Chapter 28: Transit Crew
Kyle wasn’t sure what she would’ve expected from a grocery truck used to transport animals that shouldn’t exist. Maybe there would be a makeshift stable inside, with harnesses to contain them like dumb animals.
It seemed the opposite was true, and barely anything had been done to accommodate them for the trip. There was shiny metal on the walls and floor where shelves running down either side of the truck looked freshly removed, but otherwise it hadn’t been altered at all. A large pile of moving blankets was shoved up against the back, near where a faint curtain of warm air wafted in through the climate control. At least they wouldn’t be freezing in the back of the truck during the whole trip.
“How long is the drive?” Kyle asked, as soon as she’d made it to the end and settled onto her haunches on a blanket. There were no restraints at all in here, no seatbelts, no chairs.
The men only grunted in response. Well, one of them did. The rest only pretended not to hear, and started loading suitcases between them and the doors. These weren’t being left to slide around wildly in shipping, they’d brought straps and tie-downs and they went to work with both.
Fay babbled unhappily, waving one hoof through the air in front of her. She’d seen that gesture before—the baby didn’t like the dark.
Kyle nodded sympathetically, then concentrated on her illumination spell. She’d been up so late by now, and only used it twice—but the light seemed so simple to her now that she wondered how she hadn’t figured it out on her own already. It felt like reciting the multiplication tables she’d memorized in grade school. “How’s that?”
Fay squealed with delight, sounding wide awake now. She poked Kyle in the face with a hoof, obviously reaching for her horn. Without success, as Kyle pushed her just out of reach. She wasn’t sure what touching that organ during an active spell would even do. Maybe if I’m not careful I’ll hit Fay with too much magic and accidentally change her into a real baby.
At least then they wouldn’t be running out of diapers.
Dad appeared in the back of the truck as the moving crew were finishing up. There was no furniture, barely any boxes. Kara had been right about this—they weren’t planning on moving out. “Sorry this isn’t more comfortable,” he said, stepping over the suitcases. Both arms were full of blankets and pillows, nearly covering him completely. “It’s a long drive north, thought you might want some of these.”
Kara approached him, though of course she had no way to actually take the offered blankets. It was a moot point, because Dad didn’t let her get that close. He lowered the bundle to the floor of the truck, then took a few steps back.
“They won’t say how long the drive is,” Kara muttered, annoyed. “Do you know?”
Dad nodded. “We won’t make the whole thing at once. We’ll have to stop to let you all, uh… use the facilities. It’s about ten hours of driving if we never stop.”
Kyle brushed aside his morbid curiosity over what they would have to do with real farm animals, that couldn’t be asked to please not drink too much before and then hold it during the drive. She dismissed the question—Dad wouldn’t know, and it didn’t really matter. The answer was probably gross anyway. “Fay isn’t going to be happy about that,” she said instead. “She’s never driven before, and she hates the dark. She’s already made both of us into horses, so what does she do next?”
The thought was terrifying enough that they were both silent. Kara broke the silence, annoyed. “Just grab that big propane light.”
Alan shook his head again. “Confined space, and it might fall over while we’re driving. But there are trailer lights up there, I’ll just ask the driver to turn them on when we start. Probably just wanted to make it easier for you to sleep.”
Kyle probably would, if only because she’d stayed up so long without even a few moments to rest. But if Fay was unhappy, that alone might make the trip impossible. “Some light would be great,” Kyle said again, more subdued this time. “Just get that on for us, and we’ll focus on… preventing a disaster back here.”
“Good.” Dad backed away, looking as exhausted as Kyle felt. “We can only rely on the family for so much hospitality.” He lowered his voice, obviously just intended for them. But just because Kyle couldn’t see the movers didn’t mean they weren’t listening. “You know the family. We need their help, so we don’t have a choice about going there. But that help will come with a price.”
Kyle shivered, but didn’t get a chance to say anything else before Dad slipped past the luggage and down to street level. A few moments later and one of the movers appeared, slamming the back of the truck closed. She heard the sound of a lock clicking into place seconds later. There would be no getting out until the trip was over—unless Fay did something incredibly stupid.
“All this because you found an animal out in the woods,” Kara muttered. Her voice wasn’t exactly angry, but she wasn’t trying terribly hard to be nice either. “Too bad you didn’t go to the game with us.”
Fay probably would’ve died if nobody came for her. Either that, or maybe she’d have exploded like a supernatural atomic bomb and taken the rest of us with her.
