//------------------------------// // 03 : Jumping to Conclusions // Story: The Journal // by TropicalWings //------------------------------// I found myself struggling to catch up with Rarity and Applejack, as we were headed for the train tracks. We were moving at a snail’s pace as Rarity and Applejack letted me place my forelegs on their shoulders while trotting to the train station. Some of the residents of Appleoosa were staring at us, but most of them were also headed in the same direction as we were, so I guess that this was a really, really bad thing. Currently, it was already around 4 in the afternoon, and the sky was slowly turning dark, the sun setting behind us... It’s my first time seeing the outside of Appleloosa. Well, not really, if you count the numerous times I went here before I lost my memory. “I’m really sorry for slowing you guys down.” “It’s all right. It’s for your own good anyway, we might be able to get to where we found you.” said Rarity. “Let’s not prioritize that first, we need to find out what happened at the tracks in the first place. I don’t remember Appleloosa havin’ any enemies, apart from the buffalos, which I thought we had already took care of.” said Applejack. She was referring to the Buffalo settlement neighboring the town. Apparently the two settlements have been in a constant feud and if it wasn’t for us, they would have still been warring with each other. Today, they’ve been co-existing with Appleloosa in peace and no conflicts between the two have ever been reported in ages. “Darling...You’re not saying they’re behind this, are you?” “‘Course not, I’m jus’ sayin’.” Before I could speak up, we finally arrived at the train station, or what was left of it. What I saw barely looked like a building let alone a train station; the roof has caved in the structure. Most of the walls collapsed into rubble like sand, those that didn’t looked like it would at any moment. The tracks that went through the station were now buried underneath all the rubble. Black marks surrounded majority of the station, if it hadn’t been turned into rubble. Many ponies were surrounding the pile of rubble, some of them were busy removing some heavy pieces of rubble to see if the tracks underneath were still in good condition. Sadly, the condition of the tracks were far worse than the station itself; it was a scorched mess of metal twisted and mangled in different directions, some bits of rubble had jarred some pieces of metal away from its place, some metal jutted out like an open bone fracture. The metal already looked really brittle and could collapse if stood on let alone crossed by a thousand pound locomotive. If a train crossed this, Equestria’s most costly disaster would obviously be eminent. We met up with the other 2 mares; Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, who I swore was back at the house a few minutes ago. Fluttershy looked surprise when she saw me “Oh dear, girls, what’s she doing out here?” she asked with her soft voice, though it did have a tone of worry in it. “Don’t you know she could have gotten hurt?” she asked frantically. “She might have sprained her ankle! Or maybe gotten sunburn, or worse yet heat stroke, maybe even broken her horn, or lost her eyesight to some cactus, OR EVEN WORSE...” she rambled. “Fluttershy...” Applejack said. “...SHE COULD HAVE DAMAGED HER SPINAL CORD!” “Fluttershy.” I told her, catching her attention. “I’m fine, I’m not made of glass you know.” “Yeah.” Applejack said, agreeing with me. “She’s strong enough to go outside now.” added Rarity. “...Are you sure?” she asked back. “Positive.” “Of course she’s sure! I mean, if she were glass, that means she’d be all broken right now!” Pinkie Pie commented. I could see Fluttershy cringing at the statement. “Hey Girls.” a voice called out. It was Braeburn. “Glad to see you’re all okay, especially you Twi.” “Cousin, what in tarnation happened here?” Applejack asked. “Well, some ponies said they were just minding their own business when suddenly, WHAM! the station collapsed in broad daylight.” “Did anypony get hurt?” I asked. “Thankfully, no.” he replied “Hey, girls...” said Rainbow Dash suddenly. “How are we gonna get home now?” “Sure won’t be easy.” replied Applejack. “...should we go send for help?” asked Rarity. “I’d highly doubt it. That train was our only chance of communication to other areas in Equestria and back here.” “How about flying? ” the rainbow headed mare asked. “I can see some pegasi around here.” she added. “Rainbow...” Rarity said “...there’s a reason why they send mail through train here” “There’s not a cloud in sight; no pony can survive the sweltering heat out here, even a pegasus.” she added. “Oh...” she replied, as her hopes slowly lessened. “How about the buffalos? Maybe they can help?” “It’s not possible.” Braeburn interrupted “The Buffalos, we already tried asking them.” “They won’t help us?” asked Applejack “Apparently, no; we can’t seem to find them anywhere.” he replied “It’s like they’ve just disappeared...” he added. “Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! They must’ve been abducted by aliens!” Pinkie Pie interrupted, jumping to conclusions. “Stop all the nonsense, Pinkie.” Rarity said, butting in the pink pony’s rant. “Everyone knows aliens don’t exist.” she added “Aaa-HA! We have a skeptic here!” Pinkie Pie said in response. “Wha-? A skeptic?” Rarity said in disbelief, slowly getting annoyed with the hyperactive pony’s antics. “Yeah! A skeptic! You know, a pony that’s not sure if-” “I very well know what a skeptic is, Pinkie-” “Then why’d you ask ,silly filly?” “Could ya two please stop with all this nonsense?” butted in Applejack “There’s obviously a logical explanation here.” I added. “Maybe they migrated?” asked Rainbow Dash asked. “Do buffalos even migrate?” Rarity pointed out. “Not sure, but if they do, they should’ve at least told us.” replied Braeburn “Whatever, my money’s still on the aliens.” Pinkie said, receiving a few