The gang still had a long way to go before they reached their destination. Some of the girls started growing bored to the point where they'd be napping throughout the day. But for Twilight, she was able to ease her boredom, thanks to the books she brought with her. Sunset also eased her boredom by reading some books. Sunset and Twilight had a thing for reading. They never understood why some ponies in Equestria never take the time to read all these amazing books. But it did give Twilight and Sunset all the more pleasure of gaining more knowledge just for fun and just in case they might actually need to use the info they picked up.
Of course, Twilight knew that there were somethings she could only learn so much from books alone. She would know since she's had to learn her lessons through experience thanks to all those friendship and life lessons she and her friends learned. Even Sunset learned her lessons back in the human world when she was still a student. But after her graduation, she was able to take the lessons she learned and help make herself a better pony.
"Hey, Twilight?" Sunset asked.
"Hmm?" Twilight responded.
"I'm not trying to be rude, but why did Princess Celestia have us taken to this town by carriage instead of taking the train? I mean, isn't the express train able to travel all over Equestria?" Sunset asks.
"I don't know, Sunset. Maybe this town is too unknown to most other ponies in Equestria. There are still a few mysteries in Equestria that have yet to be uncovered and I doubt that we'll be able to discover all of them in such a short time. All we can do right now is keep our heads held high and hope this mysterious unknown town doesn't bring any harm or misfortune to anypony." Twilight explains.
"Now I know why you're the Princess of Friendship. Princess Celestia sure knows how to teach her star pupil. I guess it comes as no surprise, but I'm not too upset about it." Sunset says.
"You sure, Sunset?" Twilight asks.
"Yeah, I don't care if I'm not a princess, because there's nothing better than having a group of amazing friends. After all, it's like you said, there's no greater or stronger magic than the magic of friendship."
Twilight nodded in agreement to Sunset's words. The two of them got back to reading their books. They liked picturing what's happening in the books they were reading. It didn't matter how long the journey was. Twilight packed plenty of books to read, including a few brand new Daring Do books for Rainbow Dash to read.
'Of course, it's going to be difficult to spread friendship across Equestria. There's so many places to go and so many ponies to help solve their friendship problems. And something tells me that this one friendship problem is going to be a bit of a struggle. Probably even for the princess if she's acting so strange today.' Sunset says in her mind.
In the other carriage, Spike had grown tired and decided to take a nap. Princess Celestia had his head laying in her forehooves and she just couldn't stop smiling at him as he slept peacefully.
'Oh, Spike. You've made me so proud to know that you're growing up so well, yet you show just how young and handsome you still are. I'm so proud to call you my son.' Celestia thought. She used her free hoof to rub his scaly underbelly, making the young dragon giggle a bit. 'You're still just as adorable as when you were still just my little baby dragon, Spike. How did time fly so fast? Let's hope it didn't fly by too fast for him to completely forget about me.'
Meanwhile, in the unknown town, Inside a big, wooden, three-story house, a white alicorn stallion with sapphire eyes and mane was staring down at the ponies from the third floor balcony, smiling at the hard work they were putting into their daily lives. Next to this stallion was an earth pony mare with dark red fure, and a bright red, silky smooth mane and had beautiful hazel eyes. The stallion looked over to the mare with a warm smile on his face before looking back at the town.
"How has your father been doing, honey?" asked the mare.
"The usual. Sparring with his old combat partner. Im starting to think he makes a living off of combat. How's our little angel doing, has she finished eating up her dinner?" asked the stallion.
"Yes, honey, she even fell asleep after she filled up her cute little belly."
"Well, she is only 4, so it's no surprise. So..." the stallion paused before he brought up one subject that made himself cringe. "...How is my little brother doing, is he pulling through alright?" he asked. The mare's smile began to disappear when he brought that up.
"Unfortunately, no. He's just been staring outside his window. I tried to converse with him, but he just stood there, not moving and staying quiet. He's been like that for the past 3 weeks."
"He didn't try to hurt you, did he?"
"I offered to give him a hug and he accepted. You know he's not hostile towards his own family. Why would you even think that of your own little brother at all?" she asks with a bit of disbelief.
"Sorry, dear. I'm just worried. Just seeing that look in his eyes sent chills down my spine. He may be my brother, but there's no denying that he's still powerful enough to match up against even our own father. I'm just trying to be cautious." he says.
"Honey, how many times has this town been under threat?"
"Once."
"And who was this certain threat that you, your little brother AND your father worked hard together to defeat?"
