The Great and Powerful ... Walter?

by Westphalian_Musketeer

Ch. 10: A Motley Crew

On that miles-long stretch of highway heading towards Albertville, I was glad that the sweltering heat of summer had largely passed, and that the recent rains had made the temperature even more tolerable. I craned my neck to the side, in equal parts to keep an eye on Enrique and Pablo as to see my own condition.

My cape rubbed uncomfortably against my side from having dried with some rigidity. There were also a few smears of mud on me from when I had laid on open grass, and fallen into it horn-first on occasion.

We must have looked a pitiable, or contemptible, sight, this motley crew of cartoon equines. Dozens of cars passed us. Many slowed down to look at us. One, a blue ford pickup truck, rolled down the window.

A boy, about eleven or twelve, stuck his head out of the window with a Big-Gulp clenched in his fist. He’d extended it out the window. “You look thirsty.” Soon a large hand wrapped around his shoulder and pulled him back into his seat, and the window rolled up before the truck sped off again.

After another hour, a red sedan carrying three too many teenage girls in the back seat—that is, three—slowed until it was keeping pace with us. The back window rolled down, and all three stuck their heads out eagerly, two clambering onto the lap of the other.

“Hey!” the bottom one, a red-head, protested, lightly smacking the side of one of the others. “Watch where you put your hands!”

“Woah,” the brunette said, her eyes wide as she looked at me in awe as though I was some Clydesdale. “Why would they be such colors?”

The final girl, a blonde, scrunched up her face. “Look at its nose and mouth, it’s all fucked up. How does it talk? Do they even talk? I heard they used to be human. I bet they can’t talk.”

The red-head pushed against the others again. “I said, hands off my chest!”

“Sorry,” Blonde answered, flinching her arm back.

“I think the blue one is the leader,” Brunette said. “It’s wearing clothes.” She ducked her head back into the car and soon came out with a can of Dr. Pepper. “Hey!” she yelled, making my ears twitch and my lip curl up in irritation. “Want a Dr. Pepper?”

I looked straight ahead, not bothering to answer. The girls whispered amongst themselves, coming to a conclusion from one experiment after a full minute of deliberation.

“Oh my gosh, they must not be able to talk. Can you talk?”

Don’t give them satisfaction, just ignore them, I pleaded mentally to my two travelling companions.

“Yeah!” Pablo yelled, trotting up to the three girls in the window.

Crap.

The girls all squealed, hurting my ears with the high pitched noise, before they moved on to excited screaming. It was like I had stepped into every crappy high school drama ever, of all time.

Brunette licked her lips, lowering the can of Dr. Pepper to Pablo’s orange muzzle. “Want a Dr. Pepper?”

“Uh huh.” Pablo nodded, gripping the tab in his teeth, he pulled, and was showered by an explosive spray of sugary liquid.

The girls broke into an even greater uproar as the window rolled up and the sedan sped away.

Pablo’s condition became similar to my own within the next five minutes, his coat sticky and gaining a covering of dust. A tear ran down his cheek, creating a clean line of fur through the dust.

I felt like an ass for it, but I needed to cement the message from before. “What did we learn?”

“Don’t accept soft drinks from strangers.” Snails looked down to the ground as he moped.

I hoped he would have said, ‘Keep your distance from girls,’ but I couldn’t fault him for coming to an equally valuable conclusion. I dropped it, pressed onwards, and lamented that I didn’t have a caravan.

***

Getting into Albertville, and finding the bus station, was an easy affair. It was a large building, mostly glass so people could see which busses had arrived, but it was surrounded by a concrete outer wall that even encompassed the parking lot. We stepped inside, and saw dozens of pairs of legs going about their business. A short stature meant that we could go by unnoticed for a time.

I beckoned Pablo and Enrique into a corner. In a hushed whisper, I told them, “Okay, we don’t see any sign of Zecora. She might not have gotten our message yet, or she might still be on her way here. We’ll check Facebook to see what it is, while you two can get cleaned up, and look for her in the rest of the station.”

Enrique nodded quickly. “Sure thing, Trixie; come on, brother!” They trotted down the terminal, weaving amidst all the people.

I brought out my laptop, turned it on, and thankfully found an unsecured wireless signal associated with the bus terminal. “Okay, Facebook.” I logged on, and found that Zecora had responded to my message.

