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1 - Laura's Fall10,003 words
2 - Encounter in Welsford6,846 words
3 - Hitting the Road7,947 words
4 - Oak Point Farms12,648 words
5 - Welcome to the US of A12,864 words
6 - Road Block10,705 words
7 - Dragon!7,542 words
8 - Beantown, USA9,731 words
9 - Thomas?9,485 words
10 - Albany7,488 words
11 - NY Canals Lock 124,799 words

3 - Hitting the Road

Cold air blasted past Laura's cheeks and she laughed joyfully, sending plumes of her breath streaming out behind her. She twisted her hips to angle her skis and sent a wave of the glittering white powder-snow high into the air. She heard Thomas laughing behind her and glanced back over her shoulder. He wore a bright red and yellow snow-suit and waved his poles about as he carved a similar sweeping path through the knee-deep snow. They swooped down the gentle white slope together, shooting past dark green pine forest on either side. Making their playful way down towards the valley floor where a charming lodge, hot toddies and snuggle-time by the fire waited.

An abrupt and intense sensation of déjà vu struck her, which was such a bizarre thing to experience while engaged in intense sport that for a moment Laura zoned out while carving a turn. The slope steepened abruptly and she snapped back into the moment, startled by the sudden acceleration. Faster and faster she shot down the steep slope, snow flying up into her face and filling the air around her. She tried to angle her skis to brake but it had no effect.

Frantic, she looked around but there was no sign of Thomas, just black trees whipping past and flurries of snow making it impossible to see. She shrieked his name as she went into free fall and plummeted in an avalanche of blinding white.

Laura jolted awake.

She groaned and struggled weakly inside of her child-sized sleeping bag, eventually wiggling her way out of its warm confines. Gently rubbing at her face with the crook of a foreleg reminded her that she wasn't entirely human anymore.

The fire had burned down to a weak, red glow so there was very little light to see by and the room was chilly. Her guest's rumbly snores almost sounded like repetitive, distant thunder as it mixed with the white-noise of rain on the porch roof. Laura yawned and slipped off of the couch, her ears twitching at the sudden clatter of her hooves on the scuffed wood floor. Walking slowly and as quietly as she could she made her way to the small woodpile, using her sensitive muzzle to follow the edge of the couch. With her mouth she carefully picked up a couple of pieces of firewood and walked over to the glow of the fire.

The door squeaked loudly as she opened it but Chick's snores didn't falter. She carefully placed the wood inside, then picked up the metal poker in her mouth to shove them into the bed of glowing coals. The first time she'd used the poker she'd worried about injuring her teeth, but they were much stronger than her human chompers had been and the gap where her canines used to be made for a convenient grasping spot for the poker's handle.

She swung the door shut, her ears flicking flat briefly at the high-pitched squeak, and then sat and watched for a little while as the wood started to burn. Chick grumbled something and his legs flailed a bit under the towel she had draped over him. Laura wondered if he was also dreaming more since he came back. She yawned and slowly walked back to the couch and her warm sleeping bag. Though she enjoyed dreaming about being human and about Thomas, they always ended with waking up alone and as a damn pony.

Well, at least she wasn't alone anymore.

A creaking of chair springs and the sound of small hooves on the floor woke Laura up. Half-awake and with the sleeping bag pulled over her head, her ears twitched to follow his clip-clopping progress to the front hallway. There was a loud plastic rustling as he pulled on his poncho, followed the door creaking open and closed. Clomp, clomp, clomp as he walked along the porch and then nothing but the quiet rain once more.

Anxiety that the only person she'd met in weeks had just left almost drove her out of her sleeping bag. But, she was too comfy and warm, and the quiet white-noise of rain hitting the house lulled her into a relaxed doze.

She need not have worried, as Chick's return was announced by a steady metallic clanging sound. The door creaked and the loud clomping of his hooves and loud clanging jolted her fully awake. Curious, she squirmed her head out of the sleeping bag and squinted in the grey light as he walked across the living room. With a rattling thump he slid a pair of large, beige canvas saddlebags off his back. A frying pan and two old-and-abused looking metal bottles hung from straps; the source of the metal clanging. It was as effective as an alarm clock and about as welcome.

Laura yawned and felt grateful that he'd put on some clothing. A long, armless t-shirt that covered him from neck to rump with thin black fabric. It was a little baggy and contrasted strongly with his bright pink fur and mane.

She struggled out of her sleeping bag and down onto the floor. Grey light streamed in through the open window and the room had gone chilly once more as the fire burned down. He was busy unstrapping the frying pan and bottles, and not looking in her direction, but she still felt horribly naked and exposed as she struggled into her cardigan. She felt better as it settled in place over her back and bum. The manky thing was starting to smell and was desperately in need of a wash… or throwing into the fire.

