//------------------------------// // Along for the Ride // Story: The Long Ride // by Truffles //------------------------------// Clackety-clack, clackety-clack! The rhythmic sound of the train's wheels passing over the track's couplings echoed through the passenger car, producing a hypnotic effect that lulled the car's sole passenger into a dreamlike state. She could no longer guess how long she had been sitting there riding alone since boarding in Ponyville; she had succumbed to simply watching the scenery fly by. Close objects outside the train moved so quickly they appeared no more than soft, spectral blurs through the panes of glass. Just over the horizon, Celestia's warm and nourishing sun was rising again, casting golden beams around the edges of distant clouds. She turned to look behind her and saw the remaining few stars set against the deep royal blue of Luna's gorgeous night as the moon slowly set on the opposite horizon. The yellow pony leaned over sideways and rested her pink coiffure on arm of the seat. Nopony else was in this particular car which made her feel very much at ease. It was bad enough that she had to travel alone on this journey; finding a car all to herself was a wonderful stroke of luck! As she let her eyelids droop she looked around her little home-away-from-home. A dainty little purple tea set was set up for passengers on a shelf at the head of the car, along with some warm muffins for snacking on. The wisps of steam and their aroma made her hungry, but she was so tired she resisted the urge to unsettle herself from her cozy little spot. The car was decorated in the usual Equestrian-Victorian style, wood trim and rounded edges everywhere. The ceiling was a painted mural of ponies playing and dancing among the stars. It was all very comfy, and she slowly drifted to sleep. A loud rustling at the door to the next car interrupted her brief respite all too soon, however, followed by the muffled squeals of an excited pony. When she turned to look at what was going on, she saw a flash of colors on the head of a sky blue pony through the door's glass window. It was some moments later that this pony managed to get the doorknob to work and flung the door open, racing over to the seated yellow pony with a huge smile that could brighten Tartarus. “Omigoshomigoshomigosh! Fluttershy! It's really you!” she exclaimed excitedly as she bit the tips of her forehooves, her eyes twinkling at the welcome sight of an old friend. She immediately picked her up by her shoulders and brought her in close for a tight hug. “Rainbow Dash? Ooof! Oh my… goodness!” Fluttershy cried out. “Imagine me meeting you here of all places!” Rainbow Dash gently placed her back onto her seat and took up a spot next to her. “Yeah, I'm over in the next car. The ponies in there are a real bunch of live ones!” the sarcasm dripping from the end of her sentence. “So I got bored and started looking around and BAM saw you sitting all here by yourself in the next car. I just had to come over to see you and keep you company!” Fluttershy looked demurely at Rainbow over her concern and offer. “Why, thank you so much Rainbow. It was kind of lonely in here.” Fluttershy didn't want to hurt her friend's feelings by telling her she was actually looking forward for some alone time to take a nap, but figured it might be nicer to have a friend along for the long ride. “So Fluttershy, how many years has it been since we last saw each other? Ten? Twenty? I've completely lost track!” She blinked her eyes and drowsily looked around the passenger car to ponder this question. The effects of just having been suddenly re-awoken were still prevalent, making processing of such questions difficult. “Oh, I don't know. At least that long,” Fluttershy replied. “Ever since you became Team Captain of the Wonderbolts we rarely get to see you anymore.” “Yeah, about that… I'm really sorry I haven't kept in touch with you enough. Being Team Captain takes up a lot of my time, along with everything else.” “Oh, I understand.” Actually, she didn't; but she didn't want to be critical right now. She was upset when Rainbow left to officially join the Wonderbolts and had been missing her ever since. “So what is it like being Team Captain?” “It's totally awesome!” Rainbow Dash couldn't help herself upon getting to talk about the Wonderbolts, and immediately switched on her usual swagger, “Yep, yep, well… What can I say? Those guys eventually did see who the most amazing pony in all of Equestria was!” Fluttershy giggled and shook her head to herself while giving a bit of an eye roll to Rainbow's self-aggrandizing: That's just Dash being herself. “In fact,” Rainbow Dash continued, “that's why I'm here – as Team Captain I'm traveling ahead to help set up our next airshow in Las Pegasus!” “I'm surprised you simply don't fly from city to city for your airshows,” Fluttershy questioned. “Certainly you are faster than a train can travel, yes?” “Yeah, that's true!” Rainbow exclaimed, puffing her chest at the compliment. “But – as you probably can guess, I'm not quite as spry as I used to be,” she admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of her mane, “and anyway, I'm coming from Manehatten, and doing a cross-country flight like that is a bit tiring on these old wings.” “That's wonderful, Rainbow! I'm sure you'll give the audience quite a display of aerial acrobatics.” Fluttershy smiled back at her but stopped when an uneasy realization suddenly hit her that she had tried to put out of her mind. “Um, Rainbow,” she