Frostpony: Of Hounds & Horses

Rini pushed open a door and nearly tripped over herself entering the bridge.

Riley flipped the lights on and both were presented with a wide room coated in a mixture of different painted panels. The room’s amber lights bathed it in warmth, yet much of it was left shadowed by the questionable quality of the bulbs.

Two chairs sat behind the main bulk of the controls, each nestled within a semi-circle of different panels and a steering wheel facing the front. Secondary or backup panels and extra readouts were displayed elsewhere, such as below the framed windows.

From the front, they gave a wide view of the outside world. The scrapyard darkened and shadowbound by the night.

Just from looking at it, the Rustbucket was clearly intended to be driven by a crew. Not a duo.

“Oh my, this is…a lot.” Riley turned to her daughter, who was already moving to examine the panels. “Think you can handle this dear?”

She sat down and looked over the controls. Rini gave a sigh of relief and thanks as many of the various dials, control and other buttons were clearly labelled, with plenty of crudely drawn notes clung to them. It took a moment, but the gears in Rini’s head grinded into overtime as she pieced the puzzle together.

“I-I think so, just need a moment.”

The Greyhound peered over a status panel. Most of the engines were active, the fuel tanks were full and the boilers ablaze. Cole had been busy.

“Okay next thing…breaks!”

Rini pulled on a lever and felt the entire vehicle suddenly, if briefly, shook. Less of a rumble and more like a momentary tremor of the earth. One that would’ve knocked over any coffee cup.

She let out a nervous laugh and glanced at Riley. “I’m about to drive something ten times the size of my house…”

“Our house.” She smiled. Rini rolled her eyes and went back to work.

“Right, now how do I make this thing actually move?” From the outside it certainly looked complicated. All the various dials, buttons and switches led to all kinds of things. The more Rini examined them the more her smile began to widen.

With the flick of a switch, flood lights across the Rustbucket’s hull sparked to life. Dozens of times more potent than the searchlights mounted across the watch towers. The whole scrapyard, from fence to front window, was lit up for her to see.

Next, she grabbed a sliding lever marked “throttle” and pushed it upward. If the earlier shake was a tremor, now Rini was in for the earthquake. The beast of a machine awoke from its multi-day slumber and the treads stirred to life.

She could feel her teeth rattle in his skull-”Oh hey I have my tooth back!”-as her tongue involuntarily danced around her mouth. Her senses alight with jubilation as the Rustbucket’s function clicked into place. “Thank the skies for Diamidian engineering!” She cried.

Riley took a position near the windows, looking out. “If the gunshots hadn’t woken them up, I’m sure that will.”

Rini’s exaltation was cut short as concern suddenly crossed her mind. “Hey uh, mom?” She swivelled around to grab the steering wheel, but looked to her. “Just to make sure, all the ponies did get aboard right?”

“Saw Corn helping the last group climb the treads when you called.” She turned back to her. “So I’d hope so!”

With that, Rini grabbed a hold of the throttle and pushed it further upwards, the roaring of a mighty beast followed suit.

“Then I hope your aim is good, because I have a town to navigate.”

Meanwhile, Brambles sped through the cramped copper halls of the engineering section. Amber lights and open doors painted his path forward as the world around him shook.

The noise wasn’t nearly as ear splitting as the gallery of gunshots from earlier, but now the loud, mechanical churn of countless cogs, gears and pipelines drowned out most others. Oil, brass and iron clogged up his nose and threatened to drive him mad.

Because unlike Rini, this was his first time inside Ol’ Rusty.

And he was already beginning to hate it.

On the bright side, the war mutt he was chasing made no effort to conceal his movements or to throw him off. He left doors open, light lit and while it was nearly drowned out, Brambles could still pick up his salty scent of body odour.

He followed that trail until he came upon a doorway which led to a very loud, very brightly lit room. Even before he reached the door he could hear the half drowned echoes of some argument.

