Ruby and I held each other, reunited once again. I listened to her work the relief and exhaustion out of her body through her sobs. I had so many questions for her: I still didn’t know how it was possible she was here.

Here didn’t matter right now though. We weren’t in some workshop with two guys knocked out nearby. Nathan wasn’t standing there awkwardly with a rifle still hanging in his good hand. My location was “with my daughter” and I was exactly where I wanted to be.

“You’re so amazing, Pinchy,” I consoled her. I rubbed the sob-induced tension in her back. Just sweet, little compliments. She was amazing; I didn’t know how she did half the things she did. That was true when we had hands and it was still true now.

“I’m so proud of you. Do you know that?” I whispered to her again. She choked a bit and hiccuped, caught off guard by the compliment.

"Uh huh. I know," she acknowledged weakly into my chest. She was dirty and exhausted. Whatever she did to get here, she had pushed herself incredibly hard. And I knew whispering things would calm her as she had to hold her breath to listen.

“B-Berry?” Nathan interrupted and sounded like he felt bad that he interrupted. I looked up from my precious gem and at my other savior. I definitely had a smile for him.

“Come hug me, you beautiful dork!” I ordered.

Nathan’s posture went stiff and he looked confused for a second before he relented. He got to his knees, sat the rifle down and put his arms around me. I gave him a bit of the nuzzling I had been showering Ruby with.

“Berry?” Nathan asked again, still hugging me.

“Yeah?” I responded while I rubbed my face against his. He definitely smelled a little better than last I remembered.

“Where’s, uh, Cloud Kicker?” he asked. I stopped nuzzling him and felt my face involuntarily scrunch.

“She... got taken? Right before you came. How did you know about her?” I asked. My little filly, who had grown quieter pulled herself from me.

“Oh no! Cloud Kicker!” she exclaimed in realization. She looked up at me. “Where’s the notebook?!”

Confused but knowing the answer to her question I looked over at the workbench where it was. I stood up to get it but before I could, it glowed green and was pulled past me to Ruby.

“We-we have to save her!” she demanded. She sniffled to try and clear her nose and regain some of her composure. "Nathan, let's get to the car!”

Nathan agreed and, making me feel slightly jealous, picked her up. I quickly followed after them, slightly wary of her being dropped while he ran. I didn’t know what was going on exactly but I was all on board for saving another pony. We raced towards Nathan’s wonderfully shitty car up the driveway.

I got to the car slightly ahead of Nathan and he held the driver’s side door open for me. I jumped in and climbed over the center cup holders to get to the passenger seat. Nathan got in and Ruby climbed over to me.

In the leg room on the passenger side I saw Ruby’s bag and the backpack I had left at Nathan’s resting side by side. My birthday gift to Ruby, the Fluttershy plushie, was even still poking her smiling head out of her bag.

“What were they driving?” Nathan asked as he got in and started the car. Without waiting for an answer he threw the car into reverse and whipped us around. My little pony held me tightly as we were thrown in the seat.

“A red Ford SUV! It had an Iowa license plate,” I answered as I gripped my foal.

“...I remember that! We passed that!” Ruby exclaimed. “They’re probably heading towards the highway!”

Nathan sped down the short gravel driveway and without any pause turned onto the country road and took off. I watched the fences and trees fly past our windows.

With a clear view and no cars coming, Nathan made a hard turn at a four-way without stopping. I looked over at Nathan and glanced at the speedometer. His speed was climbing well past what would be the speed limit on a road like this and continued accelerating.

I looked down at my precious filly in my hooves. She seemed fine with this reckless driving other than a little shaken. Not even nauseated. I understood freeing Cloud Kicker was a priority, but I felt like I was missing a lot of information.

“Pinchy? What’s going on?” I asked her point-blank.

“We need to rescue Cloud Kicker!” she explained. I nodded, understanding that much.

“Right. But how do you know Cloud Kicker?” I asked, trying to wrestle out some of the information I was missing.

“She helped us find you! She was in contact with Princess Luna. Sh-she found her and used her position to figure out where you were going.”

“Oh. ...alright,” I acknowledged, but not quite getting the big picture. “Maybe you need to start from the begin-”

Nathan braked and made another fast turn. Ruby and I were thrown to the passenger’s side door and threatened to spill down onto the bags. As I got my haunches back onto the car seat, I saw the seatbelt glow green, curl around us and pull the two of us back against the seat. It clicked into its fastener.

