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Saturday, June 30th, Chicago, Illinois, Morning
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Tom Emmitt whooped with glee as he floated upon a large black hovercraft that resembled his duel runner. However the front wheel's side was turned and pointed towards the ground and the side of his back wheel was aimed out behind him. Another feature was a small, but powerful propeller system at the center of the vehicle that glowed a bright blue.
The room inside Faustian Tom was in was similar to the Duel Room where Alex and Kite had a duel almost two weeks prior. However, the room was grayer in color and didn't have nearly the sheen that the Duel Room had; it looked like a larger room. From a window near the top of the room, Alex Yuwell, Kyle Penn, Lauren Faust, and Emma Miller watched as Tom had the time of his life.
While Alex was dressed in his usual black pants, red t-shirt, and black blazer, Kyle wore black pants and his blue trench coat with a red turtleneck underneath. Lauren was in a black business suit with a white shirt and black, shin length skirt. Emma wore black jeans, a purple shirt and a blue-jeans jacket. Her hair was in a loose ponytail
.“And this is what happens when you give a child a new toy to play with,” joked Emma.
“Let him have his fun,” said Alex. “It's not everyday you get to have your duel runner turned into an aircraft.”
“You weren't nearly as excited as he was,” said Kyle with a hint of disappointment in his voice. “I thought you'd go ape over this.”
As Alex was about to search for his rebuttal, Tom sped past the window, being just inches from the glass as he spiraled around the room. Everyone backed up about a foot or two in response.
“You see,” Alex responded, “if I got that excited, I guarantee you that I'd crash into that wall.”
“Don't forget,” spoke Lauren, “Tom had his duel runners license much longer than you have, so he's much more experienced.”
“Exactly. I don't want to crash and burn only a month after getting my license.”
“That's understandable.”
“Hey,” called a gruff voice from down the hall. “Are we just about done?”
Everyone turned to see Reese Miller and John Terrence walking towards them. Reese was dressed in all black: t-shirt, pants, vest, along with his black hair drooped over his right eye. John followed, wearing his grey t-shirt, blue jeans, and white shirt jacket.
“Tom should just be finishing up and we should be ready to leave,” spoke Kyle.
“Ah,” sighed John, “it's good that we're going to be able to see all of our old friends again.”
“Where is all our stuff?” asked Reese.
“It's outside the exit to the room,” Kyle answered. “Once Tom is finishing his joy-ride, we'll help lug everything in so we can do this thing.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Lauren. “Speak of the devil.”
She watched from the window as Tom lowered the duel runner towards the ground next to a red duel runner that looked like his, the back end lowering down towards the ground first. The back wheel then rotated to the right, setting itself back as the wheel to a duel runner. Once the back wheel touched the ground, the front wheel spun on its side to reposition itself like a duel runner wheel. Once the front wheel set itself upon the ground, Tom turned the bike off and dismounted.
“Alright!” called Tom. “Let's get a move on!”
“About time,” was all Reese said.
With that said, Alex, Kyle, Emma, Reese, and John made their way to the stairs further down the hall that would take them to the room Tom was in. Climbing down a single flight of stairs, they found themselves at another hallway where there were many bags of luggage, a tall, black, plastic case, and a large, blue-and-yellow machine that appeared to be an industrial-sized printer. From the door in the hallway, Tom emerged from it to greet Alex and his friends and help with the luggage.
“Let me help with that,” spoke Tom, his voice still windy from the adrenaline rush he experienced just minutes ago.
“Gee, thanks,” said Reese with slight sarcasm.
As Reese and John took more luggage from the pile and followed Tom inside the room, Emma couldn't restrain her curiosity over the blue-and-yellow machine.
“Hey, Ky,” she said to Kyle, “what's that thing?”
“That's one of the printers we use for printing cards,” he answered. “If the ponies are going to register for the Chicago World Dueling Championship, they're going to need a deck to play with.”
“I still think this is a lost cause,” spoke Reese, coming out of the room with John to grab more bags. “If these ponies want to duel so badly, then I say they wait two years for the next World Championship.”
“Oh, Reese,” bantered Emma, “don't be such a racist, or speciesist. The ponies have as much of a reason to duel as the rest of us.”
Reese stood still for a second or two before walking back into the room with two more bags in tow.
