//------------------------------//
// Press Release and Eff Stop 
// Story: A War 
// by Comma Typer 
//------------------------------//

The colorful train looked as if it came out of a railroad-themed cake. The pink locomotive had lots of hearts incorporated into its style: heart-shaped lights under a big headlight which had its own outline of a heart shape while a heart-shaped window served as the front one. Puffs of ringed white smoke were pushed out of the pipe, forming a beautiful, hazy trail as the train moved on though decelerating. The carriages themselves were of a variety of bright colors—aside from pink, there was purple, brown, yellow, cyan. A wide green door was on one of the carriages—closed, for now, as if it was just another part of the carriage that no passenger should go through (unless the passenger was a unicorn—then, teleportation might be a viable option).
The train finally stopped, its wheels motionless and the pipe producing a persistent stream of steam.
The door slid open.
Not a lot of ponies were exiting the train. Among them was a frazzled, bushy eyebrowed business pony haggard with baggy eyes, darting to and fro, his once-slick mane becoming undone as he let his tie flow in the wind, galloping on—in a rural accent, "I hope Diamond and Spoiled are OK!" Another was a pair of unicorns—one, bulky and white with brown hair and a handlebar mustache; one, pink and stout with beehive-styled mane, tied yellow scarf, and shiny earrings. They, too, were panicking, though less exhausted; more anxious with sweat pouring down their faces as they galloped, too, out of the station. The last passenger to leave was an Earth pony with a farming hat that had an apple symbol on it—and, like the three before him, he was in a hurry to get out.
Press Release glanced at the running ponies—as if fleeing. Then, her mouth shuddered. "That's not a good sign."
She trotted inside the train.
Yellow walls, wooden dark green floor carpeted with a lighter green carpet rolling down through the carriage's center to the doors with their one window giving any onlooker a glimpse into who and what were in the next carriage; the windows with their drawn curtains, the cusioned seats that were similar to mattresses and were separated by transparent green dividers with their curved and curly patterns, the lights both on the ceiling and on the walls—between windows and beside the carriage doors—and the citrusy scent of the interior.
Press Release looked to her left and to her right.
A white pegasus, wearing a hat and a camera, waved at her—the only passenger left.
"Eff Stop?" Press Release spoke. "I thought you were staying in Appleloosa until tomorrow!"
"Desperate times call for desperate measures," Eff Stop said with a grave gravity.
She walked to his seat and plopped herself down beside him.
The carriage door slid closed.
"All aboard!" a deep voice cried out from another carriage.
The wheels chugged, though slowly at first, and the green landscape past the window slightly changed—fields of green grass, rolling in their vast length and width, as trees stood in their places, resisting the wind while the grass below swayed and bent; the clouds in the sky were wandering about, though a few pegasi were arranging some of those clouds—one of them, wearing a hat as well, was pointing to this and that point in the sky and a pegasus or two would go out and move a cloud there or push a cloud away. In the middle of it all were the mountains in the far-flung background, tinted by a mix of blue and green though still domineering.
"You're on your way to Canterlot, too?" Press Release asked, looking at him with curiosity.
"Have to," Eff Stop replied, putting his hat down to his left. "This is the biggest headline news anypony's ever seen since...since..." and his stammering came to a halt. "Since—I don't know!"
Press Release sighed. "Did you see this coming?"
The train was now moving faster, the individual blades of grass turning into an incoherent blur.
"I kind of expected something bad to happen," Eff Stop said. "Having a good portion of the E.U.P. Guard standing there wasn't helping anypony sleep well."
"You mean the ponies there or the ponies here?"
"Both." He rested his head on the divider, pulling out a pillow. "The Crystal ponies are scared because they didn't seem to be in any danger, and we are scared because we don't know why they're there. Canterlot officials say it's to serve as their 'paramilitary force' until they build up their own, but—you know what happened next."
Press Release looked down at the floor, her eyes downcast. "I...I..."
"What's wrong?" He moved closer, placing a hoof around her neck. "Don't tell me you're scared, too. You're the mare who's always right there at the scene."
Silence as she wiped her dry eyes. "Well, are you scared, too?"
"Nervous, yes," he said.
The train was at full speed—the trees, the grass, all but the distant mountains whizzing past them at a great pace.
Silence again.
"What does Sombra want?" Press Release said—tense. "What exactly?"
"Nopony's really sure," he replied—terse. "Some say that he just wants to take over the world. Pretty simplistic, but it's still nothing to sneeze at. I'll say that it's just looking for world domination."
A firm silence. "Anything else? Any statements from the Princess?"
"Where have you been?" Eff Stop asked, concerned and raising an eyebrow at her.
"I've been resting up in Ponyville—the only mail I received was the call to Canterlot and nothing else."
He groaned. "Their mail's getting crazy again. We really need to get a new set of mailponies."
A pause.
Now, Ponyville was just a little patch of yellow, white and purple from where they were—the climb getting steeper and steeper.
Eff Stop adjusted his posture on the seat. Facing Press Release, he said, "The Princess said just after raising the sun that  Equestria should be ready for any surprises Sombra might pull. Then, half an hour later, she said that the E.U.P. guard—all of it—has been mobilized."
"All?" Press Release repeated, lifting a hoof to her chin, to her open mouth. "All...mobilized?"
Eff Stop lowered his head. "I have no idea who Sombra is and where he'll get the things he need to wage war on us, but if the Princess herself thinks that the whole guard is needed to defend Equestria—" He trailed off, looking out the window.
Ponyville was way down below, the train now at the cliff, on a narrow passageway as there was the craggy mountainside on one side of the carriage.
"Did she ask for volunteers?" she asked. "I overheard the mayor of Ponyville asking for volunteers for the guard."
"It's a plea from the Princess," he said—solemn. "A plea to volunteer. If that's not enough...you know what's next."
She nodded, a frown across her face.
More silence as the train moved on, now on a bridge hanging over a wide plethora of trees with a river winding through—on the other side, another set of mountains to go around.
"Where will you eat for lunch?" Eff Stop asked. "There's the donut place."
Hesitant for a while. Then: "Yeah, that would do nicely."
Eff Stop sighed. "Yeah. I agree."
He looked off out the window again, seeing the grand vista before him with Ponyville only a little spot over there.
"And, what do you want? I'll pay for everything."
Eff Stop raised an eyebrow again as he turned to her. "Are you sure?"
She nodded. "I...think it's only right to do this since...I don't know what's gonna happen after we part ways."
"Me, too," he said. "But, just remember: We have telephones, we have letters, we have records. I'm sure we'll see each other. If there's a big happening, you'll be at the scene and, I guess, I'll be there, too."
The two smiled as they sat on the same cushioned seat, the train nearing Canterlot.