//------------------------------//
// Chapter 10: Vermis Anularis 
// Story: This is the Last Train Car 
// by Unwhole Hole 
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“What are we on now?” said Berry, turning to her sister.

            Cheerilee stopped jogging and took several deep breaths, trying to regain a normal rate of breathing. “I don’t know,” she said. “By my count? We’re over one hundred. Getting…getting close to two.”

            “Mine to,” said Berry.

            “Why are they all the same?!” screamed Cheerilee suddenly. “Every single one! Why- -why are they all the same?!”

            “I don’t know!” screamed Berry. “I don’t even know WHAT is happening! How am I supposed to know WHY?” She took a step forward, putting her hoof on her pounding head. She removed a bottle of punch and took a sip, only to find that it was empty. She then threw the bottle away, knowing that there was very little chance that they would ever see it again. It would be left here for as long as this train ran- -wherever here was, and for however long that was. “Did…did I do something? Does this train just hate me? I used to love trains! Why is this one doing this to me now?” Berry looked around wildly. “And where is she? WHERE IS SHE?!”

            “Berry,” said Cheerilee, her sister’s panic forcing her to regain composure. “We’ll find her!”

            “And what if we don’t?! It’s my fault she’s here! She’s only seventeen! What if- -what if we DON’T find her? What if we don’t get her back? What am I supposed to tell her mother?”

            “If she did run ahead,” said Cheerilee, putting her hoof on Berry’s shoulder and speaking carefully. “Then that means she’s ahead of us. Which means that when we do get back, she’ll be there too. It’s a train, isn’t it? It’s not like it branches.”

            Berry looked at her sister. “You’re…you’re right,” she said, calming down slightly. “As long as the lights don’t go out again.”

            Cheerilee’s eyes narrowed. “Why would you say something like that?”

            “I don’t know,” said Berry, shaking her head. “I just- -”

            “They won’t go out. They’ve only gone out once so far. When we hit that bump.”

            “The bump…”

            “It felt pretty big. Do you know what it might have been?”

            Berry thought for a moment, and then sadly shook her head. “No,” she said. “From everything I can recall, this track is supposed to be very smooth. But the grade didn’t change either…they might have put the train on a different track.” She paused. “No. They had to. All these cars? Somepony would have to notice.”

            Cheerilee suddenly smiled, and then tapped Berry on the shoulder. “That’s right!”

            “What’s right?”

            “This train, it’s got to be a mile long! Somepony on the outside has to see that, don’t they?”
            Berry thought for a moment. “Lee, I don’t know if that’s how this works.”

            “We can see them from the inside. Why wouldn’t other ponies be able to see them from the outside? This train must be enormous. And if other ponies can see it, maybe they can come to help us!”

            Berry looked into her sister’s eyes, and then smiled. She did not feel reassured in the slightest. “Yeah,” she said. “Yeah. Maybe.” She turned slowly. “But until then, I think we need to keep going.”

            “Do we?”

            Berry turned back to Cheerilee. “Do you want to stay here?”

            Cheerilee looked at her for a moment, and during that time Berry had a strange fear that her sister would say yes. They had been on the train for perhaps two, maybe three hours- -but they were both getting tired. So very tired. And if Cheerilee really did want to stop…

            “No,” she said. “But no more running. I’m a teacher, not a marathon runner.”

            Berry smiled out of shallow relief. “Okay,” she said, “no more running, then.”



            Time passed, but as they got deeper and deeper into the train exactly how much time became increasingly difficult to determine. It seemed that each passing minute had come to mimic the train itself: in the same way that ever car passed identical to the one behind it and the one before it, each minute seemed to pass identical to the last. Hours must have passed, but to Berry Punch, time seemed not quite to cease but to lose its relevance in this strange world.

            “Berry,” said Cheerilee. “We have to consider the fact that we might need to camp  here.”

            “I’m not stopping,” said Berry. “Not without Sparkler.”