“From my spot, that is not too far away, if I leave without delay. I’ll be reaching the bus stop soon, dear Lulamoon.”

Good, I thought, that just leaves me to get tickets, four will do. After packing up again, I stepped towards the ticket sales booth when I remembered what had happened previously. Glancing around, I saw an ATM with only a few people lined up in front of it.

Waiting for two minutes, I got to the machine and reared up on my hind legs, bracing my front hooves against the machine. Using my magic, I slipped in my back card and started to withdraw enough cash to purchase bus tickets.

“Hey! Who said you could cut in line?”

I swung my head around on my long neck, horn still glowing, to see a man with a mottled suede jacket, dark curly hair, and his mouth open, showing two prominent teeth. He looked a bit like Jerry Seinfeld. He flinched back—likely from witnessing my neck’s flexibility—gulped, and then put on a brave face as he planted his fists into his hips.

“I was in line before you,” he said.

I glanced to the side, still casting a spell to enter my PIN. “Apparently not,” I answered.

“Look lady, just because you’re some cartoon horse—”

“Pony,” I corrected, stalling for time as the machine took its merry time in giving my cash.

“Whatever you are,” he continued without missing a beat, “it doesn’t give you the right to cut in line.”

“And we’re insisting that we would never do such a thing,” I responded. Though we’d certainly have the right to. “I find it far more likely that you simply failed to notice us, not hard, considering your tiny eyes.” I heard the cash slide out of the machine. I grabbed it in all haste and lowered myself from the ATM. “Regardless, the machine is yours, good luck.”

I marched off quickly, when I heard from behind, “Out of twenties! How’s that possible?”

Close...

I got in line for tickets and waited until I was at the front of the line. I looked up at the sales clerk. She was masticating a large wad of gum, had tanned skin, and her hair was done up in a ponytail.

I lifted up the wad of cash, placed it on the desk, closed my eyes with a slight grin, and said, “Four tickets for New York, please.”

There was some more chewing, and then the girl answered in a surprisingly nasal voice for her age. “I’m sorry, but the company policy states that no animals are permitted on the bus unless there is proof that they are accompanying a disabled person.”

I looked up at the grating teenage girl behind the counter. A pink mass bulged from her mouth before it popped loudly.

“You can’t be serious,” I said, “Why would the bus company deny a paying customer?”

“I don’t know, I just work here.” Yes, that was actually her response. Of all the cliched answers from a service industry worker I could have received, I was given the most tired one of all.

“Alright, listen here!” I yelled. “We’ve been stuck like this for almost three days now! And every time we’ve tried to purchase something, or even just stand in one spot, we’ve been discriminated against. We might walk on four legs, be half your height, and have a horn sticking out of our head, but that does not excuse you to suddenly drop the constitution because it doesn’t suit you!”

“Hey, hey, hey! Let’s all take a chill pill and calm down!”

I spun around to see who had told me what to do. Years of being the general outcast had made me loathe the statement of complete and utter apathy on the part of my elders. It had been a process repeated many times. I would be teased on the playground, go to an adult—as I had always been told to—and be promptly told at all times to simply, ‘calm down’.

I scanned the crowd for who had spoken, and my eyes registered a white unicorn with an electric-blue mane and magenta shades hanging off her forehead. Beside her was a white earth pony with a pink mane, and still further back were two men, who from their gait and where they were looking, appeared to be focused on me. It was clear, I had met Vinyl Scratch and Nurse Redheart, but that was of minimal importance.

“Don’t tell us to calm down!” I shouted. My knees bent so I lowered to the ground, as though to charge, and pointed my horn at the upstart.

She tilted her head to the side before giving a shrug and stepping to a fighting stance, “Really now? I was hoping to be the voice of reason, but if you start charging at me, I’ll fight back!”

“Reason? Funny, because every time we’ve tried to use it, we’ve been denied services. We were even chased out of a travel agency by some crazy guy with a bat!” I shook my head before indicating the two humans behind her. “At least you’ve got people that others are willing to talk to without automatically wanting to spit in their face.”

Her face became red as she stepped closer to me and screamed, “You think you have it bad!? Just earlier today, I was almost killed! Even with my friends there! Instead of one guy with a bat, how about having to deal with four mental people who chase you through a superstore! Each armed with something very deadly! And not much longer after that, I was almost shot at by an armed gunman!”

