A heavy fog billowed down from the city of Cloudsdale and drowned the train in a sea of uniform grayness. The train chugged along its way through the hills south of Canterlot, sure on its course even in the worst of fogs, and where other ponies might find such weather a dreary and depressing sight, it always seemed to receive the opposite reaction from Lyra.
Bonbon never did understand Lyra's love of foggy and overcast weather. Rain was something else—Lyra didn't care for rain—but give her dense fog and heavy gray clouds all night, and Lyra would be one happy mare. She always came out on foggy nights when the sky was clouded. Bonbon often joined her on such nights, not because she liked the weather in any way, but because she never seemed to get any other chance to spend an evening with Lyra.
Even now, even with Bonbon's insistence on coming along, it seemed as if Lyra found the fog outside invigorating and uplifting. Whatever loomed on Lyra's mind took a backseat to the joy of the fog.
Bonbon looked away from the window with an expression of deadpan indifference. She looked at Lyra on the opposite seat. The unicorn was studying a small stack of notebooks bound in a plain black cover, her lyre sitting unused by her side between herself and Rainbow Dash. Her eyes scanned the pages as she flipped back and forth between different books. She was quite absorbed in thought, but a genuine little smile had crept upon her lips since the fog rolled in. Her eyes still betrayed a hint of concern and deep thought, although Bonbon had no idea what the source of this concern was or what the thoughts surrounded.
Bonbon turned her head an inch and looked at Rainbow Dash instead. The pegasus was reclining on the seat next to Lyra—at least she knew how to sit like a proper pony—one hoof propping up the book she was reading. Her eyes were scanning the page lazily. The brightly painted cover didn't leave much doubt as to what sort of book she was reading.
Bonbon read the title anyway: “Daring Do and the Golden Cage.” Bonbon couldn't say she was familiar with the book, or even the series. She turned back and tried to sneak a look at Lyra's notes instead. She stretched her neck a bit and caught a few words as Lyra turned a page. “Who is Humble Soul?”
Lyra looked up and inconspicuously lifted the book so that Bonbon couldn't catch any more of its writing. “Have you heard of Sapphiro?” she asked and closed the book carefully. Seeing Bonbon's blank look, Lyra sat up straight and spoke in recitation,
“Verdant green like summer's grass, it seems I am
already dead, or little short of dying.”
Bonbon rested her head on her hoof and watched Lyra. “Sounds familiar somehow, but I can't put my hoof on it. What is it?”
Lyra smiled and picked up her lyre, plucking a pair of strings idly. “Maybe you've heard one of the hundred or so other translations out there? The words have very little in common; you could read two of them side by side and never realize that they are translations of the same poem.”
“Sounds silly,” Bonbon remarked dryly. “So what, Sapphiro was a poet then?”
“Only one of the greatest lyricists of the pre-classical era,” Lyra said with faked nonchalance. “Her contemporaries compared her to a princess. Did you know Sapphire Shores chose her stage name in honor of her? Sapphiro means 'From Sapphire', referring to the Sapphire Seas where she lived most of her life. Sapphire Shores even recorded her own version of that famous poem and included it on her first album.”
Bonbon lit up in recognition. “I remember that song! 'A prince to me,' right? That's what those lines you spoke reminded me of.”
Lyra gave her a grin while glancing down at the lyre as she played the first slow chords of Sapphire Shore's song. “Took you way too long to get that one, Bonbon. I'm disappointed.”
Bonbon coughed to chase off the blush. “I love that song,” she muttered, conscious of her failure to make the connection. “So what's this all got to do with this Humble pony, anyway?”
Lyra played the song to its conclusion in silence before speaking again. “Few of Sapphiro's poems survive, and only in fragments. It's a shame that so much has been lost to time. One of the things I found in Canterlot was a fragment attributed to her, although what I have is only a translation by a later poet and not the original. The fragment begins with 'O sister, Humble Soul,' and it's a reference to a much older song and legend about a young princess in the earliest days of the world.”
“Humble Soul doesn't sound much like the name of a princess to me,” Bonbon remarked.
“No? You don't want to hear my speculation on the alternate, proper translation of her name.” Lyra chuckled at the apparent joke that only she knew.
Bonbon grinned and perked up. “Now I definitely do.”
Lyra dismissed the topic with a wave of her hoof, like she was actually tossing it over her shoulder. “The legend of Humble and her sister is a tragic tale of how one of the greatest kingdoms of the ancient world fell and crumbled to nothing, all because of the jealousy and evil festering within the heart of a single pony.” Lyra plucked her lyre, producing a long, dark tone. “It is the tale of a curse, of deeds and doers long lost to memory and bereft the hope of redemption.”
