By the time we reached the train station, the sun was barely touching the horizon. I got the feeling that everybody was tired and anxious for the day to end. Even though I had taken a nap on the train, I was still physically worn out from recent events. I didn’t want to ask just yet, but I was hoping the wheat sisters had a place in mind for us to rest.
As the train came to a stop, I changed into Gouda, with Wheat Flour still supporting me. Whole Grain dragged our prisoners along like dogs on a leash, except the dogs weren’t walking, and one of them was still unconscious. Thankfully, the police station wasn’t too hard to find; it was only a short distance into the city.
Whole Grain went inside to explain the situation to the police. Wheat Flour suggested that she take a look at my arm, so I offered it to her, and she began to look it over.
“Hurt your leg, there, Gouda?” Sergeant asked, chuckling.
Someone was in the mood for snide remarks, so I returned one. “You seem a little tied up, yourself.”
His smirk disappeared, and his voice took a more serious tone. “This is a high form of treason, kiddo. When I get free, you have no idea what you’re in for.”
Now, I didn’t mind people explaining things to me in a world like this, but it made me feel like a little kid when he was the one doing it. Holding back my anger, I answered, “I’m not going back to the hive, so… good luck with that.”
He tilted his head back to move the limp 6 F 26 off. “You may have gotten off the hook this time, but remember this: You mean nothing to us anymore. You’ve made it clear whose side you’re on, and it’s not ours. We take the capital tomorrow. When you come running up to us and beg us to take you back, we’ll throw you in prison with everyone else.” He smirked as he looked up at the police station. “Oh, the irony.”
I felt a chill, and it was more than just the wind. Something told me that those were more than just bitter ramblings.
“Did you feel any of that?” Wheat Flour asked.
“Any of what?” Chills? Then I looked down. “Oh, I guess I didn’t.” I extended my arm and, slowly, brought it down to the ground. I put some weight on it, and I didn’t feel any pain. “Did I get better?”
“Try your changeling leg.”
I pulled my arm back in the air and transformed. Right away, I could feel it throbbing, and didn’t want to risk standing on it. “It hurts now.”
Sergeant rolled his eyes and muttered, “This is like watching a hatchling.”
I changed back into Gouda, just as the door to the police station swung open. Whole Grain stepped out. “Somepony’ll be out in few minutes to take them in.” She rubbed her face. “Let’s go; we need a place to sleep for the night.”
Wheat Flour and I followed her as she turned the corner of the block. I didn’t think 6 F 26 had woken up yet; his head was still hanging when we left him. However, they weren’t going anywhere soon but jail, so that chapter was over for the time being.
Whole Grain looked back at us. “I thought your leg was hurt.”
“My changeling leg, yes.” It would’ve been nice to visit a hospital to have it looked at, but I didn’t want to hinder our progress for any longer. I didn’t want to feel even more like a dead weight. “As long as I’m a pony, though, I’m good.”
She nodded and looked forward. “Fair enough.”
I was a tad bugged by some of the things I was hearing, so I felt like I had to ask. “When you ponies say ‘some pony,’ do you mean it like ‘somepony’ as in ‘someone’? Because that’s how you’re saying it.”
Wheat Flour nodded. “That is how we say it, yes.”
I looked behind us. That feeling of someone – er, somepony – following us hadn’t gone away. “So, this applies to other words, too? Like no pony, every pony…”
“…Anypony, yes.” she finished.
Now, it was moving beyond puns. There was some sort of dialect that I had to pick up on, like with “leg” instead of “arm”. From then on, I’d keep an ear out for anything that sounded strange or pony-like.
The streets were less busy than I thought they’d be in the evening. Since “Manehattan” was a play on “Manhattan”, I assumed that it’d be just as busy at all times. However, night had almost settled in, and, even though the streets were well-lit, they were only moderately populated. Maybe ponies actually got enough sleep at night.
Amongst the buildings, Whole Grain picked one, and I looked up at it. It was very much like my old apartment building, but made of more colorful bricks. The entrance had a nice, clean stairway leading up to it. There were even little pony statues adorning the ends of the railing. Either this was the highbrow neighborhood, or everybody was just rich.
“We’re lucky,” Wheat Flour said. “The Seeds are our only relatives in Manehattan. Otherwise, we would have nowhere else to go.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“We don’t have any bits,” replied Whole Grain, as we walked inside the building. “All we have are our tickets, and, even if we could trade them in, the value of all of ours put together isn’t enough for a hotel.”