Oh bullcrap, horse apples, and pony feathers! There was no way they had gotten into all that in just the short period of time, maybe to one of us, but that had already happened to Fluttershy.

“We sincerely doubt that any of that actually happened, we may have been dealt a bad hoof of cards, but we know that you just made that up to pump up your own grandeur to make yourself feel better when compared to us.” Shutting my eyes and turning my nose up, I pressed a hoof to my chest.

Vinyl gave a cocky smirk before saying, “Make myself feel better than you!? Bitch, please. Almost everyone in this room is better than you! At least I can back up my boasts with actual talent!”

That was it, if she wanted talent, she was going to get it. I took a few steps forward and began poking through my mind for some spell to show her up when—

“The both of you, enough of these threats, before you do something you regret,” a voice called frustratingly.

My head snapped in the direction of the voice. My left eye twitched, but I could make out a black-and-white striped figure in a black hoodie trotting towards us. Zecora. It would seem I was at a veritable nexus of ponies who could do nothing but try and make me take what I had been going through sitting down.

Turning back to Vinyl, I noticed she still had her eyes locked on the zebra. My horn glowed as I thought of the sweetest revenge for her slight on my honor. She was going to be spending the rest of the day cutting off an unending moustache.

Or I would have, had Zecora not pushed my head away from her, knocking my concentration off.

“This anger you have must quell, there is no need for spells.” She spoke in an annoyingly sage-like tone.

“Listen, mohawk-mare,” I hissed. “We don’t know who you think you are, but where we’re from, when two people have a disagreement, others know to stay out of the way like they know not to get between a Cerberus and its meal.”

I noticed Vinyl still had her eyes focused on Zecora before blurting out, “Zeccy?”

Zecora shook her head and squinted her eyes before she said with a sigh, “I do not believe those ends, have earned you many friends.”

“Zeccy!” Vinyl exclaimed in pure joy before pushing past Zecora’s hoof and embracing her.

Zecora looked back in shock from Vinyl's hug. I could have sworn her cheeks went slightly red before she said a single word “...Zeccy?”

“Oh, my, God!”

Turning my attention from the black and white hug-fest, I saw Pablo and Enrique amidst the mass of legs of people who had gathered to witness the spectacle of my amazing achievements.

“It’s, it’s, it’s!” Pablo stuttered, his spindly legs carrying him towards us. “Redheart!” His legs carried him towards the pony nurse so quickly, he may as well have teleported. “Me encanta!” Bowing his head to her hooves, he puckered his lips.

Redheart’s face began to turn red as she stood there, eyes darting back and forth, not sure what to do as she let out a nervous chuckle. She then turned to Vinyl mouthing the words, “Please help” to her.

I leaned over to the side as Vinyl spoke to Pablo and Redheart. Out of the corner of my mouth, I whispered to Enrique, “So, Pablo is a Redheart fan as well?”

“Hey there, pretty lady, I’m Enrique! But you can call me Rick if you want to...”

I turned to see Enrique rolling on his hooves, a silly smile on his face as he looked up at Zecora, his pudgy body shaking as he did so.

Zecora merely grinned sheepishly as she backed up slightly “Umm, why hello, little fellow?” she stopped when she backed into Vinyl “I am not sure I see, if theres somthing you need from me?”

Soon, Vinyl began to giggle as she said, “Look! Zecora’s black, white, and red all over!”

Oh God, why? This was turning out horribly. Hoping to calm things before we started into some garish display of public affection, I used my magic on Pablo’s tail to drag him away from Redheart.

“Terribly sorry, he can get a bit obsessive about ponies he likes.” Putting on a pained grin, I continued to pull Pablo back as he tried walking back to Redheart.

“So what’s it like?” Pablo asked. “Taking care of the patients I mean. It must get lonely, being there in the hospital with nobody but the sick?”

“Zecora, care to tell me about some of the things you see in the Everfree Forest? I’m sure you see all sorts of exciting things,” Enrique said.

My concentration lapsed in despair over the fact that Pablo’s usual handler was himself stricken by the love bug, and Pablo was able to zoom right back to being next to Redheart. He leaned over and pressed his neck against hers in a type of hug.

Before I had the chance to charge up my magic to pull Pablo and Enrique back again, the two humans behind Vinyl picked them up with the darker-haired one saying, “Someone, somewhere wants what you two have to offer, but it isn’t these two Romeo.”

“You have no idea how much we wish to have thought of saying that a day earlier, Mr...” I trailed off.

