“Morning everyone! Look what I got! Breakfast!”
With a bounce in her step, Pinkie carried the old pot and ladle up to the ladies seated around the broad, slab-like rock just outside the Pies’ household. They weren’t alone. The rest of the crowd that was with them had spread out in the area as well. The children and older members were sitting around like them, but everyone else was either tending to their friends and relatives or making themselves useful as best as they could. Twilight’s group, however, had gathered with Starlight bright and early; the latter of the two having claimed some paper from the old steam engine and had been jotting notes since last night.
Pinkie began to serve the women from the pot into their small, simple, hand-carved rock bowls. She didn’t seem to notice Sunset grimace when she got near and scoot a short distance away from her, or the fact that everyone else’s smiles were just a tiny bit forced that morning. When Dash got her own bowl served, she tipped it up to drink, only to pause and stare at it.
“Uh…just out of curiosity, what are we having?”
“My family’s famous rock soup!”
Twilight, in the middle of sipping from her own bowl, suddenly went wide eyed as her face contorted.
Applejack gave Pinkie an odd look. “You actually make soup outta nothin’ but rocks?”
She giggled as she finished serving. “No, silly! We just use them for flavoring! It’s way cheaper than salt and pepper!”
Twilight very slowly swallowed what was in her mouth. As for Starlight, she grinned weakly at Pinkie before tipping her own bowl to her mouth…letting it roll out and onto the ground just shy of touching her lips…before making a yummy face.
“If I ever get back to Manehattan, I will never take a brioche for granted again…” Rarity muttered.
“You don’t like it?” Limestone’s voice piped up from an outdoor fire nearby, which was serving as the “KP” area. “Feel free to throw any spare meat or vegetables you got into it! Or just starve!”
Fluttershy cringed on hearing her angry retort, shrinking a little before turning to the others. “I’m not sure Limestone likes us being here very much.”
“Well, we did come bringing bad news,” Twilight answered after she was able to regain her composure and set her bowl aside. “Maybe the Apples can help with the flavoring?”
“I don’t reckon there’s much we can do about rocks as a main ingredient,” Applejack answered, before eyeing the same KP area with a bit of a frown. “Though it don’t look like it’s stoppin’ that big brother of mine from tryin’…”
Sure enough, Big Mac along with several of the other Apples were milling about trying to help with feeding everyone, although he seemed to be sticking toward the front with the main pot. At the moment, it wasn’t clear if he was really devoting much attention to that so much as constantly eyeing Marble, who herself seemed to be glancing back at him every time she picked up or set down a stone bowl.
Starlight let her own bowl set as she looked over her papers. “I hate to get us off the topic of genuine Trottingham cuisine…but I think we need to focus on pulling off this mass exodus.”
Twilight stifled herself one more time before nodding. “Right, right… Ok…first things first, we need to keep our eyes on a concrete goal. Pinkie Pie says that Princess Skystar is willing to take in the Gaitians as refugees, so we need to get her family and the other Gaitians in the area out of Trottingham, across Appleloosa, and to Mount Aris. Next we need to define every liability that could keep us from achieving that goal.”
Starlight grimaced as she looked over her papers. “Well…for starters, there’s the fact that Trottingham likely anticipated that the Gaitians might try something like this from the moment they relocated them. That would explain why none of the Pies know exactly how many Gaitians are in the area and exactly where they are. It’s also likely all the main roads in and out of every place the Gaitians have been relocated are being watched. They’ve also probably gone to great lengths to make sure that they can’t communicate with each other. What that all means is even if we did plan a mass emigration from Trottingham, there’d be no way to coordinate it or even risk getting the message out without alerting the local authorities.”
Twilight winced, along with the others. “Ok…that’s a pretty big liability…”
“And it gets better,” Starlight continued. “We lost our only transportation, which means we either expose ourselves trying to get an alternate transportation or we try to get out on foot. If we go on foot, we have to force multiple families to march across the whole of Appleloosa, which is Trottingham-occupied now, I might add, without adequate food, water, or supplies. Needless to say, we’ll have to worry about Nighttouched along with the Trottingham army. On the other hand, even if we do get a source of transportation for everyone, we’ll expose ourselves multiple times going around and rounding everyone up and then being forced to take occupied roads out to Mount Aris.”
Rarity began to look uneasy. “…Is that all?”
She exhaled. “Well, there’s also the fact that we don’t know when Trottingham will make the move, so ideally any plan would be to get us all out at a moment’s notice.”
Twilight let out a sigh. “Great…” She bowed her head, rubbing her temples for a moment, and then looked up. “Alright, the first order of business is finding out where the rest of the Gaitians are.”
“Well, that won’t be easy,” Starlight grimaced. “Any time any of us wander off this quarry we’re going to be taking a chance, and the Pies can’t go that far either. And whoever is out is going to spend their time wandering around trying to find people.”
“Oh, oh!” Pinkie suddenly piped up, just as she sat down with the rest of the group. “I know how to find everyone! We’ll just ask the Cakes for help!”
The group turned to her. “The Cakes?”
“Yup! They run the bakery in town! The Trottingham government has them bake bread for all the Gaitians in the distinct! They delivered the bread themselves when they started! That’s how I met them! They let me learn how to make desserts at their bakery before I had to stop!”
Starlight’s eyes raised. “Really?”
Twilight looked pleasantly surprised. “Well…that’s good news. I didn’t know we’d have anyone in Trottingham who was on our side. If we have sympathizers, then that might make this job even easier. We’d have someone who could locate everyone for us and pass them messages to get ready.”
