//------------------------------// // The Unknown // Story: Finest Gold and Silver // by Quicksear //------------------------------// “So, uh, is this our train?” Ditzy flicked Marc a strange look. She’d been doing that a lot lately. “You should probably just check the tickets?” Marc fumbled with the two slips he’d forgot he held in the bustle of the train station and checked the train numbers on the rough brown paper, “Train F. E. Three, Evening Train, on line one. Yeah, This must be it. Heh…” In a typical Ponyville weekday, the town’s train station moved upwards of a hundred visitors to and from the small but immensely important town. On the surface, it was a small rural village, with quaint cottages and rustic charm aplenty. Only a glance down any of the streets, though, would find out how much more this town was. When half the faces in the town square had been on magazine covers across the country, it really should have been obvious. Not many ponies realized that this was in fact an assembled think-tank, mere miles from the Capitol of the nation and on a border in need of protecting. Not many realized, but those that did came here in droves. So, standing there on the only platform, surrounded by a shifting crowd of ponies who walked around him at a wide berth, chattering in low tones and looking at him like yet another attraction the town had to offer, Marc wondered why on earth they had yet to build another railway line. “Marc, this is the l-last time I’m gonna s-say…” Ditzy started, but with a glance over her shoulder, she stopped. Marc cast a quick glance over the heads of the pony mob and saw, to his slight distress, a pale lavender-coated unicorn filly bouncing on the back of a rather determined orange-maned earth pony. Dinky looked happy enough, but the look in Carrot Top’s eyes spoke volumes; I will hurt you if you back out, you spineless pegasus. Ditzy turned back to the train, “Let’s t-talk on the train rather…” Marc knew what Ditzy wanted to say. It was roughly the same thing she’d said every day for last week: The trip is a bad idea, we need to think this through, what about Rosewood, your friends, Dinky? So many practical reasons why going would be ill-advised, and yet Marc’s friends themselves had begged him to go. And from the look in Carrot Top’s eyes, Ditzy’s had been much the same, though, he was sure, for different reasons. Marc himself had had his second thoughts, but the case Twilight had made was very conclusive and convincing. After she’d calmed him down, that is. So Marc had been convinced that this was a vitally important diplomatic mission to save himself the trouble of harassment from upper-tier citizens, who just so happened to be the parents of the mare with whom he had been happily living for the last few months. It certainly wasn’t going to be emotional and/or awkward in any way. The lump in his throat was purely coincidental. “Come on.” He grunted, before he lost his nerve. ***** “You know, I don’t think Equestrian trains were designed with humans in mind…” Ditzy commented as Marc hunched under the overhead luggage compartment of their cabin. He grinned back awkwardly as he fiddled with his ticket, already punched by the conductor. “When are we gonna get going? I feel like we’ve just been sitting here for six months.” “Not that I mind,” Ditzy muttered, staring out of the window, “I’m n-not exactly looking forward to this much.” Marc stopped moving and studied the pegasus across from him. The last few days had been weird, but, from what he’d heard of Ditzy’s family, he didn’t blame her in the slightest. Leading pegasi of Cloudsdale both, they held quite a lot of sway over politics, which is what pertained to Marc himself, but more importantly, they were Ditzy’s family, and apparently the first time they would learn of their daughters harbouring a strange amnesiac alien would be when she turned up on their doorstep with said alien in tow. The train suddenly seemed a lot more comfortable to him as well. He gulped, “I’m sure it won’t be so bad. It’s just a vacation, after all.” “M-Marc…” Ditzy looked at the floor, blinking nervously as her ears swivelled every which way. She glanced up at Marc, then looked away, sighing, “Th-there’s still a-a l-lot of stuff I sh-should tell you…” Oh boy, Marc thought, this is going to be awkward. Well, at least now is the perfect time to talk about it. “Ditzy, I know we have a...unique situation, but...I never turned you down.” “I n-never actually asked