Friendship Express- Queen Chrysalis
As Shiny talked with the others, I turned around in my seat and faced the window, rested my chin on the window ledge, and watched the trees and hills pass by. I knew I was being rude but was better to be rude than to say something that might make them suspicious. The train jolted a little as we passed over the bridge connecting either side of Ghastly Gorge, but then returned to its smooth click-clacking up the tracks as it turned toward the Everfree Forest. We would have a quick stop in Ponyville in a few hours, and then it would be straight ahead up Canterlot Mountain and into the heart of Canterlot.
All this sitting was making my legs ache, and I almost longed to be back out there walking. Well, at least I could still walk. I stood and wiggled out from behind Shiny, dropping down to the floor. Shining paused in the middle of his sentence as all three looked at me. Surprisingly, Lucky and Fire were still asleep in their corner seat, though no longer as nestled together. "I’m going to make a trip to the little mare’s room,” I said softly and trotted toward the door.
“Do you want me to come with you?” Cadence asked. She folded her wings against her sides and smoothly rose to her hooves. “The train is pretty full, so would be safer to go together. I need to stretch my legs anyway.”
I narrowed my eyes slightly at her, was she being sincere, or did she suspect something? That smile she always seemed to have on her face didn’t waver as she waited for my answer.
“Let her come if she wants I suppose,” Chrys sighed. ”If she does suspect anything, better to find out now than later.”
“I can take her,” Shiny said when I hesitated.
“No, it’s okay Shiny,” I said and smiled at him. “It would just be weird if my brother came with me.” I turned back to Cadence. “If you really want to, sure let’s go.”
Cadence nodded, opened the door for us with her magic, and waited for me to step out. I trotted down the short path between cars, Cadence on my tail, where she opened the adjacent cars' doors and led the way inside.
The next car over was filled with ponies, every seat was taken. I spotted a few I recognized from the show, but couldn’t recall their fan-made names. One of those spa pony mares from Ponyville, the pink one with blue mane; a tall, pale blue stallion with short-cropped darker blue mane and tail; a darker yellow mare with a green mane and tail – wasn’t she one of Applejacks many cousins?- and others besides.
Cadence walked behind me in silence. I bit my lip, why wasn’t she saying anything? My nervousness grew as we continued to the next car, another passenger one, but with not nearly as many ponies as the previous one.
“Are you sure you are okay Dew?” I jumped at the sudden sound of Cadence’s voice but nodded. “You know you can tell me anything right? I’m your friend.”
“Of-of course Princess,” I stammered, “and yes, I’m fine. Just ready to return home. Ironhoof needs me.”
Princess Cadence smiled. “Please, Dew dear, just call me Cadence.” She smiled down at me warmly. “So our little Dew has grown up and found herself a special somepony hmm? Maybe he’ll be able to help you then.”
“Help me?”
“Why yes, I’m sure your experience with those nasty things was traumatic. I saw the damage they had done, the horrible way those poor ponies were killed. If you need to talk to somepony about it, let me know.” She paused, put a hoof around me, and nuzzled my mane.
“Ugh, I forgot how… affectionate she could be,” Chrys grumbled. “Too bad that it wouldn’t be a good idea to feed off of her. She’d probably be able to feed us just as well as Shiny.”
“Of course Prin- Cadence.”
“That’s my filly,” Cadence chuckled and continued walking. “Now, do your parents approve of this Ironhoof? Is he a gentlestallion?”
“Of course he is! He is one of the nicest, sweetest ch- er stallions I know!” I smiled widely at her, right ear twitching slightly. Had to be more careful, I’d almost said he was a changeling!
“Well then if he is still in the dungeons, I’ll talk to Auntie Celestia and see if we can get him out.”
She had heard that too? But- I thought she had been sleeping? Was there anything she seemed to miss? I nodded my head, “thank you, you don’t know how much I would appreciate that.”
“What are friends for?” Cadence said and winked at me, pausing as we came to a set of doors at the end of the car. “Ah here we are, go on in and call me if you need anything.”
“Right,” I said and pushed open the one to the left, which had a picture of a mare painted on it. As it shut behind me I let out a sigh of relief, leaning against the cool wooden wall. With a glance up at the bathroom mirror, I blinked at my reflection. The dust of the road clung to my coat, my mane was mussy, sticking out to the right in an unsightly lump of dirt and sweat. Colt did I look horrible!
I stepped up to the sink and turned it on, closing my eyes for a moment just to listen to the running water. We could do this. Cadence seemed to be none the wiser about us. I might not be playing this role perfectly, but she was believing our story of why not.
