Chapter 3: Hoofington
Twilight shook her head vigorously, making herself dizzy as she redoubled her efforts to stay awake. Her friends had stayed up to help her for a while, but Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy had all had other responsibilities to attend to. Meanwhile, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash had found navigating the vast amount of information in Twilight's library a slow and arduous task. With some effort, she'd convinced them to go home and get some sleep.
Among the large and growing stack of books on her desk, she'd read segments from four volumes of Histories of Equestria, skimmed the Encyclopedia of Equestrian Non-Governmental Organizations, and—as the night had worn on—yawned through Zebras: Cultural and Historical Perspectives.
She didn't dare check the time as she turned the next page of Beyond Equestria: An Encyclopedia of the World's Intelligent Non-Pony Inhabitants. She kept getting distracted by interesting tidbits in the entries for each species, and had to constantly remind herself of the two letters she was looking for.
Because of their longevity, dragons' culture is exceedingly slow to change. This is further reinforced by their tendency towards isolation; depending on their location, some will spend decades or even centuries without interacting with another dragon.
She looked over at Spike, who was snoring softly—his last encounter with another dragon hadn't been a pleasant one, and she couldn't imagine the next one being any better. She then shook herself awake once again and turned through the pages. Her magic fumbled slightly as she quickly scanned one section heading after another: famous cow philosophers, mule inventors of the last century, a brief history of the Sustrian Empire, prominent zebra guilds (which she'd read already and found little of use)…
She nearly jumped, realizing she'd found a match. She turned back a few pages to find the two words she'd just seen, and then a few more figure out where she was. As it turned out, the Sustrian Empire was ruled by pigs, and included several neighboring provinces inhabited by goats, sheep, and other species.
For centuries, there has been little contact between Equestria and Sustria due to the pigs' intense racism towards ponies, which is supported by their dictatorial government. Surveys show that most pigs raised in Equestria have little or no knowledge of their homeland, suggesting that pig immigrants are more likely than not shunned by their families in Sustria.
(Due to the one-sided animosity between the two countries and consequent dearth of contact, much of the following information may now be out of date.)
Her excitement washing the heaviness from her eyes, she found the section on Sustrian currency and compared the image in the book to the coin lying next to it, confirming a match. This was it: for whatever reason, someone in Sustria had wanted Celestia dead. All that remained was to find out who it was.
Satisfied with her progress, she weakly made her way over to her bed and collapsed on top of it. As she fell headlong into sleep, she felt a strange, sudden sense of unease whose source she couldn't quite place. It was an old fear that she was too exhausted to recognize, creeping through the dark corners of her room, slithering insidiously in and out of her lungs with each breath, and finally following her into her dreams on long, slender, silent tiptoes.
…
She was wandering through the Everfree Forest, trying to find something. It was in here somewhere, and it terrified her down to her core, and so she was determined to make sure she knew exactly where it was.
She bristled and froze as toneless, soundless music slipped past her, sliding down from the canopy and disappearing into the ground. She hoped it wouldn't come back. The leaves all around began to shake, and she crouched low, trying to make herself small so that she wouldn't be noticed…
An alicorn even younger than she was emerged from the trees and crouched next to her, too preoccupied for eye contact. The leaves went silent, and the two rose to their hooves. Twilight tried to warn her that the forest was no safe place for a filly, but her new companion gave no response as she walked down the trail.
Twilight followed her, pleading that she not walk any further, but the alicorn still did not react—she must have been deaf. Suddenly, she picked up her pace, quickly disappearing around the next bend. Twilight tried to call out to her, but her voice was drowned out by a sudden, terrifyingly loud roar from somewhere behind her. It was a single, unbroken sound, slowly escalating in volume as she galloped away from it in terror. The roar was accompanied by the terrible sound of the thundering hoofbeats of something ancient and merciless. She knew exactly what it was: the very thing she had been looking for, and now she was more afraid than she'd ever been. She wanted to get away more than she'd ever wanted anything, and so she ran on and on, because that was the only thing she could do and the only choice she would ever have for as long as she lived…
…
Twilight bolted upright in the dust-speckled rays of sunlight, panting. Her pulse gradually slowed back to normal as she remembered that it had just been a dream about running from something—she had no idea what, though it was probably a dragon or a hydra or some other terrifying monster.