"Good morning, Laura. It is 'Laura', right?" Chick flipped open one of the flaps on his saddlebags and started extracting packages, spreading them out on the floor next to the wood stove.

Laura sniffled and rubbed at her face. "Yes and good morning, Chick. Did you sleep well?"

"Like a log! Nothing is so relaxing as a comfortable, warm bed after a long ride." He chuckled and wiggled his rump, slapping his short tail against the pictures of coffee beans on his bum. "I can feel my rump again."

Laura smirked and trotted over to the dwindling woodpile. With mouth and hoof-tips she recharged the stove, blowing on the glowing coals to get it blazing again. She carefully slid the now much lighter tea pan onto the stove top to warm. Meanwhile, Chick prepared to make the promised breakfast; unwrapping several very large white eggs and a loaf of dark brown whole-grain bread. Laura sat by the fire and watched him work. It was uncanny how easily he held the eggs to crack them and manipulated the knife to cut the bread. It was almost like he had glue on his hooves.

He glanced at her and asked, "Is scrambled okay? I'm not much of a chef and that's about all I can manage."

"Scrambled is fine, thank you." She waved a hoof at the fork he was holding and asked, "How on earth are you doing that?"

He looked at her with a raised eyebrow, then at his hoof. "Oh! Uh… magic."

"Magic. Riiight."

He laughed at her sarcastic tone and vigorously stirred the eggs with his 'magic' fork, then dropped the wet fork into the frying pan. He looked right in her eyes and in a very serious and intense voice he said, "It is magic. As you travel and meet other ponies and learn what the world has become, if you see something amazing, something you can't understand, something spectacular that doesn't make any sense… Just tell yourself, 'It's magic.' Really. It is."

He grinned impishly and turned to scoop butter out of a crockery pot and into the pan. All Laura could think about was his amazing eyes. They were red! She hadn't noticed them last night but his eyes glittered like rubies even in the washed out grey light coming through the window. Her heart fluttered and she abruptly felt far too warm. She hopped up and walked a few paces away from the wood stove… Chick needed that space to cook anyway.

As he worked, the scent of hot butter, eggs and tea were delightful to her now very sensitive nose.

Chick's cooking was, at best, passable but Laura was in heaven even if the eggs were a little overdone. A touch of salt and pepper from her dwindling supplies and they tasted better than the finest Eggs Florentine — her favourite breakfast dish. There was no way to make toast but she wasn't going to complain. Especially when Chick surprised her with milk for their extremely strong tea.

"How do you keep it from spoiling?"

"Hah! As I told you, it's magic of course." He gave the small, metal bottle a demonstrative shake and it rattled, a bit like a can of spray paint. "There's a gem inside that's enchanted to chill and preserve whatever I put in the bottle. A tiny diamond. So be careful not to pour it out."

The bottle was damp with condensation and cool when he passed it to her. She gave the opening a quick sniff and it just smelled of fresh milk, so she poured a drop into her tea. There was a scratching sound as the diamond slid against the metal.

It sounded silly; an enchanted diamond keeping food from spoiling. But she couldn't deny that the milk was as fresh as if it had just come from the fridge. She handed the bottle back and asked, "Where did you get an, umm, an 'enchanted' diamond? Some epic quest to distant mountains?"

Chick snorted a laugh and swallowed a mouthful of bread and eggs before answering, "There's a unicorn in Grand-Sault who specialises in enchantments. I just brought him some diamonds and paid him, though I have to get it renewed every year or so." He waved at his saddlebags, "I have another one that cleans water. They're expensive but worth it! Better than winding up with parasites, you know?"

Laura nodded and hoped that the iodine drops she'd been using to sterilise the river water had been effective. It made the water taste funny, but as Chick pointed out, it was better than getting sick. If these enchanted gemstones really worked, maybe she should consider getting one? Then again, she'd be in Boston… Beantown soon and it shouldn't be an issue. Surely a town would have its own purified water supply?

She munched on a mouthful of eggs and bread. Magic diamonds. A unicorn who enchants diamonds. If only she had her ring she could have gotten it enchanted to do something like glow in the dark so it would be easier to find?

"Hey!" She waved an excited hoof and asked, "Is there a way to find a diamond using magic? A spell or something?"

"Euh, I guess." Chick sipped at his tea and said, "A unicorn might be able to do it, sure."

