From Under The Cork Tree

by Muscle_Car_Brony

"25 Or 6 To 4."

Gale awoke the next morning, got out of bed, and threw on some fresh clothes before heading downstairs. On his way out of the room, he picked up his old phone deciding that, if he was to be out all day then he might as well bring along some music. Arriving downstairs, he went into the kitchen to grab a quick breakfast. Saying ‘hi’ to Spike, he made some toast and got ready to head out for the apple family farm. Twilight caught him as he was about to leave and asked what his plans were for the day.

“Plans? Man, I learned to not plan things a long time ago . . . “ he said, pushing the door open and thinking ‘Cause look where ‘planning’ got me.

Twilight didn’t have a response for that, she simply watched as he walked off towards the farm. “Spike?” she yelled, hoping to get his attention.

After a second he walked out of the kitchen. “Yeah, Twilight?”

“Can you do me a favor and start gathering some of these books?” she asked, using her magic to summon a list of books for him.

“Uh, sure. I’ll get right on that.” he said, moving to go and start searching.

With that said and done, Twilight went upstairs to her room, in search of a specific scroll.

While all of that was happening, Gale had made it about halfway across town. He was just entering the market when a unicorn came running around the corner and ran right into him, sending the two back. They came to a halt and Gale saw that whomever it was that hit him had enough sense to look away so they didn’t impale him.

“Um, excuse me,” he began, gently separating himself from the other party. “But, what was that about?”after a second, both he and the pony had stood up and brushed themselves off.

As the pony stood up, Gale took note of her almost seafoam coat.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” she hurriedly replied, already starting to move past him. “I’m running late for my assembly.” Before he could even respond, she’d already taken off towards the school house.

Weird. After a second, he continued on with his walk. This time, he was more aware of his surroundings and where all the ponies around him were.

A couple of minutes later, Gale noticed a familiar looking pony seemingly talking to one of the local guards. Huh, it’s that weird pony from yesterday. The hell is he up to? Not wanting to start anything, Gale merely shrugged it off and kept walking.

---

Another few minutes of walking led Gale to the front gates of the Apple farm.

“Oh, hey Applejack,” he yelled out, waving at the mare and her little sister. “What are you two doing?”

“Not much, pardner, jus’ getting ready for the first snow.” She said looking over her shoulder. Doing a quick double take, she added “You gonna be okay with just that? It’s gettin’ kinda cold out.”

“I’m good. I grew up with winters much worse than this.” he replied, walking on past and towards the barn housing his car.

As soon as he entered the barn, Gale went to business. Moving to the back of the car, he decided to remove the trunk lid. Taking a moment to look it over, he wondered aloud. “Right, no WD40 or anything . . . I’m gonna end up stripping these sons of bitches, aren’t I?” Figuring it didn’t really matter at that point, he went ahead and grabbed the appropriate socket and tried breaking it loose.Damn that’s a tough one.

Back at the house, Applejack and her sister were busy moving all their furniture around to a storage room off the back of the building. The two worked on this while Big Macintosh was out collecting firewood with a hired worker. The hired pony, a tan stallion of decent build, didn’t talk much, but when he did it was almost always a question about the barns. What was in them, were they well maintained, and a number of other things. Big Mac replied to all of them with ‘Nothin’ but our farmin’ equipment.’ Though, he was starting to wonder about this particular pony.

About twenty minutes after Gale arrived and the Apples had continued on with their tasks, the voice of an elderly mare called outside for Applejack,

---

Gale started on his car by wrestling with a rusted bolt for a few minutes as his mind wandered. Two weeks. I’ve been here two weeks. Dammit, I was supposed to be in Bar- his thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the barn door. What now? He unintentionally barked.

Looking up he realized who was there and quickly apologized. “Sorry,” he said as he quickly glanced over his shoulder. “I’m just having trouble with this damn bolt.” after another moment of struggle, he managed to break the bolt loose and start removing it.

While he was doing that, Applejack walked the rest of the way in. Seeing that he was busy, she sat down for a few minutes and watched as he removed the deck lid and set it aside. “Hey, pardner, you got a second?” she asked when she saw he’d stopped.