“Luis Bonilla, but just Luis will do,” said the man as he tucked Snips under one arm and extended the other for a hoof-to-fist bump.

“Trixie Lulamoon,” I replied, obliging the gesture by raising my hoof up and allowing him to bump his fist into it as he gave a simple smirk. “Though of course you’d already know that.”

“There they are!”

Setting my hoof back on the ground, I looked over to see the ticket sales woman pointing at us with her red-painted fingernail.

Beside her was a security guard with navy-blue pants and a grey shirt with ‘security’ helpfully stencilled on the shoulder. He was a fairly bulky man with tanned skin and a balding head, but he had a handgun holstered to his hip that he had a hand laying over.

“Gentlemen...” He paused, as if he was trying to figure out the best word choice for the situation. “Ponies?” That would do, a nice neutral term. “I’m’a gonna have to ask you to leave the bus station, right now.”

It was then that the blonde-haired human, still holding Snails, had stepped in front of the guard. “Sorry about that sir,” he said. “We were just leaving anyways.”

To emphasize the point, I side stepped to my bag and gripped it with my magic as most of the others did the same. When I reached the door, I cast a quick glance back to see Zecora looking amidst the crowd, including the guard. Her eyes were wide, as if overwhelmed by the attention that had focused on her, as all the others and I stepped off of center-stage.

Looking to my left, I saw Vinyl standing next to me, waving over at Zecora, “Hey, Zeccy! You coming or not!?”

With the others to my back, I took a moment to glare at the ticket lady. “Thirteenth amendment,” I hissed, before gesturing with my hoof first at my eyes and then at her.

Turning around, I followed the group out, led by Luis and the other man towards a silver Prius. I stopped outside one of the back doors before turning to the rest of the group. Zecora was the last to come to a stop, and looked to the group with what I guessed was hesitation, something just seemed... off.

When we approached the Prius, Luis suddenly said, “Oh! Before we depart, how about we get the formal introductions out of the way?” He then looked towards Zecora and myself, “Well, that is, if you want to travel with us, since I’m pretty sure we’re all going to the same place.”

“Vaudeville and Broadway,” I answered, before continuing. “We’re okay with all of you just calling us Trixie.” Pointing to Pablo and Enrique, I continued. “The orange one is Snails, or Pablo as he prefers, and with him is his brother, Enrique, or Snips.”

Luis pointed to himself, Vinyl, Redheart, and the other man while saying, “Well, my name is Luis Bonilla, but you can just call me Luis. Over here is Vinyl Scratch, or Gage. It doesn’t really matter to him what you decide to call her.”

I took note of the article shift from ‘him’ to ‘her’.

Luis continued. “Right here is Redheart, or Serah as she prefers. Finally, this here is Merille Robichaux, or just Merille.” Sounded like I was in the company of a couple of ragin’ Cajuns.

There was a pause for a moment as we looked at Zecora, “Oh! Right sorry, of course you mean me. My name with grace, is quite simply J...” She paused awkwardly for a moment as her face contorted “It’s Zecora,” she spoke very un-whimsically.

Okay... complete break with rhyming aside, the introductions were out of the way. There was then the matter of transportation. “So, you’ve got transportation? We have gas money if you need it,” I offered.

Vinyl started walking towards the car doors before saying, “Actually, we have that covered. We recently got around five-hundred bucks before we left Mississippi. Though, if you still want to chip in, that’d be great.”

As Luis and Merille began to adjust the back seats of the Prius to accommodate all of us, Serah had taken notice of the sky and said, “Hey, you all realize it’s getting late. I saw a Holiday Inn while we were coming here, how about we get a room there for the night?”

Zecora quickly nodded in agreement as she readjusted her pack. “Having rushed on hoof from town to town, I could certainly use a sit down.”

I gave an unrepentant yawn myself. “Ah, yes, we have wearied from travelling so much over the day.”

“Hey, when you say ‘we’, you mean you and the two dolts over there with the orange one close to Serah...again. Or is it like that outdated royal ‘we’ that I’ve seen this one guy use back at the Ren Fair?” Vinyl asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

Crud, he’d noticed that. “Yes,” I answered.

Vinyl opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by Luis, “Well, we have it set to fit everyone. Since I’m driving and Merille will be in the passenger seat, who’s sitting where?”

