Drive

by Jazzaman

Alone, together

Can machines feel love?

Can they fall for another, pretty car? or strong, tough truck? Or maybe even their owners? If this is the case, then can they feel heartbreak? Resent? Betrayal?

Can they feel unloved?

---

Winter Petal galloped through the dense scrub of White tail woods. Tears of a broken heart fell like her hoofprints behind her.

She didn’t want to believe it. She didn’t want it to be true, but she had seen it with her own two eyes. Her lover, in their bed, with another mare.

How could she have been so foolish? How could she have missed all the signs? Staying late at work, going out with the guys? All lies.

She hadn’t even had any suspicions that her stallion was being unfaithful, which made it more of a shock when she walked in on the two. She had just stood there, a disbelieving gaze and a heartbroken look.

She didn’t even feel angry, yet she just couldn’t be there. So she ran. Aimlessly at first, wandering randomly through the Ponyville streets, bumping into others and tripping over vendors goods. Some harsh words were exchanged, maybe even one tried to give chase, but Winter Petal didn’t notice.

She was dead inside. She had been so certain, he was the one. The one stallion who she would have foals and grow old together with. But there she was, a younger, prettier mare in her spot.

Winter Petal felt the tears begin to burn behind her eyes again. Shutting them tight, she put on a burst of speed. She didn’t know where she was going, nor did she care. In the back of her mind she silently wished she would run into a tree too hard and let it all be over.

She had no idea how long she ran for. She felt the heat of the sun back off as she continued, momentarily making her believe dusk was upon her. Finally opening her eyes, she noted that this was not the case, and had instead entered a far darker part of the woods.

Tall, sickly looking trees rose up around her. Long, black branches with twisted, knotted, gnarly twigs reached out above her. The undergrowth around her was wild and untamed, with angry looking thorns poking through the leaves.

A strange, almost demonic growl echoed somewhere far to her left. The bushes rustled despite there being no breeze, and an odd, faint, clicking could be heard, like a cat walking on tiles.

Deciding to not stick around to find the sources of the strange noises, Winter Petal took off to her right, dodging past trees and roots. It was at this point that it occurred to her that in her depression induced sprint, she had foolishly crossed from the safety of White Tail Woods into the allegedly-supernatural Everfree.

A black mass shot across her path, a buffer of only a few body lengths between the mare and it. With a shriek, she slid to a halt, before immediately bolting down a small incline to her right. Skillfully navigating the slope, she jumped when she neared the bottom, landing gracefully at the foot of a small gully.

Instantly, she felt safer. The chirping of birds returned and the sun managed far more easily to penetrate into the ditch. Despite this however, her surroundings still gave off a very sinister feeling.

Not wanting to be caught out by whatever was still lurking around at the top, she wisely sought shelter. Looking around, she noted only more twisted shrubbery and more nasty looking trees shrouded in darkness to each end of the dried river bed.

With the fear of being lost, alone, and attacked setting in, she desperately scanned her surroundings, hoping to find a small cave, or felled tree with pulled roots that she could hide under.

That was until a glint in the long grass ahead of her caught her eye. Hoping it was a piece of metal that she could use to defend herself, she quickly made her way through the scrub to where she’d seen it.

Instead of finding a weapon, she instead found her sanctuary. A large, rusted box, that sat upon four tiny wheels, halfway through nature trying to reclaim it.

She didn’t stay to admire its peculiarity for much longer however, when a bush nearby rustled. Seeing an open door, she launched herself inside, before closing the heavy metal door with her tail.

It took some effort, the door protested and groaned as it moved, jamming halfway before an extra forceful tug snapped it shut.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she began to look around the rotted interior. Ignoring the smell the insides were given, she noted she had clambered into the back of whatever this thing was, laying down on a long seat.

Resting her head on her hooves, she felt the tears come again. She was likely going to spend the night here, and with nopony around for miles, she let them come thick and fast. Sobbing into the seat, she let the strange contraption around her shoulder her woes.

A young, teenage girl sat in the backseat of her father’s car. Her once lovely, long, flowing blue dress was now splattered with mud, kicked up from the downpour outside of the Buick.

How could it all go so wrong? She wasn’t necessarily the prettiest girl in town, so when a boy had shown interest she jumped at the opportunity. Now, though, she never wanted to love again.

‘I’m seeing someone else.’ Those were his words to her. The words he said to her on their fifteenth date. Not being old enough to drive yet, her father had dropped her off at the diner she was meeting him at. Some girls may have thought it cheap, and sleazy to have a date at a diner, but she was just one of those girls.

Sprinting through the sheets of rain, she burst through the door. Straightening her hair, she made her way over to the booth her man was sitting at.

He waited till she sat down to hit her with it. She couldn’t believe it, she didn’t want to. She was so caught up in her own thoughts she didn’t even notice him stand up and take his coat.

Once she’d come to her senses, she found a payphone in the back of the diner. Through the tears and sobs, she dialed home, pleading for her father to come get her.

Of course, he complied, picking her up in just a few minutes and driving her home. When he pulled into the drive, her father got out, yet she didn’t. The Buick was her sanctuary. In here it was her own world.

Like a faithful dog, the family car stayed with her as she wept, soaking the backseat with her tears. The rain let up sometime around midnight, yet she still felt as cold as ice the next morning.

Speaking in nothing more than a whisper, she gently stroked the seat of the car.

“You’ll never leave me. Right?”

Winter Petal didn’t know how long she had spent in that rusted heap. It was odd how when you're completely emotionally wrecked you lose sense of time. She was so out of it, that she didn’t hear the ‘thump’ of a pegasus landing outside.

With the creaking groan of the door, a much needed friendly face appeared.

“Oh, Winter Petal,” the pegasus sighed. “What am I going to do with you?”

Winter Petal sniffed, “Oh, hey, Morning Dew,” she croaked.

The pegasus mare smiled. “I heard about what happened, asked around town if anypony saw you. Who knew you’d be hiding out here?”

“Well... You know me,” Winter Petal made a pass at a joke, instead coming off even more somber looking.

“Come on, I’ll make you a cup of tea when we get back to my place. No need to hide out here in this-” she motioned around the wreck. “-thing.”

Winter Petal nodded glumly, “Okay,” she sighed, slipping out of the odd wagon.

Draping a wing across her old friend, Morning dew began to guide her back to town. “So what is that thing anyway?” she asked, motioning her head towards the odd metal box.

“I don’t know. But at least it was there for me,” Winter Petal responded.

“How so?”

Winter Petal turned to regard her friend, “We were both alone.”

“Alone, together.”

Comments

[Lasairfion]

Ooh, great chapter. I'm really liking how this is going: slices of life revolving around memories of an old car; like a cross-road on the paths of life.

[dukesofhazzardftw]

when does the kid come back?

[Jazzaman]

3303578 the story main revolves around several ponies discovering the wreck and making their own connections with it, there is no one defined character, yet there may be some recurring ones. Who knows, the colt might make another appearance.

[dukesofhazzardftw]

holy crap that as fast!

[dukesofhazzardftw]

3303604cool cause he was neat!

[Yemynameidubbz]

hey what happened to ut ameture iris? i can't find it

[Jazzaman]

3356294 right here Ut Ametur Iris

[Yemynameidubbz]

3358961 thank you dearly sir