Scene #4129: Twilight takes a Cab!

Owner	Pose
Udi	Seeing a flying El Dorado almost always seemed out of place for most Earth people. It was out of place for most people throughout the multiverse, although for very different reasons. And so this thing flew in on planet Arachne, or whatever planet it was, and landed just fine on the road. In spite of his great maneuvering of the vehicle on the way down, when he actually parked it near this grand old library, he had to bump into the cobwebs that went up and down the structure, getting his car stuck. He grumbled at this, but didn't do much about it. He hopped out, looked at one of his Dimensional Positioning System device, and concluded that this is the place, roughly. A library, indeed. He climbed the webs up to the third floor, but not without making sure the spiders that resided here didn't regard him as a food source first. His hands got sticky, and cobwebs got stuck on his clothing. However, he eventually got to the floor, and looked around for his customer, something with way fewer legs than this.
Twilight Sparkle	His customer isn't hard to find. A fairly small, pastel purple unicorn with a set of tan saddlebags and a starburst on both her flanks as well as the saddlebags. She is waiting near the door, her small horn glowning softly with purple light which seems to be holding up a book for her to read as she waits. She is expecting someone in a uniform from a transport service, so when Udi walks in she looks up then returns to her book. He doesn't really stand out as anything special at a glance, certainly not an interdimensional cabby.
Udi	She stood out from the eight legged spider people by quite a large margin, and not just due to the fact that she had fewer legsl. So he walked right up to her, and in spite of her not noticing right away, just stood there. He needed a break from things anyway. He would have hoped that he would look out of place in this context, but then again, one of the things that was so special about him is that nobody seemed to ever think he looked out of place, even though he plainly was most of the time "Yo," he said to her, audibly without being loud enough to cause him to get booted from the library. "You wanted a cab?"
Twilight Sparkle	Twilight Sparkle blinks in surprise as she is addressed. She lowers the book and looks up at Udi, then smiles. "Yes!" she says cheerfully, then hmms. "...are you the cab driver? You look a bit..um...disheveled?" she says, trying to be polite about her observation. She smiles again after that. "I heard about your interdimensional cab service, and though it would be a wonderous way to travel home after a study session. I hope it isn't any trouble that I am a pony. I can use most things designed for humans or other humanoid species." She holds a forehoof out as her book floats up and into her bags. Looks like she wants to shake hands? ...hooves? "I am Twilight Sparkle. It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr...?"
Udi	He had trouble getting his hand around her hoof. Even though it was so cutesie and childlike, hoofs and hands do not mix well when it comes time to shake. In spite of this, he shook her hoof and made eye contact, just like an honest person would. "Yeah, I'm a cabbie," he said, and then belched quite audibly. That might be loud enough to get someone in the library to notice, and someone did. He didn't seem to exactly care. She could smell booze on his breath. He didn't seem to really care about that, either. "Pleasure to meet you. I can fold the back seats up for you no problem. You need help getting down those webs?" He headed for the exit, deciding not to waste any time on any more niceties until he was in the vehicle and he could get the hell out of there. Spiders gave him the heebie jeebies.
Twilight Sparkle	The pony happily shakes Udi's hand, then winces and takes a step back as he belches like that. "...um...neither of those things should be necessary." she says, then her horn glows again. She disappears in a burst of purplish-white, and if Udi doesn't resist it, he does as well. Then, Twilight appears down on the ground right beside the cab, and possibly Udi alongside her. The pony smiles. "There we go." she says, then her horn glows again and her magic manipulates the door handle before she climbs in and takes a seat, resting in the chair as comfortably as any human despite her unusual body shape. "To the Books and Branches Library, please. Ponyville, Equestria." she says once Udi is in the cab and situated.
Udi	Getting situated was not that easy for Udi. His car was still stuck to these damn cobwebs. He went through the items in his passenger seat, looking for something. It was like he was looking for something, he didn't know what it was exactly, but it was as though he'd know it when he saw it. And he did know it when he saw it: one of those military-grade out-the-side switchblades. He felt the blade, and got to work on the webs. "Fucking hate these spider planets," he murmured to himself, just as the librarian who noticed him inside came out to accost him about disruptive behavior or whatever else. That's when the spider-librarian noticed he was cutting the webs, and gave him this shocked look, like he was destroying public property. "Get over it lady." The spider-librarian started raving, and flung one of her front legs up at him, shooting some spear-like hairs at him. Fortunately for him, he was just getting into the car. He ducked, and the hairs stuck to the side of his car. He turned the key, but it didn't work until the third try, and a few other screeching spider-people came to accost him or worse. Once that engine turned on, he promptly put that thing in reverse, and ran over one of the spider people, before taking off at an almost ninety degree angle.