And neither of them was a unicorn, but Thomas was. She'd have to get him to come back here and together they would search for her engagement ring. She smiled a little, imagining a romantic scene of finding the ring and renewing their commitment at the foot of the cliff where they had been separated. She wrinkled her nose and looked at her left hoof. They'd have to bring a chain so she could wear it around her neck or something.

She finished off breakfast and sipped at her tea, having to stuff her muzzle down into the mug sitting on the floor. Laura felt a bit embarrassed about having to eat and drink like an animal, especially when Chick picked up his mug to hold it to his lips. Fortunately, his long shirt hung down to cover everything while he sat upon his haunches, holding the mug between his fore hooves.

Blushing, she lowered her head to try and lap up her tea.

He murmured something to himself in French and said, "Here, now. Let me give you your first lesson in magic."

Laura licked tea off of her lips and chuckled. "You're going to teach me magic? I thought only unicorns could do that."

Chick set his mug down on the floor near Laura's and shook his head. "All ponies have magic in them, some more than others but all of us can do this trick."

Still sitting on his rump he leaned forward and twisted one of his forelegs in a way that would break a horse's bones. He showed her the underside of his hoof and said, "See here, the fourchette? The, uh, soft triangular part inside the hoof?"

Laura nodded, "The frog. Yes?"

"Frog? Okay, sure, the 'frog'. Now wrap your hooves around your mug like you've seen me do and close your eyes."

Laura sat on her haunches and did as he instructed, leaning awkwardly forward to press her hooves on either side of her mug and closing her eyes. She couldn't press the frog of her hooves against it as the thick nail of her hoof was too deep and there was no way she could pick it up with just the hoof itself. A large stain on the wood floor was a constant reminder of her failed attempt the first time she'd brewed up and tried using her hooves to pick up the mug like this.

His masculine voice spoke softly, "Now imagine your fingertips. Imagine pressing them against the mug and feeling the smooth surface. Feeling the warmth of the tea inside. Move your hooves back and forth a little and imagine your fingertips sliding over it."

Laura wasn't certain what, if anything, she was supposed to be feeling with. So far, she just felt the pressure on her hooves against the mug and a juddering as its bottom slid a little on the wood floor. This exercise reminded her a little of pottery classes; sitting with her eyes closed and just feeling the cold clay spinning against her hands. Feeling the shape as she made a pot rather than seeing it. Wait a moment! She could feel… something. Warmth. Just the cup radiating. Or was it? No. She could feel the smooth surface of the cup, like running her fingertip across it. Just like Chick had described it! She could feel that it was warm and smooth, except for a few little dimples in the steel mug's ceramic glaze.

"Ahhh…", Chick's warm baritone purred. "By that pretty smile on your face, I can tell that you are feeling it."

She opened her eyes, sat up and twisted her hooves around so she could look at the frogs. They hadn't changed at all, just the same triangular pads of lightly furry, rubber-like grey flesh she'd slowly grown used to seeing. There was no way they had actually touched the mug. Not unless they had swelled up like balloons or something.

She pressed her hooves against the mug, closed her eyes and imagined her fingertips again. After a few moments, she should 'feel' the mug. She slowly opened one of her eyes and leaned way down to peer at where her hooves pressed against it. She could feel it even though there were just the curving edges of her hard hoofs pressed against the mug.

Laura sat up and rubbed her hooves together and then looked at Chick. He smiled encouragingly and she asked, "Magic?"

He nodded. "Magic. It comes out of the frog in our hooves, kind of like a force field I guess. I'm no scientist so I don't really know how it works. But it does work! You can feel things and hold onto them with it." He demonstrated by picking up the dirty fork from the frying pan and waving it around a little.

"We earth ponies can also use hoof magic for farming. Feeling the soil, sensing if it's healthy, making plants grow fast and strong. You've probably felt this at least a little, right?"

She nodded and chewed on her lower lip. "Now that you mention it, walking on the road makes me feel a bit queer. Like… I don't know how to describe it…" More like she didn't want to describe it because it was daft.

"Like walking on garbage?"

"No. More like…" She blushed a little and admitted, "Like the road is yelling. Like it's angry, somehow."

Chick snorted and shook his head. "It just feels like garbage to me. Like dead, compressed pollution. Anyway, since you can feel the mug with your magic you should be able to pinch it between your hooves and pick it up. So why don't you finish your tea before it gets cold? Then we can clean up, get packed, and hit the road."

Trying out her new ability to grasp the mug, Laura was able to cautiously pick it up and finish her tea like a proper person, rather than an animal trying to lap up the dregs. It put a happy smile on her face to be one, tiny step closer to being her old self again. And MAGIC! She was doing magic! What the hell?

