Equestria Route Zero

Act Three, Scene Two - Interstate Sixty-Five Roadside

The truck had come to a complete standstill. The spark of its life was no longer there. While the electrics still worked, as shown by the working flashing hazards & lights, the engine had completely conked out. As much as I messed with it, I couldn't figure out what the cause of the problem was, all hope draining away with each passing minute. Giving up, deciding that it was beyond my own skill, I pulled the hood back down & turned to face my companions.

In front of me was a downed tree, possibly struck by lightening during the storm we experienced earlier, blown down by the high winds, or both. Either way, the destructive power of the storm had caused it to get caught on some power lines. It was lucky the lines were even there, otherwise the trunk would be covering the entire road. Cones littered the scene, suggesting someone had already been here, but there was all there was of any evidence of recent activity. I could see Misty sitting on one of the lower hanging branches of the tree, Winona sleeping under her feet. Shining Armor approached from nearby, having seen that I had finished my work.

“Nothing to be done?” he asked.

“Just won't start up again.” I don't think I've ever sounded so sad.

“Damn. You had this truck long?”

“Dad bought it used, a way back.” I confirmed. Apart from the business, or my siblings, this was pretty much all that was left that I used or owned that had once belonged to Dad. Losing this truck was losing the final link to the past.

“I wonder how old it is then.” he mused. “Do you... Wait... is this why you always leave your truck running?” Every time I stopped on a journey, I did leave the truck running, as I had felt it was the sure-fire way to not cause any mechanical faults. It had worked, until now.

“First time it's just died like this.” I put my hand on the bonnet, the cold metal stinging my hand. I missed its warmth already. I heard a clap & turned to the noise.

“Well. Where's the champagne?” Shining Armor stood there, a cheeky grin on his face, rubbing his hands in delight. Catching my eye, despite the lack of emotion etched onto my face, he stopped quickly. “Um, anyway... Do you know this area? Anyone here that could give us a hand?”

“Looks like a road crew's been out here.” I suggested, pointing out the cones on the road.

“Hey, we should call someone. Do you know a good towing company?” Shining asked.

“Eyup.” I rummaged through my coat pockets, picking a handful of things from one. I pulled out a small business card, & put the rest back into the pocket. “Lucky Boot Collision & Towing. Here's their card.”

“Lucky Boot...” He took the card from my hand & inspected it. “Alright, I'll give them a call. I hope I can get a signal out here.”

Shining Armor pulled a large phone from his waist, the thing the size of a brick, & quickly punched in the numbers. He held the phone to his ear, & nodded at a ringing tone. I watched as he spoke into the receiver.

“Hi, hello. We've got an old, uh, I want to say diesel... old truck just stalled out... Did I wake you? Your card says 'open 23 hours a day'... Yeah, that's why I'm calling, exactly. That's all... No, it's OK, we just need to get to an auto shop & get this taken care of... Are you – is this a bad time? We, uh... we already are. As soon as you can get out here, we're off sixty-five somewhere, just kind of pulled up by this tree that fell over - ...that's actually a pretty accurate description of it, yeah. Hanging over the power lines just like that. Did you see it go down? I guess it doesn't matter. Well, thanks again. We'll see you soon, then. How long do you think you'll be? Hello?”

Between his last two questions, I could hear a radio in the background, loud enough to be heard through that receiver on his phone. It was sure big enough for it. On knowing the Lucky Boot was on his way, I left Shining Armor to his own devices & went over to Misty, still sitting up on the branch of the tree.

“Are you bored?” she asked.

I laughed & asked back to her. “Are you?”

“Yeah, most of the time.” She jumped off of the branch, back onto solid ground. “Let's play a game.”

“How about Twenty Questions?” I suggested.

“OK...” She looked down, staring at her shoes intently. “Got it. OK, guess.”

“OK. Is it a bird?”

“NO! You're guessing too soon!” She jumped up & down. I couldn't tell if she was worried or too excited about my guessing skills.

“Does it have a home?”

“It... hmmm.” She thought for a moment. “You could put it somewhere, & that would be the right place for it... Yes.”

I scratched my head. “Would I recognise it if I saw it?”

She nodded her head. “It would be like something you'd recognise, yeah. Yes.”

“Is it bigger than a dog?”