The baby squeaked curiously, drawing her attention towards her. She squirmed and wiggled in her grip for a few seconds, fighting against the cloth Kyle had wrapped her in. But Kyle hadn’t expected the drive to be simple.
Fay rose to unsteady hooves, wobbling on the pile of blankets. Kara dragged over the others their father had brought, piling up the pillows nearby into an ineffectual wall.
The lights came on a moment later, a steady glow from the ceiling that didn’t quite approach enough to make Kyle comfortable. She hesitated for a moment, then stopped her glowing spell.
Fay reacted instantly, making a few unhappy sounds. “I guess you like the magic?” Kyle scooped her back up, trying to soothe her. “Sorry, I can’t keep that up for ten hours.”
The engine rumbled from somewhere not too far away, then they began to move. Fay tucked her head into Kyle’s chest, squealing in sudden fear and surprise. But there was nothing she could do but hold her with a wing as they pulled out of the driveway and onto the road.
“Ten years from now, when this is over and we’re grown up… there are gonna be some stories,” Kara muttered. She settled down onto the pile of blankets, covering her head with a pillow. She kept talking, voice muffled. “I thought I’d have the best blackmail ever. If you ever got too rowdy at parties or wanted to date a girl I hated, I could threaten to tell her you’d been a horse for a few weeks. Now, though… it’s not fair.”
“We did everything else together,” Kyle whispered. Most of her attention was for Fay, but so far the baby didn’t seem like she would do anything apocalyptic. Maybe she would actually make it through the trip without exploding on them. “Until freshman year. Something was going to bring us back together again.”
Even in the dim light she could see Kara’s head snap up to glare at her. “You could’ve kept this one, thanks.” She rolled to one side, apparently oblivious of how not-wearing-anything she was. “You think the creepy girl was trying to make your little bomb go off? You keep poking an alligator enough times, and it bites. That seems like something some evil scientists would want to test. What are the limits of our new mysterious weapon? How can we use it against our enemies?”
Kyle shook her head reflexively. “I don’t see what good it is to have a bomb that mostly just makes people into horses. That’s most of what she’s done. Which probably means they would’ve known that was a likely outcome. But it really could just be incompetence.”
Kara shrugged, somehow still visible despite the strange way she reclined. Probably a horse thing. “I don’t really care why they did it, I hate it. The family could help when it was just you, and I could keep living my life. Not anymore.”
The ground rumbled and shook as they twisted to one side, then down. We made it to the freeway. Just ten hours to go, but ten hours to where?
“I heard from Monday again,” Kyle said. In her arms, Fay had stopped squirming. One glance told her that she was already returning to sleep. Maybe the trip wouldn’t be as bad as she’d feared. “They gave me a chunk of a book this time, filled with all kinds of magic stuff. Before they give me any more, they want me to come up with my own spell.”
Kara jerked suddenly upright, dislodging several pillows and even making Fay twitch briefly in surprise. “You just thought you’d mention that now?”
“You were asleep! Besides, I’ve been reading it. Getting you up to give you the news would mean less time studying. You should be happy.”
Kara was silent for another moment, interrupted only by the constant rumble and roar of the highway underneath them. Kyle had never ridden in one of these before, and now she never wanted to again.
“I assume this time you got the missing pieces to change us back?”
Kyle chuckled. “Nothing even close. If I had to guess, changing people into different things must be some real expert-level stuff. Monday didn’t even think it was possible before, remember? They said it would wear off, and wanted me to wait until I started changing back.”
“Then I hope you’re ready for hard work,” Kara said, tapping one hoof loudly against the metal floor. Even if she wasn’t transparent anymore, it sounded like knocking a coke glass up against a car. “I’m guessing we won’t be doing much homeschool stuff up at our mysterious grandfather’s mysterious estate. A problem like that would just go away. That means you can focus on magic full time.”
“Sure,” she answered, settling onto her side. There was no helping how exposed she felt barely fitting in this awful truck. All she could do now was wait it out. “All the time I’m not getting probed by evil doctors or taking care of Fay, I’ll be right on it.”
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The latter one is possible if her rescue crews come and found her body.
I mean, that's a solution.
Well, that just raises further questions...
You both get to lord it over the other, Kara. It's the definition of fair.
I understand that Kara resents her life being uprooted, but the whole "It's okay when it's just you" attitude is more than a bit off-putting. Still, there will likely be bigger things to worry about in the near future. This definitely won't be as simple as a magical cram session.