It occurred to her that her friends would be eager to know where the coin had come from, so she sent downstairs. To her surprise, all five of them were already there, along with Spike, who must have let them in. They were giving her eager looks, so she took a deep breath and explained:
"The coin is from a place south of Equestria called the Sustrian Empire. It's ruled by pigs, and they aren't too fond of ponies."
"Shucks," said Applejack, "I've got some pigs on the farm, and they don't seem too bothered by me… then again, they were born here in Equestria."
"Exactly," said Twilight. "My book says that most pigs here aren't in contact with their own kind. It's some sort of one-sided national grudge, I guess."
"So that's why they tried to have Celestia killed!" said Rarity.
"Why someone did," corrected Twilight. "It's a large country, and we still don't know who actually gave that zebra the coin. However, I can use a sensing spell to try and determine who's held the coin before…"
"Well?" interrupted Pinkie Pie. "What are you waiting for? Cast the spell!"
Twilight frowned. "It's not that simple. I'll be able to see in my mind who's held the coin before, and about how long ago, but it won't do me any good if it's someone none of us has ever seen before."
Pinkie Pie bit her lip in frustration. Not one of them had ever seen a Sustrian pig face to face. "We'll just have to find some way into the Empire without getting caught," Twilight stated, "and once we're able to see the pigs, I can use magic to know which one we're looking for."
"But if they don't like ponies," said Applejack, "then how are we s'posed to get into Sustria in the first place?"
"We'll just have to sneak in," Twilight said. "It's the only way we'll get the information we need." That was a good enough answer for everypony, so they began making their preparations.
Applejack had no doubt she could trust Big Mac to take care of Applebloom. Still, the prospect of leaving her little sister behind while she went on a journey that she might not return from was not a prospect to be taken lightly. She decided it best not to let Applebloom know she was leaving, and so she gathered supplies from the farm while her sister was off playing with the other Cutie Mark Crusaders, blissfully unaware that her big sister was about to leave on a very dangerous mission.
Meanwhile, Rarity made the same decision regarding Sweetie Belle. She informed Mrs. Cake that she would be gone for some time and wasn't sure when she'd be back, and asked if Mrs. Cake wouldn't mind taking care of Sweetie Belle and her cat, Opalescence. Somewhat confused, she agreed. Rarity began to have second thoughts as she wrote a note for her little sister—but, she reminded herself, she was surely dealing with something far greater than herself or her family. She would regret it if she didn't see it through to the end.
Fluttershy fretted for some time, pacing about her cottage and wondering who would take care of her animal friends. However, she realized that with plenty of food and no dangerous creatures around, they were in no great danger—things might just be a little untidy when she got back. In any event, her rabbit friend Angel had helped her take care of the others countless times before, and she trusted in his competence.
Twilight wanted to bring her entire collection of spellbooks, but of course that was much more than she could comfortably carry. Instead, she packed two large books, several maps of Equestria and Sustria, and a field guide describing the strange new plants and animals they might encounter on their way into the unknown. Thoughts of Owloysius and Spike gave her pause, but they were both able to take care of themselves, and they would be safer here than if they came with her.
After Pinkie Pie had finished packing and as she was making her way towards the door, she remembered that some goodbyes were in order. She turned around to see Mr. and Mrs. Cake watching her impassively.
"You and your friends have gotten yourself into some serious business," said Mr. Cake. It was an observation, not a question. Somehow, he knew.
"We know what we're doing," shrugged Pinkie. "It's just… we have to keep it secret right now, to make sure absolutely no one follows us"—
"…and why is that?"
