Free to Good Home: Talking Pony

by Mike the Red

Car Goes Bye-Bye

Mario came to take Brenda to work in the morning. I was still in the back seat, wrapped up in a blanket with two Papasan pads around me. I had fallen into the floor pans and was stuck, virtually unable to move. Mario and Brenda got into the car.

"Safe mode active," came a flat voice from the speakers.

"Brenda, why does the car say that?" Mario asked.

"Mike said the car went into safe mode when it tried to heal his broken horn," Brenda replied flatly. "It can't do any magic while it's in safe mode, and ... hey, Mike, you still in here?"

"I can't move," I said. "I'm stuck."

"Can't even leave you in the car overnight without having to help you," she said with quite a bit of contempt in her voice.

"Doesn't sound like Mike," Mario said. He turned around to see what was going on as Brenda pulled the pads off my body. I climbed back onto the back seat, and that's when Mario got his first glimpse of what I looked like now. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, what is that? That doesn't look a thing like Mike!"

"Mario, this is what I woke up as on Saturday morning," I said. "Yes, I am Mike, but woke up as Twilight Sparkle."

"Voice data confirmed. Good morning, Twilight Sparkle!" came a cheery sounding voice from the speakers.

"Jesus, Mike, why does the car think you're Twilight?" Brenda asked me.

"The car analyzes certain data and has those data in its on-board computers -- I did this when I was able to use magic, and so that's part of the car's abilities independent of its magic." Mario continued to stare at me.

"Mario, we have to hurry or I'm going to be late for work," Brenda said impatiently.

Mario backed the car out of the driveway a bit too quickly, not focusing on what was in the street behind us. The car slammed into a truck which had been parked on the wrong side of the street. The car's right rear quarter was pretty badly damaged by the hit. Mario had ignored the beeping proximity alert the car had been frantically giving.

"Mario, you idiot! You should have been paying attention to the road instead of staring at Mike!"

"Damn. You're not covered on my insurance," I said.

"Sorry, Mike." Mario pulled the car forward into the driveway and inspected the damage to the truck.

"Activating self-repair mode," came a sad sounding voice from the speakers. The car repaired the damage Mario had inflicted upon it, looking as though it had never happened. The truck, on the other hand, had a nice sized dent in the driver's door, along with a paint transfer. The truck was red, and a big navy blue streak was showing at one edge of the damage.

"Mike! I thought you said the car couldn't use magic!" Brenda said incredulously.

"Self-repair has priority over safe mode," I said. "It's a half fail-safe, independent of magic use. Same thing goes for auto-drive and max fuel economy."

"Auto-drive?"

"Allows the car to drive itself," I said, almost nonchalantly.

"Mario! Come on! I'm gonna be late!" Brenda called to him. Mario hurried back to the car and drove Brenda to work with me still in the back seat. It takes about 25 minutes to get Brenda to her workplace and today no words were spoken during that commute. Mario then went around to several different businesses to fill out applications to look for work.

Back at the house, our neighbor whose truck had been hit was inspecting the damage. He cursed his luck and drove the damaged truck to the police station to fill out an incident report. He was mad, and he was going to have his revenge.

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Mario spent several hours driving around the city, stopping at quite a few businesses. I waited in the back seat, but was starting to get hungry and thirsty. When he got back in after filling out his fifth application, I asked him to stop by a gas station to get a cup of water for me and for him to put a straw in it to make it easier for me to drink. As far as food goes, I asked him to get a head of cabbage for me from a grocery store.

Presently, it was time to get Brenda from work. We got back home to see a police cruiser parked in front of our house.

"What do they want?" Brenda asked.

"I dunno, maybe it has something to do with this morning's little accident," I offered.

"I don't want to hear any more crap coming out of your mouth, Mike," Brenda said, contempt dripping from her words.

Mario pulled into the driveway. The officer got out of his car and walked up to the driver's side of the car.

"Did you hit a truck this morning?" the officer asked.

"Is there any damage to this car?" Mario asked in response. The officer looked at the car and noticed no damage to it.

"The guy across the street said someone hit his truck this morning. His truck was parked directly behind your driveway, and the paint transfer matches your vehicle's paint job. I don't know if it was your car that hit his truck, since there's no damage to your car, but it seems awfully suspicious that the paint matches so closely, and that his truck was parked directly in your backing path."