Chick borrowed her grass gathering basket to pile the dirty frying pan, tea-making pot, mugs and plates into. Between the two of them it didn't take long to wash up, sitting together on the porch and using the rain to wet the pots and plates. They used a dribble of soap from a squeeze tube that Chick had and a small scrubbing brush, which Laura tried holding with her hoof but she couldn't seem to get it to 'stick' the way Chick could. So she settled for drying with one of the musty towels.

There wasn't much for Laura to pack and most of it was already in her saddlebags. While Chick put away his food and pans she trotted into the kitchen and gathered up the bibs and bobs of the satellite phone, stuffing them into a plastic bag.

She walked into the living room, placed the bag on the floor and asked, "Should I bother bringing this?"

Chick finished closing a flap on his saddlebags, walked over and nosed the bag open. "Oh! A sat phone kit? Yes! Yes, you should definitely bring it. It's worth a lot and you can trade it if you don't want to keep it."

"It's broken though." Laura frowned and said, "When I popped the battery in and set it up to charge it gave off a burning smell. I think it must have gotten wet inside."

He flipped the phone around in his hooves, inspecting it closely and shrugged. "Somepony will trade you for it anyway. There's always a market for spare parts." He tossed it back into the bag showing no care whatsoever. Certainly, it was broken but there was no call to break it further. He didn't seem to notice her annoyance and asked, "So if you were charging it I guess you must have solar panels?"

Laura nodded and waved a hoof at the kitchen. "Thomas set up a plug and some electronics boxes in the kitchen. The panels are off in the woods a little ways." They'd taken hours and hours of painful labour to clean, awkwardly sweeping them with a — to her tiny pony body — gigantic mop.

She followed him as he trotted into the kitchen to investigate.

He grinned and said something that sounded appreciative in French. Turning to her he said, "This looks like an MPPT charge controller. You could get a good price for this but… mmm… lead-acid batteries. Non. They are too heavy and probably on their last legs anyway."

"What about the panels?"

He looked up at her, shrugged and said, "I doubt I can fit them onto my bike. How many are there? How big? I can report them to my manager and they may pick them up the next time a truck goes through here."

Laura held up her hooves to try and indicate their size and said, "There's three of them, about a meter wide and maybe a meter and a half tall."

"Cracked or anything?"

"No, just dirty." Very dirty.

Chick rubbed a hoof against his fuzzy pink chin while he thought for a moment and then said, "Yeah, I can't carry them but they sound worth salvaging. I'll report them."

Laura squinted and asked, "Wait… So you're paid to report them and someone else will pick them up? But they belong to me, don't they?"

Chick's eyebrows shot up and he looked surprised for a moment, then he smiled slowly and said, "Ah… I see where you are going with this. Ok, miss customer. What do you want for them?"

What did she want for them? Chick had mentioned yesterday that money was worthless now and everything ran on barter and something called a… What was it again?

"A chit!" That was it, wasn't it?

He yelped, "A chit?!" Chick waved his forelegs around dramatically. "Criss, should I cut off one of my legs and give you that as well? A chit?"

Laura was unimpressed by his theatrics and said, "Half a chit then."

Chick clicked his tongue. "Tch tch tch, sorry but you can't cut a chit in half. They are not like pieces-of-eight, you know."

"Well then… I…" She snorted in frustration and felt very irritated by his sly, mocking smile. It wasn't her fault she had no idea what to ask for now that money was apparently gone. Not that she would have known how much Canadian money to ask for a set of used solar panels anyway. She was even more annoyed when Chick burst out laughing at her.

After he'd calmed down he wiped one of his eyes and said, "Sorry. I, ah, how about I give you a pearl for them, hmm? I truly only have one chit and you can't cut them into pieces."

"A pearl?"

"Yes. If somepony doesn't trade goods-and-services for other goods-and-services they use gems, jewellery, silver or gold. As you said before it's pretty medieval now."

Laura hmmed and asked, "How much is a pearl worth? What could I buy with one?"

"Well, in Beantown you could buy a very nice dinner for two or a few nights in a good boarding room."

"Two pearls then?"

He chuckled and held out his right hoof. "Ok, two pearls." When Laura didn't respond he said, "Tap my hoof with your's to seal the deal."

Laura tapped his hoof and then followed as he trotted back into the living room. He dug around in his saddlebags and pulled out what looked like one of those blue velvet bags they sometimes sold with bottles of liquor. Chick sat and turned his back to her while rooting around inside it, then turned back and held out a pair of white pearls on the bottom of his hoof.

"There you are, miss customer."

She held out a hoof and he carefully tipped them into it. She rolled them around a little, feeling them bumping up against her frog and said, "Thank you."