“Whatever,” Reese responded. “Just help get this stuff in.”
As Kyle went to pick up some luggage, Emma stood still, crossed her arms, and pouted at Reese. Reese stood into the doorway, noticing her lack of compliance.
“Emma,” spoke Reese. “I said–”
“Ky,” she said, ignoring him, “you can go on ahead. I need to talk to my brother.”
Kyle did as he was told, picking up bags and entering the room, leaving Emma and Reese alone.
“Why are you so uptight?” she asked.
“It's just...” pondered Reese aloud, trying to find the right words.
“Yes?”
“I just don't feel comfortable with you around Kyle like you are.”
Emma couldn't hold back a chuckle.
“Are you serious?” she responded. “It's already been a whole month since the Equus War thing. Kyle has been a very good boy in that time, which is more than I can say for SOME people I know.”
As she spoke the final part of her statement, she walked past him towards the luggage as she brushed her finger under Reese's chin.
“That has nothing to do with it! I know it's cliché as all hell, but I'm nervous about you. I can't let anything bad happen to you again.”
“You worry too much,” she giggled, picking up a bag from the dwindling pile. “Besides, Kyle can protect me just fine. After all, he beat you in a duel.”
Reese was genuinely shocked by these words, his lips sinking into a defeated frown. Emma, realizing that her joking went a bit too far, walked back up to him before giving him a warm smile.
“Hey,” she told him, “don't be like that. You've been a very good brother to me, and Kyle can never replace that part for you in my heart.”
Reese gave a small, but bashful smile at Emma's reassuring words.
“However, I may reconsider if you don't continue helping us with these bags,” she finished before walking back into the room.
“But you...” Reese tried to retort, but saw that it was pointless.
He picked up the remaining few bags in his hand and walked them into the room. Kyle and John exited soon after, walking up to the last thing they needed to bring in: the printer.
“On three?” asked John.
“Sure,” Kyle responded.
Both men crouched down and put their hands underneath a corner of the machine.
“One,” they both started, “two, three!”
With a heave and huff from both of them, the machine was off the ground. Kyle began walking backwards towards the doorway while John moved forwards. Both of their faces were mildly strained from the weight of the printer, but with careful maneuvering, they got the machine to fit through the doorway. As they moved the machine towards the center of the room where Alex and Tom's duel runners were, Alex and Reese began shifting luggage out of the way to make room for it. Kyle and John gently placed the heavy machine onto the ground in the space that was left.
“Damn, that was heavy,” grunted John, stretching his fingers.
“Are we done now?” asked Reese.
“Wait!” called Lauren's voice from the intercom.
Reese sighed in exhaustion, having to wait even longer before he and his friends would be sent to Equestria. After about half a minute, Lauren entered the room while carrying an small, card-sized envelope, which she promptly handed to Alex.
“What's this?” asked Alex.
“Twilight and Rainbow Dash asked me to provide them with some more cards for their decks,” she replied. “I assume you still have the ones I gave to you and your friends earlier?”
Alex gave Lauren a nod and patted his deck case on his belt with his free hand. Alex looked to his other friends to see if they also had the new cards given to them by Lauren, and they all nodded in confirmation.
“In that case,” Lauren finished, “let's not waste any more time. Next stop, Equestria!”
Emma turned to Reese, expecting him to make a crack, but saw that his only reaction was a blown exhale. With that, Lauren left the room and closed the door behind her. Tom turned to Alex, who in turn glanced to him.
“Ready to return to the land of magic ponies?” he asked.
“Always,” responded Alex.
A couple of seconds passed again before Lauren's voice came upon the intercom.
“Alright, lady and gentlemen,” she addressed. “In about one minute, you will be sent off to Ponyville to register ponies for the CWDC. After that, you shall take a train to Canterlot where you will register any ponies willing to represent their city. I provided Kyle with a map that will give out the remaining destinations. Celestia will also help you whenever.”
“Sounds great, Lauren,” said Kyle. “We're ready when you are.”
“Then it's off to Equestria. Good luck!”
The room's lights suddenly began getting brighter. Reese emitted a small groan, seemingly nervous with the prospect of being shunted to Equestria. Alex merely smirked and rolled his eyes, him in particular finding the experience not nearly as traumatizing as Reese was making it out to be. The lights became bright enough that Alex and the others had to close their eyes to keep from going blind. All Alex and the others could see through their eyelids was an endless horizon of white.