“Well, hold on just a second…” Starlight cut in again, turning to Pinkie. “You said you were learning how to make desserts before you ‘had to stop’? Why was that?”
“Oh…” Pinkie sank a little, looking disappointed. “It turns out the government found out I was working for them, and they get pretty upset when a Gaitian doesn’t have a work permit. I would have gone to city hall to get one, but Gaitians aren’t allowed in that part of town and usually they get mixed up anyway when you go ask for a work permit and end up accidentally arresting you instead.”
Starlight’s face slumped. “That’s what I thought.” She turned back to the others. “They could be watching that bakery for anything funny going on. If they start writing a bunch of notes and passing them around, it’s going to look suspicious.”
Twilight thought about that for a moment, before she rubbed her chin.
“Maybe there’s a way around that… Pinkie, do you think you could sneak over to the Cakes just to deliver one message to them?”
“Sure thing, Twilight! What do I say?”
“So here’s the thing… We need you to do a super-duper special order for us. We need you to bake a list of all of the Gaitians that you normally bake bread for and deliver it in the next loaf that comes out to us…then we need you to bake a message into each one of the loaves that you send out to all the other Gaitian families that the Trottingham government is going to try and relocate them soon so we need them all to get ready to move tomorrow night and that when we come to get them we’ll need all of them to pack up and head out to a place where we’ll tell them to go so that they can all load up and we can all move them out to Mount Aris all together!”
Pinkie let out a gasp as soon as she finished this, taking a moment to catch her breath. The Cakes, on their part, stared back dumbfounded on the other side of the counter at the information just dumped upon them. As Pinkie kept catching her breath, Mrs. Cake finally cleared her throat.
“That’s…that’s quite a lot for a message, Pinkie. I…don’t suppose you could repeat it, could you?”
She giggled. “Tee-hee, of course not, Mrs. Cake! That’s waaay too much to remember.” She reached into her poofy hair, fished around for a moment, and came out with a scrap of paper that she promptly put on the counter. “That’s why I had Twilight write me this note!”
Starlight exhaled, making a jot down on her piece of paper. “Ok, so we let Pinkie pass on the message to the Cakes and they get it out to the Gaitians and let us know where all of them are. That settles the problem of how we’ll initially get in touch with them…but how do we send them the message of when it’s time to move? They could be spread out miles apart. If we cause a signal large enough for all of them to see or hear, it’s going to attract the attention of other people.”
“Right…” Twilight answered, tapping her fingers against the ground. “So we’re going to need another way to alert them all when it’s time.”
“Not just that,” Applejack spoke up. “Pinkie might know her way ‘round these parts in the back country, but no tellin’ if those other folks do. Reckon they can’t just mosey on down the road without gettin’ caught.”
Fluttershy turned to Pinkie. “I don’t suppose you know anyone else we could talk to for help, do you Pinkie?”
She stuck her tongue out and looked skyward, thinking for a moment. “Hmm… Let’s see… Um…” She concentrated for a few moments, thinking hard, before finally looking up again. “Oh! There’s Carrot and Pound Cake! They like me too!”
“Who are they?”
“The Cakes’ baby twins!”
“Oh…”
Dash sat with arms crossed for a moment longer before she cracked a smirk. “I think I got this one covered.”
Twilight and Starlight turned to her. “You do?”
“Need a bunch of people moved out and around in secret at a moment’s notice? That sounds right up the alley of the Huntsman’s Guild.”
Twilight didn’t look terribly relieved at the suggestion. “I’m not so sure about that… I mean, I’m not an expert on the Huntsman’s Guild, but I’m pretty sure that they normally can’t do things that are illegal. And even if they would, we’d have to let them in on what we’re doing and come up with money to pay them.”
“Which we don’t have,” Starlight grimly added.
Dash kept grinning and waved at them. “Don’t sweat it. You just leave it all to me.”
“So that’s the proposition. You in?”
To say that the Huntsmen that Dash was addressing at the moment looked somewhat disinterested with her offer would be an understatement. The various guild members, some of which were rougher, burlier, or more scarred than others, gave her a flat, dismissive look. No more so than the one seated across from Dash at the guild table, an older, rougher woman with wild, voluminous hair kept down under a bandanna and a large hoop earring in one ear.
“Let me see if I get this straight. You want us to break at least four different Trottingham travel and trafficking statues, potentially ruining not only our licenses with the guild but getting us jail time, to coordinate moving out twenty different families worth of people to a hijacked transport, which you plan on stealing, which will mean we’ll never work in Trottingham again once it gets tied to us, and all…for free?” She snorted, leaning back as she took up her beerstein. “Now I see why you’re always drunk and broke…”
“Aw, come on, Celano…” Dash answered, smirking as she leaned over the table to make the conversation a bit more private. “Or do you like your old title a little better? Captain Celano?”
The woman had been in the middle of taking another swig when she paused. Her eyes darkened a bit before she lowered it. “Really think you want to start dragging up people’s pasts, Sonic Rainboom?”
“Hey, I’m used to it by now. Just making an observation. Lots of folks around the world have had to make do with how fast things were changing. A lot of people turned to being Huntsmen when nothing else could pay the bills.” She lowered his voice a bit more. “Nationalizing the airship industry in Trottingham sure didn’t help the case for a certain career hijacker and her merry band,” She paused to gesture to the group around her. “Did it?”
Now the others began to tense up as well. Celano herself put her stein down a bit too hard and leveled her eyes at her. “If you’re thinking of blackmailing me into this…”
Dash snorted and leaned back. “Who, me? Heh…I’ve got enough problems of my own with the authorities without getting ex-pirates on my back too.”
