As the group followed Starry outside, Scarlet couldn’t help but gaze around at every detail around her, marvelling at how… right everything felt. While her two human companions were in awe of the Crystal Empire, looking all around at the strange crystalline buildings, she couldn’t help but be in awe of something else entirely. While it’s true that she was in another huge, almost alien city, this one felt entirely different from New York, strange architecture aside. The biggest thing that stood out most to her above all else in this case was that the city was built to scale for someone exactly like her.
From the large palace doors, to the high ceilings of the hallways, and even the size of the palace itself, everything seemed to feel “normal” to her. Even though everything was larger than what a standard pony building would be, it was clear that it was designed for ponies first, and for once she felt completely at home in a strange environment. That weird sense of being a fish out of water that she had felt in New York simply wasn’t here.
Starry waved them along, “I know this place must seem fantastical to you all, but we do have a train to catch and a long journey to take. There are plenty of other sights to marvel at, trust me.”
Scarlet nodded, “Right, sorry, guess this is just a weird experience for all of us.”
He smiled, “Do not worry, it is common to feel minor disorientation after transport, that will pass in time.”
Scarlet nodded and waved towards the other two, “Hey guys, Starry said we’re gonna miss our train if we don’t stop looking like a bunch of bewildered tourists.”
Tyler let out a small chuckle, “Well he’s not exactly wrong now is he, this whole place just feels so… weird, if that’s the right word. It’s like going to some miniature village.”
“Well we can all talk about how weird this might be after we have boarded.” Starry finished.
Sarah nodded, “Alright, well please lead the way, humble guide.”
Starry flashed a warm smile and gestured towards the train station in the distance, beckoning the group with a wing, “It would be my pleasure, now please, let’s continue onwards, the station isn’t far and there is so much more to see on the way to the outpost.”
With another nod the trio followed him along, still in awe of the strange buildings around them.
Starry approached the train station and paused for a moment, turning towards his guests with a smile, “Please wait here, I’ve arranged for our trip in advance, it will take but a moment to confirm that our accommodations are ready.”
Scarlet smiled, “Need us to do anything?”
He shook his head, “Not at this time, however, if the urge to explore your surroundings strikes, you are free to look around the station if you so desire, I only ask that you do not wander far, we will not be here long. I’ve arranged for us to travel in our own private car and it will minimize the wait it usually takes to board the train.”
“I’m assuming that Equestria relies on trains a lot more than we do back home? I mean, I know it’s not the same everywhere, but it’s kind of a lost art where I’m from. It’s almost kind of cool that we’re going to have the chance to ride on a real steam locomotive… they do run on steam right?” Tyler asked as he took a few glances at the train that had only recently pulled up. Ponies hadn’t started boarding yet, but a small crowd could be seen gathering within the station.
Starry nodded, “They do indeed run on steam. As for your other question, I am not as familiar with your terran transportation, though the trains are by far our most common form of transit, we simply do not have the other means that you do back on Earth.”
Sarah let out a chuckle, causing the others to turn towards her, “I never realized you were a train nut Tyler, have you been hiding your geeky hobbies from me or something?” she asked with a smirk.
A small grin began to spread across Tyler’s face, growing into a full on smile as he let out a few laughs, “You know, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t. Trains are just cool though! Especially when they’re authentically steam powered. Man we don’t have enough of those back home!”
Sarah rolled her eyes and laughed, “Alright, that’s fair enough. I’m not exactly one to speak when I talk your ear off about rockets and space shuttles for hours.”
Now that the two were immersed in their own conversation, Starry silently took his leave, content that the group wasn’t going to wander off and get into trouble, though keeping an eye on them as he went about his business with the conductor. Meanwhile Scarlet went about her own exploration, taking in the odd crystal architecture of the station, while also reflecting on how nice everything seemed to be here.
It was strange that she could feel so at home in an alien world after having only been there for a very brief time, but the odd feeling that she had felt in New York was simply gone. In its place was an almost child-like glee at the colorful surroundings she now found herself in.
The entire world had this feeling of happiness and cheer that everything seemed to convey on it’s own. It was as if the entire world was built without a dark and gritty reality in mind. Some might have seen it as strange that something could seem so perfect, perhaps even being creeped out by it, but Scarlet was already taking down mental note after mental note on how various aspects of the Oasis back home could be improved to make the place a little more cheerful.
