Chapter 2
Scootaloo Finds a Truck in the Everfree Forest
Chapter 2
Admiral Biscuit
The feel of power nearly overwhelmed Scootaloo. Their parade float had been feather-light. It had to be, since unicorn-powered wagons usually weren’t very powerful—most of them could drag themselves and a few occupants along, but they’d had to floor it to make it up the slight rises in the main street.
This . . . thing was in a totally different class. She’d felt that kind of raw power coming from the steam locomotive that pulled the Friendship Express, but she’d never been in control of it. It terrified her. She loved it.
Hooking the spokes on the tiller wheel with her pasterns, she crashed along the narrow trail towards Ponyville. It was a very tight fit—the mirrors were occasionally brushing foliage, but they seemed sturdy enough to handle it. Scootaloo gently worked the accelerator pedal, hardly moving it through a tenth of its range. It was more than sufficient.
Just around a sharp corner, she slammed on the decelerator pedal when she saw a tree limb lying across the path. It was an obstacle anypony could jump over easily, yet it would effectively stop any wagon. She’d have to figure out how to drag it clear, or else back up and find a different route.
She moved the directional lever all the way up, then banged her head against the tiller wheel in frustration. From the front of the wagon came a horrifying bleat.
Scootaloo found herself lying on the floor, jammed between the operator’s couch and the pedals where she'd dived to safety. When the angry noise didn’t repeat, she risked looking above the dashboard. Nothing moved in the forest, save for a few leaves gently twisting in the wind.
She pulled herself back onto the couch. There might be something outside, and maybe it was waiting for her to get out of the wagon. In fact, maybe it had put the branch there to stop her. Maybe it was waiting for her to get out of the wagon so it could steal the wagon for itself. Or else it wanted to eat her.
Scrunching her face up in concentration, Scootaloo regarded the branch thoughtfully. She’d discovered by accident that the wagon was more powerful than she’d thought when it went backwards into the oak tree. Maybe it could climb over the branch, too?
She slid her rump back onto the smooth cushion and yanked the lever downward. The wagon lurched forward, rolling at about her own walking pace. Using the decelerator pedal, she slowed it to a crawl until it bumped into the branch and stopped completely.
This was it. Carefully, she gripped the tiller wheel as tightly as she could—experience on her scooter had taught her that uneven surfaces could jerk the steering off to one side unexpectedly—and stomped her hoof all the way down on the accelerator pedal. With a throaty roar, the wagon lurched over the branch, spraying dirt and gravel out from its rear wheels.
She barely held on as the rear wheels bounced over the branch, sending her into a brief flight off the couch. Even though it was almost totally ineffective, she flapped her wings frantically until she landed again. Her hoof came off the pedal, but that was just as well—the wagon was now proceeding down the path with a frightening velocity.
Biting her lip, she struggled with the oversized tiller wheel while her back hooves felt around for the decelerator pedal. Just like the locomotive, once this thing got moving, it didn’t seem to want to stop. Unlike the locomotive, there were no tracks to guide it. It glanced off a rock in a shower of sparks, mowed down some saplings and jumped a small gulley before she finally got it back under control.
~
The wagon—now slightly worse for wear—finally emerged from the forest near Fluttershy’s cottage. Scootaloo snickered as the pegasus galloped for cover, a herd of small animals rushing after her into the dubious protection of her tree.
She briefly considered driving it right up to the house, but that might end badly for her. Scootaloo knew that while Fluttershy was, well, shy, she would stand up for her animals if she thought something was trying to hurt them. Plus, she had that terrifying stare. Anypony who could make a cockatrice change its mind wasn’t somepony she really felt like facing. The cockatrice had even gotten Twilight Sparkle, and Twilight knew more magic than anypony but the princesses.
As she closed on Ponyville, a few other ponies who lived on the outskirts of town galloped for their houses as the strange blue wagon rumbled by. She watched them run with a small smile on her face. The Cutie Mark Crusaders weren’t afraid of things like magically-powered wagons, nope!
Still, she slowed down a bit. She’d probably get in a lot of trouble if she ran somepony over. She didn’t like getting yelled at for things, even when they were her fault. If this wagon could fly, she’d skip town entirely, and just go up to Rainbow’s cloudominium.
Without really thinking about it, she brought the wagon to a halt and moved the lever into the upright position. She didn’t know that it wouldn’t fly. It had tried, both when it went over the branch and when it bounced over the gulley. Maybe, to make it fly, she needed to get it going really fast, and jump it off something tall. Her eyes locked on the bluff where they’d tried ziplining. If she could get it up there. . . .
Sweetie Belle would say it was a dumb idea. Even Applebloom would probably be against it. While it might work, it would more likely just crash into the forest below, and it might get damaged. She’d already spotted new scratches across the flat metal piece in front of the windshield, and one of the mirrors was folded inward from hitting a tree. As tough as it seemed, it probably was breakable. It was probably too heavy to fly, anyway.
Scootaloo settled on a compromise plan. She could avoid going to town entirely, instead heading towards Rainbow’s home. She’d stop underneath and somehow get the mare’s attention, That way, nopony in town would make a fuss, and Rainbow would see just how cool she was. If Rainbow wasn’t home—well, it was pretty flat under her home; she could just drive it around a bit. Maybe see how fast it would go.