“No, a dog is bigger... except for one of those really little dogs. Or a puppy, I guess. Does a puppy count as a dog?” She stood for a moment. Rather still as well. “Alright, that's all your questions. What's your guess?”

“I think I get a few more.” A smirk had lodged itself on my face. Applebloom had pulled the same trick on me once before when playing this game.

“I wasn't counting, but I'm pretty sure that was twenty.”

With wide eyes, she stood there waiting for my answer. I looked around disbelievingly before answering with “Is it a... nest?”

With huge jubilations, Misty jumped up & down more than usual, her ponytail flying high up into the air.

“Yeah! A pretty small nest, like made for a small bird. It's empty & it's night time, & it just rained. It fell out of the tree & now we're putting it back together. Then we'll take it apart again. I was all ready for those questions!”

I looked down towards Winona, & I raised my eyebrows questioningly. All she did was yawn, & go back to sleep. I turned back towards Shining Armor but I could hear something. He could hear it too. Together, we rain to the edge of the road, the roar of an engine filling our ears.

The tree flew past as the motorcycle tore down the road. Aside from the noise the engine made, the unmistakable sound of electronic music could be heard. Attached to the bike was a side car, a passenger sitting in it. Both rider & passenger wore goggles, shielding their eyes from the air that rushed passed them, & both also had turquoise blue hair, kept tightly together with the bike helmets they wore.

“Is this the right way? I don't recognise these trees.” said the passenger, her concern of the way to their destination obvious as she looked around quickly.

“Of course it is.” said the rider. She shook her head, having had to answer this question before when driving down this road.

“Yeah, I'm sure you're right. Just... the trees are so quiet, right? Usually you'd hear birds, wind, a squirrel or something.”

“Doesn't seem so quiet right now.” The rider pointed to the radio. “Listen.”

“Yeah, you're right. Maybe I'm a little bored. I'll work some chord progressions in my head for a while or something Ha ha.” The passenger took a look behind them, watching the road markings fly past underneath them. “Is the bike kind of dragging a bit tonight?”

“If only we had something to jettison...” The rider mused quietly.

“You know you'd miss me.”

“I only miss you when I know you're coming back.” The rider took time from watching the road to look at her passenger.

“O-ho! We should write a song about it!” The passenger pulled from her coat a small notepad & pen, & began writing down some notes.

“A fugue for solo keytar.” said the rider.

“Ha. Maybe for an encore.” The passenger put the notepad back into their coat, their note-taking abruptly stopping at that comment. The rider then fiddled with the radio dials, changing the station & changing the song.

“Hey, yeah!” The passenger was incredibly upbeat again. “Didn't you play on this record?”

“This is Stoney's record.”

“Yeah, Stoney! Stoney. That guy is out of control. We should do a set with him.” suggested the passenger.

“He's a creep.”

“Yeah. That creep can play though!” The passenger looked at her wrist, only to find no watch to be found on her wrist. “What time is it?”

“It's late.”

“Blueblood's gonna flip out.” The passenger then went about trying to find her watch in the side-car.

“That old man was born flipped.”

The passenger re-emerged, watch-less. “I just hope we can scrape some tips. Hard enough when you get there on time.”

“Just play the keyboard, I'll figure out the rest.”

“I know, dear.”  said the passenger. She looked ahead & saw a large box truck. As the pair zoomed past on their motorcycle, she got a good look at the people standing near it – what appeared to be two men, a small child & an animal, possibly a dog of some sorts.

“I think they had a dog.” she mentioned to the rider.

The rider shrugged. “I guess you could call it that.”

“Just some old dog bones with some fur draped over it. Poor thing. We still have all this useless bread from the bakery gig. It's stale, but...” The passenger pulled a small bag from underneath her & put it onto her lap, a few pieces of bread sticking out from where the zip could not fully zip up. “A dog won't care.”

The rider sighed in response. “Fine. Just for a minute to share some bread.”

“You're the best.” A large smile crawled across her face. “&, hey, maybe if they're not busy they can fill some seats at the gig. You know if no one's there Blueblood'll try & bilk us on our fee.”

“Maniacs. Are you OK?” Shining's concern for me was understandable. After all, I was the one to not move as a giant dust cloud had covered the side of the road after a motorcycle had flown by.

“Got a little dust in my eye.” I spluttered.

