Chapter 58 (Back in the Hospital)
Chapter 58
The sun’s early morning rays peeked through the hospital blinds and danced across Allen’s sleeping face as if teasing him to wake up. Scrunching his nose, Allen grunted and tried to roll on his side to get away from the mischievous light beams. However, a painful tugging sensation in his right arm, caused him to open his eyes and look around his room blearily.
This isn’t my bedroom, thought Allen groggily as he took in the green-colored wallpaper. Looking down at his arm, he saw that he had an IV tube sticking out of it along with a mess of wires taped to his chest that led to a heart monitor that beeped gently next to his bed.
Why am I in the hospital?
Looking up from his arm he looked around the room, however other than a couple of Get Well Soon cards and a few balloons, there wasn’t anything or anyone in sight.
With a groan, Allen tried to push himself up into a sitting position, however, his arms felt like lead and he couldn’t bring himself to sit up. So instead, he let himself fall back down and waited for someone to come check on him.
Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait long, as the sound of hooves on the tile floor outside his room grew louder and louder before a white forehoof pushed his door open, and Nurse Redheart trotted into the room.
She quickly noticed that he was awake when she saw him turn his head to look at her. “Oh, you’re awake,” she said as she trotted up next to his bed. “How are you feeling?”
“Like shit,” rasped Allen, his dry throat and mouth making it difficult to speak.
Nurse Redheart nodded. “That’s to be expected with acute magical exhaustion. You’re very fortunate that you did not do any damage to your thaumatic system with how drained you were when you came in. Here, slowly drink this,” she said as she offered him a cup of water with a straw in it.
Wrapping his lips around the straw, Allen greedily sucked down the cool refreshing water.
“I said slowly,” chastised Redheart as she pulled the cup and straw away from Allen and gave him a stern look, before slowly returning the cup and straw to his mouth.
This time, Allen obeyed the nurse’s orders and slowly drank down the life-giving water. Drinking the cup dry, he asked, “Can I have some more, please? I’m still thirsty.”
Giving a wordless nod, Redheart refilled his cup and offered it back to him, and once again, he drank it dry, to which she refilled it and the process repeated several times. Finally, after a few minutes, Allen’s thirst was quenched, and letting out a contented sigh, he let his head drop back to rest on his pillow.
Setting his cup aside, Redheart turned to look at him and asked, “Do you feel up to seeing the doctor yet?”
Allen gave a wordless nod, and Redheart quickly departed to go and retrieve Dr. Stable. A short time later, Allen heard Redheart returning, with who he presumed was Dr. Stable. His assumptions were proven true when the unicorn doctor trotted inside, a clipboard held in his magical aura.
Giving Allen a bright smile, Dr. Stable asked, “So how are you feeling right now, Mr. Ross?”
“Been better,” replied Allen tiredly.
Dr. Stable nodded. “That is understandable, considering that you’re suffering from acute magical exhaustion. Thankfully, there does not appear to be any lasting damage to your system, so some bed rest and nourishment should see you right as rain in no time.”
“What’s magical exhaustion?” asked Allen.
“It’s when your body uses up too much of its mana reserves during magical use. It’s a common occurrence in unicorns, especially when they are young and don’t know their limits yet. Earth ponies and pegasi are less likely to experience AME, but it can happen. In your case, your symptoms are more like what we would see in a young unicorn who’d pushed themselves too far too fast.”
Allen lay in his bed, his tired brain trying to process what Dr. Stable was saying. “So,” he began, an uncertain look on his face, “are you saying that I was using magic?”
Dr. Stable nodded, a happy smile on his face. “Precisely, as I said, your symptoms are very similar to a unicorn who’s pushed themselves too hard. Which given your previous condition when you arrived here in Equestria, isn’t too hard to believe. Even though you are off most of your dietary restrictions, your ability to cast magical spells will be very limited for quite some time. Honestly, I was very surprised to learn that you had managed to cast magic in the traditional unicorn manner, seeing as you lack a horn, which we use as a spell focal point. Many of us were under the assumption, that your magic casting abilities would be more passive in nature, much like an earth pony or pegasi’s. Yet here we are,” he said with a chuckle as he moved to begin taking Allen’s vitals.
Looking up at the doctor with a confused expression. Allen replied, “But... I didn’t cast any magic spells.”