If fifteen bits wouldn’t cover it, then the six bits in my arm weren’t enough, either. It’d be enough for an emergency. We could ration nine tomatoes among us, and that might be enough for a full day. Raw tomatoes are disgusting, though.
Whole Grain walked up to a door on the second floor and knocked. Immediately after doing so, she groaned. “You know, I’d prefer it if you were somepony else.”
“What?” I asked as I climbed up the stairs. “Why? What’s wrong with Gouda?”
“Just do it, quick,” she whispered. “Think of somepony. Anypony else, I don’t care.”
“I can’t just change now; Somepony will see me,” I insisted, looking around at the peepholes on the doors.
“Who cares? It doesn’t-” A click coming from the door interrupted her. From behind it, a dark grey pony with beige hair emerged.
Whole Grain greeted her. “Hey, Sunflower.”
“Hi, cuz. Come on in.” Sunflower stepped aside and allowed us entrance. When she noticed me, she glanced at Whole Grain, confused. Whole Grain looked at me with a scowl. I wasn’t sure I understood, but, from the looks of it, I had a feeling this was going to be awkward.
I followed her, wiping all four of my feet on the welcome mat. A voice came from upstairs, which sounded closer as somepony began down the staircase. “Well, that sounds like Whole Grain! What brings you to our home this fine evening?”
She smiled at him. “We all ended up on the wrong train tonight. I hate to impose, Uncle Flax, but do you think we could stay over for the night?”
“Oh, of course!” he said with a smile wider than hers. “Make yourselves at home! If you’re hungry, you can help yourselves to something from the pantry. I’ve got some work to catch up on, so I’ll be upstairs if you need me.”
As Uncle Flax retreated, I followed the remaining three into the kitchen. It was a quaint and simple kitchen, where everything seemed to be clean and lined up just so. Sunflower pulled out a block of paper from the fridge, unwrapped it, and laid it on a cutting board on the counter. “Could you slice this for us, please?” she asked me.
Ew, cheese. I had to keep up the charade, so I answered, “Sure.”
As I approached the cutting board and eyed the knife on it, Sunflower began to talk to Whole Grain. “You can sleep on the top bunk in our room. Babs is away on a school sleepover thing.”
Cheese-cutting shouldn't be too hard, I figured. I tried to pick up the knife with my hooves and succeeded. It felt like my palms were pressing together on the handle of the knife. The tricky part, now, was to simultaneously exert a downward force on the cheese while keeping the knife stable.
Whole Grain continued the conversation with her cousin. “I thought she didn’t like sleepovers, or school, for that matter. Where did they go?”
Okay, hooves wouldn’t work, so I put the knife handle in my mouth. I had a strange feeling the force was going to hurt my teeth, but cheese wasn’t supposed to be hard to carve. My forehead was beading in sweat, and I could feel drool running onto the handle. I laid the blade on an edge and rocked it back and forth.
“The Manehattan City Museum. I don’t know why Dad was so insistent on it; she hates field trips more than she hates sleepovers. But, she did, so I guess you could borrow her bed for the night. As for you guys…”
Sunflower stopped talking when she saw me. I had barely gotten an eighth of the way into the block, and wasn’t making much progress. And, unfortunately, saliva was dripping down the blade and onto the cheese.
“Are you alright, Gouda?” she asked me.
I nodded, carefully laying the knife onto the cutting board. What a giveaway it was that a cheese pony couldn’t cut a block of cheese. I was about to excuse myself by claiming fatigue, but Whole Grain did that for me.
“Yes, he’s fine,” Whole Grain answered, giving me a cautionary eye. “He’s just worn out from the train ride. I’ll tell you what happened later.”
Carefully, Sunflower wiped the cheese with a napkin and wrapped it back up. As she brought it to the fridge, she continued where she had left off to Wheat Flour and me. “You two can use the sofas in the living room for beds. We have some blankets in the upstairs hall closet, so I’ll get those for you later.”
She handed me an apple, and we all ate our supper quietly. It was uncomfortable. Although I tried not to stare for too long, I glanced at Whole Grain and Wheat Flour, still searching for a clue of what was going on. Really, what was wrong with Gouda?
Whatever. They could keep secrets if they wanted to. One more night here, and we’d be off again. Even though I’m not much of a fan of drama, I can get through it and forget about it.
~ ~ ~
That couch was so, so very soft. Sure, it was the older of the two, fraying in places, and moderately stiff. But, it was the most comfortable thing I had lay on for days. To go from sleeping on the ground to sleeping on a couch was like night and day.