anything, either.” Ditzy muttered, snorting. Silence filled the car after that, more oppressive than the talking had been. After a few minutes passed, Ditzy’s stiff posture collapsed, wings wilting tiredly, “I-I’m s-sorry...it’s just...I’m not exactly good with stalli...y-yeah, that…” “Why me?” Ditzy looked up sharply as Marc spoke, unsure of his meaning. There was a glint in his eye, a sudden resolution there, despite his being folded up like a deckchair, “Why me? You basically just said it yourself; there are ponies, Ditzy, that would be lucky to have you. But...I just don’t understand. I don’t know how to feel about it when there’s so many questions in my head.” “It’s...it’s complicated…” Ditzy rubbed one forehoof against the other, still unable to look Marc in the eye as she spoke, “But...You’re you. You’re Marc. You’re kind, funny, interesting...you don’t mind when I burn the salad…” both couldn’t help but share a chuckle at the memory, “...you’re s-so incredible, despite what you’ve been through, losing your home, even your memories..” Ditzy’s voice strengthened as she lost herself in her own explanation, “You have Princesses clamouring for your attention and have faced down gods, Marc, do you realize that? And st-still, you don’t mind...you actually want to live...with me. The derp-eyed weird pegasus on the hill. The mare who met you by nearly killing you. Somehow, you seem to care of m-me too…” “Of course I do, you know that.” Ditzy’s ears laid back as she blushed, finishing, “Y-yeah, and...well, I’ve grown to...you know...want more. With you.” Marc swallowed painfully, not wanting to say it, but he had to, “More. With an alien.” “No, not an alien,” Ditzy snorted at the thought, “Not an alien. Just with you.” Marc didn’t know what to say to that. For a long while, they just sat in silence, not daring to look at each other, but unable to look anywhere else. At some point the train had set off, leaving Ponyville, and everything Marc was familiar with, far behind. Suddenly, being out of his comfort zone didn’t seem so bad. “You’re...right. It’s not a matter of what, but of who. No pony is closer to my heart than you. Nopony will be, I don’t think. Ditzy, if...if you want more, then...I’m willing to try.” It took almost thirty seconds for the penny to drop for the confused pegasus, “R-R-Really? B-but...I’m a mare with...” “I’m a tall, furless bipedal ape-like alien.” Marc deadpanned, “This is pretty new ground all round.” “Nooo, I mean...I have h-history…” Ditzy awkwardly started to explain. Marc, though, was too nervously giddy to listen. “Well, yeah! You never told me you were actually a noble. Or, at least something close as…” Marc rubbed his chin thoughtfully as Ditzy gasped like a fish, unable to find the right words. In the end, Marc found some before she did, “Okay, okay, I need to calm down. Maybe we should just focus on telling your parents how you’ve had an alien living with you and your sister for the past while.” Ditzy suddenly deflated, pawing at the vinyl of her seat, “Yeah...s-sister…” Marc cocked his head confusedly, “What?” “Oh, uh...I-I have a b-brother too.” “Well then. Hope he doesn’t try to beat me up for playing alien mind-tricks on his sister or anything.” “You know,” Ditzy interjected, changing the subject quickly as she sat up, “If you don’t stop calling yourself an alien, nopony else will, either.” “Heh,” Marc rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, “Good point.” “We sh-should get some sleep. We get to the Cloudsdale terminal early tomorrow” Marc looked at the pegasus across from him yet again. The awkwardness was still there, but the air had been cleared between them somewhat; Ditzy was actually looking back. Her soft smile spoke of a new calm, her ears up, listening to his silence even against the clatter of the train car. She help herself differently now, stronger.But he could see apprehension in her eyes, and he realized, there was still a lot he didn’t know about this pony he had become so attached to, a pony who had surprised him at every turn. Marc returned her smile as he lay over to the side and whispered his goodnight. The next morning, as the early light shone through the blinds of the cabin as the train braked into the Cloudsdale Train Terminal, Marc woke to a familiar soft feathery blanket over his chest, and a warm form breathing gently beside him, somehow finding a way to share his seat with him in slumber. He realized yet again how he wouldn’t want it any other way.