Chapter 3
Princess Celestia had opened her eyes and lifted her head up off her pillow, she had not been asleep, as it was still daylight out, she had merely laid down and rested her eyes for a bit. She spread her wings out, stretching them as far as she could. Soon it would be night, and soon it would be time to sleep, and then before she knew it, she would be up again and be waste deep in arguing world leaders. The idea was already giving her a headache.
She took her mind to other things, and glanced out the window towards the west. She could see Ponyville out in the distance, and thought to herself that it had been a very long time since she had received a letter from Twilight Sparkle. Of course, she had said specifically that she only wanted Twilight to send a letter to her when, and only when she had learned something about friendship... but at the same time, Celestia figured that Twilight would have had to have learned SOMETHING by now.
To be perfectly honest? She had started to miss her student’s regular correspondence, more importantly, she missed Twilight. Twilight reminded her so much of Emerald Sparkle, her friend and almost sister from all those years ago. The resemblance was uncanny. Her recent nostalgia about Emerald had caused her to yearn for days gone by when Twilight was around Canterlot and she tutored the unicorn mare in the way of magic.
Maybe she would cut the conference short tomorrow and take the rest of the day to visit her student in Ponyville. That sounded like a good idea, Celestia had decided, she was going to do it. Luna wouldn’t like it that she was shirking off the conference, but she could live with it. Celestia’s horn began to glow as she reached out for paper and ink.
‘Dear Twilight Sparkle...’
...
Monty Ulan poked his head out the window and looked around at the countryside. Right on schedule! ‘We’re about to reach Central Canterlot, would somepony go back to the caboose and throw the breaks?’
Vinyl Scratch looked up from where they were sitting on the floor of the engine compartment and raised an eyebrow. ‘Caboose?’ she asked.
‘You know... the car at the back of the...’
‘I know what a caboose is. This engine does have brakes, right?’ Vinyl asked.
‘Of course it does’, Monty said simply. ‘Every car does, but the controls for them are in the caboose, put them in any other car and you can’t hit the brakes on all of them...’
‘Monty, look out the window towards the back of the train. Tell me what you see’, Vinyl said simply.
Monty nodded and took a look, only to discover that there were no train cars behind them at all. ‘Well fuck’.
‘Any bright ideas now?’ Vinyl asked.
‘Yeah, I got one. ABANDON TRAIN!’ Monty shouted as he pushed open the door to the engine and leapt out.
Surprise grabbed onto Vinyl and spread her wings the force of the wind pulled them out into the air and they watched as the diesel engine continued to speed off along the tracks. Blowing past the Central Canterlot Province Station and continuing on its way.
‘Gahh... You’re heavy!’ Surprise cried out, her voice straining as she continued to fly with her.
‘Shut up and keep flapping!’ Vinyl called back with annoyance in her voice. She looked around. ‘Do you see Monty?’
‘No! I’m... a little busy... carrying you... seriously... how much do you weigh?’ Surprise asked with a grunt.
‘I liked you better when you were staring quietly into space!’ Vinyl said in annoyance.
‘I liked you... better when I... didn’t have to carry you!’ Surprise snapped back.
‘Fine! Take us down to the ground!’ Vinyl said. ‘Cry baby’.
Surprise lowered herself to the ground, her grip on Vinyl slipped, causing the unicorn mare to fall a good 50 or so centimetres before hitting the ground.
‘Well at least I can cross ‘jump from a speeding train’ off my list of things to do before I die list’, Vinyl said. ‘Now where’s Monty?’
The duo heard a rustling sound from the bushes, Monty Ulan burst through them, his robes torn to shreds by the jump from the train. ‘Man... Chapter Master Archimedes is going to kill me when he learns I crashed his diesel engine’.
‘Crashed?’ Surprise asked.
‘Those tracks go all the way to Manehattan, It’s going to crash eventually, and when it does, the Manehattan Chapter of the Machine Cult will swarm it and take it for themselves, the greedy bastards’, Monty said, causing Vinyl Scratch to raise an eyebrow.