Dr. Stable paused his examination and gave Allen a skeptical look. “I find that hard to believe, Mr. Ross, considering the evidence and eyewitness testimonies that we collected following your admittance here. It looks and sounds to me as though you did in fact use magic during your encounter with those timberwolves the other day.”
“But-”
“No buts,” cut in Dr. Stable sternly, “now open your mouth and say ‘ahh’.”
“Ahhhh.”
Using his horn as a light, and a wooden tongue depressor, Dr. Stable examined Allen’s mouth and gave a happy hum as he found nothing out of the ordinary.
“Well,” he said as he extinguished his horn and threw the used tongue depressor away, “everything looks to be in order. I would say you should be good to go home tomorrow. But I am going to tell you to take it easy for the next week. Which means plenty of bed rest, limited extraneous work, and no magic casting. Understand?”
“But-”
“Understand?” repeated Dr. Stable, a warning tone in his voice that brooked no argument.
Sighing, Allen nodded and said, “Yes, sir.”
A happy smile returned to the doctor’s face and he replied, “Excellent, Nurse Redheart, do you need me for anything else?”
Shaking her head, she replied, “No, I should be fine, thank you, doctor.”
Giving a pleased nod, Dr. Stable gave a wave goodbye and trotted out, leaving Allen and Nurse Redheart alone.
Taking the opportunity while she was there, Redheart decided to change Allen’s bedsheets for fresh ones.
Allen for his part, simply lay in bed thinking, occasionally moving as Redheart nudged him while working. Finally, as she was bundling the used sheets up in a ball to place on her back, Allen asked, “How’s Penny doing?”
Pausing in her work, Redheart turned and offered Allen a smile. “She’s doing just fine. We actually released her a little bit ago this morning, and don’t worry, she told me to tell you that things on the farm are well enough in hoof. She’s got your workers taking care of tending to your animals while you are in here. If you want and are willing, I can have somepony send word to her that you’re up now and ready to receive visitors. A lot of ponies have been worried about you since the attack.”
Nodding his head, Allen replied, “Yeah, that would be good thanks. It’ll give me something to do.”
Redheart laughed. “I understand, laying in bed all day with nothing to do gets pretty boring, pretty quickly,” looking out into the hall, she glanced at the clock on the wall and asked, “It’s about nine o’clock, would you like some breakfast?”
Allen’s stomach chose that moment to let loose a hungry rumble and laughing, Redheart said, “I’ll take that as a yes and get you something to eat. Be back in a bit,” and with that, she left Allen alone with his thoughts.
Sighing to himself, Allen stared up at the ceiling, his thoughts wandering around at the recent revelation that he had apparently used magic.
I don’t really remember casting anything. I just remember driving the tractor around like a madman and praying I didn’t flip it. Maybe my body cast it subconsciously while I was trying to save Penny and the others? He shook his head in irritation. Bah, I just don’t know, maybe someone else can explain what happened later.
Banishing those thoughts from his mind, Allen decided to close his eyes and try and get a little more rest while he waited for his breakfast and for Penny to show up.
A soft knock on his door a short time later pulled Allen back out of his light sleep and looking groggily towards the door, he saw three ponies enter the room. The first was Nurse Redheart pushing a cart with some food on it, behind her was Penny. Allen winced when he saw her battered appearance, along with her left foreleg wrapped in a plaster cast and supported up off the ground by a double-wheeled contraption that was strapped to her barrel to help her keep her balance while she walked in addition to keeping any weight off her bad leg.
Penny, seeing Allen looking at her leg, gave him a soft smile. “It looks worse than it really is. The doctor says I should have the cast off in a few weeks at the most, though I’ll still be on light duties for a couple of months afterward.”
“That’s good to hear,” replied Allen as Nurse Redheart adjusted his bed so that he was in a more upright position for eating.
Turning his attention to the final pony in the room, Allen asked, “So who’s this?”
The mare strode forward and gave a shallow bow. “Perfect Time, at your service sir,” she said, her voice carrying a soft Canterlot accent, though to Allen it sounded British. “Prince Blueblood informed me yesterday via dragonfire mail that I was needed in Ponyville to help Ms. Farthing with her duties while she recovered. Though I am afraid I only just arrived this morning on the six o’clock train from Canterlot.”
Taking a bite of his oatmeal, Allen nodded and after swallowing replied, “Well, I’m glad to hear that Blueblood was willing to send somepony down to help out while we get back on our feet.” Turning to look at Penny he asked, “Have you had a chance to talk with her?”