Sunflower already upstairs, Whole Grain walked up to me before turning off the light. She whispered into my ear, “If you so much as lay a hoof on her, you won’t live to see another day. And, trust me,” she said with a squint, “I’ll know.”
After she was satisfied with my nod, she switched off the lights and headed upstairs. Mostly comfortable, I turned away from Wheat Flour. Whole Grain’s threats carried credibility, and I didn’t want to risk even accidentally looking too long at her sister. However, after a few minutes or so, Wheat Flour spoke.
“I suggest that tomorrow, when we leave, you change into somepony other than Gouda.”
Yeah, I still didn’t get that. “Why, though? Is there something I missed?”
“Gouda is Whole Grain’s ex-boyfriend.”
Oh. “Oh.”
“If you want to know more about it, you should ask her yourself. All I can say is that he was not very nice, and she broke up with him,” she said.
I paused, and heard the swooshing sound of water running down pipes. “How does your cousin know about him?”
“Sunflower Seed paid us a visit a month ago. Gouda was friendly enough, but he said some… distasteful things about my sister.”
I decided not to press the issue, partly because I was shocked that she was talking with me this much. Ready to seize the opportunity, I asked the difficult question that had bothered me since the first day I was there. “Wheat Flour, why did you decide to help me?”
“When that little filly ran up and tried to defend you,” she said. “I realized you were different.”
“No, I mean in the forest. You could’ve just run away when I let you up. Why did you choose to help me then?”
A long pause. “Same reason. You aren’t like other changelings. When you say you’re sorry, I believe you. When you say you need to go to Canterlot, something in me says that you’re telling the truth. You have a lip, yes, but I’ve learned to see past that in ponies.”
“Like your sister?” I asked.
“Yes, like my sister,” she conceded. “She may come off as harsh, but she’s just trying to protect me.” I could hear her roll over on her couch.
“When we were fillies, we used to live in an orphanage. I was small and weak, and the big colts would pick on me. Whole Grain stood up for me, though. She protected me all through our time at the orphanage. Even when she had an offer of adoption, she demanded that I was adopted with her.” Wheat Flour chuckled. “We really are lucky that Aunt Millie is as generous as she is.”
The resent I had felt towards Whole Grain lessened, for her behaviour made more sense. I turned my head to face her in the darkness. “So, that’s why she doesn’t trust me.”
“Yes, I believe it is.” She rolled over again. “Good night, Swiss Cheese.”
“Good night.” Whole Grain simply didn’t want to see anything bad happen to her sister. But, why she had a distrust specifically of changelings was still beyond me. I wanted to ask Wheat Flour about that, but, from the sound of it, she had already fallen asleep.
That was nice of her. She opened up to me, and even if I didn’t have the trust of both sisters, I knew I had the trust of one. As long as one pony was cool with me, the adventure we were on would be a little bit easier.
I squirmed into the couch, finding a very comfy spot. Although today had been a depressing day, it ended on a good note. I drifted off to sleep…
…and into the realm of dreams. I was in a burning building, and the fire was spreading rapidly. Smoke was getting in my eyes. I had to find a way out. I tried to move, but my legs wouldn’t go. It was a strange feeling; I felt like I could go, but I didn’t. I wanted to, but I couldn’t.
I sunk to the ground, the smoke choking me. The fire was getting closer and closer, and my face felt like it was in a boiling pot of water. My eyes, my eyes were burning. I screamed, Someone, get me out of here! Help me! The flames got closer and closer, and the scorching heat was going to eat me alive. Why didn’t I move?
“Wake up, everypony!”
The sound of Whole Grain’s voice ended the dream. I rolled my head up as she continued, “We can cover more ground the earlier we start. Hurry up and eat some breakfast.”
I didn’t get up just yet; I was struck by the dream, or, rather, dreams in general. If this was still a dream, then how was I having a dream within a dream? Was this like Inception, where I had to get myself out with a “kick”? I’d have to try that later, when a chair and full bathtub were both readily available.
Eventually, I did have to get up. In the kitchen, Whole Grain and Sunflower were chewing something, but the only thing on the kitchen table was a vase of flowers. “What’s for breakfast?” I asked.
Whole Grain pointed at the flowers with a hoof. “You’re looking at it.”
Oh, not this whole “horses eat plants” thing again. Nope, I had to draw the line somewhere. Hmm, maybe city folk actually had coffee. “Do you guys have any coffee?” I asked Sunflower.
She paused, and then offered, “We have some toffee, if that’s what you mean.”
