What a trainwreck...
"I'll buy the train tickets, you can wait for me by the train." said Twilight, who was still annoyed from being yanked around by me and Spike. I walked over to the train and waited by the rails, where the train was just arriving and the wheels were grinding to a halt in the noisiest way possible, enough for my ears to ring for a full minute. Not only that but I just had to sit right where the train door was and I almost got knocked out by a suitcase that floated out when the doors opened, followed by the unicorn who was levitating it. He seemed to be in a rush, as he apologized quickly and was running like his hair was on fire, but I couldn't possibly imagine what could possibly have him in such rush to get out and run off like that. Ponyville could possibly be the most laid back town I have ever seen, except the part where it almost got destroyed by Discord, according to Twilight's stories. This whole "Elements of Harmony" thing was so weird and supernatural I just considered the six girls to be heroes or something.
After a few seconds dodging the passengers leaving the train, Twilight pulled me out of the fire by levitating me out of there. I felt sick from the sudden lack of gravity. "When I said by the train I didn't mean 'sit right in front of the door'", she commented.
"I had nowhere to go, I got surrounded instantly!" I talked back.
"You could've flown out of the way..."
"Details, details..." I sighed. "And don't levitate me again without warning, please. That sudden zero gravity almost made me puke on everyone under me"
"It was that or have you get stepped on by dozens and dozens of hooves."
"Okay, you win this time..."
"Next stop, Canterlot!", yelled out the ticket collector from the door.
"That's our call, let's go", said Twilight, who walked ahead of me instantly. Giving the ticket holder both our tickets.
The outside of the trains here are almost exactly like the trains back on human society. But when we walked inside, the similarities ended: the train seats were nothing like a human train's seat, they looked more like a bed than a seat, and had a small compartment next to it for luggage. They were sized for one pony, and were arranged like bunk beds.
"Well this is new..." I commented. "Beds instead of seats... why didn't humanity think of this?? The seats we have can barely recline all the way down unless you pay a fortune for first class seats! This is great!"
"I'm glad you liked it" she smiled. She seemed to have gotten in a better mood now. "Pick any spot you want, but do it quickly if you want to get a spot next to mine, before the other ponies fill up this traincar", she pointed to the window and I saw the ponies coming to the doors to board the train, and there were LOTS of them.
I turned around, a bit confused. "Why, you want me to sit next to you?"
"You're good company, and we can talk more quietly without annoying the others."
"I got you shoving me away out of the library twice today and I'm good company??"
"I knew you and Spike just wanted to get a rise out of me, but in the moment I was just nervous. I'm not mad at you." she replied.
"What about in the morning when I kept delaying my leave to go to Applejack?" I asked.
"Okay, that one I really was getting a bit frustrated. I don't like being tardy, nor do I like others to be either." she paused. "Tardy as in late." she continued before I opened my mouth to ask what it was. "And pick a spot already, our cart is going to begin filling up any time now". We could hear clop sounds from the hooves on the wooden floor and some chatter on the car next door.
I flew up and picked the bed above Twilight's. "Alright, I'll sleep on top of you", I said, and yes I intended for it to sound strange.I looked under my bed and saw that she was looking at me with the most weirded out face I've seen. "Ugh, that just sounded horrible..." she replied and shoved her head in her pillow.
"Sorry, just had to. No hard feelings?" I chuckled.
"Sure, but please keep the joke level low when we talk to the Princesses.", she looked up at me, still nervous. "Do you want a book to read on the trip?"
"What books? I didn't see you put any books on your saddlebag." I asked.
"I used a spell to shrink them, so I can fit at most 10 of them without trouble"
"Wow that's... that's actually possible? You can literally pull off a Santa Claus with this! Alright, toss me a book. I guess we're in an overnight trip, right?"
"We should get to Canterlot in the morning. And by the way, your green hair will wear out overnight." she replied. "and who in the world is Santa Claus??"
"I guess you don't have that here then... oh well... and what did you say about my hair? Aw man...the hair was so cool, can you 'reset' the timer on this thing?"