Penny shook her head. “No, we only just got her settled in at my place when word came that you were awake.”
“I see, well I suppose now is as good a time as any for everyone to get on the same page then,” remarked Allen as he took a sip of coffee, the bitter brew jolting his system awake even further.
“My thoughts exactly,” nodded Perfect, as she pulled a pair of chairs over from against the wall and sat down. Penny for her part struggled a bit to sit comfortably in hers, though with a little help from Perfect’s magic, she managed well enough.
“Is there anything else you will need Allen?” asked Nurse Redheart from the side.
Allen shook his head, “Naw, not yet, though you’ll probably need to swing by in about a half hour or so. I’ll probably need to use the bathroom by then.”
“Alright, I’ll be sure to make a note of that and check back in a half hour, see you then,” she chuckled as she turned and left, closing the door behind her as she went.
With Redheart gone, Perfect lit up her horn, pulled several folders from her saddlebags, and said, “Well, now that that’s taken care of, shall we get started?”
Taking another sip of his coffee, Allen nodded. “Sure.”
“Alright then,” began Perfect as she opened the first folder and asked, “In regards to the most recent expense report-”
Several hours later, Allen, and Penny had managed to bring Perfect more or less up to speed in regard to the day-to-day operations of the farm. However, there were still several things that had been left unaccounted for due to the timberwolf incident several days prior.
“Do we know what happened to the fryer oil delivery?” asked Allen as he rubbed his eyes tiredly. Meetings had never been one of his favorite activities, and coupled with his body’s need to heal itself, he was on the verge of drifting off to sleep.
Penny shook her head. “No, I think the barrels were delivered, but in all the chaos, I’m not sure. I haven’t had the opportunity to speak with any of our workers other than to inform them of what chores need to be done, and there is no guarantee that the delivery ponies would have left the barrels at the farm without proper payment.”
Sighing, Allen nodded. “Alright, Perfect, that’ll be your first task then, figure out where our cooking oil delivery went and what we’ll need to do if it wasn’t delivered.”
“I’ll get right on that,” remarked the light blue mare as she jotted down Allen’s request.
“Next, we’ll need to make sure that Honeysuckle, Clover, Rye, and Creme Brulee got paid for their work this week, and that they’re actually doing everything that needs to be done while I’m laid up.”
Another line was jotted down in Perfect’s notebook. “Alright, anything else?”
“Let Filthy Rich know that I won’t be able to deliver any more hay to him for the foreseeable future due to my injuries. I doubt the doctors are gonna let me work all that hard for a while, so I reckon first cutting is pretty much over now,” sighed Allen.
“Does that mean no more hay?” asked Penny.
Allen shrugged. “I’m not sure it’ll be worth cutting is what I’m saying. Once enough time has passed, grass tends to go to seed and die back, meaning your feed quality is going to go down. Since we’re in the middle of July now, the grass will be overripe. We could probably still cut it, but it won’t be worth as much, and it’ll be full of stemmy stuff that might not taste as good. So now we’ll just have to wait until the grass has regrown enough that we can start on second cutting. Which shouldn’t be long, at least for my fields as they have a nice mix of clover and alfalfa in them. I’m not sure about the meadow fields, but from what I’ve seen driving past them, they’re looking okay.”
“And when will that happen?” asked Perfect.
“If the weather is good, about every thirty days or so,” replied Allen. “Though here it could be even shorter, I don’t know, I’ll have to go and take a closer look at the fields that I’ve already cut. We got started late this year, and we haven’t been able to make a lot of progress due to equipment limitations, but if all goes well, we should have a respectable hay season.”
Perfect nodded and continued writing. “Very well, anything else?”
Allen shook his head. “I can’t think of anything at the moment,” he replied, though at the end of his sentence, he let loose a large yawn. “Ugh, I guess I’m still pretty tired.”
Closing her notebook, Perfect stood up and, after helping Penny to her hooves, said, “Then we should probably go and let you get some rest.”
Allen nodded blearily. “Yeah, that sounds like a go-” another powerful yawn interrupted him, “-od idea,” he finished.
Hobbling up to stand by his bedside, Penny leaned against the bed and gently patted Allen with her good hoof. “Don’t worry Allen, we’ll take care of everything, you just get some rest.”
Giving her a tired smile, Allen nodded and after making a shooing motion with his hand, let his eyes close and after a moment, he drifted off to sleep.