            “But we’ve been going for hours. Or…”

            “Or days? It hasn’t been days, Lee. Look out the windows.” Berry pointed. “It’s still night. The sun hasn’t even come up.”

            “I don’t know if that’s night,” said Cheerilee, her weariness and fear breaking through her composure. “And I don’t like looking at it. I can almost see things moving next to us.”

            “Then don’t look. If you need food, I have some. If you need cider, I have one bottle left. But we’re not stopping.”

            Cheerilee looked at her sister not with anger but with concern. Still, she acquiesced. “She really is your friend, isn’t she?”

            “Yes.”

            Cheerilee sighed. “You always were better at making them than I was.”

            “Ha! Yeah right. Everypony always loved you more. And I was just left in the background.”

            “What? No, Berry, that’s true at all!”

            “Which one of us got a date to the Pony Prom?”

            “I did, but- -”

            “And I was home all alone that night.”

            “Because you put yourself into a diabetic coma on punch! You were in the hospital for days!”

            “And you always had the fashionable hair, and the fashionable clothes, and got to go dancing while I had to work.”

            “Yes, but you have a cutie mark in berry work! You love berries!”

            “But does that mean it’s all I’m allowed to do?”

            “You don’t understand! How do you think I felt? What else was I supposed to do? Do you know how many days I wished I could have a berry mark, just so that mom and dad would accept me, like they did you?”

            “You can suck a fat strawberry! Mom and dad were always PROUD of you. And I was just the other sister, the ORDINARY one.”

            “They don’t think that- -”

            “No, not anymore. Now I’m the punch girl. I’ve almost doubled our market share, but what do I get? I hear them whispering about punch and trains when they think I can’t hear. So why not give our family what they expect from me?”

            “Because you’re not that kind of pony.”

            Berry stopped. “Says who?”

            “Says me. Or says I…say I? It doesn’t matter. You’re not one to give up.”

            “Says the mare who  makes fun of me every single time she sees me for not finishing school.”

            “Because I’m disappointed that you didn’t. Because you could have! But look at where you are now!”

            “On a train. A train that somehow has over two hundred and fifty cars now. With my only friend lost somewhere on it.”

            “And you haven’t stopped. If it wasn’t for me, you’d still be running after her! And this isn’t even your third time in this place!” Cheerilee pointed at the train around her. “If I had seen this, even once? I wouldn’t have come back. Not for a million bits and for Snails showing literary competency. I would be terrified.”

            “What I should have done, you mean. I should have stayed back. This is my fault! Sparkler’s lost, and you’re at risk, and I don’t know what to do. All I know is to keep moving forward.”

            Cheerilee smiled. “Exactly.”

            Berry looked at her. “I wish I could see the world like you do. Everything’s always so clear for you.”

            “Not always. You can’t tell, but I’m freaking out right now. A lot. If you weren’t here, I probably wouldn’t be nearly this calm.”

            Berry took that as a compliment, one of very few she had received from her sister in their long shared lifetime. “And if you weren’t here, I’d probably be about five cars ahead, collapsed and crying into my punch. Sparkler was right.”

            “About what?”

            “That we needed three.” Berry shivered. “Actually…she was really right. To the point where it’s scary.”

            “Nothing about this place isn’t scary,” said Cheerilee. “I don’t know why. It’s just a train, but I feel so…strange.”

            “I know,” said Berry, approaching the next door. “I feel it too.”

            They continued for several more cars before Berry began to notice a change. It was slight, and in retrospect it had been going on for some time at a level that was so subtle that she had not been able to notice it. Cheerilee apparently noticed as well.

            “Ugh,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “Why does it smell like that?”

            Berry took a few deep breaths, and managed to catch the odor before her nose adapted to it completely. It was not bad, exactly. Far from it in fact. It was just different. The cars had initially smelled new, full of fresh carpet, plastic, and paint. Now they smelled different. It was not difficult for Berry Punch to place it.

            “It smells like a train.”

