My Little Clony

by therealfeedback

Act III, Chapter I

“Remind me again why we’re heading all the way out here?” Trixie asked.

“Caesar decided we’d be examining the sheriff next.” Came the reply from The Doctor. “He says our sixth man is out here, too.”

The quintet was riding aboard a train, bound for Appleoosa. Though there were many ponies in the train car, for the most part, there wasn’t much chatter, as each group was separated into their own side section of two rows of seats, most opting to close the door to their section to avoid eavesdroppers. With the subject matter they were traveling on, the same held true for this group. The train wasn’t a particularly fancy model, but neither was it low-end; the seats were soft and made of quality material, and the red colouring of the car gave a general regal feel.

“Who is this sixth man, anyway?” Vinyl asked this time. “Appleoosa seems kind of…backwoods for somepony like Caesar to have a contact in.”

“I didn’t even know he worked here.” Derpy added.

“I don’t.” The reply came this time from Caesar, who had just entered their section, carrying a small tray of snacks from the train’s snack bar. On shorter travels such a luxury would be excessive, but it was a pleasant treat on longer travels such as this.

“This guy isn’t someone I know from any sort of work or anything, like you two were.” As he spoke, he motioned towards Trixie and Vinyl. “He’s more of an old friend. He and I grew up together, but he was much more of a physical pony, so he took work that took him way out here.”

“And you’re confident you can trust him?” The Doctor asked, to which he nodded.

“He’s never let me down once.” He answered. “Plus he knows the place. We’re going to need that if we want to actually find anything about our sheriff.”

“Speaking of which,” Vinyl started. “What do we know about our lawman?”

“Not much.” He said. “There’s not exactly a lot of resources out here, and even then I couldn’t find much. Another reason Engi is going to be handy. He comes out here a lot, so he should know more than we do.”

“Anyway, worrying isn’t going to do us much good, especially when we’re not even there yet. Have a snack, and try to enjoy the ride.”

The train eased to a stop, coming to a final, smooth halt at the platform in the Appleoosa train station, which was lit a golden hue by the setting sun. The passengers disembarked, luggage slung over both passengers and employees of the railway whose job it was to aid in carrying a passenger’s baggage. A single group of five had only small items to carry, traveling light.

As the five stepped off the locomotive and onto the platform, they looked to each other before setting off amongst the storm of passengers.

“We’ll be waiting here.” Caesar said a few short steps later. “We’re meeting Engi here. We need to meet him away from the crowd though, for…obvious reasons.” The group looked to each other once more, then for the most part shrugged, setting bags down on the ground, and sitting down alongside them.

The crowd thinned quickly, most of it jamming its way into the exit of the station, leaving the five practically alone. The train remained, as it was the last train for the day.

“Alright, lets go meet our friend, shall we?” At that, Caesar began walking towards the front of the train, towards the engineers pulling it.

I put on a smile as I walked past the engineers, towards the front. A smile makes somepony more receptive, after all. Sweat was pouring down the engineers, understandably, as the four of them had just hauled a full train for hours on end. As I came up to the frontmost engineer, a pony with a brown coat and black mane, I turned to face him.

“Promontory?” I said.

“An’…if I am?“ He spoke between short breaths, still breathing heavy from the work.

“Long time, no see.” I replied.

“Wait…what? Jes’ who’re yo—“ As he glanced up, eyes now staring up from beneath his cap, a smile came to his mouth, the rest of his face lighting up with it. “Caesar! The last time I saw ya’ was years ago! What’re you doin’ out here?”

“That’s a long story.” I said, gesturing to the others behind me. “Everyone, this is Promontory. Promontory, these are my…current business acquaintances. You’re off work now, right? If you’re willing to come with us, I’d be happy to explain it all.” He nodded, turning to the other three engineers behind him.

“Alright boys, that’s it for the night! Get some rest fer’ tomorrow!” At that, he undid his harness, then stepped forward to us. “Yer’ not wearing that tophat into town, are ya’?” He asked, to which I nodded, causing a chuckle. “That’s plain silly-lookin’ out here. Ol’ Edwin Mann has a hat shop in the station, pick a local flavour up before we leave.”

I nodded again, noting and heading towards the hat shop. The last thing we needed to do right now was draw unneeded attention to ourselves. If replacing my tophat with a silly southern look for a few days was required for that, it was worthwhile.

The sun had finished setting, and the moon was now high in the sky, its light shining in through the open window and mingling with the light in the room of the inn we were staying at.

“So…this guy’s me?” Promontory asked, holding up the photo I had given him, off an identical colt, but instead of pulling trains, he was wearing an uncomfortable-looking pair of shorts, and jumping down, shoulder first, onto another colt below him. “And…he’s a wrestler?” I nodded.

“…Didn’t ya’ always say that the good jokes are the subtle ones?” He asked.

“It’s not a joke. It’s ridiculous, I know, but it’s real.” I replied simply.

“…Right.” He said, his voice having more than a little sarcasm in it. “Look, ah’ appreciate the laugh, but it just ain’t my kinda’ humour.” I sighed, still happy to see an old friend, but annoyed at his usual stubbornness.

“It’s not a joke. I’ve seen copies of myself. And so has everyone else here.” I said.

“Of course y’all did.” He replied, sarcasm once more in his voice.

“To be fair,” Vinyl chimed in. “We wouldn’t have really believed you if that second you hadn’t shown up, either. He’s not being unreasonable.” Most of the others nodded in agreement.

“Would it help if I showed you a duplicate?” I asked.

“Yer’ tellin’ me that there’s a pair of a pony here, in Appleoosa, right now, and this game master or whatever yer’ callin’ them, don’t know about it, even though y’all think they’re here, too?” Annoyance was now starting to cross into his voice. “Sure, why not? Maybe the punchline is waiting out there with this ‘clone’.”

“Wait.” The Doctor was the one entering the conversation this time, surprise in his voice. “You think that the Game Master’s here, and that there’s another pair, too? The first we knew, but the second is a bit important to let us in on, isn’t it?”

“It doesn’t exactly seem low-profile to be here right now, does it then?” Trixie asked.

“I wasn’t expecting it.” I answered. “I noticed them while I was heading back from the snack bar on the train. It was too late at that point, and we’re stuck here until at least tomorrow morning anyway. We’re going to have to stay alert to avoid getting caught with this situation, especially if the Game Master is here and aware of it. But we might as well get something done, I figure.”

“So your idea of laying low is seeking out these clones, and showing them to somepony new? Why do we even need this meathead, anyway?” She snapped.

“If we’re smart about it, we can do it discretely. Especially since we have an illusionist like you with us.” I shot back. “As for why we want ‘meatheaded’ Promontory, I’m going to go ahead and assume you forgot about earlier today where he was the head of a single quartet who pulled an entire, fully-loaded train for miles upon miles all by themselves. And he doesn’t exactly seem beat from doing so, does he? Earth Ponies are much stronger normally, but even for an Earth Pony he’s strong. He’ll get rid of any future need we’ll ever have for any physical contribution. If we can’t handle it once he’s with us, odds are it can’t be done. Plus he’s not as dumb as he looks.”

“…Ya know I’m right here, right?” Promontory asked. Admittedly I had forgotten he was there.

“Anyway, odds are the clone is asleep now. Tomorrow though, we’ll find the duplicate and show you it. If we do that, will it convince you?”

“If yer’ really set on all this, be mah guest.” He replied. “I still think y’all are goin’ too far fer’ Caesar’s joke, but it’s not mah’ place to judge.”

He was being more stubborn than I had hoped, but at least my old friend was willing to let me prove myself. Now the only issue was finding them, and doing it discretely.