Serah was the first to speak up, “As far away from Snips and Snails as possible. I’m sure Zecora would agree with me.”

“I guess... that would be best.” Zecora nodded as she glanced back to the duo. “I’d rather not have another exchange. That last one was certainly strange.”

“Excellent!” I clopped my front hooves together. “They can stay in the trunk, we can take the folded seat, and you two can take the rest of the back seat!”

“So that means we’re set!” Vinyl said while adjusting her glasses, “Alright then, Dumb and Dumber, in the trunk you go! Oh, Trixie and Zeccy, I hope you don’t mind some J-Rock and Vocaloid tracks, as my MP3 player is hooked up to the car’s speakers.”

“I’ve never even heard of those genres,” I answered, “Is it like country?” I used my magic to open the car door and waited for Zecora and the others to hop in. As Pablo and Enrique clambered inside, I made certain to glare at them, and ensure they went into the trunk, it was open at the top, so they’d still get light and air, but it would allow for an appreciable degree of separation.

Luis and Merille loaded up our bags in with Pablo and Enrique, and then went to the front seats.

I finally entered the vehicle myself, and lay down in the opening, my flank part way into the trunk. I tucked my hooves underneath my body. Vinyl lay in front of me. To the right was Serah and Zecora.

“Well Trix, J-Rock and Vocaloid will just have to be something I need to show you then.” Vinyl said while adjusting herself in a comfortable position.

I noticed Merille’s hand flip a switch on the console. My ears were met with... to call it music would be an insult. It was more of a missing link, some long-forgotten ancestor to guitars that should have been led into a dark alley-way and beaten over the head. It was the half-way point between noise and sound.

My ears folded against my head as I turned up a lip in disapproval. I lowered my head, and felt the vibrations of the engine come to life through my jaw. I allowed myself a brief pleasure at the background noise that muffled the music.

I focused on the conversation that unfolded among the others as I closed my eyes, resting them from the difficulty of the day’s travels.

There was humming beside me from who I guessed was Redheart before Vinyl spoke up, “Hey Zeccy. I see you like the song. Pretty upbeat, right?”

“Hmm?” she hummed, “Oh yes this music I absolutely adore, but I don’t think I’ve heard of this artist before.”

I heard a slight laugh from Vinyl, “Well, that’s because Hatsune Miku is first of all, really popular in Japan. Second of all, Miku isn’t even real.”

“I’m not quite sure I understand,” Zecora questioned “is it some sort of made-up band?”

“Actually, it’s a synthesized voice. Using a real life voice as a base, and then synthesizing it to make a whole new sound!” Vinyl exclaimed with glee. “Most of the time, they use a character to represent the voice. In this case, an anime character.”

“I didn’t think that a voice could be made that way, into such a sort of musical array,” Zecora pondered out loud.

“Speaking of anime...” Vinyl had paused for a bit before continuing, “I’m assuming you’re a Naruto fan? Or at least a fan of Gaara?”

There was a pause before Zecora finally spoke up again “Oh, yes Gaara is one of my favorites of the show. I’ve only enjoyed certain anime’s although...” She paused for a moment, “But enough of me, what of you? What sort of things do you like to do?”

“Well, before becoming Vinyl, my life was kind of boring. I was a hardcore role-playing gamer. When I wasn’t working a dead-end job, I mainly played stuff like Skyrim or listened to music. If I wasn’t doing that, I usually was at a friend’s house.”

Okay, so I had a music buff and an anime fan. I flicked my ears so they faced towards the trunk, to focus on Pablo and Enrique.

“I can’t believe I am in the same vehicle as Redheart! I am so excited!” said Pablo, before an excited giggle resounded through my ears.

“Forget that!” hissed Enrique. “We’re with Zecora, honestly, how cool is that.”

Honestly, I thought it was better back when the orange one was obsessing over me.

“So...” Enrique started, “do you think Nurse Redheart was a nurse before all this?”

Pablo responded, “All I know is that she has my heart!”

I suddenly heard Vinyl jump in the conversation between Pablo and Enrique, “Actually, she was a nurse before becoming Redheart. Quite the coincidence, isn’t it?”

Oh dear, how much of that conversation had Vinyl heard? Scratch that, how much had Redheart and Zecora heard?

“Doy gracias a dios!” Pablo yelled. Seriously? Thanking god that your waifu was a nurse before she got morphed into pony?