"Ahh… And if you want to see what a chit looks like." He dug in the bag for a moment and held out his hoof again. It was a little rectangle of off-white plastic with a hole punched in one corner and it had a shiny foil hologram which showed a logo made of circles and the letters 'HPI'.

Laura looked at it for a few moments and felt that her pair of pretty pearls were far better deal than something that looked like mass-produced scrap. She looked up at Chick and asked, "And how many nice dinners could you buy with that?"

He smiled, tossed it a few inches into the air and caught it on his hoof. "I may spend it to have my bike serviced and garaged over winter. So, quite a few nice dinners." He tucked it back into the bag and said, "Though if I feel like working I might do that instead and save my chit for a rainy day. Have to see what jobs I can find in Beantown when we get there."

"Hmm… I can understand why people would use pearls as money but that little bit of plastic doesn't seem like it has much intrinsic value." She awkwardly hop-walked to her saddlebags, keeping an eye on her pearls so that she didn't drop them.

Laura tugged open the zipper on one of the outer pouches, where she kept a small collection of interesting stones and an eagle feather she'd found while foraging. She dropped in the pearls and zipped it closed while resolving to be careful with how she spent them. Laura had never been good with money, having always relied on her wealthy parents to support her. But she was on her own now and who knew how long it would take to find Thomas? At the very least she could spend them on a celebration dinner when they were together again.

Chick tucked the velvet bag back into his saddlebags and said, "Chits are rare and there's a little computer chip inside so they can't be faked. They're actually food coupons from a secret place where the last true humans live."

"True humans? I thought we were supposed to avoid them?"

Chick dug around in his other saddlebag and said, "No. That guide you read is out of date. I've never seen one of them but I've heard that ponies and humans have been working together for a few years now. Ah!" He pulled his head out of the bag with a pair of wire cutters in his mouth.

They were all set to go after Chick vandalised the wires to disconnect the power transformer thing. It was still raining though it had slowed to a cold drizzle, so Laura wore her pale-blue rain jacket over her cardigan while Chick struggled into his damp leather jacket and yellow poncho.

Laura stood a moment in the door looking back into the house that had been her home for several weeks. It had been terrible and she was glad to be leaving but it felt awkward and sad to just up and leave her shabby home. She sighed, shut the door and walked to the end of the porch where Chick was standing out in the rain. Going down the steps was awkward for Laura, even after doing it so many times while she lived here. Stepping down felt a bit like she would go tail-over-ears and she had trouble getting her rear hooves onto the steps. She'd once tumbled down a flight of stairs in the house and though she'd not been seriously hurt, she'd not gone up to the second floor ever again.

Chick almost looked like a camel with the transformer perched on his back and covered by his poncho. As they crossed the road he stopped and tapped a hoof against one of the roundish stones she had dragged up to make her arrow.

"We'll have to move these before we go."

That made sense, unfortunately. There was little point in directing anyone else to go look at the house after she'd gone but she wasn't looking forward to shoving the wet stones back into the grass. They were good stones though. They'd certainly played their part in saving her so it was really the least she could do to thank them.

She giggled at the childish thought as she followed Chick. The road felt uncomfortable beneath her hooves but it only took a few minutes walk to reach the gas station and the dirty concrete felt much nicer.

Chick's bizarre looking vehicle was unlike anything she'd seen before, except maybe in movies of WW2. It was a very old looking design of motorcycle mated to a similarly old looking sidecar and hitched to the back was a small two-wheeled trailer. It was covered in muck but beneath that was a military-style paint job of camo greens and beige blobs.

Chick trotted over to the cart, carefully sat on the damp ground and slid the transformer off of his back. He stood up and waved a hoof at the old-looking motorcycle. "What do you think? She may not look like much but under this mud is a trustworthy steed. Heh."

"It's… lovely." And in a way it truly was. Very purposeful and its old-style design was charming, at least she hoped it was styling and she wouldn't be riding around on an antique. She slowly walked around it and saw several long levers bolted to the motorcycle which also had metal saddlebags, a Jerry can, and even a small shovel strapped to it. The spare tire on the back of the sidecar had a luggage rack over it with several bags held on with elastic cords. Another pile of bags filled the front half of the sidecar but the seat was free and she assumed that was where she'd be riding. Though it was probably a bit tight for a human she would have plenty of room despite the baggage. Being a small pony had some advantages. She walked back to the cart and found that Chick had folded back a corner of the blue tarp that covered it and he was busy stuffing the transformer into a transparent plastic bag.