“Hmm? Something wrong?” looking over, he could see that something was up.

“No, nothin’ like that. I was jus’ gonna ask if you wanted to come on inside, we’re havin’ an early lunch and you’re welcome to join.”

Why do I get the feeling there’s something else she’s not said. “Might as well, sure.” he said, quickly putting his tools back into the, now exposed, trunk. Once he’d done that, the pair walked back to the farmhouse.

“So, what kind of food does a farm pony eat?” he asked, mentally adding and where can a guy get some damn meat. . . . Yeesh that could be taken out of context . . .

Luckily for him, it seems she’d thought of this. “Well, I remember what ya said about liking fish so I tried my hoof at frying some. I’m not sure how well my cookin’ holds to what you’re used to, but I tried.”

Fish? Eh, it’s better than nothing. “It sounds as if you’d planned for me to attend this lunch then, correct?” he looked down to see her look away for a brief instant.

“I might’ve , yeah.” as they walked onto the porch, she stopped and said. “I do wanna warn ya though. Granny, she can be kinda . . .”

“Insensitive?” he cut her off coming to a stop next to her.

“Uh, well . . .” she started

“It’s fine.” he laughed. “My folks were like that too. The older you get, the less you care I suppose.”

Applejack opened the door and let them both in, all the while thinking I hope Granny doesn’t say anything to extreme. A brief image of Gale chucking a wrench out the barn doors flashed in her mind, though she quickly shook it off and followed him into the kitchen.

As Gale entered the dining area he saw the rest of the Apple family casually chatting amongst themselves. Right away it struck Gale as odd that the three of them lived with their grandmother, and seemingly only their grandmother, but he knew enough to not ask about something like that over dinner. If ever.

As he sat down, Applejack walked over to her brother and they both went into the kitchen proper to bring out the food. Doing this left Gale alone in the room with both Applebloom, whom he’d met once before, and another pony, much, much older than her.

Sparing him from any awkward silence, Applebloom offered him the seat next to hers on the end of the table. An offer to which he readily agreed, walking over and taking a seat. One thing that bothered him, however, was that the older mare hadn’t said anything.

“So how’s yer day been, Mr. Gale?” Applebloom asked, wanting to prevent more awkward silence.

“Please, just call me Gale. As for today? I wandered around town for an hour or two before coming out here. After I said hi to you two I went out south and tried to make some progress.”

“So it was you that crashed that crazy lookin’ machine.” the elderly mare finally spoke, immediately bringing any other potential conversations to a screeching halt.

It took Gale a second to respond, but he sighed and answered. “Yeah, that was me. Believe me, I didn’t want that to happen either.”

“Don’t get to worried there sonny. I was just wondering whose it was.”

What? Gale had expected many possible responses she could have given. This, was not one of them. Anything he could have said to that, however, was interrupted by both Applejack and Big Mac walking into the dining room, plates of food across their backs. How did they get those there, how are they not burning, and how do they plan on getting those on the table . . Gale wondered as the pair walked up to the table,leaned against it, and let their platters slide onto the dinner table. That’s how, I guess.

With that done, the two took their seats and they all began to eat. They all ate in near silence for several minutes. Things became awkward when Gale realized that they’d all finished eating and were looking his direction. He couldn’t tell if they were waiting for him to be done, or mortified by the site of someone eating a fish. Admittedly, Gale wasn’t the most proper of dinner guests, but he’d had the decency to at least use a knife and fork.

“Yup, this is some good fish” Gale commented, having eaten almost all of the trout that Applejack had prepared for him. After a moment though, Gale decided that even though he was still somewhat hungry, he should probably be done. Setting his silverware on the plate, pushed it forward a bit, and sat back in his chair with his hands folded.

Granny Smith was the first to say anything “I must say, Gale. I’ve known a fair number of ponies and others who eat meat in my life. You’re certainly one of the most reserved.”

