"Wake up, Fluttershy."
"Ugh..."
"Wake up."
"Uh...don't you worry...Fluttershy's here..."
"You're dreaming, aren't you? Wake up!"
"Eek!"
And Fluttershy was hovering over the bed, her eyes darting and moving here and there—scared.
The lights were off—a dark apartment.
She looked out the window.
Still dark.
"If you don't get yourself ready," Teddie said, putting on her pith hat, "then we'll be late!"
Fluttershy glanced out the window again. "But it's early! What could you be late for?"
"We're getting out of Vanhoover. Now."
Fluttershy gulped. "W-What's going on? Are they actually...c-coming here?" She bit her hooves.
"A newspony rushed up to the door just minutes ago," Teddie said, packing her things up in two pocket-filled saddle bags and placing them on herself. "They've overrun whatever mountain defence force we've had."
"What?!" Fluttershy exclaimed, smacking her cheeks with her hooves. "How is that even possible? Last time I've heard, they were just at the C-Crystal Empire a-and—"
"'Last time' must've been a long time ago, miss," Teddie said.
Fluttershy gulped again.
"You're still under me, Fluttershy," Teddie began, "but this is more important than teaching an orthos new tricks! If you don't get over yourself, you're going to be here when they come and bomb Vanhoover—"
"Bomb?!"
"Stop repeating words, Fluttershy! Time is of the essence!"
Fluttershy nodded, slung some saddle bags on to herself.
She went to the doghouse, but the orthos was already awake. It was wagging its tail, lolling its tongue as it more than smiled at the sight of Fluttershy.
"Huh." Teddie scratched her head. Then, she shook her head. "Get a hold of yourself, Teddie!"
With the two-headed dog on a leash, Fluttershy and Teddie Safari hurried out the door.
At the southern train station, straddling a river that ended at the vast ocean, a crowd of ponies flooded through the doors. Many held their tickets in the air, shouting and screaming and sobbing. The bright lights held under them these ponies—whether Earth pony, pegasus, or unicorn (though mostly unicorn). They were all ready to leave with baggages and luggages in tow.
This train station, while not as massive as its Manehattan counterpart, still had some sway over those who were new to the city—columns inside had mottos etched on them, mottos of the city's various departments; paintings on the ceiling were made clear by the lights that hung there; a gallery of floors made each 'mini-station' unique as one line had a checkered and tiled floor and another had marble and still another had timber and wood.
Yet, nopony was awed or amazed by an architectural art-of-the-state. Some did not see it at all. Their eyes were closed as they cried on somepony else's shoulder. The cries only grew louder as they entered the trains. One yelled, "I'll miss you! Please come back!"
And then the train's doors closed.
"You are leaving Station Seven," a female voice announced over the radio. "Your destination is Tall Tale. Estimated time of arrival: Twenty-seven minutes."
The train was jammed with ponies on the seats at the side. The seats in this electric train, unlike those in the Friendship Express and other steam-powered locomotives, were firmly and strictly on the sides, facing the other side of the train. The ponies sitting down were facing one another across the wider aisle. Hanging from the ceiling were metal rings where ponies wrapped their hooves or wings about, keeping themselves upright.
As the train left the train station, everyone inside could see what was outside:
A twilight sky, about to break into dawn—purple, the final stars fading. Then, streaks of light—closer and closer to the cityscape.
Green lights.
Gasps. Faces away. Slamming the windows. Screams to turn back, screams to hurry forward. Ponies stood up if only to watch what the ruckus was about.
Teddi Safari and Fluttershy, with the orthos on leash, rose from their seats, too.
Above the rising hills and the growing trees—lush trees, flowering with pretty specimens—the green lights stopped on the glass skyscrapers reflecting the horizon's morning color, the night's last hour.
Then, white dots in the air.
Colliding with the green.
To dance around, to go around, to clash and to fight—some dots fell, both white and green.
The sun's rays penetrated the train's windows, blinding some of the ponies for the moment.
Now, it was really Friday.
"Vanhoover is down!" a pony shrieked—a mare on her knees, only to resume her weeping as her family came to console her with pats, nice and quiet words, and promises.
The commotion was silent before that lone mare; all eyes were on her. The family paid no attention to the looks at them. They merely brought her back to her seat, giving her tissue paper.
Sneezes, blew her nose.
Fluttershy sniffed—a tear welling.
"We will be arriving at Tall Tale Station in twenty-three minutes," the announcer declared through the speakers.
The train arrived in a much sunnier day, the coolness of the past hours replaced with a welcoming warmth and a clearing light. Only a few ponies alighted at Tall Tale Station—the great majority of the passengers stayed inside as the doors closed, with one even mocking "Are you crazy?! You're too near!"
Needless to say, he was dragged back inside the train before it got too much speed.
"Uh, a-are you sure that we should stay here, miss Safari?" Fluttershy asked, stammering, holding the orthos with her hooves—he was licking her face in pure joy. "Maybe they're right."
"I live in Tall Tale now," Teddie said matter-of-factly, gazing upon the little village before her. "No use owning an apartment about to be assaulted."
Fluttershy gulped again as they went off the station and on to Tall Tale itself.
This town had a few skyscrapers of its own though not as towering and as imposing as those back in Vanhoover. They were short and simple ones made out of brick and concrete, having an art deco style.
However, those skyscrapers felt out of place when compared to the rest of what the town had to offer to anyone new in the vicinity: one- or two- story shops and houses, most of them either flat or tipped with a rustic layered roof. Plant life proliferated the small place—every ten or so hoofsteps there was a tree in the middle of the wooden sidewalks. Some fishing boats floated about near the sandy shore.
