How many pancakes does it take to make a doghouse?
According to the internet, it takes approximately five hours and twelve minutes to get from Chicago, Illinois to Flint, Michigan. Surprisingly, every mode of transportation besides walking and flying takes the same time: five hours and approximately twelve minutes. Ignoring Breakdowns, flat tires, refueling, debris on the tracks, inclement weather, or the hand of God itself reaching down and preventing transit, a train, a car, and a boat could leave Illinois -provided the boat goer could use a car after they dock- and all reach their destination at the same time.
If one was in Chicago and needed to reach Flint without selling their kidney for a plane ticket or putting one foot in front of another and hiking, then it would take them the same amount of time to get to their destination. The only difference was the means.
Some individuals have problems with boats, and I don't blame them. The Great Lake’s tide conditions can get as bad as the oceans, and besides that, after arriving across the lake there is still the issue of coordinating for another car. Many people would not take a bus for two reasons, its outrageous price and having to buddy up with the rather... interesting characters who take long range bus trips nowadays. Now, while cars seem to be the obvious choice due to the sense of American Freedom a set of wheels and an open road can instill in a driver as well as being the cheapest option, there comes a time when one doesn't happen to possess a car. Like the sight of an open parking spot among the congested streets of the Windy City, these four wheeled wonders are a hassle to own in a city like Chicago, and in the event of someone actually owns one of these godsends, nobody in their right mind wants to make the five hour and twelve minute drive to Flint just to turn around and take another five hour and twelve minute drive back.
Now with all other options exhausted, we come to our final alternative, the outdated, germ-infested, stinky, static traveling, noisy, jerky, accident prone, canned-people-mover-on-tracks; trains. Thus we come to me, standing in the shadow of the Sears Tower looking into the Union station with a fifty-two dollar piece of paper that read: "ONE WAY: CHI > FLN". A train has its purpose, to get people from one place to another. Boarding train 364 was not a choice, but a necessity. I have taken the trip across 3 states in order to perform one of the most noblest and manly quests that one man could ask of another in this world: move out of one apartment and into another.
I could go into detail about helping my older brother move out of one apartment and into another halfway across Chicago, that would be a tad bit unnecessary, but I digress.
The locomotive was a standard silver bullet Amtrak train. The floor was covered with some cheap and thin, easy to clean, blue carpet that you'd expect to find at some shitty rundown local motel where the owner knew that the hookers and johns that made up their main clientele wouldn't notice how cheap it was. The seats themselves were rows of standard airline seats that could bend back a little but not actually be comfortable, and each headrest had a white towel pinned to it so that the greasy people who rode in trains nowadays couldn't stain it with their unwashed hair. In most cars, the right side had a double row of seats while the left had a fast food joint-style plastic tables with two chairs on each end that were all stained by the never-ending barrage of spilled coffee, soft drinks, and condiments. If any more vindication over the quality of the train was needed, then I'd go no further than that the luggage compartments above the passenger area didn't even have doors to the cabinets.
But that’s enough about this moving tube of crap. Being that this was a shitty Amtrak to Flint, Michigan and nobody in their right mind would want to go to Flint or any of the other stops along the way, the train was running very far under capacity. As soon as I boarded the train and found an unoccupied window seat, I plopped my bags down next to me, put my headphones on, and logged into YouTube.
It was going to be a very long and equally boring ride, so to deal with it I was going to load up my YouTube Playlist for TV shows. I've watched some of these shows so much that I didn't even watch them, I just listened while it played nonstop in my pocket.
Out of all the playlists I had, I think it was just either dumb luck or divine intervention that I chose Season two of My Little Pony; because there was no particular reason I chose it.
Many people need ambient background noise to help them go to sleep. I'm no different in regard that it helps to have something playing so I don't have to listen to other people's conversations or snoring, but what makes me different is that it helps to have something familiar to listen to -like a movie or a TV show- to help me drift off to sleep.
It was about the time that Discord was introduced that I finally did fall asleep.
Maybe it was that the sun set and made everything dark, maybe it was that my headphones stopped when my phone ran dead, or maybe it was a rogue jolt from the train making the side of my head crack against the pane of clear glass that woke me up, because all I knew was that several hours had pass, and the train was far along in its trip.