“Thanks? . . . I guess?” Though, even as he said it, he could tell she meant nothing bad by it. It just struck him as odd. After another few seconds, he looked between all of them and said. “I’m a little surprised by this all, to be honest.” he said “A large number of ponies I’ve met here have either been completely indifferent, or in some cases outright hostile, towards me.”

“Well,” the old mare started “It ain’t often we get someone like you ‘round here.” Standing up from her chair, she slowly walked over to him. “But I’ve been ‘round for a long time. I’ve met some minotaurs in my day, a couple griffons, too.” After a second, she extended a hoof, as if for him to shake it. “While this is a surprise, you’re far from the strangest I’ve met.”

It took Gale a couple of seconds to react. Not only did this elderly mare seem to know quite a set of characters, she was also one of the few ponies to refer to him as ‘someone’, and he wasn’t sure what to think of that yet. Once he came to his senses, he reached out and shook her hoof, having to lean down a fair amount but not saying anything to it.

“Thank you, ma’am. It’s nice meet you.”

---

After he returned from his, incredibly awkward, lunch with the Apple family, Gale went back to work disassembling more of his car. The first order of business, as far as he was concerned, was to get the hood off. That could wait however, as he figured taking the lights out would be easier and didn’t feel like moving the hood on a full stomach.

Once he arrived back at the barn, he looked over the headlight fixtures in detail, seeing what he’d need to get them out before moving to the box of tools he had in the trunk.“And then he said ‘let there be lights’,” Gale muttered as he finished disconnecting the driver’s side headlights.

After he removed both the headlights, Gale started on the hood which, thanks to Applejack, was forced all the way up. Since it was up, the hinges were a lot easier to get to, but he still had to struggle with them as, like the rest of the car, the bolts had already started rusting since he’d originally put it together. Been on the road for two years now, and she’s already rusting. Great . . .

Before he could take the hinges off, however, he had to remove the hood in it’s entirety. Well, this is gonna suck he mumbled, struggling to loosen the bolts holding the hood to one of the hinges. Once that was done, things were made harder by the fact that he was going to have to single-handedly hold the hood up while removing the last bolts from the other hinge, and then manage to get ahold of the hood to set it down properly, lest he drop it and catch his leg. Last thing I need to do is go and get fucking Tetanus.

After a few minutes of struggling, he’d managed to get into a position where he was able to keep the hood from falling while working on the last bolt. When he finally was able to remove it, he moved to pick up the hood and attempt to set it in a corner. Using up a fair amount of his strength, Gale picked up the hood, balancing it in his back, and steadily shuffled over to a corner of the room. As he was about to set the hood down, he was caught off guard by the arrival of one Rainbow Dash.

“Heya, Gale. I was just inside talking to Aj, she wanted-” the mare started, before Gale lost his grip and the hood fell to the ground. Catching the side of his left leg in the process.

“Son of a bitch!” he hissed, the expletive clearly not aimed at the new arrival. “Look, Rainbow Dash or whatever, can you not just barge in like that?” he said, looking down he saw that his leg hadn’t been cut deeply, but was still starting to bleed. Fucking. Great.

“Uh, is now a good time to mention Aj sent me out here with a first aid kit? She said you might want one.”

“Perfect timing then,” he said through gritted teeth, sitting up on the right fender. “Toss me a roll of bandages, and some alcohol if you have any.”

“Are you sure you want to be getting drunk?”

“I can use it to disinfect my leg.” he stated matter of factly, motioning for her to toss hit the kit.

“I think there might be some in there, I don’t know. I’ll bet she’s got some back at the house if you want me to-”

‘No, it’s fine. I can make it there.” he cut her off, standing up he winced. Yep, this hurts deeper than I thought it did.

“Gale, you’re clearly having trouble. Let me go get some-”

“I said I’m fine.” he replied. Heaving a sigh he calmly added. “It’s far from the worst thing a car’s done to me.”

“Are you su-” she started, after catching his glance however, she thought better of it. “Nevermind.” she finished, floating over to him. “Can I at least help you get packed up?”

“Packed up?” he asked “I’ve still got a few things I aim to do before I go.”

