//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6 
// Story: Destination: Equestria 
// by Zervziel 
//------------------------------//

"A toasht to me!" slurred a loud voice. Along with this proclamation a large white unicorn with a blonde mane gestured magnanimously with his wine glass, sloshing his expensive wine onto the table. As he gestured to a waiter to refill his glass, a silent observer sighed in exasperation at such antics. Mayberry was less than enthused by her target's inebriation. Yes, it would make his judgment poor and his reflexes poorer when the time came, but the same time it made the blonde-maned unicorn stallion incredibly obnoxious. This was the third toast in as many minutes, each toast being to less and less worthy items. The first was a toast to socks, a fact that made the observing mare facehoof from her hiding spot, behind some large decorative vases lining the roof dining-area's edge.

"First it was pants and now it's socks! What's next?" The whisper was inaudible due to the unicorn stallion's increasingly verbose toasts. The mare winced as the most recent one was to loose mares. She couldn't wait to part from this disgusting creature with his money in tow. At this point she probably could have, but the beleaguered ever-present waiters were presenting a major obstacle. As tired as they looked the mare was sure they'd see her sneaking up to the table. It became increasingly obvious the best time to strike would be as he left. Getting to her hooves, the mare made her way downstairs to prepare her cunning trap.

Mayberry bolted down the narrow passageways that snaked in between the buildings in this section of the city. A bag of gold dangled in her teeth and the puffing of someone not too far behind. Her "elegant" plan had consisted of calling the stallion from the passageway in her best "I'm a pretty pony" voice. When the drunken unicorn lurched the corner, he got a crash course on Canterlotian pottery when the mystery mare promptly smashed a large vase over his skull. Grabbing the coin purse in her teeth she had bolted, knowing that any second now someone could pop their head down the passageway and see what had transpired.

Prince Blueblood staggered to his feet, a pounding pain in his head. Any sensible pony would have immediately called to one of the omnipresent pegasi guards, their golden armor a common sight on the streets. However, the Prince's pride had taken far more damage than his thick head. He, Prince Blueblood, distant nephew of the Princesses of the Sun and the Moon, Celestia and Luna, bested by a mere mare? He'd never live it down. Taking matters into his own pampered hooves, he'd bolted off after the delinquent. He could hear the clatter of the other pony's hooves on the pavement. Good, that meant it was either a unicorn or one of those lowly earth ponies. A pegasus would've immediately taken off with their trophy. He barreled down the alleyway towards the thief, his progress slowed by the occasional stumble, his inebriation taking their toll on him.

Turning one corner he barely caught a look at the last part of the thief's flank and tail. The shadows made it impossible to tell at the range and from such a short glimpse what the mare's coloration were. However he could see his quarry had a light colored coat and a dark colored tail. No telling if it was a unicorn or earth pony though. Suddenly he heard voices, lots of them too. That meant the culprit was about to emerge into one of the main markets or one of Canterlot's main roads meaning there'd be plenty of witnesses to his capture of a criminal. He could almost imagine the praise that would earn him, as well as put in a few points with his aunts, whom he seemed to alienate every few months or so. Rounding the last bend, he spotted his quarry. A lightly colored unicorn with a dark mane and tail stood in the path looking directly at him with large blue eyes. Not thinking about how many ponies that actually described, he leapt at his prey! "Oof! Hey! Release me at once, you ruffian!"

Mayberry watched the spectacle from a side passage adjacent to the one she and her pursuer had been running in. She'd stopped suddenly and had dived to the side passage as quietly as she could, praying her hooves wouldn't give her away again. It had worked, the stallion had charged right on ahead and tackled some unfortunate pony, whose sole crime was wrong place, wrong time.

She knew that she should run, knowing that one of the pegasus guards could happen along at any moment, but the mare couldn't help but stop to watch the scene between the drunkard and his victim unfolded. It seemed like they knew each other to some degree. The unicorn mare the stallion had bowled over was livid, her blue eyes boring into her attacker as she shouted something at him about his oafish behavior. The blonde unicorn didn't back down and was accusing her of stealing from him while acting like a common strumpet.