Exiting his room quietly, the two mares slowly made their way out of the hospital.
“Do you want me to go to the farm now and inspect things while you head back to the office and rest?” asked Perfect as the two mares stood at the front entrance to the hospital.
Penny shook her head. “No, I better come with you. You’ll need somepony to show you where the farm is and what to look for.”
Perfect’s face scrunched up in concern and she said, “I think you should probably go home instead. The doctor said you should take it easy.”
Penny nodded in agreement. “He did, but I’ve got too much stuff to do and you have no idea where to start. Worst case scenario, I can sleep at Allen’s place, I doubt he’ll mind. Besides, we can stop at my office on the way there and grab a few additional files and papers that need going through.”
“I really think you should rest, ma’am,” protested Perfect.
Penny sighed and gave Perfect an annoyed look. “Then source me a taxi then, if you’re so worried about my health. But regardless, I’m going to Allen’s place. No offense to you or your skills, but you have no idea where you need to go, who you need to talk to, or what needs to be done, and I’m not in the mood to try and explain things to you long distance. Understand?”
Conceding defeat, Perfect lowered her head and said, “Very well, I’ll see what I can find then. Do you want me to stay with you or are you comfortable walking back to your office on your own?”
“I’ll be fine. Just meet me there once you’ve found something,” replied Penny as she slowly started walking home.
“Very well, I’ll see you there,” said Perfect in reply as she quickly trotted off to find transportation for Penny.
~oOo~
An hour later found Penny and Perfect standing in front of Allen’s house. Perfect had managed to find somepony who was willing to cart Penny out to Allen’s place for a small fee. However, they were unwilling to wait, so she and Penny were going to have to figure out how to get Penny home later.
We’ll worry about that issue when we get to it, thought Perfect as she helped Penny out the back of the wagon.
“Thank you for being willing to take me here, Mr. Radish,” said Penny as she carefully adjusted her harness.
The old stallion smiled and said, “Ain’t no problem miss. I was heading this way anyway, so I figured it weren’t no trouble to add ya to my cargo. Though like I said, I ain’t coming back this way, so you’ll have to figure out how ta get home by yerself.”
Penny nodded, an understanding smile on her face. “It’s no issue, I’m sure Perfect and I will be able to figure something out, and worst case scenario I can just stay here for the night.”
Looking around the farmyard, Mr. Radish slowly nodded his head. “If’n ya say so, but between you, me, and the fence post, this place gives me the willies.”
Penny cocked her head in confusion. “What do you mean?” she asked.
Mr. Radish shrugged. “Dunno, just something off about this place. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve heard nothing by good things bout that hooman that lives here, but that still don’t change the fact that the land under my hooves don’t feel the same is all. Anyways, I better get a move on, it’s a long ways to my next stop, and if I want to get there before dark I better hustle. You ladies have a pleasant day.”
“You as well,” replied Penny as Mr. Radish turned his wagon around and slowly trotted away.
Once he was gone, Penny turned to Perfect and said, “Well, let’s go and see if we can find one of Allen’s workers.”
“Lead the way,” replied Perfect with a shallow nod.
Humming quietly to herself, Penny idly tapped her good hoof as she tried to figure out where to start looking. After a moment, she hobbled off towards the main barn, figuring that it was the most likely place they would find somepony.
Entering through the double doors, Penny looked around and taking a deep breath called out, “Is anypony here?”
After a couple of seconds, someone replied, “Up here!”
Looking up into the hayloft, she spotted Honeysuckle waving at her. Returning her wave with a friendly smile, she asked, “How is everything going?”
Honeysuckle returned Penny’s smile with one of her own and said, “Not too bad, give me a sec and I’ll be right down. I was just getting ready to kick some bales down to feed, so watch yourselves.”
Backing up a few paces, Penny and Perfect watched as Honeysuckle kicked a half-dozen bales down from the loft, each bale giving a hefty *thump* as they hit the floor below. After the last bale had landed, Honey quickly descended using the staircase and met the two unicorns. She was covered in sweat and hay chaff.
“Hey Penny, glad to see you up and about, how are you doing?”
“I’ve been better,” admitted Penny, “my leg is still pretty sore, and I get tired pretty easily. That’s why Prince Blueblood sent me an assistant to help take some of the load off while I recover,” turning to Perfect, Penny said, “Honeysuckle, this is Perfect Time, Perfect, this is Honeysuckle, she and her brothers are working for Allen and I this summer.”
