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// Chapter 1: All Aboard UPDATED 
// Story: Railway Crusaders 
// by Unnamedwriter 
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It’s not every day you have the chance to visit the capital of your country with not one but both of your best friends and your superhero-celebrity older siblings. So naturally when Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo realised that Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash were all going to Canterlot on the same day on the same mid-morning train, The Cutie Mark Crusaders jumped at the chance for a day wandering through the majesty and magic of Equestria’s capital. 

Truth be told, when they asked their siblings if they could tag along, not one of the three were expecting a yes as their answer. They were quite  surprised, but overjoyed nonetheless. Thus began a day of excitement and friendship, of tourism and travel through monuments and all the overpriced knock-off souvenir stands attached. All in all, it was a good day, great even, one that came to it’s final stretch at Canterlot’s huge train station. 

“But don’t y’all go wander’n off now,” Applejack said. 

“Stay close dears,” Rarity told them. 

“And try to keep up,” Rainbow Dash bragged.

….Right. That worked for all of five minutes.

“Ah horsefeathers where are they?!” Scootaloo shouted, trying and failing to hover above the crowd of ponies milling about Canterlot Union Station, falling back down beside her fellow Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“Just relax everypony,” Sweetie Belle said, who between her pinprick pupils, trembling legs and flattened ears looked the most terrified of any of them. “All we have to do is wait here and eventually they’ll find us.” This of course involved sitting still, and didn’t sit well with a certain orange pegasus filly.

“Eventually my blank flank! We need to get to higher ground so we can see them.”

“Quiet!” Apple Bloom yelled for all her tiny lungs were worth. “I’m trying ta remember what train our tickets were fer.”

Train tickets of course list not only the train’s departure and destination points, but also when and at what platform they depart. As it would happen though, the Curse of the Crusaders had chosen now of all times to strike again, and boy did it. After a whole day of tagging along with Rainbow, Applejack, and Rarity in Canterlot, the three filly’s had lost sight of their big siblings just before their train back to Ponyville was about to leave. Canterlot’s train station was already huge, so losing sight of the three mares was unfortunately easy. And between Apple Bloom holding her ticket in her teeth and getting spit on it, Scootaloo dropping hers in a puddle, and Sweetie Belle spilling a cup of water on hers, none of their tickets read anything more than a few inky smudges. All they knew was it was now 2:51, and their train was leaving at 3:00.

“Otay let's think,” Apple Bloom sighed, realizing none of them were going to remember anytime soon. “We know the train’s gonna be leav’n soon, so let’s looks fer trains ready to pull out.”

“And,” Sweetie Belle chimed in. “Look for that fancy passenger car on the back.” No sooner had the words left her muzzle than all three crusaders heard the shout.

“Aaalllll ah-bo-Aard!!” Before Apple Bloom or Sweetie could object, Scootaloo took off toward the conductor’s voice.

“Come on!” Apple Bloom shouted, grabbing her saddle bags in her mouth and slinging them onto her back. Sweetie Belle tucked her ears and ran after her, immediately regretted bringing Rarity’s hand-me-down bags. She barely managed to keep Apple Bloom in sight, never mind the orange pegasus filly hover hopping through the crowd well ahead of them.

When they reached the platform, the train was already leaving, bell ringing and steam billowing from the front as the engine started the long line of coaches and box cars. It looked just like the train that had brought them to Canterlot, from the old clanking Amareican type steam engine with its funny balloon shaped funnel up front, to the fancy gleaming emerald observation car with dark red stripes on the end. Scootaloo jumped up onto the observation car’s open porch and opened the chain gate in the railing. Soon all three crusaders had jumped aboard and were watching the station and Canterlot Castle disappear around the bend as the train wound its way down the mountain. That left Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle catching their breath alongside a pegasus filly who was feeling very, very proud of herself.