quietly asked, “I'm kind of surprised you even travel to Manehatten anymore after that incident with The Mane-iac...” Her voice trailed off, unsure if this was still a tense subject to bring up. “Hey, no worries!” Rainbow waved off Fluttershy's concerns. “We shouldn't have been scared of her anyway. I mean, a pony busting out of a comic book to do evil in our largest city? A comic book! Only in Equestria could such crazy, off-the-hook things like that happen!” “Yes, well, she was plenty scary for me, even if she did only come out of a comic book...” Fluttershy didn't much like thinking about that day, since this was the one time one of her friends really did get seriously hurt: The Mane Six and Spike had encountered her before when they were sucked into an enchanted Power Ponies comic book, but during this second meeting she had somehow managed to escape from her universe and took up residence in Manehatten. She trapped all of them once again using the Hairspray Ray of Doom, including Spike – she would not make the mistake of leaving him free again – and placed them in front of the usual method of offing enemies: a bomb with a timer. Meanwhile, The Mane-iac was preparing to use her latest doomsday weapon, complete with a ridiculously alliterative name – The Lean Beam of Ultimate Sheen. She had constructed it in one of the towers of the Hooflyn Bridge, and had it set up to fire like a ray gun – one that excited hair follicles rapidly enough to cause the flesh to melt off of anypony caught in its wide swath. Knowing what was at stake for the citizens of Manehatten, Rainbow Dash somehow managed to use her cutie mark to activate her Rainbow Power separately from the rest of her friends and broke free of the spray's hold. She scooped up the bomb that was intended for all of them and flew it right up to the Mane-iac, dropping it on her moments before its timer expired. Unfortunately, the weapon's firing sequence was already committed and the explosion caused it to release all of its energy at once in an uncontrolled manner, enveloping Rainbow in the resulting firestorm. “She really almost made a terrible mess of things!” Fluttershy continued. “And what were you thinking Dash? Taking that bomb up there all by yourself?” “Hey, she was about to melt the faces off thousands of innocent ponies with that ray gun mounted on top of the Hooflyn Bridge! There wasn't time to try and free the rest of you from her evil hairspray!” Rainbow chuckled a bit thinking back on that event, “Heh, at least I got to use a cool comeback on her as I dropped the very explosive she was planning on killing us with: 'Here, I think you dropped this back there!'” Fluttershy giggled, “I never knew that part of the story.” Her mood dampened again though as she thought about the days after. “I guess because you were unconscious for so long after the explosion you must have forgotten to tell us. We were so sad seeing you in the hospital...” “I know, I know. But hey, all in a day's work for Rainbow 'Danger' Dash, am I right?” She leaped into the air and flared her wings, a confident smile on her face. “Nopony messes with my friends!” causing Fluttershy to emote an embarrassed look. “Besides,” Dash continued, “That got rid of the Mane-iac for good.” “And good riddance,” Fluttershy concluded. Silence befell the passenger car while the two ponies took a break from their little chatty reunion, save for the sounds of the wheels on tracks passing beneath them. The haziness Fluttershy experienced earlier was returning, so she decided to get up and get a spot of tea from the set she had seen earlier. “You have tea in your car, Fluttershy?” Rainbow asked. “In mine they put out cider. That's another one of the reasons I like traveling by train – I mean what pony can pass up free cider?” Fluttershy smiled, “Yes, I know how much you love cider.” “You know it! So, since you say I haven't been keeping in touch enough, tell me what's been going on with you, Fluttershy? Still living in Ponyville? Still caring for your animal friends? Perhaps you've found that special somepony by now and had foals?” Rainbow asked, elbowing her in the ribs while giving her a goofy look. “Oh, not really…” Fluttershy blushed hard, avoiding the question. “I've never been good at that sort of thing. And besides, caring for so many furry creatures had filled me with the love I would of gotten from having foals of my own!” “Fluttershy,” Rainbow started, looking at her skeptically, “take it from a mom – it's not the same thing.” “Well, maybe.” Fluttershy reluctantly agreed, thinking about Rainbow and Soarin's son: Chrome Streak – she had to admit the pair raised a real sweetheart of a pony! “I guess in your case, I imagine Angel is a lot like that to you,” Rainbow continued. “But trust me, he's nothing like Chrome. On one hoof you have a caring foal who a pony helped bring into the world, and on the other you have a bunny that is evil incarnate! Does he still boss you around like he always did?” she cracked. Fluttershy's expression immediately turned cold. It was bad enough of her comparing two lives whom she very much cared about, but to bring up Angel now was completely out-of-line. “Rainbow Dash, I – I… Can't believe you just joked about that.” Dash stopped grinning upon seeing how upset Fluttershy was and realized she had probably put her hoof in her mouth – again. “Hey, what's wrong?” pleading with her hooves, “I was only pulling your tail!” “Haven't you heard?” Fluttershy answered, tears beginning to well up in her eyes: “Angel is dead.”