Rebirth of Magic: Cold, Cold Heart

by JimmyHook19

Go Tell that Long-Tongued Liar

I had found my means of transportation by looking in Maretime Bay's reserves. It turned out that the city maintained a reserve of trucks for transportation and cargo purposes, and this would suit my purposes nicely. Turns out they weren't that complex to drive, only featuring a pair of pedals. Whomever had built them had the kindness to make them automatics. I'm from a place which doesn't do manual cars, which is where you change gears manually, so I had no idea how to operate those sorts of vehicles. Naturally, I preferred automatics, and as this was an automatic it gave me considerably less to think about as I would be driving along.

I refueled it from a nearby fuel tank which had some gas in it. Well, diesel actually. Earth pony society had seemingly settled on powering large vehicles using diesel fuel, which made sense. Although not as good for the environment, diesel fuel is good for big machines going long distances.

I just noticed Sunny giving me an odd look. I can only assume she's annoyed I'm doing her usual pitch for environmentalism. Well, I can say whatever I want!

Once refueling was complete, the engine was easy to start. They sure kept them in good condition, and we would be needing them if we were going to have a chance of surviving against the threat that faced us. I hopped out of the cab to check the doors, and went over to a button.

Handy thing that everything around here is opened by a large red button. I pushed it to roll the door back, and then went back to the truck. I slid under the door and climbed into the cab before slamming the door behind me. The door on the other side then opened.

I reached over and closed it, before belting myself in. Safety first!

I sat back in the cab and moved my back hooves to try and look for the levers. It still felt a bit odd driving in this position, and as such I took a few attempts to get the truck moving. It was much harder driving than the strange red machine that looked like a pony. I drove the machine round a curve, checking my mirrors to ensure the road was clear, and then turned the machine onto the road.

A flashing light warned me the streetcar was about to cross. I watched as it rolled past, sounding the horn as it rolled by. I turned the wheel to the left and drove down the waterfront, rolling down the windows to cool the cab down as the air conditioning was broken. Or maybe it had been broken by somepony (probably somepony annoying or maybe or enemy had sabotaged it). I stopped when I heard a voice.

"Sprout?"

I stopped and saw Phyllis following behind on hoof. "Mom?"

She passed me a brown bag. "Here's some food I prepared for you!"

I took a look inside to see some sandwiches. "Thanks, mom!"

"Drive carefully, and let me know when you arrive in Fillydelphia!" she replied.

"Sure thing!" I replied, and then blasted the horn. With a blast of smoke from the exhaust pipe the truck rolled under the bridge and began to follow the highway towards Fillydelphia.

I hammered down the road for the first few miles, but as the map indicated to me the road suddenly switched from paved tarmac to cobblestones. Clearly they were short of money when building it. Though it did result in a rather different driving experience. I suppose the obvious point of comparison would be to riding on a fairground ride that's bouncing around rather a lot, which can induce motion sickness. I was being bounced up and down on the truck's suspension, which didn't make for a particularly fun driving experience, I will admit.

The miles rolled by underneath the truck's wheels as we rumbled along, that truck and I. It is true that when you have a long road trip before you and you are the only motorists, the vehicle you drive becomes your travelling companion. They develop personalities, and lives of their own. You come to learn their foibles, their quirks, and the features which characterize them on your long adventure.

Road traffic was also pretty quiet as well, to my surprise. It seemed that most of the towns I drove through, of which I drove through several, it was interesting to see most of them were self sufficient. I saw fields of crops that stretched as far as the eye could see, and many agricultural buildings such as barns, farms, and fields with large tractors and combine harvesters. There was even a rather large pony struggling with driving a ridiculous looking tractor about. I'd never have that sort of trouble in this truck!

Speaking of which, I spotted a tractor pulling onto the highway with a heavy agricultural load in front of me. Here I was, hoping it would only be going one field along to drop off something or deliver some other supplies to somewhere else.

Nope. Curse my luck, the tractor was stuck there, going along at about 20 miles an hour, for 15 MILES! No wonder so few ponies drove about, if this was a regular hazard to motorists. I honked the horn a few times to try and get them to hurry up, but they paid me no attention. Typical country bumpkins.

I continued my journeys through earth pony land. The place amazed me to an extent. None of any of this had been touched on in the film or what of the TV show that I had watched, but yet here it all was, continuing on and showing its work behind the scenes. I honestly wondered how life would continue when the cameras would turn off, and I guess now I knew. The world just kept on going even when we weren't watching, with other ponies like the ones here who were the heroes of their own stories.

It was soon failing in terms of the light when I rattled past the sign that informed me I was passing the Fillydelphia city limits. It seemed that after a long journey I was finally here, and all I needed to do was park up and then head to my destination.

But then I saw what might be a bit of a hindrance to my proposed journey. I came to a stop behind some vehicles in front of me. Some soldiers were standing next to some gates, and several tanks were sitting nearby, with their barrels seemingly trained on anypony foolish enough to rush the location.

So it was a checkpoint. I might be waiting here for a while. I moved the truck forward with every vehicle that was checked through the checkpoint, and parked up each time we were forced to stop. It was all very tedious. There must have been a lot of individual documents to check on that run.

I sat back for a bit whilst awaiting my turn for the checks and balances to be administered. I waited and waited and waited. It all seemed to take an incredibly long time to do these checks.

But finally, a soldier stopped next to the truck, and looked in through the window. "Name?" she asked.

"Sprout Cloverleaf," I replied.

"Reason for visit?"

"Official business in Congress," I replied.

"Documentation?" she asked, indicating to a notice in front of the roadway. Handily, this gave a list of documentation accepted as valid for passing through the checkpoint. These ranged from student IDs through to even government passes.

I then had an idea. I produced my Sherriff's badge (given to me when I had been promoted to cover for Hitch's absence), and presented it to the soldier. "Sherriff of Maretime Bay."

The soldier nodded as she studied the badge. "I wasn't aware Hitch had retired. But this checks out. Authentic MBPD issue, and the data code is correct." She handed the badge back to me and nodded. "You are clear to proceed, Sherriff Sprout. Best of luck with your business in the city today."

I nodded, and thanked her for her service, before preparing the truck to move off. The doors before us opened, and the tanks still continued to train their batteries on us. It was time to move off. With a roar from the engine, the truck moved through the gate and into Fillydelphia proper.

The street layout and overall design of the buildings was certainly reminiscent of human cities. The place was nicely laid out and quite bright, which I certainly appreciated as we rattled along. In fact, it felt a lot like Washington, D. C. I guess that's consistent with the earth ponies being like the United States, based on what I'd seen so far.

I found a parking space and parked the truck, before hopping out of the cab and stopping the engine. I had a short walk to my destination, which gleamed on a hill before me.

Author's Note:

And we have arrived in Fillydelphia now. ^^

Heh... had a bit trouble finding which one to show off Fillydelphia, but of course... here's one that I at least think comes to mind of what it looks like. :)

Comments

[Comickook]

Another really good job on the dialogue, characterizations and future chapter set-up. VERY MUCH appreciated the reflection on the work "Sprout" was going to as far as finding a vehicle for the trip to FIllydelphia (as well as the argument with "Sunny" concerning the environmental stuff [obviously before "she" left with "Izzy"]). And, yeah, I can relate to the frustration of being stuck behind somebody who was driving MUCH too slow for too long. And, yeah, the arrival in Fillydelphia was also well done.

Most certainly looking forward to more of this.

[JimmyHook19]

11724802
Got that right =3