Time to go
Chapter 11
New Found Fame
As Hunter walked along the streets of Canterlot, his huge crate of belongings beside him, he noticed that he was attracting a lot more attention that he had wanted. The fact that half an hour of night was left, didn't change the fact that ponies were investigating the loud noise Hunter had created outside their homes.
Then, once the ponies reached the street, they would look at the large crate, wonder what was going on, and look at the ponies near the crate for answers. Then they would see an alicorn.
A lot of ponies would go out into the street and look down the road, trying to catch another glimpse of the alicorn. Eventually ponies would see him from their windows, and come outside to investigate him instead.
This led to quite a few ponies being on the street when the sun rose, and there was quite the crowd when the train station came into view.
Luna flew in from above as a train pulled in. The first train of the morning. At this point the ponies pulling the cart were galloping towards the station. Some of the ponies had realized the meaning behind having some new alicorn in Equestria, and they wanted to know what was going on. Like some kind of celebrity, Hunter was being chased through the city streets.
Hunter ran as best he could trying to get away from the mob, but four legged running was still awkward and he fell, tumbling for a bit before coming to a stop.
“Crap, guess I haven't gotten the hang of using all four hooves yet.” Hunter said, getting back up and rubbing his front hoof where he had scraped it. Now it hurt when he tried to walk on it. This gave him an idea.
Twilight reached the train and turned around looking to see that the rest of the troop had made it, only to see Hunter running full speed, on two legs. He looked strange as he quickly moved one hoof in front of the other propelling himself forward as his other hooves moved back and forth by his sides as if he still had arms.
This didn't work for long however, seeing as how four legged running is much faster than anyone on two legs. The crowd was eventually at his heels and he realized that he wouldn't be able to keep them away for very long. “Wait come back!” A pony behind him yelled “We just want to know who you are!”
“My name's Hunter, and it's nice to meet you!” Hunter turned and yelled, before spreading his wings and taking flight.
Luna had gone to the front of the cars to make sure the ponies pulling it were ready to go. The unicorn with the cart had lifted the whole cart, with Twilight and Trixie's help into an empty boxcar, and took off into the train's passenger car.
Hunter flew towards the open ended boxcar where Michael and the crate were, but before he could make it, his wings seemed to cramp up. They had enough of his flying around, and they were far past petty complaints, so they just quit on the job.
“Well this sucks.” said Hunter, feeling the pain in his wings as they cramped, and as he fell towards the ground in front of the train. He was quickly caught by a purple aura and thrown into the boxcar. He would have to thank Twilight for that later.
“Hey man, watch the tail!” Michael said, as his tail got squished beneath the bag Hunter had landed on. Hunter moved his tail out from under him and sat back down. “Hope that doesn't become a problem later.” Hunter said, chuckling at his friend's awkward situation.
The ponies pulling the train were off, and the train was gone from the station before any other ponies could board. Some pegasi tried flying after the train, but the train was out of Canterlot faster than they were willing to fly. They floated in the air and watched the train leave down the mountain.
“That was a close one,” Twilight said with a sigh, “Now I can see why Hunter would want to leave before attention could be drawn to him.”
“I think he made a little too much noise with that sonic 'green' boom, to be avoiding attention.” Trixie said, rolling her eyes and sitting down on one of the train's many seats. There was nopony on this train but it wouldn't have mattered anyways, Hunter and Michael were in the boxcar, so they wouldn't have any trouble with running into anypony.
“What's that noise?” Michael asked, turning his head to hear something.
“You mean besides the train?” Hunter said flatly.
“I hear a voice, like a kid, yelling for help.” Michael said, as he went to the side of the cart. “You might wanna come over here Hunter.”
“Ooookaaaaayyy?” Hunter said, as he trotted over to the side, and looked over.
There was a small filly, light, cream colored coat, with dark orange and light orange striped hair. She was wearing what looked to be a girl scout uniform, and was sitting in between the cart and the edge of the boxcar.
“Help me!” The filly cried above the train.
“Don't worry I'll get you out of there!” Hunter said, willing his wings to give him another chance to fly. They weren't having any of it and sat at his sides, motionless.
Hunter thought for a moment, before jumping down next to the filly.
“Grab onto my neck!” Hunter said, turning so the filly could ride on his back.