I sat in my seat much like before, just quietly minding my own business, but then I began to notice something.
The crying of little kids
The talking of friends
The snoring of passengers
The stomps of people walking to the bathrooms
The munching of prepackaged food and the crinkling of its packaging.
It was all gone.
Without standing, I poked my head up and looked over the seats, and what I had assumed was true. Everyone was gone.
A cold, heavy sensation began to build up in my stomach as one of my greatest fears of taking a train seemingly became a reality. The hairs on my arms stood up as a chilling sensation took my brain. I missed my stop.
But, before I went into an all-out panic of being stuck on a train and having to get off at God-Knows-Where, Michigan, I happened to catch a glimpse of a piece of paper above my seat with a “2” on it. The conductors, in order to make sure my nightmare doesn’t happen to more people, left a paper above my seat relating to my destination and its distance from the end of the track. Flint was the second to last stop for the Amtrack, and because nobody besides the people who lived there would travel to mid-Michigan, the absence of other passengers would be natural after all but the last few stops.
“We’re almost there.”
I turned my head towards the aisle, expecting to see a super-sneaky conductor creeping up beside me after my near panic attack, but I was mistaken. Maybe I didn’t see them when I woke up, but as it turned out I was actually not alone in the train car. Sitting below a vandalized sign that read “Thank you for not smoking.” With a lit cigarette in his fingers and a coffee thermos that read “I love Mondays” was a man with a battered old fedora hat. I’m not sure why, but it was something about his unruly goatee and his thick rimmed glasses as well as his half-fastened tiger pattern tie, or the way his nicked dress shoes and suit-coat clashed with his ripped skinny jeans, obnoxiously stripped wrist-warmers and scarves that made me want to rub my eyes and moan: fuckin' hipster.
This stranger sitting at one of the tables opposite of the seats picked his hand up and waved at me, slowly, in order to show the fact that each finger individually rose and fell as it moved from one side of his hand to the other. I put my hand up, blurring the line between a return wave and a “stop, I don’t give a shit” motion as I returned my attention outside of the window.
There was a mechanical hissing sound, and soon after that the automated door to the car opened behind us.
Once again, I looked at the aisle expecting the conductor to come by to inform me that we would be arriving in Flint shortly, but once again, I was wrong.
Instead of a uniformed member of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation entering our car, my fellow passenger and I were joined by a woman. She walked down the aisle and took a seat at the table opposite of the other person in the car. She was wearing a tight grey pencil skirt and a pink dress shirt that was so pale that it was almost white. Her shiny black hair accented her toffee colored skin pretty well, and other than one of those small pink hair extensions that was hanging from her bangs, she looked to be some sort of uptight business professional, like a lawyer.
I wasn’t against biracial couples or anything, but it seemed like those two were either together or they had arranged to meet, so I gave them some privacy and looked away. But, before I could do anything like put my headphones back on or try to go back to sleep, I heard something, something that made me go as tense as when I thought that I had just slept through my stop.
“It’s good to see you, Discord.”
No… No. No. No. No. No!
I looked back at the two sitting at the table, there was no way… It didn’t make sense… it was just a mistake, maybe I misheard something, because there was no way that hipster looking guy was a character from a cartoo-
“I can’t say the feeling’s mutual, Celestia.”
It was… Oh dear god… it was real.
I started to panic again, what should I have done? If the incarnation of chaos somehow broke out of a cartoon and was now walking around our world then God only knew what could happen. With a snap of his fingers he could raise all kinds of hell, like make Hitler president, or make Velociraptors come back from extinction! What was I supposed to do? Summon the conductor to arrest him or call the pentagon to nuke the countryside? It was just mid-Michigan, so it's not like anybody would notice or care. I mean, unless these two were doing some sort of sick roleplaying as cartoon characters, then it may come down to me doing my duty as a Michigander to dish out a Mid-Michigan beatdown on his ass.
Then I realized something. If this was the Master of Insanity, then why was he being so… normal? If he was the allegedly omnipotent psycho that the show led me to believe, then why did he look so weak? Instead of something like pole dancing Chihuahuas or having potato chips snowing from the sky, why did he look like the most mischief he could cause would be to call in a bomb threat or pull a fire alarm in a packed movie theatre? I think I needed to watch and listen before I did anything hasty.