"Ok, now that was dumb of him." Mayberry mused to herself. Even from her dark alcove, she could see the blood drain from the unicorn mare's face at such an accusation. Predicting the likely outcome, Mayberry quickly retreated from the area. Sure enough, moments after she trotted back up the alleyway, she heard an explosion of sound. Unable to make out the words, she retreated from the scene.

Realizing carrying the purse around would mark her as a criminal, the mare made her way back towards the bar. Reaching the spot where she had brained her target with a vase, she put the purse on the ground. Removing as much as she could from the hefty sack, she left the rest. Surely tickets and food couldn't cost too much. Maybe if she just paced herself and rationed her coins, she could make do for a while with what she had managed to procure.

She swept away the shards of broken crockery with her hooves as best she could. Moving the tiniest pieces to the darkest corners of the alleyway, she grabbed the larger pieces in her mouth and deposited them in trash receptacles and even a few cases, into shrubbery. She went back to the corner with the purse and arranged it so it looked like the purse had simply been dropped. All the while doing this, the unicorn kept a wary eye on the sky and the ground for any guards. A few over flew the very entrance, looking like they were either heading for the bar or the commotion being sent up by the two quarreling unicorns.

Satisfied with her work at erasing the evidence as much as possible, she scooped up the pile she had set aside earlier for herself and left the immediate area, knowing that eventually someone would think to check the alleyway. Making her way down through the maze of backstreets, she decided she'd had enough of skulking around and set off for a quieter section of the city. Eventually, she found her way to a nice fountain area, which seemed to be relatively vacant, only having one or two other ponies. Fortunately most of them seemed to be either busy or had their noses too far up in the air to see her.

Setting the coins on the ground, Mayberry divided them up into four small groups. Carefully, she placed a hoof over a pile at a time, making sure that the pile was small enough to fit in the concave part of her hooves. She wanted to be able to walk without them clinking against the ground and giving her away. With the help of her new horseshoes, the mare could use all four hooves to carry the coins, a feat that would roughly analogous to a human using both hands and their socks to hold their money. Not the most elegant solution, but at least it would do until she got where she wanted to go.

Looking around, Mayberry found she was quite lost. She didn't have a map of the city to help her locate the train station. The mare figured she could ask Fancypants if she went back to his manor that night until she remembered that there was a group of mages who might be looking for her soon. Asking Fancypants where the train station was might send off a redflag for him. With a jolt, Mayberry realized she should probably be more wary of Fleur-De-Lise, whose knowledge of the city and the supposedly secret mage organization called the Silver Pinnacle was quite extensive. Mayberry remembered Fancypants hinting that such knowledge was quite hard to come by.

"Great, I'm staying with a bigshot member of the local nobility and he wife may well be a female horse version of James Bond." She groused at her misfortune. Laying down on the outer wall of the fountain, folding her legs underneath her, Mayberry amended her judgment. "Then again, she seemed quite nice and she was the one that convinced Fancypants to let me stay." The mare's mind quickly turned to ideas of how to pay them back. One thought barged into her mind "They aren't the only ones I'll owe. At some point I'll really need to find some way to pay back that unicorn fellow from earlier."

Tilting her head back, she stared at the majestic mountain that the city cantilevered out from. With a start Mayberry realized she had her first hint of where to look for the train station. Recalling a time, back when she was a human, a good ten years in the past, she remembered one of the vacations she'd taken with her family. They had taken a scenic train ride through the mountains. Upon recollection, she also recalled similar rides in at least three other states. One thing they all had in common was the train always hugged the mountainsides. So if she made her way closer to the mountain the city was built on, Mayberry reckoned she would find the station.

Jumping off the wall, she set forth at a brisk pace. After a quick once around the fountain to make sure her hooves were holding the coins, the navy-maned mare set off towards the mountainside. On her way there she passed all manner of ponies. Upon getting closer to the mountainside, Mayberry realized she was seeing more and more of the regular ponies and many of these had earthier colors than the pegasi and unicorns she had seen before. Sure there were still ponies of various hues around, but now she was seeing more tans and greens. She took that as a good sign. If these ponies were the ones that performed the heavier labors in this society with their stockier builds than their cousins, that meant these were likely workers that loaded and unloaded whatever the trains brought to the city.

