Frostpony: Of Hounds & Horses

The next day started out no differently.

Rini brushed her teeth, had her breakfast, did some morning exercises and off to work she was.

It was a funny feeling, living long enough to see a town develop around you. At first it was a collection of cottages out in the country, then a cosy little village, and now a noisy industrial town. With auto-wagons and big blocky buildings.

And then if that wasn’t enough, some frosty ice god had blown just a little too hard in the town’s direction.

Yet somehow, someway, it’d managed to get even more obscene. As whilst walking down the sidewalk, lost in her thoughts, Rini was suddenly woken by the sounds of rushing trucks.

Transport Trucks.

She had mere seconds to brace herself before a flood of snow was kicked up, coating her in white sludge as they sped past throwing the wind in her face also. Her clothes were dampened, her fur was wetted, and bits of grime cling to her coat.

With an eye twitch, she brought her arms up and tried flicking some of the dirt off, growling all the while, though she had to pause to spit out some snow that had gotten in her mouth. Once she was cleared her eyes drifted to the trucks, confused by their presence.

Cherrywood wasn’t a town with major auto-wagon traffic, having been built with roads not accommodating for such. So seeing not just one, but several trucks rushing through the street caught her attention. What would’ve been an intriguing sight however had instead tempted her temper and she traced the wheel marks in the snow.

They’d headed towards the town centre, which wasn’t far, as Cherrywood wasn’t a big town. What was a ten minute detour anyway? If the foredog at the scrapyard complained she could just throw a few bits his way.

“Yeah, let’s go find that jackass.”

Without delay Rini followed the trail of exhaust fumes and found the town center. Now she was expecting to maybe see a few giveaways or the mayor trying some new surprise fair to line his pockets, but when she turned the corner all that anger vanished.

There weren’t just a few trucks, but several, as in double digits worth. All were surrounding the Storm Shelter and Steamhub full of numerous crates and boxes. With what Rini could only assume were soldiers going around giving them away. They wore earthly brown overcoats with caps and scarfs.

Surprisingly, only a few of them carried actual weapons and the ones that did hung back near the trucks. She could tell a rifle or a shotgun when she saw one, but then there were also shorter weapons, with boxes sticking out their sides or tops with very pipe-like bodies. As if some-creature had cobbled them together using what was left of their kitchen sink.

Knowing Dimaidian engineering, that may have actually been the case.

Regardless, Rini stood awestruck, how’d they managed to get to town so quickly? Did they arrive the night prior or had they just gotten here? Were they here purely to help the town or was this just some nice opening act? She would’ve been happy had last night’s broadcast not coloured her vision, now she wasn’t sure.

Whatever the case, the common dog wasn’t complaining. With most stores running too low on stock to sell anything, a lot of houses needed their pantries refilled. Even the ponies were getting their fill, which threw Rini through a loop.

Weren’t they going to try doing something to them?

Was she wrong maybe?

Did they get the wrong idea?

Perhaps Queen Eudora was just saying things for dramatic effect?

Maybe she’d gotten all worked up over nothing?

Time would only tell if they’d remain consistent with this behaviour and Rini wouldn’t be so quick to persuade. She turned and left for the scrapyard before she was officially late for work, trying to rub off more bits of grit from earlier.

When she got there she found the soldiers had already beat her to it.

Numerous different vehicles had been added to the junk heaps, with many of them scorched so badly Rini could swear they’d been dragged through a tire fire. Vans, jeeps, personal vehicles, even some military vehicles from the Equestrian army were thrown in. Likely stolen, bought or…looted.

She shuddered to think about it and looked around. Quickly clocking in and exploring the yard for any nice pickings.

Truth be told there were many options, almost too many in fact. Usually the yard only received a few freshly decommissioned vehicles every now, usually with vehicle frames making up the bulk of new arrivals.

Here though the military dumped not just what they’d found, but many of their own vehicles that were about to give up the ghost. It was tough to decide but, in time, she gravitated towards a delivery truck. The truck was already missing a couple wheels and some exterior components, but otherwise intact!

“First things first, the cargo compartment.”

Rini presented a crowbar and went towards the back, where a fold up door stood in her way. She tried the easy option first and pulled it up, but found it was locked.

Instead of frowning, she smiled.

“Locked, means good chance there’s something inside.”

The sharpened end of the crowbar went right under the door as Rini forced herself upon it. Hitting it again and again until she was confident enough had sunk inside, before leveraging her strength prying it open.

It took a few attempts but she managed, and with a sharp crack the door flew open and upwards folding against the ceiling.

After catching her breath Rini threw her hair back and climbed inside, greeted by clean, sterile white tiles that made up the back of some kind of emergency room. A medical bed with straps on the right and several cabinets with a sink on the left.

“Okay, not exactly what I was expecting.”

It smelled the part also, ageing chemicals akin to old wax met her senses and the vehicle creaked as she climbed in. It wasn’t a delivery truck, it was an ambulance , one that just looked like such and had a folding door…

“Funny, didn’t see any medical marks on the outside. Maybe they got removed when it was decommissioned? Or did the thing start out as a truck and get turned into an ambulance?”

Rini shrugged and moved forward, thinking about the where wasn’t her job, but it was fun to fantasise sometimes. Heck, some of her best moments came from joking about how such pieces of equipment wound up in the yard to begin with, or what wacky things they were involved in beforehand.