The filly instantly grabbed hold of his neck, and Hunter thought of how he was going to get back up without wings. At that moment the train turned sharply around a bend causing the crate to slide towards them. Hunter thought quickly.
He jumped straight at the box and brought his hooves up before landing parallel to the crate, unfortunately his hoof was still injured, and he fell before completing the jump. He turned so that he wouldn't land on the filly that was on his back, and stretched out. The box stopped as Hunter became a divider between the wall and the boxcar. The box stopped sliding, and so Hunter let himself fall onto his good hooves. He sprang towards the box again, dealing with the pain in his hoof, and then jumped towards the wall of the boxcar. The filly struggled to hold on as he jumped off the wall of the boxcar, and into the cart.
“Why must you keep landing on my tail!” Michael said angrily, pulling his tail from under Hunter again and rubbing it gingerly.
“Maybe you should keep it closer to you or move out of the way?” Hunter offered sarcastically.
Michael merely ignored this and looked at the filly on his back who still had her eyes closed and was grasping tightly onto his neck. Then she opened one eye and saw Michael, and immediately after, she closed both her eyes tight and squeezed even harder.
“Grck” Hunter managed to say as he was choked. “Cnt brth acghhgh”
“Sorry,” the filly said, embarrassed as she slid off of Hunter's back. “Thanks for saving me from that hole down there.
Hunter rubbed his neck, “You should thank Michael, he's the one who heard you in the first place.
The filly turned to the dragon. Now that she looked at him, she guessed that he wasn't 'that' scary.
“Thanks” the filly said, as she rubbed her foreleg, looking more than a little embarrassed by the whole thing.
Hunter sat down next to the filly and looked her in the eyes with a slight grin. “So kid,” He started “You got a name?”
“Ginger Snap. My name's Ginger Snap.” She replied.
“That's a nice name. Sweet, just like you.” Hunter said, grinning at the filly and 'boop'ing her on the nose.
She giggled and grinned a little. “Thanks mister...” Ginger Snap said, trailing off as she asked for his name.
“You can call me Hunter!” He said standing on his hind legs, “Protector of the innocent and savior of little filly's!” Striking a pose lifting his right hoof to his heart and his left hoof into the air.
“Oh brother” Michael said rolling his eyes.
Ginger Snap giggled some more.
“Just joking” Hunter said sitting back down with a big smile. “Well, glad to have you aboard Ginger Snap, what brings you to this...” Hunter looked around all his junk “place.”
“Well I was trying to set up my stand for donations in Canterlot, but then that huge mob was running straight at me! I noticed this crate and I jumped on, trying to escape. I saw you running on two legs before I was lifted into this boxcar. Then you know the rest.” Ginger Snap said laughing a little when she mentioned Hunter's two legged run. "You looked kinda silly."
“Yeah, I did look silly didn't I.” Hunter thought back, it was all he really could do at the time. “Well I'm glad you're up here and not squished down there. Were there any adults with you? Where do you live?”
“I actually live with my parents in Ponyville, but my den mother will be looking for me! We have to tell them where I am somehow!” Ginger Snap said, getting worried.
“I have an idea. Hey Michael, got any paper?” Hunter asked.
“Does it look like I carry paper with me at all times?” Michael said, chuckling.
“I guess not, well lets see if I have anything in the old pockets.” Hunter stood so that he would get an easier access to his flank pouch pockets, that he learned about in a story he'd read at home. He found them easy to access and immediately something was scraping his hoof. He grabbed it and pulled it out. It was a paper and pen.
“Well,” Hunter said, a little confused. “Whaddya know? Paper and pen. Here Michael take a note.”
“You mean I get to be your dragon slave?” Michael asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Not my dragon slave,” Hunter said innocently, “Just my dragon mailbox.”
Michael sighed as Hunter had his laugh, and grabbed the paper and pen.
Hunter started his dictation. “To whom it may concern, the young filly Ginger Snap is on board the train heading for Ponyville and is unhurt, please do not worry about her as she will be brought to her house in Ponyville as soon as she arrives. Signed, Princess Luna!”
“Princess Luna?" Michael asked confused, and why was he so excited?
“Yeah look, Princess Luna is coming to see us.” Hunter said, pointing at the front of the train.