Twilight Sparkle	"They can be quite unnerving." Twilight agrees before her ears perk as the spider librarian comes out to scold Udi. She starts to speak up on his behalf when she notices he is cutting the webs. And...doesn't care that it seems to upset the spider further. "You really shouldn't antag-" That is all Twilight gets out before the spider shoots needle-like hairs at the car! With a terrified shriek, Twilight ducks and hides behind whatever there is to hide behind. Front chairs, a divider, whatever. "Hurry hurry hurry!" she exclaims as the motor refuses to start. When it finally does, she quickly buckles herself in, then eeks as the car takes off straight upward. Her cheeks bulge in a cartoonish way as the sudden acceleration pushes her upward. Once they are safely away, Twilight looks out the back window, then at Udi. "So...um..." she tries awkwardly to start a conversation. "...how did you decide to be a cab driver?"
Udi	As they were ascending, it was quite terrifying, or exhilarating, or perhaps both, depending on one's perspective on the matter. The spider people got one more shot at him, which actually hit one of his tires from below, and popped it. He didn't seem concerned, but he was definitely more focused on his work than on anything else at that moment. Once he was out of the range of their hair-spears, he looked down. The spider he ran over was pretty plainly dead, even though a few of its legs were twitching. A pool of clear blood formed underneath it, and little baby spiders emerged from God-knows-where to pick it apart, presumably to use it as food. These creatures were cannibals. Just one more reason to hate spiders. "Well," he said, waiting to get out of earshot of their screeching before he answered her question about becoming a cab driver. "I like to go places, and this pays for that, sort of, I guess. What made you decide to go to Planet Tarantula to read some books?"
Twilight Sparkle	Twilight Sparkle gets very quiet when she realizes the spider person is dead. She might dislike spiders, but people are people, and she is a very moral-centric person. She truly doesn't know what to say until she is asked that question. "I...um..." she murmurs, watching the scene below until she has to turn away, looking a bit pale despite the coat of fur. She then looks hard at Udi. Disapproving. Perhaps even condemning. "They have a rich culture and history, and I was curious about a world similar to my own, where a species other than humans or humanoids had risen to be the dominant species. Do you realize you just killed someone? And do you further realize that that is a capital offense on many worlds? Granted, the spiders -were- trying to get you, and their reaction to a little architectural damage was a bit strong, but still! How can you have such a callous attitude toward it?"
Udi	Just as Twilight Sparkle was getting her fill of the spider corpse, and the subsequent cannibalism that was taking place, he put his foot on the gas pedal, and they sped off into the aether. Just as she was starting to get too upset to continue staring, it began fading out of view anyway, as they went between universes. The way they shifted in and out was like something out of an acid trip, or perhaps science fiction, especially considering the fact that the vehicle they were using to do this looked like it was a classic old car manufactured in Terran North America. Udi listened to her spiel. It definitely was not the first of its kind that he heard. He was used to his customers giving him this kind of shit all the time. He took out a flask and opened it while she went on, taking a good swig of it. Just as she was done asking about his callousness, his right hand reached behind the seat to offer her the flask. "Motherfuckers wanted to kill me and he was in the way," he said, pretty nonchalant about the whole affair. This definitely wasn't the first time he had a run-in like that. "Shit happens, people die. You want some?"
Twilight Sparkle	Twilight Sparkle blinks as the flask is offered to her. She sighs softly. "No thank you." she says, apparently agreeing that the creatures were trying to kill him. Possible self-defense almost justifies it. "If you had not been so rude about it, they might not have tried to kill you. It is not only your life that you are responsible for when you take on a passenger, you know?" she says, her tone lightening to a gentle reprimanding tone. "Also...would you mind not drinking alcohol while you drive me? It is rather unsafe." she adds after a moment. But, as they seem to be popping in and out of dimensions, she takes to looking out the window. The class of car makes little difference to her. They don't even -have- cars on her world. "You can move between universes without use of the warp gate system?" she asks, her scientific curiousity starting to get the better of her.