Soon, the light began to fade until the darkness from the humans' eyelids signaled a safeness to open them once again. As they opened their eyes, Alex, Tom, Emma, and John, who had never seen Ponyville in person, took a sigh of wonder at the quaint little town with which they now appeared in. They were just outside the town hall, a carousel-shaped building that was surrounded by buildings with straw-thatched roofs and Bavarian-styled architecture.
The ponies, while initially shocked by the sudden appearance of the humans, soon ignored them and went on their merry way after discovering it was only Alex and his friends. Along with the humans, all of their luggage and the printer was right by them.
“So this is where you ended up after you lost to Kyle?” asked Emma.
Kyle couldn't help but scoff, sickened by the memory.
“Yes,” answered Reese, feeling a tad dizzy as his voice and body wavered slightly. “But I can't seem to remember the trip being this jarring.”
“Now,” said Alex to no one in particular, “where do we set up shop?”
“You'll be right inside,” said a mature female voice from behind them.
The humans turned to see a light-brown mare with a wavy, grey mane and tail. She wore a pair of gold-framed glasses over her blue eyes and a white collar and green handkerchief around her neck. Her cutie mark was a scroll tied with blue ribbon.
“Ah,” said Kyle, “you must be the mayor.”
“Please,” she giggled as she had Kyle shake her hoof, “call me Ms. Mare.”
“Yeah,” whispered Tom to Alex, “that one won't confuse us.”
Alex gave a small chuckle.
“We'll hope to get this done quickly,” said Kyle to Mare, unaware of Tom's remarks. “We have a train to Canterlot that we hope to catch today.”
“But of course,” responded Mare. “In that case, I'll leave you to it. Just holler when you're ready to start bringing them in.”
The mayor then walked away while keeping a safe distance from the town hall.
“Well,” said Reese, “let's get to it.”
As Alex and the others began grabbing their belongings, a familiar orange pony with a cowboy hat galloped towards the humans. She looked both exhausted from her run and nervous with the news she must have had.
“Alex,” she panted as she stopped in front of them, “Tom, guys. Boy, am I glad to see you.”
“What is it?” asked Emma.
“It's Twilight. She's–”
“Twilight!” shouted Alex. “What happened?”
“Come! She's at her home.”
Applejack galloped north towards Twilight's house, leaving the humans to go and follow her. Alex was not expecting such an unpleasant ordeal upon arriving to Equestria, but whatever the case, he knew that he had to be there for one of his better friends. Upon reaching the large tree that was the Ponyville library, Alex and the others had no time to marvel over the building's unusual architecture, instead continuing to follow Applejack as she rushed to the door, opened it, and allowed her human friends passage inside.
Alex and Tom were the first to enter. They saw as Twilight sullenly sat on the floor with both Spike and Fluttershy stroking her back. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie were also there, standing by for whatever Twilight would need. Upon seeing Alex run into the room, she bounded from her seated position and galloped into Alex's arms, sobbing madly.
“Twilight,” Alex cooed as he rubbed her back. “What happened?”
“Somepony tried killing her last night!” explained Rainbow Dash as everyone else began coming in.
“What!? How's that?”
“Apparently,” vouched Spike, “she said that some cloaked pony broke into her house and tried dueling her. She said the damage felt real whenever she took damage. Not only that, but the person controlled this new card that she had never seen before.”
“I still don't understand. Why would someone want to kill her?”
“She didn't explain,” answered Twilight through her sobs. “She just said that I interfered with her plans and needed to be eliminated.”
She resumed sobbing, producing fear and guilt in all of the humans now present. Alex hugged Twilight closer to him and continued stroking her back.
“It's okay,” he sighed, “I'm here now.”
“What did she look like?” asked Tom, crossing his arms.
“She said she was cloaked!” spat Alex.
“No,” spoke Twilight, “she... she had light green hooves, and was a unicorn.”
“Hmm,” pondered Rarity. “That does sound awfully familiar to one pony I know. What was her name...”
“You're thinking of Lyra,” spoke Spike, “but there's no way she could be it. She's too much of a ditz to pull off something like that, yet alone beat Twilight to a duel.”
“In all honesty,” said Reese, “that would be a good cover.”