“Then what’s your point?”
“You’re wanting to make a new start, aren’t you? Maybe get a new ship and try things out elsewhere? Stick it to Trottingham and its new monarch while you’re at it? But you’re not going to do it for Huntsman pay. And you’re not going to get it in Trottingham either. Nah, you and your crew has to lie low and not make much of a fuss so that no one starts trying to ID you.”
She leaned in again.
“So picture this… You get a golden opportunity to not only get out of Trottingham without that annoying cross-country living stuff and border hopping while at the same time giving them a national embarrassment by smuggling out a bunch of state wards right in the middle of Trottingham trying to make themselves look like this unstoppable steamroller; all while being able to rob them blind right under their nose and smuggle the whole load out. The biggest comeback in history. And the beauty part? They’ll never pin it on you. Even if everything goes wrong, you can blame it all on Mount Aris agents and their human trafficking. Now you tell me…who else is going to give you this good of a shot?”
Celano sat there silently. The rest of the men around her calmed considerably, but looked at her and waited. As for her, she crossed her arms and tapped her fingers against them for several seconds. Eventually her eyes looked up and glanced around the room, making sure they were the only ones in earshot of all that. Finally, she looked back at Dash.
“Alright. What did you have in mind?”
“Don’t worry. I know the right buttons to push.”
“I’m perfectly fine with letting Ms. Dash handle matters involving other Huntsmen…” Rarity spoke up, “but we still have one very large problem to deal with: how to move everyone out of Trottingham, across Appleloosa, and into Mount Aris without calling down the entire Trottingham army on us. I’m sad to say such a thing likely isn’t possible.”
Now it was Applejack’s turn to look thoughtful. “Hmm…maybe…maybe not. I reckon part of the reason Trottingham took out Appleloosa so quick was back to what Burnt Oak was talkin’ ‘bout. They done cut all the telegraph wires on their way in so that nobody could talk to each other over a long distance.”
“So if we were on a transport that could clear Appleloosa fast enough,” Twilight responded, “and we manage to make it go on a non-stop trip, we might be able to make it to Mount Aris before they knew what we were doing?”
“That kind of limits our options…” Starlight muttered. “Horses and wagons are out of the question. So is a boat. We’d never get down a river or along the coast fast enough before they’d know to come after us.”
Dash shrugged. “How about hijacking another airship? That worked out pretty good last time.”
Rarity raised an eyebrow at her. “I think you might be selectively remembering certain individual’s reactions to trying to fly an airship with an inexperienced crew, dear…”
“Don’t even bother,” Sunset spoke up. “You might have pulled it off at an abandoned airfield, but not in the middle of Trottingham. Especially not if they’ve upped military security since then.”
“Oh, thank goodness…” Applejack remarked.
Several of the ladies looked at her.
“I mean, uh…shucks! How ‘bout a train?”
Rarity blanched, cupping her hand to her chest. “Merciful heavens…” she half-whispered.
“That might be a no-go too,” Twilight ruefully answered. “I’ve been around Greater Everfree enough to know a thing or two about procedures when traveling. Even if we manage to break into a station and hijack a train right before departure, and have the time to load everyone on board, Trottingham has a few in place.”
“Like what?” Starlight asked.
She took in a deep breath. “Well…for one, I’m sure they have established systems, logs, and clearances to allow trains to come and go at all times for purely safety purposes, let alone coordination and national security purposes. If we were going to try and make off with a train and plan it out, it could take weeks to forge all the appropriate paperwork, deal with the real engineer and train crew, get around all the proper authorities…”
Dash groaned. “We don’t have time for all that!”
“…Exactly, which means we would have to break in and steal one right as it was about to depart. Well, each railyard has its standard compliment of normal security personnel and alarm systems, and that probably goes doubly-so for railyards on the border in a time of war. By now they probably have military police and maybe even soldiers there, to say nothing of any military units that are posted there waiting to be outbound into Appleloosa. So somehow we have to sneak a bunch of people around all of that and onto a train and then take control of that train without anyone noticing. So how would we do that?”
“That’s easy,” Dash grinned. “We go in there and distract everyone by being awesome.”
“Ahem…don’t you mean create a diversion?” Rarity answered.
Dash shrugged. “Eh…tomato, tomahto.”
“It probably wouldn’t be that hard to get some sort of layout of the railyard itself,” Starlight offered. “Once we have it, we can probably identify where the major track junctions are. If we could somehow sabotage engines at the right place at the right time, not only would we get that diversion drawing the attention of most of the local authorities, but we might be able to block off other engines to keep them from pursuing us or cutting off our own escape. That problem is, once again, how?”
Dash snickered. “You kidding? Take a look at us! Between everyone we got who has Anima Viris and Promethian Sigils, it’ll be a snap!”
“I’m afraid I have to beg to differ,” Rarity answered. “If Trottingham ends up bringing out any of those brutes that Applejack and Pinkie Pie talked about, then some of us will have a rather hard time dealing with them. Even if they don’t, we can’t very well be spread out all over the railyard causing diversions and be on the train at the same time that it’s departing.”
Dash slumped after that. “Oh yeah…good point. Anyone else got any ideas?”
“Oh, oh!” Pinkie excitedly answered. “We could always go with what worked so well last time!”
There was a pause, before Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie all turned as one to Fluttershy. The woman looked up a little wide-eyed, before shrinking down in embarrassment. “Oh my…”
“Come on, Fluttershy!” Pinkie cheerfully answered. “Just like you did with the bats! You can tell a bunch of animals to come cause our distraction for us!”
