//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: A Matter of Perspective // by Vic Fontaine //------------------------------// Chapter 2 "What do you mean, 'mindless ponies'? Are you sure you didn't hit your head, Spike?" Twilight gave her Number One Assistant a look that was both alarmed and confused. The young dragon had occasionally pranked her with tales of horror that turned out to be nothing at all, but his panicked entry into her bedroom belied a seriousness about the current situation - whatever it was. While Spike was finishing a valiant attempt at catching his breath, Rainbow Dash came to rest next to Twilight, the small amount of air disturbed by her wings the only sign that she had moved at all. Rainbow leaned down towards Spike, offering an equally confused look that at any other time, would have garnered a small chuckle from Twilight. "Are you sure you're ok?" asked Rainbow. "This had better be a good prank, if that's what you're planning. And, since you didn't ask me to help, it better be the best one ever." "No! This is no prank!" Spike exclaimed. Gathering what little strength had returned from his recent sprint, he stood up, and calmed his voice as much as he could. "I swear on Celestia, this is not a prank. The train station is swarming with zombie ponies! We've got to go help them!" The two mares looked at each other for a second, neither of them sure how to respond. Twilight was the first to break the already pregnant silence. "And you're sure they all came from Canterlot? On the same train?" "Yes!", he said. "The Noon train from Canterlot arrived, but when the train stopped, nopony got off. The station manager went to investigate, but came running out of the train seconds later, and hid in his office." "Well, if these ponies have no brains or whatever, and the station manager was spooked, how in the hay did they get off of the train?", asked Rainbow, her wings twitching a bit in a sign of her impatience with the situation. For the athletic pegasus, the only thing that could be as bad as not flying was waiting for an explanation. She was about to make a turn for the door, when a purple hoof landed on her shoulder. "Hold on a second, Rainbow. Nopony's going anywhere until Spike finishes telling us what he saw. Whatever happened on that train could still be out there, and it could be dangerous. If it's as bad as Spike says, we need to know what we're dealing with first". Rainbow turned back slightly, training her eyes to focus on the purple unicorn to her right. Twilight's right, she thought to herself. It's always like her to make a plan first to keep both of us safe, and somehow, it always works in the end. Just like Rosetta's plans always help Daring escape every trap and find every treasure. Yes, just like Rosetta. As her mind finished the thought, Rainbow could not help but focus her eyes just a bit tighter, and for a brief second, the unicorn next to her was different. Her purple eyes now framed by the thin gold frames of reading glasses, and her upper body covered in a gleaming white labcoat. Refocusing her gaze, she saw Twilight looking back at her, the unicorn's neutral looking stare betraying a mind that was undoubtedly hard at work trying to decipher the somehow distant look in Rainbow's own eyes. Her mental diversion was interrupted as quickly as it had begun though, as Spike jumped between the two mares. "Hey, are either of you listening?! As Twilight said, I need to finish my explanation!" The dragon let out a decidedly exasperated sigh, and both ponies turned back to him, slightly apologetic looks creasing both of their faces. "That's just it! they're still on the train, and nopony can get them to move!" The expressions on the two ponies faces grew more pensive as Spike continued. "They won't respond to anypony. They just stare straight ahead, with blank looks on their faces. It's like they've been reset, or something!" Twilight's brain was already running wild, sprinting through the dozens of books she had read on the natural (and sometimes unnatural) phenomenon of Equestria's past, searching in vain for an easy explanation for all of this. Finding none, she turned to Rainbow and Dash with a very worried look. "Whatever this is, it's probably not a natural occurrence. Nothing in my studies indicates a natural phenomenon that could 'reset' a train full of ponies. Some kind of magic is at play here, and we need to find out what it is." Her brain stuck on the phrase, 'need to find out', Dash leapt off of her hooves and bolted out of the bedroom, gliding down to the main floor of the library. Alighting near the front door, she looked back up the stairs to the second level. "Come on! The faster we leave, the faster we can find out what the hay is going on!" "Hold your feathers, Dash, I'm coming!", Twilight's words accompanied by the rush of her hooves running down the curved staircase. Still in stride, her horn was already aglow, grabbing a short stack of books related to advanced magic theory from various bookshelves and sliding them neatly into her pair of saddlebags. Topping it off with a notebook and the required quill and ink, she slowed to a halt next to the blue pegasus, who was coiled next to the door like a timberwolf preparing to strike. "Ok, let's g--" Her remaining words were lost in the wind, as Rainbow leapt through the door as soon as Twilight's magic pulled it open enough to allow the pegasus to squeeze through. Looking back at Spike, she adjusted her saddle bags and sprinted out the door, towards the train station. Towards what though, she had no idea. