The train continued to race forward at top speed, barreling headlong towards the gaping abyss in front of it. The two ponies in the cab were stunned into silence, until the filly suddenly snapped back to her senses.
"Steamer, Hurry! Throw on the brakes!" Posey shrieked. "Hurry! Before we're all crushed into pony pancakes!"
"R-right!" The colt cried out, slamming on the brakes as the engine came dangerously close to the edge of the gorge.
The train screeched to a sudden halt, throwing every pony on board around. Trays and glasses were overturned, and stewardess mares who were trotting around were thrown to the floor. In one of the passenger cars, Twilight and Glory were thrown face first down into their plates of food, while Firefly and Surprise reflexively took off, slamming their heads on the train car's ceiling.
"Owwww! What the hay!?" Firefly asked, rubbing her head with her hoof. "Can't that goofy colt even drive a train right?"
"What in the name of Celestia is going on out there?" Cadance, who had thrown a shield up around herself, looked out the window to see the engine teetering on the edge of the abyss.
"Girls, we've got a problem!" the princess told them, as the other four looked out the window. "The bridge is out at the Great Galloping Gorge!"
"HEEEEELLLLPPPP!" Posey screamed hysterically, her head sticking out of the engine window. "WE'RE GONNA CRASH!"
"Oh, no! They're gonna fall in!" Glory exclaimed. "Somebody do something, quick!"
"What're we gonna do!?" Surprise exclaimed, looking around desperately.
"Twilight?" Firefly asked, as they all turned to the pink unicorn.
"What? Me?!" she asked, looking around at the other four. "But the princess-"
"A leader must lead, Twilight Shine," Cadance replied, reclining back in her seat, and closing her eyes. "Such is the responsibility of the Element of Magic."
Twilight looked down, and thought for a moment. Narrowing her eyes, she quickly looked back to the other four girls.
"Firefly, Surprise... get out there and fly Steamer and Posey out of the train cab!" She then looked over at Glory. "You help me pull that engine up, before it pulls the rest of the train into the abyss."
"On it!" Firefly replied, as she and Surprise zipped out the window. "C'mon, Surprise! Let's go!"
"Yeah!" Glory agreed, as she galloped out of the passenger car. "Let's do it, Twilight!"
"Applejack..." Twilight looked at the earth pony, who wasn't even paying attention. "Oh, never mind!" she snorted in disgust before galloping out of the room after Glory.
Surprise quickly zipped by the train cab window, snatching a screaming Posey. "Gotcha!" she exclaimed, dropping the pink earth pony on the chasm's edge.
"Steamer, gimme your hoof!" Firefly called out, hovering over the engine cab. The earth colt leapt upward out of the window, and the Pegasus barely managed to catch him.
"Ungh! You need ta go on a diet, fatso!" Firefly groaned, as she carried the pony engineer over to Posey.
"Oh, Posey! Are you alright?" he called out, hugging her. "I was so worried!"
"Y-yes..." she whimpered. "You saved my life! If you hadn’t pulled the brake when you did...!"
"Yep, yep, yep... no need to thank the two Pegusai who just pulled your flanks outta that cab, oh no!" Firefly snapped sarcastically, as she and Surprise hovered overhead.
Twilight and Glory emerged back by the coal car, and instantly their horns began to glow. A glowing aura surrounded the engine, and it slowly began to creak backwards out of the abyss.
"C'mon Twilight!" Glory groaned as her willpower strained against the engine's great weight.
"I wish, I wish, I WISH!" Sweat trickled down Twilight Shine's mane as her magic pulled on the large hunk of iron.
Slowly, the engine began to pull backwards as it came up and out of the ravine. Ponies in the passenger cars stuck their heads out the windows and began to cheer as the two exhausted unicorn fillies collapsed to the ground.
"Well, that wasn't too bad, now was it?" Surprise asked, as all five of the other girls shot her angry looks.
...
It was several hours before the unicorn and earth pony engineers had gotten the bridge repaired, and the train was soon on its way again. One of the railroad officials had assured Cadance that they would get to the bottom of whatever caused the bridge to go out as quickly as possible. The six ponies, meanwhile, had returned to the passenger car, while the princess saw to other matters elsewhere on the train.
"It was magical sabotage, I'm sure of it!" Glory snorted. "Both Twilight and I felt the mana energies when we were pushing the train back into place."
"And what a feat that was!" Surprise exclaimed. "I've never seen two unicorn fillies move something that big before!"
"Gotta hand it to you girls, you came through really well in a crisis!" Firefly snorted. "Unlike a certain grouchy pony who just sat there and did nothing!"
"Hey, what was I supposed to do?" A.J. shrugged. "Not all of us can fly or levitate stuff, I'm only an earth pony!"
"You coulda done somethin' besides just sittin there on yer fat flank and sayin' nothing!" Firefly snorted.
"You know what you are, Applejack?" Twilight snorted in anger. "A rude filly with a bad attitude that doesn't care about anybody else!"
A.J. stared angrily at the unicorn filly for a few moments, before getting up and storming out of the car in anger.
A few minutes after Applejack left, Posey spoke up. "Um, Twilight? I know she was being kinda grumpy, but... don't you think that was a little mean?"
...
"I can't do this anymore!" Applejack snorted, storming into the car where Cadance was sitting at a desk, working on royal paperwork. "I'm really, very sorry Princess- but I just can't keep this act up any longer!"
"Why, Applejack!" Cadance lowered her levitated pen and looked up at the distraught filly. "Whatever is the matter?"