            “I know that. Obviously. But…it doesn’t. It smells…”

            “Old,” said Berry. “It smells old. Just like the antique trains. There’s one up in Vanhoover, an old line that they converted over to a scenic historical circuit. It only runs in the summer. When they open the cars in the spring, this is what they smell like.”

            “But this place is brand new.”

            “I know.” Yet somehow it smelled centuries old, like rich, dry wood covered in ages of old varnish that only partially held in the smell of a time when ponies had smoked cigars and enjoyed strange fragrant drinks- -and something else. There was a hint of sourness as well, as though the cars had  not been maintained for some time. As if they were starting to mold and decay underneath the virgin seats and perfect modern surfaces that made up their façade.

            “I don’t like this,” said Cheerilee as they approached the next door.

            “Understatement of the century,” replied Berry. “Come on.”

            She pushed open the door, and they stepped into yet another identical train car. The only differentiation was that the smell of oldness was even stronger than before.

            Almost as soon as they were both in, though, the train suddenly shuddered. Both of them knew what this meant, and both cried out as they grabbed each other. The lights did not flicker, but rather went out entirely in an instant.

            Except there was still some light. Whether it was the residual magical glow of the cut crystal bulbs or some other inexplicable source, the car was still just barely lit. The glow was far dimmer than even the smallest candle, but it was enough. A Berry Punch looked out into the seats, she saw the eyes staring back at them. Every seat was full, and although she could not see their bodies she saw their eyes reflecting some unseen light as they stared back without blinking or moving. Berry was sure she screamed.

            Then the lights returned. The eyes vanished, and the seats were empty- -but the aisle was not.

            “Sparkler!” cried Berry. She released her sister and took a step forward, but stopped when she saw Sparkler’s face. Sparkler bore no expression, and her eyes were cold and empty. Her pupils were condensed to the point where they were no longer visible, and her eyes had grown strangely white

            “Sparkler? Sparks?” Berry took another step forward. Sparkler still did not react. She showed no signs of motion, or of recognition that her friend was there.

            “I don’t think she’s breathing,” said Cheerilee. “Oh Celestia…what…what’s wrong with her eyes?”

            “Shut. UP,” hissed Berry. She turned to Sparkler. “Sparks, it’s me. Berry Punch. We…we were worried about you. We didn’t know where you went. We thought…well, Sparks, we thought we lost you.”

            “Nonconvex.”

            Berry took a sudden step back. Sparkler’s voice sounded hoarse, as though she had been screaming. Now it was quiet and raspy.

            As she watched, Sparkler’s head tilted up slowly in a way that looked as though she was struggling before she was still again. She did not appear to be able to see.

            “Wh…what?”

            “Nonconvex. The structure is nonconvex. Even. With a surface accessible from every internal point. Simultaneously. Every point can reach any other point at any time.”

            Berry looked to Cheerilee. Cheerilee looked gravely concerned. “It’s geometry,” she said. “I don’t know why she’s saying it.”

            “Nonconvex,” said Sparkler with more emphasis. She took a jerky step forward, and Berry took a step back. “Toroid. Nonconvex.”

            “Sparkler, I don’t understand. You’re…something’s wrong. Calm down- -”

            “A ring. A convex ring. Every point reachable from every other point without crossing intervening space outside the boundary of the body.” She took another step forward, and she began to laugh silently. “Then what’s in the center?”

            “Sparks, you’re scaring me.”

            Using her nickname usually got some reaction. This time, Sparkler did not even seem to notice. “A shape,” she said. “A circle. Very convex. The ratio of the internal area to the circumference. One half radius.”

            “Cheerilee, why is she saying that?”

            “I don’t know! I don’t know!”

            “A sphere. A three dimensional object. The ratio of surface area is one third radius.” Sparkler took another large step forward. Tears were dripping from her eyes, but her mouth had been forced into a horrible pained grin. “A fourth dimensional object. One fourth R. A fifth dimensional object. One fifth R. Sixth, one sixth R. Seventh, one seventh R. The demarcated area grows in relation to the boundary as the dimension increases! It INCREASES! INCREASES!”