The smooth clean lines, bright whites, polished chrome, and muted color accents found back in the Oasis certainly looked nice, but the brightly colored and irregularly designed buildings that she saw here just had their own personality and charm to them that conveyed a welcoming atmosphere far better than anything she had ever seen back on Earth.
A short distance away, Starry nodded at the conductor and slowly approached the trio again, clearing his throat to get their attention, “Ahem, our accommodations are all prepared, if you’d please follow me. I will get us settled in. It’s going to be a long ride to the outpost and I would like to ensure that we’ll be as comfortable as possible during it.”
Sarah and Tyler paused in their own conversation and nodded, slowly walking towards the night pony. Scarlet followed along too, eager to see what the journey would have in store.
As they followed Starry, Scarlet was able to take a closer look at the locomotive. “You know, I’ve actually never ridden on a train before— at least a real one like this that is.”
“For real? Not even once?” Tyler asked in surprise.
Scarlet nodded, “I mean I’ve ridden ones in amusement parks before, but that’s about it. They were steam powered, but I wouldn’t call that actually riding on a train in the same sense as what we’re about to do now.”
“Well, you are certainly going to be in for a treat then,” Starry interjected, gesturing towards the open car in front of them, “Please step aboard and make yourselves comfortable, if the normal seats are too small there are more human-friendly accomodations available towards the rear of the car.”
Without further delay, the trio stepped in and quietly took their seats aboard the train. Starry followed them in and sat down towards the rear, where Tyler and Sarah were sitting, hunched over uncomfortably on one of the benches.
He eyed the two humans with concern and glanced over towards the section that had been designed with humans in mind, “Please, do not feel like you need to make yourselves uncomfortable, I know these aren’t the most ideal accommodations for you, but you’ll likely find the section further back to be far more comfortable than where you’re sitting now.”
The two shared an awkward glance and nodded, Tyler stepping up and moving towards the lower benches first. He crouched down to take a seat, almost stumbling over as he made himself as comfortable as he could, waving Sarah over and patting the seat adjacent to him.
“Come on travel buddy, it’s gonna be a long ride, you might as well be comfortable for it.”
She hesitated for a moment and then nodded, making her way over to the bench adjacent to Tyler, “I can’t argue with that.”
Scarlet took her own seat near Starry on the recently vacated bench and watched as the ponies outside began to file their way into the other train cars. A few relatively quiet moments passed before the lines diminished and the frozen Equestrian landscape began to slowly pass by outside. Soon enough they were speeding along, as comfortable as they could be in their cozy train car.
Scarlet turned over towards Starry, “Crescent said the observatory was built to be like the ones back home, so does that mean we shouldn’t have to spend too much time adjusting to them?” She asked in curiosity.
Starry nodded, “Terran designed, Equestrian engineered. It is one of our larger research projects in recent years, though there is still much to do before we can formally begin mapping the stars.”
She nodded, “Ah. So do you think we’ll be able to start mapping them out while we’re here?”
“I would hope so, otherwise this whole trip would be for naught. We do have complete sets of star charts, some even dating back thousands of years to the earliest days of Princess Celestia and Luna’s reign, though we hope that this collaboration will allow us to have far more accurate maps of our universe’s celestial bodies. Perhaps someday we could even explore the limits of the starry void, much as your Terran astronomers have done.”
A big grin spread across her face, “So we’re gonna be some of the first researchers to get to do this?”
“You will be among the first to do this with our new telescope. There has been some preliminary work done up to now, but not with the new equipment.”
“Well I can’t wait, how long do you think it is until we get there?”
Starry glanced out the window, “Well we are not yet at Canterlot, so I would say that the outpost is still a long ways away, it will likely take us most of the day, so please feel free to relax and enjoy the ride. Equestria is a natural wonderland after all, I imagine that it is quite different to your Earth.”
“Yeah, you could say that again…” Scarlet shifted in her seat, finding the bench to be an oddly comfortable arrangement as she watched the landscape zip by. Earth transportation was still primarily designed for humans, though some places were finally starting to branch out into more pony friendly designs. She would have to remember to tell Silver about this when she got home, there wasn’t much for public transportation in the Oasis, but more comfortable seats would be a great addition if they ever expanded.
