//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: An Empty World // by The_Unnamed_Pawn //------------------------------// Twinkleshine bit half-heartedly into her lily sandwich while Wisp told his story. She was feeling better, but she didn’t feel like she could stomach much after her recovery. She actually found it strange that she was feeling so well after what she’d been through. She hadn’t even passed out. She had just sort of recovered. “And that’s about it,” Wisp said. This was Twinkles cue. She finished her bite and flashed the stallion seated across from her a smile. “That was a lovely story,” Twinkle said, “It’s good to know that Dew Drop and I aren’t the only ponies who’ve had to deal with a bit of…excitement today.” Wisp nodded and turned to face the other pony seated in the car. Twinkle followed along. Dew Drop had spent the entirety of Wisp’s story staring at the remains of the necklace that Twinkle had managed to grab, and, if Aces Low was to be believed, she had spent a good portion of Twinkle’s struggle with semi-consciousness dwelling on it as well. “So what did you think of the story, Miss Drop?” Wisp asked after a moment of silence. “Oh it was just fine,” Dew Drop responded without ever glancing at the stallion. After another moment of silence she did deign to look up, but to face Twinkleshine rather than Wisp. “Twinkle,” she said, “Are you feeling okay now?” Twinkle put on her calming smile and nodded. “I’m feeling much better after the sandwich. Thank you for asking, dear.” Dew Drop shook her head and turned back to the in her hooves. “I was just asking because I needed to talk to you about something.” The pegasus took a deep breath and turned back to Twinkle. “Why did you risk your life for this thing?” she asked. Twinkle didn’t have an answer. Saying it was a feeling would just make her sound stupid after all. Luckily for her, she wasn’t required to give one. Wisp did that for her. “You had a feeling about a gem too huh?” he said, prompting both of the mares to take a look in his direction. “What,” he asked perplexedly, “I told you two the story right? Did you think I did that for laughs?” Twinkle smiled cheerfully. She was happy that somepony else had said it, now he was the idiot. Dew Drop meanwhile turned her attention back to the gem. “So you had a feeling about this thing, Twinkle?” she asked. Twinkle felt her smile falter somewhat, albeit briefly. “Yes, dear, I did,” she responded with a sigh before turning back to Dew and smiling once more. By the time she had turned back to face Dew again, the pegasus had already begun wrapping the gem into her mane. “Does it look okay,” Dew Drop asked once shed finished. “I saw that Ace was wearing his gem, so I thought maybe I should put this one on.” “Turn to face me,” Twinkle responded. Dew Drop did so hesitantly, and Twinkle found her smile widen a touch when she realized that the pegasus was blushing. “You look lovely, dear.” Twinkle said after a moment. Rather than smile Dew just turned away. “I think it looks nice too,” Wisp commented, prompting Dew Drop to turn away from him as well. This left the pegasus with nowhere to look but out the window. Both Wisp and Twinkle shook their heads. Twinkle would have sworn that Dew Drop was actually afraid to smile at them. Twinkle simply sighed and got back to her sandwich after that. Wisp, however, was not content to let the time slip by in silence. “So,” the stallion said, “What did you do before all this happened,” he asked the unicorn across from him. Twinkle took her sweet time chewing on her latest bite before answering. “I’m an actress,” she responded, “I was doing a show in Dew Drop’s town before it happened.” “Did you at get to finish your show?” Wisp asked. Twinkle nodded after taking another bite of her sandwich. “I’m glad to hear it.” Wisp said enthusiastically, “Low and I weren’t as lucky. Both of us managed to miss out on a pretty big shot.” Twinkle smiled and nodded but didn’t speak further. She still didn’t feel like she was much up for conversation. Wisp’s story had given her time mostly to calm herself down. Now she wanted a little more time to think about the incident that had occurred before she and Dew had arrived on the train. Wisp didn’t notice as long as she nodded along. Right now he was talking about some big race, Twinkle figured that would buy her