Perfect gave a shallow bow of her head in greeting. “It is nice to meet you.”
“Same,” replied Honeysuckle with a smile.
“So Honey,” began Penny, “where are your brothers?”
“They’re out moving animals around and filling up water troughs,” she replied.
“How have things been going these last couple of days? I know this wasn’t something you were expected to do, and both Allen and I greatly appreciate your willingness to help out after the attack,” said Penny with a grateful smile.
“Everything’s been going pretty good,” replied Honeysuckle as she turned around to resume work, Penny and Perfect following behind her. “I will admit, it was a bit of a hassle the first day, but we’ve gotten the hang of things since, and honestly, even though we didn’t initially sign up for this, we’d be pretty poor friends if we left you and Allen hanging in the breeze after he rushed in to save us like he did.”
“Well, I’m glad that things have worked out as well as they have then,” replied Penny as she and Perfect watched Honeysuckle effortlessly carry a bale over to a stall, balanced on her back, and proceed to dump it into a hay feeder for the animals inside to eat.
Reaching in, she effortlessly removed the baling twine from the bale and fluffed it for the animals inside. “Yeah, we are too, plus now that the fallen tree has been removed, we don’t need to worry about any timberwolves coming across the river anymore either.”
“Oh they’ve already removed it?” asked Penny, a surprised look on her face.
Honey nodded. “Sure did, yesterday as a matter of fact. Clover, Rye, and I have been busy hauling the debris out of the field and up to Allen’s woodpile for him to process later. The guard asked if they could take the main part of the tree to process into lumber for their needs, and I said they would need to ask Allen or you, so they’ve just set the trunk aside in the field to collect later if you decide to sell it to them or whatever.”
“Hmm, I haven’t received any word from Lieutenant Palisade regarding that particular request,” remarked Penny with a thoughtful hum. “Perfect, would you make a note for me to follow up with him on that please?”
“Of course,” replied Perfect as she effortlessly pulled her notepad and pencil from her saddlebags and jotted down Penny’s request. “Were you planning to speak with Allen on the matter as well?”
Penny nodded. “I am, though I would like to hear Palisade’s offer first, that way I can pass it on to Allen in one go, rather than having to go back and forth on it.”
“Understood,” nodded Perfect as she finished jotting down the request in her notebook. “Were you also planning on asking Honeysuckle about the cooking oil delivery now?”
“Thank you for reminding me,” said Penny as she turned her attention back to Honey and asked, “Do you know if any barrels of cooking oil have been delivered here since the attack? They were supposed to show up on Wednesday, but obviously, we’ve all been a bit preoccupied since then.”
Honey paused in her work and tapped her chin with a hoof in thought. After a few moments of thinking, she slowly nodded. “Yeah, I remember a group of delivery ponies showing up that day, and I remember them sending somepony back to town to get help when you fired that magical flare into the air.”
“Do you know if they dropped the barrels off or if they took them back with them?” pressed Penny.
“I... think they took them with them. Once they heard there were timberwolves in the area, they weren’t too keen on sticking around to unload their wagons,” admitted Honey.
Penny sighed and gave a tired nod of understanding. “Yeah, I thought as much that this would be the case. Still, at least we have an idea of what happened. I’ll reach out to the company and see what they have to say. Worst-case scenario, we’ll just have to reorder everything, which considering the current circumstances, won’t really inconvenience us too much.”
Chewing on her bottom lip for a moment in thought as she looked around the yard, Penny suddenly asked, “Did any of you bring Allen’s tractor and mower up from the field yet?”
Honey shook her head. “We tried, but it was very hard to move and we didn’t want to break anything, so we just left it where it is. If Allen wants it moved, he’ll have to do it himself, none of us really knows how it works.”
Penny nodded in understanding. “I’ll be sure to let him know when I see him again,” turning to look at Perfect she asked, “Would you please make a note of that for me, Perfect?”
“Already done, ma’am,” she replied as she made a flourish with her pencil before tucking it into her light yellow and gray colored mane bun.
“Excellent, thank you. Now, let’s go ahead and take a look around to make sure nothing has been neglected.”
“Do you need me to come with you?” asked Honey.
Penny shook her head. “We’ll be fine, you can go ahead and get back to work. I just want to make sure nothing has been forgotten is all, and if I need help, either Perfect can assist me or she will come and get you or one of the others.”
