Chapter 20: Train, Train
A few days later Rarity is eating breakfast when Ash and Sweetie come down the stairs. "Morning you two."
"Morning sis," Sweetie replies.
"Morning Rarity," Ash says. "No dress orders today?"
"No, in fact Twilight has asked me to spend the day with her in the castle."
"Doing what?" Ash asks.
"Just relaxing and talking. Other than immediate business the 6 of us haven't seen each other much lately."
"It sounds like a good way to spend the day."
Rarity nods. "And what do you two plan to do today?"
"We were thinking about getting together with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo and trying to get Ash his cutie mark." Sweetie answers.
"Well just be careful." Rarity says. "You have a habit of getting in trouble around those two."
"Don't worry, we'll be good."
"Very well, I must be off then." Rarity says as she gets up from the table and heads off.
"Well now what?" Ash asks. "We're suppose to catch the train later today."
"I know, my plan had been to mention Zecora's curse to Twilight. Then while they were out there curing her we could get on the train" Sweetie grumbles. "But I don't want to ruin their day."
"This way your sister is distracted too though, Twilight might not have taken her with her into the Everfree."
"True," Sweetie muses. "Perhaps we can go buy what supplies we can and then check up on them. If they are distracted maybe it'll be safe to slip away."
==========
Later that day the two of them quietly approach the castle and sneak in. They find the Thrones Room empty. "Odd," Sweetie says, "This is where I thought they'd be."
"Any idea where they could be?"
"Hush!" Sweetie says as she holds her fore-hoof to her ear. "I think I hear something coming from the library."
Ash walks up next to her and the two of them listen to a bunch of commotion coming from the library. “Sounds like they’re distracted.” Ash whispers.
Sweetie nods and whispers back. “We should see what they’re up to.” With that the two of them carefully and quietly walk to the castle’s library. As they walk into library they see Twilight and Spike walk through a mirror. Sweetie quickly grabs Ash and pulls him behind a bookshelf.
“What ya reckon we should do now?” Applejack asks.
“We wait here for Twilight, of course.” Rainbow Dash answers. “We need to make sure this mirror is kept safe, if somepony tampers with it she might not be able to return.”
“I told Sweetie I was going to be home this evening.” Rarity says. “I can’t stay.”
“What did she say she was doing?” Applejack asks.
“She said she was going to find Apple Bloom and Scootaloo and work on getting Ash his cutie mark.”
“Alright then,” Applejack says. “I’ll leave, and go to the farm and get us some food, I’ll tell Big Mac we are staying here and to let the girls have a sleepover at the clubhouse, sound good?”
“Sounds fine to me.” Rarity says
“Now,” Applejack says. “Does anypony else have anything pressing to do?”
“I need to feed my animals.” Fluttershy says.
“You come along with me, I’ll help ya with your animals. The rest of you wait here and guard the mirror.”
“Sounds as good of a plan as I’ve heard.” Rainbow says.
“Oh me! Me!” Pinkie exclaims excitedly.
“Whatcha need Pinkie?” Applejack asks.
“Can I go to Sugarcube Corner and get some sweets?”
Applejack rolls her eyes, but Rarity speaks up. “Darling, why don’t you wait until Applejack and Fluttershy return?”
“Okie dokie lokie.” Pinkie says then sits down and watches the mirror.
“Come on Fluttershy, let’s head on.” Applejack says.
“Okay.” Fluttershy says as she walks behind Applejack.
Ash and Sweetie squeeze themselves into a nook as Applejack and Fluttershy leave. They wait until they’re sure they’ve left then keeping to the shadows the two of them sneak out of the library. “This is great.” Sweetie says, “No one should check on us until at least tomorrow, maybe even the day after.”
“What do you mean?” Ash asks
“Twilight went through that mirror, the last time she did she was gone for 2 whole days.”
“What’s the deal with that mirror anyway?”
“It’s a portal to another dimension, similar to ours in some ways, different in others.”
“What do you mean?”
“Apparently instead of ponies we’re all these bipedal creatures Twilight calls humans.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Rarity told me everything when I asked her what Pinkie was talking about.”
“Why did Pinkie tell you anything? This sounds like something that they’d want to keep secret.”
“It was right after they came back from the Crystal Kingdom where the mirror was kept at the time. Twilight went through the mirror to retrieve her magical crown, a pony that had already crossed through the mirror by the name of Sunset Shimmer had stolen it and taken it to the other world.”
“That explains why Twilight went through the mirror, not why Pinkie was talking about it.”
“Oh, I asked her how their trip was and she started talking about Twilight going on her own trip, I got confused the way she bounced around so I asked Rarity. She told me everything.”
“Oh, okay,” Ash says then clears his throat. “So do we have everything we need?”
Sweetie nods, “Let’s go to the train station.”
The two of them walk to the train station. Ash walks up to the ticket booth, levitates two tickets out of his saddlebags and gives them to Tight Schedule.
“Two unaccompanied foals?” Tight Schedule asks looking at the tickets.
“I have sick relatives in Tall Tale, my parents have to work so they asked me to go.” Sweetie says, “I don’t want to go alone, so many things can happen to a filly when she’s by herself so my coltfriend offered to escort me.”
“Well, that’s awful nice of you young one.” Tight Schedule says to Ash.
“My dad always said treat your girl right and she’ll treat you right back.” Ash says then blinks a few times as he realizes that he remembered something.
“Those are great words to live by.” Tight Schedule says as he tears the tickets in two and hands them back the stubs. “Enjoy your trip young ones.”
“Thank you sir,” Sweetie says as she grabs the ticket stubs in her magic and they get on the train.
“Isn’t the train station going to be the first place they check when they notice we’re missing?” Ash asks.
“I didn’t think about that,” Sweetie admits. “I guess we should’ve worn some kind of disguise huh?”
“Probably, but it’s too late now.”
“We’ll be in Tall Tale tomorrow morning, so as long as we haven’t been discovered before we resupply and leave there we should be fine.”
Ash nods, “We’ll have to be quick about it.”
“Sounds like a good plan.” Sweetie says as the train departs sending them toward their destination.