“Gale, part of the reason I came to get you was that it’s gonna start snowing soon. I don’t know how weather works for you, but the weather team here likes to make the first snow a big one. I figured you’d want to get inside before it hit.” And I’d feel terrible if anything else happened because of me. She mentally added.

Gale looked outside to see that, as Rainbow had said, it was actually starting to snow. “Well, shit. I guess I’m done for the night.” that said, he carefully made sure the bandage on his leg was tight, then went to pack up all his tools.

“Wait, you're not taking those back with you, are you?” Rainbow asked, noting just how big of a box he’d managed to have. Where the hay did he hide that, anyways?

“Hmm? No. It’s just good practice to keep all your tools organized. Even if you’re only working on personal projects.” he said, closing the box and walking over to Rainbow who was standing by the door.

It took the pair only a few minutes before they reached the library and parted ways. Gale headed inside intent on finding something else to do, while Rainbow headed back into town for. ‘personal reasons’.

---

“Yeah, you might want to stay inside until about noon tomorrow. This year’s gonna be a big one to start.” Rainbow Dash said to Gale as he entered the house.

“Thanks for the advice.” Closing the door, Gale stepped further into the house and started looking for something to do.

When the door closed, Rainbow Dash turned and walked back into town to go visit with a friend for the night. Walking along main street, she stopped by the bakery and bought a box of doughnuts. I will never understand why he likes Maple glazed . . . she wondered, exiting the store and heading for the hospital.

As she walked along, Rainbow Dash noted that snow was already starting to accumulate. Considering recent events, I may have to stay overnight . . . great. Continuing on her way, she saw many shop owners hurriedly closing their stores and making their way back to their respective homes.

As she approached the building Dash wondered how Thunderlane was doing. She didn’t have to wonder for long, however, as she saw the stallion himself walking around the lobby when she arrived.

He’s finally got himself up and about, eh? That’s good. Walking up to the door, she was able to get a better view of the hospital, the staff were rushing to and fro preparing in case the coming storm took out the power. With barely a moment’s hesitation, she opened the door and walked in. She made it some distance before being noticed.

Thunderlane had been taking his evening walk when Rainbow Dash walked in. Turning to her, his expression went from morose to happiness. “Hey Dash!” he said, stepping away from the nurse who’d been with him, much to their irritation. “How’s it going?”

“Well, I don’t know if you noticed but it’s already starting to snow. I think the snow crew’s really pushed themselves this time.” Dash answered as she came to a stop in front of him.

Thunderlane took a moment to look outside and see that the blizzard was already setting in. Panning back to her, he let out an exaggerated gasp of surprise as he noticed the box on her back. “Wow, you actually bought doughnuts!”

“Hey, I said I would, didn’t I?” she smirked.

Thunderlane notified the nurse that he and Dash, were going back up to his room to chat for awhile. He hadn’t seen her much in the last week and wanted to see what was up.

Once there, they sat for some time and watched as the snowfall became heavier, to the point where Dash thought it better for her to spend the night than attempt to fly home. “I know the snow crew’s got this, but I’m not entirely sure I want to try flying in a blizzard any time soon.”

After a moment of silence, Thunderlane finally asked a question that Dash had hoped he’d forgotten about. “So, where have you been this past week? I know prep for winter is usually tough, but I figured you’d have at least come by more than twice.” Dash took a minute to respond and Thunderlane was already wondering if he should regret asking that.

Finally, she started. “Well, remember how me and Twilight were going to do some teleportation stuff? Yeah, things got interesting real quick after that . . . “ After another moment, she continued. “Alright, so I may have brought somepony back with me.” Thunderlane looked at her incredibly confused for a moment, before asking. “So, you brought somepony here from another city or something?”

Oh colt, this is gonna take some explaining . . . “Well, not exactly no. According to Twilight whatever it was she cast didn’t send me to another city, the best guess she could give was either some place really far away or even weirder, possibly another dimension.”

Thunderlane interrupted for a second to comment. “If it was anypony else but Twilight, I wouldn’t believe you.”