“Told you it would work,” Chrys said. “But we must be very careful. She or Shining, of all ponies, would have a higher chance of figuring us out.”
“I’m doing my best,” I mumbled, running my hooves under the water and splashing it onto my face. Using my magic, I pulled some water up and into my mane, doing what I could without a comb to make it look decent at least. “Do you think she’d really help us rescue him?”
“She does seem less hesitant than Shining about us all being bad,” Chrys said, but then snorted. “But once she finds out he is a changeling? No, probably not. Unless…”
“What? Do you have a plan? An idea?” I could almost feel her smirk.
“Who says we have to reveal ourselves to Princess Celestia? Shiny’s sister is plenty old enough for her own special somepony. Leptostales could have been… courting her as his Ironhoof self.”
“Yes, yes that could work. And then she doesn’t know what he really is! Or should she know, and not care?” I rubbed a hoof against my chin. We finally had the semblance of a plan, but would it work?
“We can go with the flow on that, and it will depend on what he did to get caught. With this, I think we have a way to finagle his release!” She let out a cackle, and I couldn’t help but chuckle as well.
“Everything okay in there Dew?” Cadence yelled, knocking on the door.
“Er, yeah I’m fine, just freshening up a bit,” I called back. We were looking better now. At least our face was clean and our mane mostly free of dust, though it still stuck out awkwardly in a few places. Now we just needed to hammer out the rest of the details, and we might actually stand a chance.
I turned off the water and trotted over to the door. Yes, things were looking up. We finally had a plan. Could we fool even Princess Celestia, and get him back? Relations between our two different species were negative sure, but if we had Cadence on our side, she could sway the tide. Who wouldn’t listen to the Princess of Love? Especially if we could convince Cadence how much in love we were with him? I didn’t see her as one who would deny ‘true love’, no matter what the coupling was like.
“There you are,” Cadence said as I pushed the door open and stepped back out. “Ready to head back to the others?”
I nodded. “Oh yes, I am doing much better now,” I said, beaming up at her. “Let’s return.”
Friendship Express- Shiny Whistle
I watched as Chryssy and Cadence stepped out the door, a soft click echoing as it closed behind them. Silence filled the train car for a moment before the soft click of hooves came from across the aisle.
“How are you doing Shiny?” Shining Armor asked, and sat down in the seat opposite mine.
I sat up and turned to look at him. He had a look of genuine concern on his face, to which I tried just smiling, but my ears had other ideas, sliding halfway down. “Well, I’ve been better, but Dew and I are heading home after a long trip and things will look up from there.”
“You don’t sound so sure,” he said. “Is it this Ironhoof? Do you not approve of him? Do your parents even know Dew is seeing somepony?”
I shook my head. “No, they don’t know. As for if I approve of him? Can’t say for sure as I’ve never met him.”
“Wait,” Shining said and held up a hoof. “You two are racing home to help him, and you don’t even know the pony?”
“No, but I do know my sister. She’d never get with a pony who would harm her. She’s smarter than that.”
“Love can do many things to a pony Shiny, sometimes good, other times stupid.” Shining sighed, shifting in his seat.
“I’m aware of that sir.” Colt was I aware. Most ponies would probably think it stupid supporting the changelings, let alone their queen. Yet, here I was traveling with her to rescue a friend, her old lover. Was I just asking for her to break my heart? Didn’t even seem like she even cared a whit about me in that way. Would I be satisfied with just being friends, if it came to that?
“Good,” Shining said, “then let’s move on to hopefully happier matters. Did you know your brother decided to join the guard?”
“What?” My ears perked up in surprise. Why would he do that? He’d never been interested in such things before. All he’d wanted to do was play drums in that band of his. “What happened to his band? Did they separate?”
“I’m not sure, he won’t talk about it. But he sent me a letter asking for my recommendation. Of course, he’ll have to go through training and school like everypony else.”
I just stared at Shining in shock. Velvet Beat, a future guard? I just couldn’t see it. Things must have gone very bad for him recently. “So what did you do?”
“I told him he’d have to go through training first, but if he got through it all and still wanted to join, I’d be glad to help him with a recommendation.”
“Is he still in Canterlot?”
Shining nodded. “I would imagine so. The next round of training classes begin soon, but as far as I know, he should be living with your parents at the moment.”
Yes, that would make sense. When I go to visit, I will have to ask him about that. Sweet Celestia, I’m gone for what, less than three months? And so much has changed. Dew Song missing, my brother wants to join the guard, what else had I missed? “My parents are okay, right?”
Shining nodded. “Last time I saw them they were, just missing their foals. Why did you leave without even telling them?”