“B-B-But…” she protested, “we were in the country last time, and there were a lot of bats in the area. The railyard will be in a big city. I don’t know if there are a lot of animals there that I can ask to help us…”
“Well, if you can’t ask bats,” Twilight answered, “what other kind of animals might be around that there are a lot of?”
Fluttershy continued to stare at the pavement and, in particular, something on it that most people would have tried to ignore or shy away from when they were in the bad parts of town: a large rat. As she expressionlessly continued to stare into its beady black eyes, Rainbow Dash stood at a short distance nearby and continuously looked around—not only for any potential Trottingham authorities but for any random passerby who might wonder what in the world a woman was doing on an old street staring down the local vermin.
“You done yet? I’m starting to feel kind of like an idiot…”
Fluttershy slumped a moment later, breathing a bit hard and reaching up to rub the bridge of her nose. The rat, on its part, turned and ran off soon afterward. She took a moment to recover before looking up. “I’ve never tried to have an animal do something so specific before…but I think I managed to get the message across.”
“Awesome. So he passes on the message to the rest of the rats and we’re good to go?”
“What? Oh…oh no. I don’t think I’m talented enough for something complicated like that… We’re going to have to find them ourselves.”
“Are you kidding me?!” Dash shouted, causing Fluttershy to wince a little. “It took us two hours to find that rat! Now we’ve got to wander around town risking getting caught to find more rats? Someone’s going to spot us!”
“Oh…that’s a good point… But I’m just not sure how else to do this.”
Dash opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by an angry chittering noise. She glanced down at Fluttershy’s satchel, seeing Angel looking progressively more irritated…at least as much as a rabbit could express. Without warning, he suddenly hopped out of the satchel and landed on the pavement.
Fluttershy spotted him and reached out. “Angel? Wait, where are you-”
It was too late. The rabbit only took a moment to glance around before spotting the nearest gutter with a sewer grating. Instantly, he bolted off for it and ducked down inside. Fluttershy began to get up to go after him, but he was already wriggling out of site before she could get very far.
There was a momentary pause, before a squeaking noise was heard from the grating. It was soon joined by others, which swiftly grew into a multitudes. Moments later, both Dash and Fluttershy recoiled as rats began to rise up from the gutter; not just from that one sewer access but all of them simultaneously. Even the manhole covers began to get pushed open as rats squeezed their way out. Masses of the wet, dirty things were soon beginning to crowd the street.
Both women pulled back toward each other as the small street filled, and Dash formed a look of revulsion. “Uh…ok…I guess that’s one way to do it… Ugh, they stink…”
“Oh dear…we better hurry,” Fluttershy added as she looked around at the surrounding vermin. “There’s no way Angel will let me go through with this tonight before I give him a long hot bath.”
“I…suppose that could work…” Fluttershy suggested.
“Not a bad idea,” Starlight added. “Small, inconspicuous, and easily able to get out of view. At best the authorities will be left running around on wild goose chases, and at worst they’ll suspect it’s another Nighttouched surge. That might work out even better.”
“Well, the railyard authorities are only part of the problem,” Twilight continued. “There’s going to be a switching station on the way out. Even if we manage to commandeer a train engine, someone would still have to be there to switch the tracks in the right way to let us out. That’s going to be doubly hard if we have everyone distracted and try to slip out while they’re occupied.”
“We can’t do it ourselves?” Rarity asked. “I mean, between everyone we have here, surely someone could run out, switch the tracks, and then run back aboard.”
“You’re going to want the train to accelerate up to maximum speed pretty fast if you’re trying to get out of there before anyone can stop you or chase you down,” Starlight answered. “I’m not sure if you want to keep it slow enough for anyone to catch up.”
“Heh, no problem,” Dash grinned, “As fast as I am? I’ll handle it easy.”
Starlight gave her a look. “Right…well there’s also the fact that since we don’t know exactly what engine we’ll be taking, we won’t know exactly what levers to pull without observing the switching beacons on the track. Are you fast enough to run out to check, run to the switches, and then run back multiple times while the train is going at full speed?”
Dash’s look blanched a little. “Uh…maybe?”
“Hold on now,” Applejack spoke up, “how far are these here switches from the track anyway?”
Twilight shrugged. “I don’t know…in my experience, anywhere from ten to twenty meters?”
Applejack thought about that a moment, seeming to do some calculating. “Uh-huh…and do you reckon if you were on the front of that train while it was movin’ out, you could call it out?”
Twilight looked a little confused. “Well, yes but…why?”
“Switches 1, 3, and 6! Go!”
Applejack, clad in her full Anima Viri and smirking, immediately snapped up her rope with her hammer tied to the end and began to whip it around over her head like a lasso. In spite of the fact the mine cart that both she and Twilight were perched on was in constant motion and was rapidly approaching a bend in the track, she easily zeroed in on an old, rusty, switching station with six separate levers…a good twenty-five meters away from them.
In a flash, she snapped out the hammer, hooked the first one, gave it a quick tug to snap it forward, then whipped her lasso once to disengage it before yanking it back. She quickly re-aimed and flung it again, this time hooking the third lever and yanking it back as well. She drew the rope back yet again and eyed the final one. This one was already pulled, but that didn’t bother her at all. Still smirking, she snapped the hammer out again. This time, the head of it smacked the end of the lever hard enough to knock it back forward. The move was made just in time, and as the last switch engaged, the mine cart tracks switched and took them on a branching path that went forward instead.
Soon after, the cart slowed down to a halt, as Applejack pulled her rope back and gave a whistle. “Whoo-hoo! Still got it! How you like them apples, Twilight?”