Though he probably didn't need assistance she helped him heave it into the cart, which was half filled with plastic tubs. Then they stowed their saddlebags in the sidecar, filling up the last space in the footwell.

Chick waved a hoof and said, "Hop in and see if you fit. You should be able to sit with your fore hooves up on the bags."

Laura awkwardly scrambled up onto the footstep and into the seat. Her hooves were muddy but the black faux-leather seat was already rather dirty so she tried not to be bothered by it as she sat down. There was actually plenty of room. In a pinch, she could probably curl up and have a nap.

Chick nodded and walked around to the other side of the bike while she messed about in the sidecar, shifting bags around to make her nest more comfortable and stuffing her sleeping bag up into the footwell so it would hopefully stay dry. He clambered up onto the bike, opened one of its metal saddlebags and rooted around inside. He retrieved two strips of grey plastic about three centimetres by ten, with long black wires going to an adaptor plug. He leaned way down between the bike and the sidecar while resting his belly on the sheepskin covered seat. With deft moves of his hooves, he wrapped one of the strips around a pipe that went to what Laura thought must one of the engine's pistons.

"I need to preheat the fuel injectors", he grunted, though she hadn't asked. "She drinks alcohol and won't start if I don't warm her up first."

Laura smirked and wondered if he had named 'her'. What would you call a big, ugly motorcycle like this? Bertha? Gertie? Zaza? Wait, wasn't Zaza a drag queen? Well, with Chick draped over the bike it was almost like 'she' was wearing a pink feathered boa.

She giggled as he struggled back upright, gave her an unsure smile and disappeared behind the motorcycle to apply a heating pad on the other side. When he was finished he plugged them into a socket on the bike and trotted back around to the sidecar.

"Ok, let's take care of those rocks while she warms up."

Laura stood up and stepped a fore hoof out onto the step outside the sidecar. She struggled to get her other hoof up and over the side of the car and had to squeeze her forelegs tightly together to fit both hooves onto the step. The ground was so far away! That last step down to the concrete was a doozy and she felt like she would end up doing a headstand and flipping over to land on her back.

Seeing her distress Chick suggested, "Umm… maybe it would be easier to jump out?"

"Jump?" Laura wobbled for a moment, then stepped back up and sat inside the car. "I don't see how that would be any easier."

"Well, it would be fewer steps to take and over in one go, like taking off a band-aid. It's easy really, just jump and let your body do what it needs to. Horses were born to jump!"

It made sense, sort of. Her heart beat quickly and somehow this seemed more intimidating than scaling a cliff face with her bare hands, back when she had hands. Laura swallowed, tried to remember how she'd seen horses jump in the past, tensed her hind legs and leapt over the side. She stretched out her forelegs towards the ground but her hind legs whacked into the lip of the sidecar, she was jerked back and flopped down to smack into the side of the motorcycle.

Or she would have if Chick hadn't jumped forward and wrapped his forelegs around her chest.

"Oof!", he murmured something in French into one of her blushing ears, making it twitch. She only understood the words 'that' and 'worse' — 'That could have been worse?' She wasn't sure how! He stepped back a little on his hind legs and instructed, "Ok, lift one of your legs out and reach down for the ground."

She gasped a couple of times with her head resting against the crinkly yellow plastic on his shoulder. Grabbing a hold of him with her 'arms', she strained to lift a hoof out of the sidecar. Twisting her hips and stretching to the limit she finally got a hoof-tip on the ground. The awkward angle actually helped with sliding the other leg free and with a grunt and a hop she had her rear legs out of the sidecar. Chick's strong arms… legs… held her close to his warm chest.

She wiggled her forelegs and panted, "Y-you can put me down now."

"Yes. Yes, alright." He set her down on her hooves and stepped back, dropping to all fours himself. "Ehm, maybe next time you should jump a little higher?"

"Right." Laura wasn't looking forward to 'next time' but unless she wanted to try riding the motorcycle itself she'd have to figure something out. Maybe backwards?

Chick's ears popped up as he nodded and then trotted off towards the road. The rain pattered against the waterproof hood of Laura's jacket as they reached the stone arrow, where she selected a stone, braced her fore hooves against it and started slowly shoving it towards the side of the road. It was annoying to have to undo all the hard labour that it had taken to build it!

She heard Chick grunt, followed by a loud crack and a stone sailed past and smashed into the brush beside the road.

Laura turned to look at him. He stood with his rump towards one of the stones, looking over his shoulder and lining up with it. Then he bucked like a horse and his hooves sent the stone sailing in a low arc and off of the road.

He noticed her watching, grinned and said, "It's a bit faster this way, eh? But it takes a different kind of hoof magic from what I showed you this morning. I can show you how, but not now. We're already late and have a long way to go."

