I got the reply for my application to see the Princess about Spirit today, she said that she’ll see us! Oh, he’ll be overjoyed! I didn’t waste a moment, as soon as I was done reading the letter, I raced into the living room, where Spirit was just standing with his eyes closed. I wonder if he is imagining he’s back with his herd. He’s told me a lot about them… I think. Sure, I understand most of what he’s saying, and I usually get the jist of it, but there are times when things he says just goes over my head. I go up to him, and pull him back to Equestria, which I did feel sorry for, but I had news for him that he probably wanted to hear.
“Princess Celestia has agreed to see us!” I say excitedly. Hearing this, his face went from mild annoyance to excitement. I knew he would be happy. “We can take the train to Canterlot later today.”
In an instant, his look changed to one of confusion. He nickered to me that he didn’t know what a train was, and that he preferred to run, but I told him that it was too far to run, and a Train is much faster. Eventually, he caved and agreed on the train. I went upstairs to gather my things, leaving Spike to watch over Spirit, and make sure that he didn’t break anything.
We made our way to the Train Station. I had sent Spike ahead to get the tickets for us, but when we arrived, and he saw the train at the platform, he began to panic. He began to harshly neigh something about a sled, whips and a mountain. I tried to calm him, but to no avail. Something happened to him ages ago, which has forever traumitized him against trains. But if he wouldn’t ride the train, the only other option would be Airship… and tickets for those cost a small fortune.
One way or another, I had to get Spirit onto the train, but every time he calmed down enough to approach the train, he instantly reverted back to his panicked state. After a time, the Conductor came up. “Ma’am, I’m sorry, but the train needs to leave” He said. “You two have to either get on, or wait for the next one in a few hours.”
“Just… give me one more minute,” I pleaded to him “I’ll get him to come around” The conductor just shook his head and waved some sort of signal to the Engineer. I guessed that it was something like ‘You can’t leave yet’, because the train didn’t go anywhere. I turned to Spirit. “What’s got you so upset about Trains?” I asked him.
He responded by telling me about how the two-leggeds, or “Humans” as Rain called them, had forced him and a team of many other horses to pull a train up a mountain on a sled. He caused the sled to crash and the train to be destroyed, but the whole ordeal had traumatized him. I now understood. To him, Trains remind him of slavery and oppression. No wonder he was terrified of them. “Look, here, everypony… and horse, is treated equally. You need not fear this train” I reasoned. “There won’t be any judgement or hard labor at the end of this ride.”
“Ma’am, it’s now or never.” The conductor told me. “Are you on or off?” I looked at Spirit with pleading eyes, his brown eyes staring back into mine. Finally, he relented, and slowly began to walk with me toward the carriage. Once we were on board, we heard the conductor shout “All aboard!” and the train left the station.
Spirit was quiet the entire ride to Canterlot. When he wasn’t absorbed in his own little world, he was glancing around at the ponies nervously, who were returning his looks with ones with similar expressions. When we arrived at Canterlot, we were greeted by a platoon of Royal Guards and two chariots. One which was regular pony sized, and the other one was more Alicorn sized, so I guessed that one was for Spirit. However, seeing him in the chariot, it became very clear that he was actually quite a bit bigger than any pony… Not even Celestia could match his size, and she’s the largest pony I know.
Eventually, we were both in our chariots, with Spirit getting quite a bit of help from the Guard, and even having to have a rope tied across the back of the Chariot, just to stop him from falling out. Once we were both in and ready to go, we left the Train Station. Eventually, we arrived at the castle, and glancing over at Spirit, I wondered what was going through his head at that moment. His face was of dumb-struck amazement. His eyes were wide and he was slack-jawed. I couldn’t help but let out a little giggle.
We disembarked from our Chariots, once again, Spirit requiring the aid of the Royal Guard, and headed through the doors of the castle. I desperately wanted to show him the parts of the castle I grew up in, the Library where I spent most of my time, the room I used to sleep in… Everything about my history was in this building. But we had a job to do, and I wasn’t about to ignore it.