But, even those things were not what caught the ponies' attention there and then.
Over there, they saw factories billowing out smoke. Beside them were fields of cornstalks as ponies in carriages lassoed up the stalks to the massive wagons in tow, leaving nothing behind. A pegasus had a contraption attached to her wings—a metal skeleton or framework of sorts that had retractable baskets and blades. She flew right above the cornstalks and, in a second, they were gone, now in the hold of that mare.
Meanwhile, a yellow Earth pony with a candy cane as his cutie mark was being shoved out of his candy store—inside and through the glass walls could be seen shelves upon shelves of jawbreakers, lollipops, chocolates, and more about to be boxed by a few guard ponies.
"Boiled Sweets," one of the guards said to him in a commanding voice, "you are to be sent immediately to the border of Vanhoover to meet our troops there. Your food is invaluable to us."
"B-But, why me?!" he yelled. "You should be asking Emmer Bran, not me! They have lots of food—"
"But no sweets," the guard said, dragging him into a carriage.
"My family!" And he reached his hoof out. "May I at least say my goodbyes—"
"We don't have a minute to lose, mister," the guard said.
And the candy pony was silent as the carriage whisked away.
"That was awful!" Fluttershy said as she and Teddie (and the orthos) sat at a table, beside a window that overlooked the vast sea with its undulating waves and its dithering boats—they could even hear the waves crashing on the beach, they could smell the tropical scent the ocean gave off, and some droplets of water would appear when a wave traveled perilously close to the restaurant on the pier.
On the table were some plates of salad and containers of sea salt which, as the chalkboard writing on the menu proudly proclaimed, was "collected straight from these very waters!" For the orthos, he had two bowls of generic dog food—crunchy and crispy. Each head was busy with its respective bowl.
"What are you gonna do about it?" Teddie asked nonchalantly.
They were also the only customers present.
"What if that pony doesn't come back to his family? They would be so worried and upset that they're not seeing him!"
"I'm concerned, too, Fluttershy," Teddie began, "but this is no time for excessive pitying and sympathy. They're going to do their job for Equestria—leave it to us to tell the Princesses."
"When will we tell the Princesses?"
Teddie filled her mouth with an entire cabbage leaf.
"Sorry I asked," Fluttershy said.
The two ponies and their orthos were back inside an apartment—another one, though. This one was smaller, had a carpet that covered the entire floor, and had only one pony-sized bed. There were two windows that gave them a seaside view that covered Tall Tale's entire shoreline complete with all the piers, all the boats, and all the ports and docks that could be seen without being compressed.
"There is nothing to be afraid of," Teddie said, looking about in the somewhat bare room. "It's going to be just fine."
"That's what ponies say right before things aren't fine," Fluttershy commented, hiding an eye behind her bangs.
"You're hearing the wrong stories." She took her hat off and hung it on a rack. "Alright, it's only nine-thirty in the morning. What do you want to do? There's...not a lot to do here, but there's a park—"
Fluttershy nodded. "Oh, yes!" she said, shouting as if by whispering. "If there's a park, there's certainly some ponies with pets of their own, too!"
Teddie raised an eyebrow, giving her a suspicious look. "What do you mean by that?"
"You're still my main client, of course," Fluttershy said, "but I get extra money by kindly helping out everypony even in the small ways. It's the only thing I could do for them."
Teddie sighed. "Well, I'll get ourselves some personal gear—survival gear."
Fluttershy gulped one more time. "Survival gear?"
"You better stop repeating my words, Fluttershy."
The park was a peculiar park. It had grass, trees, bushes, rocks, benches—a pond, too, where the ducks swam and quacked. But, there was also a sandcastle in the middle of the grass.
And a brown stallion was tending to it.
He had blonde mane, and a desert island as his cutie mark.
Coco Crusoe was also the only other pony in the park.
"Uh, hi."
Crusoe looked up to see Fluttershy's face.
Silence as they looked at each other.
"What can I do for you, ma'am?"
"Oh, uh, I was wondering if you, uh, had a pet? An animal you take care of?"
He shook his head. "No. I had a pet goldfish once, though."
"What happened to him?" Fluttershy's ears drooped.
"I was clumsy back in the day, so I spilled the fish bowl and—"
Fluttershy gasped. "You let him perish?!"
"It was an accident," Crusoe clarified. "What next? You'll tell the rest of Equestria that I'm a horrible pony?"
"Uh..."
Crusoe sighed, holding a small bucket of sand and turning it upside-down, letting it all fall to the ground. "If you don't mind, I have my own troubles."
Fluttershy whimpered as she flew out of the park.
And Crusoe became the only pony in the park.
"And, if you look outside, you can see the mountains of Unicorn Range," the elated-sounding host spoke through the wired microphone.
Crusoe looked out and so did a few other ponies in the train.
Past a tundra of sparse flowers and tall grass, snow-tipped mountains were close together, rising to the sky. Splendid and beautiful were they—in magnitude, they were astonishing; in length, they were inspiring. Their rugged sides contrasted with the smooth river that bended peacefully past tiny thickets of pine trees.
"What's in those boxes?" a passing pony asked, pointing at the boxes beside Crusoe.
He turned around. "It's sand."
"What for?" The pony took a step closer and visually examined the boxes.
"It's my way of assisting in the war."
"O...K?"
"Sand in eyes. Now you know."
"Oh. OK!"
Then, the pony walked away.
Crusoe smiled as he looked back out the window.