She dropped the lever back into its forward position, and stomped on the accelerator. The wagon lurched forth in a spray of divots, the back swaying side-to-side as it got in motion. Eventually, it seemed to decide to respond to her steering inputs and straightened out.
It hardly took her any time at all to get to Rainbow’s house; unsurprisingly, the filly knew the quickest way there from almost any point around Ponyville, and was often the first to know when Rainbow had moved it somewhere else.
On her way, she’d decided that the wagon made more than enough noise to get Rainbow’s attention, especially when it was slipping on the grass. With that thought in mind, she began to do large figure eights, which turned out to be much easier in the wagon than it was on her scooter. Basically, she just stopped it and then stomped on the pedal. The back end would slide out to one side, and if she kept her hoof down, it would spin in a complete circle. If, however, she let her hoof up just a bit, it would start to move forward. At that point, she simply turned the front wheels a little bit and stepped down on the accelerator pedal again, and the tail of the wagon would kick out in the opposite direction. Not only was it a lot of fun, but dirt and grass flew everywhere when she did it, and the wagon was giving off happy roaring noises which were even louder than the record it was playing.
It was so loud, in fact, it completely drowned out the noise of an irate blue pegasus landing in the open bed. Scootaloo’s first notion that she’d found her idol was when teeth gripped her mane and rudely yanked her out the back window of the wagon.
Stats
Page generated in 0.029 seconds
Total duration
722 users online
734,877 hits today, 1,499,875 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.®
You mean cottage.
3101196
Yup.
I guess I should have looked at a picture of it before I typed that. The sod roof threw me off; I was picturing it as a stumpy little tree.
Good catch
Correction made.
Oh is it 4 wheel drive? I love 4x4s
3101248
I hadn't actually decided yet. I'm not sure how long it would take Scootaloo to figure out locking hubs.
3031049derpicdn.net/media/W1siZiIsIjIwMTMvMDQvMjAvMDVfNDlfMDhfNTQ5XzMwMzEwOV9fVU5PUFRfX3NhZmVfc2Nvb3RhbG9vLnBuZyJdXQ/303109__safe_scootaloo_mouth-hold_wrench_artist-acuario1602_dirty.png
I've got no idea why, but this story is incredibly funny. I guess it is because of the mental image of Scootaloo hooning about in a rather powerful vehicle as if it were a toy.
3101284I think it would be a good thing to have since there are no proper roads in Equestria.
3102893
That's quite true.
On hard ground, a 2wd truck would do all right, and in the show the skinny-wheeled wagons the ponies use don't seem to get stuck much. Scootaloo usually doesn't have trouble with her scooter, either.
I suppose that the truck might have had the hubs locked already. Some people did that when going into iffy terrain.
I quite like the premise and the story itself. I can see her doing donuts under Rainbow's house like a townie showing off for his girl, but I do hope you continue it, the suspense of having Scoots yanked out of the truck with it in gear and moving is almost too much to take.
I hope the wheels were cut so it'll just idle in circles, otherwise, run away truck!
Am I the only one who worries in a similar way?
3146818
To slightly alleviate your worries, I got the "Scootaloo runs over somepony with the truck" in my not-well-thought-out Scootaloo Finds a Truck in the Everfree Forest and Runs Over a Red-Maned Black-Coated Alicorn in Front of the Ponyville Hospital (which I wish had a shorter title every time I type it). Link's on my blog.
As soon as I finish the next chapter of Celestia Sleeps In, (or when I get stuck), I'll work on this one.
3101284You know, I just thought of this. For her to truly understand how the truck works, all she would have to do was to explore the truck a little more and find the owner's manual in the glove box. Nine times out of ten the owners manual stays in the glove box and hardly ever gets removed. I suppose that could help her out with the 4x4 and locking front hubs.
3151541
In my own personal experience, only about 50% of the vehicles I've owned have come with owner's manuals (and I've owned over 30 vehicles at this point). Of the vehicles which I currently own, 4 have owners manuals, and 7 do not.
I'm also assuming for this story (as I have in many HiEs) the ponies do not speak or read English, and owner's manuals in older cars were far less detailed than they are now. The manual for my 78 Chevy truck covers all 78 pickups, Blazers and Suburbans with all engines and is maybe 80 pages thick; whereas the manual for my 01 Grand Caravan is about 400 pages and only covers Grand Caravans (and presumably Voyagers and Town & Countries).
That having been said, I'd assume that there might be a picture of the four-wheel-drive lever, as well as of the locking hubs, and a mechanically-competent pony could probably figure out--with some experimentation--what they do.
3153243 Oh, wow I guess I stand corrected. But anyway, yeah I think she would have to experiment with the advanced controls if you're going down the "ponies' language isn't english" path. I have seen that put into maby three HiE stories that I have read.
Scoots drives better without knowing anything at all about vehicles, than I ever did after an hour of teaching on farmland, caravan site and public roads by a relative, who ran a maintenance and repair garage and after I read the entire Highway code and users manual and tech manual for fun 8}
Basically I came to the belief that when overtaking, the guy coming the Other way is more likely to move if I dont.
Im wondering what kind of enviroment would stop a Landrover. Well, apart from its regular breakdowns.
Gasoline engines can run on alcohol, Diesels can run on parrafin, keroscene, sunflower oil etc. Plenty of fuel.
I still can't figure out how to drive a stick shift without obliterating the gears each time I have to let off the brake.
Clutches don't like me.
And yet I can operate an X-ray irradiator... go fig.