It was 4:30 in the afternoon the next day. The two had packed accordingly, and prepared to embark on their quest. The two had gotten up early to sneak under the docking platform at the station under Shadow Shroud’s instruction. They waited quietly as their train finally arrived. When it stopped, Shadow Shroud began crawling under the train, and motioned Fire Fight to follow. She led him to under the caboose. She climbed onto the piping behind the cabooses wheels where she wouldn’t be seen, hung there, and whispered Fire Fight to do the same, and he did. It was a tight grip, be he could manage.
“Once the train gets far enough away, I’ll start climbing onto the balcony in the back; I’ll set up a path for you to climb so you can follow me, got it?” Shadow Shroud explained.
“Got it.” Fire Fight affirmed.
“Good. I’ll let you know when I’m done.” she said
Just then, Fire Fight could hear somepony crying in the distance. Listening more carefully, he recognized it as his mother! He could also hear the voice of one of Princess Twilight’s guards that he met when he toured her castle.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but we’ve searched high and low, but there’s no sign of your son anywhere. It’s as if he just up and vanished.” The guard said to her. She continued to sob.
He then heard Twilight’s voice. “We’ll find him. I promise. And once we do, we’ll make it all right again.” She said.
“P-P-Please *sob**sob* I can’t lose him too! *sob*” his mother pleaded. “Fire Fight! *sooooob* Please come home!!”
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Fire Fight suddenly felt a knot in his stomach. Was this just some pointless pipe dream he had conjured up out of emotion, or was their really meaning to his goal? He would leave everything behind for something that might turn out to be pointless. He wouldn’t be sure until he committed himself to it, and his heart began to sink at the idea.
“Having second thoughts?” he looked over to see Shadow Shroud, calm and collected as ever with an authoritative expression. She agreed to follow Fire Fight on his mission; she knew it could be done, and that it was important, even if she secretly had her own agenda to fulfill on this trip. Seeing his new friend with resolve in her eyes, Fire Fight’s was suddenly rekindled.
“Not a chance! Whoever those foals are out there, they need our help, and they need it now. We can’t go back. We have a mission!” he declared.
“Good. I was worried I’d have to leave you hanging.” she sneered with a wink. His eyes widened in horror at the implication.
The train began to move as the foals held on for dear life. As the train began its trip, Ponyville faded away over the horizon. He could easily distinguish his crying mother from the rest of the ponies, who were smiling and waving goodbye to their departing friends and family.
“I’m sorry, Mom…” he thought to himself.
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When the train was finally at a desirable distance, Shadow Shroud began her climb. Be some act of her secret arts, she managed to seemingly traverse the flat underside of the balcony like a spider. Along the way, she stuck some kunai daggers into a trail fashion, and seamed a thin, but climbable rope through the holes in their handles. She motioned for him to follow. His climb was slow and steady, but made a little easier since he was going with the wind. When he got to the end, Shadow Shroud grabbed him by the hoof, and pulled him up. She then retrieved her trail of daggers.
Just beyond the back door was the interior of the caboose where some luggage was being stored. They were surprised to see that it wasn’t locked, so after peering through the window to see that nopony was there, they carefully crept their way in, and closed the door. They crouched behind a mountain of suitcases by the back door of the caboose, and moved some of it around to make a space for them to hide in for the trip.
“When we start getting there, we’ll have to quickly go out that door again before the train fully reaches the station. That way, we’re less likely to be seen, and we won’t get caught when the bellboys come to get the luggage.” Shadow Shroud whispered.
“What!? You expect to jump off a moving train!?” Fire Fight interjected.
Shroud rolled her eyes. “Don’t be such a baby; if you can take a direct hit from a metal pipe, and beat up a stallion four times your size, you can survive a little fall like that.”
“But what if we have to jump onto rocky terrain, or into a deep river, or something? We have no idea what to expect!” he argued.
“Sure we do.” She pulled out her map, and pointed to Detrot. It was located in an open plain of grass in northern central Equestria east of Neighagra Falls. “See all that open field? There’s a high chance we’ll be landing in that. Even if there is a river, it likely won’t be very deep; rivers in grasslands like this seldom are, if ever.” She explained.
Fire Fight felt a little better, and more confident. “Okay… I trust you.” He nodded.
Shadow Shroud put away her map. “Good. We have a good amount of supplies, but in case we need a quick snack, but don’t want to waste resources, I’ll use a little bit of the bits we got from the ruins to buy something from the café car.” Shadow Shroud said.
“Under cloak and dagger like that? You’d draw way too much attention” Fire Fight argued.
“And you’d be immediately recognized by anypony from Ponyville that may or not be on this train. That’d be far more risky.” She retorted. “Besides… I came prepared.” He watched her pull out a bright orange dress in her size from one of her saddlebags . It had sleeves that went down to her wrists, and went down to her ankles, covering her flank so that her ominous Cutie Mark wouldn’t attract unneeded attention. She swiftly spun around, and by another miracle changed out of her ninja clothes, and into the dress. Her mane was even styled a little casually! What other kinds of surprises was this filly hiding?
She flipped her mane, and looked at him. “Well? How do I look?” she asked. Her tone had change completely from the whispering killer to a cute, kind as can be typical filly you’d see on the street every day.
Fire Fight found himself staring in amazement at her magic trick. Not only that… but she really did look nice in that dress. He blushed a little. “Y-You look… great! ….wow…” he stuttered.
She giggled. “Don’t stare to long!” she then flicked her wrist, detracting a hidden blade underneath. “Or you might see my sharper end!” she said with her ninja tone. She withdrew it, and giggled innocently once more. “Surely they won’t mind little ol’ me going to the snack bar to get a couple things for me and momma!” she squeaked. “I’ll go there later when we decide that we’re hungry, ok?” Fire Fight just nodded his head, staring blankly at the femme fatale before him. “Alrighty then!” she casually laid down on the carpeted floor.
Fire just sat there, quivering a little at her little trick quite literally up her sleeve. “That is one scary filly.” he thought to himself.