The Road Begins
“Anywhere but here.”
That’s what she had said.
“I need to get out there; make something of myself. I can’t just sit around on my ass all day, wishing that life were more fair for once.”
She’d seemed so confident in that as she trotted out into the street, and started walking through a light drizzle towards the Manehattan train station with naught but a saddlebag of personal knickknacks and a couple hundred bits to her name.
Dawn Gazer, by the way. That was her name. Her parents had told her that it was supposed to represent a never ending journey towards the horizon. A constant hope that her aspirations in life would yet come to pass, if she only reached out to take hold of them. Quite poetic, really. Quite unlike Dawn herself. She was always more of the sit-back-on-the-rooftop-and-watch-the-clouds type than the sit-under-the-great-oak-and-write-about-life type.
There was a park several blocks from her house, and it was home to several nice oak trees, as well as several pines, birch, and a particularly large willow. But it was all fake; sprouted by unicorn magic. The trees, the grass... hell, even the dirt seemed like it was developed in a factory, rather than taken from the earth. That was a complaint that Dawn had always had with the “big city” life. Even the little bits of nature spread through the city seemed to be tainted by industrialization. There was no real life to anything. It was all factories and skyscrapers. Roads and sidewalks.
She could deal with all that. That wasn’t the reason the earth pony had decided to leave. Her problem was a bit more... intrinsic than all that. Something she couldn’t simply “deal with”.
“I’m sorry, Miss Gazer. But we simply don’t have a place for someone of your... particular talents.”
“Of course you don’t. Why should I have expected any different...?”
“I-I’m sorry, Miss?”
“Nothing. Thanks for your time.”
She’d been through several years of general schooling, and had even attended a technical university for a couple years to try to find something that she really wanted to do with her life. Her cutie mark was a white flower of many petals, backed by what looked like spines. So... what? Floristry? Gardening? She liked flowers. They smelled nice and did wonders to brighten up a sour landscape like the one she’d lived under for her entire life. But is that something she really thought she could make a living out of? Probably not. So what did her mark even mean? It was supposed to describe something she loved or was good at, right?
Well, it certainly hadn’t given her any clue on what to do with herself. So the options were either A) something was wrong with her, or B) something was wrong with the people she had to talk to in order to get a job around here. Ever the optimist, Dawn assured herself that perhaps all she needed was a change of scenery. A new pond to flounder about in for a time.
“I’ve heard nothing but good things about Ponyville. It’s small, close-knit, and, most importantly... Rural. As. Hell.”
Then she’d find the perfect job, with the perfect ponies, the perfect pay, and the perfect place to start off her new life. Everything would be great.
That was the hope anyway. Life, though, has a nasty habit of being a bit more complicated than that.
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“I MISSED IT?”
The pegasus stallion to whom the question was directed winced visibly at the frustrated mare’s sudden outburst, answering as levelly as he was able, “Y-yes, miss. That would seem to- to be the case. I’m terribly sorry.”
Dawn threw her head upwards, falling back to her haunches and throwing her hooves up and slamming one into each side of her head. Glaring at the ceiling, she shouted, “How could I have missed it?”
She was sitting on a boarding platform at the Manehattan Railroad Station. Terminal #3. Large, white marble pillars, each adorned with wide rings of multi-colored tiles at about shoulder level, were placed every ten or fifteen feet down the center of the platform. Every pillar ascended to a pointed roof, slanting downwards to either side, and a rounded, metal bench surrounded each base. On either side of the terminal were tracks branching off in various directions after leaving the station. Being outside, one could see the skyline of uptown Manehattan with ease on a clear day.
Today, however, was not a particularly clear day; as had been the trend for the past week or so, the sky was dark and cloudy, soundlessly threatening to open the floodgates on top of the city at any time. Seemingly for no other reason than to make the day look even more depressing, a light fog also hung in the air. Either the weather crew was feeling especially lethargic lately, or someone was having a really bad week and was intent on spreading the love around.
It had been early in the afternoon, and rather humid, so Dawn decided to take a quick “power nap” while she waited for the train to Ponyville to arrive. As it turns out, this was a poor decision.
“Well, you were sleeping on that bench for quite some time. Perhaps it came by while you were napping?” the stallion offered, looking hopeful that he was helping the situation. He wasn’t. Dawn shifted her gaze from the ceiling to the pegasus, her eyes betraying a very real urge to wrap her forelegs around his waist and piledrive him onto the train tracks.
Fortunately for the pegasi’s head, and Dawn’s status as a mare not being jailed for brutally hospitalizing innocent civilians for looking at her funny, she sufficed to shouting some more. “Well, why didn’t you wake me up? Huh?”
If the stallion had realized what an unfair place he was being pushed into, he made no signs of showing it. If anything, he seemed even more apologetic than before. “O-oh my! I can’t even-can’t even begin to express to you how sorry I am for not waking you! I-I-I-I didn’t—I didn’t think! I wasn’t thinking! P-please, miss! Please forgive me!”
Dawn may have had issues with keeping her temper in check, and she might have been prone to blaming others for her problems because of that, but she wasn’t heartless. Seeing the innocent male doubled over in front of her, begging for forgiveness was more than enough to snap her back to reality. She sighed deeply, then picked the pathetic stallion up off of the ground, “No... no. You’ve got nothing to apologize for. It’s my fault I missed the train. I should’ve been more aware of the time.”
Though still shaken, the timid stallion couldn’t help but ask, “Is there anything that I could, um, do? Anything to help?”
