Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure what to expect, but it certainly wasn’t an actual train station.
Well, it looked close enough to a train station, anyway. The huge, vaulted ceiling and solid stone construction looked a couple hundred years out of place, but most of the signography was decidedly contemporary.
It was also full. Rainbow Dash hadn’t even seen anypony else leave the train, but the station was chock-full of ponies trotting this way and that way, talking to each other and readjusting manes and trying to swig down cups of coffee on the go and doing other stuff that was entirely and utterly mundane.
“Rainbow Dash? Over here, Rainbow Dash!”
Rainbow Dash turned her head. To the right of her and a few meters ahead, a yellowish hoof was waving at her from above the crowd, and flashes of an all-too-familiar face peeped out from between the heads of a slew of strangers. Pushing her way past a scruffy, bearded stallion, Rainbow Dash emerged from the crowd, face-to-face with the waving pony. “Fluttershy…?”
And there she...well, it wasn’t quite her. The mane color, coat color and wingspan? Down to a tee. But her mane, while long, was a little too straight, and Rainbow Dash couldn’t remember Fluttershy’s irises being some shade of dusty rose.
“Me?” The pony pointed a hoof at herself and giggled.
“Well, yeah.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “I don’t see any other pony who looks like…uh. Wait a minute, you probably don’t know—”
“Oh, I know! I paid attention in history class. You wouldn’t believe how often I get that, trust me.” The pegasus giggled again and held out her hoof. “I’m Crepe Myrtle. Or just Myrtle, for short.”
“Uh...Rainbow Dash, I guess.” Rainbow Dash shook her hoof. “I, uh...Sorry, I’m just kind of lost. I don’t really know what I’m doing here.”
“Ah, that’s simple. You’re not really supposed to be here.” Myrtle withdrew her hoof and toyed with her mane. “Not permanently, I mean. Your departure’s in...six hours, I think? Yeah, six hours. Your train came in pretty late.”
“Uh...sorry, I guess?”
Myrtle shrugged. “No worries! I’m still supposed to be your guide while you’re here, so I figured you’d like to do a little sightseeing while you’re around. Ever had ice cream?”
“...Yeah? I mean, who hasn’t?”
Myrtle turned around and started making her way through the throng of ponies, while Rainbow Dash followed in her wake. “You’d be surprised, actually. Not really something we got around to making the right way until a decade ago or so, and I figure that’s what you meant.”
“Really?” Rainbow Dash looked around as they walked. “This place looks kind of, uh...modern.”
“What, you mean the architecture? Psssh. Building things isn’t exactly hard. But food? Legitimate, honest-to-goodness food? It’s not something you need to worry about, don’t worry!” Myrtle looked back, waving a dismissive hoof. “But it’s not been easy.”
Rainbow Dash tilted her head. “It’s just food, right? You grow it out of the ground, you bake or something, you eat it. Right?”
Myrtle giggled. “That’s summing it up a bit too succinctly, I think. Not entirely untrue, though. Hey!” Myrtle pointed over at a huge, glass column, built right next to one of the walls of the station. “Wanna take the lift? I’ve got clearance for it. Give you a nice, pegasus’-eye view of things at the top. Should help me give you some pointers at what you might enjoy looking at.”
“...Sure. Okay. Sure.” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Still don’t know what I’m really supposed to do here, though.”
“Get a look around! Get inspired!” Myrtle giggled. The crowds were starting to thin, and Myrtle trotted a little faster to the lift than she had before. “Like I said, you don’t have all that long here. This isn’t your stop, not really. Just a transfer point. But I’ll make sure you get on your next train at the right time, don’t worry!”
“Well, where is that going?” Rainbow Dash huffed. Myrtle didn’t answer for a moment; instead, she cleared the distance and peered into a small, black box next to the lift. Whatever was supposed to happen worked; with a soft ping, the door to the lift slid open. Myrtle gestured with her hoof, as if Rainbow Dash was supposed to go ahead of her. With one more quizzical look at Myrtle, Rainbow Dash passed ahead of her and stepped into the lift.
“Bit of a ways off. Not as nice as this place. Kind of a mixer-upper.” Myrtle followed Rainbow Dash inside the lift and pressed a small button on a smooth, flat console inside the lift. Silently, the lift began to rise. “It’s called Neighthon. Heard of it?”
“Uh…” Rainbow Dash trailed off. “...No?”
“You’re gonna end up working there for a while. Gonna be kind of a hot shot, actually! In charge of lots of super important stuff. It’ll be fun!”
Myrtle paused, tilting her head as she looked contemplatively at Rainbow Dash.
“Not big on astronomy yet, huh?” Myrtle mused.
“Yet? More like never.” Rainbow Dash snorted. “That sounds like serious egghead business.”
Myrtle chuckled. “You’ll wind up liking it eventually. Most ponies I know eventually do.”
“They like studying? Ugh! That’s even worse than, like, doing work.”
“Nah! There’s ways of making it fun!” Myrtle beamed. “Astronomy, And studying. And work…”
“Doubt it,” Rainbow Dash muttered.
“Just need to get into the right mindset for it.” Myrtle tapped her head with her hoof. “Ever played board games before? Any you enjoy?”
Rainbow Dash’s blood froze. “Uh. Um. Well, uh…”
Myrtle giggled. “Thought so! Look, if you get the right kind of teacher, anything can seem like it’s part of some kind of game. Even the stuff that doesn’t seem all that fun! Just gotta open your mind to that idea a little and try some new stuff out!”
“This is, uh…” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “This is starting to sound kind of familiar.”
With another ding, the lift door swung open. The brilliant, nearly blinding amount of light made Rainbow Dash cringe, and she reflexively threw a hoof over her eyes.
“Careful!” Myrtle called out as she plodded out of the elevator. “It’s a little high up out here. I know you’ve got wings, but…”
“Yeah. Yeah, I do. Whoof.” Slowly, Rainbow Dash took her hoof away from her eyes.
It was...it was a stunning view, really. Gleaming skyscrapers rose from the ground like shimmering feathers under a brilliant blue sky. Rainbow Dash glanced down at her hooves, walked out over uneven ground until she drew even with Myrtle, and looked out again.
There was a city below her, to be sure; everything from the dazzling skyscrapers to the sprawling mass of streets, from arching complexes with rooftop houses to a veritable garden of storefronts of every kind and variety below, homes and cafes intertwined with arterial commercial districts…
“...Beautiful.” Rainbow Dash sighed. “Not normally my kind of thing, but…”
“It’s beautiful outside the city limits, too. Once you get thataways, anyway. Used not to be nice at all, but, y’know…” Myrtle turned and winked at Rainbow Dash. “A few generations worth of work will do a pretty nice job fixing that up.”
“...Generations. Uh…” Rainbow Dash trailed off. “So way before you were born, huh?”
“Yep! And there’s probably gonna be more stuff after I’m gone. Which I guess is funny to say to you, huh?” Myrtle chuckled. “But heck, if you’re here and you’re talking to me, I guess that just means you don’t have to worry about getting old or eating or any of that other self-maintenance stuff, huh?”
Myrtle walked over to the edge of the building. Wings spreading, she took one last look back at Rainbow Dash. “Kind of wish you could stay here longer. But I guess you’ve got a big beautiful world of your own to build, don’t you? And I bet that if you worked your hardest and used your brain, you’d be able to design a city just as beautiful as this one. Maybe even more beautiful.”
Rainbow Dash followed Myrtle to the edge, spreading her wings in a near perfect copy of Myrtle’s form. “Where are we?”
“Welcome to Grand Manehattan,” Myrtle replied, and jumped.