//------------------------------// // Present 2-A Path to Follow // Story: The Woes of Scorpan // by articunos bitch //------------------------------// Twilight awoke slowly and lifted the flap on her tent. Orange light spilled onto her sleeping bag and, from the angle, it looked like it was nearly sunset. It was the “morning” of their fourth day walking through this forsaken dust bowl. She and Lyra had packed fourteen days of food each, and Lyra bought enough fruit and rice for another two in Appleoosa. She figured it would come in handy. Actually, all it did was give her an excuse to stay an extra day out here, and Twilight was too exhausted from their first day of walking to argue when she found out. Yawning and rising to her hooves, she thought again how it could get so cold and quiet in this desert. She brought along a windbreaker for this trip, while Lyra had her jet-black hoodie. But the silence really bothered her. Wheather the night life of Canterlot or insect life of Ponyville, Twilight was used to hearing something after the sun went down. No water out here meant no vegetation, which meant no herbivores, meaning no carnivores. That made for safer travel at night, but there was absolutely nothing alive except for them out here. It chilled her more than the cold. Twilight poked her head out in the desert winds. Fortunately they were blowing away from her today. Looking around, she saw Lyra on her haunches far away, looking at something in her hoof. “Lyra!” she called. “Lyra!” She was enthralled with whatever it was and ignoring her. Growling at her crap this early in their day, Twilight ducked into her tent again and grabbed her canteen before trotting out to see what was so important. She did look up as Twilight spread her wings. “Twilight! I found something! You’re not going to believe it!” “Probably not,” Twilight to herself closing the distance between them and drinking half her water on the way. “So, what do you got, Lyra? What are you holding?” She pulled her laden hoof behind her back and remained on her haunches. “Ahh, but first: what are we standing on?” Looking down, Twilight answered, “Sand, Lyra. There is nothing out here but sand and rocks.” “You think you are so smart, you think you are a sleuth? Dig deeper, my little pony, and learn the truth!” Lyra said in a passable impression of Zecora, clearly enjoying herself. “Did you spend all day coming up with that one?” Twilight mocked her as she dug her hooves in, moving sand around. “No, I got enough sleep. Besides, I earned some fun. See it yet?” “No Lyra, I do not. I see rocks. Just like what we’ve seen so far.” “Not just any rocks. Specifically gravel. Doesn’t it seem odd to find gravel in the desert?” Twilight glared at her. “Okay, a little back from where you’re standing, the gravel ends and becomes just sand. The same thing happens three meters this way. I followed this gravel bed a hundred meters that way” she pointed vaguely west, “and two hundred meters the other way. Both times, the gravel is three meters wide. That does not happen on its own. I think it was put here, measured carefully, for a rail line.” Twilight stared at her in disbelief. “A rail line? That’s a lot to guess from a pile of gravel.” “I also have this. Catch.” Lyra tossed what she held in her hooves in Twilight’s direction who caught it easily. It was a thirty centimeter rusted piece of metal. “I’m still not getting it.” “That is a railroad spike, Twilight Sparkle. To build a line, you lay the ties, then the gravel, use these to nail plates to the ties, and those plates keep the rails straight so the train doesn’t go off the rails. I haven’t found anything else, but I think someone pulled up the tracks and left this behind. Does that make sense?” Twilight learned about rail lines when the station was put into Ponyville proper, but this was a stretch even for Pinkie Pie to believe. “Lyra, why would someone put a railroad out here in this desert? Why would they tear it up?” “Twilight, who says it always was a desert? There could have been something out here before. I say there was; building a railroad takes a lot of work. And I have proof it was here. But do you want to know the best part?” Twilight sighed. “What’s the best part, Lyra?” “This bed of gravel runs east, right in the direction of where we’re going. Isn’t that exciting? We’ve been walking parallel to a path all along going the same place we are. It’s great.” She squeed. Turning it over in her mind, Twilight figured she did have a point. “So we just walk here, and at the very least, we will have a clear way to get back home, right?” “You could say that. But this is proof, Twilight, that there IS something here, or there. Now, we need to find exactly what it is. C’mon. Let’s get breakfast, pack up, and be on our way. We’ve still got a lot of ground to cover!” Lyra trotted off, leaving Twilight to speculate. If this is the remains of a train track, what is it doing here? Celestia never mentioned anything being out here, ever. I missing a piece of this puzzle. I will have time to find it later.