            “But what about one dimension!” cried Berry, covering her face from Sparkler’s manic approach.

            Sparkler froze instantly. “One…dimension?”

            “You started at two. What about the first dimension?” Berry turned to Cheerilee. “What’s a first dimension?”

            “A line,” stated Cheerilee.

            “A line!” repeated Berry. “What about a line?”

            For the first time, Sparkler stared directly at Berry with a look that was far from neutral. It was a look of pure hatred, and it seemed to last forever before she burst into laughter. This time, her voice was not raspy and weak. It was loud and almost booming, to the point where Berry was able to feel it resonating inside of herself, making her want to laugh herself out of pure terror.

            Sparkler lowered her head, and her eyes began to change. The whiteness faded, replaced by red.

            “Why- -why are her eyes doing that?” said Cheerilee, looking from Berry to Sparkler as the both of them retreated toward the door to the previous car. “Oh Celestia, why are they getting bloodshot like that?”

            “It’s not blood,” said Berry. “She’s a unicorn. Her blood…it’s silver.”

            “Indeed, it is,” said Sparkler. She looked up at them- -except it was immediately apparent that it was not quite her seeing through her eyes. The red had stained them completely, stripping away any features they had possessed before. There were no discernable irises or schlera, or even pupils. They were pure red- -and yet, somehow, both Berry Punch and Cheerilee could tell where they were looking, as if something within them- -some strange optical organ that ponies normally lacked- -were shifting just beneath the surface.

            “Who…who are you?” asked Berry.

            Sparkler smiled. Her eyes did not. “The mare you are looking at is named Sparkler.”

            “But who is the mare we are speaking to?”

            The red eyes locked onto Berry Punch for just a moment, and then the mare behind them smiled broadly- -but did not answer.

            “Lee,” said Berry, looking over her shoulder. “Walk back. Slowly.”

            “But Sparkler- -”

            “Just do it!”

            Cheerilee gulped and nodded. The pair of them stepped backward toward the door they had come through. Sparkler did not follow them. She stood still, watching.

            The pair of ponies passed through the door and closed it, locking Sparkler in the next car. Then they turned- -only to see her standing in the center of the car they had just entered, facing them.

            Both screamed, and Sparkler laughed. It was like a parody of her normal laugh, as though somepony were trying to copy it.

            “You have both wondered,” she said, stepping toward them with grace that Sparkler could never hope to move with. “Haven’t you?”

            “Wondered what?” asked Cheerilee. She was shaking badly.

            “If it was the same train car. Over and over again. Do you think they are actually different? That this train is any longer than five cars?”

            “Is it?” asked Berry.

            The red eyes focused on her. “Defiant. You are defiant. And yet you just tried to leave me behind.” She glared. “I thought you wanted me. I thought I was your friend. You were looking for me, weren’t you?”

            “We were looking for Sparkler.”

            “And I told you. The mare before you is indeed your poor, innocent friend.”

            “But you are not.”

            Sparkler grimaced. “You seem strangely sure you are speaking to something at all.”

            “What are you?”

            The grimace grew into an outright frown. “Your thinking is not logical. It does not flow. Sparkler understands that now. ‘What’, ‘when’, ‘where’, these cannot be differentiated. Not easily.”

            “You’re part of the train,” suggested Cheerilee.

            Sparkler gave a thin smile. “And you are a fool, teacher, if you think you’re still on any kind of train at all.”

            “Then what is it?” demanded Berry.

            This made whatever Sparkler had become smile much more widely. “Prinn knew her name, and I have thrice called to the whippoorwills. But what am I? I am the Gate that was opened, that you chose to step through. That pulled her through. A Doorway that I’m afraid leads only one direction.”

            “No,” said Cheerilee, shaking her head and stepping back. “No! We don’t- -we can’t be here! We don’t WANT to be here!”

            “Cheerilee,” said Berry. “You need to stay calm- -”

            “I will NOT stay calm!” Cheerilee was beginning to panic. “You- -you- -me- -her- -I can’t be here! WE can’t be here! We shouldn’t be here!” She dropped to her knees. “What- -what have we done? What have we done to deserve this?”