"I'm really trying to keep up this 'indifferent jerk' act like ya want me to, Your Highness," AJ sobbed, trying told hold back tears. "But those ponies have been so nice to me, trying to make friends... and all I've done is treat them like dirt!"
"But this is part of their lessons, don't you see, A.J.?" Cadance told her. "They have to learn how make friends with any type of pony, nice or rude!"
"You think that kind of thing can be trained into fillies, Princess?" the orange earth filly protested. "You think that's how the harmony bearers got their qualities, by being taught them?"
"This is important, A.J.!" Cadance snorted. "That's why I didn't help on the train, when I could have easily fixed things!"
"They're not the original Harmony Bearers, Your Highness!" the earth filly protested. "You can't fashion fillies into ponies they're not, no matter how much you want to!"
Applejack's words struck the alicorn like a blow, causing her to wince. Changing the subject, the Princess narrowed her eyes at A.J.. "If you truly believe what you say, Element of Honesty, then why haven't you told them who you really are?"
Now it was Applejack's turn to wince. "Because I'm not that pony anymore." She turned, and trotted out of the Princess's office. "That pony doesn't exist!"
"For the sake of all of all of Ponyland, Applejack..." Cadance replied, after the earth filly had left. "...I really hope you are wrong!"
...
The train pulled into the Bright Valley station and all the ponies aboard disembarked. As the six fillies trotted out into the town, they couldn't believe their eyes. Everywhere the sights of the city filled their senses.
"Wow! Can you believe this?!" Firefly exclaimed. "Individual houses! Cars and trucks!"
"Stores instead of merchant stalls!" Glory added. "Flashing signs, and neon lights!"
"Meh, isn't anything I haven't seen before," AJ snorted indifferently. "Leave it to a bunch of feudal manor ponies to see the city as a big deal!"
"It kind of is a big deal, little miss grumpy filly!" Twilight snorted at her. "This is the only equine city left in Ponyland! I don't know about you, but it's quite exciting for the rest of us to be here!"
"Hmph!" The orange earth pony simply snorted, looking away in disgust.
"Posey, is that you?" A voice called out, from the other side of the station. "Yo Posey, over here!"
A blue earth pony, with a pink mane and ribbon cutie mark came galloping up. Beside her, was a white colt, with a blue pompadour mane.
"Bow Tie! You came to greet me!" Posey trotted up, and nuzzled the filly. "It's so wonderful to see you again!"
"Friends of yours, Posey?" Twilight asked, nodding her head towards the new arrivals.
"Oh, hello! You must be the Harmony Bearers everybody's talking about!" Bow Tie exclaimed. "Yeah, I'm Bowtie Lace, Posey's best friend since elementary school!" She gestured to the colt behind her. "And this is my boyfriend, Nightshade!"
"Hello, ladies!" The colt in the blue letter jacket waved to the other fillies. "Nice to meet you all!"
"Whoah! He is cute!" Firefly whispered to Glory. "Bow Tie really picked a winner, here!"
"I'll say!" Glory whispered back, blushing.
It was at that moment that Princess Cadance came trotting off the train. "Come on girls! We're supposed to go see Silver Swirl right away!" She gestured for them to follow her.
"Oh, you gals going ta see the princess?" Bow Tie asked, her face lighting up. "Here, Nightshade and I'll come with you! We have connections up at the royal estate!"
As the party made their way out of the train station, Twilight Shine looked down at the saddle bag. Inside was the letter she had written to the Princess, laying out how she felt about how she and the other fillies were being treated.
"No need to dig that thing out now!" She reassured herself. "Everything's going all right now! Nothing to worry about!"
Closing up her bag, the pink unicorn galloped to catch up with the others.
...
"You bumblers failed again!" Hydia wailed, watching the events unfold in her cauldron. "You idiots couldn't even take out a simple train!"
"Sorry, Hydia!" The two sisters replied in unison, looking down.
"Now Cadance will continue training her precious little Harmony Bearers!" The old witch scowled angrily. "And that's really bad news for us!"
"It's all Draggle's fault!" Reeka hissed, munching on a toad, newt, and cockroach sandwich… as tiny bits of bug tumbled out of her mouth. "If she hadn't fought with me over the spell book-!"
"Me? You're the one who started it!" She tackled her sister to the ground, and the two broke out into a fight, biting and pulling each others hair.
"KNOCK IT OFF, YOU TWO!" Hydia bellowed at them, as she pulled energies out of the chariot, and into the cauldron. "Already, my power has increased a hundred fold! But there are a few other items which I need you two to gather for my great spell!"
"C'mon Hydia! Give us another shot at the ponies!" Draggle said hopefully." We won't mess up this time, we promise!"
"We'll make sure those ponies don't leave the town!" Reeka agreed, nodding. "Draggle and I will make you proud mama, we promise!"
"No! I have already called on some other cronies to deal with the ponies! And I told you before...." The old witches eyes grew wide, her voice booming in anger. "DON'T CALL ME MOTHERRRRRRR!!!"
Bolts shot out of Hydia's hands, hitting the two girls and turning them into mice.
"Squeek! Sorry Hydia!" The two quickly scurried away, making for the spell book to reverse it. Cackling at her two daughters’ misery, the old witch turned back to her sinister work.
'Stupid ponies! I’ll bring an end to their silly games and parties and friendship!', the old witch thought to herself. 'The Order of Gloom shall rule Dream Valley once more!'