The mage took a moment to make sure the cart wasn’t moving anymore before she poked her head up, but immediately smiled. “That worked out great! Looks like so long as your Anima Viri is giving you a boost, we should be able to pull the switching off! What do you say we do one more test run with three switches, though? Just to make sure.”
“Uh…”
The moan came from behind the cart. Twilight and Applejack looked up and behind them, seeing a rather wiped-out Shining Armor and Apple Brown Betty, both looking rather winded and tired.
“Can we take a fifteen minute break first? We’ve been pushing this for a couple hours now…”
Twilight grinned sheepishly. “Er…right.”
“Well, if we can manage that, that would get rid of the switching problem. Even then, though, we’ve got one last hurdle. These are Trottingham trains, which means that they’re all going to operate with keys.”
“Keys?”
“It’s a security precaution,” Sunset spoke up. “The train’s main workings won’t engage unless you have a special key in the engine compartment. Otherwise the best you can do is stoke the boiler. Not only that, but obviously all of the other cars will have locks of their own to prevent stowaways.”
Twilight thought about that. “Whoever is working the train will likely have the right keys on them, but it’ll take time to disable them, grab them, and then use them to get the engine moving as well as to let all the refugees get loaded in. If speed is what we’re after, it’d be better if we could hijack a train that was getting ready to leave but wasn’t loaded yet.”
“Well, we’d have to have specific keys for that,” Sunset answered. “Which would mean picking out a single train and making the rounds to all of the personnel on it taking their keys.”
Twilight sighed. “Which would take too long…”
“Not necessarily,” Starlight answered. “Sure, individual trains and engineers would have their own sets of keys, but there has to be a ‘master set’ somewhere that the local authorities would have in case of an emergency, like needing to move an engine or searching through cargo. If we could lift the keys off of them, then we’d have a set that would work on any engine.”
“I’d think that set would be a mite hard to get your hands on, though,” Applejack frowned. “Sure folks like that keep ‘em clipped to their belt all the time.”
“Any way we can lift it off of them?” Twilight asked. “I’m not usually one for theft, but Pinkie’s Anima Viri is rather good at that.”
“Sure thing, Twilight!” Pinkie cheered. “Just leave it to me! I’ll get Maud to help me out, I’ll burst right in, all dashing and daring, run right up to him, do my hand waving thingee, and poof! We’ll have those keys and I’ll rush them straight back home shining pink all the way!”
Twilight’s face fell a little. “Oh, right… I forgot that Anima Viris tend to be kind of…flashy.”
“So does Pinkie, for that matter,” Dash threw in.
“Hmm…” Rarity thought aloud. “Pinkie, darling, I don’t suppose your family has any sewing equipment handy around here, do they?”
“Sure they do, Rarity! The family always makes and repairs their own clothes! And that was before Trottingham stopped giving us new ones!”
The designer quickly did a look around the group gathered, before looking up and starting to glance at those in the area. “Hmm…not too much to work with…” she mused aloud, “but I’ve put together a masterpiece with less before. This should do nicely. Twilight, do not worry yourself about those keys. Just give me a little bit of time and I can handle it.”
Knock-knock-knock.
The railyard authority, a rather obese, balding, and unattractive-looking man, glanced up from his desk and, in particular, the latest manifest he was reading. With a bored expression, he let out a heavy sigh as he pushed his chair away enough for him to rise up from it. Soon thereafter, he took his time making his way to the door and opened it up.
“Yeah, yeah…” he began even as it was opening, “I’m here. What do you need no…”
He trailed off, getting a most unexpected surprise.
A woman was standing there dressed in the most attractive multi-patterned traveling dress he had ever seen in his life. She carried only a simple case in front of her in both hands, and looked up slightly from an attractive hat, which was adjusted in just such a way to allow one beautiful eye to look out at him. Almost immediately, however, she cupped her hand to her mouth innocently…all while her eyelashes fluttered at him.
“Oh dear me…I’m so terribly sorry, sir. I seem to have interrupted you with something,” she looked up at him more imploringly, fluttering her eyelashes again.
The railyard authority was left stunned, having never seen such an attractive lady come to this part of the station, before he caught his voice. “Uh…um…no ma’am, I was just going over some documentation. Oh, uh…how may I help you?”
At once, she lit up with the cutest smile. “Oh, you will help me out? Thank you so very kindly! I’ve been running around all day and I’m positively exhausted, and you’re the first gentleman I’ve run into who’s offered to help. Oh, I must say,” Her eyes looked a bit more longingly at him. “I thought manners were dead in this town until I ran into you. I’m terribly grateful.”
She punctuated that with smiling a bit more. As a result, the railyard authority began to blush a little; clearly not accustomed to receiving this sort of praise and attention. He hadn’t even bothered to shave or put on a clean shirt this morning, but he immediately began to adjust his jacket to try to cover it as he straightened up. “Think…think nothing of it, ma’am. What’s the problem?”
“I’m afraid I’m terribly lost. I left early this morning to try and make my train, but I just can’t seem to find my way to platform 24.” She gestured down to her shoes. “These heels might be fashionable, but they’re absolute murder on my feet after being on them for six hours. Could I possibly trouble you to help me find platform 24?” She lowered her eyelids as she looked at him, growing more alluring. “I would be most grateful.”
The railyard authority swallowed as he turned redder. He flustered a moment before he began to smile weakly. “Cer-certainly ma’am. I can show you the way.”