Bonbon stuck out her tongue at her for being a tease about the name. “Then tell me her story. You can't tease me like that and then leave me with nothing, Lyra.”
“A storyteller is like a lover,” Lyra said enigmatically and gave her instrument a brush with her hoof, causing every string to resonate in a low tone to wash away the previous mood. She looked up at Bonbon with a bright smile. “A great storyteller never rushes to the finish line or gives you everything all at once, no matter how hard you beg for it.”
“That's just mean,” Bonbon grumbled and folded her hooves under her head.
“But it makes the climax all the more sweet when it finally comes, don't you think?” Lyra teased.
Rainbow Dash looked up from her book. “You sure you're still talking about stories, Lyra?”
“Everything is a story, Dash.” Lyra winked at her and looked up, smiling at something with a hint of longing in her eyes. “Life and love, everypony has their stories and ponies with whom they share the telling. Some are sweeping legends shared between all of ponykind, others are intimate and personal, told between two ponies with a unique and special bond.”
Bonbon watched quietly as Lyra and Dash got philosophical on the other seat. Or at least Lyra did, while Dash was mostly joking. I wonder what stories you have to share, Bonbon thought, and who else gets to share in their telling.
* * *
“Can I offer you anything to eat or drink, ladies?” The young attendant stopped her small cart in the aisle next to their seats and looked at the three with a smile.
They all looked up at the selection on offer. “I would like a pair of those white clover and pea salad sandwiches there,” Bonbon said. “And a bottle of water, please.”
“Your salad looks enticing.” Lyra licked her lips as she studied the meals. “Is that pine nut and carrot? I'll have one of those,” she said without waiting for an answer.
“So what's the plan?” Bonbon asked Lyra while Rainbow Dash ordered. “Where are we headed?” It had been a few hours since they left Ponyville. Bonbon hoped Lyra would open up a little about the journey now that she had had a bit of time to accept Bonbon's presence.
Lyra quietly accepted her salad and mixed it a bit before saying, “We're going into the mountains, north of Manehattan.” She turned to look at Rainbow Dash.
The Wonderbolt took a bite of a sandwich and nodded. “Yeah, that's the part we know, or at least the part that I know. The train stops in Manehattan, and from there we're just gonna head into the mountains. I know the way, mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“Yeah, well, mountains look a lot different from above, you know?” She looked up and fluttered a wing a bit before returning to her sandwich. “Or you would, if you had wings.”
Bonbon gave the two secretive mares a look full of questions. “And what are we looking for exactly?”
Rainbow Dash chewed quietly for a moment and swallowed. “Well, something big crashed deep within the mountains that night with the meteor shower. Twilight thinks it was one meteor which broke up in the atmosphere or something, and the main part crashed there. We already searched the site of the crash, but Lyra wants to have a look around anyway. That's all I can say.”
“We being the Wonderbolts, I take it?” Bonbon asked. Rainbow said nothing. “So this is like an official mission for the crown or something, and you can't tell me anything because it's top secret or what?”
“Nah, this is totally just Lyra's idea,” Rainbow said. “I don't even have a clue what she expects. I'm just here to get her there, and wherever she says we have to go after that.”
Lyra cast a glance at the window and quietly gathered her books, instrument and the rest of her salad. “I'm going to find my cabin and get some rest,” she said and yawned as she got up, smiling before turning to leave. “Goodnight, you two. Please don't disturb me.”
Rainbow Dash just nodded and returned to her book as she finished her sandwich. Bonbon watched Lyra open the door to the night car and disappear down the narrow hall between each of the small rooms. She got up and moved to follow. “Lyra?”
“She told you not to disturb her.” Rainbow cut in, a wing placing itself in Bonbon's way. “Let the pony have some peace to herself.”
Bonbon's brow furrowed as she stopped and looked at the pegasus. This was not the behavior of a guide, it was more like what she would expect from a bodyguard. But who was Lyra to have a Wonderbolt act as her personal bodyguard on a strange journey into the mountains?
Bonbon sat down again slowly. “Why are you really following her?” she asked.
“She paid me,” Rainbow Dash said.
Bonbon huffed at the unhelpful response. It stank of a standard response. “How much? What's the rate for hiring a Wonderbolt for random journeys into the wild these days? Must be expensive.”
“She hired me as a private pony, not as a Wonderbolt. You can't just hire the Wonderbolts,” Rainbow said and closed her book, apparently unable to focus on reading with Bonbon questioning her. “And she paid me well, if you must know. I'm not gonna tell you how much.”
Bonbon wondered how Lyra could afford anything like this. She lived in a small rented apartment and earned her keep by playing music in the park. Sure, everypony loved Lyra and gave generously, and she didn't really have any great expenses … Bonbon frowned as she did the mental math and concluded that Lyra could have possibly scraped together a minor fortune over the years.