"Not until it wears out first. Now here's a book to read, it's Rainbow Dash's favourite." she floated a book over to me. It was called "Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone". The cover was a picture of a light brown pegasus swinging on a vine. She had dark pink eyes and a black mane with different shades of gray and was wearing an adventurous-like jacket and hat. Heck, it was pretty much a ponified version of Indiana Jones or something.
I started reading Daring Do's book, I was few pages in and it literally looked like something Indiana Jones could be doing, which made it even better. I was almost ending the chapter when the train finally started moving. I guess about ten minutes passed since we first entered the train.
"Wait, where is everypony?", Twilight asked out of the blue when the train was off the station. "We're the only ones in this car as far as I know."
"Heh, we picked the one car no one was going to use", I chuckled.
"Nopony" she retorted.
"Wha- oh please..." I grunted. "Okay, we picked the one car nopony was going to use... You're such a grammar freak...". Twilight giggled and went back to reading her book.
"So it's just you and me... alone." I said trying to sound serious.
"Don't even start it..." she interrupted me. Fine then, bookworm... I can't have fun anymore...
There are a few things that happens in life that are pretty embarrassing and awkward. Things that no one should be forced to experience or see. Like walking into someone in their shower, and vice-versa and any caught-in-the-act type of moments.
Unfortunately for me and Twilight, that had to happen. We were almost done reading --which by the way, Daring Do's book is intense as hell-- and were getting ready to sleep, it was sometime near midnight. The train was making some noise from the rails, but it had become background noise and we were used to it by now. I decided to finish up the book before sleeping, in case I regret not finishing it now. I spent a few extra minutes reading, and Twilight was asleep by then. I turned off the lights, and only the moonlight was shining down inside the train. I didn't want to wake Twilight just to get her to put the book back in her bag, so I flew down and quietly landed next to her while holding the book with my teeth, trying as hard as I could not to bump the book into anything and leave the book on top of the bag.
And that's when it happened.
The car door slowly opened, in which I panicked and pulled my head back to see who it was. There was a stallion staring right at me, he had a mare with him, nuzzling him on the neck passionately. Wow... just freaking wow he just HAD to pick this car...
He was trying to say something, but kept stuttering. That caused his "marefriend" to stop nuzzling him and look at me. This time she managed to squeal out something that should not have been said:
"Thief!"
"Thief?!? Where?" I said, panicking and not thinking straight. What I didn't realize was that I still had the book on my mouth, which I dropped when I spoke. And that's when I noticed what was going on. Oh... that's just fucking great!
I didn't even have time to react, because the stallion charged and tackled me to the ground, creating enough noise to wake up Twilight from her sleep. When she saw what was going on, she literally threw the stallion off me with her magic and pinned him in place a few metres from me in some sort of force field.
"Lady! He was going to steal your book!" the stallion protested. His marefriend was shaking and speechless, not being able to move and just watching the whole thing.
Twilight looked over to me and saw her book on the ground, which she placed back in her bag next to her bed, "He was reading my book and was going to return it to me! But that's not the point, there was no reason to attack my friend!" she snarled at the stallion. She released the field around him and the mare joined his side, hugging him.
"Okay, what are you two doing here then?" the stallion asked us. "I can't believe you got here before us. We had this all planned out!"
"Planned out? Had planned out what?" I asked. Oh please don't tell me it is what I'm thinking...
"Oh.... uh....I thought you two were... you know..." the stallion started. "forget I said that..." He started blushing heavily. Of course it is what I'm thinking. It always is...
"What??? No!!" We yelled at the same time. They backed away a step, startled.
"Okay! Okay! We'll be going now!" said the stallion, and they closed the door and went back to their cart.
A few seconds passed, Twilight and I looking at the door without uttering a single word until the awkwardness passed, which I doubted it was going to vanish any time soon, so I did the only thing I could to try to move on with it.
"The book was great, by the way."
"Good night, Johnny..." she grunted, and hopped back to her bed. "That stallion ruined this great dream I was having..."
"What was it about?" I asked.
"Um...It's personal...", she replied nervously. "Go to sleep now, I want to try to get back to that same dream. It is too good to end like this.", she said smiling softly. I complied and flew back to my bed, and looked out the window and to the stars.
Time for a little stargazing...