10241365
They'd be understanding if she simply wasn't found in time... but the raw grief would probably have made things go wonky regardless. Emotions are an important part of Equestrian magic after all.
holy shit its been a few weeks, I thought this was over the course of a few days.
well at least they're in the calm before the storm.
each day without flurry heart further slides cadance into darkness.
Well, let's hope the ten hours goes smoothly.
What possible price can they extract from a family dropping into the "lower" classes of society other than scientific research? It's as if they aren't even related to the main branch anymore.
Yup, it's not fair when it happens to you. The more sociable twin that's apparently less deserving of such a fate because of all the inconvenience it causes. This will be a good "life isn't fair" lesson.
I'm guessing the worst thing that can happen at this point is if some grandchildren are also living with or visiting grandpa. It wouldn't take much for a little girl to see a colorful pony family and attempt to play with them despite the danger. That's certain to up the stakes a bit not to mention eating into Kyle's study time.
10241411
I agree about Kara's attitude, it stinks especially for twins who had a very close bond before they grew a little too old to be 'friends' anymore and had to drift due to social pressure.
I don't like that "Kara is the successful one!" and "Kyle is the under achiever~" Kyle doesn't seem like someone who is not intelligent or incapable, they sound demotivated, why try if everyone is going to favour his sister? You're setting the two of them up to fail as siblings forever by treating them this way. Accept that Kyle isn't an extrovert and that his achievements, while not as stellar are their own things and worthy of note and mention.
Their parents and extended family seem to be the root of a lot of their core problems right now, parents seem to not really understand how to treat a person as a person, and who knows how the rest of the family is based on all this mystery we have.
Also I know she's just venting about how if Kyle had just gone to the game then he'd never have found Fay and got them into the entire ordeal, but that just still sounds so wrong. You're essentially saying it would be better to condemn a clearly sapient being to death than to have your life being uprooted. You're still alive, you can still think and talk and feel just like every other human (and equestrian native), be thankful you weren't turned into a baby rattle or a potted plant.
Not so funny when it's your misery too, is it Kara?
Should have stuck to your guns and did nothing. Your price for your weakness is only beginning!
To those who thought "oh, it's just further into the countryside out of prying eyes": we told you so! Five hundred miles is not "out yonder in the woods".
Holding the light spell continuously for ten hours is actually a good stamina exercise, she should try it regardless.
Keep going! ;)
THIS. IS NOT. A. GOOD. IDEA
10241531
Doesn't mean it's out OF the country. Which would be difficult; customs agents take a dim view of livestock that hasn't been properly vetted crossing borders. There was nothing wrong with the other interpretation based on the evidence to be had at the time. 😜
Talking about "the family" just further confirms that we're dealing with the mob. Let's give a mob boss some powerful magic; nothing could go wrong!
...and things like this make one wonder if this "family" may not exactly be relatives...
So when twilight does come through, instead of them being nearby, they will be 600odd miles to the north. This is not a good thing.
Plus I expect just as good a treatment up there as they got when Gramp's crew was there last time except there is nowhere to run.
They should have refused.
It also reminds me a bit of South Park. "Kick the baby; don't kick the baby."
10242017
HMMMMM....
10241642
😘 We'll see what kind of money they have.
And off they go. I hope they're going someplace safe and not some kind of research facility.
I feel for them
I wonder how many configurations that spell language has... There’s definitely some that either lock up do to conflicting commands, and then a few that just explode, but it certainly seems like something worth studying.
welp, lay out the tarps and prepare for a bloodbath. this is going to get messy.
10242885
there is a near zero chance that they are going anywhere safe.
10244943
Why in the world would you respond to a comment on an older chapter with a spoiler from a more recent one?Scratch that, I may have misunderstood.
I wonder how much longer it will be before Twilight finds a way to reach Flurry Heart.
Ohhh this has me hooked!
Are the hidden masters drawn from other lore or just a hidden magic faction in this universe?
When will Twilight appear
10242073
Wouldn't the spell keep pointing to wherever Flurry Heart currently is at any given time? Even if she moves miles away? Don't tell me it only points to where she first showed up.
10251604
Hopefully not for a long time. Their struggles would have less meaning if she did.
10352523
Agreed. Flurry needs some Karma first.
10242073
I don't know, from the vague hints we've received this sounds like an offer they can't refuse. Funny (in a really morbid way) how well that works in a mlp story.
Yea, as if the two of you combined couldn't kick that open with very little effort if it would really be necessary
Now you're thinking with magic!
That... probably also means Monday doesn't have those pieces
10241365
They couldn’t have found her, because the tracker would have stopped working.