“Nathan, seatbelt!” Ruby called over to him. My human friend obeyed and put his on.

“So, do we know where they’re going?” I probed for information again. Ruby looked surprised and her horn lit up, like a little green idea bulb over her head. She looked down at the floormat where the composition book had landed.

Instead of answering me she pulled the book into her hooves with her magic and flipped it open. First thing I noticed was a large bundle of pages had been torn out. The second thing was there was something written in very neat handwriting on the inside of the cover. Ruby’s eyes stopped on that for only a second before turning her attention to the first page. She skimmed that then flipped it over. She glanced over that one then started flipping several pages at a time until she found the last page with entries. I got a better look at the last page and saw several different handwritings, that didn’t look anything like the first two at the front of the book.. She placed a hoof on one of the entries.

“Muscatine!” she declared to our driver. “Go towards Muscatine!”

“Which way is that?” Nathan asked as he blew past another stop sign. Wherever Muscatine was, it seemed we would make great time.

“I don’t know. I’ll look it up! Just keep following the signs for the highway for now. ...and go faster!” Ruby ordered. Nathan obeyed and the speedometer climbed again. The open pastures we had been blurring past were giving way to sparse businesses and we weren’t so alone on the road anymore. Nathan drove around a car in our way to pass it. We were going so fast it practically looked like it was parked. I saw in the brief flash it was in front of us it had an Iowa license plate too.

“Wait, are we in Iowa?” I asked, confused. I looked down at the pink unicorn nestled against me. She looked up at me and nodded, a plastic stylus hanging from her lips and Nathan’s cell phone in her hooves. “Where’s our friends? Are they safe?”

Ruby shook her head. The plastic stylus bobbed in her mouth as she answered. “I don’t know! I went to find them and Princess Luna found me!”

“You met her? Like in person?” I asked, hopeful.

“No,” Ruby mouthed dismissively around her stylus. Her eyes were back on the screen. “In a dream.” She was trying to enter that town into the GPS and talk at the same time. I assumed the stylus just didn’t work held by magic.

“She was in mine too!” Nathan chimed in for her. “Princess Luna came and told me that-” Nathan stopped himself by quickly skidding the car to a halt. This time our seatbelts kept us strapped in. Nathan had stopped at a stoplight. The only reason he obeyed though was the cross traffic. As soon as the coast was clear he booked it through the red light. Nathan seemed reckless, driving like he was with that cast on his arm. I knew he had his heart in the right place though. He was determined to save one more pony, just like how he already saved Ruby and me.

“...Nathan?” I started.

“Yeah?” he answered while he kept his eyes on the road.

“I’m... sorry about what happened. With your arm. With… with the sex. The first time. I used you. I’ve been using you since we’ve known each other. And… I know you weren’t in a right state of mind that second night.”

“....me too,” he agreed. “I’m sorry, I mean. I was stupid. I almost... I’m really sorry.”

“It’s okay!” I reassured him then bit my lip. “Well, that wasn’t ‘okay’... but I forgive you! We’re both sorry, I’m sorry we hurt each other,” I apologized. “Still friends?”

“Friends!” Nathan eagerly agreed. He reached out to me with his bad arm while his eyes were still on the road. He missed trying to find my mane so I leaned into his hand to help. He awkwardly ruffled my mane and scratched under my chin before returning it back to the wheel.

We enjoyed our resolution in silence. I got my wish and I got to forgive and be forgiven by Nathan. The next person on my list, our mom, was much further away. I’d have to deal with her later. There were much more pressing matters.

“Muscatine is east-northeast. We need to go north on the highway,” my little filly broke the silence.

“Okay,” Nathan acknowledged. He had cleared the center of a small town and then crested a hill. Around a bend the view opened up again. The densest part of town was laid out before us, a street of fast food restaurants. I could spy the highway from here.

Nathan pointed out the windshield. “Is that them??”

As we came down the hill I had to strain to see over the dashboard and scan where I thought he was pointing. Down the road and over the highway there was a red SUV in line to turn onto the highway.

