From the New World

by Grim Noire

Rumblings

It started low at first— a quiet buzz that could have easily been misinterpreted for a swarm of bees in the distance or maybe ignored altogether. The first little plume of smoke was seen about an hour before noon, but again it was nothing remarkable, and the first ponies who saw it paid little heed, wondering for a moment that something beyond the east hills could be on fire, a group of foals a bit too zealous with their camping perhaps. A quarter 'till noon half the town could hear it coming, clanking like a wagon full of cookware yet still possessing some ineffable methodicalness like each cantankerous crash had a purpose. Finally at noon it rolled up to the edge of town, black smoke belching from a pipe extending from its roof and two others protruding awkwardly at mismatched angles on either side. The contraption was like nothing anypony had ever seen, shaking and jittering like a nervous creature as it produced a metallic orchestra of cacophony. While it resembled a carriage with its somewhat square body and four wheels the similarities ended there. The wheels were affixed to pistons which rose and fell like great, steel arms rowing a boat while pipes snaked around the rough-looking wooden hull. In all it seemed like some peculiar marriage of a stagecoach and a steam locomotive though surely stranger than the sum of its parts for the mere reason that somepony should have ever decided to built such a thing in the first place.

By the time it reached the central square, it would have been impossible to see a single house with its windows and doors unopened, residents and passersby gaping with their eyes stretched and jaws slacked in a mixture of wonder and fear. While some ponies ran back into their homes in horror for what this thing might be, the vast majority held their places and gaze, though many had to cover their ears all the same. When it seemed as though the thunderous furor would never let up, and that all of Ponyville would be shaken down into ruin the odd wood and iron beast simply turned off. The noise ceased almost immediately, too quickly in fact, so that the clamorous ringing and scraping of metal on metal persisted long in the heads of the surprised onlookers.

Yet there it sat as the crowd grew larger, all business put on hold. The speculative murmuring eventually grew so loud that only the few brave enough to approach the carriage could hear a trace of something from within, nothing more than a dull series of clicks and clacks but far from the mechanical tumult that marked its arrival sounding much like a pony shuffling around inside. And for nearly half an hour it continued to sit as though it was regarding the crowd, pondering what to do next. Among them were six familiar mares and a young dragon, each for the most part reacting differently to this supreme shake up of the familiar state of affairs.

"Well this certainly isn't something you see every day." Twilight said with a bit of a giggle.

"You're tellin' me, sister," Applejack replied as she furrowed her brow and scratched her head.

"I truly don't see what is so interesting about this," Rarity huffed with an annoyed grimace. "Somepony decides to ruin a perfectly good Sunday afternoon with an awful racket, and we're supposed to be impressed by it? Hardly, I say!" And with an impertinent whip of her head, she turned away but not so much as to break eye contact with the carriage.

"Are you kidding?!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed with a flourish of her hooves and widened eyes. "That thing was all like BANG! BOOM! CRASH! and POW! Wait... I don't think it POW'd? Did it? Did I miss it POW? Aww! I knew I should have been paying better attention!"

"Yes Pinkie," Rarity lilted sarcastically, though she at least had the excuse to turn around to face the carriage again. "We all heard it, and I do mean all of us! What a hideous thing to bring into town! Why just look at it! It's all dirty and smells of soot!" she finished, enunciating her distaste with synchronized bats of her eyelashes.

"I know, right? It's all DIRTY! And it smells like SOOT! Usually you have to go to a fireplace to smell soot and roll around in mud to get dirty, but this thing brought them both to us!"

At that, Rarity gave her pink friend a look of absolute bafflement— a common reaction to Pinkie Pie, but just as she was about to collect herself for a rebuttal her thought process was broken by the sounds of struggle at the rear of the crowd. The three mares turned around to see Rainbow Dash desperately dragging a most uncooperative Fluttershy. With pink tail in mouth, the blue pegasus forced her friend forward while the latter panicked, digging her hooves into the ground and spurting out excuses.

"No! I'm not coming! Let me go! It's so scary and loud, it terrified all my poor animals, and now I have to take care of them! Please let me go! I-they need need to be comforted!"

