We separated each other from our hug laying on the seat of the train across from the door of the boxcar. Minutes later, as the train started to stop, we jumped into the air and flew in the train until it finished stopping. Our landings were very solid. Cloudchaser opened the door to see that this wasn't Manehatten, but we were awfully close. Baltimare to be exact. But it sure did look a little like the outskirts of Manehatten.
I closed the door as the train started running again. "Hey Cloudchaser." I wrapped my hoof around the back of Cloudchaser's neck. She looked at me. "I hope you have the free time to spend the night at the place I'll be staying in."
"Well, I don't really have much to do there. None of the work I've got to do at Manehatten doesn't start until tomorrow afternoon. So, yeah, I could sleep where you're staying." We leaped once again as the train came to another halt. The sudden silence of the conductor was a bit creepy.
"Hey Cloudchaser, I'll be right back." I walked up to the engine and looked at the conductor. "Is this Manehatten?" The conductor nodded not even looking at me. Well how did he know that? There was no map, no front engine window, just a little porthole shining down as an urban daylight.
I shrugged as Jostle Jinx went to the engine. It was pretty quiet in here. So I started humming a tune that only Rainbow Dash would know. I continued humming as I waited patiently for Jostle Jinx to come back in.
Sometime later, Jostle Jinx came in with eyes wide open. I stopped humming as I saw the pupils near microscopic. "What's wrong?!? Did we not make it to Manehatten yet?"
"No. This may... be Manehatten, but I think you... should see this." That did not sound good.
I followed Jostle Jinx over to the engine as we walked narrowly through the halls that lead to the other boxcars. Then there was a light, a light unlike anything I've ever scene. What we thought would be a bustling city of skyscrapers with near millions of ponies out and about turned out to be ruins of what was left of the skyscrapers we would find abandoned by ponies and towered over by a thin layer of smoke.
I dropped my jaw at the sight of the vacant skyscrapers, streets positively empty and cracked. "What could possibly cause this whole city to fall like this?"
Jostle Jinx walked in front of me. "Princess Subductia, princess of the tectonic plates. Let's just hope we can find the apartment."
Wow was it a mess in there. The apartment was full of fallen bookshelves, picture frames, lamps, dressers, dishes, containers and curtains. It looked like this place was hit the worst on the eighth of July. And nopony took care of it? Well it had been abandoned since that day, so I didn't see why it wouldn't have been a complete and total dump. But I was so glad I was only on my way to Manehatten when I fell unconscious. Otherwise I probably would've been crushed by all this debris. Even the walls were cracked in a few places.
I turned to Cloudchaser who was just flat out spooked by this sight, that was until she started repetitively sneezing blowing dust every which way causing me to cough. It was countless minutes before the coughing and sneezing went away. "You okay?"
The sniffling pegasus wiped her nose as she checked to see if more was coming. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just so dusty in here." I suddenly heard what sounded like two toms and a crash. Maybe we were at Pandama all along. But I regained my train of thought and continued listening to Cloudchaser. "I don't even understand how someone could live like this. It's a total-" I could tell Cloudchaser was going to say something on the lines of "pigsty" but I couldn't make it out right away until after she sneezed one more time. Feeling her nose turning, Cloudchaser rubbed it with her hoof again.
I saw something between Cloudchaser's nose and upper lip. But I couldn't see it clearly because of her hoof in the way. I knew exactly what it was though. "Cloudchaser, I've got to go grab you a mirror and a roll of toilet paper. Look down on the floor, okay?"
"Okay," said Cloudchaser in a muffled tone with the hoof still over her nose. As I left, I heard Cloudchaser whimpering, clueless of what to do. I quickly zipped to the bathroom and got a mirror that had fallen on the floor as well as a toilet paper roll that looked like it fell from the top of the cabinet above the sink slightly unrolled.
I raced back to Cloudchaser and gave her the roll and she held her nose with a large piece of it on top of her hoof still whimpering. "Just keep looking down, okay? I can figure out how we'll get this place cleaned up by tonight."
Cloudchaser only closed her eyes. "No. I don't believe you. This entire apartment is too dusty for my nose to take."
I put my wing over Cloudchaser's back as she looked at me. "Don't worry about a thing. I lived at this apartment back before I moved over to Las Pegasus. I know this place like the back of my wing." That smile on her face was one that had finally received hope whether I'd really clean the apartment or not, which I really was. "Trust me."
And finally throwing the tissue on the floor, Cloudchaser hugged me tight. I returned a hug of my own back to her.