When he reached it and looked inside, he found the soldier pointing his auto-gun at…some kind of engineer. A black and brown mutt with broad shoulders. He didn’t know a name but he’d seen him before…at some point.

“Shut off the engines!” Shouted the soldier.

“You know I can’t do that pal, not now.”

“What? I can’t hear ya! Shut em off!”

Brambles didn’t voice it but he was inclined to agree, it was loud in there. Several large bulky machines lined the room, with ladders and walkways between them. Pipes of all kinds flowed in and out of those living hulks of metal, and for a moment he questioned why they were on.

On the other paw however, he was one of the bad guys so whatever he wanted was bad, right?”

Yeah, probably.

Brambles reached for the revolver in his pock-”Oh right, Rini has it.”

Instead, he then reached over his back for-”And Riley still has that shotgun.”

He let out a frustrated groan that might as well have been mouthed for how drowned out it was. The soldiers back at the bay had guns, Mr. Tibbles was back there too, but in his haste he hadn’t grabbed any of them.

There was only one thing left he could do, play nice.

With a deep breath he marched into the room and waved, prompting Cole to point past the soldier at him. The war mutt turned around and aimed his gun, which had Brambles freeze. He was careful not to make any sudden movements as he raised a paw up to his mouth.

“Hey!” He shouted, “Can we like, talk about this?”

“Huh?!” The soldier replied.

Brambles pointed towards his ears then towards the doorway, maybe he’d get the message and they could talk outside? The soldier however didn’t seem impressed, if anything he looked quite angry as he squinted his eyes.

“Wait, you're the damn mutt that led us away from the landship! You piece of-”

What he said next was lost as the engines scaled up in power. The room rumbled accordingly and the three of them shook about. Impressively, the soldier kept his gun trained on Brambles and violently barked at him with an eye full of anger, and a voice promising vengeance.

BRRRRR-”With a garden gnome!-”RRRRRR-”So help ya nan-”RRRRRR-”Loved Buckball! And you-”RRRRRR

While his attempts were falling upon quite literal deaf ears, Cole appeared to be making the most of it. The roar of the engines masked his steps as he slowly crept up behind the dog.

Brambles couldn’t exactly put his paws up without losing balance, and not knowing what he was saying was putting a real damper on things. He persisted though and forced a nervous smile, even as the enraged mutt waved his gun around with a digit on the trigger.

At any moment he could turn his chest cavity into a block of hole ridden cheese, and he wouldn’t even get to say goodbye to his friends!

That thought was perhaps the one that forced him to take a step back, just as Cole was getting within reach.

He was nearly there, just a little more!

But then the mutt raised his gun at Bramble’s head, his digit ready to clutch the trigger.

This was it, the flash before his eyes…

Suddenly, a shadow dropped from above and crashed into the unknowing mutt like a bolt of black lightning.

A mighty thud managed to reach Brambles’ ears as he hit the ground hard. An equine figure with a black cloak pinned him down and grabbed the mutt’s head. They pulled it up and before smashing it back down against the hard brass.

Rivers of red leaked from the unconscious dog’s nose as the pony stood up and let their hood down. It was Gale, and he turned his head toward Cole and extended a hoof. The pegasus flashed his ice knife and nodded to the mutt, which Cole replied by shaking his head.

Gale walked off the limp soldier and strolled past a speechless Brambles, where he left back into the halls.

For the second time that night, Gale had saved his hide and whilst thankful, both mutts stood wide eyed.

“Damn Gale, where’d you learn that?”

Brambles looked down at him, then up to the engineer who shakily gave him a thumbs up. Quietly and nervously he laughed and nodded, before turning around to leave the engine room, wanting to get away from the noise and smell of blood.

With that taken care of he had to go make sure the food trailer had been reeled in. For all the things he’d forget, the needs of his stomach wasn’t one of them.

When he got to the garage bay Brambles was met with a warzone.

