Chapter One: The First Train To Manehatten
Written and Edited by the Archer of Anarchy, with Assistance from BronyRex and Sweetapplejacker
Our story begins on a train rumbling its way down a lonely track somewhere in the south-eastern part of Equestria. Its engine runs purposefully, the backup stallions resting in their car behind. The tops of the train cars gleam brightly in the heat as we travel down the train towards the rear. We pass storage containers, first class, the dining car, and the sleeper car before we get to the end of the train. Economy class. They are the two cars at the end, the caboose and the car before it. Normally they are full of ponies wanting to go to Manehatten to seek their fortunes, but are mostly empty now due to the grueling heat.
In a window of the caboose we see two ponies sitting alone in the car, on either sides of a table waiting. One is a large earth stallion, almost too big for his seat. His coat is a dark brown, his mane a blonde crew cut. Barely visible on on his flank is a nut, without a bolt or any other decoration. A drop of sweat runs down his neck from the heat as he glances from the window to the pony across from him. On the other side of the table, the pony is a small unicorn stallion who is looks even smaller next to his partner. His green hooves are up on the table next to a half empty pitcher of water as he lays across the entire bench. His dark green mane hangs in his face as he sits there, breathing lightly. He seems to be old enough to have a cutie mark, but doesn't seem to have one. Under the table is one big saddlebag, out of sight.
After a few minutes of our looking on, the large one speaks up.
“Umm... So, are you sure she said this train?” he asks in a deep baritone voice.
The smaller one groans.
“For the last time Torq, yes! I am sure she said this train.”
“But, she’s not ‘ere, and you said that she said we got to go with her this time … “
Sitting up, the unicorn wipes his hair out of his eyes.
“Here, if you don’t believe me, here. Read her letter.”
He levitates out of the saddlebag a wrinkled piece of paper. Bringing it over to his associate, he reclines back into his former position. Torq picks up the paper and unfolds it carefully with his big hooves. The letter opens easily, like it has been opened almost a hundred times before.
Torq blinks at it a few times, then looks back over at the unicorn.
“Archer?”
“What?” he answers without looking up.
“Ah can’t read.”
Sighing, Archer floats the letter over to himself and begins to read.
Dear Archer and Torq,
I have both good and bad news. First, we have gotten a job from the Manehatten Museum, so our financial problems should be over. Unfortunately, this means I will be going to Amazonia before the week is out. However, since you two have helped so much as information gatherers for me, I have decided to bring you along. The museum agreed to fund us enough to all to go.
Archer pauses and looks over at his friend.
“That means you finally get to dig stuff up with her, Torq.”
The large stallion hoof-pumps, almost punching a hole in the roof.
“Yeah!”
Archer then continues reading.
So you should pack your bags and be on the next train for Manehatten. I won’t be seeing you before it sets off, so don’t worry if I am not onboard. See ya soon!
D.D.
Archer sighs as he folds the letter back up and puts it away.
“I hope she gets here before we reach Manehatten, She didn’t leave any instructions of what to do when we got there..”
A thud comes from the back of the car. Torq looks over Archer at the door.
“Hey Archer...”
“What?” he responds, slightly annoyed.
“If we are at the back of de train, there’s nothing behind us right?”
“Yes... Oh.”
Archer gets up from his seat and opens the door out of the back of the caboose, messing with the lock. A dirty yellow pegasus with a grey-scale mane and tail stands there, a light saddlebag on her back. She is holding her one-of-a-kind hat on her head and bracing herself so as not to be pulled off the back of the train.
“Seriously, who locks the back door of a train?”
She comes in and sits down where Archer was. He takes a seat at the table across the aisle from them.
“Uh... So what are we looking for?” asks Torq.
Daring looked at him, a smile playing across her face.
“No idea, we need to meet with one of the museum representatives first. But before that, we need to pick up an old friend...”
About an hour later, the train rumbled to a halt outside a peaceful little town in the country. As a few ponies disembarked, one railway worker yelled down the train.
“Ten minutes before we’re off again to Manehatten!”
Down in the caboose, Daring rubs her eyes with a hoof. Over on the other side of the car is Archer, staring out at the town. Torq is fast asleep, face smushed up against the window. A small trail of drool creeps out of his mouth down the glass pane.
Groaning, Daring gets up and stretches.
“Alright, we’ve got ten minutes. Come on Archer.”
She trots off the train and leaps to the dirt road, leaving behind everything except her hat.
Archer quickly follows, having to walk much faster due to his shorter legs.
“I thought we were going to Manehatten. What are we doing here?”
“To pick up an old friend, ah here it is.”
In the past few moments they had walked a fair distance from the rest of the town and came to a small house overlooking the plains. It is made of red bricks and appears a bit old. The roof is a bit tilted in the wrong direction and its small brick chimney is leaning to one side. The windows are open, white shutters open. Off to one side is a little garden, which doesn’t look to have been weeded recently. There are some parts of the house that look newer than the others, making the house much bigger than it originally was. Archer noted the front door was a solid wood trimmed with metal.
As they made their way up to it, they heard an almost musical melody of metal hitting metal. Daring smiled as it reached her ears.
“Still making those then?” she muttered to herself as she knocked on the door.
The noises stopped soon afterwards, followed with the door opening. Out came a light yellow pegasus, mane slightly darker than her body with a few orange streaks in it. On her flank were two cogs, one slightly bigger than the other. She blinked when she saw Archer, then turned to Daring.
“Oh, Daring! So nice to see you again!” she exclaimed, a smile breaking across her face.
They hugged and looked each other over.
“Arc Flash, it’s been too long since I last saw you!”
“So how have you been? Still adventuring?”
They walked into the house into a small sitting room, questioning each other about what they had been doing. As they sat down on one couch, Archer coughed. The two looked up at him.