“Well, believe it or not I’m here, and so are they.” she said before giving a very basic rundown of the events that took place over the week prior, leaving out most everything about her time on earth before rescuing Gale.

Soon the nurse came in and explained that visiting hours were over. She told Rainbow that there was an area down the hall that had been set up for the family and friends of those admitted for the duration of the storm.

Nodding in understanding, Dash made to leave the room before remembering the book she was supposed to bring him. She took a second and quickly dug through her saddlebags until she found it. “I almost forgot about this.” she said, walking back in just enough to set it on a table with a wing.

At the nurse’s behest, Dash quickly said goodnight and that they needed to talk tomorrow after he was to be discharged. Thunderlane nodded in agreement, rolled onto his good side, and promptly went to sleep.

As he fell asleep, Rainbow headed out into the hallway and made her way over to the waiting area. With winter setting in, the hospital staff had brought out a number of blankets and pillows so that the families of those admitted would have somewhere to stay instead of venturing out into the possibly harsh weather.

---

Gale did not rest well that night, the weather outside coupled with the nature of the library had been enough to make sleep difficult. Thus, he awoke the next morning feeling very sluggish. It took him several minutes to get himself out of bed and start getting ready for the day.

Taking note of the weather outside the library, Gale sifted through his collection of Tee shirts looking for something a little heavier. I know I have a long sleeve shirt in here somewhere, Upon finding a shirt, he quickly threw it on moved over to the duffle bag he left sitting in the corner. Reaching inside, he hesitantly pulled out a pill bottle and held it up close.

Shaking the bottle, he frowned. 8 pills left . . . I don’t know if I should be upset that I don’t have any more, or thanking god that I can’t get any more. He wondered, pocketing two of the remaining pills before heading downstairs. Stopping by the door, he quickly went back and found a jacket. “Might want to have this.”

Once downstairs, Gale headed for the kitchen. Dash said not to leave ‘till noon . . . might as well cook something to eat. Saying hello to Spike, Gale made to cook a quick breakfast. It’s a real good thing I like waffles. Gale ate in near silence as Twilight and Spike had moved off into the other room for the time being.

Having spent almost half an hour eating, Gale went ahead and washed off the plate he’d been using. Gale then walked out into the main room carrying his jacket over his shoulder. He fully intended to leave for the day as the weather had cleared. “So wait, how cold is it outside?” he asked Twilight, who was looking over a scroll of some sort.

Looking up from her scroll, she hovered over a thermometer and said. “It’s 3 degrees outside right now, why?”

Stopping where he was, Gale slowly looked to her, then to the door, then back to her. After a moment, he walked to the door and slowly opened it, fully expecting he’d want to jump back from the cold. While it was rather cold outside, it didn’t seem to Gale like it was much colder than an average winter day back home.

“There’s no way it’s only 3 outside.” he called back as he closed the door, causing Twilight to look up at him. “It’s gotta be at least 35, maybe 38.” he added, motioning for her to come see for herself.

Walking over to the him, Twilight opened the door, leaned outside for a moment, then came back in and closed it again.

“Right, I forgot. Different temperature scales.”.she said while walking back to her table. “I’d love to ask you about that sometime. Maybe see if I can find a conversion between the two.”

Giving her a confused stare, he asked “How would you propose to do that?”

“Well, I could probably come up with an equation based off the freezing point of both.”

“Oh, okay.” he said, looking back outside. “I think I see what you’re getting at.” He waited a few seconds for a response before decided to go ahead and leave. Right before he did, however, he called back. “By the way, water freezes at 32 degrees.” and then he left the library for the day thinking. She said it’s 3 out here? At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if they use freaking Celsius.

---

That morning found Rainbow Dash sitting in the hospital cafeteria, eating a bagel, when Thunderlane walked up behind her. “Hey there, boss. How’s it going?” he said, smirking since he’d caught her off guard.

“Going well.” Getting up from her seat, Dash turned to face him. “How close are you to getting discharged?”