“Hey, Trixie, do you have any idea what Snails just said?” questioned Vinyl.

“Nothing overly important, I’m sure.” I lifted my head to glance out the window, before facing the others again. “So I suppose you want to know who I was before all this?”

Vinyl lifted a hoof to her chin, “Well it would be interesting to find out, but if you don’t want to share it with us, I won’t press the issue.”

Zecora’s ears perked up when she looked at me. “It would be interesting to share, if you wouldn't mind much or care.”

“Alright,” I said, “University student, I was taking this fall off in order to get familiar with a few things I should have looked up when I was younger.” I pondered for a moment how readily speaking in the first person when relating to before all this happened. I craned my neck towards the back. “Pablo, Enrique, you interested in telling us what you did before we met?”

“I worked at a power sub-station,” Enrique answered, “patrolled it at night to make sure nothing went wrong. As for my brother, he was in Junior High.”

“That... explains quite a bit actually.” I turned my head back to the others.

While we were all conversing amongst each other, Luis had turned towards us and said, “Hey, I’m not sure about you guys, but I’m really hungry. How about we stop at a diner and get us a quick bite to eat?”

There was a quick squeak from Zecora, “Oh uh, well if thats best I’m unsure, my funds are somewhat insecure...”

“No problem,” I responded. “We can cover the meal for tonight.” I wiggled my shoulders to work out a crick in my shoulders. “What do you see, Luis?”

Luis looked to his right and said, “Well, there’s a little place called Rosie’s Diner. How about there?”

“If there is no disagreement.” I looked at all the others in the front of the car before scooting back to look at Pablo and Enrique. When I saw that none of them had a problem with it, I nodded. “Alright Luis, Rosie’s it is.”

The human pulled into the parking lot and soon we all clambered out. We entered the diner. There was a steel counter along the length of it with red-upholstered stools in front of it, and plenty of booths with the same upholstery.

One of the waitresses approached us, asking how many people were in our group. Luis had told the woman that there was a total of eight people and that we would like to be seated in adjacent tables. We were soon set at the window seats in the middle of the diner.

Zecora and Redheart sat at one booth, and were soon joined by Pablo and Enrique, who sat across from them. Zecora and Redheart looked at each other and smiled sheepishly, before hopping out of their seats and coming to join Vinyl and I.

Pablo stood up to jump out of the booth, but was stopped when Merille stood in front of him. “Hey, let’s talk, us four, ‘kay?” They did so, and I was left with these three other mares.

The waitress soon handed us the menu, and I opened up mine with magic, inspecting what was available. As I turned to the pasta section, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Zecora was sneaking a glance in my direction but quickly returning her eyes back to her own menu she had flipped open on the table.

Looking over the menu, I decided on my meal choice. I set the menu down and took a deep breath. “Vegetarian pasta for us, we suppose. We’d risk meatballs, but we didn’t really enjoy the prospect of sausages for my first breakfast... As for the drink, ice tea please.”

Vinyl was the next to order, “What she said, and a diet coke.”

Zecora glanced up at the waitress, “I guess a salad will do for me, along with umm... uhh sweet tea?”

The waitress nodded, then inclined her head to Redheart, or Serah, as she preferred. Serah didn’t really bother looking at the menu. “I’ll just take a salad as well. With a glass of water.”

Scribbling down the last of the order, the waitress headed to the kitchen.

I brought my front legs onto the table and braced my hooves against each other. Without looking at her, I said to Vinyl, “We suppose you are owed an apology.”

Vinyl looked over to me and rubbed a hoof on the back of her head, “Ditto. We did get way too out of hand... er well, hoof now, I guess.”

“Agreed,” I replied.

The waitress came back with our drinks, sweet tea for Zecora, ice tea for me, diet coke for Vinyl, and water for Serah.

I looked up at the ceiling for a moment when I heard a gasp, then the clink of glass on the table. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry!”

“Ayyai!” I yelped as some water dripped onto me and the clanking startled me. My horn glowed around the napkin dispenser, and pulled out a dozen or so napkins, pressing them to the puddle. I lifted out another napkin and pressed it to my fur to soak up the last few drops which had reached me. Redheart’s glass was on its side, the contents poured out onto the table.

With that out of the way, I turned to Redheart. “You ask for the refill; we’d probably be rejected.”