Ooo, more magical stuff she could learn! After a taste of it over breakfast she was looking forward to finding out more of what this silly body could do. For now, Laura went back to slowly pushing her stone off of the road while Chick kicked away a half-dozen in the same time. She still hadn't asked him about galloping but she imagined that it would take a couple of days to get to Beantown, so there was plenty of time for that. Or she could ask Thomas to teach her when she saw him again. Laura started shoving another stone off of the road and tried to imagine a lovely scene with them galloping, side-by-side along grassy hills with a brilliant sun shining down on their joyful reunion. But she had a difficult time imagining Thomas as a white unicorn and the image of him as a man, running barefoot next to a little grey mare was a bit too perverse.

By the time she'd finished the second stone, Chick had kicked the rest of them away. He trotted back to the motorcycle but Laura lingered for a moment, she pushed strands of wet hair away from her eyes and looking around at the little town that she'd called 'home'. The drumming of rain on her hood drowned out most sounds but she could hear a few brave birds chirping in the trees. She gave the peeling white-painted house a last, grateful look and trotted after Chick.

Getting the motorcycle kick-started was quite a process. Laura sat on her haunches and watched as Chick crawled all over the front of the machine; inserting the key, flicking switches and banging his hooves against various levers. Once he was satisfied with his preparations he stepped to the side of the bike and used a fore hoof to kick down on a lever just in front of the rear wheel. It took four tries — with pauses to clamber back up and fiddle with controls on the handlebars — before the engine finally coughed and clattered into life.

"Ok, hop in!" Chick busied himself with getting the heater pads off of the engine tubes while Laura trotted around behind the trailer and clambered into the vibrating sidecar.

Chick scrambled up onto the motorcycle's seat, revved the engine a few times and then picked up the white helmet that was sitting on the fuel tank. He slid it onto his head and tugged the chin strap tight then flicked something on the side and a somewhat mucky visor dropped down in front of his eyes. Leaning over to the sidecar he shouted over the engine noise, "I'm sorry that I don't have a helmet or goggles for you, Laura. You'd better stay low to try and keep out of the rain."

She nodded and he reached down to press a lever between the bike and sidecar, then stamped on some levers on the left side, before carefully pressed a hoof against a lever attached to the throttle.

With a chugging roar, the motorcycle jerked and rolled forward, out from under the gas station's canopy and into the lightly falling rain. He pulled a tight U-turn to get onto the road heading north and slowly eased the throttle up. Finally, they were off, riding over where Laura's arrow had been and going in the wrong direction! Laura would have said something but immediately her face was buffeted with wind and splattered by rain. She'd be shouting at Chick's rump from where she was sitting anyway. Laura snorted and hunched down, pressing her forelegs and chin onto the bags in the sidecar to try and get out of the wind. Chick probably knew where he was going but she'd give him a piece of her mind if it turned out he didn't.

After a few minutes ride, they made two left turns and rode up a ramp and onto the dual carriageway that ran past Welsford. Heading south, thank God. Chick increased their speed once they were on the relatively broad and clean road, which also increased the wind and turned what had been a fairly light rain into a drenching spray. There was absolutely no chance of conversation so Laura held her jacket hood in place with a hoof, closed her eyes, hunkered down and clutched onto one of the bags as they rattled and roared down the highway.

For half an hour they rode south with Laura occasionally opening her eyes to peer through the rain at the passing landscape. Mile after mile of pine forest, rocky hills and the occasional road sign. The low grey clouds felt like a ceiling overhead and Laura hoped they would have at least a few sunny days on the trip to Beantown. She wasn't sure she'd survive if they didn't!

She was feeling properly miserable — wet, cold and a bit numb in the face — by the time Chick guided the bike off of the highway and down an exit ramp. A sign announced the town of Westfield and Laura hoped that they would be stopping for a while so she could stretch her legs and have a pee.

Chick leaned down and yelled over the engine and wind, "We'll stop here for a few minutes!"

Thank goodness!

"Then it's another hour or so to the farm but we'll be going much slower so it won't be as bad."

Laura nodded and turned her head to snort water out of her damn horse nose. Her nostrils were like rain scoops! She wished the sidecar had a windscreen like the motorcycle did, it would have made the trip much more bearable. Or better yet, she wished for a car! A nice, warm, dry, quiet car!