grunts of disapproval from a few ponies. “How the heck will we get help then?” asked Rainbow Dash, reverting the topic. “Well, we’ll just have to wait fer’ the train to come, stop them before they reach these darn’ tracks, and tell them to go back and get help.” “...and after all that, around when would we get back home?” “Umm... well, it takes a while for the train to get back to any town and get help... let’s say around one and a half weeks” Dead silence filled the air for a few seconds, until somepony shrieked. “I CAN’T BE STUCK HERE FOR ONE AND A HALF WEEKS!”Rarity shrieked. It was completely unlike her lady-like composure. “I HAVE SO MANY DEADLINES TO CATCH UP TO !” she added, “I HAVE TO FINISH MAKING TEN DRESSES TO SAPPHIRE SHORES” “Again?” Fluttershy asked timidly. “AGAIN!” she shrieked in reply, scaring Fluttershy. “THEN I HAVE TO FINISH UP A WEDDING GOWN BEFORE THE SEASON ENDS, AND THEN I-” “Rarity, hold yer horses.” Applejack said, shaking Rarity to her senses. “Yer’ not the only one here who has errands to catch up with back home, ya know.” “I-I suppose you’re right.” Rarity stuttered in reply. “Well, guess you girls are gonna have an extended stay.” commented Braeburn. “I’d better hurry back to to our house and get supper ready. You should too.” he added, and with that he trotted away from the tracks and back to our cabins. As the six of us watched him walk back, Rarity commented: “Applejack, isn’t it kinda weird that your cousin is taking this thing lightly?” “Braeburn’s an easy going stallion, he ain’t panicking anytime soon. I guess Appleloosa is better off being isolated.” “But how about us? We’ve got stuff to do in Ponyville” I asked. “Shouldn’t Braeburn be worried for us?” “Like ah’ said, he’s an easy going stallion, he ain’t panicking anytime soon.” she said, repeating her earlier statement. “But it is kinda weird now that you mention it, I’ll go talk to him about it later.” she added. The sun was slowly setting, and the temperature started dropping as the last hints of daylight started fading out. The crowd of ponies surrounding the damaged station started dispersing back to their respective houses and all that’s left is us and a few ponies. “Hey, AJ.” Rainbow Dash called out. “Why do you think the station collapsed?” “Ah’ have no clue whatsoever.” she answered back “Maybe it was because of poor construction?” she suggested “Mah cousin did say this town was built very quickly.” she added. “OR MAYBE...” Pinkie suggested. “ IT WAS BECAUSE OF-” “Pinkie. Stop.” Rainbow interrupted, quickly covering the pink pony’s mouth with a hoof. “...aliens!” Pinkie’s muffled shout still audible under her hoof-covered mouth. All of us had nothing else to say and just glared at her. By now, the last rays of sunshine were fading away at the tip of the desert mountains and the town’s lamps were being lit. Before we went back to the cabin, I decided to make a quick circle around the rubble. “C’mon Twi, we have to get back to my cuz’s place, we know we can’t let you stay here alone, especially with your condition.” Applejack stated. I payed her no heed and decided to continue checking. “In a minute, Applejack.” She was right though, I still found myself slightly limping while I trotted and I still had the headaches once in awhile, I can tell I still won’t be able to last walking alone for a long time without any help. Just then, something caught the corner of my eye in the midst of all the rubble Suddenly, I had the urge to try and check out what was there, thinking that inside that rubble there would be a clue to the train track’s destruction. I kept on separating sand and wood, metal and rock, to see if I could possibly find anything. And then, as I was reaching the bottom of the pile, I was shocked to find... nothing. That’s it. Just rubble. Nothing out of the ordinary. After fruitlessly sifting through the surrounding rubble, I went back to my friends, disheartened, and we began heading back to the ranch. Rarity and Applejack let me rest my forelegs on their shoulders again, watching the sun set behind us and shining on the only hope of getting to the world outside Appleloosa. Silence filled the air as we trotted back to the ranch. I thought of the station, how it collapsed, how there was so much rubble, how some the rubble and train tracks were... all scorched up. “Hey girls,” I suddenly said, interrupting the silence. “When was the last time there was a heatwave around here?” “Ah sure don’t remember any. Weather’s been fine all week. why’d ya ask Twi’?” Applejack said. “When was the last time any structural damage in the area was caused by thermal occurrences?” “Wut?” “When was the last time a building burned down or was melted because of, say, a heat wave or something?” “Wait, Twi, what’re you saying?” “Something just doesn’t seem right about those train tracks. I remember them having dull edges, as if it were melted. Also, the areas near the rubble seemed burnt from something... or it was done by somepony.” Rainbow Dash suddenly butted in. “Twilight, you don’t think the railroad was...” “-ATTACKED BY ALIENS?!” Pinkie Pie burst out. We were all staring at her with great disbelief. Rarity would’ve been chasing her off right now if my foreleg wasn’t resting on her. “Twilight, maybe you’ve hit your head to hard.” Rarity said, her voice growing with suspicion. “There could be another explanation” she said. “The train’s really hot underneath you know, maybe the previous train had melted it without the conductor or the driver knowing. “No Rarity, the tracks are made to handle that kind of stuff. Otherwise it would have been burnt by the brakes of the train itself if it were to make a sudden stop.” “Then that might have been the reason. Twilight, I think you’re thinking too skeptically. It would be easier to believe that.” Fluttershy replied. “No. Face it girls, somepony destroyed the tracks on purpose.” “You mean...?” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “Yes. It’s been sabotaged.”