Didn't seem very honest to beg for money if you had a fortune under your mattress.
“And what about the Wonderbolts? Don't you have to work or train with them or something?”
“Nah. I'm on vacation.”
Was that a lie? Bonbon narrowed her eyes and was met by a deadpan expression on the other seat. If it was a lie, Rainbow was proving a fairly good liar. Did Rainbow play poker? She seemed like the kind of mare who did, and probably won a lot. Not that she needed anything more to win at, or her ego might explode. “What did she pay you? I'll pay you more,” Bonbon blurted out in frustration.
Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes. “Are you trying to bribe me?”
“Oh, so she didn't hire you as a private pony, then?” Bonbon grinned, knowing it was a bit of a wild shot, but maybe she could get the pegasus to slip up. “I'm ‘bribing’ a private pony, that's practically not even bribery at all.”
Rainbow frowned and folded her hooves. “Whatever. You couldn't afford it, even if my loyalty was for sale, which it’s not. So forget it.”
Bloody famed loyalty. Bonbon leaned back and sulked.
“You know, I'm no poet or whatever,” Rainbow said and looked up again. “But you want my opinion? You're doing this the wrong way. Look, I know I can tell Twi anything because I trust her completely. I know I can always count on my friends because I trust 'em to be there for me and respect me no matter what. If you want somepony to tell you stuff, then you gotta earn their trust first, and with some ponies you have to give 'em a lot of space and patience. Like my friend Fluttershy. It took me a long time to figure out how to talk to her and get her to open up, you know? Think about that.”
Bonbon looked down, ears flat against her head at Rainbow's words. She wasn't proud of the things she had considered or done lately in her desperation to get through to Lyra. It was even worse hearing it from Rainbow Dash, of all ponies.
She sighed and got up. “Thanks.”
Bonbon opened the door to the sleeping car, feeling Rainbow's gaze on her neck as she closed it behind her and trotted down the hall. Lyra's cabin was on her right. Bonbon paused outside the door and glanced back. She shook her head and continued down the hall to her own cabin.
* * *
A heavy thump and a scrabbling noise woke up Bonbon in the night. She turned slightly in her bed and opened her eyes. It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness as she looked around the small room. The train rumbled along steadily. The door was closed, and nothing caught her eyes. Only a couple of stars peeked out from behind the clouds outside as low mountains and deep forests raced by.
Bonbon lay still and listened, her eyes searching the corners of the room. Maybe it was just a dream. She closed her eyes again and breathed a sigh. Just a dream.
Her eyes fluttered open again and turned to the window above her. Something scrambled quietly outside, and a shadow appeared in the window. Bonbon held her breath and lay completely still as she watched the silhouette of a pony in the darkness, lit up only by the few glittery stars.
The pony crawled carefully along the side of the train. Bonbon was sure it was a mare, but a cloak she was wearing and the darkness around her concealed her features. The pony stopped and peered through the window and down at the latch which kept it closed. Purple eyes scanned the darkness inside, and Bonbon caught a hint of a light blue coat under the hood. The mare turned away suddenly and continued along the train, disappearing from the window.
Bonbon lay for a few seconds longer, feeling her heart beating before slipping out of her bed. She turned to the window and quietly pushed it open. A rush of wind and a cold drizzle hit her face as she peered outside into the darkness along the train. She spotted the pony climbing further down the train just before she disappeared onto the roof.
Could it have been Rainbow Dash? Bonbon frowned. She couldn't be sure in that darkness, but the eyes and coat did seem to match. But why would Rainbow Dash creep along the train in the middle of the night like this? It made no sense.
Bonbon opened the door and peeked out into the hall. Everything was quiet, and there was no sign of anypony else. She stepped outside and trotted up to Lyra's door. She gave it a quiet knock. “Lyra?” There was no response. Bonbon knocked again and tried the door. It was locked.
She turned and looked down the hall to Rainbow's door. She trotted the short distance and knocked. When she got no response, Bonbon tried the door. It opened to reveal an empty room. “Rainbow Dash?” she called quietly as she stepped into the small space.
The bedsheets were ruffled, suggesting that it had been slept in recently at least. Bonbon looked down at a book resting on the pillow. It was very different from the Daring Do books, being bound in dark blue fabric and embroidered on the front with the royal seal of Princess Twilight.
Bonbon reached out for it. Her hoof touched the cover and flipped it open. It snapped shut, and a sudden sharp pain shot through her hoof and shoulder, like a nail shot through the core of the bone with shattering force. Bonbon yelped and stumbled away from the book in shock. Her body shook violently and she fell to her haunches, cradling her aching hoof. She feared the worst as she glanced down at it, but was relieved to find only a slight burn of the hoof where it had touched the cover.
