Frostpony: Of Hounds & Horses

Rini dug through the half exposed guts of yet another machine, this time an engine block from a tractor.

Despite starting a little late, she’d been able to make good time and filled up quite a few boxes of spare parts. Now said engine dangled from the rusting hull of its host, largely disassembled it looked as if something had taken a large mechanical bite out of it.

She panted and wiped her forehead, taking a step back to appreciate her work.

It was only a small victory, but one she took pride in. Like a reassuring pat on the back, or a warmth in herself she couldn’t quite explain. A special warmth she wanted to cling to before it eventually went away.

With where she lived, she’d take any kind of warmth she could, real or metaphorical.

While she was but one scrapper among many, it was nice feeling she was special somehow.

That moment of respite was interrupted however by the mechanical groaning of something large and heavy, working overhead. A shadow swept across the side of the scrapyard and Rini quickly saw it was just the Rustbucket’s crane.

It wasn’t the crane itself that gave her that nervous smile however, it was who was atop its cargo that did.

“I can see the whole scrapyard from up here!” Yelled a shrill voice.

“Damn it Brambles! Please don’t let this be another bird cage incident.”

Rini’s smile became increasingly forced as she watched him slowly swing atop a cargo crate. She couldn’t fault him, he liked being useful, but at the same time seeing how high up he was wracked her nerves. No helmet, no harness, just Brambles being himself…

Again.

“At least he’s enjoying himself. Skies above, I’d be terrified of that kinda height. Here’s hoping he doesn’t get hurt.”

The crane swung back and forth as it lowered and ascended its cargo, loading and unloading everything from bolts to boilers. Its cables looked sturdy enough, and the crew took their jobs seriously.

Well, as seriously as Diamond Dogs could. Brambles wasn’t setting a high bar.

She turned away and whistled, waving one of the soldiers over to come pick up the parts as she moved to another wreck.

This one was a little more interesting. It was some kind of auto-wagon made for the snow, and not a small one at that. The thing was massive, easily the size of a truck with treads in place of wheels behind it, and a huge pair of skis to its front.

Ballpark estimates put the thing at about fifteen hooves high, twenty five wide and just under double that in length, though that included the skis which stretched out far in front of it.

Its hull was painted a mixture of snowy whites and dark navy blues, a kind of camouflage. Rini quickly identified it as a military vehicle, an Equestrian military vehicle. No Diamidian workshop would put something together so…completely. There were no gaps in the welding, no missing rivets in the plating and no component exposed to the elements.

“Well…this’ll be a first.”

She set her toolbox down beside the beastly machine and moved to its rear, finding a pair of doors with thin, tiny windows and some handles. Pulling on them they stood fast, eliciting a disappointed sigh.
“That, I’m familiar with.”

Looking over the door it quickly became clear the crowbar wasn’t going to work again. The steel frame wasn’t going to buckle and the gap between the door and its housing was far too small, paper thin even. Moving around the driver’s door revealed the same issue and she took a few paces back to look over the vehicle further.

“Okay buddy, I see how it is. Want me to work for my wages don't ya? Well I got news for you.” Rini then dug around her toolbox, taking out an angle grinder with a few different saw blades and some goggles.

“I don’t play fair.” She smiled, as she slapped the goggles on.

Rini then levelled the angle grinder up against the driver’s door, the angry roaring of an electric motor greeting the hundreds of teeth that now span before her. With a deep breath, the saw blade connected and sparks flew off in droves below her. Rattling her grinning teeth and shaking her bones, as she pushed on, adrenaline flooding into her.

Yet as the grinder went to work, she didn’t feel it depressing into the armour of the vehicle.

Instead, only a few seconds later, she heard a sharp crack and let go of the trigger. Freezing in place, she had to take a moment to register what exactly had happened. A piece of metal impaired her vision and her blood ran cold realising what it was.

Slowly and shakily, she moved a paw up to her goggles and pulled them off. A chunk of metal equal in length to a table knife had embedded itself into the frame, and nearly pierced her skull.