I grimaced and closed my eyes. Should have known that question was coming. “I didn’t want them to stop me. Dad is still… hesitant about any of us even leaving the house at times. If he’d known I wanted to travel Equestria, he’d have locked me in my room and thrown away the key.”
Shining nodded, understanding. “Sadly there are many still that way, even after two years. Of course, it doesn’t help that we keep having other monsters or creatures attack.” He held up a forehoof and tapped it with his other as he counted down. “King Sombra, the giant cockatrices, Discord’s plunder vines-”
“Wait, what? Plunder vines?” I had heard about the giant cockatrice attack, though Velvet and I had been out of Canterlot that day, but what in the hay?
Shining waved a hoof at it. “Don’t worry, long story short it was just Discord playing his usual games. The point is there have been plenty of problems sent both to Canterlot and Ponyville. So I don’t blame your father for wanting to protect you. I’ll do the same someday, once Cady and I have our own foals.”
“Well you’ll make a great father,” I said. Shining blushed, running a hoof over his neck.
“Thanks, Shiny,” he said and sat his hoof back down on the seat. “Now, speaking of problems, besides the trouble in Hoofville, have you two ran into anything else on your journey?”
Colt was that a loaded question! Had I? He surely would count running into Chryssy as a problem, even if I wouldn’t. Any mention of changelings though and he might get suspicious. Besides that though my journey had been rather uneventful. Selling a few whistles here and there, saving bits where I could by staying with the locals in town, repaying them with some chore they needed to be done. I opened my mouth to speak when a blue glow surrounded the train car door and it opened.
Chryssy trotted in, face now dust free and mane looking a little better, with Princess Cadence behind her. “Welcome back,” I said, smiling at Chryssy as she plopped down next to me. She leaned over to me and put her muzzle against my ear.
“I finally thought up a plan,” she whispered. “Whatever happens, do your best to play along okay?”
I nodded and she giggled, ruffling my mane with a hoof. “Oh Shiny, you’re so funny!” She beamed and looked across the way to where Princess Cadence had settled beside Shining. “So, did you stallions have a good talk?”
“That we did,” Shining grinned over at her. “Seems you and Cadence must have had a good one too. You seem in a much better mood than before.”
She nodded, flicking her tail back and forth. “Yep! She’s going to help me get Ironhoof back!”
Shining’s eyes widened and turned to Cadence. “Really?”
“Mmmhmm,” Cadence nodded. “As long as what he did is redeemable enough. Though with what Dew says about him, I think he should be fine.”
“But what would Princess Celestia say about that?”
“She trusts me Shiny,” Cadence frowned slightly. “She knows I wouldn’t ask for his release if I didn’t feel he deserved it.”
Shining sighed and held a hoof to his head. “Well okay, I guess I’ll help too then.” He looked over to Chryssy, who gave a big Pinkie Pie wide grin at him. “Especially if it keeps Dew happy.”
“It will indeed Shining, it will indeed,” Chryssy said, letting out a small giggle. It must be a good plan indeed for her mood to have changed like this. Too bad she wouldn’t get a chance to explain it to me with the others here.
A pale red unicorn opened the door and poked his head inside. “We are almost to Ponyville, about thirty more minutes. Prepare yourselves. We will be stopping there for about an hour to give you all a chance to stretch and get something to eat if you feel like it.”
Cadence nodded to him. “Thank you for letting us know.”
“No problem Princess,” he smiled softly and left, closing the door behind him.
Cadence turned back to me and Chryssy. “You should probably wake your friends. I imagine they could use a good stretch after their long nap.” Yes, they probably could. I was surprised they had slept so long, but then they had awoken much earlier than us.
It had been a long time since I was last in Ponyville. It was before Twilight Sparkle gained her wings for sure. I wondered how much had changed since then. Shaking my head, I trotted over to wake the two sleepyheads up.
Ponyville Train Station- Queen Chrysalis
As we drew nearer to the train station, I heard gasps and screams of alarm from the cars ahead of us. What in the hay was going on? I cringed as the train came to an abrupt halt, its brakes squealing in protest. Minutes passed, somepony coughed, and then an amplified voice filled the car.
“We are sorry for the delay everypony. It seems…. the train tracks have been changed into gold.”
“Gold? What the hay?” I said, turning to look at the others. Everypony else seemed to have just as surprised a look on their faces as I did. Though the look on Cadence and Shining’s faces quickly turned… suspicious.
“Do you think?” Cadence asked, turning to Shining.
“That Chrysalis is still messing with us? Probably,” he snorted. “Though no idea how she could change the rail line to gold.”