It was a bit of a ride to town from the carriageway, past dirty blue signs with symbols for camping grounds and swimming areas. Chick kept the bike in the centre of the road except to weave around fallen branches and large patches of sodden leaves that encroached on the crumbling tarmac. Some mounds of leaves or puddles of water couldn't be avoided and the motorcycle felt loose and unstable under her as they drove over them. They came around a long, sweeping bend and for a few moments, Laura saw a large body of water ahead before the trees concealed it again.

Minutes later Chick brought the motorcycle to a halt at an intersection in front of hanging traffic lights that had long since gone dark. He reached down to yank up a lever and said, "We'll rest here for a few minutes. I need to, ah, visit the bushes but I'll be back." He climbed down off of the bike, leaving it idling and steaming as he trotted off to the side of the road.

Laura didn't see any sign of a town, just one sagging house, half-hidden in the encroaching forest. She stood up in the sidecar and stretched her numb legs as best she could in the small space, then she looked down at the ground. Did she dare try to jump out again? Not a chance. Since she didn't have an audience she opted for the indignity of going bum first, which worked well enough until one of her hooves slipped on the metal step and she tumbled back onto her rump.

With an angry snort which turned into a whiny, she got back up and wiped ineffectively at the muddy hem of her rain jacket. She angrily lashed her tail and trotted off to do her business in a grassy ditch at the side of the road. A flush loo would have been nice but she would probably just fall in! Pony bodies were at least conveniently shaped for outdoors toileting. By the time she walked back to the bike, Chick had also returned and was drinking out of a steel bottle.

He held it out and said, "Don't swallow the diamond."

She nodded and out of habit she ran one of her wet and muddy fetlocks over the bottle's mouth before drinking a swallow of the cold water. It tasted slightly of dirt and probably would have been cleaner if she hadn't bothered to try and clean it. The diamond rattled as she handed it back.

Chick screwed the cap on, pouted and looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, "I should tell you a little about where we're going."

"The farm?"

"Well, actually it's two farms. Eighteen ponies live there in more-or-less four families and they call it the 'Oak Point Farming Collective'. They have a few houses, barns, some mobile homes and such." He smiled and got a distant look in his pretty ruby eyes, "I made a delivery there in the spring and it's a beautiful place but-", his expression became concerned, "-too close to the water."

Laura raised an eyebrow and asked, "More-or-less four families?" Fancifully horrid images of inbred hicks and axe murderers quickly played through her mind… at least she hoped they were fanciful.

He nodded and coughed. "Yes, that's one of the things I need to tell you about. They have, uh, group marriages that are called 'herds'. It is a common practice now so you will see it a lot in the towns as well. You see there are a lot more mares than stallions so sometimes they, ah, arrange to share." Chick's ears were lightly folded back and she could see a blush turning his pink coat a slightly darker colour.

"You mean polygamy?" He nodded and with furrowed brows she asked, "Why on earth are there more mares?"

"I don't know." He unscrewed the water bottle again and had another drink. "But I have heard ponies say that it must be how things are in Equestria. So because of them and their spell that caused the Event, more mares Return and more foals are born female."

He shrugged and offered her the bottle again but she shook her head.

Laura wasn't exactly shocked by what he'd told her, though it was a little unsettling. One of her friends had been dating two guys when they were in sixth form, with both guys knowing about it. So it wasn't exactly a new idea and even if it wasn't what she wanted she could understand why someone would like to have an 'open' relationship.

"They will probably ask you to join them as well. Just so you know."

Laura snorted in surprise. "W-what? Someone's going to propose to me just like that? But I'm already-"

He interrupted by waving a hoof and said, "No, no, no. Though, yes… sort of. They just invite ponies to live there not to marry. But if somepony did join one of the families or bring along a partner and start a new family, they'd be even happier." He chuckled as he screwed the lid back onto the bottle. "Whenever I visit they're always very nice and entice me to stay, but I'm not a farmer. They may not even ask you since you are a mare and what they really want is more stallions. But I thought you should know in case it comes up."

Laura squinted and shook her head. "Well, if anyone asks me they will be disappointed. I already have my Thomas."

"Of course, of course. It may not even happen since we'll just make a quick stop to trade and be on our way again."

He stuffed the bottle in amongst the bags in the sidecar. "We should go. The road's narrow and messy from here, so the bike will slide around a bit now and then. Don't worry, I've been down this road many times. Just don't make any sudden moves in the sidecar, okay?"

Laura nodded absentmindedly as she stepped up and into the sidecar. She hoped that no one at this farm would try to chat her up. She'd dealt with creeps in bars a few times but being hit on by a colourful little pony would be a whole new kind of surreal.

Chick did his complicated dance with the motorcycle's various levers and with a clattering roar they were off.

Author's Note:

Okay, as usual please PM me if you see any typos.