At that Rainbow Dash opened her mouth, releasing Fluttershy's tail but only so she could argue back. "Your animals get scared and hide every time something happens here! Stop running away for once, and come look at it! It's not moving or even making noises anymore," Rainbow Dash concluded with an impatient flap of her wings, hooves on hips as she stared down at Fluttershy who had now adopted a fetal position.

"It's stopped now, but I just know it'll get loud again. It's just waiting!" she stammered out before hiding her face in her hooves.

"Oh Fluttershy!" Twilight said sympathetically, walking over and patting her on the back. "It's not a creature! Just an automated vehicle. There's a pony in there right now who controls it."

"It reminds me of those mean brothers who tried to steal Sweet Apple Acres." Fluttershy said, face still hidden. "I just know it's trouble!"

"I couldn't agree more!" Rarity interjected. "I'm sure nothing good can come of its being here!"

"Now hold on a minute, girls," Applejack said, turning around, having been studying it intently for the last few minutes. "We don't even know who's inside it! Probably just some traveler lookin' to bunk up for a night'r two."

Twilight smiled at this. "Applejack's right. It's unfair to assume the worst and jump to conclusions so early. I don't know why anypony would build something like this," she said while briefly looking back and regarding the thing with a focused squint, "yet I'm sure whoever did had very good reasons for it. Perhaps all the noise comes from its engine. It may be used for long journeys and needs the extra power."

"But it's soooooooo looooooooud!" Rarity whined melodramatically.

"Yeah," Spike added, turning away from the crowd, giving up on trying to weave in between the legs of so many ponies to get a better look. "It is pretty loud."

"You all say it like it's a bad thing!" Pinkie beamed. "I wish I could make that much noise!"

"Something tells me you're gonna try," added Rainbow Dash, rolling her eyes. "And would you just get up and take a look, Fluttershy! It's not gonna hurt you!"

Finally, Fluttershy acquiesced, slowly bringing her head up then standing, but the second she turned and looked at it the carriage shook, and a metal hatch popped open, surprising the crowd and causing them to all tilt their heads forward in expectation and Fluttershy to return to the ground, head again buried safely in her hooves.

For all the crowd's wild individual ideas of what might be inside, the answer turned out to be quite tame in comparison. He had a pale, yellow coat though his hair was smeared with coal ash, oil, and grease making him look nearly gray. The hair in his mane however shined brilliantly red and spiked out, unkempt and about as far from a comb as anything could be. Simple thick, circular glass goggles covered his eyes, fastened around his head with a rubber strap, their size giving him an almost comedic look. Matching that was a goofy grin that stretched across his face which was framed by a thick, fuzzy, but short red beard that ran from one ear to the other. The crowd watched him, muttering to themselves as he attempted to exit his odd vehicle, the act made stranger by the fact that he seemed too big for the hatch he had surely made as part of the carriage's design. When it became clear that the pony would not be able to free himself Rainbow Dash flew over to hover next to him.

"Come on AJ! Wanna gimme a hoof?"

"Sure! Ah'll be right over," Applejack replied, tilting her hat back and beginning to trot through the thick crowd.

"Oh, for the love of Celestia! You're not actually going to touch him are you?!" Rarity said with disgust, but Applejack ignored her as Twilight gave a little chuckle.

Reaching the carriage, Applejack hopped nimbly up to the hatch to join Rainbow Dash.

"This... er... um. This en't really necessary." The driver said with a thick accent, blushing a bit.

"Not necessary mah eye!" said Applejack with mirth, "You're stuck tighter than a gopher in a snake hole!"

"I appreciate the help an' all, but I assure yeh! I'm quite capable of... extricating meself from this situation," he said, blushing more.

"Nah, dude. You're pretty stuck. On three, Applejack!"

"Got it!" Applejack said, grabbing his right shoulder while Rainbow Dash took his left.

"Please. This is all a bit excessive..."

"1!" Rainbow Dash yelled, her face growing serious.

"No, really! It just takes me a few minutes gettin' out each time! Not a big deal at all!"

"2!"

"A bit tricky, yes! Of course! But nothing I can't handle. Please dun! ..."

"3!" and with that the two mares pulled as hard as they could, yanking him free but causing Applejack to lose her balance and fall backward from the carriage's roof while Rainbow Dash, still gripping the stranger's arm arced upward before crashing with a great thud. After the dust settled, the pony grinned again and gave a hearty laugh.