“That’s it!” I exclaimed. It was the right car model in the right place. Nathan’s insane driving seemed to actually get us here in time. Nathan overtook another car that was driving too slow for us and we got several honks from angry drivers for throwing the traffic into disarray. We made it to the overpass, the red SUV already gone, but we knew it was heading north. Nathan made a left through another red light and turned onto the on-ramp. WIth a clear path, Nathan picked up speed again. By the time we touched down on the highway we were already breaking the speed limit.

“Okay, so… what’s the plan?” I asked. That Ford SUV had less than a mile on us and we were closing the distance fast.

“What do you mean?” Nathan asked, probably too focused on just catching it. I looked down at my precious ruby.

“Can you stop the SUV?” I asked. She looked unsure but unbuckled our seatbelt to give it a try anyway. She had to stand on her hind legs and lean against the glovebox to see out the windshield. She stared at the vehicle as we approached.

“A little closer?” she requested from our driver who was doing that anyway. When we were close enough I could read the license plate and confirm it was our target, I saw the same green to Ruby’s eyes dance across her horn. After a moment it stopped and she shook her head.

“I can reach it... but I can’t stop the wheels: they’re spinning too fast,” she explained.

“Can you, like, slam their brake?” I suggested.

“I kind of tried to do that too but blind telekinesis with unfamiliar objects is really hard,” she elaborated what was probably obvious to other unicorns.

I wasn’t sure what we could do then. We couldn’t exactly wave them down to pull over. With their unusual cargo, any odd behavior would be taken with suspicion.

We continued to get closer to the SUV and I realized we were being suspicious. I pulled Ruby back into the seat with me and hunched down with her. “Nathan, slow down! Give them some distance.”

“What’s wrong?” our driver asked but obeyed anyway.

“We can’t let them know we’re following them! They could try to lose us or call ahead or something.”

“So... just follow at a distance?” Nathan guessed.

“No!” my filly spoke up. “We can’t let her get to Muscatine! The people that Cloud Kicker is being sold to are way worse than a bunch of rednecks with dog cages! Princess Luna said they were like an armed militia experimenting on ponies.”

I peeked back up at the SUV. I don’t think the driver knew we were following yet, but it would only be a matter of time. If he had any suspicions, he might do something to test us, like get off and get back on the highway. He could lose us. And even if he didn’t suspect a thing, we couldn’t let him get all the way to his destination. He wasn’t going to want to stop but we had to stop him anyway and on the highway.

A chill ran up my spine as I thought of one truck’s wreck scene and got flashbacks of my own. It seemed life was just the stuff that happened until the next wreck. I thought of Cloud Kicker and the brave face she put on as she was sent off to whatever fate she thought awaited.

For her sake, it was about time again to cause some property damage.

“Mom?” Ruby asked, sounding concerned. I probably had a crazy look on my face.

“He’s not going to want to stop. So we get him to wipe out,” I suggested.

“...how?” she asked, hesitant to hear the answer.

“If you got a look at his steering wheel, you think you could turn it? It won’t take much. He should panic, overcorrect and physics will take care of the rest!” I explained. Of course, I didn’t know physics. I knew plenty about a heavy car going ‘woah’ though.

“Oh. I could...” my filly hesitantly agreed. “...is that safe?”

“Nope!” I chirped. “But Cloud Kicker’s basically in a roll cage and if the driver’s not an idiot he’s wearing a seatbelt.”

I turned to Nathan and asked him, “Think you can get us right up next to it?”

"We’re going to make them crash?” Nathan clarified warily.

I felt something green and tingling pull me against the back of the seat. A seatbelt went over just me. I looked over at my foal and she nodded, determined but wary. I turned back to Nathan who was sweating now.

“Nathan?” I asked.

“...Okay! Okay, for Cloud Kicker!” he psyched himself up.

Nathan checked his blind spot, then pulled into the passing lane and accelerated as if he was going to pass. Ruby stood up onto her hind legs and I understood now why she wasn’t buckled up with me. I held onto her like the most precious thing in the world as she leaned against the passenger side door to get the best possible view at her height.

As we pulled out of Buck’s blind spot, he did a double take at us. The SUV roared and he started to accelerate away.

“Buck!” I cursed his name. He saw us and panicked. Ruby’s horn held her green glow though.

"I got it!” Ruby declared. Apparently he wasn’t fast enough. I congratulated my filly with nuzzles.

“Okay! Make’em swerve!” I instructed.