“Hello Hunter, and hello to you too Michael, and who is this we see has taken a ride aboard our train?” Luna asked, turning to the filly.
Ginger Snap only stared at the princess in awe.
“This is Ginger Snap, she was caught in the commotion and got stuck here, we were just about to try sending a letter to the concerned parties, would you mind if we signed in your name so that it seems more authentic?” Hunter said.
“Plus I already wrote your name.” Michael said rolling up the paper.
“We see no problem with this, we are sure your dragon powers will allow you to send mail to anyone.” Luna said, before smiling at Ginger Snap “We shall have you home in no time.” Then she jumped off the boxcar and entered the passenger car instead.
Ginger Snap whispered, "So beautiful..."
“Alright,” Michael said, “here goes!” Michael took the paper in his hands and blew. Small streams of fire shot themselves slowly from his lips like a blowtorch, effectively burning the letter into dust, which flew off in a cluster back towards Canterlot.
“Looks like it worked,” Hunter said, relaxing on his bags of clothing. “Don't worry Ginger Snap, looks like your field trip has been cut a little short however.”
“It's fine,” Ginger Snap said, “Those trips are never any fun anyways. Wait a minute, I see you have wings, but you also have a horn, are you an alicorn too?!" The filly asked, excited.
Hunter reached up and touched the tip of his horn. "I suppose so."
"Wow," Ginger Snap said, "I get to meet two alicorns in one day, one of them was the princess, and the other saved my life! Today is just so much better than I thought it would be!" She squealed, and flopped down on the soft bags. "So awesome."
Hunter smiled, and Michael rolled his eyes.
Then Ginger Snap popped up off the bags, her eyes wide. "You guys want to make a donation?"
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Blue stood on the train, thinking to himself about the tips that Applejack had given him, his wife, his kids, and suddenly about Twilight.
How had she fared in the Human world? He wondered if she had made it back with the human she had been sent to get. Who was the human anyways? Luna never really said much about the humans that the unicorns were being sent to retrieve, only that they were sad, or that it was very important they were taken from Earth.
He then started to think about his visit to ponyville. It was good that he had visited Applejack but he thought he was forgetting something. “Oh no.” Blue said out loud, realizing what it was.
“I stood up Pinkie Pie!” Blue yelled, attracting attention from the other ponies on the train as he rose his head, but he didn't care, he was too busy burying his head in his hands at how stupid he was for forgetting their lunch.
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“Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash said sternly, “Why don't you just come to lunch with me?” Rainbow had been hungry and bored for the past half an hour now, and Pinkie just refused to go out to eat.
“I can't!” Pinkie said in a slightly whiny voice, “I just made a new friend, and he said he would be here for lunch, if I leave now and he comes to get me, what kind of a friend will I be!?” Pinkie asked, dramatically waving her arms over her head.
“One who goes with their friends to lunch after the first friend didn't show up on time? Especially since it's the day after he made plans.” Rainbow Dash said, with a blank stare on her face and a raised eyebrow.
“This friend was a new one though! I wanna make a good first, or is it second? Impression.” Pinkie said, walking back behind the counter.
Rainbow Dash sighed an exasperated sigh, and went to the door to go have lunch by herself when Pinkie's phone went off.
“So what are we going to have for lunch?” Pinkie asked, smiling as she walked towards the door of the shop, flipping the sign on the window to “Closed for lunch”.
“What made you change your mind?” Rainbow Dash asked, suddenly curious as to what could possibly have made her change her mind so quickly.
“This!” Pinkie said, showing Dash her phone.
She read the text.
“Hey Pinkie, there's some Blue colt here who just yelled something about standing you up? He looks really sad about it, did you have a date or something?” One of Pinkie's many friends had been on the train.
“Oh, I guess he forgot.” Rainbow Dash said, backing away from the phone, and standing up straight. “Wait, did you have a date or something?”
“No way!” Pinkie said when they stepped outside. “He's married, and he just wanted to take me to lunch, as a friend.”
“How do you know he's married?” Dash asked, steering them towards the sandwich place that had originally been where Blue and Pinkie planned to go.
“I dunno,” Pinkie said, hopping towards the restaurant. “Let's get some grub, I am starving!”
Rainbow didn't even try to understand Pinkie Pie's antics, again, and happily joined Pinkie for some lunch.