Sarah and Tyler sat in their own small section, comfortably chatting away with one another, no doubt resuming the conversation that they had put on hold earlier. The bench, while padded with comfortable cushions, was set lower to the floor of the train, which meant that their knees were almost touching their chins, but it also afforded them the chance to sit upright without having to awkwardly hunch over for most of the long journey. It was a double edged sword, but certainly better than the alternative.
Tyler craned his neck to look over to the crimson night pony, “How’re you doing Scarlet? You’ve kind of been zoning in and out when you haven’t been talking with Starry. Don’t tell me you’re getting homesick already are you?”
Scarlet shook her head, “Huh? Oh no, not homesick, not yet at least. I’m just kind of surprised more than anything I guess.” She stifled a few yawns. “I shouldn’t be, but everything just feels… so right here. Like looking at you two it’s clear that for the first time in almost two years I’m not the odd one out. It’s just a nice change for once if that makes sense.”
Tyler nodded, “Well if you can’t tell, it seems like the tables have turned here. I can imagine that this is basically the opposite of how you felt back in New York right?”
She nodded, “If you mean feeling like the world’s not designed for you then yeah, it’s pretty much that. Are you guys sure you’re comfortable right now though? I don’t think Starry would fault you if you wanted to stretch out some more, I mean it’s not like there’s other ponies in this car to complain about it.”
The human shook her head, “No, but it’s better than hunching over awkwardly. To tell you the truth, we both figured that something like this might happen when we got here so it shouldn’t really come as a surprise to us. ‘Sides, it’s only going to be a couple train rides here and there right? Not like this’ll be a daily thing anyhow.” Sarah cut in before Tyler could even respond.
Starry looked on in worry, “I do apologize for the… less than ideal transportation situation. Trains are not really designed for anything larger than a pony here. You will have time to stretch before we get to the outpost, I assure you.”
Tyler nodded while trying to make himself a little more comfortable, “Thanks Starry. It’s not exactly the best situation for us, but we’ll get over it.”
“Yeah, we’ve dealt with worse back home I’m sure, this kind of reminds me of that glorified broom closet they called an office that we got stuck with, eh Tyler?” Sarah added in agreement.
Letting out a small yawn, Scarlet glanced out the window and squinted her eyes at the bright sun. “Say Starry, what time is it anyways?”
“About noon, why? Are you feeling tired? I know that Terran night ponies seldom roam about during the day like we do here, I couldn’t fault you if you were.”
She nodded, “Yeah. Not that I’m not enjoying our chat, but It’s getting a little hard to stay awake. You won’t mind if I take a nap for a few, right?”
Starry shook his head, “Oh no, by all means please do. I will awaken you when we arrive.”
“OceanSide Outpost, End of the line!” shouted the conductor, pulling Scarlet from her sleep.
She looked around at her travel group, “Are we there yet?”
Starry nodded, standing up and gesturing towards the open door, “Indeed, the rail line ends here, I am afraid that there is not yet a line that takes us closer to the outpost. However, I have arranged for a chariot to carry us into Pelham and the outpost within. I believe you are already acquainted with Crescent Shadow, are you not Mrs. Eclipse?”
Scarlet nodded, “Yes, he’s a good friend, but Sarah and Tyler don’t know him. And please, just call me Scarlet, no need to be overly formal here.”
The aforementioned humans nodded in unison.
Starry straightened up in his seat, “Right… Miss… Scarlet. Crescent will guide us further in. Your two companions will have a chance to get acquainted with him on the ride over.”
Scarlet stood up and followed Starry to the door, waving towards the humans and watching as Tyler and Sarah eagerly followed as well. She couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sympathy for the two, as they were probably relieved to finally have a chance to actually stretch out.
As they stepped out into the desert outpost she felt a little more at home. The view of the ocean off in the distance and the desert stretching into the other sparked a mix of nostalgia in her, bringing back memories of her trips to Michigan, Florida, and even the Oasis back home.
A short distance away from the station sat a large chariot and three ponies, one of which she immediately recognized as Crescent Shadow.
With a smile she trotted over towards him shouting out a cheerful greeting, “Hey Crescent! It’s great to see you again! What’s it been? Like a month?”
Crescent chuckled “Something like that.” he glanced towards the two humans who were now eagerly stretching their arms and legs out, “I’ll take it that your companions might not have had as pleasant of a ride as you did?”