"The...Changeling Army. That whole incident really shook me up. But it wasn't the changelings that spooked me, it was my little brother. I've never seen him so vicious with his magic like that. I'm sorry, honey, but I just don't want you or our daughter to get hurt."
"Your brother would never harm a hair on our daughter. He loves her very much. It just puzzles me that even though you're the oldest of 3 brothers, you fear the 2nd oldest the most." the mare was starting to get frustrated with her husband. "I'm starting to think you don't even love your own brother anymore." when she said that, the stallion looked at her in disbelief. He held in his anger and took a deep breath before finally speaking his mind.
"I do love my brother...no... I love both of my brothers, and my father, as well as you and our little girl. I guess, I was just being so paranoid about this whole situation that I just wasn't thinking straight and I have myself to blame for that, dear. Maybe I'll go check up on him, see if he's alright." hearing this from her husband brought back her smile, making her hug her husband.
"Yes, after all, he's going to need all the love and support he can get." said the mare.
"Now I know why I married you. You always know how to look on the bright side. Why can't anypony else be as kind and understanding as you?" the stallion gave his wife a peck on the cheek before walking on back inside the house. "I'll be back soon, Crimson Ruby." he said.
"Take care, Blue Blaze." she replied back.
Blue Blaze nodded and walked down the hall and through the third door on the right. There he saw that the room was all dark, except for the light coming out of the window. And standing near the window across from where the door was, stood a unicorn stallion with the same eye and fur color as Blue Blaze. But his mane colored red. He kept staring out the window, eyeing the town and the ponies. Blue Blaze was about to speak but then the other stallion spoke.
"What do you want." he asked in a low, expressionless tone. Blue Blaze jumped a bit before he spoke.
"I just wanted to talk, bro." Blue Blaze responded.
"Then you talk, I won't." said the stallion in the same tone. Blue Blaze nearly flipped his lid when he said that, but he stopped himself from taking his anger out on his brother.
"Look, I know you're still upset about his passing, but there's nothing you can do, what happened to him was a tragic accident, but he wouldn't want you to sulk like this. He gave this town a reason to keep moving forward. But know that he'll never leave us all on our own, because he still lives in our hearts. So please, bro. Try to cheer up. Not for him, not for me, or the rest of the family, but for you. Because if you don't, the more you isolate yourself, the more you'll overthink your decisions in life. That's what father taught me when we lost our loving grandmother sixteen years ago." he explained. His brother didn't say a word and kept staring down at the town. Blue Blaze leaned in and gave his little brother a big hug to show him how much he loves him. "Hang tough, bro." he says. As he's about to disappear behind the door, he then hears his little brother speak.
"I'll...try." he said in the same tone. Blue Blaze nodded before disappearing behind the door.
Night time had drawn near and Princess Celestia had order the Royal Guards to stop for the night. Princess Celestia and the rest of the girls all got out of the carriages to stretch out their limbs. They could see that Luna's moon had already lit up the night sky. Twilight looked down the dirt path and saw that they still had a long ways to go before they reach the town. She groaned in disappointment.
"Just how far is this place? I can't even tell if we're halfway there." Twilight says.
"We have to be patient, Twilight. We'll get there soon if we just have faith." Celestia calls out from the other carriage to ease her former student.
"If you ask me, dearies, I could use some shut eye. A proper mare needs to get her proper beauty sleep." Rarity says, rubbing her eyes.
"I think we all deserve to get some shut eye. Just look at Rainbow Dash, she's clonked out. And don't even get me started on Spike's snoring," Sunset points out. "I have a feeling they'll be waking up earlier than us."
"Yeah, but who knows, maybe they might oversleep fer a good 12 hours, or maybe 14." Applejack says. The girls all laughed and apparently this woke up Spike and Rainbow Dash.
"Ugh, come on! Can't a dragon get some sleep over here?" Spike shouted from the carriage.
"Yeah, how am I suppose to be refueled if I can't get any sleep?" Rainbow added. The girls snickered at their cranky friends as they head on back to sleep.
"Come on, girls, let's just get some sleep. We'll need all the strength for tomorrow." Twilight says. The girls all headed back into the carriages, except for Princess Celestia. For some reason, she kept staring at the night sky. She didn't know why, but she just felt like looking upwards and gazing at the stars and the moon.
She stayed standing for a good minute until she yawned and decided to head back into the carriage with Spike. She closed the carriage door and laid on the empty seat, falling fast asleep.