She looked up at the book and slowly got back on her legs, still shaking from the shock. So the book was protected by some kind of magic. What kind of book was protected that fiercely?
“Excuse me?”
Bonbon turned around and tried to face Rainbow Dash with a cool expression. The pegasus looked back at her from the door, eyes waiting for a bloody good explanation. “Lyra's door was locked,” she said and realized how stupid that must have sounded in the situation.
“I can't imagine why she'd do that,” Rainbow remarked coldly before pointing an accusing hoof at Bonbon, poking her in the chest as she spoke. “You think you can just stick your nose in everypony's business, huh? Is that it?”
Bonbon noted that Rainbow was not wearing her cloak. She was also perfectly dry and smelled faintly of soap. Bonbon sighed and felt her cheeks flush at the realization that she had almost been ready to accuse the pegasus of shady business based solely on the color of somepony's eyes and coat. In the darkness of night no less.
“I'm really sorry,” she said. “I saw somepony crawl on the outside of the train. I went to tell Lyra, but she didn't respond, so I came here to look for you instead. I think somepony was spying on somepony or looking for something in one of the rooms.”
Rainbow Dash seemed to calm down a bit at the explanation, her focus deflected and directed at something more important. She walked past Bonbon and checked the window. “Did you see what they looked like? Any idea what they were looking for?”
“I only saw one pony, and she was wearing a cloak. She had purple eyes and, I think, a blue coat. She looked through my window before disappearing up on the roof,” Bonbon recounted.
Rainbow opened the window and squeezed through with amazing agility, taking flight and disappearing in one smooth motion. Bonbon watched the window, wondering what she should do. Half a minute later, Rainbow returned and shook herself of the rain as she crawled back inside and shut the window. “No pony out there now. Must have dropped off the train or gone inside.”
Bonbon looked up and down the hall outside, but it remained empty. “I'll wake Lyra and tell her,” she said and stepped outside.
“Let her sleep,” Rainbow said with a firmness in her voice and followed her, closing her door behind them. “I'll find the attendant and let her know. You just go back to sleep and keep your door and window locked.”
Bonbon didn't like taking orders like that, especially from the Wonderbolt, but she had already made a fool of herself enough tonight. She nodded and trotted back to her room. She pulled the curtains on the window and lay down on the bed.
Perhaps she had been too mistrusting of Lyra and Rainbow Dash. Maybe it wasn't so odd that Lyra was reluctant to tell her anything. Perhaps Lyra had good reasons to be reluctant to speak of her family and her quest, and Bonbon had certainly not earned much trust of late with her heavy-hoofed handling of it.
Bonbon sighed and turned over, staring up into the ceiling.
* * *
The train pulled into station in the grand city of Manehattan at noon the next day. Bonbon checked her saddlebags to make sure she had everything before joining Lyra and Rainbow Dash as they waited for the doors to open. She idly rubbed her hoof, which was still sore from the electrical shock the book had given her.
“If you don't mind me asking,” she began, deciding to ask Rainbow Dash about it. “That book on your bed last night, what was that?”
Rainbow looked at her with a bored expression. No doubt she was looking forward to getting out of the train and stretching her wings. “That? It's one of a pair,” she said and turned back with a slight flick of her tail. “Anything written in one appears in the other too. Twilight's got the other one so we can keep in touch.”
“Oh.” Bonbon felt a little disappointed, but she wasn't sure what she had expected. Those two had to have some interesting things to say to each other if the book was protected like that.
Nothing more had happened that night, although Bonbon's sleep had been sparse regardless. She had slept late to compensate. When she finally got up, the train was almost in Manehattan. Bonbon looked forward to getting off the train and out into the sprawling city.
Bonbon had only been to Manehattan once before. When she was young and fresh out of school, she and some of her friends had gone for a filly's night out in the big city to celebrate. That was years ago, and certain parts of that experience seemed very hazy to her memory. Many things back then did.
The train stopped, and a minute later the doors opened. A pair of hardened faces met them from under the trademark gold and blue-crested helmets of the royal guard. One of them, a dark-coated unicorn, spoke as the doors opened. “Greetings. Please step out of the train one at a time and present your tickets to my colleague here.” He indicated the stoic pegasus by his side. “You will be subject to a search spell,” the first guard continued. “Do not worry, your privacy is guaranteed, and the spell is harmless.”
A lone stallion waiting with them on the train stepped off and presented his ticket to the pegasus. While it was checked, the unicorn cast his spell, surrounding the passenger in a faint glow of white. After a second, the pegasus proclaimed, “You may proceed, sir.” The stallion nodded his thanks and continued on his way.
