-11-
Dawn slowly crawled along the metal surface, moving as carefully as possible as to not attract any attention. It would be very hard to explain why a filly - let alone a princess - was crawling along the air ducts.
Avoiding getting caught was precisely the reason why she was up there in the first place. She wasn't supposed to be on this adventure at all.. That aside, after being on a train for a full week, she had learned a lot - which included adding a few new stealth tricks to practice in the castle kitchens.
She peered down through the grate above the refrigerator. In the kitchen car, there were only two ponies - both were there to serve late night snacks. One was preparing a trolley cart with a few bottles of juice and some other bottle she vaguely recognized as being used to cook with. The other was devouring a croissant from the fridge.
"Jeez, isn't that the second one you've stuffed your face with? We've only been working for an hour!" The mare with the trolley cart gave the other a stern look.
The stallion peered back from the fridge, "Bud um hungur-"
"Ew! Don't talk with your mouth full. I shouldn't have to remind you of how disgusting that is-"
The stallion swallowed, "You do it too!"
"No I don't! I'm a lady, not a pig. Secondly, if you had woken up on time you'd have been able to have dinner like the rest of the night shift. Now grab your cart. I don't want to be reprimanded for being lazy."
The stallion shut the fridge and opened one of the doors next to the sink. From within it, Dawn watched the other cart emerge, fully loaded.
The mare below snorted, "Actually, I'm amazed at how quickly you restock that thing."
The two ponies continued their chat as they slipped through the door into their sleeping quarters. Dawn waited until she heard the noise of the train on the tracks grew and then immediately faded. She let out a sigh of relief.
The grate swung open and the alicorn filly hopped out on top of the fridge. She swung open the door to the fridge and took a deep breath; climbing down was the hardest part. Using the various shelves on the door, she slowly lowered herself to the ground, careful not to knock over any of the bottles that sat near her hooves.
When she touched onto the ground, she bounded over to the nearest cabinet. Inside was an array of vegetables and fruits, neatly stacked on top of one another. She immediately reached for a carrot, sticking it right into her mouth. She flipped open the saddlebags she had "borrowed" from one of the packed bags. Anything she found to her liking she stuck in the bag: apples, oranges, celery, and of course, a bag of cookies. Since they refilled the food stores yesterday at the last station, there were so many of her favorite foods in her bags. It would even last her two whole days - something that was difficult to manage during the trip.
Dawn pushed the cabinets closed, humming happily to herself. She opened the fridge and began to lift herself and the bags towards the grate.
That's when she heard the sounds of muffled voices draw near once again. She scrambled up the shelves, nearly sending several glass bottles to their doom on the floor below. The bag made it into the air duct first, followed quickly by the young filly.
The door opened, with the mare storming inside first, "For Celestia's sake, how hard is it to just serve somepony without trying to hit on them!"
"I was not hitting on that mare! We were having polite conversation about fine wine-"
"Until you asked her if her parents were wine makers because she was 'so fine'."
Dawn raised her eyebrow in the air duct. Why would anypony assume somepony’s family made wine?
The stallion blushed and turned away, “It happens when I get nervous. You of all ponies know that.”
The mare sighed. She seemed to know all too well, but that didn’t stop her from being completely annoyed with him. As she pushed the cart towards the pantry, she ran right into the open refrigerator door. The waitress let out an exasperated sigh.
“How many times have I told you to make sure the refrigerator is closed? It doesn’t always shut if you try to kick it closed on the way out.”
The stallion muttered something under his breath, igniting a fresh round of bickering and nagging. It was the perfect cover for Dawn to crawl quietly down the air duct to the bathroom - right from where she came. It was at the very end of the car, closest to the baggage car where she’d been hiding out for a whole week. She dropped down onto the bathroom counter. With her teeth, she placed the hat she left behind - a brown and grey cabby hat she had found left loose in her train car. Whenever she had chanced being discovered, she donned the hat to cover up her horn, letting her walk by unnoticed - at least, that was the hope.
She pushed the door open a crack. The tight little hallway to the stewards’ bedroom was empty but filled with the noise of the train coming from the door around the corner. Without another moment of hesitation, she darted around the corner and slipped through the door into the baggage car. Dawn licked her lips.
Time for dinner.
--*--
Dawn lay on her back, patting her now filled stomach. She had devoured all of the carrots she had taken from the pantry, which was preceded by a few of the cookies as an early dessert. It didn't take long for her to fall into the state of bliss she was enjoying. She'd never be able to eat like this in the castle. "Proper" food portions never made her feel full and tired.
The filly dragged over a moving blanket from beside her, draping it over herself to keep warm. Despite the hot air blowing from the engine through all of the cars, being in the final car meant it was cold. Not as cold as outside, of course - but still cold enough to need one.
