//------------------------------// // Day 3890 // Story: Stations // by Mint Essence //------------------------------// It was Sunday and Positive was waking up as he had yesterday to go to work. He hadn’t ever worked a weekend shift, but after skipping two days his boss, CJ, demanded that he come in during the weekend to make up the lost time, which he had of course graciously accepted. “I didn’t get where I am today by eating candy floss from cats’ beards!” His boss had simply exclaimed. So dragging himself out of bed the stallion once again ran through his morning routine before heading directly back down to the train station. His ears were however perked up as he approached the train, the sound of a noisy animal making some kind of squealing sound that he couldn’t quite place. He forbade his usual carriage all together this time, investigating the carriage directly in front of it which judging by the sound held this strange high pitched animal. Entering he cautiously peaked around the corner, regretting his choice as soon as he had made it, his eyes having come in contact with a small capuchin monkey screeching at what he assumed to be his owner as he reached his little hands out of the silver bars of his large cage to grab several small chunks of apple which his owner was feeding to him, laughing lightly as she gently hoofed over each bit, piece by piece. Seeing this curious little monkey Positive knew that he wasn’t going to work today, he simply couldn’t just pass up such an opportunity. Sitting a respectable distance away from the two he idly watched as the giggling mare continued to feed her little pet before both rather disappointingly settled down. Positive did not have to wait for long however, as the two coincidently got off at the same station he had followed the cat off earlier that week. Getting off the train he followed the two as they approached a rather expensive of solemn looking all black pony drawn carriage. Luckily for him the towns’s traffic was pretty heavy so he was easily able to follow close behind at a comfortable trotting pace, craning his neck above the many ponies that surrounded him and other vehicles on the road to keep sight of them. He noted that every road they went down was decidedly wider and busy than those which the cat had lead them down, with even the buildings themselves seemingly to loom over the surrounding ponies with greater significance both from their great size and the haughty atmosphere they gave off. They eventually reached a large roundabout, in the centre of which was an equally round marble building that seemed to rise just two or maybe three floors, auspicious for its height or rather lack of it amongst some of the more towering buildings that surrounded it. It had four main entrances, all of which jutted out of the otherwise perfectly round building. Supported by impressive marble columns each entrance hung a little under the total height of the building itself and resembled a classical design from antiquity. A slight dome could be seen topping the building but other than that it stood mostly plain and stoic. Seeing the carriage approach said building Positive briskly trotted over to meet it, gathering around two dozen or so professional ponies all dressed in suits much like his own, clearly here to meet their new arrival. As soon as the mare and her monkey, strung along on a little red dog leash, left the carriage he watched as a whole crowd of pegasi swarmed around the two, flying overhead as they obnoxiously pointed their oversized cameras down at the little scene. Flashing cameras from every imaginable angle each blurted out extremely blunt questions such as. “Why has the museum decided to take on a living animal at this time? Is it true that this small creature will become a permanent fixture in the natural history section of the museum? What do you have to say to our readers who think that.........?” Et cetera. Each question quickly silenced by an other with no time to reply in between. It was very clear from the look of everypony other than the newspaper reporters hovering overhead that whatever was going on press coverage certainly wasn’t welcome. Regardless everypony did their best to ignore the crowd of reporters, the small group of professional looking ponies including himself following close behind the source of all the excitement before the museum’s door was promptly slammed shut. The inside of museum itself wasn’t all that impressive, at least not in comparison to some of Equestria’s far bigger and more prominent historical institutions. Many different sections and time periods that they passed seemed to be fluffed up by a lot of explanatory diagrams, photographs, and little distractions to fill in the gaps between the genuine historical artefacts. The area allocated to dinosaurs in the natural history section of the museum was pretty scant. Aside from a few not to scale models and illustrative pictures the museum seemed to have little more than small fragments of dinosaur bones and old rocks from that period. Continuing through the museum they eventually came across a small jungled section with exotic plants and fauna that at least looked real, and may have been from the sudden humidity. The small jungle was sectioned of by a low white wall, also made of marble, that wrap around it in a semicircle. He saw that there was also a complicated array of cameras and other technical equipment surrounding the tiny jungle with a small team of ponies that seemed to be setting everything up. “Everything set up here?” The mare simply asked, letting her monkey off from his leash and collar as she watched him scamper off into the jungle, climbing one particular tree to which little pieces of fruit and other sweet treats had been arranged for him. “Just about, we’re just turning the equipment on.” One of the camera ponies replied. “That’s good, he seems to be getting in place now.” The mare replied back. Everypony then gathered around the small exhibit, just out of sight of the cameras as all of a sudden a series of five quick and extremely powerful flashes from all angles lit up the whole jungle, causing the little capuchin to let out a high pitched wail before he ran off further into the foliage to hide himself. Just as the mare was about to congratulate the camera team on a job well done Positive was suddenly startled as a stallion next to him was tackled down to the ground by two other ponies that had otherwise blended perfectly into the background beforehoof. One of them simply screamed “reporter” as a discreet camera fell from the stallion’s hooves. With all eyes in his general direction it was just then that the mare from the train locked her eyes squarely on him, staring him down before screaming. “He’s with him as well, I remember him from the train, he’s followed me here.” Having satisfied themselves that the first stallion had been brought down the two presumably security guards jumped Positive, slamming him very painfully down onto the ground as they restrained him. Both stallions were then unceremoniously dragged down the hard marble floor of the museum until they reached a series of small back rooms. The other stallion had been taken first and placed into a small room with little more than a simple table with two chairs to either side of it. As Positive had learned later from his own little integration this stallion was not a reporter but an activist from a similar wildlife charity to the one that the museum was apparently hosting. He was there to gather information and take pictures of their little camera set up, revealing that the pictures that the charity used for their animal protection funds were in fact fallacious and staged. It was a petty and cheap jab at one of their main rivals in an attempt to increase their own notoriety and hopefully gain a few more supporters by scandalising a fellow organisation. After his camera was confiscated and destroyed he was promptly let go. As he had told the truth and they had found no evidence of any camera or other recording devices on him Positive was taken back into the break with some of the other staff. After a brief introduction to Dexter the little capuchin. He laughed as the monkey was asked by his handler to retrieve a cup of coffee and a doughnut for him before he briskly did the same for everypony else in the small room, taking a good bite out of each pony’s doughnut before scampering off to his own chair. Lifting a cup up to his mouth only to find that it was empty he turned it upside down, giving it a quick shake with a very confused but equally cute expression on his face. They all had a light chuckle after that until soon after finishing his doughnut and coffee Positive left, once again returning to the train station.