“What are we being searched for, if I may ask?” Lyra inquired as Bonbon stepped off next and presented her ticket.
“We have cause to believe that a fugitive boarded this train near Hollow Shades,” the unicorn said as the magical light of the spell surrounded Bonbon. “She had in her possession a potentially dangerous object and may attempt to smuggle it out via innocent passengers like yourselves.”
“You may pass,” the pegasus said to Bonbon, who stepped past the two and turned around to wait. Several guards were present on the platform, two at each exit inspecting passengers as they got off, and others watching the train and passengers for any signs of anypony trying to slip out unnoticed.
“Do not be alarmed,” the unicorn continued as Rainbow Dash followed. “We are here for your protection and safety. Please remove your hood, Ma'am.”
Rainbow Dash looked around the crowded station. “I'd like to keep it on in public, sir.”
The pegasus guard made a gesture with a wing at a pair of nearby colleagues. They looked over and, seeing the sign, trotted towards them. “Present your ticket,” the unicorn said as he performed his spell. “Then follow the two guards behind me.”
Rainbow Dash hoofed the pegasus her ticket and accepted it back before following the two guards. Bonbon watched them enter a small office. They were probably used to all sorts of celebrities requesting privacy from the public eye and had procedures in place for exactly those cases.
Lyra stepped off the train and gave the pegasus her ticket. “There you go, sir,” she added with a smile.
The pegasus nodded at the ticket and gave it back to Lyra as they waited for his partner to finish the spell. The light surrounded Lyra and immediately glimmered a faint red. The pegasus made another quick gesture with a wing, and several guards turned their attention towards Lyra, who was looking up in surprise.
“Remain calm, Ma'am,” the unicorn said. “Please take off your saddlebags, set them on the ground, and step back into the train.”
Bonbon watched as Lyra, looking confused and scared, carefully slipped off her saddlebags and stepped backwards into the train. Another unicorn, a white mare, approached the bags and opened them from a distance with her magic. When they were deemed safe to approach, she carefully proceeded to search through the contents, discreetly but thoroughly.
After searching through the contents twice, she looked up and shook her head. The first unicorn looked at Lyra. “Please step out of the train again, Ma'am.”
Lyra obediently stepped out, her face troubled and eyes fearful. Bonbon wanted to do something, but there was nothing she could do except wait. It had to be some kind of mistake.
The second unicorn carefully lifted the saddlebags off to the side, and the first one cast his spell a second time. The light surrounded Lyra and flickered red once more.
There was some confusion in the shared looks of the gathered guards, but procedures were likely clear in cases of doubt. Two pegasi approached Lyra. “Ma'am, please follow peacefully.”
Lyra was shaking, her eyes flitting between the guards surrounding her. “But …” she stammered. “I haven't done anything.”
“For your own safety, Ma'am, you must follow,” one of the guards said.
Lyra stood frozen in place as the two pegasi carefully grasped her by the front legs.
Bonbon looked around as Rainbow Dash returned from the office. The pegasus took in the scene and frowned. “What the hay is going on?” she demanded and trotted towards the guards.
Three nearby guards quickly stepped in front of her to stop her advance. “Step back, Ma'am. Do not involve yourself, or we will be forced to arrest you.”
Rainbow Dash stopped and looked around. She frowned and pointed a hoof at Lyra. “That mare is with me. I take personal responsibility for her,” she said.
There was some whispering between the two guards who had followed Dash into the office and the rest. The muffled chatter spread among the guards.
Bonbon looked around nervously. The train seemed to have been emptied by now, and several ponies were gathered in crowds to watch what was going on. But what was going on here? What were they searching for, and what did the red light mean? Whatever it was, it was obviously not in Lyra's bags, and she wasn't wearing anything else this morning. Perhaps they thought she had swallowed it, whatever it was.
A distant movement caught Bonbon's eyes. She turned and saw somepony moving along the rails behind the train, running low along the tracks to avoid attention. Bonbon gasped and called out, pointing at the figure. “Hey! She's getting away!”
The guards turned to look. Orders were barked, and several guards raced off in pursuit of the fleeing pony. Everypony on the platform watched. The fugitive turned around when she realized she was being hunted. She reared up on her hind legs for a second and spun back around, yelling something. Her words were drowned out by a violent explosion of lights, rocking the station and throwing back the pursuing guards.
Almost every guard present charged off to assist in the wild pursuit, barking orders and calling for assistance. In the chaos, the guards who remained looked at each other and then at the three ponies. Two of them stepped toward Rainbow Dash and Bonbon. “By order of Her Royal Highness, Princess Twilight Sparkle, you are all placed in custody until further notice. Please follow peacefully.”