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight was no athlete like Rainbow Dash, but she kept herself in shape with regular exercise, and a diet that she learned from one of the many books in the Health and Wellpony section of the library. Her efforts in that regard paid off at the moment, as she was able to stay within shouting distance of the cyan blur that streaked through the streets of Ponyville ahead of her. Her hooves clapping loudly through the streets, Twilight was a bit of a blur herself as she blew by the few ponies in the town square at the time. Thankfully, she knew the way to the train station by heart, so as she ran, she could devote more of her brain power to sifting through the hundreds of magical spells and counterspells contained in the books that she brought from the library. Rounding the next corner towards the station, Twilight's mind was mentally drilling through one of Starswirl the Bearded's many treatise on the psychology of magic. Yet, another, smaller corner of her mind was doing a different type of drilling, focusing on the scene that had played out in her bedroom just minutes earlier. In a near endless loop, her mind replayed the animated conversation with Rainbow, parsing and reparsing the mare's passionate insistence that her Daring Do books told a different story than the one printed on the page. As the front of her mind discarded Starswirl's treatise for a similar work by another of Equestria's masters of magic, the back of Twilight's mind continued chewing on Rainbow's words, and her own exasperated responses to her seemingly delusional friend. Focusing on the moments before Spike's entrance cut their spirited debate short, Twilight made special note of Rainbow's last words on the subject - 'It's a matter of perspective'. Darting out of another alley, Twilight looked briefly up ahead to see Rainbow still a bit ahead of her, and the train station growing nearer by the second across the now open field that surrounded the station. Her mind sped up in tune with her hooves, focusing intently on what Rainbow's last words may have meant. Just how does Rainbow see these books?, she thought. It's like she's seeing the book through her own prism, and she's let it cloud her view of the world outside of the boo...." Twilight's eyes froze momentarily, her mind trying to grasp whatever tenuous connection it was trying to make. Forgetting that she was still running at full tilt, she closed her eyes, willing her mind to give more attention to the corner of her brain that was struggling to be heard. Before she could think any further, her mental and physical sprints were interrupted by a wall. She let out a yelp as she tumbled forward, her saddlebags barely staying attached to her frame. Snapping her eyes open to get her bearings, she noticed that the wall that she ran into was made of feathers - and also happened to be a familiar shade of blue. Raising her face a bit, she found herself nearly muzzle to muzzle with Rainbow Dash, the pegasus's wings wrapped around her in a protective embrace, and her hooves staggered as if she had just caught a runaway boulder in her grasp. "You know, running with your eyes closed isn't really a good idea." "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention, I guess", came Twilight's shaky reply, her cheeks flush with embarrassment. "I guess I got distracted." Rainbow let out a brief snort, and gave the bookish unicorn a small smirk. "I'd say so. If not for me, you'd have run past the train station entirely, and with the speed you were carrying, you'd be halfway to Sweet Apple Acres by now!" "I'm sorry! I just got distracted is all.", replied a suddenly defensive Twilight. "Too many spells running through my head right now, I think. The station is right over there, so let's get going." Unfurling her wings, Rainbow set the unicorn back on her hooves, which were still a bit shaky after their run was cut unceremoniously short. Twilight adjusted her saddlebags and turned immediately for the station platform, this time at a more measured canter. A few steps in, she stopped and turned back to Rainbow. "Thanks for catching me, Rainbow. I'm sorry I nearly ran you over." "Nah, don't sweat it!", replied the pegasus. "Good teams are always there for each other. How else do you think Daring and Rosetta make it out of every possible trap?" Twilight started to open her mouth to ask Rainbow to hold the Daring Do debate until later, but her voice fell silent, her mind already whisking Rainbow's words away into that same small corner from before. Twilight mused internally, frustrated by her mind's apparent willingness to tackle side projects when there was a crisis ahoof. Shaking her head to clear out the distraction, she again turned towards the station, the chromatic pegasus right next to her.