“Already did.” he said, using his good wing to give her the paperwork from the bag he’d been given.

“Well that’s great! I guess you’ll be helping out later today?” she asked in an overly polite manner.

“Ha! You’d like that wouldn’t you? No, like the doctor said I’m probably gonna be out for a few weeks.” he said. Setting his bag down, he searched through it eventually producing another group of papers. “Here, for the team’s medical records.” he said, knowing that Dash and her bosses liked to keep tabs on the health of their employees. The records they kept were voluntary, however, since they didn’t necessarily want to dig too deeply into a pony’s personal life.

With that said, the pair left the hospital with Dash carrying all of Thunderlane’s acquired belongings so he didn’t have to strain himself. The cold itself was bad enough to make things difficult for the stallion and she already felt bad about the whole situation. While they made their way to the complex on the other end of town.

As they walked along, Dash thought back to the decision to incorporate a section of town specifically for weather team members, and how some ponies argued it was a form of separatism. Truth be told, it was simply one of the ideas originally used for the bigger teams that live in and around the major cities.

About 2 years ago, construction had begun on a small cluster of homes to one corner of town. For the team, they were like an apartment in the sense that they didn’t actually own the house, and most didn’t keep much in them, but the buildings were essentially there’s for the duration of their stay on the team.

Occasionally though, one or more of the team members would have to share their ground based domicile when another pony got injured or the team needed to bring in extra help from the surrounding districts. Otherwise, most pegasi had their houses in the air around the outside of town.

Though she wouldn’t admit it, the project was one of the reasons Dash loved being the weather captain. As much as her bosses annoyed her, they were usually pretty understanding. That said, she still wasn’t looking forward to the next few weeks since she’d have to double for herself and Thunderlane while he stayed at his ground house.

Once the reached Thunderlane’s temporary home, they went inside and Dash took a look around the place. “So, are you gonna have somepony go on a grocery run for you later? I can’t imagine there’s much here.”

“Actually, I was going to ask you about that. I was originally just gonna ask Cloud Kicker, but . . . well, it’s Cloud Kicker.” he said, doing his best not to flat out insult another member of the team in front of his boss.

“What, I thought a stallion like you would love having a mare like her around.” Dash replied, well aware of what she was implying. It was well known to most everypony in town that Cloud Kicker ‘got around’. “Come on Lane-y, we’re not at work. I won’t hold you to anything if you want me to go get her for ya.”

“One, I told you not to call me that. Two, that’s just insulting. And three, I don’t know if you noticed, but there’s a cast on my wing. Even if I wanted to, and I don’t, there’s no way in tartarus I would right now.”

Realizing she’d crossed a line, Dash backpedaled “You’re right . . .I shouldn’t’ve said that. I was just trying to lighten the mood a bit, is all.”

Scoffing, he said “Well, you did a great job of that.” Walking into the kitchen, he set down the bag he’d been carrying and opened the fridge. “Hmm, I don’t suppose you’d be willing to help me get some stuff from town, would you?” he called over his shoulder.

“I don’t see why not, no. I don’t really have anything planned today, except head over to Aj’s and see what they’re up to.” she answered, trotting into the kitchen. “How much ‘stuff’ are we talking, and who’s paying for it?”

Thunderlane walked over to her and said. “Enough for a few weeks. I’ll be paying of course. Though, in a way you are since you write my check.” After a few minutes, the pair left for market street, Rainbow carrying a saddlebag and shopping list while Thunderland walked next to her, chatting.

“Well, as far as I know, Gale, that’s his name by the way, is planning on doing anything and everything to find a way back to his home.”

“Wait, why can’t Twilight just recast the spell?”

“I had the same question. Apparently she isn’t entirely sure she cast the spell correctly in the first place and because of that she doesn’t want to risk messing it up even worse.” she replied, though in the back of her mind she vaguely wondered if Twilight was just keeping him here for some reason. As they walked on, Rainbow Dash managed to convince Thunderlane to follow her out to the orchard first, and then they’d go back and buy his groceries.