“Reese,” snapped Alex, “you're not helping.”
“Listen,” spoke Twilight, rubbing her eyes and suppressing her tears, “I'm sorry about all of this. I understand that you need to help the ponies register for that tournament. I'll be fine, I promise. Just go.”
“No,” responded Alex. “There's someone out there that wants you dead, and I won't allow that to happen. You're one of my best friends, Twilight, and I couldn't bear to see anything bad happen to you, especially after the Crystal Empire.”
“And I don't want to watch you try and die for me again!” she shouted. “After King Sombra almost killed you, I was in a fit. I can't see something like that again.”
“Twilight,” cooed Alex. “I'll be fine. I always have been.”
“Until you're not,” was all Twilight said.
Alex couldn't deny his close brushes with death and how unsure he was if one of those encounters would actually end him. Both Twilight and Alex were at a stalemate that only added tension to the room, only for Kyle to make a suggestion.
“If it makes everyone feel better,” he spoke, “Twilight, everyone. Follow us to the town hall. You can stay in there while we take care of registrations. I highly doubt someone will attack you in a public venue, especially with how crowded it's going to get.”
“You know,” said Rainbow Dash, “that doesn't sound like a half-bad plan.”
“Then it's settled,” spoke Tom, “Twilight, you're coming with us.”
“Not only that,” said Emma, “we can get you all registered too, so why don't you tag along as well?”
“That sounds real smart of ya, Emma,” spoke Applejack. “Let's not waste anytime. We gotta get all this gloom outta the room.”
Alex set Twilight back down as Kyle began to lead the way. Before Alex and Twilight could walk outside towards town hall, John walked up next to her.
“Don't worry,” he assured her, “you're in good hands.”
Twilight gave a faint smile to John.
“I know,” she said.
With that, Alex, Twilight, and Tom left the house after Tom and Rainbow Dash.
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As they got the town hall, both Alex and Tom's duel runners were parked just outside. Walking in, they were surprised to see that along with their luggage set off in the back, and from side to side down the center of the room, were six, long tables set up. There was a chair placed behind the center of each table for the humans to sit. About five feet behind the line of tables was the printer.
“Well,” said Alex, “looks like we're all set.”
“Not quite,” said Kyle. “Here.”
Kyle walked to the back where the luggage was, finding the black case. Unhooking the latches and opening it up, Kyle took out one of six Macbook Pros from the case, walked back to one of the center tables, and placed it onto it. Upon opening it up, he logged into it and opened up a program on the taskbar called Faustian Cardprint. After logging on further, a whirring noise came from the printer, signifying that whatever Kyle did turned on the printer.
“Everyone,” he said, “grab a computer and log on to the Faustian Cardprint app. The password for the computer is Koitsu, and the password for Cardprint is Aitsu. I'll walk you through the rest of the way.”
Alex, Tom, Emma, Reese, and John did as they were told, going to the case near their luggage and grabbing a laptop for themselves. From room left to room right, Tom, Alex, John, Kyle, Emma, and Reese, sat at their tables while they (minus Kyle) logged in to set themselves up. Once everyone had logged into Cardprint, Kyle led them through the following steps.
“Alright,” he instructed, with everyone following him to a tee. “On the upper left-hand side, there should be a 'Connect to Printer' window. Click it. Next, where it says Faustian Card Printer 11.3, click that. Now that you're actually in the program, go to the button in the upper taskbar that says 'Settings' and click on 'Print by Deck.' Once you do that, you'll be able to construct a deck to the ponies' likings, and once they're done, they'll be sent to the printing queue where a set of 40 to 75 cards will be printed out, depending, of course if they want both a full main deck and extra deck. As you know, siding is not allowed in this tournament. Is anyone lost?”
A shaking of everyone's heads, signaled that they were on the same page.
“Next,” said Kyle. “Go to Finder, and in the Documents folder, go to the folder marked CWDC Application and open the file. This is what you shall use to sign everyone in. Next, in the same folder, create another folder for all the finished applications which you will email to Lauren before we pack up, got it?”
Like clockwork, Ms. Mare popped her head in to see everyone nearing being ready.
“Oh!” she exclaimed over their progress. “You look just about done. Are you ready for them?”
“Just about,” said Kyle. “Feel free to allow them in right at nine.”
“That's in five minutes. Do you need more time?”