“How are you feeling?”
“Positively awful,” he said, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms across his chest.
“Really? You seem to be doing well.”
“This place bores me.” He raised his hand up and rapidly snapped his fingers like an exhausted lighter that wouldn’t light. “It makes too much sense, all this chemistry, and physics, and biology, I just can't understand how it doesn’t drive them all mad. Where's the fun in having all of the answers to everything?”
Celestia cocked her head sideways, “How so? This world is defined by rules, but it does allow for some obscurity to exist.”
“Well riddle me this, Princess,” Discord said. “You’re flying down the highway on a canoe when all of your wheels fall off. How many pancakes does it take to make a doghouse?”
Now, for a genuine second, I think Celestia may have actually tried to think of a logical solution to the riddle delivered by her opposite, but after a millisecond, she gave up and shook her head at him. “Touché.”
“I thought you knew me better. By the way, the answer is purple, because Ice-cream doesn’t have bones. Anyway, why did you summon me here? You’ve never given me the pleasure of a visitor before, so are you planning to gloat?”
Celestia furrowed her brow and stared Discord straight in the eye with an evil glare that could give you a sunburn. “Discord, You’ve ruined lives, leveled kingdoms, corrupted the innocent-”
Discord gave out a laugh, “Oh come on, you’re sister was asking for it.”
Celestia tightened her hand up into firm little fists. If I didn’t know better I could have sworn she was about to bitchsmack him or –if I knew that someone was responsible for messing up my sister like that- pull out a gun and blow his brains out his ass. Alas, Celestia continued with a deadpan glare and spoke through gritted teeth “And have been a thorn in my side for too long.”
“So what?” He spat. “Just get on with it and smash my statue into gravel for good. Jeez, it's like you like me or something.”
Celestia took a breath, and regained her composure, returning with a more pleasant tone and a smile on her lips. “For as much as I would love to fix our little problem, I don’t see the solution in the same way you do.”
“Wimp.”
Celestia smirked and shook her head. “Discord, you don’t understand my conviction, I do intend to destroy you, but not in the means that you see.”
Discord leaned back in his chair and raised his eyebrow. “How so?”
“I intend to release you.”
I remember at that point I was thinking, “What. The. Fuck.” And apparently Discord felt the same way.
He stuck his finger into his ear and rubbed it around, pulling out a gob of sticky yellow wax and said, “I’m sorry, Celestia, but I don’t think I heard you correctly.”
“No, you heard me right the first time, I intend to release you.”
Discord sat silently for a moment with his index finger pointed up, preparing to make a statement. After a few seconds, he pointed it at the Princess, “I… I’m sorry, but did you happen to drink any of that funny water they have here, because I’m supposed to be the one who’s insane.”
“No. I’ve made up my mind, and you’re coming back with me.”
Discord gave a great and hearty laugh, something that would have woken everyone in the train up if there happened to be anyone in there besides us. “I… Oh dear… you’re so cruel, you came all this way just to try to pull a trick on me? Good try, TROLLestia.”
“I’m not joking.”
Discord stopped for a moment, and then he started up with even more wild laughter, “Oh, you ARE serious!" He laughed."I guess your old age is finally starting to ruin your memory, or else you would have remembered the other times I’ve escaped! This is going to be fun. Tell me, do you want to be corrupted, or is Grey the new Black in Equestria?”
Celestia shook her head once more. “I do remember what happened the last times you’ve escaped, but this time I intend to do something different, release you, give you a chance to be free on my terms rather than wait for you to escape and run amok on your own.”
Discord leaned across the table with a large toothy grin on his face and an evil sneer poisoning his words, “and how is that going to ‘destroy’ me?”
“A wise man from this world once said that ‘I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends’, and I intend to destroy you as my enemy, removing the threat you pose upon my ponies by making them your friends.”
“How sure are you that I’ll just give up being me cold turkey to be your B.F.F.?”
“I don’t expect it to be easy, and I don’t expect it to be fast, but I know that you’re just a wounded animal on the inside, trying to lash out and force others give you the love and attention somepony would be willing to give voluntarily as your friend.”
Discord gave another laugh, this time just a single “ha” that wasn’t as obnoxious as the earlier ones. “What are you going to call it? Operation Keep Calm and not freak out over Discord’s redemption?”