“Why am I always the first suspect?” Chrys growled. “Turning iron into gold? Nopony can do that, nor Ling! Not without some very dark magic. Surely nothing we possess.”
“So, what are we going to do?” Fire asked, ears going flat against his head.
“Just to let everypony know,” the voice continued, and we all flipped our ears toward it, “we are about a mile outside of Ponyville. We are unsure how long this delay might last. If anypony desires to do so, they can head into Ponyville until we can move on. We will send a pegasus out to find those who wish to continue to Canterlot one hour before we leave. Until then, everypony else just sit tight.”
“You four should stay here, who knows what terrors are being wrought over Ponyville,” Cadence said and stomped a hoof to the ground. “If it is Chrysalis, Shining and I will capture her. If not, well, I’m sure a problem of this magnitude Twilight will need my help with anyway.”
“Oh sure, just the two of you capture me?” Chrys laughed. “Do you really think us that easy?” I couldn’t help but agree. We were more powerful than that!
I watched as Cadence nudged a nervous-looking Shining toward the door, his ears twitching ever so slightly, and together they cantered off toward Ponyville. I started toward the door when Shiny put a hoof to my shoulder.
“Where do you think you are going? They told us to stay here.”
I glared at him, “you can stop pretending to be my brother for now Shiny. They are not here right now.” He fell back, ears lowered, and nodded. Horseapples, I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings! “Look, I’m just… I just want to know what the hay is going on, okay?”
He nodded. “Fine, but I’m coming with you.”
“Not leaving us out of the fun either,” Lucky grinned, putting a hoof to his chest.
“Well, there is safety in numbers,” Chrys groaned. ”Let’s just get out there.”
“Fine, but I’m not going slow for you this time Fire,” I snorted.
“I understand,” Fire said softly, “Lucky and I will catch up to you two then.”
I grinned slyly over at Shiny. “If Shiny can even keep up with me.”
Shiny grinned, ears perking up. “With you disguised as my sister? I don’t think that will be a problem. I accept your challenge.”
Chrys cackled. “Well well well, this should be interesting. Don’t let us down!”
Oh, I wouldn’t. I kicked open the door, revealing grassy terrain with scattered trees and bushes, a thin hoofpath curved along the track of the train. A small grey bunny nibbling at some grass a few feet away jumped a full foot in the air when the door clattered against the wall.
When it touched the ground again it hared away into the bushes. I took a few steps outside and onto the hoofpath. Shiny joined me, the path barely wide enough for two ponies to walk side by side. I turned to look back at the tracks, and my eyes widened. As far ahead of us that I could see, the tracks were indeed sparkling like gold. What normally would have been wooden slats had changed to yellow diamond –to match the rest of it perhaps?
I turned to look back at the others. Shiny smiled at me, though the smile twitched, revealing his nervousness. Lucky and Fire stepped up to the path behind us, Lucky supporting Fire. I guess his leg wasn’t as healed as he would have hoped.
“You ready?” Shiny asked and I turned my attention back to him. Sure this little race seemed spur of the moment, but I was in a good mood with energy to burn.
“You know it!” I laughed and with a nod between us we were off. Lucky and Fire were left in our dust as we dashed along the path. Oh did it feel good to really stretch my legs after so long on the train. For a while we were neck in neck, our hooves thundering over the ground, then Shiny started to pull away. Ugh, his longer legs were giving him the advantage!
“Don’t let him win, you can do this!” Chrys yelled. I nodded and took a deep breath, stretched my legs a little farther, and caught up with him until my head was even with his flank. Mmm, and what a fine sweaty flank it was. “Pay attention to the race!” Chrys growled and I shook my head, narrowing my eyes, and raced on.
As Ponyville came into view, we both slid to a halt. One of my hooves hit a rock and I sprawled forward, knocking into Shiny. We rolled a few feet forward, a tangled mess of hooves until we came to a stop right before the dirt path turned into paved gold. “More gold?” I asked, squinting my eyes. With the sun shining down on it, it sent out blinding rays of light. “How is anypony supposed to see with this?”
“Good question,” Shiny grunted. I looked down to see once again, I had ended up on top when we came to a stop.
“Oh, sorry,” I said and leaning back, disentangled my legs from his own and rolled to the side.
“S’okay didn’t break anything, I think.” He rolled over onto his stomach and looked around, squinting his own eyes. “Ponyville sure has changed since I was last here. When did they crystalize all the trees? Some new Crystal Empire trend?”
I looked above the golden paved road to see he was right. Some of the trees that were past our current point had been crystallized, most in shades of pink-purple. “And they think I did all this? I HATE pink!” Chrys grumbled. “This looks more like something Discord would do, but a little… tame for him.”