“Um... Sorry, don’t want to be a wet blanket, but remember the train is leaving momentarily.”
Arc gave him a weird look.
“What? And who are you?”
She got up and circled around the smaller unicorn.
“I don’t remember you... “
He rolled his eyes.
“I’m Archer, I work as one of Daring’s informants.”
Still confused, Arc turned back to Daring.
“So, what’s this train you’re supposed to catch? Why are you here Daring?”
The pegasus adventurer rubbed the back of her neck, a nervous smile spreading across her face.
“Well, I’m going off to Amazonia within the week. I was wondering... “
“If I would come along? You know I left that kind of life!”
Daring got up and put a foreleg around her.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go on one last adventure?”
“Adventure?! Every other day somepony was trying to kill us! We nearly died countless times!”
“So? That’s an occupational hazard.”
Daring pointed out Arc’s sitting room window across the plain.
“Don’t you still wonder what else is out there? What other treasures are hidden just out of sight? I know you loved all those times we went out into the world!”
Arc backed away from her.
“I.. I’m not sure... It’s so peaceful here... I just finished another addition to the house ... “
Daring Do sighed.
“If you don’t want to come, it’s fine with me.”
She walked past the stunned Archer.
“Come on, we need to get back to the train.”
As she walked away from the house, Archer picked up his pace to get in front of her.
“What was that? I thought you wanted her to come.”
Daring looked up at him, still whispering something.
“... three, two, one...”
Behind them, the door slammed open.
“Alright! I’ll come!”
The smile returned to Daring’s face as she spun around to hug Arc.
“Then get packing! We’ve got a train to catch!”
Much later...
As the train started into the outskirts of Manehatten and the sun began to touch the horizon, Torq woke to a pencil hovering in front of his eyes. Again it jabbed at his forehead, sending a point of brain into his skull. He swatted it, smashing it into the table, creating a large dent in it in the process. As he looked up from the little shards of pencil, he saw Archer with wide eyes next to him.
“What?” he asked.
Archer blinked.
“Okay, anyway... Could you pull this out?”
He gave a tug on the strap of the massive saddlebag underneath the seat, not even budging it.
“Sur, let meh gettit.”
Where Archer couldn’t move it, he pulled it out effortlessly.
“W’ere ar we?” he asked the unicorn
“Almost to the station,” he responded, going through the bags. “Daring said I should make sure we have everything all packed up.”
Across the car, the adventurous pegasus and her friend are still chatting happily together at a table. Daring glances over at them, then waves at Arc.
“Oh, you will want to meet this stallion. Arc, this is Torq. He is a friend of Archer’s. Torq, this is Arc Flash. She and I adventured together awhile ago.”
Arc reached out a hoof towards him.
“Nice to meet you Torq.”
Her hoof was engulfed by his giant one.
“So yer who we needed to pick up?”
“Yes, Daring convinced me to end my retirement from adventuring.”
As they moved back to their seats, the train jerked around a little. Outside the window appeared a crowded station, ponies hurrying to catch a train on the other side of the platform. From the engine came a loud whistle as a conductor yelled:
“Last stop: Manehatten!”
They assembled their bags and disembarked from the train onto the crowded station. Just as they were getting their bearings, an area opened through the crowd right up to a pillar in the middle of the platform. It was covered in Wanted and Missing posters, but there was one that caught Daring’s eye. As she walked away the others, she tried to figure out why it stood out from the others. It wasn’t until she was right next to the post that she recognised the mare on it.
Arc walked up behind her and looked over Daring’s shoulder.
“Uh oh.”
The poster was an image of a jungle at sunset off a cliff. In the foreground an image of Daring herself, her mane and tail streaming backwards from an unseen wind. In the sky it read in blood red lettering:
<><><><><><><><><><>
ADVENTURERS WANTED!
HOOFPOWER NEEDED FOR DARING DO’S
EXPEDITION TO THE AMAZONIA!
<><><><><><><><><><>
Daring tore down the poster, holding it in front of her to read the fine print. Ponies around them began to point and whisper.
“Is that her?”
“Is that Daring Do?”
Archer touched her shoulder, trying to get her to move. She looked up at them, a fire gleaming in her eyes.
“Somepony has some explaining to do ...” she said, pointing to the seal of the Manehatten museum at the bottom of the poster.
Not more than ten minutes later they were running through the park after Daring, who was streaking ahead of them even weighed down with her saddlebags. She darted around an orange pegasus pony loaded down with apples, not even breaking stride as she almost knocked the poor dear over. Jumping the fence around the park, she streaked across the street towards the Manehatten Museum.
They tried to catch up with her as she got to the stairs leading to the entrance, but Daring’s hooves were a blur as dashed up them. Not even stopping to check if it was open, she kicked in the door between two statues of ponies with scrolls. It shattered inwards, glass flying everywhere.
Daring stalked into the lobby, glaring around. At a security desk in the corner a guard started to get up.
“H.. hey! W.. w.. we’re closed!”
A look of pure anger halted him. Walking over, she put her forehooves on the desk. Glaring down at the cowering pony, she stated simply in a tone that dared him not to answer:
“Where. Is. The. Curator.”
The guard was shaking so much the little blue hat on his head fell off.
“D.. down the h.. hall, th.. third door on the l.. left.”
Arc caught up to Daring as she started down the hall.
“Are you sure you want to be doing this?! We just broke into the museum!”
Daring spun around, pulling out the poster.
“I want to know who did this, because they obviously don’t know me. Lock’em Up would have known that I choose my team, not this griffinshit.”
She turned away and continued to the door marked:
Lock’em Up: Curator
She entered without knocking, slamming the door against the wall.
“Lockie, you’ve got some explaining to do!” she spit out.