“Oh no. Here, I think I have some eye drops... They were in a hurry.” he said.

“Some folks are always in a hurry.” I waved away the offer of eye drops. Dust was the least of my worries, not for my eye anyway. I doubt eye drops would be able to clean my leg anytime soon.

“Not you though, huh?” He put the eye drops back in his bag. “You just keep drifting along & don't let anyone rush you. What is that? Is that patience? Something like patience. I guess that's what I like about you, old man. You know how to wait. I don't think I ever will.”

As I rubbed the last of the dust out of my eyes, the motorcycle that had only just passed us was back but at a slower pace than previously. & this time, it pulled up opposite the truck, the rider getting off from the main bike, the passenger remaining in their side-car.

“Stay here.” the rider said to the passenger. She turned to Misty, back on her branch. “Careful. She's wicked with strangers.”

“Ha, you - “ the passenger started but I had interrupted.

“You didn't have to stop, we've got a tow coming.”

“Hear that, Cloudchaser? We didn't have to stop.” She said louder than need be.

“Oh! Why'd we stop?” Cloudchaser had an unusual light blue hue about her hair, it may have been turquoise but it was hard to tell with the motorcycle lights shining in my eyes. She also looked confused constantly.

“That's a good question.” said the rider. “These folks seem to have a certain handle on the situation. So...?”

“Oh, we thought you were stopping to help.” I motioned to both Shining Armor & I, the confusion not etched onto our faces.

“Sure, sure, something like that.” The rider nodded her head quickly before continuing. “Listen: we've got two questions for you folks. What kind of people do you take us for? I mean, how do we strike you?” She held up her arms & did a twirl, showing off her outfit. While dressed like a biker, she too had a light blue hue in her hair.

“Probably from space.” piped up Misty.

“I always said you fell from heaven, dear!” shouted out Cloudchaser, agreeing with Misty's comment.

“Otherworldly!” shouted the rider back to Cloudchaser.

“It's unmistakable.” The rider rolled her eyes, ignoring Cloudchaser for a while.

“Now, here's another question for you: do you like music?”

“Do you like music?” chimed in Cloudchaser. She held her arm out of the side-car, Winona getting up & moving towards her.

“Applejack used to sing in taverns in the weekend.” I reminisced. “Beautiful stuff. Appl- “

“Of course you do!”

“Say, they should come to our gig!”

“What an idea!”

I held up a hand to seize their babble. “Well, we're waiting on a tow.”

“A tow! I won't hear it. This time of night, you'll be kicking your heels 'till dawn. We'll fix your truck.” She ran over, pulling the hood of the truck up & peering in. “Me & Cloudchaser are a couple of regular gearheads. Why, I just put a new cylinder block in that baby over there: the Sloth-on-wheels.”

“- that's what Flitter calls out bike.” pointed out Cloudchaser, holding out a piece of bread for Winona.

“We call it the Sloth-on-wheels.” said the newly appointed Flitter.

“Pretty cool, huh?”

“We'll get you fixed up quick, so you can come  to the gig.” Flitter pulled her head out from the bonnet, & leant against one of the headlights. “See, we have a regular booking tonight &, well, we're running late.”

“Very late!” shouted Cloudchaser.

“That's what I told them!” Flitter shouted back. “Now the old man who runs this venue, Blueblood, is a notorious withholder. & if we don't get a few bodies in the crowd, well... he'll go all penny pinching on us. Just a short set, we only have one song prepared.”

“You'll come to the gig, won't you?” asked Cloudchaser.

“We really don't have time.” said Shining Armor.

Flitter ran back over to her companion. “Of course they will! Can you believe: we almost didn't stop?”

“Hungry, old gal? I think I've got a crust left for you...” Cloudchaser rummaged about once more & produced a thick crust for Winona.

“But that dog of yours is such a pitiful sight... Well, it's all said & done. We stopped, that's all that matters.” She walked back on over to the truck. “Our gig's at an old tavern called 'The Lower Depths.' It's over there by old Charlie Horse Highway, just east off sixty-five. We usually take a right off the interstate around the petting zoo. Cloudchaser likes the petting zoo.”

“I do like the petting zoo.”

Flitter clapped her hands together in delight. “Now, let's see about that truck of yours... I feel certain we can get it running.”