Thunderlane was the first to notice, as they were walking up to the barn, that there was music playing inside. He didn’t know what kind of music, but it clearly was. “Hey, Dash, you hear that?” he said, stopping where he was. As she turned to look at him, he pointed towards the barn. “This stallion you’re bringing me to, they big into music?”

“I think so, yeah. I know he had a . . . well, don’t remember what it’s called but he has something to play stuff on.” she told him.

“Well, now I’m really curious, ‘cause I don’t think I’ve heard anything like that before.” he said as he started walking again. It’s kinda relaxing. After another minute they’d reached the barn, and newm angrier sounding, song starting as they got closer. “Whoever wrote this must’ve been mad about it.”

---

Gale reached the apple farm about thirty minutes after he set out, having stopped to buy lunch with a few bits that Twilight had given him. He arrived at the barn a few minutes after that, having stopped once more to talk with Applejack. With her permission, he took a table and some towels out to the barn with him

Standing in front of his, now partially disassembled, car, Gale noted that most of the damage he’d initially expected either wasn’t quite as bad, or was merely cosmetic. I probably shouldn’t question it, but I still have no idea how this thing wasn’t obliterated.

Fishing his old phone out of his pocket, he set it up to play some music while he worked. The first thing he did, after taking his tool box out of the trunk, was to start in the air filter. He’d decided that the car’s body seemed in good enough shape and now he desperately wanted to see if the engine was salvageable. It started once and ran, briefly, so the crank must still be in good shape, right?

After a few minutes, he was able to set the air filter and covers, as well as all three carburetors on the table that he’d moved in with him. Taking a second to switch to a different playlist, Gale noticed that it hadn’t taken nearly as long as he thought it would have, maybe half the time. Must just be that good with this car, not entirely surprising.

Starting up a new, heavier, rock music playlist, Gale began working on taking the valve covers off, before deciding it better to get the intake manifold first. He had just finished removing the intake when there was a knock on the barn door. He reached over and muted the music he’d been playing, but didn’t turn to face whoever had knocked.

He already guessed it was Rainbow Dash when they got there, so he didn’t feel like he needed to look back. Plus, he was in the middle of something.

What am I, a freakin’ show and tell project? “So, I take it you’re Rainbow Dash’s drummer friend?” he asked over his shoulder, having still not turned towards them.

“How did you even know it was me?” the mare asked.

“One, I see the shadow of at least one pegasus, two, you’re the only one who has been out here to see what I’m doing. I put two and two together.” Finally standing up, he added. “So, who’s your friend, here?”

After a moment, she motioned for the other shadow to speak up. “I’m Thunderlane, Dash’s co-captain on the weather team, and you’re . . .” he paused, momentarily forgetting Gale’s name. “I’m sorry, I don’t have the best memory as of late,” he started, nudging Rainbow Dash rather forcefully with his good wing. “Hmm, it’s Gale, right?” he continued, the name coming back to him.

“You’re right there,” he said, turning around to face them. “Nice to meet you.” he went on, extending a hand before remembering. “. . . Right, ponies don’t have . . . nevermind me.” he said, shaking his head and hoping the two would just brush it off. Thankfully for him, they did.

Wow he’s taller than I figured on. Thunderlane took a moment to look over what he could see of Gale’s car. “So, this is that machine Rainbow was talking about then?” he asked, looking at it in astonishment.

“Yeah. she’ll be a lot better looking once I get ‘er running again.” Gale commented, walking around to the trunk and his toolbox.

“Her?” Thunderlane started to ask, before Dash nudged him and whispered

“Just roll with it.”

Gale briefly looked back at Rainbow and said “You do realize that you do not know how to whisper, right?”

With both of them looking at her, Rainbow shied away in embarrassment. This, of course, caused Thunderlane to burst into laughter at the site of his boss and friend finally getting knocked down a peg.

“So, Thunderlane, can I ask you a question?”

“You just did.”

Wise guy, eh? “Well, I was going to ask if you were doin’ alright since you mentioned poor memory. Though . . . I can’t help but notice-”

“My wing?” he interrupted, finally addressing the elephant in the room.