The kindness he was showing to her in spite of how awfully she had been acting the past few minutes was humbling, to say the least. “Don’t worry about it,” she responded, her lips curling upward ever so slightly, “I just need to go talk to the guys at the ticket booth. If I explain what happened, they should be able to get me a ticket for the next train.”
This news seemed to please the pegasus, and his fear quickly dissipated. It was replaced with an eerily wide smile. Not that it looked forced, per se, but just something about it unnerved Dawn. Something about the way he was able to snap from abject terror to such an unbearably cheerful grin just seemed... wrong. She shrugged it off, however, and decided a proper apology was in order. “Anyway, I’m really sorry about railing off on you like that. Being a complete stranger and all, I guess I really haven’t made a great first impression—”
“Oh no! Nothing to worry yourself about, miss. A simple misunderstanding, that’s all,” he replied without letting her finish. He was still smiling.
“Uhhhhh right. Well, okay then. My name’s Dawn.”
“Cloudy Weather.” Still smiling. Yeah, definitely weird.
Dawn couldn’t help but take notice of the trio of overlapping storm clouds on his flank. They were dark gray, a stark contrast to his bright yellow coat, and a perfect complement to his heavily graying mane. She hadn’t been paying much attention before, but now that Dawn was really looking, it seemed to her that this stallion was grayed well beyond his age. His face and body didn’t seem very old at all. No older than her parents anyway. Perhaps she wasn’t the first pony to harass him over trivial matters that weren’t his fault to begin with; he certainly seemed like he’d taken his fair share of emotional beat-downs.
After bumping hooves, Dawn turned to make her way back into the station to retrieve a new train ticket. It was a fairly simple process, and it wasn’t long before she was right back on the platform at Terminal #3. This time though with every fiber of her being focused on staying awake to avoid a repeat of that afternoon’s events.
Dawn saw the pegasus again when she returned; it was hard not to as he was the only pony there aside from herself. She smiled weakly at him when he waved at her from across the platform, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a lot more going on inside his head than his overtly friendly demeanor suggested.
Best not to get involved, she thought, seating herself a few pillars away.
About twenty minutes later, a train approached the station from the same direction that Dawn was headed and slowly pulled in. When the doors opened, several ponies exited and the pegasus, Cloudy Weather, hopped on board. Dawn couldn’t help but watch him as he took a seat inside. A moment later, the train gave a loud whistle and began chugging off towards its next destination.
It wasn’t long before all of the ponies who’d exited the train had left to go about their business, and Dawn Gazer found herself sitting alone for the remainder of her wait. Though in reality it had only been about a half an hour long wait, to a mind working at a thousand miles per hour, it seemed like an eternity.
All of the questions that had escaped Dawn when she’d first decided to move out of her parent’s home to seek out her future in Ponyville came crashing back to the forefront of her brain in the relative quiet of Terminal #3.
What if I can’t find a job in time? What if I end up spending all my bits on living space and land myself right back in mom and dad’s place in a week? What would they think of me? Are they expecting me to fail? Are they talking about it over lunch right about now? How I’ll be back in a few days with a new sob story about how no pony in their right mind would give me a job? Would any pony in their right mind give me a job? Is it just me? Am I just doomed to never find a career of my own? Destined to live off of my parent’s income until they’re too old to work anymore?
The thoughts stung far worse than Dawn was willing to let anyone else know. So when the train to Ponyville pulled steadily into the station, she was quick to straighten herself up. She wiped a few tears she hadn’t realized were forming behind her eyes, slung her bags over her back, and stepped lightly into the car closest to where she’d been sitting, careful not to run into anyone exiting.
The interior of the locomotive was nicer than Dawn had anticipated. Having never ridden on this train before, or any train for that matter, she had only the station itself to use for comparison. While the majority of the Manehattan Railroad Station was fairly well-kept, the inside of the car Dawn found herself in was absolutely gorgeous.
It felt almost like looking around a military bunker that had been refurbished into a normal home: more like a really big, cozy bedroom than a vehicle of transportation. The green carpeting adorning the floors was soft to the touch, the cushions on every bench looked plush and inviting, and the swirling, translucent dividers between each seat added a certain flair to the decor. Finding herself drawn to the back corner, Dawn took her seat and couldn’t help but notice that she’d been right about the cushions. Cuddly as a pillow.
It took all of her willpower not to conk out right then and there; she knew if she wanted to catch a nap on the way, she’d have to make sure she was getting up again. There were a few other ponies scattered throughout the car, and all of them seemed friendly enough. Native Ponyville ponies, perhaps?
Dawn approached the one nearest her, a mare not much older than herself. She hesitated for only a moment before giving the girl a tentative tap on the shoulder. The seated earth pony turned her head with a curious look, but quickly began to smile when she saw Dawn.
“May I help you?” she asked politely.
“Um, yeah,” Dawn began, not quite sure how best to word her response, “See, I’m heading to Ponyville. Which I guess most of us are, since this is the train to Ponyville and all. Anyway, I’d kinda like to get some sleep on the way. So, would you mind, uh, waking me up once we get there?” Brilliant work, Dawn. Way to make words. Just talk her head off, why don’tcha? She sarcastically berated herself.
Fortunately, the mare didn’t seem perturbed in the least by Dawn’s finicky reply. She simply smiled and said, “Not a problem at all. We shouldn’t be there for a few more hours; I hope you enjoy your rest.”
Dawn breathed a sigh of relief. Well, that was easy enough. “Thanks.”
Dawn returned to her place in the back of the car, sat down on the velvety cushion, and laid her belongings down in front of her. Giving one last cursory glance around the train car, she tucked her legs underneath her body, slumped her head down onto her bags and closed her eyes.