On Vacation

"So why don't you start from the beginning, miss Lindsy?" An older stallion said as he stood across the room from a mare who looked as if she had been doing a lot of traveling as of late. He place a kettle on an wood stove to boil water for some tea and turned back to her as she started her story.

"Well, I was in Panama when the Event happened. I always wanted to see the Panama Canal and so I was finally able to do that." She said and shifted in her seat. "I was staying in a hotel that night and was going to get on the flight home in the morning, but when I woke up I had been transformed." She said and looked at the candle in-front of her. Besides the wood stove, there were only these candles to light up the small kitchen.

"So you were asleep when you transformed?" The stallion asked and retrieved a loaf of bread from a cupboard. She nodded.

"Yes, I was asleep." He turned and looked at her.

"Alright, you may continue."

"Well I spent a few hours trying to figure out what to do, I couldn't go outside to get help because someone might see me and sell me to the circus or something. I guess that was a kind of silly fear to have since I didn't even hear anyone outside the whole time. I had a room with a window right next to the road you see and I didn't hear any cars the whole time I was locked in my room." He nodded and placed a slice of bread on a plate and put a tea-bag into a mug.

"When did you finally leave your room?" He asked.

She blushed, "Well, when I got hungry I decided to go find something to eat."

"Ah, yes, food is a powerful motivator."

"Anyway, I kind of raided the kitchen because there was no one around and brought everything I could back with me to my room. I couldn't read half the labels though because they were in Spanish. I just snacked on what smelled good. Looking back, I should have probably been more cautious with what I tried to eat, but I was alright fortunately."

"Indeed, it was not very safe to just eat anything but you got lucky; we all did. I don't know what I would do without my tea." He said and chuckled, "Did you ever try any plantain chips? I did find them a rather nice change to what we have up here."

She nodded, "I did, and I actually have some here if you'd like to share some with me." She offered and reached into her weathered bag and pulled out a new bag of the aforementioned chips. The stallion approached and plucked one of the chips up from the now opened bag.

"Mmmm, it is different from corn chips to be certain but it is deffanately a nice change from the norm, thank you." He said and went back to preparing the tea. "So you were saying?"

"Oh, right. So after I ate, I went out and looked for people but I didn't find anyone. Obviously. So now I was lost and alone in a country I had never been to before. And with everything in Spanish down there, I was not going to stay. So I gathered what I had and stared walking north."

"You walked? Were there no cars? I know many of them disappeared with their drivers but why didn't you use one of the other cars?" He asked curiously.

"Your right, but at that time I still thought of it as stealing and I didn't want to get in trouble. That lasted until my hooves were in pain and I didn't see anyone around." She laughed, "I guess I don't have very good resolve. I took a car and started driving north to come back home to the US. But as you know, no plan survives first contact with the enemy."

"So what happened?" He asked and placed a single sugar cube in each of the brown mugs next to the tea-bags.

"Well, I hit a pot-hole in the road and ripped the wheel off the car." She said and chuckled again. "The hole must have been like two feet wide and just as deep! And it was just sitting there in the middle of the road. I wonder if they even have road repair down there?"

"So what did you do after that?"

"After the crash I tried to find another car but they were all gone, so I had to start walking. Because it was the tropics I got really hot and dehydrated walking and had to spend a couple nights at a gas station to recover."

"Two days? That's a while to be recovering from dehydration."

"Well I get these really bad head-aches and they last for a while, so I just wanted to make sure I was good again before continuing. It's not like I was on a time limit or something either." She said and repositioned herself in the cushion she was on. The kettle started to whistle and the stallion poured the tea and waited for it to steep for a few moments.

"The tea will be ready in a moment." He said stirring his own tea.

"Alright, thank you." After another minute he carried the plate of bread and the tea over to her and joined her sitting at the table.

"So you stayed at the gas station?" He asked.

"Ah, yes! Oh, and the tea is very nice." He nodded in response. "So I started walking again and finally found another car and took that one up to the border of Costa Rica, found a new car and drove to Nicaragua and stayed there for a few days to rest. Did you know they have no road sings in Costa Rica? How do they find anything there? It took me 5 days just to get through Costa Rica by itself and all this time I still hadn't seen a single person." She said and nibbled on her bread briefly. "It's hard to believe, but the roads got worse as I went north. Panama was alright, Costa Rica wasn't too bad, but Nicaragua was hell. I had to drive at like 30 mph to avoid destroying the car on the road. At least fuel wasn't to big a problem."

"So how many countries are down there anyway? I know Mexico is down there and Panama..."

She giggled, "Well, I'm pretty sure there are six countries between Panama and Mexico, but I only drove through four of them."

"I see, go ahead."

"After I got through Honduras and Guatemala, it was fairly smooth sailing until I ran out of gas in southern Mexico. I had only a little water left with me so I had to stay in a little hotel by the road until it rained and I was able to start walking again. By the time I reached that point though, it had been nearly two weeks. I was talking to myself regularly by then. Like a regular crazy person." They both had a good laugh at that.

"So you had to walk through the Mexican desert the whole way up?" He asked and set his empty mug on the table.

"Well, Mexico does have a reputation of being a desert but a lot of the country is fairly well watered, actually. About a day later I found an ox by herself and it followed me around so I named her daisy and she led me to a cart that I hooked her up to and she pulled me for quite some distance until we found a heard of oxen. She seemed happy with them so I said good bye and left her there with them." She sniffed and wiped her eyes. "She was such a nice oxen too."

"A few weeks ago I would not have believed that, but animals do seem to be more intelligent now, so I suppose it would be able to show emotion." He shook his head. "I liked it better when cows were meat and humans showed emotion." He said grumbling.

"I know what you mean." She replied. They sat in silence for a few moments before she continued. "Anyway, after a few more days I got yet another car and managed to show up here, in Texas."

"So, what will you do now?"

She considered that for a moment, "I think I'll go back home to see if there's any chance my family is still there. I don't think they are, but I can't hurt to check can it?" The older stallion smiled.

"It couldn't hurt. I mean you managed to become a pony so they have the same chance I think. I would encourage you to go check at least, and you're welcome back here if you...don't find them. There's a lot to be done down here still and I could use the help." He stretched his arms and yawned. "I'm getting old, can't run everything like I used to and the library won't take care of itself." They both chuckled quietly.

"Thanks for the offer, I'll keep it in mind."

He nodded, "Well your welcome to stay here tonight and go your way in the morning if you want to." But she shook her head.

"I would hate to impose on you and the longer I wait the more likely it is for my folks to move on to somewhere else. I'm gonna get going tonight, thanks for the tea and bread though, it was really nice to talk to someone else for a change."

The elderly gentle-colt nodded, "I can understand that. The door's always open to you if you decide to come back this way, just remember that." She nodded and gave him a hug before she made her way out to her car and started driving off. As she drove into the night, she considered everything that she had gone through over the last few weeks. It probably could have been worse, she did get to see a lot of places though. Maybe next time she went somewhere, there could be less transformation and more time for the actual vacation.

Author's Note

As always guys, I love to hear what you thought of this. What could I have done different to make it better? What situations would you like to see? Let me know guys~!