"Must have been somebody else, 'coz we didn't hit anything," Mario said.

"Well, we'll be keeping an eye on this place," the officer said before getting into the cruiser and driving off.

"Whew, that was close," Mario said as he heaved a sigh of relief.

"Thanks for keeping your mouth shut, Mike. You too, car," Brenda said flatly. Brenda took my makeshift bed back into the house throwing it into the basement. Mario went back to his house which was about half a mile away from ours. He would be coming back in the morning, and most likely, I would not be in the car this time. At least, I was hoping I would not be in the car.

I fixed my bed again and laid down. Xaviera and her kids were watching TV again. "When will they get tired of that?" I thought to myself. I tried focusing magic through my horn again, hoping that maybe this time it would work. Nothing.
Brenda went about cleaning the house and eventually fixed dinner again. My dinner consisted of more cabbage, some lettuce, tomato, and shredded cheddar cheese. I was served a bowl of cold water to drink. Brenda had fried chicken again, along with spaghetti in meat sauce. I remember eating her spaghetti, and mindlessly asked for some, forgetting the fact that ground beef had been added to the sauce. I regretted this mistake immediately, and spat out a mouthful of the stuff.

"You do that again, and you're cleaning it up!" Brenda said quite sternly.

"Sorry! I'm sorry! I forgot you put meat in it!" I said, trying to apologize effusively. I was wondering how much more of me she was going to tolerate, as I was seriously testing her patience. It made me wonder just how much she loved me, if ever.
After eating, I went to the bathroom to relieve myself once again. "Brenda, can you help me?" I asked.

"Have Xaviera do it for you!" she said, showing her exasperation at my helplessness. "This is not good," I thought.

Xaviera begrudgingly wiped my hindquarters with some toilet paper. "Mike, I can't do this any more!" she said.

"Thanks, Xaviera, I'm sorry I can't do it by myself. If I had magic, I wouldn't need anypony's help doing this," I said.

"You mean, any one's help," she said, giggling.

"I can't help it, it has a way of creeping into my speech pattern," I said, blushing a little. I went back downstairs to my bed and laid down for the night. I think I might have finally come to accept my current situation as I didn't cry that night. Sleep came a little more easily and my dreams did not interfere with my sleep this time.

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A few more weeks of this routine passed and Brenda was starting to get a little exasperated. Mario had gone to several job interviews and finally got a job that paid fairly well. The car note had not been paid and the buy-here-pay-here dealership I got the car from made calls to my phone, which went unanswered, and then one of the employees had shown up to ask about payment.

"Xaviera, can you check my wallet to see if there's some money to pay this guy?" I asked her. She got my wallet and fished through it for money.

"It's empty," she said.

"Did you check all the pockets and pouches in it? There are a couple of places where I keep money tucked away in it."

"It's empty," she reiterated.

"Ask him how much longer they can wait for a payment. Ask if they can wait just two more weeks," I said.

"He says they can't wait any longer. If they don't get a payment tomorrow, they're gonna take the car away," she said.

"Tell him we will get him a payment tomorrow, then, please! I don't want to lose that car!" I was flabbergasted. Who had taken my money? Didn't they know I needed to make a payment? Didn't they know the dealer has little tolerance for missed payments? I was going to lose the car and all the progress I had made overcoming the depression of the past few weeks was about to be lost again.

"Xaviera, can you call your mama and let her know what's going on with the car?"

"She's still at work. You can tell her about this when she gets home."

"She's not gonna be happy at all about this," I said glumly. My ears drooped again.

It was several hours before Brenda and Mario made it back. I was compelled to tell Brenda about the car and asked her about the money missing from my wallet.

"I used that to buy food for the house," Brenda said. "Your final paycheck came from work. How are you going to cash it?"

"That's a good question. I don't have a bank account, and check cashing places require a photo ID. In my case, the photo doesn't match. I can't make my signature look the same as on my ID, so even if I sign it and make it payable to you, they might not cash it. I guess I can try that, though." I tried holding a pen between the frog of my right fore-hoof and the hoof enamel. I tried writing with the pen on a piece of paper. It looked like chicken-scratch. This is not going to work, I thought.

"Brenda, you sign my name and make it payable to yourself. Take it to your bank and cash it. The car dealership said they need a payment tomorrow or they are going to come take the car away."