‘The Manehattan Chapter likes to hoard anything left over from before the Reign of Celestia, they don’t even use it, or have any desire to improve upon it like we in the Fillydelphia Chapter do’, Monty explained, he grabbed at his robes with his teeth and pulled the tattered remains of them off, and exposing his cutie mark of a diskette. ‘Let’s go, we’ve got a bit of a walk ahead of us’.
...
Twilight Sparkle was nose deep in her book as Rainbow Dash lay against her, napping soundly, Twilight Sparkle looked over to her and smiled, Rainbow Dash was so adorable like this.
Spike was in the kitchen cooking dinner for the three of them when Twilight heard him belch in a way that only happened during a specific event, Twilight shot to her hooves, accidentally knocking the napping Rainbow Dash to the floor.
‘OW!’ Rainbow Dash called out. ‘Hey! What was that about!?’
‘Sorry Rainbow’, Twilight said with a frown, and kissed the Pegasus on her forehead to make up for it. She trotted into the kitchen, where Spike had fallen to the floor, likely from the surprise of getting a letter from the princess, something that had not happened in quite a long time.
Twilight picked the letter up with her magic and opened it up and read it. ‘Oh no’.
‘What? What’s wrong?’ Spike asked.
‘The Princess is coming here tomorrow Spike! Ohh... this can’t be good’, Twilight said. She was beginning to panic. The last thing that they needed was Princess Celestia coming to town and discovering something going on that she shouldn’t. ‘Emerald!’ Twilight called out, dashing back into the main room. ‘Emerald! I know some part of you is here watching, you need to get all your spritebots out of Ponyville! And fast before Princess Celestia shows up’.
‘I thank you for your concern, but it’s not something you need to worry about. I’ve been watching our dear leader longer than you’ve been alive, and she’s yet to notice the spritebots in her castle. Celestia sees what she wants to see and nothing more. I know what I am doing, great-granddaughter’, said the tinny metal voice of Emerald Sparkle from a still hidden spritebot somewhere in the room.
Twilight frowned; it didn’t make her feel any better. Twilight still didn’t quite know how she felt about Emerald Sparkle, but the last thing she wanted was for something terrible to happen to her great-grandmother. To be honest? She wouldn’t put it past the princess to do something drastic.
...
Octavia stepped out of the bath at the Sweet Apple Acres farmhouse. She was beginning to rethink her opinion of Applejack. She was a dumb hick, that much was apparent, but she was a kind dumb hick, which was better than nothing. Octavia grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her and dried her hair off.
I smell like Apples. Octavia thought to herself. It figured, it was an apple farm, though she couldn’t help but wonder if Applejack and her family took apples a bit too seriously. They were a fruit, a pleasant one with a good taste, but still just a fruit.
Although, the more she thought about it, this Ponyville was a small town in rural Canterlot Province. Agriculture was probably this town’s lifeblood.
There came a knock at the door, Octavia went over and opened the door to find Applejack outside.
‘Oh! Yer done with yer bath, kay then, well Ah just wanted ta let ya know, supper’s gonna be ready in a few minutes’, Applejack said.
Octavia nodded. ‘Applejack?’ she asked.
‘Yeah?’ Applejack asked in return.
‘I find it extremely hard to believe that you could have been clueless about the contempt I’ve shown for you... yet, you continue to show me nothing but kindness... why?’ Octavia asked.
Applejack shrugged. ‘Ah know what it’s like ta be angry at somepony or somethin’, Ah figured ya just needed somepony to show yah some kindness and it’d help ya, ya know?’
Octavia cocked her head slightly to the side, questioning the truth of her statement, though the more she thought about it, she could see that Applejack was being honest with her.
‘Thank you Applejack... you’re a good mare’, Octavia said. ‘I’ll finish up and be down in a minute or two’.
Applejack nodded and trotted back down stairs. Octavia smiled; maybe things weren’t so bad here after all?
Of course, that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to beat on Montana Ulan when she caught up to him, and she was probably going to strangle Vinyl if she saw her.
Besides, Vinyl probably deserved it.