Redheart gave a silent nod before picking up the now empty glass with her mouth and walked off. Not long after she walked off, Vinyl turned to me and asked, “You know, we’ll probably be travelling with each other’s company for a while. How about we take the time to get to know each other better?”

I nodded, and saw Redheart return, full glass in mouth, and the waitress in tow, our meals balanced on her arms. Setting us up, the waitress smiled at us, then went to the other booth. “I’ll get your meals in just a minute,” she said to Luis, Merille, Pablo, and Enrique.

“Very well, we shall start. We woke up like this two days ago, and began our travel to New York since yesterday. That was when we met with...” I tilted my head to the other booth and nodded towards the others. “Them. Enrique was still human, but halfway through the trip he fell asleep at the wheel, crashed the car, and turned into a pony.” When I said it like that, it almost seemed comedic. “Then we had to march through some backwater town, contacted Zecora, and the rest...” I leaned back in my seat. “Is history.” I wasted little time in grasping my fork with my magic and eating my pasta.

Vinyl raised an eyebrow at me, “Is there a reason that Enrique fell asleep at the wheel? Was he narcoleptic or something? Or does becoming a pony suddenly make someone sleepy?”

“Were we to hazard a guess,” I responded between to wads of noodles in my mouth, “we would say that it was the latter. Particularly considering that just after, Discord showed up.”

Vinyl, who was drinking her diet coke, suddenly spat out the drink right into my direction, “Discord!? He’s here!?”

Lifting out another napkin, I dabbed at my face as Zecora’s ears perked up.

“Well, here in the relative sense, we suppose, here on Earth,” I answered. “He’s in all likelihood responsible for this whole mess, unless some poor sod woke up as him and couldn’t handle it.” I finished cleaning my face, and turned to Zecora. “What about you? Anything else to make the musical blowhard spoil my cape some more?” I asked in a total deadpan.

Zecora turned to face me after a distracted glance “Oh me?” She asked before waving her hoof, “Well, there is not that much at all to say. I woke up like this the other day. I only set off this morning, by bus; I’ll admit it was boring.”

Vinyl continued to wipe the remains of her drink after her spit take. “I guess it’s my turn. Well, to begin, before I became Vinyl this morning, I had actually just graduated from high school, and was working a dead-end job as a cashier. I became Vinyl this morning, actually.” He liked to go over the fact that he had become Vinyl. “The two humans behind me, lifelong friends who helped since this crazy adventure began. I ran into Serah here at Wal-Mart this morning, only to be chased out by that crazy extremist group against ponies. I was in Mississippi when I was caught up in a gas station holdup and was in a laser tag tournament that I lost in. Also, I actually met Zecora on Facebook then. Then we got lost and by chance, met you guys at the station.”

“Right,” I said, not bothering to press for details on the holdup. I doubted the story’s authenticity.

Vinyl looked back down at her plate of food and said, “I remember how you basically called BS on my story back at the station when arguing, but I’m dead serious. In fact, if you want me to, I could show you the news report that was made on it.”

“I’ll wait for the security footage to show up on Spike TV one of these days,” I answered.

“Well, I guess it’s my turn now.” Redheart giggled a bit, “I worked at a local hospital back in Louisiana. I was more of a paperwork person, but I did see a patient or two now and again. It was actually pretty early in the morning when I became Nurse Redheart, as Vinyl had stated. So, from the hospital, I travelled on hoof to Wal-Mart, since I didn’t have a car. It was Vinyl who came across me in the Pharmacy section, and well... You know the rest from Vinyl.”

I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Zecora was glancing at the fork the waitress had placed in front of her with a perplexed look before she turned back to her salad. It was obvious what was going through her mind.

Taking the initiative, I used my magic to lift up the fork with my magic. I pierced a few leaves of salad, and then held it aloft in front of Zecora’s mouth.

She glanced at the fork surrounded in the light blue aura before glancing back to me. “Oh, um thank you,” she spoke sheepishly before taking a bite. She must have thought that was pretty embarrassing.

A chuckle was heard from Vinyl as she looked over in our direction, “... Gallons of shipping fuel right there.”

I was about to smack her, but then Redheart tapped her on the shoulder. When she looked back at Redheart, Vinyl’s expression immediately dropped as she got the hint.

“Sometimes, I really hate you Karma...”

I smirked as Vinyl lifted Redheart’s fork and helped with her salad.

“Gracias!” I heard Pablo declare, before the sound of his muzzle slapping into whatever dish he ordered.

