The truck hit something, and the bump shook you awake.
How long were you out? The sun was high in the sky, it must have been all night and then some. You looked around, watching houses drift by. You were close now, close to the city perhaps? The truck had been driving a long time, longer than you remember it taking when you were with daddeh.
Where exactly were you going?
There were buildings on the horizon, large ones, ones you’d never seen. This was somewhere else, somewhere new. Part of it terrified you.
But as you thought of it, you thought better. There was nothing for you where you came from. Now you could have a fresh start. One that would begin when the ride ended.
The truck drove into the unfamiliar concrete jungle and stopped. It was a local place, a coffee shop perhaps. The man who had been driving the whole way finally emerged. You saw that he wore a plaid shirt and a trucker’s hat, clearly a country man come to sell in the city.
As he went to meet with the owner, you pulled yourself to the edge, looking around. There were possibilities here, ones you intended to take. As you thought about your new life, you realized it may be cut short by the man in the trucker hat angrily storming over.
“What in the great green hell!?”
You hopped out, speeding away as fast as you could.
“You damn blue vermin eatin’ my cargo!”
He huffed and puffed as you spotted an empty pipe in the wall. Your heart racing, you dove in, and disappeared.
“Dammit!” The man in the trucker hat said, peering into the darkness. “What in the hell was that!?”
“Don’t have a fluffy problem where you’re from?” The owner said.
“No, my state has laws against those!”
He shuffled over to his pickup truck, peering in the back.
“Look at how many oranges that thing ate!” The man in the hat yelled. “I drove a whole night just to get those damned things here and this blue cunt thinks he can just gobble em up!”
“That’s fluffies for you,” The owner responded. “They come, they eat, they shit, they leave. Me and my staff have to fight them off almost every day, trying to get at our trash.”
“Fight em off? Where I’m from if a vermin’s tryin ta get at our supply we track it down and put a bullet in it!” He turned towards the pipe. “And that one’s officially on my hit list!”
The pipe took you through several twists and turns, ultimately ending by ejection into the stinky underground.
An amazing start.
At the very least you hit the concrete walkway on the sides, and not the sludge itself. You righted yourself, looking left and right. Both equally dark and equally smelly. You did a mental coin toss, and went right.
From walking through the forest to walking through the sewer, not much of an improvement over your previous situation. You heard sounds, sounds you didn’t like. Strange black birds would fly over you, screeching and hanging upside down on the ceiling.
At one point you crossed paths with a curious rat.
You had seen mice on the television, mostly being chased by cats. Reaching your hoof out, you decided to see just how friendly it was. It bit you.
In a fit of panic and instinct, you flung it away, into the poopy water. You heard its cries as you walked away, trying to find some other way out.
When you finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel, you began sprinting, faster and faster. Until you almost hopped into the river. Wawa bad fo fwuffies, you thought, stepping back.
You hopped down to the riverbank, where the city bordered the water. Going upstream from where the sewage spilled out, you followed the stream, looking for nummies along the water’s edge.
You didn’t find nummies, but you did find a small alcove. It was growing dark, and you figured it a good enough place to settle in for the night. You went inside, curled up, and fell asleep.
When you woke again there was a mare snuggled against you.