Udi	It wasn't difficult for someone to like cutesie stuff. Granted, even Udi found it to be kind of quaint in its own way. But she could tell, based on the facial expressions he made that she could see through the rear-view mirror of his car, that he found her criticism of him rather irritating. He didn't make much of an effort at all to hide his cringes. "Eh, whatever," he said as she rejected his offering of booze, and withdrew his hand to the front seat. When she asked if he'd cut it out, he didn't answer, at least not verbally. Instead, he took another swig, this time a bigger gulp than the first one. He careened off, going in a lateral direction as they shifted between universes. "Yeah I can move between dimensions, or universes, or whatever you want to call them. It's pretty cool, actually," he said, belching again. "So did you manage to grab whatever books you were hoping to keep on your way out or are you hoping to just keep it all in your head?"
Twilight Sparkle	Twilight rolls her eyes lightly and smirks a bit despite herself as Udi just takes a bigger swig. "Oh, no. I took notes for the most part. The books I have I will send back at a later date. As a librarian myself, I cannot be one who returns library books late!" she says, sounding as if being late is the worst thing ever. She looks out the window again, then smiles a bit. "It is rather cool. I didn't think travel like this was possible. How does your vehicle break the dimensional barriers so easily? Did you design it? It is quite impressive. The driver's manners could use a bit of work, but still, impressive." she says.
Udi	She wasn't the only one in that vehicle to roll her eyes. When she remarked on his manners, his eyes went up into his sockets as well, a pretty clear indication that he was far less interested in her moral judgments and tut-tutting. After all, he was the one moving her from Spidertown to Ponyville in one piece. Depending on someone, at least in his eyes, gives one way less license to pass moral judgment on them. "I'm not getting into the specifics of how it works," he said curtly. "It's complicated. So how do you plan on paying for this trip? I would've haggled this out with you on Black Widow Way but, you know, the situation kind of got dire."
Twilight Sparkle	Twilight Sparkle blinks at the question, then looks toward Udi. She missed his eye-rolling thanks to dimensional shenanigans. "Well, I can pay with bits, Equestria's currency, or Union credits. Or, if you prefer, I can purchase some fresh produce for you, or some other service, if you do not care for either form of currency." she answers. The curt reply to her question kind of discourages her from further inquiries, but doesn't stop her completely. "Where do you come from? One of the many Earths?" she asks as she turns to look out the window again. "Do you have many friends you miss when travelling the multiverse?"
Udi	He let her go on, since she seemed to like to do so. She was childlike and cute, so he didn't get too upset. In fact, the expression on his face lightened when she seemed to calm down with the moral cursading and etiquette critique. She could tell, based on how they were moving, that she was approaching Equestria. She was in a number of very similar universes, filled with cartoony dogs and cartoony cats. As time passed, the subject matter and the style of illustration got closer to her own as well. It was like they were on a dimensional gradient, approaching her home universe. "I prefer Union credits, gasoline, or other things of that nature," he said, after taking another swig. He thought about the 'other services' remark for a moment and got curt, again. "I don't take sexual favors from children or non-humanoids, of which you appear to be both."
Twilight Sparkle	Twilight's eyes widen at the worlds they pass. Felinia? Caninia? Equestria can't be far away. She actually giggles when they pass Llama-topia. Then, she blushes HEAVILY as Udi speaks about sexual favors! "Wh-what?! I..I meant fix something, or find you a good book, or even make a picnic basket for you!" she exclaims embarrassedly. She looks out of the window even more intently after that, her tail flicking about in an almost cat-like way. "Union credits it is, then!" she says after another moment, then laughs awkwardly as she very obviously tries to get past that moment. "But, I am not a child. I am fully grown by my world's standards. Roughly 18 by most human standards." She continues watching the passing dimensions after that, wondering if there is a sort of Equestria world for each animal. "This vehicle has immense possibilities for exploration and learning. Do you ever lease it out as an exploratory vessel?"