In retrospect I don’t think Ruby had ever turned a steering wheel before.

The SUV was immediately thrown hard right but all four thousand pounds of it kept right on trying to go forward. Its tires screeched and smoked as they tried to correct the sudden swerve. I saw its trajectory change from going off the road to suddenly back the other way where we were.

Oh shit.

“Speed up!” I yelled. The SUV, having burned off some of its forward momentum was suddenly right on us. Nathan had diligently floored it at my command but our combined reaction time was too slow. We were pulling ahead of it, but it didn’t seem fast enough.

I felt Ruby stiffen up and saw her eyes grow wide in panic at the sight, right before a green explosion went off in my face.

I was blinded but felt the SUV clip our back end up hard, the impact clearly shattering a tail light. Our car was thrown into a spin as well. Nathan tried to correct our spin but he had panicked and overcorrected too when he felt it start. It seemed like the SUV was trying to take us out with it.

I held my filly tightly against me and reached out for Nathan before bracing. I didn’t know where we were in relation to the other vehicle going out of control or any other cars on the road. Nathan tried to correct again.

I felt the stuttering of the highway’s shoulder beneath our tires and for a terrifying moment we were an uncontrollable object hurtling towards whatever lay beyond the road with another, much heavier object on its own path and I feared those would cross again.

I heard the underside of our car clip over tall grass as we went off the road. On the softer dirt our spin continued carrying us forward and around. After what felt like several seconds of uncontrolled momentum straining us against our seatbelts our vehicle finally finished transferring all its momentum into the dirt around us. Just as we finished our own wipeout I heard and felt what sounded like metallic thunder come down on a tree a distance away.

Buck missed us.

The silence after a crash tends to be deafening. This silence was twice as loud. I opened my eyes, realizing I had closed them. I could see again after that flash. Was that Ruby? What did she try to do?

Our interior was undamaged which meant we must be too. I looked over my beautiful pink filly to confirm it. She was unharmed but understandably shaken. I thought she even gagged momentarily like she was going to vomit. From personal experience I knew it took a lot of nausea to cause that. I rubbed her back.

“No more cars,” I promised her, trying to break some of the tension in the air. “Ponies and cars do not mix.” She nodded weakly.

“We-we almost died!” Nathan exclaimed through shaky breath. I looked over at him as he began to cry.

“Nathan? Nathan, breathe. It’s okay. We’re alive. It’s okay,” I insisted and patted him with my hoof.

I craned my neck to look out through the windshield. We had stopped turned around and facing back the way traffic was coming. Not far from us I saw the red SUV had struck a tree off-center. The front had crumpled as expected and the airbag looked like it had deployed. Buck was probably fine, just dinged up. It was time to rescue Cloud Kicker.

With the edge of my hoof I released the seatbelt around me. That seemed to snap Ruby back into action. She looked at the door and in her green magic I saw her grip the handle and pull. It released the power locks and the door opened.

Ruby made the few feet down to the grass but her legs crumpled when she landed. I got out and tried to help her up.

“C-Carry me?” she asked weakly after she stumbled when trying to stand. I imagined either the exhaustion was catching back up with her or she was still really dizzy from the wreck.

Wordlessly I pulled her onto my back. I followed the path our car made through the weeds back to the highway and walked down the shoulder towards the truck. It had missed our car by less than a hundred feet. It was close, but the walk felt long anyway. Walking along a highway had a strange warping effect where objects you were used to flying by fast and at a distance were larger and farther apart. This was extra noticeable when you were a three foot something cartoon horse.

A car had already stopped along the side of the highway near the truck’s wreck, presumably to help. The good Samaritan that had approached the SUV froze up when he saw us. I saw a phone drop from his hand as he backed up and went rigid up against the driver’s side door. I imagined the people driving by were rubbernecking as they slowed to see what had happened and were gawking at us too. I didn’t worry about that right now though. I walked past the man frozen in confusion and headed for the rear of the vehicle.

I looked over the back hatch and before I could figure out how to open it, Ruby tested it with her magic and to my surprise it popped up for us. Maybe power locks unlocking after a crash.

Cloud Kicker’s eyes shimmered when she saw us, the sleeping bag thrown off her cage in the crash.