“No, that will be perfect. Thank you, Ms. Mare.”
The mayor left with a content smile.
“Now that that's done,” said Kyle, directing his attention to Twilight and the ponies (and Spike). “Let's get all of you signed up.”
Each of the ponies that stood by as Kyle set everyone up were now excited to finally do something. Each of them lined up to a table to get themselves registered, with Twilight and Spike signing up at Alex's table. The applications were very straightforward. Name, Address, City, Age, Deck, etc, were all on there, so it didn't take horribly long. Alex himself was pleased that with his current job, both he and Twilight's mind were cleared of the stress that had been inflicted to them that morning.
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As Twilight and her friends lounged and hung out by the luggage, Alex and the other humans were busy with the ponies that lined up to their tables, eager to become a part of the tournament. Despite the cheery air in the town hall as ponies got themselves registered, Alex couldn't help but keep his eyes scanned for Lyra. Even though he was assured that she was harmless, he wouldn't forgive himself if she wasn't and hurt Twilight. As those thoughts swam through his head, he finished the registration of a fuchsia coated mare with three smiling flowers of a cutie mark.
“And what color would you like your D-Pad?” he asked her.
“Oh,” she said in a pleasant tone, “I think one that matches my coat will be just fine.”
“Excellent. Now, once you pay for registration, I'll give you my deck and submit your application. You should expect both your D-Pad and confirmation letter in the mail a couple of days. That will be ten bits.”
“Of course!”
She took out a small purse from the cyan saddle back she was wearing and plopped it onto the table. Alex opened the purse and counted the coins inside like poker chips. Seeing that there were ten coins there, Alex clicked the print button on the deck that the mare had made and walked over to the printer. It seemed that there were about five decks ahead of the mare's in the queue. A set of cards came shooting out of a slot and into a deck-sized holster until the printing stopped. Kyle got up from his seat and peered at a screen just above the slot. On it it said, “'MINUETTE' DECK COMPLETE. PLEASE REMOVE FOR NEXT BATCH.”
Kyle took the deck from the holster, allowing a new deck to begin printing in its place. Kyle took his deck over to a blue unicorn with an hourglass cutie mark, handing it to her.
“Thank you,” she told him.
“See you in Chicago!” he told her as she turned to leave the building.
Alex turned to the fuchsia pony.
“This might take a few moments,” he told her, causing the pony to giggle.
“It's quite alright,” she said. “I've got time.”
Meanwhile, Tom was finishing the registration of a black pegasus with an ice-blue mohawk when four fillies appeared at the table. Reese, who was picking up a deck from the printer, recognized three of them instantly. The yellow one with the red mane and tail with the pink bow was Apple Bloom, The white unicorn with the purple mane was Sweetie Belle, and the orange pegasus with the purple mane was Scootaloo. However, Reese couldn't identify the brownish-orange filly with the red mane. What was odd about her appearance was that her tail was cropped short and her chopped mane was brushed to one side of her neck, giving her an appearance of a colt. Like the other three fillies, she had no cutie mark on her flank.
Applejack and Rarity noticed the fillies gather at Tom's table, prompting them to excuse themselves from Twilight's social circle and talk to them.
“Apple Bloom,” spoke Applejack, “gals. What are all y'all doing here?”
“What do you think?” asked Sweetie Belle. “We're going to try and get our cutie marks in dueling!”
“Girls,” spoke Rarity, “as much as I admire your spirit, don't you think you should get your dueling cutie marks in ways other than signing up for a world championship?”
“Well, we can't get any better by just beating the scrubs,” spoke Scootaloo.
“Besides,” spoke Apple Bloom, wrapping her arm around the brown-orange filly's neck, “what better way to bond with my cousin than getting our very own decks?”
Applejack and Rarity were no stranger to the harebrained misadventures that these girls would go to to earn their cutie marks. Seeing this as just another harmless fad that they'd attempt once and then most likely drop when it failed, the two just smiled and shook their heads.
“Uh, girls,” spoke Tom, “you do know the registration price is ten bits, right?”
Each of the fillies pulled out small bags of coins and plopped them on the table.
“Where in tarnation did all y'all get those bits from?” asked Applejack incredulously.
“I've been savin' with my allowance!” defended Apple Bloom. “There's nothing wrong with that!”