            Sparkler’s red eyes suddenly became horribly cold, but her smile became so wide that Berry thought her face would split. Slowly, Sparkler stepped forward and put her hoof under Cheerilee’s chin, allowing her tears to drip over it. “Do you think that your actions mean ANYTHING?” she whispered. “The pony who revels in the hungry gaze of her students because it reminds her of the attention she will never receive from stallions?” She turned to Berry. “Or the mare who is drowning herself in excess while deceiving herself into believing she isn’t so lonely?” She paused. “Or this poor girl, one risking the career of a good pony for the sake of some childlike impression of love?” The last word appeared difficult for her to say.

            The red eyes turned back to the pair of violet sisters. “Actions do not have consequences,” she said. “There is no such thing as ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. What you decide has no bearing to your final fate. It was no sin of yours that brought you here.”

            Berry stared into the red eyes, and felt her mind ache. Still, she kept her eyes open- -and smiled. “I made the decision to get on this train, didn’t I?”

            The red eyes stared back, and the smile faded partially- -but remained true. “You did,” she said after a moment of contemplation. “You decided your fate. And the fate of your friends as well.”

            “Then I’m sorry, Sparkler.”

            “For condemning her in this way?”

            “No,” said Berry. “For this.”

            In an instant, Berry drew her right front hoof back- -and then slammed it forward with all of her strength squarely into Sparkler’s nose. The silent air was filled with a loud crack, and the force was so great that Sparkler was sent head-over-heels, sprawling and tumbling backward violently toward the center of the train from the force of the blow.

            “BERRY!” cried Cheerilee in disbelief. “Wha- -why?!”

            “I have my name for a reason,” said Berry, flexing her shoulder. She was indeed not as strong as she had once been, but that had probably ended up working in Sparkler’s favor.

            “But you- -you just hit her!”

            “Yes, Lee. I can see that.” Berry looked at Sparkler. She was lying on her back and not moving, but more importantly not speaking. Cheerilee stood up, and the pair of them approached slowly.

            “Where did you even learn to do that?”

            “Uncle Falcon showed me. A long time ago. What? Do you think I just sit around drinking punch all the time?” She shrugged. “Besides. She hit me before, didn’t she? She knew what to expect.”

            Berry knelt down beside Sparkler and picked her up. Two thin trails of silver fluid were dripping from Sparkler’s nostrils, and she groaned. Her eyes opened partially, and they were not red.

            Almost as soon as she touched Sparkler, though, Berry heard a sound from across the car. She looked up just in time to see the door to the next car close, and to see the flank of a yellow mare passing through.

            “You!” she cried. Berry started to stand up- -but felt a hoof tighten around her neck.

            “No!” said Sparkler, her voice once again quiet and hoarse. Her eyes were still grayish, but they were clearing slightly each time she blinked. She looked afraid, but Berry Punch had never before felt so relieved to see her friend. “Don’t follow her! She’s not a pony! None of them are!”

            “Sparks, you’re not making- -”

            Sparkler pulled Berry in closer. “They never were!”

            With some difficulty, Sparkler attempted to stand. She could not balance properly, and wobbled to the point where she nearly tipped back onto the ground. “Ow,” she said, reaching for her nose. She looked at her hoof, and when she saw the silver fluid, she looked up at Berry wide-eyed. “Did you hit me?”

            “Well, I had to do something!”

            “But violence is never the answer!”

            “Well it was in this case, wasn’t it?”

            “I hate to agree with that,” said Cheerilee, “but it was.” She looked at Sparkler and steadied her before offering a handkerchief. “You were saying…things.”

            “I know,” said Sparkler. She wiped her nose and then turned to the pair of sisters. “We need to get off this train. NOW.”

            “We’ve been trying,” said Berry.

            “No. You don’t understand. You have no idea how much danger we’re in!”