Nodding her head, Honey let a smile form on her muzzle and she replied, “Okay, sounds good. I’ll be in the main barn here for a bit, but if you can’t find me, I’ll probably be out helping the guys finish picking up the remaining cut wood from the field.”
“Sounds good, see you later,” said Penny with a nod of her head, Perfect meanwhile contented herself with a small wave of her hoof as the two departed.
Once they were out of the barn, Penny set her path towards the closest machine shed. Seeing her intended destination, Perfect arched an eyebrow and asked, “Why are we heading there?”
“Just double checking that the delivery ponies didn’t actually leave anything here when nopony was looking,” replied Penny simply.
“Do you believe Honeysuckle was lying to us?”
Penny shook her head. “No, but she might have misremembered or not seen them unload. As Allen’s assistant, I need to double-check everything to make sure there has been no miscommunication or misplacement of items. Allen wanted the barrels put in this machine shed along the wall, and even though I didn’t get a chance to pass that information along to the delivery ponies, it’s possible they simply offloaded the barrels into the nearest open building with an invoice and left quickly.”
Perfect slowly nodded as Penny’s argument made sense. Reaching the main door of the building, the two ponies stepped inside and looked around. Frowning, Penny could see that her hopes were in vain, as there were no obvious barrels to be seen. However, not one to leave a job half done, she took the time to look around before moving on to the next building. However, much like the first one, the second machine shed offered no oil barrels either. Nor were there any barrels in the hay storage barn or in the animal barn when the two mares doubled back.
Letting loose a disappointed groan, Penny muttered, “Well looks like they didn’t deliver after all. I figured that was the case, but a mare can hope.”
Perfect quietly pulled her pencil out of her mane bun and quickly jotted down their findings. “Do you want me to look into this matter?”
Penny nodded. “Yeah, it’s gonna be a lot of walking and talking, and I’m just not in the mood right now. I’ll get you the information you need when we get back to the office later.”
With a few more scribbles of her pencil, Perfect nodded, satisfied with the results. “Very well, was there anything else you wanted to look at while we are here?”
Another nod from Penny as she slowly headed for the house. “Yeah, I left some paperwork that I need in Allen’s office. Let me get that while you go round up one of the hired help to lug me back to Ponyville. They should have a cart or something to put my fat flank in.”
Perfect simply nodded, while avoiding any comment on whether Penny’s flank was too fat or not. Instead, she asked, “Could you tell me where they might be?”
Turning around, Penny used her chin to point at a dirt path leading past a row of trees and said, “Just follow that path there, it should lead you right to the field where the tree fell. I figure that would probably be your best bet to find them quickly.”
“Very well, I shall return shortly, are you sure you don’t need any further assistance?” she inquired.
Penny shook her head and replied, “I’ll be fine, now shoo.”
Having been dismissed, Perfect turned and swiftly trotted in the appointed direction, her even strides quickly eating up the distance as she passed the tree line and soon spotted the aforementioned remains of the tree in the distance.
Sure enough, there they are, she thought when she spotted several ponies working on loading up a wagon with wood. Stepping up the pace a bit, she quickly covered the distance and was soon trotting up to the four working ponies.
Honeysuckle, apparently having since finished her chores as she was now here, spotted Perfect first, and giving a friendly wave, came to meet her.
“Hey, how’s it going?” she asked, a happy smile on her face.
“Ms. Farthing is finished inspecting the premises and will require somepony to help her get back to town as the pony who brought her out here in his cart couldn’t stay.”
“I see, hmmm...” replied Honey as she casually tapped her chin in thought. After a moment she turned around and called out, “Hey Brulee! Didn’t you say you needed to head back to town soon?”
A large caramel-colored stallion looked over at Honey and nodded. “Yeah, Mrs. Cake said she needed me to make a delivery for her this afternoon, why?”
“Penny’s gotta head back to town, but she needs somepony to cart her back because of her leg. Would you be willing to do that?”
Creme nodded. “Yeah, I should have enough room in my cart to take her back. Is she leaving now?”
Perfect chose that moment to interject. “We’ll be leaving very shortly yes.”
“Alright, let me help them get this wagon pulled up to the house and then I guess I’ll knock off early then if that’s okay with you guys.”
None of the others voiced any objections and so, the four quickly resumed their work while Perfect idly looked around at the mess left behind by the battle. As she was looking, a large, red object caught her attention, and with nothing better to do, she trotted over to investigate.