“And I sold some of the gems from my craft bin,” explained Sweetie Belle.
“And you know that new scooter I've been saving up for?” asked Scootaloo with slight sheepishness in her voice. “Well, I dipped into my savings for that.”
“And what about you, Babs?” asked Applejack to the orange earth filly. “How'd you get into some money like that?”
“I asked my sister!” she replied in an oddly boyish Bronx accent. “She knew how hard it is for me to try and get my cutie mark...”
On the last two words, Babs flicked her tail over her flank, as if trying to conceal its barrenness. Tom couldn't help but feel a little hurt for her.
“...but after I watched Alex and Tom dueling and beating Kyle that one day, I... I just... I knew I wanted to be just like that!”
In that moment, Tom was touched that a filly could be that inspired by him and his friend, leaving a content smile on his face.”
“My sister wanted to support me, so before I came to Ponyville, she lent me the money to register, so here I am. Sign me up!”
Tom watched as Babs' purse was placed upon the table, its owner expectant to start the process.
“Alrighty,” said Tom, opening up a new document, “please state your name.”
“My name is Babs Seed,” she spoke. “I'm from Manehattan, I was born on the fifth day of the tenth month on 993 L.B., and my home is in Manehattan.”
“Sorry,” whispered Tom to Applejack, “I keep hearing this abbreviation. What's L.B.?”
“That stands for Luna's Banishment,” she answered. “It's 1001 L.B. right now.”
“Alright,” answered Tom, turning back to Babs, “sorry about that. Now, do you have an idea for a deck you want to use?”
Babs looked sullenly at the ground.
“No...” she muttered.
“Good,” retorted Tom, “because I might have a deck for you.”
Tom turned the screen out to face Babs, and on it she saw a series of cards of different types and attributes, but there was one word on most of them in one way or another: Gemini.
“Before I used my Gladiators,” explained Tom as Babs half listened and half looked at the screen, “this was my deck of choice. I always had a lot of fun with it, but now, I can see a new meaning behind it.”
“What's that?” Babs asked.
“From the stories Applejack told me about her sister and her friends, they all seem to be focused on finding their potential, and then, through great patience and endurance, they'll achieve their destiny. These cards are just like that.
“They may start off as normal monsters, but if you can keep them there, they'll become strong enough to challenge even the harder monsters. I've never gotten a cutie mark, and I more than likely never will, but I can tell you that if this isn't the deck version of attaining your cutie mark, I don't know what is.”
Babs was genuinely uplifted by Tom's speech, as were Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo.
“You know,” Babs spoke, a smile appearing on her face, “that sounds alright with me. I'll take the Gemini deck.”
“Geminis,” mumbled Tom as he typed the deck into the application. “Need any help with that?”
Babs smiled even wider.
“Yeah, that sounds cool!”
As Tom worked with Babs on her deck, Applejack began to talk to the other fillies.
“So,” she said, “y'all got your own decks figured out?”
“Sure ah do!” exclaimed Apple Bloom. “Those Six Samurais looked really cool.”
“And I liked the Ice Barriers!” Sweetie Belle.
“And me and the Genex deck are going to go together like bread and butter.”
“Well,” said Applejack, “looks like you've got it all figured out. Good luck, girls.”
“I'll see you when I come home,” bid Rarity. “See you in a while.”
“Bye, Rarity!” called Sweetie Belle. “Bye Applejack!”
Tom continued to register Babs as Applejack and Rarity rejoined Twilight and the others in conversations.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
The afternoon was starting to creep in, the hot yellow of the sun beaming into the windows of the town hall were now a warm orange. As with the intensity of light, the remaining ponies needing to register had also diminished. The last person in Alex's line was a cream-coated mare with a mane that was colored blue-and-pink, who had just given Alex her coins and took her deck with her.
With the last ponies at the other tables registered as well, Ponyville was officially registered for the tournament. After a short trip to their emails and sending in the applications to Lauren, Alex and Tom gave a quick stretch of their limbs over the hard work they had put in that day. Kyle and Reese, just wanting to get to the train into Canterlot, shut down their laptops and went to the case to put them away. John and Emma walked over and gave each other a casual high five over the success of the day.
Alex and Tom finished their stretching to put away their things. Alex walked closer to Twilight as he got closer to the case, talking to her as he put it away.