“Let’s check it out,” I said and standing up, took a step forward. The glare from the gold paved roads was quite harsh though. “But first,” I concentrated my magic for a moment and with a little pop, two pairs of sunglasses appeared over our noses. “There, now we can go.”
“Shouldn’t we wait for Lucky and Fire?” Shiny asked standing up and looking around.
I put a hoof to my forehead and sighed. “Fine, we’ll wait for them. But they better hurry!”
Thankfully, it was just a few minutes later that they appeared around a bend in the road. Fire smiled at us, but his ears drooped in exhaustion. “Thanks for waiting for- what the hay?” he gasped, looking ahead of us.
“We don’t know yet,” I said and magicked up a pair of sunglasses for each of them as well. “Come on.” With that, I led the way into town. There were very few ponies about, which wasn’t surprising with how everything looked. The windmill had been changed into a dark purple and pink crystal mess, houses were either changed into a blue or green crystal, with a few turned to gold. The gazebo itself was a brilliant blue crystal. I could sure see why Shiny might think this a Crystal Empire trend, Ponyville almost looked like it could be a part of it.
As we walked further into town, we spotted a group of crying foals in a grassy field. Each had a little party hat on their head in multiple colors. Two foals, one a white with flaming orange and yellow mane and tail, and the other a gray one with purple mane and tail looked up from stools at a crystal swan, a tiny spoon stuck in its crystal base. The others for the most part looked down at a table laden with fancy little hoof foods.
“What’s wrong?” Shiny asked, trotting over to one of the little foals at the table, a pale blue colt with a golden yellow mane.
The little foal sniffed, looking up at Shiny with tears in his eyes. “It-it’s my birthday sir. Everything was going great, Pinkie Pie was even throwing my party. The-then in a flash of green light all our cakes and candy turned to this!” He pointed a hoof at the table. “And-and my Jello into that-that bird statue thing.”
I cringed, green light? That sure did sound like changeling magic. “No changeling I know has that powerful of magic though. I still think it is Discord pulling his usual pranks.” Chrys huffed.
“Did you see what caused it?” Shiny asked, but all the foals shook their heads.
“No sir, it just…. came out of nowhere,” the little colt said.
“It changed our clown into a waiter too!” A little sandy yellow filly with dark purple mane and tail said.
“And this awful music!” A dusty purple filly with pale purple mane and tail groaned, covering her ears.
I turned to look to the side and saw three of the ponies that had been playing at the wedding a few nights ago, including that grey mare with the pink and white bowtie. “Well, looks like some earth ponies did escape. But how the hay did they get here before us?”
“Well you all just sit tight, we’ll figure out what went wrong and try to fix it,” Shiny said and ruffled the birthday colt’s mane.
“Oh, Pinkie Pie is already on that. She ran to tell her friend Twilight.” The grey and purple foal from by the swan said, trotting over to Shiny. He grinned up at us. “Why you all wearing sunglasses?”
“To protect from the-” Shiny looked around and realized their little party was far enough from the road it couldn’t be seen well over the bushes.
“Protect from what sir?” The little colt asked.
“Oh, just the road. Don’t go near it right now okay? It might hurt your eyes.”
They all nodded and Shiny turned to the three musicians and ‘butler’. “You ponies think you can handle these foals until things are figured out?”
The grey mare –come to think of it, fans called her Octavia right?- sat her cello against the fence and dropped to all four hooves, walking over to us. “Of course we can, I’ve had to handle other musicians far worse than these little ones.” She hugged the dusty purple filly to her side and grinned. “Go ahead and see if you can help Twilight and the others. Though Princess Cadence passed by not too long ago, so I think they got it handled pretty well.”
“Don’t worry, we got this,” Lucky said with a smirk.
I rolled my eyes. Was he ever anything but confident? “Not when we are angry at him,” Chrys chuckled. “But then, that is a situation hard for any- pony or ling- to keep their confidence in.”
“Take care,” Shiny said and trotted back over to us. The foals watched him go, their frowns looking maybe a little bit smaller. He sure was good with them.
I turned to lead us onward when out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of a pony cloaked in black. Seeing the tip of a blue tail poking out from under the cloak, my eyes widened. “It’s her!” I yelled. The pony turned our way at my shout, then raced down an alleyway.
“Oh no, she’s not getting away!” Chrys growled, and I couldn’t help but agree. “Not after everypony is blaming US for what she did! Get her!” I nodded and bolted after her, Shiny and the others gasping behind me. Sure we should stay together, but I couldn’t lose her! We had to talk.