//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: The Journey Begins 
// Story: A Soul's Journey 
// by John Snow 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 2: The Journey Begins


The rain had long died down when Twilight arrived at the train station, but a little bit of a drizzle was still going on. Her multi-coloured friend was already waiting, saddle bags flung over her back and a grumpy expression on her face. Together with her mane that stuck to her in heavy, wet strands it almost looked cute - not that Twilight would ever voice that thought. The day where Rainbow accepted being called ‘cute’ had yet to dawn. Everything short of ‘awesome’ was equal to an insult. The unicorn chuckled quietly.
“I seriously don’t get you”, Rainbow moaned. “How can you giggle when the weather sucks like this? I see like literally nothing funny around here.”
“I was just… thinking”, Twilight replied and ignored the muttered ‘egghead’ from her friend. As the pegasus stepped up to her side though and stretched her wing out again, she positively screeched and jumped backwards. “Dash, your wing is dripping wet! Off of my head with that thing!”
“Oops”, the other pony said, grinning. “Must have slipped my notice.” She shook the water out of her fur (not that it made that much of a difference, as there was still enough water falling from the skies) and seemed to take extra care that as much as possible of it landed on Twilight who just glared at her. Not amused. Rainbow giggled and was about to say something when a sound in the distance announced the incoming train. Giving the cheeky Pegasus an annoyed huff worthy of Rarity, Twilight turned around and double checked the contents of her bags again (for what Rainbow assumed was the 10th time in the last 30 minutes), while trying her best to ignore the increasing volume of her friend’s laughter. Content that everything was where it was supposed to be, she entered the nearest traincar and started looking for a seat. Thankfully the train was empty due to the early hour and nopony had to endure Rainbow Dash's now slowly ebbing guffaws. 
"Are you quite done yet? Honestly, what was so funny about that?"
Rainbow managed to finally subdue her mirth enough to talk.
"You are just so damn cute when you try to look annoyed. And then you sounded like Rarity, which was even more hilarious."
A small blush creeped it's way onto Twilight's cheeks, mercyfully hidden under her purple coat. 
"I did not sound like Rarity! And if I did it was not hilarious!" she huffed, sitting down in one of the aisles with Rainbke across from her. Eager to steer the conversation somewhere else she laid the amulet down onto the small table between the seats. 
"So, Snowstream. Why don't you tell us something about yourself? If we're going to be travelling halfway across Equestria together, we might as well get to know one another." Rainbow Dash perked up at that and directed her attention to the amulet as well.
"Yeah, what's going on with you? I mean if AJ likes you you gotta be cool."
There was a quiet laugh from Snowstream before he answered: “There are quite some stories I could tell. I travelled a lot, after all. What would you like to hear?”
“Well, I would first be interested to know why a pegasus would take to smithing. It is usually more something I see earth ponies doing.”
“We do have workshops up in the clouds, you know. My dad got his Cutie Mark as a blacksmithing. I got mine when I helped him in his workshop, so that was pretty much that. Boring one.”
“Yep, I’m definitely more awesome”, Rainbow declared smugly, earning herself a nasty glare from Twilight. “What? Just stating the facts here! Also, I want to know what the deal with th flying is. Seriously, what pegasus doesn’t fly?”
“I don’t”, Snowstream responded, his voice taking a more determined and cold tone. “And it’s none of your business.” 
"Woah man, what's your problem? No need to get all aggressive and junk. I was just asking."
"Then ask something else, please." his voice regained a bit of it's warmth, but now there was an undertone to his voice that Twilight couldn't really place. 
"Why did you have that Soulshard anyway? They're quite rare, and very expensive." 
“From Diamond Shine of course. we all had them when I was with the Haystack, and they gave it to me when I left.” 
“The Haystack? You all?” Twilight’s eyes lit up at the hope of learning things about their new friend. Maybe she could even get a friendship report out of this. 
“And the Haystack is… what exactly?”, Rainbow chimed in.
Snowstream sounded slightly annoyed when he answered: “A group of six ponies who helped out on the frontier, you know, when the settler rush was still in full swing. We kept the tracks safe and did whatever needed doing around the place. As far as I know, they even teach you that in school by now.”
“Well, that doesn’t mean that I know it”, the pegasus responded cheekily and there was a huff from the amulet that strongly suggested there was an eye-roll accompanying it.
“Fair point. anything else you want to know right now, or can I go back to meditating to preserve my sanity?”
“Someone is in a bad mood”, Rainbow sing-songed.
“Now why could that be?!”, Snowstream snapped and although there was no way she could be harmed by an amulet, the pegasus flinched at his sharp voice. “If someone hadn’t knocked over these shelves, i would not have to be in a ‘bad mood’ right now, so I don’t think you’re one to talk!” For a few seconds, there was a stunned silence filling the wagon, broken by a soft sigh from the amulet before the trapped pony, much calmer now, spoke up again: “I am sorry, I shouldn’t let myself go like that, but I’m really not in the mood for more questions right now.” 
“Rainbow, I think it’s best if we let him rest for a while. He was right when he was talking about preserving his sanity, being inside a soulshard puts an incredible strain on a pony’s mind. All emtions are amplified by a huge scale and the more it drains him, the higher becomes the likeliness of him losing his mind.” 
Rainbow's eyes went huge as she processed the information.
"So these things trap ponies, eat their souls and make them go insane?! What the hell is the point of them? Why would anyone want to own or use something like that?!"
“Well, from what i know, the guard used them for some time for emergency medical transports, since they can essentially keep a patient in the exact same condition for a day or so, and for transporting dangerous prisoners.” 
“Yeah, I can get that.” Rainbow nodded. “But he isn’t a guardspony.”
“They weren’t exclusively used by the guard, and they aren’t banned, so civilians owning or even using them isn’t unheard of. But because the spells needed to empower a soulshard and all the extra enchantments one can put on a stone, like the limited psychic projection spell that allow Snowstream to speak to us are quite complex and very specific in their conditions, like the fact that only the enchanter can retrieve the trapped soul, that is quite rare. The guard stopped using them for the same reasons about 30 years ago. Since so few people used them anyway it’s quite rare to see them these days. I wonder where this Diamond Shine got six of them.” 
Rainbow Dash nodded along to the explanation, not even trying to understand, just letting the lecture wash over her like a soothing lullaby. 
Before she knew it, she had dozed off again. She didn’t hear Twilight breaking off her lecture to smile at her sleeping friend. She didn’t see the small blush that crept onto her face, and she definitely didn’t hear Twilight think: 
It’s really rare to see you so peaceful Rainbow. And really nice.