“Can you? Can you really? Oh thank you, kind sir! Thank you ever so much!” Her alluring look grew stronger yet. “You have no idea how much this means to me. You’re a godsend. Are you certain I’m not drawing you away from anything important?”
He smiled a bit more. “It’s no trouble at all, ma’am.” He stepped forward, clearing his own doorway as the woman moved back, and reached out behind him. After fumbling a bit, for he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off the lady, he grasped the doorknob and pulled it shut behind him. “Just…just need to lock up quickly…”
He reached into his pocket and after fishing around in it longer than he wanted, accidentally pulling out a whistle and a tinderbox in the meantime, he finally managed to pull out a ring of keys. He blushed a bit more, made a gesture for her to excuse him, and then turned to lock the door.
As he scrambled with the keys, not getting it right at first and soon struggling to hurry and find the correct one, the woman poked her head over his shoulder. “Oh my! Goodness, you certainly have a lot of keys!” She gave him another winning smile as her voice turned heavier. “You must be a man who wields a great deal of authority to have so much responsibility…”
“Oh…heh-heh…well, I am one of the railyard authorities.”
“My word, I’d never remember which key went to which door if I had that many to keep track of…”
“Oh, it’s nothing too terrible, ma’am. Most of these keys are emergency ones for the trains. Just in case one needs to be moved or we have to let the magistrates inspect a car,” he answered as he finally finished locking the door and turned back to her.
“Really? That sounds so fascinating. Do tell me more…”
Starlight jotted the last bit down and looked over the paper. After a few seconds, she raised her eyebrows and shrugged. “Well, based on all of this, if all goes well and we execute all of these steps at once and have them coordinated just right, I suppose there’s no reason to believe we couldn’t pull this off in a relatively short period of time. Although…it does still hinge on one important item.”
“What’s that?”
Starlight looked up and tapped the paper with her pen. “All of this will be for nothing if we happen to get there at the wrong time; namely when there aren’t any engines being prepared for departure. Either all the trains are already loaded or they haven’t connected any cars yet. If we’re unlucky enough to make our move at that point we’re toast.”
“Indeed,” Rarity mused aloud, “I’d hate to think I’d waste all that time on that dress just for it to fall through…”
Dash shrugged. “We could always take a train that’s already loaded and fight our way out.”
“I’d, um…rather not…” Fluttershy quietly muttered.
“I know!” Pinkie piped up. “Let’s just tell them to have a train ready for us!”
Applejack frowned. “Not sure it works that way, Pinkie.”
“Actually, that’s not such a bad idea…”
The group turned to Starlight, who was looking thoughtful again.
“If we could forge a phony request for a legitimate freight transit, then we might be able to get a company to start setting up a train for an incoming cargo load. Then, before they can figure out that no cargo is coming but the train is set up, we could rush in and take it and head off on it.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Can we really do that?”
“I think we just might be able to. We’re near the border and Trottingham is still finishing up their Appleloosan campaign. They’re probably needing shipping companies to depart at a moment’s notice for emergency supplies. Especially with how fast they’ve been moving and spreading out. So long as they think it’s for the military, they’re not likely to look twice. They’ll think it’s a priority and rush it through.”
Twilight paused, thinking this over for several moments. Her face eventually turned to the others. “That seems like it should work. What do you all think?”
“I ain’t sure I get it all, but sounds good to me.”
“If we can manage it, it definitely seems to have the best chance of success…”
“Yipee! Let’s go for it!”
“Well…alright.”
“Eh, I think my way’s better, but this one has a better shot of having a train ready, so go for it.”
Twilight looked back to Starlight. “Alright…let’s do it. It should help us coordinate better so that we have a definite time of departure, too. We better act fast, though. We need to get that part taken care of before we can move forward with everything else.”
“Right, right…” Starlight exhaled. “This plan is all well and good, but we don’t even know what’s the nearest city with a railyard from here… Now that we have this squared away, the next thing we’ll need is a map so we can tell everyone where they need to go.” She began to put away her papers at that. “No time like the present to move out… And since I’m not wanted by anyone, I think it’s probably best if I handle this part. Um, Pinkie Pie? I don’t suppose you could sneak me in to the nearest town?”
“No problem!” she cheerfully answered as she sprung up. “It’s a long walk, but that’s ok! We can spend the time looking for any Nighttouched that wandered into the forest trail!”
Starlight paused, before rolling her eyes. “Swell…”
“Take your time, darlings,” Rarity answered as she began to stand up as well. “I’m magic with a needle and thread, but fashion does take time.”
“And I need to get my lasso-n’ arm back into shape,” Applejack added as she rose.
“Maybe I’ll tag along and hit the nearest Huntsman’s Guild,” Dash shrugged.
“And if we’re going to have enough rats for all of this, I should go too,” Fluttershy quietly murmured.
Soon everyone was getting up and getting ready to move. Sunset found herself the only one still seated as they turned and began to wander off.
After a time, she looked about, seeing everyone either going to tasks or already at work. She continued to sit there for a moment more, feeling progressively more awkward, before she finally shrugged a little nervously.
“And…I guess I could try and make myself useful…”
The rest of the day didn’t go too well with Sunset. It wasn’t as if there was a shortage of labor to do at the quarry, especially in the attempts to turn the small simple wooden shack and mines into a place capable of a somewhat comfortable living space for the group of refugees. However, there was little she could get involved in. Apart from Twilight, she didn’t feel too easy approaching any of the Apple family members. Especially as they all had heard from Applejack about who she was. The ones from the northwest were a bit better as they weren’t as familiar with her, but the fact of the matter was she was still highly nervous to be around any of them as she still felt so vulnerable and helpless. It was getting better, but even if it wasn’t there was the third fact that she had little experience in more heavy labor or complex tasks. Other than carrying a few pails of water and moving around some temporary straw mattresses, there was little she could do.
