Herald of the Night
Chapter Nine: To Canterlot!
Twilight's hooves elicited a nervous staccato of clip-clops as she darted around Zecora's home in the old library, looking for books that could be useful, grabbing them in her magic and floating them into some saddlebags provided to her by the zebra. It was a real shame that her own saddlebags had been lost. It filled Twilight with both annoyance - because some of her favourite books were in them - and terror, because some of those books - ancient accounts about the Elements of Harmony, along with a few personal notes from Luna on what to do while manipulating them - were borrowed from Luna's library. Think of the book fines! In the back, Zecora was gathering up supplies for their journey.
The unicorn was considering hiding the Lunar Sapphire here in the Old City, but with the security of even the castle being compromised and with Celestia having unknown motives, it went without saying that any high-value objects relating to Luna should not go unattended. It would be easy for the Solar Alicorn to locate and brush aside any concealing enchantments and claim the sapphire for her own. So Twilight had decided to stow the sapphire in a small pouch strapped to her flank underneath the saddlebags, hiding it from outside view.
After tightening the straps and making sure the pouch was concealed from various angles - by way of a levitated mirror - Twilight looked up as Zecora trotted in, spear across her back and bulging saddlebags across her flanks, filled up with enough supplies to make the journey on hoof, if they had to. Though, that wasn't the plan. According to Zecora, there was a small town just on the other side of the Everfree that had some sort of transportation set up to take passengers to Canterlot and to various cities and towns throughout Equestria. From what Zecora had told her, it sounded like some sort of compartment-rail combination. It sounded like the gondola system* rigged up on some of the valleys of the moon, only on the ground and over longer distances, and Twilight was eager to see how it worked.
The sun had risen high and early and they still had yet to trek through the forest, but Twilight was already nervous. What if she failed? What would she do without the Elemental Shells? Why was the Princess being so cryptic!?
Of course, the first obstacle was to get through the town in the valley beyond without being overly noticed...
...which didn't go that well. Twilight sighed as a pink pony hopped up and down animatedly in front of her, blithering and rambling on about something that Twilight had long since tuned out. She was just trying to get across town to the train station. Occasionally, Twilight would catch something about a 'party' and about her being new, as well as a barrage of questions about her, where she was from and what her cutie mark said about her special talent. All of these questions, Twilight had evaded, mainly because she (1) didn't want to and (2) couldn't, due to national - or was it interplanetary... - security and for the sake of secrecy.
For a while, it had seemed as though Zecora's presence would keep a reasonable buffer zone between them and the ponies of Ponyville (a silly name, really) due to some sort of aversion to Twilight's zebra companion, from what Twilight had observed. Upon their approach, even with Zecora having donned a hooded cloak prior to entering Ponyville, the streets were deserted. Hushed whispers were barely audible from behind closed - and locked - doors, and there was the occasional twitch of curtains in the glassy windows as the inhabitants peeked out to see if the duo had departed. It occurred to Twilight that this had happened numerous times before, due to Zecora's preparedness to deal with this attitude from the ponies of the town and due to several goods back in the library that the zebra obviously had not made herself: a stove. glass jars and even the cloak she was wearing. It was rather finely made and Zecora had said she'd been given it by a white-coated unicorn some years previously during a particularly cold winter. Yet, despite the perfectly civil behavior of both Twilight and Zecora, the townsfolk were content to do their judging from behind closed and locked - Yes, the unicorn had checked to make sure - doors.
Well, every inhabitant except this pesky, prancing, pink pony that Twilight so dearly wished would depart and stop trying to shove a cupcake in her face. Testing the local cuisine would have to wait until after the Elements were reclaimed.
"Come on! You can't resist a party! Nopony can resist a party. Especially not one of my super-terriffic, stupenditacular parties!!" the pony persisted. "Especially a new pony! You should make friends! There'll be cake and ice cream and other ponies and pin the tail on the pony and all sorts of awesome games you can play and have FUN and laugh and giggle and maybe come to stay here and have my parties all the time because everyone loves a Pinkie Pie party!" she rambled out in a single, long breath before gasping for air.
"Not interested at the moment. Maybe later." Twilight said, rolling her eyes, knowing full well her own intention to not come this way on the return journey.
For a moment, it almost seemed unbearable as the pink earth pony squealed - deafeningly, leaving Twilight on the ground and clutching her ears in her hooves - and sprinted off in a pink blur. One could only assume she was off to start planning the party that Twilight almost, for a moment, remotely considered attending, if only to see what the big deal was.
But that'd have to wait until, as Twilight had said, later. If they weren't on the run from the law after Canterlot, she might just take this... 'Pinkie Pie' up on her offer.
After bartering for passage using some lesser gems that Zecora had brought along - neither of the two made use of 'bits' the way the Equestrians did - the two companions made their way onto the Ponyville Express and waited for the train to depart.
"Hey, Zecora?" Twilight asked after a minute or so, looking out the window at the town.
Zecora glanced up from sifting through her saddlebags and gave an inquiring look and a small, questioning hum to indicate Twilight continue.
"Why do the ponies of Ponyville shun you so rudely?"
Zecora sighed. "The ponies of this town think me strange. It is easier to leave than bring myself to change. Zebras are different, this is true. But are we so truly different from ponies like you? We have families and we play in the sun. We go to bed when the day is done. All things pony, we could do if we chose. But with ways of such ignorance, why choose those?"
Twilight nodded, "For what it's worth, I apologize for their behavior. Even if I'm not... technically... from here."
Zecora smiled and gave Twilight a brief embrace before going back to her sifting. "If all ponies were just like you, perhaps I could live with them, too. But they are not, and I do not fret. They have not got the best of me yet."
With a lurch, the train began moving.
"Now leaving Ponyville Station... Next stop, Canterlot!" came the call of the attendant.
*= In the method of public transportation, the Moon Ponies and the ponies of Equestria had branched out separately. Whereas the Equestrians had developed and invented the railroad, the ponies of the Lunar Kingdom had created a network of gondolas to traverse the distance between high locations and lower ones or between key buildings within the larger cities. For the most part, Lunar ponies are expected to traverse the landscape themselves in the decreased gravity between crater-cities. Not that many actually left their hometowns during their lives.