“This is ridiculous,” Dash grumbled but made no move to resist as they were led away from the train.
Bonbon looked around at Lyra who was still looking terrified as she was led by the two guards. “Don't worry, Lyra, I'm sure it'll work out,” she said, trying to comfort the unicorn as much as herself.
* * *
“Are you feeling better?” Bonbon gave Lyra a supportive glance as they left the barracks about an hour later. Thankfully it had not taken longer than that for the guards to send and receive word from Ponyville that the three of them were to be released. A few apologies later, and they were trotting down the steps to the streets of the city.
Lyra gave a nod and looked up and down the busy lane. Ponies rushed about, paying the three mares no special attention. “Yeah, I'm just a bit shocked,” she said. “But it's over now, right?”
“I sure hope so.” Bonbon looked around as they walked, trying to spot someplace to sit down and have a rest. “What say we all get a drink? I think we could need it.”
“I want to leave the city early.” Lyra followed her gaze. “But I guess we could have one drink to calm the nerves first. What about that place over there?” She pointed a hoof at a small establishment on the corner of two large streets meeting in a small but busy square.
Bonbon and Rainbow Dash both nodded at the choice. They headed across the street and found an empty table for three just inside, with a view of the street outside. Bonbon noticed a lot more guards moving about the streets as they sat down. They were apparently still out searching for the fugitive, if their searching glances were any hint. Bonbon still wondered what that whole ordeal was about.
“Hey, Bonbon, look at this,” Lyra said and indicated the menu. “They've got something called a Café Bombón,” she grinned. “Neat, huh?”
Bonbon sat down and tilted her head at the menu in front of her. “Well well well, a coffee named after me? Almost, anyway,” She smiled up at Lyra, “Good choice. I'll have that and one of their chocolate chip muffins.” She returned to look out the window as the others ordered and paid their drinks. “So what happened back there at the station anyway?” she asked over her shoulder.
“No idea,” Lyra said quietly. “But I don't really want to think about it, if that's alright.”
Rainbow Dash looked up at Lyra but said nothing.
“That mare they're hunting,” Bonbon continued, switching the topic away from Lyra as the waiter arrived with their drinks and set them down on the table. “She must be the one who was crawling around outside my window on the train.”
Rainbow Dash just nodded, and silence followed. Bonbon stirred her glass, mixing the layers of milk and coffee. She took a sip and looked out the window at the street, watching the crowds of ponies wander about. Several guards were visible among them, scouting the crowds and buildings for signs of something.
“So what's the plan now?” Lyra spoke up after a long silence, looking at Dash for an answer.
Dash sank and let go of the straw she was drinking through, setting her drink down. “We head out when we're done here, the earlier the better,” she began explaining. “We just head north and follow the coast until we reach the mountains. No real trick to it. After we reach the mountains we're gonna have to wing it from there, since I don't know the exact paths on the ground.”
There was some commotion outside. Bonbon took a bite of her muffin and turned in her seat to look out at the streets.
“It should take us a day or two by hoof,” Dash continued but looked up at the window as she spoke. “That is, if we make good time. We should probably be prepared to need longer. It's not the best time of year to go wandering in the mountains, but … at least you've got … me … with you, uh,” she said, distracted by the sudden activity outside.
Ponies out on the streets were all stopping to turn and look. The three mares inside moved up to the window to better see, craning their necks to see where everypony else was looking. Something was definitely going on up on the rooftops on the other side of the street. Several guards were charging across the rooftop, chasing after a cloaked mare. Others were circling around in the air, trying to swoop down to cut her off.
The mare spun around and launched a volley of magic flares at her pursuers, causing them all to hold back as fireworks exploded everywhere. No sooner had she launched her attack than she was galloping off again, jumping from one building to the next.
Lines of magic wove through the air and sought to ensnare the fugitive. She dropped swiftly on her side and rolled down the slanting roof, causing the magical web to catch nothing but roof tiles where she had been. She stumbled back on her hooves, shot a powerful flare of magic behind her, and jumped over a pegasus trying to grab her, using him as a springboard to reach the roof of a bank.
The guard grabbed her cloak in the jump, causing it to tear and the pony to tumble through the air, landing hard on the edge of the roof, inches from plummeting to the street far below. She scrambled to get up, shaking her pale silvery mane out of her face as she looked back, dull violet eyes scanning the advancing guards with a wild look of desperation, looking for a hole or place to strike.
“Isn't that, what's-her-name?” Bonbon muttered.
“Trixie,” Lyra said.
Bonbon realized that Rainbow had stormed out the door, but kept her eyes on the action.
Up on the roof of the bank, Trixie backed away, threatening any guards who got too close. However, she was soon finding herself cornered, blocked off and surrounded. Trixie stopped at the edge of the tall building and looked back over her shoulder. It was way too far to jump, and a fall from that height would certainly end her attempted flight in the hospital.