The saw blade on the angle grinder had broken. A chunk of its form was missing from its body, now resting within her safety equipment, which truly had lived up to its purpose.

“Holy…” She turned and twisted the now broken goggles, seeing the web of splits and cracks running through the glass.

Nervously, she began to chuckle at the sight. “And that’s why we have safety equipment! HA!”

Putting the angle grinder back into her box and pulling out a welding mask, she again looked up to the visibly marked armoured door. Her efforts having done little more than ruin the paintwork and damn near cost her an eye, if not more.

“Alright bozo, you win this round. But I got plenty more where they came from!”

This time, Rini produced a cutting torch and fastened the mask over her face. The world grew dark as she approached…

And she tried, tried and tried again.

The door withstood the flames of the cutting torch. Its letterbox window was far too small for even a contortionist to slip through. She tried drilling into the lines between the plates only to find her own drill bits blunting. Sledgehammers would see their handles break before the armour buckled, and even sticks of dynamite left little more than scorch marks upon the armoured transport.

More than an hour after she’d begun her initial assault, she was now standing atop the thing bashing it with a crowbar.

“WHAT-”

CLANG!

“ARE-”

CLANG!

“YOU-”

CLANG!

“MADE OF!?”

CLANG!

Rini barked and growled as the steel prybar bounced off the hull, only managing to scratch the paintwork as she vented her frustrations. The crowbar now looked more damaged, much like most of her other equipment.

This wasn’t exactly the highlight of her day she’d wanted. Trying to crack this armoured nut had drawn more than a few curious eyes, especially after she’d tried controlled explosives. But as she began to calm down and finally rest from her rant, now laying down upon the vehicle’s roof, another Diamidian decided to approach.

It was Cole again.

“Hey, having trouble up there scrapper?”

Rini’s only response was to annoyedly growl.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” The black and brown labrador then produced a large, polished disk of metal similar to a hockey puck. “Here, this should help.”

She turned to look as he approached, holding out a paw to take whatever the disk was. Bringing it up to her face she examined it, raising an eyebrow. “Aaaaand what exactly is this?”

“It’s a magnet! Stick it on the door.” Cole tapped the handle area to indicate.

With a sigh she sat up and jumped off, landed before turning to the door where she stuck the magnet.

There was an audible click that made her ears perk up, and she glanced at a Cole who wore a smirk, before turning back to the door.

“No way.”

Rini reached for the handle…and pulled the door open.

“HOW?!” She snapped back to Cole, who by now was laughing under his breath. “Mother-It’s just a piece of metal!”

“Ahh not quite. The Equestrian Army locks tend to use powered magnets. Prevents lockpicks, magical or otherwise. If the battery is out or the lock’s depowered, a magnet big enough can open it up.”

“Wait, so the lock uses a magnet…but then can it be opened using a magnet?”

“Yes, while the lock magnet is depowered.”

“So…is your magnet powered? I don’t see a battery.” She looked all over the tool for some kind of power source, but it really was just a hunk of metal.

“No, magnets themselves don’t need power to be…magnetic I guess?”

“Then, wait…huh?” Rini looked back and forth between the engineer and the vehicle, her prior anger giving way to confusion. “How do magnets work?”

Cole shrugged. “I dunno, they just do.”

Rubbing her face from frustration, Rini groaned and turned towards her prize. Still off put at her inability to deal with it alone.

“I hate magnets.”

She pulled the door open all the way and climbed inside, Cole moving to begin work on the engine seated under the driver’s compartment.

From where Rini was, Cole had to poke at an access panel under the vehicle to get to it, with her above him.

Now finally able to begin work proper, Rini rummaged through the driver’s compartment. The seats were definitely meant for ponies. Positioned more akin to how one would ride a motorbike, which given the stark difference in anatomy between them and Diamond Dogs, which only made sense.