As she turned her head to stare at the ceiling, thoughts and questions flooded her brain. Much of her decision making had made perfect sense at the time. Now, however, she was terribly lonely.
It wasn't surprising, considering she had hid away in a baggage car for a whole week. She did find - and read - some of the books Twilight had packed away in her bag. She understood a good amount of the material, as it was mostly recent history. Without her sister around, she was able to read in peace without anypony finding out. The last thing she wanted was to be called a bookworm like her sister.
But there was one book that confused her out of all of the ones in the bag: a children's book. Twilight wasn’t a little filly any longer so she certainly had no need for it. It was also almost in perfect condition. She decided that it was finally time to take a look at the book.
Dawn rolled onto her stomach and reached forward into the bag. After fishing around for a moment, she pulled out the book and opened the front cover.
Realization hit her like a brick. There on the front cover was an early signature by none other than Twilight Sparkle. Just above that was a small slip of paper taped to the inside of the book:
To my wonderful daughters,
I hope you enjoy this book as much as I once did!
-Twilight Sparkle
It was a gift. A gift to two ponies she hadn’t even met. Dawn was having trouble processing how to handle the situation. Her sister probably would have consulted a book about it, but she didn’t have a library with her on the train - even though Twilight seemed to pack one.
Dawn shoved everything else back into the bag - food, books, anything she had taken out of the bag. She threw her saddlebags over her back and carefully packed her book inside. Adding the hat she wore earlier, she quietly moved into the food car.
Instead of climbing into the air ducts, she tiphoofed her way into the steward’s bedroom. It was pretty easy to hear the two servers arguing again in the back room... again. She took that as an opportunity to dash across the room and slip into the next car.
She had not explored this far during the entire week. It was risky to sneak out too far - she would be sent home if she was caught. Even with the hat, she would have a very difficult time trying to prove she was somepony else. But if by any luck, the cars were set up in a similar way, she figured it would be easy to get to the air ducts through the bathroom.
When she entered the bathroom, she was relieved to find her hunch was correct. Up above her was another air duct similar to the one in the food car. Just as before, she used the soap and paper towel dispensers to reach the entrance. She grabbed hold of the grates and tugged as hard as she could. A low squeal responded as the grate swung down on its hinges.
As she started crawling around inside, she noticed one major difference between the cars - this one had a whole lot more exits. Each room in the car seemed to have its own duct access in case they needed extra fresh air, making it a lot harder to find her destination.
She spent her time moving down each of the exits, finding either empty rooms or sleeping ponies she didn’t recognize. It was like finding a needle in a haystack. Unfortunately, after about 15 minutes, she discovered that her target was not in this car.
“Ponyfeathers,” she whispered.
Dawn crawled back to the bathroom she entered from and snuck her way down the hallway - at a full gallop. There was no other way to get to the next car without being caught in the process. As she slid to a stop at the other end, she heard the door to the food car open. She flung the door open and crossed into the other car.
She fled into the nearest bathroom - which was thankfully not occupied at this hour - and scrambled hurriedly into the duct system. She closed the grate and stayed still. The door opened below.
“I told you. You’re just seeing things again. Now just focus on the rooms we need to serve, alright? It’s late and I want to be in bed soon.”
The door closed. Dawn stayed put for a little while longer. Her heart was pounding from the adrenaline and fear of getting discovered. Gradually her breathing eased back to normal. Once she was sure the pony wasn’t coming back in, she let out a sigh of relief and continued down the ducts.
The first couple of rooms in this car were a complete bust. In the first room, there were several extra blankets and pillows stacked on the bed, but nothing else. The second and third cars were neatly prepared for the next guests to use. The fourth room was also empty, but from there, she could hear snoring from the next room. Quietly she slid her way to the edge and peered inside.
Below, covered in an apple-patterned blanket, was Applejack. She was sleeping peacefully in her bed, both hooves tucked neatly beneath her. Her hat hung on the rack at the edge of the bed. Her mane was already becoming a tangled mess as she turned to face the wall.
Dawn crawled over to the room opposite Applejack’s. Her Aunt Rainbow was sprawled out on her back, snoring. The blanket was already half on the floor and the pillow was squat on top of her face. It did nothing to quiet the snoring, however. Dawn giggled a little bit before moving to the next room.
She was surprised to find Thunder Cloud still wearing part of his uniform as he slept. His shoes and helmet were neatly set up at the foot of the bed on top of the provided footlocker. She had a feeling she knew who was in the next room.
When she peered through the next grate, she found Twilight still wide awake on her bed, reading to herself by candlelight. Rather, that’s what she saw at first glance. Twilight placed the book in the drawer and lay her head down on the pillow. Now that she faced towards Dawn, it was clear she had not been reading.