Udi	Udi grinned when she gave her response to the sexual favors remark. He didn't really believe that she wanted to give him a sexual favor for his services, but he did want to yank her chain a bit -- or her tail, really, since she actually had one of those. ""Could have fooled me on the child part," he commented, actually serious that time. "All of the cutesie kiddie stuff, the rainbows. It very much screams 'child' to me, but hey. I'll take your word for it." There was silence for a minute, as they entered Equestria. He had to stop flying the car, and let it float for a minute, until his phone could shift from the Dimensional Positioning System to the Global Positioning System. He had to spend a moment or two looking up ID numbers and waiting for the thing to load, but eventually he could type in Ponyville, and away they went. He 'landed' his vehicle, if you want to call it that, near the Town Square of Ponyville. That's when the consequences of his previous conflict came to the fore, as one could hear the wheel on his car take damage as he landed. "Well, here we are," he told her, and helped her get out of the vehicle. Before collecting his far, he opened the trunk, and started jacking the car up. This wasn't the first time he got a flat en route.
Twilight Sparkle	Twilight sighs softly and smiles a bit at the kiddie comments. "Well...I guess compared to most other races we are quite child-like. Our world has very little in the way of conflict. It is a very peaceful, idealic place. If you do not have another fare to pick up, you are welcome to look around." she says as they move in for a landing. Many pony-folk stop to stare at the strange vehicle from the sky, but they stare only a few moments before going about their business. When they are on the ground, Twilight hops out and heads around to join Udi. "Well, thank you for your services. I am not sure I will be a repeat customer, but you did get me safely from point A to point B." she says, smiling. When she notices the damaged tire and Udi preparing to fix it, her ears perk. "Here, let me help." she says. The pony moves around to the tire, and her horn glows brightly. The tire soon glows just as brightly, and any damage the tire or wheel had suffered is soon repaired. And, with a little bit of another spell, it is reinflated. "There we go!" she says happily, then her horn glows again and several gold coins float out of her saddlebags. "Will this be enough for the fare?" she asks, floating the coins over to Udi.
Udi	He finds her offer of looking around quaint. He looks around, and finds it peaceful. While he was used to everything else he saw here, one thing he is definitely not used to is a peaceful planet. He's used to war-ravaged, poverty-ridden ones. That's who needs a cab service most of all half the time. He's got a history of smuggling 'illegal' 'immigrants' from one unierse to another. After fixing his tire, his eyes widen. He's seen magic before, but something about it never seems to captivate him. The magical qualities of outright magic somehow manage to go to his mind. He's jaded, in a lot of ways, but he is not bored with magic, provided, of course, that he doesn't stay in particularly magical worlds for too long. "Wow," he said, as she fixed his tire for him. While it would be a reach to say it's the first time someone did him a favor, he isn't used to it. "Thanks a lot, uh..."?" He struggled to come up with a name for her because at no point did he ask for one. He looked at her, and then the tire, and then finally her offer of Union credits. He took some of them -- about half, to be specific. "I need this for gas but I don't need the rest," he told her. "Why are you being so magnanimous to me?""
Twilight Sparkle	"Twilight Sparkle." the pony answers when prompted for a name. She smiles kindly as he collects some of the bits, then slips the rest into her bags again. The question of why makes her blink in surprise, but she smiles again soon after. "Why wouldn't I be? Just because we have some different views and opinions does not mean you deserve to be treated badly. I do hope you will take a bit more consideration before ending a life, but other worlds work by other rules. It is something I had to deal with quite early on when Equestria ended up in the Multiverse." She starts toward the library after that, but pauses after a few steps to turn and raise a foreleg. She waves goodbye to Udi. "Thank you again for the ride. Drive safely!" she says cheerfully, then continues toward the library. "If you are hungry or thirsty before your next journey, there are a few diners and cafes around, but they serve only vegitarian items." she calls back as she walks.
Udi	He can't help but be pleased by her kindness. He waves to her as she passes. "Farewell," he told her. "You should call again." Then he belched again. He counted those few Union credits that he did take from her. While he went light on the fare, he did have his own needs. Primarily, enough fuel to get this thing out of here. He looked at the gas gauge. Then he looked at the restaurants. No meat? He'll pass. He had enough to get to the next universe with a real gas station.