The first order of business, the sleeve pinning Cloud’s wings to her middle, was pulled off her over her head in a haze of green magic. Cloud stretched her freed wings as wide as the cage would allow and moaned in relief into her ball gag, almost to an inappropriate degree. Next the gag came off. It occurred to me then we still had a cage to deal with.

“You came for me!” Cloud Kicker shouted in amazed relief. I heard a low, disoriented moan react from the front of the SUV. If Buck got banged up he was at least alive.

“Mom, duck down. Cloud Kicker? Close your eyes,” Ruby instructed. We both obeyed the sudden directions as Ruby’s horn began to glow.

A violent, thin beam shot from the tip of her horn and was directed towards the lock. Ruby didn’t technically tell me to look away but I did because it felt like the light was scratching my eyes. For a few seconds I heard metal sizzle and bubble. And then the whole process stopped.

“Ha… h’okay!” Ruby called out, slightly out of breath. Ruby telekinetically tore the lock from the cage, the loop that had been holding it in place burned straight through. Almost like a welder. Or maybe a laser? Before I could ask Ruby how she did that Cloud Kicker burst from the cage and came straight for us.

“Thank you! Thank you!” She cheered as she crushed me in a hug and her wings flapped violently in joy. Unexpectedly, my hooves suddenly left the ground and Cloud spun us in a circle in the air, almost reminiscent of dancing, before she put me back down. I stumbled slightly, a little unsure my hooves were going to get to stay on the ground.

“My hero!” Cloud Kicker declared me as she proceeded to do something even more unexpected: she pressed her lips right onto mine and kissed me. There was definitely tongue. My face flushed like I just did a shot of whiskey. I stumbled backwards in shock and landed onto my haunches. I felt Ruby roll off my back onto the grass.

“We’ll totally bang later, okay? First though: the notebook! Did you grab it??” she asked us.

“We... we did!” the filly on the ground next to me said. She was laying there and rubbing her horn like it was tender.

“Blossomforth! Where did they take Blossomforth??” Cloud Kicker asked her as she got my filly up to her hooves. Suddenly all the charades made more sense. Blossomforth! That was the pegasus we tried to pick up in Kansas City.

“Blossom- Oh! Lincoln, Nebraska! Wildcat and… 27th! That was right near the end!” my filly recited. It was no surprise to me she would remember.

“Then I still got time! Thanks, Pinch!” she said before she ruffled Ruby’s mane.

She turned and immediately rocketed straight into the air, her wings beating fast, but not as fast as I would have expected in order to accelerate like she did. Pegasi could fly and it was mesmerizing. I watched her head for the horizon. She continued to ascend with surprising ease and speed. I would have kept watching that very forward pegasus completely disappear out of sight, in awe at the power and grace she flew with, but I heard sirens.

Police were coming.

“What the hell was that? Was that a giant bird?” I heard the good Samaritan talking to the disoriented driver again. I peeked around the side of the SUV and spotted them. He saw me again and jumped. “Jesus Christ! What are they? Did you kidnap one?”

Yeah, it was definitely time to go.

Wordlessly I helped Ruby back onto me and headed for the road. I saw in the good Samaritan’s car there was a woman and some teenager with a phone recording us. I let them be and started trotting for Nathan’s car. I could see Nathan still sitting in it. Hopefully he was feeling better now.

Before I could get there though, the police cars were on us. One drove right past me and slowed down to the side of the road near Nathan’s car. I heard the other come to a stop a ways behind me, presumably to check on Buck. I didn’t turn around to check. The cops in the vehicle in front of us seemed slow to get out. Probably radioing in what they were seeing and trying to describe me and my filly.

I made a beeline for Nathan’s car, cutting through the tall grass and weeds to avoid going near that police cruiser. I didn’t know what to do so I went to the passenger door and Ruby got it open for me.

“Nathan?” I asked him from outside. Nathan seemed to just be staring off into space. “Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah... yeah…” he said dismissively. I climbed inside and looked out the window. An officer had gotten out now and was slowly approaching us, his hand clearly near his side arm.

“Nathan? We got to go.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he agreed distantly, but didn’t budge.

“No, we all need to go,” I rephrased and put a hoof on his shoulder. I wondered if we could make a run for it before realizing they probably already had Nathan’s license plate. The police officer knocked on the driver side window. He looked right at me then at Nathan.

