//------------------------------// // Chapter 25 // Story: Long Distance Friendship // by Drag Orion //------------------------------// The sun hurt Applejack’s eyes as she finally awoke. “Ugh, what the hay?” she groaned and quickly shut her eyes. Turning away from the window she spotted the clock on her nightstand and had to rub her eyes to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. “9 o’clock! I overslept?!? I haven’t overslept since… well, ever.” Hurrying out of her room, she almost bumped into Jubilee. “Whoa! Sorry about that,” apologized Applejack. “I didn’t mean to oversleep.” “Perish the thought,” she replied. “And you are a guest here so there’s no need for you to be up at the crack of dawn anyway.” “Oh, right,” she blushed a bit embarrassed and saw a bunch of letters littering the floor around them. “Guess I’m just not used to getting up this late. Looks like I made you drop your mail.” “I was actually in the middle of picking it up when you came out,” she explained. “I came up to give Fire Wheel a letter addressed to him and then all of a sudden he bolted right past me.” “Why’d he do that?” asked Applejack. “What was written in the letter?” “I didn’t get a chance to see,” she replied. “He ran off with it, but he just started to panic a little and kept saying, ‘I gotta leave right away.’” “He left?” cried Applejack making her way down the stairs. “Just what in the hay is he thinking?” “Where are you going Applejack?” Jubilee called to her. “If he’s going to keep on running,” she hollered. “Then I’m going to be there to keep bringing him back!” Running down the path of the cherry farm, Applejack ran into Dodge Junction and all the way to the train station. As she predicted, she spotted Fire Wheel and his flaming, red hair there with a frantic look on his face. A couple trains then pulled into the station, the one on his side heading south and other one on the opposite side heading north. When they both came to a stop, passengers disembarked before the ponies waiting at the station proceeded onto it, Fire Wheel included. “There you are!” shouted Applejack as she leapt up and blocked Fire Wheel’s way onto the train. “A-A-Applejack!” he freaked out and jumped back. “W-What are you doing here?” “Just what I wanted to ask you,” she replied not looking happy at all. “You are running away again, aren’t you?” “No,” he replied. “That’s not what this is. Now please, I need to get on the train.” “And that’s not running away?” she retorted. “It’s not like that at all,” he tried to explain. “I need to get on this train because-” “No excuses,” she interrupted him. “You are coming back with me this instant.” “Ugh,” he stressed as the train whistled alerting that it was going to depart soon. “I’m running out of time. I have to get on!” Desperately, Fire Wheel attempted to run around Applejack, but she was quick to block him. He tried running back the other way around her, but he couldn’t outmaneuver her. Crying out, Fire Wheel ran away from Applejack and she chased after him. “Now, enough is enough,” she snapped chasing him all over the station and around the two trains that whistled again alerting their departure was drawing ever closer. “You are behaving worse than a youngun. Don’t you have any pride?” “Will you listen to what I have to say?” he panted quickly getting winded. “I told you I’m not listening to any excuses,” she repeated and kept on his tail drawing ever closer to him. “Then I can’t stop,” he shouted. “I have to go there. I have to see my friends!” “Wait, what now?” Applejack asked as she was caught off guard and stumbled forward into Fire Wheel. The two then tumbled right into the train car shortly before the door closed. “Did I make it?” he asked looking around and saw he was indeed inside the train and it was starting to move. “I did! I made it!” “You sure did, but what did you mean you had to go see your friends?” asked Applejack. “Well, if you’re willing to listen now, I had to get on this train and make my way down to Appleloosa,” he explained handing Applejack the letter to read. “I’d have to hoof it from there, but I need to get to that place by sundown. I know they’ll all be there and I have to get there too.” “Guess I jumped the gun this time,” admitted Applejack. “Sorry about that.” Applejack’s eyes widened and her jaw got a bit slack. Seeing this started to make Fire Wheel worry again. “And now I think I’m about to be really sorry.” “W-Why?” asked Fire Wheel looking to where Applejack was looking and saw through the window of the train car into the window of the car of the other train. He could see among the ponies that had boarded it, Braeburn was among them. “Hey, he was over at the cherry farm with you, wasn’t he?” “Yeah,” answered Applejack now the one who looked nervous. “That’s Braeburn, my cousin who lives in Appleloosa.” “Oh, well I don’t see why that-” he began saying before he realized what Applejack was getting at. “APPLELOOSA!?! But that’s where we’re supposed to be going!” “Guess we got a bit turned around while I was chasing you,” she figured. “This is terrible,” he cried. “We have to get off while we can!” Grabbing the door, he tried to open it, but couldn’t get it to budge. “That’s no good,” Applejack told him. “It’s locked for the safety of the passengers. We can’t get off till it stops again.” “How am I going to make it there now?” he asked. “We’re going in the complete opposite direction!” “I’m sure it won’t be that bad,” hoped Applejack. “We just need to get off this train at the next stop and take another down to Appleloosa. It shouldn’t put you behind my more than maybe an hour or two. I think I see one of the attendants coming. We can ask him.” Walking over, Applejack tried her best to explain their situation. “Uh, hey, funny story. See, my friend here got on the wrong train and, uh, I ended up on board too.” “Then I take it you don’t have tickets,” he answered not looking happy about that. “Oh, right,” Applejack replied quickly paying the fare. “Now, could you tell me where this train’s first stop is and if possible when a train will go from there to Appleloosa?” “The train is headed for Ponyville,” he answered. “And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there won’t be another train headed to Appleloosa from there till this evening.” “That’d be too late,” stated Fire Wheel. “It’d be dark by the time we’d arrive and I’d miss it.” “Isn’t there anything we can do?” begged Applejack. “Can’t we at least get off before Ponyville?” “It’s against regulations to let passengers off till the train comes to a stop and the doors are locked till it does,” he answered, but paused seeing the pleading look in their eyes. “Well, there might be something we can do. From time to time we do make temporary stops when we feel the tracks need to be inspected at certain areas. We’ll be coming up to Ghastly Gorge in a bit and I can try and stop us there. When we do you can get off, but that’s all I can offer you. After that you’ll be on your own.” “That’d be just fine,” replied Applejack as she took a seat. “We’re mighty obliged to you.” “Just please be quick about it,” he told them in a hushed voice. “I could get in real trouble for this.” “We’ll be gone in a flash,” promised Applejack as Fire Wheel took a seat beside her. “Are you sure about this?” questioned Fire Wheel. “Even if we do get dropped off at Ghastly Gorge we will still be quite a ways off from Appleloosa and no means to get there other than on hoof. I can’t say much for you, but for me I’ll never be able to make it there. I was getting out of breath just from you chasing after me earlier.” “Don’t sell yourself short,” retorted Applejack. “I saw you a bit yesterday while you were working and even heard a bit from Jubilee as well. You can be quite capable when you want to be.” “Back then I was just thinking, ‘I can’t lose my job no matter what,‘“ he admitted. “And this time all you have to think is,‘I have to reunite with my friends no matter what,’” she instructed him. “Got it memorized?” “‘I have to reunite with my friends no matter what,’” he repeated. “Yeah, I do.” “Then for us, it is Macintosh Hills or bust,” stated Applejack.