"Well… I have to keep that secret too, see?... because if I told you why I can't tell you where we're going, then I'd have to tell you where we're going, but when we get back, I can probably tell you where we were, and—well, it's not that serious, so don't worry, okay?"
Mr. and Mrs. Cake looked at one another, then once again at Pinkie. "Your hair is straight," observed Mrs. Cake. Pinkie Pie blinked a few times. She couldn't see herself, of course, so she was slow to remember exactly what this meant. When she did, she said "Oh! That's… well, it's because of what happened at the Gala." This was as fair a reason as any, so they didn't press the point.
Over the years that she had worked for them, they had come to love Pinkie Pie like a daughter. With her fun-loving nature, she had brought joy into Sugarcube Corner, and often accepted payment for a day's work in the form of cakes which she gleefully swallowed whole. (Sometimes she would eat more than she'd earned, but, knowing she would never take advantage of their generosity, they wouldn't deduct the sweets from her pay.) Her boundless energy had warmed their hearts, and now, here she was, leaving for Celestia knows where.
"Just promise us one thing," said Mrs. Cake after a tense silence. It was clear that Pinkie and her secrets would not be parted. She wasn't a little filly anymore; whatever she was doing, it was her own business. "Just… don't get involved in anything dangerous, alright?"
"Alright," said Pinkie, though she doubted she'd be able to keep that promise. "Well, I guess I'll be seeing you both around. Look after Gummy for me, okay?" As she was on her way out the door, without really thinking, she added, "Thanks for everything," and hurried away without looking back.
When she met with her friends on the edge of town, away from prying eyes, the group was complete. "So, do we all have everything we need?" asked Twilight, looking around at them. "There's no unfinished business?"
They all responded in the negative. "Alright then," said Rainbow Dash, the taste of adventure infusing her voice with confidence. "Let's go!" They set off down the road at a brisk trot, each pony looking over her shoulder at least once as Ponyville faded into the distance behind them.
Today, the sky had been decorated with cheap but elegant-looking clouds, all at such heights as to be plainly visible but not obstructive. The familiar buildings, all uniquely shaped, seemed to be watching forlornly as their longtime inhabitants walked away: Sugarcube Corner, Sweet Apple Acres, Carousel Boutique—all not unlike old friends they were leaving behind.
"We'll head to Hoofington first," explained Twilight, "and see what supplies we can buy there that we might need later on."
Applejack's ears twitched. "Hey, did any of y'all hear somethin'?"
They stopped walking to listen, and, sure enough, there was a voice shouting from somewhere far behind them. Looking back, they saw a small figure too far down the road to discern. Squinting, Pinkie Pie asked "Is that Spike?"
It was. As he got closer, they could hear him calling Twilight's name. "That's some distance for him to run," she marveled. Not sure what else to do, they stood there and waited until he had caught up with them, panting heavily.
"Twilight"—he gasped. "You—should've—waited"—
"Calm down, Spike," she urged him. "Catch your breath first." He responded by falling flat on his back. When he could breathe normally again, he got up, and said:
"Twilight, why didn't you tell me you were leaving? I was looking all over for you, and then I saw you all setting off down the road, and… well, didn't you think it'd be helpful to have someone who could, I don't know, send letters to the Princess?"
"Well… the thing about that is, we don't exactly want the Princess to know what we're doing, because she didn't want us get involved in this stuff."
"You mean like how you don't want me getting involved?"
Twilight studied his defiant expression. "It's not the same. There'll be danger, and it'll be hard enough to keep six of us unnoticed…"
"What's one more?" asked Spike. "Besides, I'd be awfully bored in Ponyville without you guys, and I might have to occupy myself by writing something… a letter to a certain princess, for instance."
"You wouldn't."
Spike crossed his arms and lifted up his chin. Twilight sighed. "All right, Spike," she said. "I guess since you came all this way, there's not much point in sending you back anyway."