This must be that ‘tractor’ and ‘mower’ Penny was talking about, though Perfect as she walked around the large, to her, tractor. It looks like it’s seen better days, she idly mused as she took note of the bent bars on the front of the tractor, along with the various dings, dents, scratches, and rust that covered the old tractor.
Stepping closer, she noted that there were several rotten sticks and dried sap stuck to it as well. That must be the remains of the timberwolves that Allen hit with it. She thought, her muzzle scrunching up and her ears pinning back in disgust at the gruesome remains.
Well hopefully, Mr. Ross will take some time once he’s better to clean it up. I can’t imagine timberwolf sap is very good for paint.
“Hey Perfect! We’re ready to go now!” called Honey from the wagon.
Turning away from her inspection, Perfect called back, “Very well, I’ll be right over.” As she trotted away, Perfect suddenly paused when she heard a faint *click, click* coming from behind her. Looking back over her shoulder, she cocked her ears forward wondering where that noise had come from.
“Hey! Are you coming or not?” called Honey again as the four earth ponies pulled the wagon out of the field.
Shaking her head, Perfect turned around and quickly trotted to catch up. Must’ve been the wind catching on something loose. She thought as she trotted away.
However, unseen by her, a faint, yellowish-green light danced across the tractor's headlamps for a second, before they went dim once more.
Stats
Page generated in 0.064 seconds
Total duration
1,122 users online
1,665,815 hits today, 1,872,792 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
ITS ALIVE MWHAHAHAHAHAHAH
11863330
It has always been alive. Just sleeping, as I write slowly.
11863367
Lol I don't mean the story lol I mean the tractor. I am actually very happy with your writing speed and progress and love your story so much.
11863330
I hope not, Allen doesn't need a "Maximum Overdrive" situation when he's already got a huge handful dealing with the farm and timberwolves
I've always thought a story of American tsugumomo farm/old west relics would be cool
11863379
Either that or it starts acting like an aggressive sheepdog.
11863378
Ah, yeah that makes more sense. On the other hand, old diesel tractors can also be quite difficult to start at times, so at least some of my original comment applies here.
11863417
Guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Wonder if we're gonna have a timberwolf recognizing Allen as an alpha situation, or otherwise act like a pet... but through his tractor. :P
(Or maybe it's just been imbued with that kinda magic? Who knows at this point. :P)
Either way would solve the whole potential issues of fuels and possibly even repairs, if timberwolf-like qualities like that can be imparted...
Perhaps if Allen's tractor gets possessed by the timberwolves, he can train it to be a good boy now that the ghost or whatever isn't in rotting wood
11863330
do we have a Ware tractor?
a amazing chapter for a awesome story.
11863379
Or maybe the tractor detected a potential threat.
Between the oils, fuel, lubrication, electrical wire insulation plastics, rubber gaskets and hoses, theres a lot of organic materials in the creation of the tractor to start guiding the Timberwolf regeneration magic, through Changeling and Dragon crystaline harmonic thaumatirguc pathways?
Hmmm... big, red, possessed, but not a Plymouth.
11863367
Are you sure its not waiting for a moment of.weakness to strike?
Evil cliffhanger. But still, great chapter.^^
11863803
Farm equipment, (and equipment in general) is ALWAYS waiting for a moment of weakness to strike.
11863766
I mean... I wouldn't really call 'red' anymore... more like... a rusty brown.
11863766
I see what you did there.
If that tractor starts regenerating, it’s everypony out of the pool time.
11863816
Oh, give it time. I think that issue will be rather self resolving, soon enough.
11863816
O rly?
11863379
Could be a Christine situation, which isn't exactly better
I don’t think Allan needs to worry, he is an International Tractor man. Now if it was a John Deere then he would need to worry, because nothing runs like a Deere.
11864102
Yes, really.
11863379
I seem to recall the vehicles in Maximum Overdrive were targeting humans (because of aliens) but I really feel this time the tractor will be loyal to Allen instead. I don't expect it to be looking for treats and a scratch under the chin however...
11864343
Think it will eat an apple?
11864585
Doubtful, tractors tend to lack the needed equipment to properly process apples of either the fruit or pony variety.
He is alive and I deem him Tracty
11866277
Her, all machinery is considered female, except in only a few cases. In this case, the tractor is female.
11866455
Understandable...Her name is still Tracty.
Lol the trackers turning into that magic car from Harry potter