Scarlet nodded, “You could say that, though I slept through a lot of it so I missed out on some of the sights, but it’s just kind of cool to see how different everything is here. I didn’t realize how different a world designed solely for ponies would be.”
“It’s an odd feeling isn’t it? Going to Earth was sort of like the reverse of that for me, everything felt too large there. You’ll get used to it in time though.”
Sarah cleared her throat, “So uhh, Mr. Crescent, how far away is this outpost that you’re bringing us to?”
“Only a short chariot’s ride away, I promise that it won’t be as uncomfortable as the train ride was.”
Tyler nodded, “That’s a relief to hear. So shall we get going or do we have other plans here?”
“Yes, that would be a good idea, Crescent would you care to lead us onward?” Starry added.
He nodded and gestured towards the chariot, “Right this way.”
Two humans followed Scarlet and Crescent towards the strange looking chariot, unsure of how the experience would be for them. Thoughts of their awkward posture on the train came back, though given the open air design, they both figured that it at least wouldn’t be as bad as the train’s small human section.
Scarlet, Crescent, and Starry were already seated in the front by the time the two had caught up, leaving them a larger bench towards the back of the low riding chariot.
Tyler glanced down at the bench and hesitantly took a seat, as if he was expecting it to be any different than a simple chariot. He looked up towards Sarah who was eyeing it with curiosity, “Well it’s certainly better than the train.”
Sarah continued to eye it curiously, finally taking her own seat next to Tyler. “Yeah, feels a lot better. It doesn’t feel as cramped to me either, which is nice.”
“It will only be a short ride, you two won’t have to worry about it for long.” Starry paused for a moment, “I couldn’t help but observe your hesitation and wide eyed looks, is this another new experience for you as well?”
Tyler nodded, “We don’t exactly have these in our neck of the woods, it’s been a long time since I’ve actually ridden on a horse drawn carriage and I guess we’re still adjusting to this place.”
“Yes, well please do let me know if there is anything we can do to accommodate you better. You are our special guests after all,” The night pony added with a smile.
Sarah smiled, “We will Starry, thanks for checking up on us, I really appreciate it.”
Starry Skies nodded as the chariot slowly pulled away from the station and the stallions pulling it kicked up into the sky with powerful wingbeats. The sudden smooth transition of the clearly enchanted chariot from ground to air caused the two human passengers to reflexively grab onto something as if they felt they would be thrown from the open air cart, but for some reason, Scarlet felt oddly at ease with the otherwise incredibly surprising ordeal.
Something about being in a chariot and going into the air really threw Scarlet off, because by all means, it was clearly not designed with flight in mind… or at least that’s what it looked like. Appearances could be deceiving however, so Scarlet made a mental note to ask Starry about it later. She didn’t want to miss the sights after all, because even as a night pony, she rarely flew as high as they were now. The view of the Equestrian countryside below was incredible, and as a night pony, the experience wasn’t all that frightening for her... but Scarlet could only imagine that her companions weren’t faring so well if their panicked expressions were anything to go by.
The sleek chariot flew over the desert, giving the group a picturesque view of the surrounding area and some of the lands beyond. The actual trip was far smoother than the three had expected it to be, and Scarlet was unsure of whether this was because of the guards’ own training, if the carriage had some unknown enchantment on it, or perhaps some other unknown variable that was beyond her earthly comprehension. As Scarlet glanced over to her frightened human companions she noticed the chariot began to subtly descend, though it was clear that their journey wasn’t fully over yet.
Scarlet squinted her eyes and gazed off into the distance, noticing a small outcropping of buildings that she could only assume was their final destination, as she turned her head, she noticed the large stone cliffs that had started to surround them, creating the vast valley that they were now passing through. She couldn't get a clear view of them, but something about them seemed… different than the others that had dotted the desert landscape during their journey so far. She couldn’t place exactly what was so different about them, but they definitely had an almost organic look to them.
Unsure of how to word her question, Scarlet tapped Crescent’s shoulder and gestured towards the cliffs, “So what’s the deal with those? They don’t look like any of the others we’ve seen up to this point, and the formation hardly looks natural.”