I was surprised to see it, but Celestia actually gave a bit of a chuckle and added, “You know, that actually might work.”
“Oh, I can see it now,” Discord continued, “you’re going to write a letter to that student of yours that reads-” Discord cleared his throat and stuck his hand out like he was reading a speech. In a voice that sounded like he was mocking the Queen of England, he read,
“Dear Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student: Today I shall be paying a visit to Ponyville, along with a very important guest. Please meet me at the outskirts of town along with all of your friends. All will be explained upon my arrival.
“Hope to see you soon,
“Princess Celestia.”
The Princess raised her eyebrow. “You know, I was expecting something much more crass and insultin-”
“P.S.
“I want you and your friends to bang me like a bass drum at marching band competition.”
At that moment, two faces simultaneously met palms as the Princess covered up her grin and muffled a genuine laugh.
“You know, for all the things you’ve done over the years, you do know how to make me laugh.”
Discord reached across the table and put both of his hands around one of Celestia’s, “Oh you know I’m not bad, I was just voiced this way.”
Celestia yanked her hand away from Discord’s readying a strike if he tried to move any closer. Discord put his hands up, showing that he wasn’t trying to do anything other than retreat to his own side of the table. I’d be lying if I didn’t get a little tense over the whole ordeal as well.
The escalation of the situation caused the two to freeze in a stalemate, Discord trying to show that he was not attempting any malcontent to the Princess while she was standing by in case he struck at random. After a few more seconds, Discord lowered his hands and finally surrendered by saying, “You know what, Celestia, I do like the sounds of this… there’s so many random variables, chances, and things that could go so delightfully wrong that it's like we’re playing a game! If you’re right, then friendship and all the other hooey that you try to jam down everyone’s throat will be the solution once more. But if you’re wrong… well… I don’t even know what I’ll do when I’m free this time!”
Celestia brought her hand to her cheek. “Well I suppose that’s one way to look at your rehabilitation, and if a game is what you want, then a game is what you’ll receive.”
Discord gave a smirk. “Well, then if this is how its going to be done, then its customary for opponents in this place to shake hands over their agreements. So…” Discord stuck out his left hand. “Put ‘er there, partner!”
I suppose Discord must have assumed Celestia didn’t know much about human customs, because he was exercising his mastery of the silver tongue and trickery. He must have been burying an ace in the hole with this, because shaking with a left hand is actually an insult and would not finalize their deal. Tricky Dick.
Surprising me, Celestia nodded and said, “Well, you’ve got yourself a deal.” And reached out with her right hand and took Discord’s. For a moment, his dirty, hairy, calloused hand hovered while Celestia’s smooth, clean digits tightened around his.
As soon as they touched, Discord began shouting and writhed in pain in his seat. The sounds he made startled me and caused me to stand up, ready to either attack or to get out of harm’s way. While all this was happening the Princess remained seated, firmly gripping the Incarnate of Chaos’ hand as if it was nothing while he writhed like he was holding onto a clump of dry ice. Finally, Discord grabbed his left wrist with his right hand and pulled it out, falling out of his seat and landing in the aisle. He stood facing away and hunched over, cradling his wounded hand.
He whispered something, breathing heavily and twitching over the pain his hand had caused him.
“There’s no need to be alarmed,” she said. I tried to step out from my seat and into the aisle, but she repeated it again, at which point I realized that, for the first time on this train trip, she was actually talking to me. “He’s a clever one, but every now and then hubris gets the better of him.”
Maybe it was because of the revelation that I was not just some ghostly interloper to this meeting and that the two knew full well that I was there but didn’t care about one human spectator, or that if these two were the human incarnations of gods visiting our world and that my best efforts would be as effective as fighting a SWAT team with a potato gun, but for either reason I slowly moved back to my seat as Discord’s breathing slowed down a normal rate.
Still with his back to me, He began to chuckle. “Clever girl,” he said, slowly turning around and revealing his hands to me.
His two right hands.
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This is a... bizzare concept, but it seems very well done. I find it hard to believe that the main character instantly knew who they were, and just happened to be a brony, but I suppose it had to happen.
I'm not sure what to make of this, but I'll fave it.