The white stone and gold roofs of the upper city slowly gave way to much more colorfully painted wooden buildings. As much as it seemed a fire hazard to Mayberry, she couldn't help but smile at the much livelier atmosphere here. Whereas the unicorns above moved at their own sedate rhythm, this are was practically charged with the amount of activity. The earth ponies and pegasi here were much more vibrant and full of energy.

However, Mayberry noted one thing that made her worry. She was going to stick out much more in this crowd than among the nobility, due to something she realized should have noticed back with the maid and the guard. She was taller than most of these ponies. Her back was higher than most of these ponies and her legs seemed slightly longer too. She hadn't really noticed as when she had been in Fancypant's manor as both Fancypants and Fleur-De-Lise had been slightly taller.

Thinking back to her close encounter with the dark princess (whom, she noted, her mind kept coming back to), Mayberry remembered the Princess had been considerably taller than the maid, having towered over her even when the maid was standing. Even earlier she remembered the elder sister, Celestia, had been considerably taller than even her sister. "Wait, why are those two so tall compared the rest of these ponies? I mean, they aren't like an inch taller, but several feet taller. That's pretty ridiculous." Upon remembering what Fleur had said about the longevity of the two, she dismissed it as a side effect of an extraordinarily long life.

"Ahem" At the sound of a throat being cleared, Mayberry realized she was blocking the pathway of a team of ponies carting a bunch of barrels through. Stepping to the side to allow them to pass, she looked about her for a ticket seller. As the barrels passed by she caught the scent of what smelled like apples. The smell made her stomach rumble. Still before she ate, Mayberry decided to grab her ticket first.

Finally spotting a ticket seller who was working at a fast pace, she tried to make up her mind about how far to go. Her intended goal was the village/city in the valley below. Considering it's proximity to the city, she figured the apples were likely from there. So upon reaching the ticket master who inquired as to her intended destination, Mayberry found herself saying she was heading out with the group of apple sellers. The pony behind the counter mentioned it would be a three-day ride. Despite thinking that was a bit long of a ride for her destination, the unicorn mare found herself relinquishing a surprisingly small amount of her coins. Apparently the fellow she had relieved them of had coin of considerable worth as she saw other ponies paying for the same ride with considerably larger amounts of silver coins.

Making her way back outside, the mare found her way over to a food vendor selling what looked like caramel coated apples. Laying a coin down on the counter, the vendor passed her two of the sweet treats. Grasping them in her right forehoof's magical horseshoe, she thanked the tan stallion and wandered towards the train. On her way, she passed a sight that both astounded and yet relieved her.

Two vanilla colored unicorn males with reddish manes were magically wrestling a massive wheeled machine onto a flat train car, with the help of a team of rather burly stallions. The sight of two unicorns about her size made her feel slightly better. She'd noticed that a lot the unicorns around here were smaller than her. Turning her attention back to the large red and black machine, Mayberry pondered its purpose. It looked like a primitive car minus the roof. It had two barrel-like tanks attached to it and two large class containers. The inclusion of smoke stacks and a Jacob's Ladder confused her as to what powered the device.

Shaking her head, the mare turned her back on the awkward machine and climbed aboard the train to enjoy her caramel apples. Afterwards she explored the train a bit, finding much of it was similar to the trains from her memory. Laying down in her bunk in the sleeping car, she took a quick nap. Quick because she immediately felt as if the moment her head hit the pillow, the train's whistle went off. Shortly afterwards, she heard the conductor calling the other passengers to board. Getting up, she trotted back to her seat to see what other passengers there were. The two unicorns from before climbed aboard. They wore blue and white pinstriped vests as well as straw hats. They chatted animatedly to one another. Mayberry guessed that from their identical looks and familiarity with one another that were likely family if not brothers.

The rest of the passengers were the regular ponies, not a single unicorn or pegasus were amongst them. As they took their respective seats, the train's whistle blasted out one last time. Then, with a lurch that left those still walking about staggering, the train started forward. As they started on their journey, a hay-colored colt in a Stetson hat and what looked like a leather vest stood up. "Next stop!" He called loudly while waving his hat. "Aaaaaappleloooosaaa!"