"Well that was certainly spirited! Though I do believe yer hoof is crushing me liver."

"Oh uh... heh! Sorry about that!" said Rainbow Dash, blushing as she got off of him.

Not long after he stood up as well, he noticed all eyes were on him, and everypony was deathly quiet.

"Yeh act like yeh've never seen a stallion before! What's with all the hush? Yeh treat every new pony in town like this?" he said, pushing the goggles back onto his forehead to reveal bright, gold eyes.

"Eh, miss? Do they treat every new pony in town like this?" he said, leaning over to Rainbow Dash.

"Only the ones that roll up in noisemakers like that," said Rainbow Dash with a playful grin.

"Oh! 'course I shoulda realized that'd have somethin' to do wi' it!" He laughed again, his mouth wide. Pinkie Pie had popped up now too, standing beside him and laughing as well. She then put an arm around him and they proceeded to guffaw like two old friends enjoying a joke.

"That was a good one! My name's Pinkie Pie!" she said, giving a grin to rival his. The two stood and grinned at each other for a disturbing few seconds before his eyes widened and he opened his mouth again, hitting his forehead with a hoof.

"Ah! Look at me! I hadn't even introduced meself yet! Name's Hamilton Iron! Everypony just calls me Hugo though. Yeh can too if yeh want. That er Hugo Iron... or Iron Hugo." His eyes narrowed, "Just not Hamilton Hugo. Hate that one." And the smile returned. The crowd too began to smile, the tension broken like so many times before by Pinkie's laughter. They drew closer as well, faces sparked with wonder as they inspected Hugo's peculiar form of transportation.

"I take it these folks en't exactly used to this sorta thing."

"Nope!" Pinkie said, happily. "The last ponies who had something like that were these two brothers named Flim and Flam."

Hugo wrinkled his brow in deep thought for a moment. "Flim... Flam. Dun think I've ever heard of 'em."

"Uh huh! It's weird too because they said they were world famous! Their thingamajig made apple cider!"

"Well..." he said, voice trailing off as he eyed her dubiously, "That sounds fantastic! One up they have on me already! Their auto-carriage makes cider, and driving mine makes you sweat everything out!" Then the two had another random fit of laughter which was only interrupted by Twilight, who out of everypony gawking at the machine, was actually trying to discern its method of operation. Seeing this he walked over to join her.

"Amazing in'it!"

Twilight didn't respond for a spell before she magically lit up her horn, wiggling a piston rod.

"Eh, would yeh mind not doin' that miss?" Hugo said with some exasperation, "It can be kinda difficult to fix."

Finally she looked up. "I'm sorry Mr. Iron. I've just never seen a machine like this before. I'm interested in knowing how it works," she said in a matter of fact tone.

"Well I can teach yeh all about it. Got the schematics inside. Will probably get 'em later though. As yeh've seen, it's a bit eh... challenging going through that procedure. Probably shoulda made the hatch wider. Weren't as fat as I am now when I built it though! Lesson learned! Oh, and please just call me Hugo," he finished, smiling.

Twilight, however didn't return the smile. She couldn't take her eyes off the auto-carriage nor dispel the growing tension in her stomach. Rarity was right. It was loud, and now that she was close to it, she was beginning to side with Fluttershy as well. It did look dangerous. She couldn't even guess at how heavy the thing must be. And the amount of power needed to move it must be spectacular, yet Hugo was just an earth pony and a slightly insane-looking one at that. If only she could get inside, look around, and study the schematics, making sense of some of it, some of this mysterious anxiety might go away. For now though she couldn't shake the uneasiness this machine and its owner gave her.

Comments

[Impress Me]

Let the battle of magic vs. machine begin

[AtomicFetus1]

I absolutely love the concept you've got going here. Can't wait to see what happens next!

[IAmTheStallionMang]

I like it so far. I really like the personality that you gave Hugo, and I'm interested to see ow he'll pan out as a character. I would really like it if, even though he's in the role that is typically the "bad Guy" in these sort of stories, he's really not, and is just perceived as one by Twilight, because she feels threatened and whatnot. Anyway, I'm anticipating the next chapter.