“Oh hermano,” Enrique whispered, but I still caught it.

Looking over to the pair of white mares, spearing a few more salad leaves for Zecora, and preparing some more pasta on my own fork, I said, “If that’s what happens to you for teasing us, imagine what we had to do to get that guy.”

Vinyl chuckled at the statement before noticing that her drink was already empty. “Damn. My drink is empty already. Need a refill.”

Zecora stared at the empty cup as Vinyl placed it back on the table before she pulled it back over to herself. “I don't think there’s need for distress,” she commented as she placed her hoof on top of the lid, “It just requires a bit of finesse.” The sound of ice in liquid being shaken suddenly returned to the cup. Zecora tilted her head, and her eyes widened at the sight of what she had done.

Vinyl looked at Zecora with utter shock as a squee was heard from her. “Zecora, I now officially love you forever!”

“What was that about shipping fuel again?” I interjected. Lifting up my cup of ice tea, which was getting low itself, I shook it in front of Zecora. “Don’t suppose you could fill it up with Bailey’s?”

Vinyl crossed her hooves over her chest in an irritated gesture before laughing, “Oh shut up Trixie.”

Zecora chuckled hesitantly as she looked at me, “Oh.. uhh well I suppose its worth a try,” She said quietly as she took the cup and put her hoof over it. There was no sound this time though as she looked back to it dejectedly “Or... well... fie.”

Sighing, I floated the glass back to myself and suckled on an ice cube. Well... guess meeting three kindred souls was all The Great and Powerful Trixie could spare in the luck department for the night.

Author's Note:

Alright, first chapter in which I genuinely collaborate with others! Their stories should be updating with this section within the week.

Comments

[reader238]

that last part with the baileys was pretty cool great chapter over all

[Draconis187]

As always, an interesting read.

[Red Bomber]

Was that three stories coming together at once? Wow, that's amazing.

[Westphalian_Musketeer]

2255581 2255723 2256133 Glad you're all enjoying it.

2256765 Yep, three authors and stories coming together, each contributing a little piece to create this.

[Firebirdbtops]

Triple play! Also, you seem to be carting around two spanish pony versions of Brock from Pokemon.

[TundraStanza]

Awesome sauce.

[Hope]

"Thirteenth amendment! now you two I don't like, carry my things and get in the trunk, you aren't allowed up front with the real ponies." lol I just loved the paradox of righteous indignation followed by elitism that makes up trixie so well.

[Westphalian_Musketeer]

2334681 I'm glad you're enjoying it; I hope you continue to comment and read!

[Buckshot2825]

2334918 yep i have like 4 more chapters, had to take a break due to the small road trip my family took. ofc then i remembered that i was like halfway done with the pinkie pie one.
long story short it is now *checks watch* exactly midnight as im typing THIS MESSAGE
so yeah i might read it now, i might not.
On a completely unrelated point, IM NOT GETTING ANY FUCKING NOTIFICATIONS ABOUT COMMENT REPLYS DDDDDDDDDD:
ehem *cough* anyways,
MY EYES! THEY BURN!
yes btw unfortunatley i actually do have multiple personalities, im actually exagerating on this message right now to make humor but in reality its like a passive take over thing, i become more serious and thoughtful than i usual. in fact im actually halfway in that stage right now.
and im rambling, so stop reading.... yes, now. seriously GET BACK TO WRITING, so when i do read it ill have more to read.
well yes there is your regular audience but they dont matter *cough* i usually say this after im done reading but, i look forward to more chapters.
a few after thoughts
1. I have officially favourited (fuck autocorrect if i wanna use english spelling thats my damn business) all the ponyearth stories, increases my favourite list by about a third (yes i have that many favourties, you jealous bro? )
2. I HAVENT FAVOURITED YOUR STORY YET :OOOOOOOOOOOOOO *click* done
3. I HAVENT THUMBED UP YOUR STORY YET :OOOOOOOOOOOOOO *click* also done
4. i really need to go to bed now..... *thump* *snore*
5. how am i able to type while im asleep..... I MUST BE SLEEP TYPING
anyways, for now,
Toodalo!

[Buckshot2825]

yes well im done XD
I look forward to more chapters, glad the tweedle dee and tweedle dum aren't hounding you anymore :P
I look forward to more chapters.
OFF TO ZECORA'S STORY!
Toodalo!
-Buck