Legends of Equestria: South Swamp Rag

by JimmyHook19

Proud to be a Pony

Soon enough, morning came, and the sleepy Louisiana Sun opened his or her eye upon the dark world, illuminating the land below with his or her (OK, their, this is getting tedious enough) wonderous, glorious rays of sun and warmth. And sure enough, the world cast off it's bed sheets and began to awaken from its slumber, as alarm clocks went off, people stirred, and vehicles began to travel about, goods trains, trucks, and cars starting out on long journeys, and some on short journeys as well. The fumes once more rose into the air, and life slowly got rolling again, as it was to be a good day, with many of the things that would be associated with a good day expected to occur with great likelihood and magnitude.

---

In a motel room, over on the other side of town, this light did not penetrate into the rooms, as the curtains were all closed, rendering the light unable to enter the room. There was a brief murmuring sound, followed by a brief rustle, as the sole occupant, sitting in a chair, began to stir.

"That was a good night," she said, to nobody in particular barring her own very self, and as her sleepy eyes opened like shutters letting in the sunlight, she raised her arm and put her hand forward to pull herself up. But for some reason, she couldn't get it to grip anything. "Did Ah fall asleep on it again?" she asked. "No wonder Ah've got pins and needles." But once her eyes were working properly, the cause of her predicament was clear.

There was no hand there at all! It was a hoof! And for that matter, her arms were now forelegs! Stifling a scream, Mage Meadowbrook looked all over herself, to see she had changed back into a pony, with her attire now the size you'd expect of a pony rather than a human. This left only one emotion left in the mare's heart, and that was panic. Complete, total, utter panic, as well as some confusion as references to a 'Jimmy' appeared in her mind. Heh, Jimmy. A totally ridiculous name if you asked her.

"How am Ah meant ta leave town now?" she asked, concerned and frightened. "If people see me, they'll lose their minds, or worse, call the police! What am Ah gonna do?" She ran over to her saddle bag, to check if there was a replacement copy of the potion, but upon looking inside, the 'appendix B' she had checked a little while earlier had an extra warning:

Note: DO NOT take more than once every 24 hours.

Meadowbrook sighed. "Well, there goes that plan," she sighed. This potion had failed to work correctly, and that was risking compromising her journey, as she needed to get to Manteo. Admittedly, this did constitute a MacGuffin, as she had no idea why she needed to go to Manteo, but to Manteo she had to go, and her entire trip was in jeopardy. But whilst trapped in her own despair, in a room which she had no chance of getting out of, being designed for humans, there was suddenly a knock at the door. A big, heavy knock, which made more than clear who was knocking. And that somebody became very clear in only a moment's time.

"Meadowbrook?" asked a familiar Scottish voice. "Are you in there?"

"Yeah, Ah am!" she called back. "Gotta bit of a problem right now!"

"I'll wait then, but we need to get going before 9 or else the traffic will get too heavy!" Rockhoof replied. Meadowbrook then had an idea, and raced over to the door. She then reared up, and balanced her front hooves on the door, putting her mouth in range to reach the door handle. She moved her head up, and prepared to grip.

"Here... goes... nothin'!" she said, and, grabbing the door handle with all of her might, pulled it down. The door flew open, knocking her back through the air and into the chair, whilst Rockhoof stepped in, looking upon the scene before him in complete and utter surprise.

"Meadowbrook?" he asked. "Whatever happened to you?"

The pony smiled at him sheepishly. "The potion wore off," she replied simply, her face a vision of crimson and incarnadine embarrassment, not to mention a subtle reflection of the fear she currently felt.

Rockhoof sighed. "It seems as if that potion of yours still has a few bugs," he said. "Are you sure you set the timer correctly?"

"Ah know from mah testin' Ah only needed three drops!" Meadowbrook replied. "Ah'd hardly want to be treadin' on things, would Ah? That'd make a mess of thin's, wouldn't it?"

Rockhoof nodded. "You're the expert. But, to say the very least, this will complicate the plan somewhat. Not only have you got to return your room key, you also need to get to my truck without being seen, and then we need to get to Augusta in a similar vein, without you being spotted, or else that could cause trouble."

Meadowbrook laughed weakly. "Yeah, people might react badly to a magical talkin' pony. Do ya have a trunk on that truck?"

"It has a boot, if that's what you mean," Rockhoof answered, his face lighting up with a brilliant idea. "I don't think it's air conditioned, so you may get very hot in there, which is my only concern. Don't want to have the rulebook thrown at me with regards to animal cruelty."

It was only then that Meadowbrook had another idea. She galloped back into the room, and suddenly pulled something off of the table. It looked like the streamlining fitted to a Duchess class engine, a locomotive design of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and was covered in blue and yellow stripes, almost looking like a bee in design. It was very long and looked very heavy, but was nonetheless made of wood. Rockhoof's eyes lit up when he saw it.

"Of course!" he said. "Your healer's mask!"

"It also has magical power," Meadowbrook smiled. "Ah can use it ta temporarily recreate the effects of the potion, but only fer a few minutes, and then it'll wear off. That ought ta give me long enough to return mah room key, and then get inta yer truck. Then we can be on our way toward Manteo!"