Tears streamed down the mare’s face. She looked exhausted - as if she hadn’t slept in days. The purple unicorn pulled the covers over her head and faced the opposite wall in an attempt to muffle her sobs.
Dawn wanted desperately to comfort her mother. She hated when anypony was upset, let alone a family member. Sure, she didn’t know her like she did Luna, but Twilight was still her mother. But Dawn hesitated. She was torn between watching Twilight in agony or revealing herself and getting sent home at the next stop.
The filly buried her head in her hooves, trying not to listen to Twilight cry herself to sleep.
--*--
“How sad.”
Cunning leaned back in Bright Light’s office chair, watching the young filly doing her best not to cry. Dawn was his favorite to watch on these late evenings. So was Twilight, although watching a pony read a book for ten hours straight was enough to make him want to turn himself in to Celestia - almost.
This particular night just happened to be important to him. He glanced over at the map spread out on the desk. Several routes of travel had been marked with different colored ink, most of which were in the northern end of the map. Little known to Twilight and her companions, they had recently crossed the border into the now autonomous Northern Provinces. Essentially they had passed the point of no return.
This wouldn’t have been the case if the diplomats had listened to reason. Had the Northern Provinces heeded Celestia’s warnings, they would be all too prepared to observe any Equestrian transportation or merchant caravan.
“Darkest Hour?”
A dark gray Unicorn’s face appeared on the surface of the water in Cunning’s scrying bowl. His mane was a stark white, neatly slicked back into a tight braid. He also had a short beard with speckles of light gray mixed in with the white.
“Yes, Cunning,” the unicorn responded.
“I believe the cultists are getting restless?”
The unicorn nodded.
“Excellent. I believe it’s time for you to stop a train. Celestia expects Miss Sparkle to approach the dragons through pony lands. I need her to take much longer.”
“As you wish.”
His face disappeared from the bowl.
“Vengeance. Victory.”
Two images floated to the surface. In both there was a clear crowd in their area. It would be strange if they talked to no one in particular.
“Vengeance, bring Manehatten to its knees.” Her image disappeared from the bowl, “Victory, I don’t have to tell you how upset Gryffons get when their territory is raided. Don’t get too close - yet.”
Cunning waved a hoof over the water, stifling the magic within it. He gave a quaint yawn, before walking towards Bright Light’s quarters. He would have wonderful dreams tonight.
--*--
Dawn awoke with a start. She wasn’t sure when she had fallen asleep, nor for how long. Judging by the pitch black sky showing through the window below, she assumed it hadn’t been long. Below, Twilight was fast asleep. No evidence remained of her crying just a few hours ago. That didn’t stop Dawn from wanting to comfort her mother.
As quietly as she could, Dawn lowered the grate from the air duct, letting it swing slightly on its hinges. Using whatever was available for hoofholds, she made her way down to the floor. She opened the hoof
locker at the end of the bed.
Inside the hooflocker, she rummaged around for Twilight’s saddlebags. She slipped the book out of and placed in her mother’s saddlebags. A smile crept up on her face. Hopefully that would cheer her up since she still couldn’t do that just yet.
Dawn got ready to climb back into the ducts but stopped herself. She walked over to the bed and raised herself onto her tiphooves. She gently kissed Twilight on the cheek.
“Feel better mommy,” she whispered.
Twilight shifted a little under the blankets, freezing Dawn in place. A smile formed on Twilight’s face. Dawn turned away from the bed and walked back to where she climbed down.
The train shook violently to the side. Dawn was tossed haphazardly at the bed, slamming her head into the wood. Twilight was similarly flung into the nearest wall from the force, before landing roughly on the mattress. Dawn recovered slowly, crawling under the bed in a last ditch attempt to hide.
The unicorn landed right on the floor beside her, face down on the carpet.
“Ugh...” Twilight muttered to herself, rubbing her head. Her vision swam, focusing in and out as she righted herself. It was a futile attempt, however, as the train slammed on its brakes. She slid to the far end of the room, hitting her side against the wall with a dull thud.
Dawn rolled out from under the bed. She grabbed onto the leg of the bed to keep herself from plowing into the unicorn.
Twilight screamed. She hadn’t noticed anyone enter the room before she had gone to sleep. Her first reaction to the filly brought her to the image of a burglar or some destitute orphan like in Olive Twist. She tried to raise defensive magic, but a swift shock from her horn restraints reminded her that she was.
The filly lost her grip and tumbled across the floor as her hat flew off of her head.