It wasn't long before Princess Celestia began to dream. She was dreaming that she was on top of a hill, sitting underneath a beautiful tree and staring at the horizon as the sun was setting beautifully. What she hears soon after, catches her off completely guard. She hears the sound of a foal, or foals, cooing adorably. She looked down and saw three little foals, all of them were boys. One of them reached out with their little hooves, wanting to give Celestia a big hug.
Celestia felt her eyes tear up with happiness and joy as those three foals reached out for her. She scooped them up into her hooves and rocked them gentley from side to side. The foals couldn't stop giggling and smiling at her. Celestia knew that she was dreaming, but this was definitely one dream she'd never want to wake up from. The sun over on the horizon was setting at a slower pace than usual, but Celestia didn't care, because all that she wanted to do was keep these three foals safely tucked in her hooves, all nice and warm.
Then the foals all yawned and slowly closed their eyes, falling asleep and emitting cute little snores. Celestia never felt so happy and sad before in her whole entire life, seeing her three little bundles of joy drift off into their own dreamland. Nothing was holding back the tears in Celestia's eyes as she held the foals close to her like they were her own children.
"My beloved boys." she said out the ordinary. "I can't wait for the three of you to meet somepony very special. Somepony whom I raised when I left to go to Canterlot. Somepony who'd make a fine brother... somedragon who gave me a reason to keep on smiling and move forward for you and him." She then nuzzled the foals gently, making them coo so adorably.
Outside of her dream, she had a tear running down her cheek, but a smile on her face. For Spike, he could probably be dubbed as the master of clonking out.
In his dream, he was surrounded by mountains and mountains of jewels. He'd keep grabbing a clawful of gems and chomping them down in his mouth like the hungry dragon he was. He laughed loudly as he rolled around in his jeweled heaven. But it was shortly lived when he heard the sound of a familiar mare calling out to him, and not in the way he enjoys as much as he use to.
"Oh, just look at my darling Spikey-Wikey. Oh you're just so adorable, filling up your precious little belly." said Rarity's voice.
"Rarity, come on! I'm not a baby dragon anymore! Why can't you see that?" Spike said.
"Because you'll always be a baby dragon in my eyes, Spikey-poo. Now and forever."
"Well, I'd appreciate it if you would just stop already! Baby-talking me can only go so far."
"Aww, is my Spikey-poo unhappy?" her baby-talking towards Spike was making him a little frustrated until finally, he was unable to control himself and snapped.
"THAT'S ENOUGH OF THE BABY TALK ALREADY!!!" he shouted before his whole dream faded.
His eyes shot open and he sat up, panting. He looked out the window to see the sun rising. He took his eyes away from the window and slumped in his chair, groaning.
"Is something wrong, Spike?" Celestia asks. Spike looks at Celestia with a depressed look. "Why are you so sad, Spike, did you have a bad dream?"
"No, it wasn't bad at first. But, do you know about my crush on Rarity?" Spike asked.
"Yes, what about it?" she asks. Spike sighs before he decides to sit next to Celestia.
"I've always loved Rarity ever since you sent me and Twilight to Ponyville. I was okay with her thinking that I was adorable and all. But as I got older, she doesn't take my crush on her seriously. I don't know if I should give up or keep trying to win her affections," Spike explains.
"How about this, Spike. You just stick with me for a while and if Rarity baby-talks to you, I'll just shield you with my wings and tell her enough is enough."
"What good'll that do?"
"If you want to be seen as a growing dragon in Rarity's eyes, then trust me and do exactly as I say. Do you think you can do that, my son?" Celestia says, finishing off with a playful wink at her dragon son. Spike smiled and hugged Celestia.
"Thanks...mom."
"You're welcome, Spike." Celestia hugged him back. But then, Spike's stomach started growl, telling him that it was time to grab something to eat. With a giggle, Celestia reached into her bag and took out a few gems and then gave them to Spike. "I'll bet being a teenage dragon built up your already big appetite."
"Oh, you have no idea, mom. Thanks for the gems, they're delicious." Spike replied with a mouthful. "So, how long will this trip take before we'll be able to reach the town?"
"Let me check." Celestia leaned out the window to check to see how far they were. She brought her head back in and gave Spike a smile, along with some good news. "We won't have to wait any longer, we've just arrived at our current destination."
Spike leaned out the window to see the town in his full view. "Whoa... look at this place, why haven't we heard about this town before?" Spike asks himself, with a smile on his face.