Crescent returned a smile, “That is a good question indeed, and one that has an interesting answer.” He began to wave towards the towering mesas, “Welcome to Pelham, the Forest of Lost Giants.”
“Lost Giants? Why do you call it that?” Scarlet asked while looking around at the tall cliffs.
“Those mesa are actually the petrified remains of giant trees that once made up the forest here. The legend is that a large tribe of Earth ponies settled here when Equestria was first found. They thought this land was a paradise without limit and combined their strength to grow trees so large an entire city could be built into them. Their carelessness turned this entire area... from the West coast clear to the Eastern shore into a desert where nothing could grow as their trees blocked out the sun and consumed all the resources of the land.”
Tyler adjusted his glasses, “And let me guess, the land couldn’t support the giant trees and died off? Ruined the environment around it too?”
Crescent nodded, “When the land couldn’t support the forest, it faded into the desert we are now passing through, the Earth Ponies that created it fading into legend as well. It became inhospitable to most, but we have found a new life for this place. There are no ponies here, which gives this place the clearest night sky in almost all of Equestria, the perfect place to construct an observatory.”
“Remote and away from everything else… that’s smart.” Scarlet added
“I bet you don’t have to deal with the same kind of light pollution that we do on Earth,” Sarah added.
“You would be correct, but it’s still useful for our purposes. The remote nature of the valley helps keep ponies from snooping around the outpost, not that we don’t appreciate the company of course. This is an expensive, carefully calibrated piece of machinery that we’re talking about though, and the extra distractions wouldn’t really help with our ultimate goal. Plus it gives life to a corner of Equestria that most thought would be an inhospitable wasteland,” Crescent answered.
“I wish it was that easy back home,” Scarlet added
The pegasus raised an eyebrow, “You’ve dealt with something like this back home I presume?”
She nodded and shrugged, “Sort of. Sapphire’s storm brought a ton of life back into a desert that we thought wouldn’t ever flourish the way we wanted it to, but it gave it a much needed boost that our earth ponies were able to care for and maintain. Light pollution’s a tougher task to figure out though, we wound up building our observatory a little ways away from the rest of the Oasis because the lights back home would reduce visibility. We spent a lot of time and money trying to figure out how to light the area so it wouldn’t block out the view of the night sky.”
“It should be interesting to see how this compares to your setup back home then, Sapphire didn’t share much about your Oasis, and I don’t believe it came up in any of our conversation, forgive me if it did.”
Scarlet smiled, “I don’t think it did, at least not the talk about the observatory. I guess that just means we’ll have more to chat about between work.”
Tyler smiled, “Kinda sounds like it’s a win win for everyone then eh?”
Starry nodded, “It would appear so.”
“Sapphire, occasionally has a knack for forcing great change,” Crescent mused.
“So this place, I’m assuming that it’s going to be a bit different than the rest of Equestria then?” Sarah cut in.
Starry nodded again, “In a way, yes. It’s location and purpose has many advantages, one of which being the fact that we can easily house human researchers such as yourselves here without having to adapt our existing infrastructure to accommodate you. Ponies are naturally social creatures and introducing two strange and fascinating creatures into an area would likely earn a flurry of questions that would distract us from our mission here.”
“So I wasn’t just imagining the weird stares and whispers we heard back in the Crystal Empire then… good to know.” Sarah interjected.
Starry smiled, “It’s nothing to worry about, of course, you two are just intriguing is all. Don’t mind any stares you get, there haven’t been very many humans who have made the journey over this way, there’s still that flame of intrigue that is running strong in many ponies.”
“It’s honestly kind of fun, makes a couple of geeks feel like we’re celebrities or something.” Tyler added with a smile.
“You unfortunately won’t see much of that in the outpost I’m afraid, but I’m sure you’ll notice that if you three have the time to check out some of the Equestrian sights during your down time,” Crescent added in.
Scarlet cleared her throat, “So what’s the outpost even like?”
Starry smiled, “You’ll find out soon enough, it won’t be long until we arrive, it’s best not to spoil the experience prematurely, you will find that Pelham Outpost is rather different from the other locales in Equestria.”
Scarlet looked back towards the outpost with eager excitement building up within her. Starry didn’t exactly answer her question, but she was excited to have the chance to explore this strange exotic place nonetheless. They always said that the journey was better than the destination, but she wasn’t quite sure if that applied to this situation.