"Mario has already gone home, and my bank closes in half an hour," Brenda said.

"Call him back quickly please, I don't want to lose the car!"

Brenda calls Mario and asks him to return. He shows up about fifteen minutes later and takes Brenda to her bank to cash the check.

"He needs to be here in person to verify paying his check to you," the teller told her.

"He gave me his personal authorization to cash his check," Brenda said. "We need to make a car payment, or the dealer's gonna repo the car."

"Sorry, Ma'am, but there are rules which must be followed. We cannot cash this check for you."

"Can I deposit it to my account, and take $150 out of my savings?"

"No, Ma'am, he has to be here in person to verify it," the teller reiterated. "Your savings account does not have that much money in it -- we transferred $80 to cover a check you had written to avoid an overdraft on your checking account."

"We need that money to make the car payment!" Brenda said with great frustration.

"Sorry, Ma'am. We can't help you."

"Come on, Mario, let's go somewhere else."

Mario and Brenda left the bank, and went to the local Wal-Mart to try cashing the check there. They wouldn't do it, since she didn't have my ID. Brenda tried a couple of different banks, but got the same story as the first bank. They couldn't cash my check and they didn't have enough money to cover the car payment. Brenda related this information to me, and my heart sank. Now I was going to lose my car.

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Brenda and Mario tried to keep the repo man from showing up by keeping the car at his house, having him take her to work that way. But the following Saturday, the car was in front of our house, and the repo man came. The car was hauled away by a tow truck. Mario was to get his first check the following Friday, but that was going to be too late to pay for the car.
Brenda made some more phone calls to get her sister to take her to work and drop Mario off at his job. Katrina couldn't do it since she had to be at work at 5:00 AM. I watched in horror from the living room window as the car was hauled away. I cried myself to sleep again that night.

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Brenda started having other men show up at the house, as she needed the comforting touch of a man, and since I was no longer one, I was relegated to the status of a house pet. My presence was just barely tolerated at this point, and my magic still had not returned. I was wondering if it ever would return again. There was one particular guy Brenda had invited over who absolutely detested my presence, especially after I brought the matter up to her. She told me to mind my business if I didn't want to be sent to the animal shelter. This guy would regularly beat me and kick me down the stairs for fun. I had to cower in the laundry room for my safety. I was lucky my horn didn't break off again from that abuse. When I told Brenda about this guy kicking me down the stairs, she didn't believe me.

"Alonzo would never do such a cruel thing!" she admonished me.

"Brenda, he kicked me down the stairs!" I sobbed. My body showed bruises in various places where he had punched me or kicked me with his boots.

"He makes enough money to pay the bills," she said. "I'm NOT going to lose the house just because YOU can't help me with the bills! You don't like it? You can go live in the shelter!"

I resigned myself to living in terror of Alonzo, never knowing if he was going to punch me out of spite or kick me again.
One night I got bold enough to tell him to stop abusing me. He chased me around the house until he cornered me in the laundry room. He kicked me until I started bleeding from my muzzle. I ran to the back door and told him to let me out. He did. I ran until I couldn't run any more. I don't know where I ended up, but I ran to the railroad tracks to catch a train.

I waited until a train came to a stop on the siding. I trotted to an open box car and using all my might hopped into it. I waited for a long time for the train to get going again, and took the ride to wherever it ended. The sky was overcast, and rain fell, wetting the floor of the open box car. I finally got off the train in a very large rail yard, with no idea as to where I was. All I knew is that this rail yard was the biggest one I had ever seen, and the city was very large as well. May have been Chicago or Memphis, but in either case, I was away from Alonzo.

I walked for a long distance getting hungry and thirsty as I traveled. I found various food places and tapped at the back doors of these in an effort to get food or water or something. Some employees were friendly and helped me with food and water, at least for a while. Getting sleep, on the other hoof, was difficult. I would try to find parks or apartment building vestibules or abandoned buildings for some degree of shelter, but keeping my body covered and warm was very hard. Finding places to relieve myself was almost as hard, as I was very self-conscious about relieving myself in public. I found myself crying most of the time, as keeping my fur, mane, and tail clean was virtually impossible, and trying to bathe was just as difficult. Sometimes I would let the rain try to wash off some of the dirt but that didn't work all that well.

Comments

[Sparknanator]

I said it once i will say it again no comment needs to be made