“Well, I was trying to be nice about it, but yeah.”

“Don’t sweat it.” he he said, with a dismissive wave of his hoof. “I got in a training accident. Serves me right for trying that crazy stunt.” he said with a pointed glare at Rainbow. “Yeah, I could probably have walked out same day too, but that kind of spell’s far beyond my insurance.”

Huh, I hadn’t thought of that. Gale looked at him curiously. Healing spells and insurance.

Thunderlane saw his look and decided to explain. “Yeah, only a few ponies are trained to use those types of high level healing spells. Most of them have already been doctors for years and because of that, they aren’t cheap.”

Shortly after he said this, Thunderlane briefly walked around the car, noting the size and how complex it was put together.

“So, what’s the story on this thing? Like, what is it and . . . I don’t know . . . why’ve you got it?” He asked, genuine interest coming through.

“Well, my people don’t have wings, nor we we all have the endurance that you all seem to. Combine that with that fact that the nation I lived in is absolutely fucking massive and you come up with a need for some way to get from place to place easily.”

Pausing for a moment, he walked around to the far side of the car. “This right here,” he said patting the roof. “Is a Challenger. Dodge, the company that built it, first sold this car some 40 years ago. This happens to be a 1970 model, the first year they were made and she means alot to me.” He paused for a moment, sighed and continued. “She’s about the last thing I have to remember my dad with.”

Thankfully for him, both ponies present understood and neither decided to ask what he meant by that. Instead, Rainbow Dash walked over to the table he’d placed parts of the intake on. “I may regret asking this, but how does this thing move, anyways?” Taking a closer look at one of the carburetors, she added “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this before.”

“To explain it all would take an incredibly long time, and you’d both probably get bored.” Glancing off to the side, he added. “As I bet most people would.” he said, walking over to her at the table. “Basically, you have a lot of small explosions that move pistons. Those spin the shaft they’re connected to. That goes through a series of gears and out to another longer shaft to reach the back of the car. From there it goes through another set of gears, and splits off into two shafts to spin the rear wheels.”

Both the ponies present merely stared at him.

“Hey, you’re the ones that asked.” Going back to his toolbox, he procured a socket and went back to removing the valve covers. “If you want to know why I’m messing with it, well . . . I tried to start this once, after I crashed here, and while it did actually run, I really don’t like how sounded, so I figure I might as well give everything a quick once over just to be safe.”

The group fell silent for a moment as Gale went back to work. Tat silence was short, however, as Thunderlane decided to ask the question both he and Dash had wondered since they walked up to the building. “Say, Gale, what was that you were listening to?”

Without looking up from the engine, Gale replied. “Hmm? Oh, RATM.”

“I’m not sure what that means, but okay . . . “

“Right, sorry.” he said, reaching over to grab his phone off the fender. “It’s a group called Rage Against The Machine, RATM is just shortened version of the name.” he said, now scrolling through his music playlists. “Do you remember any lines? Honestly this stuff just fades into the background for me at times.”

“Uh, not really. How ‘bout you, Dash?” Thunderlane asked, turning to face her. “Any ideas?”

“Oh, uh . . . I don’t know. Something about a radio. I wasn’t really paying attention to that too much, I just know whoever was singing it was not happy.” she replied, walking over to them.

“Well, yeah, that sounds about right. I mean, the band literally has ‘Rage’ in the name.” Gale said, backing out of that particular band’s playlist. There’s a reason RATM is in it’s own playlist. Let’s go back to regular shuffle. Setting the phone to shuffle once more, now set to play every artist except Rage Against The Machine, Gale lifted the driver’s side valve cover off of the engine and set it down next to the intake. “It occurs to me," he started, realizing his mistake. "That I don’t currently have the exact tool needed to measure these . . . “

Now that he realized he could go no further, Gale set the valve cover back on the engine and proceeded to play some music while talking to both Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane for the next two hours.

Author's Note:

Released in tandem with the new side-stories collection. Go check it out.

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[AnormalUnicornPony]

Woot! Still alive!