The train is click-clacking along the railway... which is a relief. After this long, I suspected something would've come up by now that would shut the whole train circuit down... most likely it being this smog that keeps getting in the way yet it still seems to plow through just as fine as any other day. Or some upgrade that removes the train from having to be used.
I paused from my typing and looked over at my brown leather-bound journal that I always kept by my side... one page being scattered with important to-remember dates, with recordings of the days.
Day 3062 since F&F Co. smothered this land in their fog of both greed and trickery... not to mention the literal fog we all breathe. Day 2485 of "riding the rails".
Progress:
I stopped typing again... how much progress have I made? Keeping secrets, hiding away in the shadows inside steel and wooden train cars? Sighing, I realized I haven't made much progress. Standing up, I let my legs stretch from being folded for so long and a yawn escaped from me. It was only nine in the morning... or was it near twelve? I peeked out at the sky and looked up, only to be met with the still-present blanket of dark brown and black clouds hanging overhead. Right... no sunlight. Even watches were hard to rely on as any prankster can change the clock.
The wind coming from the empty doorway of the box car that I liked riding in continued whip my mane in my face until I managed to fold it back behind my ears as I looked outside. If memory serves me right... we were on our way to the ex-Capital of Equestria. Not exactly the best place to be at this point in time, I figured. I gazed up and strained my eyes to see past the fog up ahead, only a faint shadow of one of the crumbling towers showed through.
I glanced back at my "compactable" typewriter and what I written so far. A daily journal of my adventures... I wish I thought of it sooner. Although if it wasn't praising the overruling industry, it would be scrapped and the pony responsible... well... that is unmentionable. No-one really knows what happens to those who fight against F&F Co, or more properly named, "Flim and Flam Industries".
After a good few minutes of sk- fog-gazing, I returned to my seat in front of the typewriter... right as more thoughts continued through my head, everything else sort of faded away from my attention.
Progress: Regretfully None.
Even after this time, I am not sure if anyone may end up reading this. With the In-Times being exceptionally pro-industry, it may be centuries until things may be settled. The only job I have is to live... even with these barely livable circumstances.
For future study/remembrance: Dragons are no more, and there seems to be no way for "flying" to take place either... Haley may not be too pleased with that, but at least she flew at one point in her life... which reminds me, I wonder if she will be in Canterlot today, or if she will be back in Manehattan taking care of the textile machines there. Pegasi... now to fillies and foals as "ponies with unusable wings".
Speaking of... and yes I know I am saying this sort of out of order... but I have full sympathy for those who do live here and don't have any way to change it or run away from this place. A place of no sun or moon, or even air, is safe for anyone. I've heard reports of ponies and other species across Equestria suffering from the air. All the while, and just yesterday, Flim claimed that he will make the "Oxygenator" Some-Thousand, five bits/unit. A simple mask that covers your face, glass-holes for the eyes, and two net-like things near the mouth that are "enchanted" with a special unbreakable spell. That this "new revolution" will make pony-kind survive through this time.
In my opinion, they just want to make sure ponies are alive just so their money is given to them. Only logical reason those two will let others live... and probably the only reason we are still alive. No ponies equals no money... yet I do wonder where the Princess and some of the missing poni
On instinct my hoof reached for my mouth as I felt myself go through another coughing fit. I raised my scarf to my mouth and wrapped it around my neck again, holding my breath as the train passed through a low-lying cloud of debris. The coughing lasted for seemingly too long then I wished, but after a few minutes I was able to breathe. Air. Dirty, filthy air that puts ponies in hospitals as fast as the factories produce the smog.
Blinking twice, my once reddened vision from the coughing cleared as the cloud passed behind the train.
The view outside was tempting… as I shakily stood up again, my body still recovering as I peeked outside and down below… and personally, I love this view, even with the smoke getting in the way of a full view. We were on the mountainside now, the castle much more clear-ish now than before. I felt the train slow as the rails were old and rotting, but it gave me one last fading glimpse of the world below, the working class section. The area where the poorest of the poor stayed in mass numbers, the “slum factories”. If you were stuck there, you can kiss air and living goodbye.
The reason I liked riding the train circuit. I don't care how many bits I have, or if I have a job or not... or if I would be able to snag an elusive "productive" job, making five to seven bits an hour rather than one or two. If ponies were machines... maybe this would be a somewhat better place.
"Next stop: Canterlot!" the intercom that hid in the ceiling corner spoke with the conductor's voice... Good ol' Lee Fume... an earth pony with a good enough heart to let me on this train in the first place. At least his voice managed to crack a smile.
Retreating away from the car's doorway, I pressed a red button on my typewriter. It whirred and buzzed until it became a hoof-held cube with the letters E.A on the top. On the back... F.F. The logo for Flim and Flam Industries. Turning around, I tucked the cube into my saddlebag, alongside a small pouch of no more than fifteen bits, paper, quills... and a picture that I am too nervous to reveal to anyone... not even myself. Strapping the bag onto my back, I waited-
SCREEEEEEECH! "Woah!" My body was flung to the back of the car and created a mini-cloud of dust. Looks like I made it yet again to Canterlot... and I wish this "computer system" actually worked when it comes to driverless trains. "Dangit..." I muttered to myself as I stood up and shook myself free of the dirt that still clung to me. "Brrrbrrrrbrrr.... never knew that would be chilly..."
I readjusted my saddlebag and quickly exited the car. Casting a faint, white glow upon my horn, it illuminated just enough that I could step out onto the nearly barren station. Not a pony was in sight besides a few travelers, but that was uncommon. "BUY BUY BUY" was all I heard from the radio that played overhead, with their voices and the occasional musical they'd play for whatever new scam they want ponies to buy. I wanted to punch every speaker in the station... but I would not be able to go very far inside a jail cell. The trains were my home... and by society's standards, I could care a million bits less if it ends up that other ponies will be soon commercializing experiments that made ponies into their product. The second they lay a deed or hoof on the circuit, I'll make it certain that they will regret it. I lost all care for the other ponies... I knew that everyone is struggling, but I'm only a mare in this discolored world... also being a victim of this mess. But when two unicorns are more powerful than a sun-controlling royal, it is hard to have faith that things will change.
I walked out of the station and into the toxic streets, knowing one house that I could go to where I was welcome. The industry does have the power, and I wanted to know how to stop it. The cries of the young, the wheezing of the old, although where they were nothing but faint shadows to me, the buildings and few still-standing statues, stained with acid rain. I muttered under my breath, keeping my gaze at the ground and the cruel, outside sounds tuned out.
"I, Evelien Atlas, vow to stop F&F Co. at any cost, even at my life, if it means that the sky will return and life will return to what is almost myth. I will not stop until I am stopped. And I will do this... alone."