Satisfied, he hopped on her back, and the seven of them carried on.
…
The distant mountains which had served as a backdrop to their entire lives persisted as they moved through the countryside, not getting noticeably closer or farther away. They were like the sun, impassive and so omnipresent as to be effectively invisible.
Twilight looked at a group of earth ponies about seventy feet away. They were untroubled by the buzz of the city, tending the fields that flanked the road and wearing straw hats to shield themselves from the sun's rays. She noticed that the outlying thickets of trees at the fields' edges looked less and less friendly as they got further from Ponyville—the lush, green underbrush gave way to dry briar patches. These woods weren't dark or foreboding like the Everfree, but nor did they exhibit natural beauty, like the Whitetail Woods. The patches of wilderness between cities seemed unhealthy, neglected, stunted and spiteful.
As she glanced around at her friends, Twilight wondered what their lives would be like if they had been born out here, and not in the lively cradle of Ponyville. Even Applejack, with her rural upbringing, at least had access to civilization's amenities, but, little as she knew about the lives of these ponies who lived beyond the borders of cities, Twilight got the impression that they were somehow more subject to the wildness of the world—not in tune with nature and its spiritual bounty, but rather at the fringe between familiar life and the other.
"Does something seem off about those ponies?" she asked quietly.
Rainbow Dash squinted. "I don't think they have cutie marks."
Twilight gave a start. That was what she'd seen, only she'd seen through it without seeing it: the absence of meaning; the monotony and the drudgery; life without the symbol that told you what life was. How strange and terrible, she thought. "I wonder why not," she said.
Rarity shrugged. "Why not, indeed. They all look about our age, don't they? Whatever could be the matter with them?"
"If ponies without cutie marks look weird to us," said Pinkie Pie, "I bet we'd look weird to them."
During the silence that followed, Twilight wondered if anypony would suggest they go over and introduce themselves. She exhaled with relief when her friends resumed walking.
…
"How do ya'll s'pose we'll find the pig we're lookin' for in a country that don't tolerate ponies?" asked Applejack several minutes later. Twilight snapped from her musings.
"We'll have to sneak through, I guess," said Twilight. "It shouldn't be harder than anything we've done before, though, right?"
"Guess not."
From the countryside, they arrived at a section of road that passed directly through a stretch of thick briars that seemed to lean in towards them, herding them into the center of the road. After a time, the absence of stimuli had subdued them all into a complete and lazy silence, which Rainbow Dash broke.
"Anyone notice something off about the sky?" They looked up at the abnormally high clouds, all strangely far away. "Why bother putting them all the way up there?" she asked.
"Actually," said Twilight, tingling with the anticipation of sharing information, "I've read that such a phenomenon usually characterizes less-inhabited parts of Equestria. Exactly how they got there is a mystery, but many scholars have speculated that they're the remains of abandoned pegasus cities."
Rainbow Dash's ears perked up—for once, she seemed interested in what Twilight had to say on scholarly matters. "You mean there used to be other sky cities like Cloudsdale?"
"It's possible."
Rainbow Dash squinted at the clouds, but they weren't giving up any secrets.
She turned back towards Twilight and asked "By the way, how much farther do we need to go? All this slow walking is making me cramp up."
"Well," replied Twilight, "if you want, you can fly up ahead and see how far it is. Come to think of it, that'll probably be a good precaution later on when we"—
Rainbow Dash didn't stay to hear Twilight finish her sentence. She took off and sped up and forward, the road shrinking below her until she was high enough to see over the brambles, trees and hills. The whistling wind infused her with a sudden vitality, giving her skin a rich tingling sensation that she could've spent hours savoring. She savored the feeling, the absolute freedom from caring about the past or the future, as though the moment were infinite. If only the rest of them could fly like this, she thought, then they'd be there by now.