As the afternoon came, she found herself alone again and wandering toward the edge of the quarry—feeling somewhat better by herself. The area had been busy earlier with Applejack’s training drills for her switch pulling but had mostly cleared out by now. Pinkie had already come back with the good news from the Cakes about getting the messages passed, and that they would be delivering them late that evening. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had just come back from their respective tasks and Rarity was putting the finishing touches on her dress back in the shack.
Realizing that everyone was being productive and she wasn’t made her sigh. She looked up ahead and outside of the quarry, toward the woods and the horizon. The sun was approaching it and had tinted the sky orange, and this far from the homestead of the Pies it was quiet save for birds and chirping insects.
Her eyes looked downward and spotted the mine cart that had been pushed around earlier, still on the end of the track. She headed for it, figuring she could sit in front of it and use it to block herself from the view of the others. Until she was able to get next to Twilight again, she preferred staying out of sight…
Yet just as she got close enough to look around the front of it, she saw something that made her stop.
Twilight Sparkle was already there.
In spite of the fact that the ground was mostly rock and gravel, it looked like she hadn’t even heard Sunset coming. Her knees were pulled up to her chest, her hand was on her head, and she was staring at the ground with a distant, troubled look.
Seeing this, Sunset immediately pivoted to turn around and go back; her face clearly showing it was better to leave this alone. However, she only got one step before she paused.
Her eyes looked at her own feet and, unknown to her, her expression grew a little anxious. Before she knew what she was doing, she turned her head and looked back behind her. Twilight still hadn’t noticed her. She held a moment longer before, very slowly, she found herself picking up her foot, turning it around, and pivoting back toward her. Almost uncertainly, she took a few more steps forward.
“Um…hey.”
Twilight absent-mindedly looked up to Sunset, her face showing she was still obsessing over whatever had made her look that way before. It took her a moment to realize she was there. “Oh…oh, hey.”
A bit of an awkward silence followed, at the end of which Sunset reminded herself that she had spoken first and Twilight was waiting for something from her. Her eyes went to one side as she exhaled. “So…Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are back. So far so good, right?”
“Oh…oh, yeah…” Twilight quietly answered, as if the matter didn’t really interest her. “Yeah…so far so good.”
Sunset stared at her a moment longer. Finally, she forced herself to spit it out.
“Is…something wrong?”
Twilight looked at her, a trace of puzzlement on her expression. She was clearly a bit surprised that Sunset had even asked such a question, and as a result she actually reddened a bit herself. After a time, however, she exhaled as her face became anxious.
“I…talked with Shining Armor after practice today. I wanted to catch up a bit, but…” She swallowed. “He ended up telling me about all of what happened in Hoofheim. More than what Rarity told me. My parents…they’re still up there. Along with everyone else…”
Sunset said nothing, although her own face fell slightly. Twilight didn’t seem to notice as she turned and stared at the ground again.
“I know they don’t remember me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about them. That I’m not worried about them. And…and what Shining Armor and those people were talking about… What if it’s worse than Nighttouched? Even if it isn’t, what if there’s no way to turn them back the way they were? No one’s ever managed to turn a Nighttouched back. Fluttershy’s the only one who came the closest, but her power only works before they’re…all taken. What if they stay up there trapped forever by whatever that shadow thing was? What if…”
Her voice grew quieter. More fearful.
“What if they only way to save them now is…is to…to…?”
“Your parents are lucky people.”
Twilight snapped her head up to Sunset. She was now leaning against the mine cart, arms crossed, and frowning at the ground herself.
“Ex…excuse me?”
“Here they are, not even knowing who you are, turned into bloodthirsty monsters, and all after having sold you out to me to boot. Yet in spite of all of that, their ‘daughter’ still loves them and worries about them.”
Twilight hesitated, as if uncertain whether or not to be angry at those comments or surprised that Sunset was giving out something that sounded like a veiled compliment.
“I never had much use for parents myself…” Sunset went on. “And frankly they never had much use for me. They were all too happy to dump me off on Celestia and never speak to me again. I don’t even know if any of them managed to survive the Lunar Fall.”
She crossed her arms and lowered her head a bit more.
“Must be nice having at least something of a loving family… At least you felt something when they were gone.”
Twilight didn’t say anything else, just turned her own head away and looked at the ground. Sunset finally turned and looked over to her. Seeing her expression, her own look turned uncomfortable, before she exhaled in frustration and put a hand to her forehead.
“Look…I didn’t mean to make you feel any worse. I just…well…” She sighed. “I’m trying to say you shouldn’t worry. You got a lot of people around here who have your back. Who care about you.”
“What about you?”
Sunset turned back to Twilight, who was now looking up and back at her.
“Excuse me?”
“Who do you have?”
Sunset frowned. “That a joke, or something? I suppose I deserve it after what I just said… You should know by now nobody cares about me unless I can give them something. No one ever has…” She turned her head away. “…and no one ever will.”
“I don’t think that’s true, Sunset.”
She snorted. “And what would you know about it?”
“I have a pretty good idea that you wouldn’t have made it as long as you did without magic unless someone helped you escape from Trottingham.”
Sunset’s eyes widened a little. Her frown eased slightly as she stared at the ground. She gradually began to look uncomfortable as she turned her head more away from Twilight.
“And Celestia cared about you too.”
Immediately, her eyes shut as she snorted.