“Hah! And you two thought we’d miss the train.” Scootaloo had her tiny wings out as far they would reach, prancing and strutting like a peacock. “Once again quick thinking and even quicker reflexes saves the day.” Apple Bloom was starting to think what her big sister said about Rainbow Dash being a bad influence on Scootaloo was right, when Sweetie Belle managed to open the door into the coach.

“Gah-lee,” Apple Bloom gasped as they stepped inside, hooves sinking into a plush deep purple rug. The inside of the car was covered in carved wood finish that shined in the light streaming in from the coach’s wide windows. At the back was what looked like a series of compartments and rooms, which could’ve held anything from an office to a bathroom, or an indoor pool as Scootaloo imagined. The crusaders however, were most focused on the booth seats just right of the door, where two earth pony fillies were sitting at a white crystal table and sipping lemonade. Two filly’s the Cutie Mark Crusaders knew all too well.

“Oh look Silver Spoon,” Diamond Tiara snorted. “It’s the Blank Flank Brigade. What are you three doing in here?” She asked turning her nose up at them accusingly. “This is a private carriage.” Apple Bloom had a retort ready in her throat, but Scootaloo beat her to it.

“Not hard to imagine why. I can smell the snob from here.”

“How did you even get in here?” Silver Spoon asked, the insult having gone right over both rich filly’s heads.

“We jumped on,” Apple Bloom said matter-of-factly as she walked past the two spoiled filly’s to the other end of the car. “It was the only way we could catch the train fore it started back to Ponyville.”

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” None of the crusaders were expecting Diamond Tiara’s witch of the west laughter, and it didn’t seem her friend Silver Spoon had either. “That’s rich! A blank flank AND a liar!”

“What are you talking about?” Scootaloo asked, stepping back towards the two seated fillies.

“Diamond’s Daddy is in Canterlot on important business all day long,” Silver Spoon explained, fidgeting in her seat a little. “He said we could stay in the coach until he got back.” This confused Apple Bloom.

“Why would ya’ll want to stay in here when there’s so much to do in town?” And Diamond Tiara’s grin was nothing short of smug.

“Because Daddy just installed a jacuzzi in the bathroom.”

“NO WAY!” Scootaloo shouted, nearly deafening her earthy pony friend close by, and showering her in pinpricks of spittle.

“Ugh. Say it don’t spray it Scoots.”

“Sorry, but a hot tub on a train car? How awesome is that?!”

“Uh, everypony?” The four fillys looked to where Sweetie Belle was still standing in the car’s rear door, looking back behind their train. “I … don’t think this is the train to Ponyville.” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo walked up to her friend, and quickly realized what she was talking about.

“Hey you’re right Sweetie,” The orange filly gasped. “Foal Mountain’s on the wrong side!”

“What are you blanks talking about?” Silver Spoon asked, getting up and walking over to see whatever they had seen.

“Well,” the little Pegasus explained. “Rainbow Dash always told me if I ever get lost while I’m flying,”

“If you ever fly,” Diamond scoffed, but Scootaloo either didn’t hear her or for once managed to ignore her.

“All I have to do is fly until Canterlot is behind me and keep Foal Mountain to my back left. Look.” She pointed a hoof towards the distant but unmistakable peak of Foal mountain, standing to the right of Canterlot’s own shimmering peak. “We’re going north instead of south, totally the wrong way to get back to Ponyville.”

“HAH! Hear that Silver? Looks like the blank flank brigade has done it again. Not only did you losers get on the wrong train, you’re not even going to the right end of the country! Hahaha!”

“Uhh, Diamond?” Silver Spoon added nervously.

“Yes?”

“If they got on the wrong train, and are now headed away from Canterlot going the wrong way to get back to Ponyville, and we’re on the same train as they are, doesn’t that mean we’re on the wrong train too?” If the situation hadn’t been so panic inducing, it might have been funny how long it took the pink filly to realize what her friend had said, but when she did understand, her reaction was in a class all its own. Her eyes grew to take up three quarters of her face and her pupils less than a tenth of that, before Diamond Tiara’s scream nearly shattered the car’s windows.

“DAAAAAAAAADDYYYYYY!”