Some time passed as she unscrewed panels and hull parts from the interior. Cole drained what fuel still remained inside the inactive boiler and the two worked in tandem. Doing such routine work though let Rini’s mind wander, and she began asking herself.

“I can’t be the only one affected by these soldiers, but can I risk asking around?” Rini’s tongue once more felt the gap between her teeth, immediately feeling the painful sting of regret for doing so. “Nearly had my ass served by those two mutts the other night. Fact the War Dogs here didn’t put me on the spot about it is really suspicious.”

For a brief moment she let her eyes dart about, cautious eyeing for anything amiss.

“Am I being watched? I’m I on a list somewhere? Or did I actually beat those two so black and blue they couldn’t tattle tale on me yet?” Rini emerged from the compartment and looked around the area, suddenly a little paranoid of the former. A quick gloss over didn’t reveal any obvious watch dogs but the question lingered within, and she turned towards Cole.

“I should at least try. Ask him something simple, try to feel him out first…yeah, good plan Rini.”

Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm her nerves before speaking out loud. “Hey, so I know this is kinda out of nowhere, but I gotta question.” Cole paused from his work, almost elbow deep in a box of parts he was filling.

“What are your thoughts on the War Dogs?”

Cole looked away, thinking as he stood up with grease covered gloves.

“They’re alright, I guess. Pay’s good but they’re all really demanding sometimes. Why?”

Rini cringed and slid back into the compartment, resuming both her efforts and the conversation.

“Well, they did just kinda…impose themselves upon us and our work, and I’ve got friends who’ve had it rough.”

Cole moved to the front of the snow-wagon to keep pace on its innards. “I know the feeling, got dragged along myself to work on her when she launched. Ain’t seen home for weeks.”

“R-Really?!”

“Yeah, didn’t tell me where I was goin’, only what I was doin’.”

Rini laid awestruck as Cole retold his story, his voice low and heavy. The mutt stood up and looked at her through the front window, showing the bags around his eyes. “You a ponylover?”

“I’ve been neighbours with em’ since they started settling years ago. Depends on your definition.” Rini retorted, almost on instinct.

“Heh, don’t you worry, I ain’t the kind to judge.”

“Should I tell him?” She glanced towards and away from Cole. “He seems okay, try being vague just in case.”

“I have one friend, a pegasus, got hurt not long ago and when the soldiers arrived everything went downhill for him.”

“Oh? How so?” Cole stopped working, attention focused on Rini.

“He uh…got billed, a lot. In only a couple days he got hit with so many so fast he may as well have thrown his life’s savings into a river.” Cole’s eyes widened as his ears perked up, seeing his attention drawn Rini took her chance.

“Tell me Cole, how many ponies have you seen since you arrived in Cherrywood?”

The Labrador brought a paw up and began counting, one, two, three…and pausing there.

“Right, and bare in mind this town had a roughly even split before the army rolled in. Where’d they all go?”

Clenching into a fist, Cole’s expression quickly shifted and Rini could see the cogs turning within. The onset of horror painting his face. “I…dunno…huh.”

In that moment, Rini looked up and saw a glove compartment, at the same time Cole looked away just as she’d opened it.

To her surprise a revolver and cylinder of bullets then dropped and fell from the compartment, and Rini fumbled with it briefly before shoving out of view just as Cole turned to her.

“Thanks for uh…telling me I guess, had no idea.”

“It’s alright!” She squeaked, her eyes wide as dinner plates and forced a smile big enough to impress a clown.

“I’ll try to keep what you said in mind, I’m not big on ponies but I can understand why a lot of dogs are.”

“Yeah sure!” Rini hastily nodded. “Ponies aren’t bad, they're just, ya know, different?”

Cole nodded in turn as she did. “Neither are we really, and us dogs are a lot more varied, at least in terms of breeds.”

“Mhm hm!”

“Alright, I’ll get back under and work on the piping. Thanks for the talk, Rini.”

“No problem!”

And steady as he’d came, Cole went back under, leaving Rini alone with the gun.