ground. “I don’t know,” he replied, an extreme feeling of exhaustion suddenly overtaking him.

The distant rumble of hooves on dirt made Cloud Kicker look up towards the direction of the field gate. “Looks like reinforcements have arrived,” she said, a tinge of relief coloring her voice.

Allen was too tired to look up or even acknowledge Cloud Kicker.

“Report!” barked Lieutenant Palisade as he came to a halt next to Cloud Kicker and Allen, a light sheen of sweat covering his fur from his run from Ponyville.

Snapping a sharp salute, Cloud replied, “Area secured sir, one civilian injured, we are prepping her for evac to Ponyville General.”

Glancing from Cloud to the trapped wolf, Palisade asked, “Hostiles?”

“Two wolves killed, and one ‘captured’. The rest have retreated back into the Everfree,” she replied crisply.

Palisade nodded. “Good work lieutenant, timber wolves aren’t easy to deal with for inexperienced troops.”

“We didn’t ‘deal with them’, sir,” she replied, turning to point at Allen, “he did.”

Palisade let one of his eyebrows rise in confusion as he glanced between Allen and Cloud Kicker. “I don’t follow,” he said.

“All hostiles were either dead, captured, or fled by the time we arrived. All we’ve done is secure the area and tend to the injured civilian,” she explained.

“I... see,” replied Palisade slowly as he digested what Cloud had told him. “Very well, make sure to submit a detailed report of the incident to me by eleven hundred hours tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir,” replied Cloud with another salute.

Turning back to his ponies, Palisade pointed a hoof at the trapped wolf and began barking orders, “Sargeant Standard, I want this wolf fully secured and ready for transport in thirty minutes.”

A well-groomed unicorn gave a crisp salute and began barking their own orders as they gathered the needed troops to secure the timber wolf.

Meanwhile, Palisade hadn’t wasted any time and had continued his own barrage of orders. “I want an air patrol up five minutes ago, and send word we’re going to need saws, axes, and rope to start moving this tree. I also want...” his voice grew quieter as he moved further away from Cloud Kicker and Allen before being lost to the general noise of many armored ponies moving around to complete said orders.

Standing quietly next to Allen for a moment, Cloud Kicker finally reached out with a hoof and said, “Come on, let's get you guys out of here and have somepony look at you.”

Allen ignored her offered hoof. “I told you, I don’t need to go to the hospital,” he said.

Cloud rolled her eyes and hooked a hoof around his arm and pulled him to his feet. Allen swayed slightly at the sudden change in elevation, his vision warping slightly from the sudden bout of dizziness.

“Yeah...” began Cloud, an unconvinced look on her face, “I think you probably do. You look like you’re about to fall on your tail there. Besides, you’re going to need to give a statement about what happened here anyways. Might as well do it sooner rather than later.”

“Fine,” sighed Allen, as he reluctantly let Cloud pull him towards one of the recently arrived carts brought by Palisade’s ponies.

Sitting down on the edge of the cart, with a heavy *thump*, his legs dangling over the edge, Allen felt even more tired, his vision still swimming as he shook his head in a vain attempt to get his vision back under control.

“You okay Allen?” asked Clover as he jumped up in the cart next to him, a concerned look on his face. “You don’t look so good.”

Allen slowly shook his head and replied, “I’m just really tired is all, though I’m not sure why.”

Clover slowly nodded but kept a close eye on him as the rest of their group slowly climbed into the back of the cart. After the last of them had squeezed themselves in, one of the two armored earth ponies pulling the cart looked back over his shoulder and asked, “Everypony in?”

“Yeah, we’re all in,” replied Clover.

“Okay,” replied the guard as he turned around and started pulling, the cart gently bouncing over the grass as they made their way out of the field.

As they were leaving the field, Allen watched as Penny’s stretcher was airlifted into the sky by a pair of pegasi guards.

Clover, seeing Allen watching the airborne ponies fly away from them, said, “She’ll be okay. They’ll get her to the hospital lickity-split and get her patched up.”

Allen just wordlessly nodded, but almost immediately regretted it as his head was hit with a wave of dizziness and he struggled to keep himself upright.

Seeing Allen struggling to stay upright, Clover gave him a concerned look. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Turning to give Clover an annoyed rebuttal, Allen was hit with another wave of dizziness. At the same time, the cart hit a particularly hard bump which caused him to lose his balance, as he was using his arms to keep himself upright; when they gave out he suddenly found himself falling out of the back of the cart.

“Whoa!” cried Clover as he tried to grab Allen, however, he missed and Allen toppled out the back and face-planted into the dirt with a groan of pain.

Why do I feel so weird right now? He wondered as his vision swam in and out of focus, while his body began to ache all over and his breaths became more labored as if he’d just run a twenty-six-mile marathon.

“Allen! Speak to me!” yelled Clover as he rushed over to check on him. The cart having come to a sudden stop from when the pullers heard Clover’s cry of surprise and concern.

Allen didn’t really respond, his whole body felt so tired all of a sudden, and he just couldn’t muster up the will to move more than his head so that he wasn’t breathing dirt.

Turning it to one side, his vision cleared enough that he could see that he was lying inches from the cantaloupe-sized rock that he’d hit with his discbine earlier today.

What’s that doing here? His brain idly wondered as he tried to figure out what was going on. I could have sworn I put that up on the tractor platform between my feet. He blinked stupidly at it for a heartbeat or two before muttering, “Stupid rock,” before then promptly passing out.

Author's Note:

Whew, it's been a bit since the last update. Sorry about that. Right after I quit my winter job, I pretty much jumped right into baling hay. On the first day, we did a thousand bales, and the only reason we didn't do more was because the customer's hay elevator broke and we didn't have any more wagons that we could fill. After that, it was pretty much go go go for the next few weeks, so I didn't have a lot of time or energy to write.

Then I had a nasty episode of Gerd hit me that made me feel as though I was having a heart attack at one in the morning, went to the ER for that, so that was fun. (I'm doing better now, thankfully.)

Anyways, hope you guys liked the chapter, I tried something new with the song lyrics mixed in, hope it doesn't detract from the flow of the story, and as always let me know if you find any misspellings or grammar issues that I didn't catch, thanks in advance.

PreviousChapters Next