4911162 well, I couldn't really ask for anything else. Remember though, This was just something I wrote in 5 hours and 12 minutes...
by the way, Don't eat cheese before falling asleep on a train. Fucked up things happen in your dreams...
No just no this this consperisy will never be cannon.
4911179 care to elaborate?
4911210 never will this happen 2 god is nether real or fake
4911220 okay... you disagree because of secular beliefs.
Mind explaining what just happened at the end there?
4911507 literally:
Discord tried to pull a fast one on Celestia by not shaking on the deal so he could renig. Celestia, not to be fooled, prevented him from doing it by pulling a Bruce Almighty and making Discord have 2 right hands.
Meta: i wanted to end the story on a highnote and pull a cliffhanger on the reader.
4911293 no I believe that " god " was a person in history long ago and Jesus but science has proven lots of things thought to be mystical like magic. I'm not atheist tho I'm saying that this story dose confuse many of use people
I believe God's are existing, but they are typical beings ascended to power. E.g. man dies. Man is believed to be a god. Man ascends by belief. Man becomes god. There is a complete system, but it would take hours to write.
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I'm not sure where all this talk over the existence of god is coming from. If anything, this story would be more of the multiverse than that. Otherwise, this was an idea i've toyed with before and wanted to write about now that I had some spare time, so there's no need to make a mountain out of this.
Yeah, God's work together on our multiverse. But enough God's, I will read the story now
4915294 Be sure to tell me what you thought of it.
Wow, this was really clever. I enjoyed it. Celestia was fantastic and Discord was very nicely done. I will grant you an upward facing thumb and my gratitude for you writing this little gem.
4911162
latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef0128759fd303970c-600wi
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thinkingrightblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/obama-bows.jpg
Long awaited reply: Thanks for reading, I'm glad you liked it. I just had an Idea some time ago so I decided to throw it into this story and see what happened, so I'm glad you feel that way.
4940156 You are quite welcome, and I will never stop laughing at Obama bowing to the Burger King. So thanks for that too.
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If you had any questions....
I always enjoyed the scenery from a train, and I have certainly been on lesser forms of trsnsportation (Detroit city bus, for example). Also, statistically Amtrak is safer thsn a csr. But it probably won't arrive on time.
Liked the story. Certainly a different take on the PoE.
4953103 my train ride was actually quite nice. I had to dirty it up to make it fit.
Okay, so this is the review of Amtrak.
I’m not sure what to think about this… Um… Okay, so here are my initial thoughts.
I think I liked it. This was just weird. Not the bad kind of weird, the kind that, I really didn’t know what to make of it. It was definitely a unique story, I’ll give it that.
So, we start with the description of Chicago and the trains. I liked the description of the trains; I thought it was very well done. I thought that there was a clear image of what the trains looked like.
I kind of wished it went somewhere, or played a bigger role in the story. Like I felt for all of the things that were described to us in the first part of the story, it didn’t really amount to anything. It was written well, for the most part, but I felt that it should have lead up to something or connected I think a little better to the rest of the story.
Maybe something like he thinks he sees the Discord character in another part of the train or swears he hears Celestia’s voice, but it wasn’t. Or comparing the city to Discord or something to Celestia.
I don’t know, maybe I’m being nitpicky. Because it really all was written well. I thought it was very well done, but I don’t know if I liked it or not, completely, I mean. Because I felt that it could have connected better to the Celestia and Discord scene. Again, could be nitpicking here, but there was just something off about it and I really don’t know why. I feel like maybe if it had lead up to the whole Discord/Celestia thing better, I think it wouldn’t have bothered me as much, or worked it in better.
The Discord and Celestia thing, that was interesting. That was definitely an interesting concept. I like how this would set up for the episode where Fluttershy turns Discord. Just so we are clear, I have not seen the episode with Terik, so I don’t know how this goes. I’m hoping this story doesn’t have anything to do with that, but just to clear the air.
But, I never got that vibe, so I think we are okay.
The last bit of dialogue between them. I don’t know if it’s just because it was dirty and Celestia laughed, but I cringed. I know this is a personal thing, but I cringed when Celestia laughed at that comment.
Maybe I just don’t get the joke. Maybe I’m old, but I really didn’t see what was funny about it. Again, personal thing.