Heck she would even reenact some of the wackier scenarios in her head for the heck of it. Sure it wasted time, but she was alone anyway, might as well have a laugh.

Pushing that aside, she moved to dig through the cabinets, looking for loose objects. Most had been emptied, which was expected, but there was one that still had a couple of glass pill bottles. They weren’t massive, about the size of a hip flask, but they were unopened and Rini examined them.

“Painkillers and Laxatives, don’t know any-creature who’d need toilet meds but I’m sure mom will find a buyer.”

Pocketing both she continued her work, finding little else besides dust bunnies and dry air. So she broke out her tools and got to work…

Rini panted between water gulps. Her muscles burned and her coat was sticky from the cold. She’d been at it for the past few hours and her efforts were on display.

The truck turned ambulance had its back compartment all but cleared out, and several boxes lay half filled with various mechanical components. Cinder blocks propped up the wheel axles, the doors and chairs had been detached, and whatever fuel it still had was taken away.

She’d by all accounts picked the vehicle clean of just about anything of value it still had.

It was a great feeling, satisfying even, but it did nail in why taking regular breaks was so important.

Especially in minus twenty degree weather.

More than once she had to retreat to the garage and rest by the heater to warm herself back up. Now that she was approaching the mid-shift she decided another break was in order.

“Snapjaw had better not get on my case again, It's too damn cold out here!”

She was just about making her way towards the garage again when she felt something. A rumbling.

The ground began to shake ever so slightly, little enough one could dismiss it as vertigo. But Rini wasn’t so sure and pulled out her water bottle. It didn’t have much water left but it was enough, and she placed it upon a nearby car hood and sure enough, the water didn’t just wobble. The whole thing started sliding around as the rumbling grew in strength.

Then she heard it, the roaring of some distant engine crawling towards her. Picked up early by her canine hearing. She cringed as it grew louder and louder.

Rini walked back out and turned towards the front gate, trying to get a better view.

If her jaw dropped any further, it would’ve crashed right through the ground.

A huge, truly gargantuan vehicle on treads, made its way towards the scrapyard. The treads alone were big enough to totally dwarf even the largest of Diamidian breeds, or require a ladder’s full length to climb atop of.

The hull itself? Easily two to three stories large. More akin to a moving building in itself than a simple vehicle. Its cockpit protrudes from the angled front of the hull with a thin, glassy slit for the driver’s observation. Hatches, spare treads, crates, pipes of various sizes and other items ran the vehicle’s length.

Its terrible size didn’t just make her feel tiny, she was tiny compared to it. Her head didn’t even reach halfway up the tread skirt!

The thing was so big it even had a damn crane built atop it! Who does that?!

“Landship.” That was the only word she could use to describe it, a huge, gargantuan ship on land.

Rini retreated as it made headway into the scrapyard, followed closely by several army trucks, all towing other trucks. Most if not all the vehicles were in different states of disrepair, with many of them breaking down just trying to get through the gates, even crashing into and denting it once or twice.

Eventually the giant…thing slowed down and came to a stop, just about crushing an equine garden gnome.

Which prompted a high pitched howl that could’ve only belonged to Brambles…

“Mr. Tibbles no!”

Rini had to suppress a comedic grin as her friend rushed to collect the ornament’s remnants. She shouldn’t laugh, but oh how she struggled not to.

The reprieve would be short lived however, as now having parked, a huge ramp descended down upon the area behind it. Kicking up a plume of snow and ringing its metallic clang in her ear as it crashed against the ground.

Many other scrappers emerged from their work to take a look as more soldiers began pouring out the back. One of them in particular, dressed in a fancy uniform began calling out.

“Anydog that’s an engineer, or has technical skills please come forward! Our vehicles need repairs and we’ll pay handsomely for your work!”

Rini looked around and saw her coworkers begin to approach, drawn in either out of awe or the promise of payment. She couldn’t deny it was tempting, but just like earlier that day she didn’t want to get ahead of herself.

Or at least that’s what she would’ve liked.

Looking around, she could see soldiers going into the scrapyard rounding up any-dog that didn’t arrive on their own accord. Reason told her they were probably just trying to get them on the same page. After all, even she’d get too caught up in her work sometimes.

But that little nagging dog perched upon her shoulder prevented her from trusting them. She’d step forward like the rest, but took greater note of her surroundings. All the vent coverings, the hatches leading outside, ladders and stairways. Just in case she had to leave in a hurry.

“Good morning everydog, I’m Captain Caleb, and I’d be honoured to show you around!” He threw his arm up for dramatic effect, flashing the gold signet ring around one of his fingers as he proceeded with the tour.

“This piece of fine Diamidian engineering is a Mobile Vehicle Bay. Equipped with the facilities and tools needed to service a fleet of vehicles practically anywhere! But we call her the Rustbucket.” He went on, describing the various features it held.

There was a garage large enough to fit two trucks in the main bay. A second floor with catwalks above attached to a sealed recreation room, with its own pool table of all things. A sleeping area for a crew, a third floor with the driver’s compartment and of course the engine bay underneath deep below.

And what an engine it was…

Or rather, a set of engines.

The Rustbucket didn’t just have one, but several engines, all working in tandem to propel it. Each in different states of functionality, with some having completely broken down. The room was well ventilated at least, or so the officer said.

In truth, probably only half the fans were working and every-dog could tell as much from the stench of engine fumes, prompting many to cover their mouths or shield themselves with scarves.

Somehow, Rini felt her shift had only just begun…