I groaned. “Never mind.” I wasn’t terribly hungry, anyway.
Wheat Flour shuffled into the kitchen and looked at the clock, which read almost five minutes after six o’clock. “Doesn’t the train station open at eight?” she inquired. I could hear somepony else coming down the stairs.
Whole Grain nodded. “Yes, but we’re not taking the train.”
Her sister was puzzled, as was I. “Why not?” I asked.
“The train doesn’t stop in Canterlot, does it?” she asked as she rubbed some sleep out of her eye. “We’re heading down to the docks to see if somepony’s willing to ferry us to Fillydelphia.”
Sunflower looked among the three of us. “You guys are walking to Canterlot?”
“Walking to Canterlot?” Uncle Flax repeated, as he entered the kitchen and helped himself to a flower. “That’s at least a two day journey! You’ll need some money with you.”
Whole Grain bit on a petal and chewed with a disheartened expression. She probably hated to “impose” as much as I did, so I spoke up. “I’ve got some money, Mr. Flax. You don’t need to give us any.”
“Well, if you’re sure,” he said, finishing his flower in one bite. “If you need anything, though, don’t be afraid to ask.”
After everyone had eaten, Uncle Flax and his daughter led us outside and down the stairwell, into the fresh morning air. Sunflower pointed us in the direction of the docks, and we were on our way. However, I noticed something odd outside of the apartment building, and brought it to Uncle Flax’s attention.
There was a blue pony huddled in the corner, next to the stairwell. It had covered itself with its backpack, and seemed to be asleep. Their face was hidden, so I couldn’t tell what gender it was, but that pack looked somewhat familiar…
Uncle Flax walked up to the pony, and shoved his/her shoulder. “Excuse me, but you do know there’s a homeless shelter three blocks down, right?”
It shifted about and raised its head, squinting to see him. He pulled a pair of glasses out of his bag with magic and slipped them on, after rubbing his eyes.
It was the professor.
Immediately, I stepped forward. “What are you doing here?”
He hesitated, licking his lips and looking at his bag for a moment. Then, he faced me, smiling. “Well, I meant to catch up with you after the wedding.”
Whole Grain looked at me, and I think we shared the same thought. “You followed us all the way from Vanhoover?” I asked.
“Of course. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity,” he said as he stood up, magically slinging his satchel around him, and stretched. “I’m doing a study on changelings, you see, and was hoping you’d be willing to answer a few questions.”
Uncle Flax piped up. “A study on what, now?”
“I think he said a study on changing things,” Whole Grain said.
The professor adjusted his glasses. “No, I’m fairly certain I said-”
“-Changing things,” Whole Grain said through her teeth. “We’re happy to help somepony doing a study on changing things.”
He paused for a moment, then nodded. “Yes, quite. That’s what I intended to say.”
A study on changelings… I was intrigued. Maybe I could learn a magic trick in the process. “Sure, I can help,” I said. “What was your name, again?”
His eyelids lowered. “Professor Lucid.”
“Well, come along with us, then. I can answer questions along the way.” And, maybe you can answer mine.
We waved the Seed family goodbye, and started walking down the street. It was rush hour in Manehattan, but with horses instead of cars. Well, there were some carriages, but they seemed to make more progress than the taxis in New York seem to. Every picture of Times Square I’d seen looked utterly packed. Why people rode in taxis in a city like that befuddled me.
Professor Lucid encouraged the wheat sisters to lead the way, and fell behind with me. I began the conversation. “So, changelings, huh?”
He smirked. “Actually, I’m not doing a study on changelings. I am, however, interested in something else.” He looked at me through the top of his glasses. “Your dimension.”
He… he knew? “My dimension?” I shook my head. “If this is a joke-”
“No, it isn’t,” he insisted, getting a notebook and quill at the ready. “I believe you, and I want to learn all about where you came from.”
I looked into his eyes, and they really did seem to be telling the truth. It could be that he was doing a study on mental illnesses. Eh, heck if I knew. It was difficult enough trying to tell ponies about my predicament, so, if one claimed to believed me, what was the harm in telling him? “Okay, Professor. Where should I start?”
“Lucid is fine,” he replied, and thought for a moment. “How is your dimension different than this one?”
Seriously, where should I start? Humans, perhaps. How could I explain “humans” to him? There weren’t any in this world, from what I had seen.
I looked ahead at the wheat sisters, making sure we wouldn’t fall too far behind. “First of all, we’re not ponies… Imagine monkeys, but with most of their hair on their heads.”