She yelled something, but Bonbon couldn't make out the words from this far off. It probably involved a lot of boasting, but the intended message seemed to be clear enough: Trixie was a desperate mare and not afraid to hurt them if they came any closer.
The guards advanced cautiously but steadily, calling out for her to surrender herself, or so Bonbon imagined based on their inaudible shouts. Trixie took a step forward, towards the approaching guards, as if to give herself up. Her head turned, then her body as well as she launched herself around in a sudden gallop and a leap from the roof.
Lyra gasped, and Bonbon held a hoof to her mouth. Trixie sailed through the air on a doomed course, having chosen the jump over surrender. Her trajectory turned downwards, far from the safety of the other roof, and the ground came rushing to meet the poor, desperate unicorn.
A prismatic flash shot across the street straight for the falling mare as Rainbow Dash cut through the air like a bullet to catch her. At the same time, Trixie's horn blazed and her hooves struck a shimmering bridge of light. Trixie caught herself on the magical surface in time to duck a guard and leap towards the other roof. She managed two steps on the bridge before she was tackled by Rainbow Dash, both of them tumbling off the bridge which flickered and dissolved as suddenly as it had appeared.
Trixie let out a scream, the distant sound of it reaching even Lyra and Bonbon, and in the chaos she lost her grip on something. It gleamed for a second like a diamond in the daylight before plummeting to the ground. It struck the hard rocks and shattered into a thousand pieces.
A hush filled the city, and the light of the sun dimmed to nothing in the span of a breath. Night turned its single great eye on the city and breathed down upon the world, like a snake prepared to swallow its prey whole. Bonbon reeled back from the sudden vertigo of the looming abyss and found Lyra's hooves clasped tightly over her eyes to shut out the night.
Bonbon could hear yelling and wild, galloping hooves, and even through Lyra's hooves she could see the daylight seeping back in. Lyra let go of her and dropped back down on her hooves. “Come on! We need to find Rainbow Dash!”
Lyra's voice snapped Bonbon back to reality. She didn't have time to regain her bearings before Lyra was out the door. Bonbon hurried off on her trail, galloping out into the streets. She jumped aside as three ponies barreled down the street and dodged another one coming from the other direction. Everywhere, the scene was the same; ponies were running around in total chaos, gripped by what Bonbon could only describe as sudden insanity.
Bonbon pushed her way through the crowd, roughly shoving aside any ponies who got too close. She cursed with each shove, swearing that this was not the time to run off into the chaos. But Lyra was already doing just that, dodging and weaving her way through the crowds up ahead. She was moving straight for the bank and the spot where Trixie had jumped off the roof.
Even the guards were running wild, having thrown every sense of order and regulation to the wind and charged off in whatever direction had presented itself first, it seemed. Many were yelling nonsense, crying out and raving at no pony and everypony.
What kind of madness was this?
Bonbon shoved aside a young colt, apologizing greatly and cursing all the while as she galloped to catch up with Lyra. Up ahead, Rainbow Dash had just pulled herself up from the street, a large burnt mark across her face, no doubt caused by Trixie's explosives. The pegasus looked around angrily, searching the mad crowds for signs of the showpony.
Lyra and Bonbon had barely caught up with her when her head snapped and eyes locked on a light silvery tail disappearing down an alley. “Oh no you don't!” she growled and jumped up, setting off faster than Bonbon could blink.
“Come on!” Lyra urged and picked up the pace, galloping off on the trail of the Wonderbolt.
Bonbon stomped the ground and charged off after both of them.
* * *
Ponies turned and stopped to stare as Lyra and Bonbon galloped down the streets and alleys in pursuit of Rainbow Dash. The chaos from the square was following them, spreading out through the city. Here and there, a pony came barreling down a street in blind madness, crashing through stalls and toppling wagons in their wake. The strange madness did not seem to have affected the rest of the city, but other ponies yelled or tried to catch the rampant ones, causing only more chaos and confusion.
Discord could not have been more proud if he had been there.
Lyra evaded an out-of-control wagon and skidded on the cobblestone as she tried to avoid the oranges now filling the street. Bonbon was right behind her, jumping over a barrel of oranges which had survived the crash. “This is madness, Lyra!” she shouted above the clamor of merchant ponies complaining and yelling at them and everypony else.
“I can see that!” Lyra yelled back and turned sharply down another street, following where a confused mare was pointing for her. Rainbow Dash had long since disappeared, leaving the two in the dust, but at least there was likely not a single pony in the streets who hadn't seen her and Trixie and which way they had gone.
