New Story · 5:30pm Oct 27th, 2018
So, I did a thing.
I recently visited my parents who live 1100 km to the south of me in Germany and took the train, since that's by far the cheapest and usually most comfy way to do that. Except that there had been a minor disaster on the line connecting Frankfurt and Cologne that had thrown most of the timetable into chaos.
(The tower to the right with the yellow lighting, that's the Commerzbank tower.)
It worked out nicely in the end as opposed to my protagonist's journey - of course I missed out on his special encounter due to that. In my world, ICE 273 didn't terminate in Frankfurt due to the chaos but brought me to my next stop where I just about made it to my next train. Can't have it all I guess, but it gave me inspiration and I had many hours of travel ahead of me to start writing. By hand in a notebook, because the WiFi didn't work (neither did the automatic reservation displays on the seats or all of the bistro-carriage for that matter... one of those days I guess).
Once more I was inspired inspired by Admiral Biscuit and the story contains a shout-out to Silver Glow's Journal. I also simply like to write as if ponies have made contact with Earth a while ago and their presence is just a fact of life and it's kinda normal, if not necessarily common yet. In my world, the portal opened in north America and ponies aren't as prolific in Europe yet. It's only a matter of a decade or two or so though and it's nothing revolutionary.
I spent way too much time on making the story fit the actual timetables and all the trains in the story are real ;)
The timetable competition is from an old German film that I love and never, ever expected to be able to use in any kind of story. Enter ponies on Earth.
And finally, Penny's hoofshoes. They exist, and they're cool.
There's even a clip-on clip-off version for medical applications, but a hardworking mare like Penny needs something more durable to protect her hooves.
So here's to railways stations late at night.
The walls of reality are fragile there.
Oh, and if you want a soundtrack to the story: It was written to this, on loop.
Brilliant story my friend! Was a very good read.
I enjoyed that quite a lot. Very nicely done! Penny made me smile.
*eeees excitedly!*
*reads*
4959029
Thank you!
4959037
She made me smile while writing her and mostly wrote herself after the first few paragraphs. Lovely mare. And thanks ;)
4959060
I hope it was worth the eeeee's, even if it could hardly be more different from Northland if it tried :b
4959224
It was good, in a melancholy sort of way. Though I did kinda feel like Penny was trying to make a pass at the main character. Some unresolved sexual tension there, I think!