"Any idea why you need to go there?" Rockhoof asked. "It seems very specific an instruction, not to mention the layers of MacGuffin surrounding it."

"How am Ah gonna get across those MacGuffin's ya speak of?" Meadowbrook asked. "Ah well, here we go. Escape plan, take 1!" And she pulled on the mask.

---

In the motel office, the owner sat, signing document and checking the bank balance. The costs of running such an establishment had to be weighed against the profits it brought it, but it seemed that he brought in a reasonable amount of business given the circumstances and the fact his town wasn't exactly in the way of most of the big highways. In fact, you'd have to pretty out of your way to find this place, which led him to wonder precisely how that woman who had checked in yesterday had found the town in the first place. Oh well, at least it brought in some more money for the operation, and hopefully keep going for a few more years until he could retire and go somewhere nice.

Just then, the door opened in front of him, and the woman from yesterday walked in, Mary Meadowbrook being her name. But compared to yesterday, something seemed a little off. For a start, she was holding a wooden object in her hands, under her arm, which she hadn't been carrying yesterday, and she looked to be in a rush.

"Ah," he greeted her. "Here ta check out?"

"Yes sir," Mary nodded, the nod accompanying her speech as she put the keys down upon his desk. At the same time, she fumbled briefly, and took out her wallet.

"What culture is that mask?" he asked. "Caribbean? African?"

Meadowbrook shrugged. "Ya know, Ah'm not actually sure." She took some dollar bills out, and laid them down on the table before her, before starting to head toward the door to the outside world and to her eventual escape.

"Thank ya kindly," the owner smiled, as Meadowbrook went to go. She stepped through the door, and out to the parking lot. There was suddenly a bright flash, followed by a yellow light of incredible intensity, followed not long after by a blast that blew out almost every window in the nearby area as if an explosion had just gone off. The owner got up in confusion, looked over, and saw a blue pony in a green skirt running (or would the operative word be trotting? He wasn't sure at that moment, in his confused state of mind) toward a pickup truck driven by the Scotsman who had checked in a few days earlier. He glanced down at the bottle of Swamp Pop that sat upon his desk, half-drunk, and picked it up, peering inside the bottle as he did so. "What is in this stuff?" he asked. "Cause that was one weird hallucination." He glanced over again, to see if the pony was still there in the street or the parking lot. But alas, it was not. For the pony, and the pickup truck, were gone, vanished off down the road and far into the distance. But the windows were proof of what had just occurred in his motel courtyard. He sighed, and picked up a dustpan and brush. "Gotta clean this mess up somehow, and Ah'd probably better do it now, or else the customers will probably complain."

---

The aforementioned pickup truck had by this point started off down the highway, and was cruising along with the early morning traffic. Rockhoof glanced over to the passenger seat to see Mage Meadowbrook, desperately trying to make herself hidden on the seat, so nobody (or nopony, for that matter), could actually see her there. He sighed. "You know," he said, "when you said the mask would recreate the effects of the spell for a few minutes, you could have mentioned that it would last that short! I did not see that coming at all!"

"Well, Ah had no idea either!" Meadowbrook replied to him, her voice full of annoyance at Rockhoof's attitude. "Clearly, that potion needs some tweaks done to it, but it didn't work! Ah wouldn't be here if it weren't fer that mask!"

"And that blast probably alerted everybody in the area," Rockhoof countered. "Oh well, nobody would believe the story of seeing a pony in a green skirt running across a motel courtyard and hopping into a truck, so we're safe in that regard. At least we are on our way, and off toward where we need to be." He reached for the car radio, and punched the button which would play the contained CD. The notes began to echo through, a nice, calm, melodic sound that helped to lower the tension inside the cabin to a great degree.

"Hey, Ah know this here song!" Mage Meadowbrook smiled, as the sound kicked in and a smile broke out across her face.

"Going Home, from Local Hero, 1983," Rockhoof explained. "Very good film, I'd recommend watching it if you can. But enough of that now. We've got a long road to Augusta, Georgia." And away they went, the engine humming and the road opening up before them like a long, thin, black line across the United States of America. Before I start parodying Jack Kerouac, I shall initiate a time skip and take us to the most interesting part of the trip.

---

After a very long journey, the pair arrived in Augusta, Georgia. Rockhoof pulled up the truck just as the sun was beginning to set, a great orange ball descending through the sky toward the ground. He opened the other door, and Meadowbrook hopped out. "Best of luck, Meadowbrook!" he called warmly.

"Thank ya!" Mage Meadowbrook replied, as she trotted away, and the truck roared away into the distance. Just then, her attention was caught by a horn in the distance.

Author's Note:

From here to the end of the Story, I will be staying in Mage Meadowbrook's Pony Form till we reach the goal for her.

Comments

[JimmyHook19]

9953847

[Devious Dazzle]

This is the most adorable thing ever!

[The Blue EM2]

Hi.

[Chrome Masquerade]

"How am Ah gonna get across those MacGuffin's ya speak of?" Meadowbrook asked. "Ah well, here we go. Escape plan, take 1!" And she pulled on the mask.

Action!