“You okay?” he asked.
“No harm done, obviously,” she responded, standing back up.
“You think you're still safe?”
“Alex, about that. I heard that you and your friends are going to Canterlot tonight to register the ponies there. Do you mind if I stick with you? I just don't feel safe with all that's happened.”
Alex didn't have to ponder long.
“Of course you can come,” he responded. “If this pony wants you dead, then they'll have to go through me.”
Alex's assuring words brought a smile to Twilight's face.
“And me,” spoke Tom, having finished packing his laptop.
“And me,” spoke Rainbow Dash.
Soon, the entire room was filled with a “and me” from the humans and ponies, giving them their allegiance to protect her.
“And m–” spoke Spike as he belched fire that turned into a letter.
Everyone's attention was soon diverted from Twilight and to the letter. Only Celestia sent mail through Spike, meaning that the contents inside were very important. The letter that formed in the air was caught by Twilight's magic as she began to read aloud.
“My Dearest Twilight,
It is with a heavy heart that I inform you that your friends, Gilda the griffon, Trixie, and Chrysalis have been badly injured last night while I was returning from Manehattan. They are currently at Canterlot General Hospital. And yes, I got your letter about being attacked last night yourself. I request that you come to Canterlot as soon as you possibly can.
Your Tutor,
Princess Celestia.”
Twilight's ears were drooped along with the other ponies, who were now fearful for the well-being of their friends. Tom, who had grown a friendship with Chrysalis, was also quite nervous about her. After a few seconds of complete silence, Twilight made a decision.
“Alright, everypony,” she said, “get back to your homes. Pack whatever you need to bring with you and meet Alex and the others at the train station in no less than a half an hour. Do I make myself clear?”
“Mmhm,” responded everyone.
“Good. Alex, Kyle, how long can you get the rest of your stuff packed and onto the train?”
“Half hour tops,” spoke Kyle.
“Alright. We'll meet you there.”
Twilight and her friends ran out of the building without a word. Without wasting time, Alex and the other humans grabbed as many bags as they could to bring to the train station.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
John and Kyle were busy loading the printer into the back luggage car, it being the last thing they needed to load. Tom and Alex's bikes, like when they had traveled to the Crystal Empire, were stored in a boxcar at the front of the train. While Reese and Emma were inside the train, Alex and Tom kept lookout for their pony friends.
“Any sign of them?” asked Kyle, walking out of the luggage car with John and getting to the passenger car.
Alex scanned the town once again, seeing six familiar ponies and a dragon on one of their backs that were galloping towards the station. Each one had a saddlebag affixed to their backs.
“They're here!” he cried.
The conductor, seeing them arrive, allowed them in. Alex and Tom began to walk back into the car as the last of them got inside
“They'll pay for their tickets inside,” said Alex.
With a nod, the conductor made a final call.
“All aboard!” he shouted.
“Wait!” called a voice.
Running up to the station, a mint-green unicorn mare ran onto the station. Panting, she gave the conductor her ticket with her magic, granting her access inside. The conductor then walked inside himself and closed the door.
The green unicorn looked about the car, to find a place to sit. Upon sighting Alex, Twilight, and their friends, she beamed and made a beeline to them.
“Hey,” she called, “you're Alex Yuwell, aren't you?”
Alex turned to face her, along with the ponies giving her confused glances.
“I am. And you are?”
“Lyra. Lyra Heartstrings. A pleasure to meet you.”
She offered Alex her hoof which he graciously shook.
Is this the pony that we were suspecting of assassinating Twilight? thought Alex. She looks like she couldn't hurt a fly, yet alone another pony.
“I wanted to register for that tournament on Earth,” explained Lyra, “but I got tied up at work today and couldn't make it. Are you registering ponies in Canterlot next?”
“As a matter of fact,” spoke Kyle, “we are. Feel free to visit us tomorrow.”
“Great! That's just what I'm going to do!”
The train lurched forwards, with Lyra losing her footing due to the shift.
“Well,” she said, “it looks like this car's booked. “I'm going to try my luck at a car further up.”
“See ya,” called Tom, prompting Twilight to leave.
As Lyra walked down the aisle, she turned her head to cast her gaze at Twilight with cold, determined eyes. Before either the humans or the ponies could see her, she turned her head back to the front and went into the next car.