Other signs of her and Trixie's passing were evident too. Bonbon swore at the mess but kept close to Lyra as she burst through the doors of a bookstore. The whole place had been ravaged by unexplained fireworks, and several surviving books were still magically fluttering about in confusion. Two ponies were frantically trying to get them under control as Lyra and Bonbon galloped through and out the back door into a small, walled-off garden.
Lyra stopped long enough to look around. Bonbon stopped beside her, catching her breath. “There's no way we can catch up with her,” she said. Bonbon chose not to mention that there was no way Trixie could outrun Rainbow Dash either, but clearly no pony had informed Trixie of that.
“We might get lucky,” Lyra said and hurried over to the wall. “Help me up here.”
Bonbon gave her a hoof to get up on the wall. Lyra climbed up with surprising agility and turned to pull Bonbon up with her. Bonbon scrambled over the wall with much less grace and landed heavily on the other side in time to find Lyra already galloping down the small back alley. Bonbon stomped her hoof and set off again.
They ran for probably five minutes through tiny back alleys and gardens with no sign of Rainbow Dash or Trixie. The chaos of earlier had waned and gone, or perhaps it never reached this part of the city, leaving the two stranded. “She could be anywhere by now,” Bonbon said as they slowed down to a trot. “If we head back to the bar, I'm sure she'll find us there.”
Lyra looked around, as if she didn't want to admit defeat but had little choice. “Let's … let's try this way,” she said and turned. “Maybe—” she stopped suddenly and pointed. “There!”
Bonbon too had seen the streak of azure and silvery tail at the end of the alley. She didn't get a chance to open her mouth before Lyra was off in hot pursuit once more. “What a day,” she murmured and rushed off behind her.
Lyra sprinted down the alley and skidded at the end. She rounded the corner barely short of top speed and was hit from behind by a blur of rainbow. The two crashed together and rolled across the ground. Dash was instantly back on her legs. “Did you see her?” she demanded. Seeing that there was only one way Trixie could have gone, she didn't wait for an answer, rushing down the street to catch up with the seconds she had lost.
Bonbon helped Lyra back on her legs. Lyra gave a nod in gratitude and hurried after Dash. They rounded another corner and found themselves in a dead end. Dash was spinning around herself, trying to spot Trixie, but there was no sign of the mare anywhere.
“Where did she go?” Dash bucked a wall before spinning around to see Lyra and Bonbon. “Did you see her? Did she run back that way?”
Bonbon shook her head. Like the others, she clearly saw Trixie run down this alley, and she would swear before a judge that the unicorn had not escaped the same way. Lyra and Dash could have missed her in their crash, but Bonbon was sure that she would have seen her.
Dash let out her frustration with a loud groan and punched the wall. She looked around the dead end. “There's nothing here!” she cried. “How the hay could she escape?”
Bonbon looked around at the walls around the alley. They were too tall to climb. There were two emergency exit doors, but they seemed to only open from the inside.
“Could she have teleported?” Lyra offered.
“What, Trixie? Teleport?” Rainbow scoffed, although it was a very unconvinced sound. “The day that loudmouth scrounged up any kind of talent would be the day I—” She wisely decided to not continue the sentence. “I mean, please don't tell me she did!”
“She did pull off some pretty impressive magic in that fall,” Lyra said quietly. “That bridge, I didn't know she could do that. Did you know she could do that?” She looked between them.
Trixie had also given Rainbow Dash a run for her money, Bonbon added silently. Either she was secretly a champion sprinter, in which case she ought to demand a refund on her cutie mark, or magic was to blame.
Rainbow Dash dragged a hoof down her burnt face and groaned in pain and frustration. “A competent Trixie? Just what I needed.”
“Well, she's gone,” Bonbon said. “We should get you to a hospital with that burn. I checked a map while we were at the barracks; I'm not sure where exactly we are right now,” she looked around for some sort of landmark, “but there's a hospital near the market where we came through.”
“It's nothing,” Dash said and turned around, looking like a blue thundercloud as she moved past the two. “Let's just get out of here. We're already way behind schedule because of this and that whole mess at the station.”
“What about all the chaos back there?” Bonbon continued.
“The guards will handle that,” Dash said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “Come on. I'm not wasting any more time in this city.”
“You'll waste enough time to let me clean that wound, at least,” Bonbon said firmly, prepared to stand her ground on the matter.
Lyra nodded in Bonbon's support. “You really should get it cleaned. There won't be any help but our own out in the mountains, remember?”
Dash let out a sigh and turned around, shoulders sagging. “Yeah, you're right.” Bonbon pulled out the injury kit from her saddlebags, but Rainbow waved her off. “Save that for the mountains. Just point me to that hospital you mentioned, and lets get it over with.”