In the time since, ponies had come in. Some unicorns had picked up the fallen soldier’s guns and were hiding where they could. Gunshots ringing out like bundles of firecrackers in tune with the rumbles of machines and rush of wind.

A pony doctor was tending to Corn’s bloodied leg. A unicorn held up a violet shield with her magic as bullets scarcely pot-marked the wall behind them.

Outside meanwhile, auto-wagons and armoured vehicles with gun turrets chased after the Rustbucket. The food trailer was nearly in but the War Mutts were quickly closing, much faster the trailer was being reeled. As magnificent as it was monstrous, the monolithic machine wasn’t fast.

They were still in town too, whoever’s driving had to be careful not to demolish any buildings and could only take the biggest, widest roads there were. At this point, it was likely the War Mutts probably already had their route mapped out.

Something was happening to them however.

Several of the vehicles were breaking off and squinting his eyes, Brambles could kind of see why. One driver accidentally tore off his steering wheel and sent himself tumbling to the side. Another hit the throttle and just as he got close, his airbag triggered and he was forced to veer off. Even the armoured ones weren’t safe as the one chasing them couldn’t stop their turret from turning in one direction.

It was chaos.

It was exactly what they needed.

And Brambles grinned. “Way to go Rini!”

On the opposite side of the bay, he could see a large lever with big, bold text below it. Some of the ponies, mostly Pegasi, were trying to reach it. Their attempts were sent back, however, by gunfire, despite the numerous neon bolts flung their way by the unicorns.

Maybe the lever was important somehow? Why didn’t they just grab it with their magic? Too far maybe? Either way he could tell there was a problem by seeing it.

How was he going to get across? There was gunfire everywhere, anycreature not hiding behind something was getting peppered. Brambles needed something…like…

The Terrier turned to his side and looked at the rust covered metal panel that separated him from Rusty’s guts. With a smile and an absurd amount of strength, the mutt grabbed and tore off the panel. Rivets and screws protested in vain as it slowly peeled off the wall. A pipe bursted and putrid fumes of black smoke bellowed from it.

Before finally popping off.

“A shield!”

With little time to lose he turned to and dashed across the open bay. He held it up with a paw and mushed with the others as bullets bounced or dug fruitlessly into the dense slab. It was heavy as an anvil and the most he could do was drag it across the floor, but it protected him.

He managed to get halfway across before he spotted Mr. Tibbles laying on the ground. The limp body of a dead Diamidian having stopped him from rolling off. “Oh hey!”

Brambles picked up the garden gnome and turned towards the switch. With how shaky everything was, the sounds of chaos all around and the distance he’d have to cover, a throw was questionable at best.

Suddenly, a sharp whistle from behind caught his attention and he turned to see a trio of pegasi, all collecting and warping a huge cloud of thick, black smoke.

“Hey Diamond Dog! Hit the switch with this!” The three released a mighty buck at once and the cloud was sent barreling towards him.

He held a deep breath as it enveloped him and Brambles ditched the shield, now intent on making the most of the visual cover. Bullets whizzed by as he bounced to and fro, before he suddenly slammed into the bay wall.

Brambles gagged as he gave up that breath, and hit the switch with the bulk of Mr. Tibbles. The smoke cloud slipped off the side wall and off the ramp, managing to catch onto the gun turret which fired wildly.

Sirens and horns blared as the ramp began to lift, the food trailer only halfway on now rising with the brass.

The internal lights kicked in as the headlights from the various war dogs were cut off, no longer able to shine inside. For a moment Brambles was worried the truck might’ve gotten caught or that it would be snapped in half but Rusty’s jaws, instead there came a point where the reel, assisted by gravity, saw it slide in.

Brambles braced against the wall to avoid being hit by the oncoming vehicle and breathed a clean, fresh sigh of relief as the gunfire ended.

“Phew, well that was fun!”

“Could we get a lil’ help over here!?” Spoke the Pegasi, all now trying to stem the blackened, bleeding gas.