With her altitude increasing rapidly, it didn't take her long to spot Hoofington. It was nestled less than a mile ahead, between two long, grassy ridges. Pleased with her findings, Rainbow Dash made a technically perfect U-turn and sped back to her friends.
"We're almost there!" she exclaimed as she landed. "It's right on the other side of those trees." Energized by her report, all five of her friends immediately took off at a gallop, followed by Rainbow Dash herself.
As they looked out across the city from the top of the ridge, they saw that it was substantially larger than Ponyville, yet somehow plainer. It was as though there were fewer colors—it wasn't quite dull and oppressive, but it certainly wasn't vibrant, either. There was more brick and less wood; the buildings were arranged in straight, square patterns, not curved ones, so that the entire place seemed to be filled with walls and roads that were all either parallel or perpendicular to one another.
Due to the homogenized nature of the buildings, they quickly learned to rely on the signs to help them navigate. As they shopped around, they augmented their food stores and acquired a number of small things that seemed like they might come in handy.
They realized it was getting late, and they were all hungry, so they gathered around a table in the town square, amidst the constant flow of busy ponies. Applejack got out a hoofful of apples and passed them around. Over their meal, they planned out the next leg of the journey: Twilight laid a map out on the table and they studied it together, taking care not to drip apple juice on it.
"There's a road here," said Twilight, pointing to it on the map, "and a railroad here that both lead to the isthmus that we need to cross to get into Sustria."
"Isthmus?" asked Spike.
"It means a land bridge between two bodies of water. Now, of course, the biggest challenge will be getting in there without getting noticed."
"If necessary, we could try to find a way to cross the water," suggested Rarity.
"Yeah, maybe," said Applejack, "but let's hope it doesn't come to that."
"So… do we take the road, or the railroad?" asked Pinkie Pie.
"Well," replied Twilight, "the railroad will be faster, but we'll have to be careful about who sees us getting off the train. Of course, we'll probably need to watch our backs either way."
They held a vote, and all seven of them agreed on the train, so they went to the station, checked the timetable and saw that the next train to the border wouldn't be leaving for another hour. For some reason, that particular time was marked with a star.
"Excuse us," Rarity said to a nearby green earth pony with a bowler cap. "We're not from around here. Would you mind telling us what that star on the timetable means?"
He examined it to see what she was talking about. Then, he said "Ah, yes. That's reserved for ponies with written permission from the royal court. As I understand it, that train goes to the edge of Equestria and back. I've heard there's nothing out there but wastelands, though." Rarity and the others shared a meaningful look as they thanked him and walked away. As soon as they were sure they wouldn't be overheard, Rainbow Dash said:
"What'll we do now? I guess we should just go by road, huh?"
Twilight was deep in thought. "No…" she said. "No, I think this gives us even more of a reason to take the train."
"What?" said Applejack. "But how will we even get on?"
"We'll sneak on," Twilight explained, "and then we'll find out why the royal court is so interested in Sustria."
They lingered somewhat close to the train station, but walked around somewhat so that no one watching would guess they were waiting for a train.
When the train arrived, no new passengers boarded, though a number of ponies got off. Just as she and her friends were walking near the train, appearing to walk past it, Twilight stopped suddenly. She looked up and drew from the well of magic inside her, conjuring a glowing orb high in the sky some hundred feet away. Then, she released the magic, letting the ball explode upwards in a flash. A loud bang issued forth, sending bursts, spirals and sparks of light in all directions.
The ponies on the streets gaped at the sky, engrossed in the spectacle. While they were distracted, Twilight and the others quickly opened the cargo door of the train, not daring to look around. They clambered inside, shutting the door quickly but quietly behind them. For a moment, they were trapped in darkness, but then Twilight lit the cabin with her horn, illuminating several crates piled up all around them. After they had hidden themselves as well as they could behind these, Twilight turned off the light, and they lay in silence until the train started to move, carrying them away towards the edge of Equestria.