A horn? Twilight thought. Only alicorns have horns, but there are only four and two are-
She shook her head back and forth, trying to clear the image from her mind. It had to be a hallucination - there were only two alicorn fillies in Equestria and they were both hers. Besides, she would know if the filly was hers - hopefully.
Her head throbbed once more. The pain in her head seemed to be contributing to her hallucinations. She felts something tap against her leg. When she opened her eyes, the filly had rolled to a complete stop against her hooves.
When she opened her eyes, she noticed the blood in the filly’s mane and her rational mind dove out the window. Her forelegs wrapped around the filly’s body, bringing her into a gentle embrace. All she could focus on was keeping this filly- no, her daughter safe. The very sight of the injury pained her greatly, forcing the adrenaline to pour into her system.
The train was slammed into again knocking Twilight and her foal through the door and into the hallway. Sounds from the brakes suddenly stopped. Twilight had a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach as she felt the train start to roll off of the tracks. She squeezed Dawn as tightly as she could while the train began its reckless rolling down the slope beside the track.
It vaguely reminded Twilight of a washing machine. Except in this case, she had the utmost displeasure of being the clothing inside. The irony of the thought wasn’t lost on her as she rolled along with the train.
Mercifully, it only took a few seconds for the train to stop rolling around and come to a definitive halt. Twilight lay against the wall opposite her room, holding tightly onto her filly, who had long since passed out in her forelegs. The door beside her burst open. Applejack hauled herself out of her room into the now sideways hall.
“Twi’? You alri-” Applejack’s face went pale. Dawn was certainly not supposed to be here. A derailed train was probably one of the worst possible things that could have happened on the trip in pony lands. There were much worse things that could happen out in the field. She swallowed, still a little shocked, “Issat... Dawn?”
“I don’t know! She’s... she’s barely breathing and she’s bleeding all over the place and I don’t know what to do!” Twilight screamed. She was in a full on panic mode, trying desperately to think of something.
“Oh, sweet Celestia are we in it deep.”
The door to Rainbow Dash’s room opened, hanging by its hinges. Rainbow Dash touched down on the opposite wall, “What the hay are you talking about, AJ? Dawn is in Canterlot, not-” she stared at Twilight, then at the filly in her arms, “totally here in the middle of a train wreck.”
Applejack looked at Rainbow with concern.
Rainbow sighed, “You’re right AJ. We’re bucked.”
“Find the spy! The ‘Princess’ will rue the day she thought she could pull the clouds over our eyes. Kill everypony else. Their blood is on her hands!”
Thunder Cloud barreled through the door of his room, his armor gleaming in the dim emergency lights. He landed by the frantic unicorn, eyeing the young princess with mix of worry and exasperation. The sounds of screams filled the air, mixed by the distinctive thud of hooves on to of the train.
“They likely have us surrounded,” Thunder Cloud announced. “You need to hide, now.”
“Where? In case you haven’t noticed, there aren’t any hiding spaces on a tipped over train!” Rainbow said, raising her voice.
The window in Twilight’s room shattered, as a unicorn dropped down into the hallway. Thunder Cloud moved swiftly, using his wings to slide across the hall until he was right in front of the intruder. With one swipe of his wing, the unicorn swayed and slumped over, dead.
The three of them stared at the guard, who tossed a key which landed in front of Twilight, “My priority is the safety of the princess above all else. For lack of any better option, I am releasing you to heal her and protect her as only a mother can.” He held a faint smile on his face, “Hide. I will give you the chance to go unnoticed. I’m sorry I won’t be able to come with you.”
“Thunder Cloud...” Rainbow knew that look on his face. Everypony in Cloudsdale had that look on their face just before they were forced into battle. It was the look of a pony who knew he was going to die, but was determined to make it mean something.
“May Celestia’s light shine upon me, her wrath blind my enemies, for in the name of the three tribes we are destined to fight together or fall to blind hatred...” He took flight through the broken window.
The three ponies just stared after him, almost entranced by the determination behind his words. Applejack slumped against the wall, sliding down onto her rump. She was badly shaken by Thunder Cloud’s actions - specifically the speed at which he took the cultist’s life.
Rainbow didn’t hesitate any longer. She took the key in her teeth and fumbled around the restraint to find the lock. Only Twilight could heal Dawn and get them out of this mess.
With a dull thud, the restraint fell to the floor, startling Applejack from her stupor. She watched the magic flow freely from Twilight’s horn, slowly encompassing her daughter and filling the hallway with light. Tendrils of magic spread outward still, reaching out for Rainbow and herself. Applejack’s heart sank into her stomach.
Oh, Celestia no, Applejack thought. The earth pony did her best to back up from what she thought was her worst fear - something controlling Twilight Sparkle. She was engulfed anyway and she let out a small whimper before closing her eyes.