quite a bit of time. Sadly she was wrong about that. Before Wisp could even get past what Twinkle liked to call the “And there I was,” portion of his story, the train shook violently and Dew Drop leapt out of her seat. Twinkle and Wisp were more unceremoniously forced out of their seats. When Twinkle managed to pull herself up and pluck the lettuce out of her hair, she found herself looking at a very shocked Dew Drop. “I think we just hit a hippogryph,” the pegasus mumbled. ***** “Bucking hay,” Spectrum cursed as he rolled to a stand amongst the scattered planks. “Is everypony okay?” he asked. When the pegasus got no response. He wiped the quasi-sleep from his eyes and took a look around. Bee Bee and Airheart were waving at something in the distance, he assumed it must have been Hipster, but he couldn’t see Lightning anywhere. Eventually though he spotted a hoof sticking out of the planks. With a sigh Spectrum approached the hoof and jerked it out of the pile. Sure enough, Lightning was attached to it. And he was clearly very annoyed. “Does Stinger listen to anything that other ponies say?” he asked as he climbed out. Spectrum was actually a bit frightened by the glare he was shooting the white mare. Although his fear was quelled somewhat by the knowledge that Stinger did deserve it. “She listened to Airheart,” Spectrum responded. He turned his own glare to the pair. It was mostly aimed at Stinger, but he had to admit that he didn’t particularly like Airheart at this point either. “I’m surprised. I didn’t think she even cared about Hipster until that pegasus brought it up.” “Hey what pony wouldn’t prefer a train to a hippogryph,” Stinger responded without looking back. “Hipster was starting to smell pretty awful after all.” The mare laughed and turned back to Spectrum after one last wave. Airheart turned along with her, but she seemed much less cheerful about Stinger’s little joke. “I’m fine with that,” Lightning responded, his glare still aimed right at Bee Bee, “But can you explain why we had to crash into the train when we have two perfectly good pegasi with us?” “I’ll have you know that even two perfectly good pegasi can’t always keep up with a train.” Stinger responded. She wasn’t even vaguely fazed by the glare. “Besides, these two pegasi aren’t perfectly good.” She made sure to emphasize her point by gesturing toward Spectrum. She was completely unfazed by his glare as well, so he stopped wasting his energy on it. “I actually could have caught up with-” Airheart tried to interject, but was interrupted by a hoof to the mouth courtesy of Stinger. After that, Stinger gave Airheart a playful wink, and said, “Quiet Airheart. Mommy and Daddy are talking.” After taking another glance at Lightning and seeing that his glare had only gotten more frightening, Spectrum decided to take a step back. He wasn’t sure if the pair would actually break into a fight, but he was sure that it would cause a lot of damage if they did. Spectrum didn’t really know much about how Lightning fought, but he was sure that Stinger couldn’t fight in any other way. Thankfully the fight never ended up breaking out. It probably came closer than anypony, save maybe Stinger, wanted, but before any blows could be exchanged the group’s attention was distracted by a newcomer from the next car over. He was an off-white sort of earth pony with a spikey blue mane. Spectrum couldn’t help but feel that if a fight did break out this guy would put a stop to it. “Alright,” the stallion said with a surprising calm, “It’s good to see that it’s just some other ponies here. I was worried that we were being attacked for a second there.” With that the stallion let out an exaggerated sigh and turned back to the car he’d just left. “If you guys just follow me, I’ll get you up to speed, and you can explain what’s going on to the other passengers.” Spectrum took a look at Airheart and Stinger as the stallion finished and trotted into the next car. Stinger was already moving in without a care in the world. Airheart was hesitant, but after receiving a nod of approval from Spectrum they were both able to head inside. Airheart took the lead again, and Spectrum could hear Lightning trotting from behind him. Now that he was up again it finally struck him how odd this group must look. Silently, he prayed that the other passengers were a bit less atypical.