            “Sparkler,” said Cheerilee, “slow down- -”

            “There isn’t time to slow down! My mind- -the Gate- -I could see through it. Into it. Not completely, not nearly completely. If I had, I don’t think…I don’t think I would have come back.”

            “I don’t know what that means- -”

            “It means I have some ideas. Vague, foggy. And some are just feelings. But this place, it’s not a train. It’s…” She cried out in frustration and pounded her hoof against her head. “It was so clear before!” she screamed. “Now I can’t- -I can’t remember!”

            “Stop it!” cried Cheerilee, grabbing Sparkler’s hooves. “Stop! You don’t need to know it now! We both know!”

            “But it knows we’re here now! And they’ve always known, and watched- -and- -and I- -”

            Berry Punch pushed Cheerilee out of the way and leaned forward. Before Sparkler could react, Berry kissed her on the lips.

            It was a short exchange, and Berry quickly pulled away, wiping her lips on her foreleg in disgust. “Yick,” she said, grimacing. “You taste like unadulterated bran.”

            “Berry!” cried Cheerilee, several octaves too high. “You just- -”

            “Well I needed some way to shut her up! And if I hit her again, she’d probably end up looking like her mother- -”

            Berry Punch was rudely interrupted as she was slapped backward with tremendous force.

            “How DARE YOU!” cried Sparkler, her horn still glowing. She stuck out her tongue. “Eew eew eew! You taste like bad punch!”

            “Clearly not enough bad punch,” groaned Berry. “Because I will need a LOT more before you actually start looking good. Ugh. The sixth time I’ve kissed a mare, and I still can’t stand it.”

            “Excuse me! I’ll have you know that I’ve been told that I’m an excellent kisser!”

            “Well, hopefully you’ll get a chance to kiss something that’s not me soon enough. Because I am NOT doing that again. Eew.” Berry turned to the windows, and then climbed on one of the seats. “If this train is as dangerous as you’re saying it is, then I guess it’s time for some desperate measures.”

            She reached for the window latch, but was immediately yanked back by Sparkler’s magic. “NO!” she cried.
            “Sparks, it’s the only way! If we can’t get to the end, it’s out a window!”

            “Are you insane?!” cried Cheerilee. “This train has to be going at sixty miles per hour minimum, if you jump- -”

            “It isn’t moving,” said Sparkler.

            Both Berry and Cheerilee turned to her. “What?”

            “It isn’t moving. It hasn’t been for some time. At least not this part. That’s why it’s so silent. Only the front part moves.”

            “Then where in the name of damp boysenberry are we?”

            “I don’t know,” said Sparkler, even though her tone indicated that there was a chance she might have at least suspected a location. “But believe me- -and you have to believe me!- -The ones out there are so, so much worse than the ones in here!”

            Berry and Cheerilee looked at her, and could see the wildness in Sparkler’s eyes. Berry looked out the window, and saw only blackness- -and was glad that it was all she could see. Perhaps it was because she was an earth-pony, or perhaps it was luck that she could not see- -but she knew that Sparkler was right. She could not see them, but she felt them. Things of enormous size that watched but could not themselves see.

            “Right,” she said, turning away from the window. “Then what do we need to do?”

            “There’s no other way off,” said Cheerilee. “It’s a train. There’s only one direction we can go.”

            “No,” said Sparkler. “It’s not a straight line. There many directions, but only one that we know how to go.” She turned slowly toward the door on the far end of the car. Whether it was the one that Berry Punch and Cheerilee had passed through before did not matter, but to Sparkler, it was clearly the correct one- -hopefully. She walked quickly toward it, and then broke into a gallop.

            “There’s not much time!” she cried as she tore open the next door and entered the next car.

            This time, Berry refused to let her escape. Her and Cheerilee lost no time in following her, not caring if she was going in the right or wrong direction. All that mattered to each and every one of them was that they not leave the side of the others- -because now they knew that the train was not empty. It never had been. Sparkler had been lucky. If the group became separated again, Berry knew that none of them would be so fortunate a second time.