However, I really did like the level of intelligence that Celestia did show in the last part of the story. Outwitting Discord, that was pretty smart and it felt good to have her beat him at his own game.
Overall, it was okay. I felt that the opening needed to connect more. There were a lot of personal touches that I felt made the story less, at least for me. This was an interesting concept. I really liked the idea here.
I think it’s definitely unique and something that I don’t see every day and I think that is what made it so difficult for me to figure out how I felt about it. A few grammar and spelling things here and there, I’ll point them out at the end of the review. It’s kind of a hit and miss story. There were many things that I thought “Yeah, that was good.” And then there was “Wow, I really didn’t like that.” I know it was probably only one or two little things and I’m probably over analyzing it, but this was just a hard one to judge.
So, I liked it. Despite the one or two issues I had, I think I did like it. Celestia and Discord were done well, with the exception of that one moment for me. And I think that the discussion between them was good. Again, I would have liked to see more of the opening scene make a connection with the Discord/Celestia thing, but other than that, enjoyable.
Grammar errors I caught.
Your
‘And’ should be caped
Unless it’s a name, ‘Dick’ should be lower cased.
5200086 Thanks for the review. I feel that you may be able to answer a few of your questions by reading the blogpost associated with the story.
The beginning section was just me describing the train I was on and also trying to establish the narrator as a bit of an asshat, there really was nothing to it, but I felt it needed to be there to set up the next section as well as give a bit of a mythological side to how the Narrator was at the meeting as well as show that he was a brony without going out and just saying it or sounding like a fanboy.
As for the joke, what I wanted to infer was a bit of humanity between Discord and Celestia without turning it into a Dislestia ship, Although they have been fighting each other for centuries Celestia did not hate Discord, and although this could have been expressed by the whole effort of giving him another chance, I thought I could do it with that stupid joke.
Also, in case you didn't get the punchline, the whole joke behind it was that You expect Discord to mock Celestia and say something really stupid and random, but in reality he imitates how she writes perfectly to the point that she actually uses that as her letter... then of course discord has to throw in the sex joke for good measure and to get a chuckle out of the teenyboppers. And, I have to admit that another reason I put that there was because I was looking for a reason for Discord to say the Classic Jessica Rabbit line, "I'm not bad, I was just <Verb> this way."
Anyway, thanks for the review, just don't think about it to much.
5200086 also, Tricky Dick was the nicname of Presidents Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon, nixon earned the name because of his problems with his Watergate while Clinton had problems with his Waterbed.
5200870 Good to know.
Thank you for allowing me to read your story.
Also, if you want to do me a favor, if you would click on one of my story links and give me a review. Just pick the one that sounds interesting to you, I would really appreciate it.
The Longest Night. - The Cutie Mark Crusaders have been invited to a mansion for the weekend with the promise of it being the best weekend ever. ... So why does it feel like it might be their last? (Rated M for gore)
Royal Day Off - Princess Celestia and Princess Luna just want to have a day off. And they make it the best day ever. (Rated E for everyone)
The Daredevil Cutie Mark - The Cutie Mark Crusaders meet with two colts who promise to help them find their Cutie Marks. But are they as trustworthy as they appear? (Rated E for everyone)
Forgive me for being technical, but I don't recall any Amtrak equipment having just passenger seats on one side of the car and tables and chairs on the other - at least on the Horizon and Amfleet cars used on the line featured in this story. During my first read-through, I thought the narrator had transitioned from sitting in one of the coaches to sitting in the café car and never actually mentioned it.
That's my only issue with this story. Other than that, I thought you did a pretty decent job. I especially liked when Discord read the P.S. section of the letter he made up. I was laughing right along with Celestia.
6943168 I find it really funny that you mention that.
I wrote the setting of the train car as a downgraded combination of my seating as well as the dining car. I made it sound a bit shittier to make my character sound like a bit of a pessimist. Otherwise, I wanted to have the two sit across from each other throughout the story rather than next to each other in a seat.
My final thoughts after combining the two cars together was, "Nobody who actually knows anything about the Amtrak would actually point it out..."
6944719 Oh, okay. I see (sort of...). Your character did seem a little flustered, after all.
True, there's probably a miniscule amount of people on this site who would actually care about the authenticity of train car descriptions. I just pointed it out because it threw me off track (pun intended
) with regards to the setting.