“Sir, are you... alright?” he asked Nathan through the window. “Are those your animals? Please roll down your window.” He seemed wary of me. Rightfully so: I was a purple-pink pony.

“Nathan?” I asked my friend again. Nathan looked towards me, but didn’t seem to have any urgency to him. He didn’t seem frightened as much as frozen and unable to cope with what was happening. “Nathan? The other driver is fine. Did you see Cloud Kicker? She flew!” I told him, trying to console the worries that might be on his mind. Was this just shock? There was nothing to worry about here though. Technically, the SUV lost control and hit us. We just… reached inside and spun them out of control. Nothing Nathan did though.

The police officer knocked again, a look of concern and confusion etched his face as he saw me speak. I saw a fully lit-up fire truck and ambulance join the police cars on the side of the road. As soon as the ambulance came to a halt I saw humans climb out and approach the SUV. Well, at least Buck was getting help.

“Mom? I think we should go. I don’t want to have a standoff with the police,” my filly whispered to me. In a green glow I saw one bag get tugged out the passenger side and then the other.

Ruby was right: we needed to run. I didn’t want to be captured again. I didn’t want them to get my daughter. I didn’t want to be treated like an animal again. Or whatever was meant to happen to Cloud Kicker or could still happen to Blossomforth.

I spotted movement out of the corner of my eye and looked back up at the police cruiser. The other officer had gotten out now and was slowly approaching our car, making a wide berth as if to go around to our side.

“Mom?” my pink filly asked me again as she floated the composition book out. I heard her fiddling with my bag.

I turned back to Nathan. It wasn’t safe for him to run. This was his car at the scene of an accident. He would be fine though. He didn’t do this.

I brought my forelegs around Nathan’s shoulders and hugged him. I didn’t know what to say so I rambled. “You’ll be okay. Things… will be okay. Thank you. For everything. For saving me. And Ruby. You’re amazing. Just… we’ll see each other again, okay?”

“Y-yeah. Y-you too...” Nathan said as he idly pet my back. I hugged him tighter and I got him to hug me back. The driver’s side door came open slowly. I looked up at the person who opened the door. The police officer had his gun drawn but it wasn’t pointed at me just yet. He was looking right at me though, waiting for me to make a move.

“...hi,” I greeted the officer. I saw his brain reboot at my word but eventually it did.

“Is-,” he started a question but changed his mind. The gun pointed at me. “Get off each other! Hands where I can see them!”

I lifted off Nathan, slowly, and backed up into the passenger side seat. “I don’t have hands,” I explained as I put up my forelegs. The officer stared at them then back at my face.

"What are you??" he demanded to know. His face was unreadable.

“I’m a pony,” I gave the absurdly short answer because I wasn’t sure where to start elaborating on it.

“...are you an alien?” he responded. For a brief moment I thought maybe he meant like an immigrant then realized that didn’t make any sense.

“No- well… technically yes. I was born here though! Well, the second time,” I started explaining then stopped, realizing I wasn’t making any sense at all.

"What the fuck?!" I heard from behind me. The other police officer!

“Mom?? We need to go!” Ruby shouted. And that was my cue. I turned and jumped down after her.

“Wait! Halt!” The officer demanded but didn’t fire. Maybe he thought shooting an ‘alien’ would lead to an intergalactic war or something.

The other police officer had apparently drawn his gun but was frozen, pointing it at my daughter sitting next to our bags. Her horn was a swirling vortex of green and she looked like she was on the verge of collapsing.

“Put down the weapon or I shoot!” The man commanded my foal. He had no excuse to point his gun at my daughter but I had to admit her horn did look dangerous like that.

“Are you controlling him?” I asked her.

“We need to go,” she insisted, sounding strained.

“Yeah,” I agreed and scooped my daughter onto my back just in time for the other police officer to come around to assist his friend. Ruby slung the bag straps around my neck and I took off straight for the fence and the treeline beyond it. Ruby held the other straps to the bags. It kept them out of the way for me and gave her something to hold on to.

“Stop! Stop!” I heard from behind me. I ignored it and anything else I heard behind me. I just focused on running. I got to the trees and kept right on going.

Blossomforth and Cloud Kicker are heavily inspired from Thunderheads! Besides some minor details with secondary characters that fic is exactly how their journey began. If you're curious how they started, please go read it!