“It’s true. I know she kept some secrets from you…from both of us. That part was real, though. She cared about all of her students. That’s the one thing-”
“Just drop it, ok?” she half-snapped.
Twilight immediately clammed up. She looked rather taken aback at Sunset’s sudden outburst, and was left staring at her quietly. The woman had been looking angrier with every word Twilight said, and was now seething a bit. After a moment, she scowled and ran a hand through her hair. “This is what I get for trying to be ‘friendly’ for once…”
Twilight looked back up at her. After a moment, she began to lift a hand toward her and opened her mouth to say something else.
“Twilight! Twilight!”
Hearing the woman’s voice calling caused both Twilight and Sunset to look up to the edge of the quarry. It didn’t take them long to spot the form of Starlight Glimmer coming down the rock path, looking a little worn out and tired, but also waving at them as she half-ran, half-stumbled toward them.
On finally reaching them, Twilight stood up to face her as she bowed over and put her hands on her knees, taking time to catch her breath. When she finally recovered, she leaned back up, wiped at her brow, and reached into her vest.
“It wasn’t easy, but I got to the library and got some basic maps and directions of the city without anyone noticing me swiping them,” she panted as she pulled out a stack of hastily folded-up papers. “We’re in luck. The town Pinkie was always heading into? Turns out it’s a district of Manechester.”
Hearing that caused Sunset to look up. “Manechester?” she answered. “We’re close to Manechester?”
“It’s got a nice big railyard on it too. One that’s hard to patrol all at once, I’m guessing, by the size of it,” Starlight went on as she handed the papers over to Twilight, who accepted them a moment later. She immediately unfolded the top one, revealing a map of the city. “I marked it, as well as the local rail company offices. All we need is someone to head out there bright and early tomorrow morning, put in the fake order so that it’s ready by that evening, and we can all make our move at the end of the day.”
Twilight looked over the spots on the map, then folded it back up and looked at her. “Thanks, Starlight. This is major help.”
She inhaled one more time before straightening up. “Alright…all that’s left is who needs to head out there tomorrow…” She thought for a moment, then shrugged. “Well, they’ve got quite a bit of military in that town. They’re supplementing the police at the moment. Odds are if one of us gets spotted, it might turn into a major incident… So it should probably be me again.”
“No, that’s alright,” Twilight responded. “I’ll go.”
Starlight looked at her perplexed. “You?”
“They don’t have my face, so even if I’m a person of interest they won’t know who to look for, and I’m used to blending in with big cities. If worse comes to worse, I can fight my way out. Besides, I can read a map and directions well enough, but everyone else will probably need your help getting to the station on time tomorrow evening if I get delayed. You spent the most time studying the maps.”
Starlight was hesitant, but she exhaled after only a moment. “That’s true… It’s not exactly a settling thought, though… Are you sure?”
She smiled a little back. “Trust me. I know all about paperwork to boot. And I’m sure Pinkie will get me in the back way.”
She hesitated only a second more before shrugging. “Well, alright then. In that case, all that’s left to do is pass on the rest of the info to everyone else and set a time. Let’s head back.”
“I’d like to go with you.”
Both Starlight and Twilight were turning to go back to the homestead when they paused, turning and looking at Sunset. She seemed a little surprised she had blurted that out herself, but immediately folded her hands, wrung them, and looked to one side.
“I…I mean…that is…I’d like to come along, if I could.”
Starlight looked rather perplexed at the request, but Twilight looked downright uneasy. “I think it would be best if you stayed here until it was time to move out, Sunset. For everyone. If you’re still nervous about the others, don’t be. I talked with them and they said they’d leave you alone. Even Applejack. You’ll be fine.”
She winced before looking back. “That’s not it. It’s…it’s…um…”
Twilight looked even more puzzled. “What?”
“It’s just…uh…um…” She wrung her hands together more, looking more uneasy, before she finally winced and looked Twilight in the eye. “I’d…that is…I really need to pick up some cigarettes.”
Both Starlight and Twilight looked surprised. “Cigarettes?”
“Yeah, I…I haven’t had a drag in weeks. It’s really grinding on my nerves. I’m going to be too jittery tomorrow to make the trip if I don’t have a pack. I just need to grab some and then I’ll run back here. It’ll only take a little bit.”
Starlight leveled a critical stare at her. “Let me see if I get this straight… You’re a wanted woman, the authorities know your face, you’re with us so if someone spots you they’ll be likely to spot one of us, and knowing all of this you’re willing to risk unraveling our whole plan and exposing everyone so you can get yourself a smoke?”
She winced. “That’s…that’s not…”
“Sunset.”
She turned her head, seeing Twilight looking back at her and, for once, looking a little angry.
“Believe it or not, I don’t really want to brew any more bad blood between us than we already have, but…frankly, you need to deal with it. I know you’re getting used to living without your magic, but that’s what most people have to do every day and they don’t get any ‘special treatment’ for it. Hanging around me because you’re nervous about other people is one thing, but this is crossing a line. You need to stay here tomorrow and just hold out until it’s time to go. Do you understand?”
Sunset opened her mouth to protest, but promptly shut it again on seeing the look she was getting not only from Twilight but from Starlight. She sighed and looked away. “Yes.”
Twilight sighed tiredly herself and turned to Starlight. “Let’s go. We have a lot to make sure everyone’s clear on for tomorrow.”
With that, the two of them began to head back to the others. Sunset was left standing there momentarily, gripping her arms and digging one of her shoes into the ground. Her teeth bared and she uncomfortably winced. Eventually, she silently turned and began to follow the two back.