There are fewer and fewer passengers on this train with each stop.
I do not blame them.
I sit, facing west, as layers of landscape morph from green to brown to gray.
Grass is replaced with concrete.
Concrete is replaced with rubble.
Rubble is replaced with dust.
I don't even have my shades on. What's the point? The green hum is but a whisper here. Lights flash with duller and duller emerald between each bent, rusted lamppost. I watch as a gray sky stretches thick and thicker, pushing the dead clouds higher away—like a corpse protecting a corpse.
A calm sigh escapes my lips. I'm handling this better than I thought.
Even still, with each layer of filth that the train passes—the abandoned buildings with spray painted walls, the abandoned stagecoaches on the sidewalks, the homes boarded up for miles on end—I can't help but feel like things have stayed the same from when I was here last.
I am a living snapshot that completes this desolation. All I'm doing is seeking a hole long abandoned, like so many cracks and fissures in the concrete blurring by. I wonder if I'm the only soul righteous enough—or crazy enough—to return.
I glance at the trees, they scrape the sky threadbare. It's warm out, and yet this place has been winter for seven years. Decaying. Starving.
Waiting for me.
I hope I don't disappoint.
The speakers of the train car crackle to life—or at least they try to. The conductor's voice ripples across the walls with absurd glee: "Next Stop. Detrot Central Train Depot. Estimated arrival in fifteen minutes."
Biting my lip, I crane my neck, peering out across the dilapidated apartment complexes. I look for a river.
There's a sliver of glittering blue light—but then it's gone as we descend into a Tartarusian grave of granite and steel. Lights flicker by. My ears pop, sending a turquoise ripple through my body.
And there... deep in the city's belly, at last... is the smell.
My next breaths are deep, moist things. I slip my shades on to avoid drowning in the magenta, and telekinetically reach for my belongings.
Hmm...Detrot...
Yeah...something tells me this is gonna be a really fun trip. *sigh*
Wow, we are so close to the end. Skirts said it would be over by mid-December, right?
Oh.... oh my... Skirts... you... mmmm...
>Suspicious look
I'll just watch for now.
:|
They actually put that on the signs outside.
She's from Detrot?
... no wonder she has issues.
Vinyl is in my home turf. Something tells me in her current mental state she'll either have no problems, or nothing but problems. Hoping for the former and a happy ending. Seriously. This story has chewed me up and hasn't spit me out yet!
6727070 oh no.
I have a feeling this is not going to have a happy ending..
I think I'll look good there.
Seriously though, Geeze that is not a happy place. I'm getting the feelin' you should've read your mail, girl.
WHERE IS TAVI!?
Oh, she used to live in Detrot?
Well that explains why she tried to kill herself!
Skirts... mid december is 2 days away, and you don't have a sad tag on this.
Don't even think about what I think you're thinking about....
Wait a minute... she's somehow tracking Octavia cross-continent just using the unique sound of her soul?!? Okay, when do we get to start calling this a super-power?
6727614
Octavia headed east from Ponyville, towards Manehattan and then parts unkown. Vinyl went west.
6727427
Well... I thought it was funny.
Oh, man! Guessing she's gonna pick up where she left off.
She has to make the choice herself.
6727427 Wait, I'm confused. When did she try to kill herself?
6727614 now
Skirts... what are you doing?
I'll... watch... for now... clutching onto the air in hopes this will have a happy ending...
*scoff snorts before falling down crying*
6728082
Years ago, after losing her voice and the one thing that gave her purpose in life, Vinyl Scratch climbed to the top of a bridge (in Detrot, apparently). She was about to throw herself into the river when Octavia found her and talked her down, saving her life.
Apparently you weren't the only one confused, judging by how many downvotes I got. That's pretty hilarious since I thought the story made it pretty blatantly obvious multiple times that this was what happened!
waaait a second MAGENTA
6728436 Not only did it not make it obvious, I'm not even sure that was what was said. I'm gonna take you at your word, though, since I'm not going to comb through umpty-dozen chapters looking for references to bridges and leaping.
6729865
You should re-read. Tavi even throws it in Vinyl's face before she leaves.
FUN TIMES IN CLEVELAND TODAAAAAAY!!!