//------------------------------//
// 11 - Catching a Train 
// Story: The Everglow of a Twilight Sunset 
// by David Silver 
//------------------------------//

With an easily cast spell, Under nodded. "You should be fine going back. It was a pleasure meeting you."

His goat companion nodded at them. "Yeah, nice meeting you. Sun Queen watch over you."

Roll smirked a little with a faint mechanical sound. "Lashtada seems to have a much closer watch over us."

Under raised a brow. "Lashtada... I've heard that name before, but I'm not familiar. Would that I could keep you all. You represent so many answers." He gestured to the staircase despite that. "You have your destiny to fulfill."

Twilight dipped her head towards Under. "You've been nothing but nice. Thank you for letting us stay for as long as you have."

"Oh, I'm not kicking you out." He smiled a wrinkled smile. "I just know you have things to do. Good luck, and I hope you don't form too negative a view of our world. It may be violent, but it has a thousand wonders that I've only seen a small portion of."

Sunset snorted softly. "We've been enslaved, watched our friends get harassed for being what they are, and you have a bunch of random ponies that set your house on fire as a weekly activity! Yeah..."

Despite that, Twilight nodded at Under. "I'll keep my eyes open."

A sudden cry like a foal rang out from Steven as he hopped to the side away from True. True looked embarrassed but mostly confused. "Y-yes," said the goat, staring at the small pony.

Under cleared his throat. "Come on now. Don't harass Steven, no matter how entertaining it might be."

Twilight lifted True with her magic and set him on her back. "Let's go."

Sunset moved to depart with the others. "Thanks."

Roll inclined her head on the way out. "I did not expect to find a Seeker so far removed."

Neither she nor Under offered explanation for her statement and soon they were outside, traversing the flame as if it weren't there. It seemed as if the inferno had consumed most of the building on their way down, leaving little for them to pick through.

Sunset whistled appreciatively. "They did a fine job. There'll barely be anything left for Under Score to put out."

Roll moved to reclaim her saddlebags. "I am surprised they left this."

True squeaked and pointed at the bags, then waved his hooves in the air oddly, then pointed again.

Sunset raised a brow. "Huh... They probably left it alone 'cause they decided it was haunted."

He nodded in victorious agreement.

Roll gestured with her head northwards and resumed hiking. "A fortunate day, despite worries by the locals to the contrary. To find a friendly spellcaster of such skill is no common occurrence."

Sunset strolled as her side. "You know him?"

"Of him." Roll glanced back at the smoldering building and its fire. "And his company, not that he owns it, but he is a member of it. After consideration, his friend mentioned another member, the one named Wandering Note."

Twilight moved up the other side of Roll. "Is it a good group?"

"They have many kinds there, but overall, I think it serves much more good than ill. They formed out of the worry that ponies needed guidance, but that has faded with the coming of the empress."

"Empress?" Sunset cocked a brow.

"Apologies. Queen. Queen Iliana, of the earth-bound tribe. She is also a sorcerer, of a relatively unknown bloodline that her supporters claim gives her divine right to rule." Roll's sides hissed with steam. A sigh on her part, or a side effect of her walking, sometimes it was hard to tell.

Twilight rolled a hoof as she walked in a feat of increasing dexterity. "And would you say she's good?"

"Almost too good." Roll smiled a little. "She is a dreamer. I hope she will not be crushed under the weight of reality, but she means well."

Sunset glanced across Roll to Twilight. "Let's not get involved in 'local' politics, unless this 'Queen' is good at sending things between, uh, planes."

"Not that I am aware of."

They set up camp as the sun set, and rose as it returned. There was a simple pattern to traveling and it was one they were obeying by going as far as the sun allowed them each day, at least until they saw something new. A train track ran on a raised platform of earth seemingly without end to the west. To the east, it had a clear end and signs of construction. There were ponies and humans, or what was close enough to human to confuse for the fact at a distance.

Roll was less easily fooled. "Dwarves. I hear the Lightning Rail is a joint project with them. It hardly seems surprising to see them involved."

Twilight tilted her head at the short hu... dwarves. "They look like people to me."

"Are we not all people? There is a sizable difference between a pony and a dwarf."

"No no." Twilight shook her head as she went. "I mean, they look like humans."

Sunset raised a brow. "I thought you were the roleplayer. Isn't that what dwarves are, small humans?"

"If they hear you say such a thing, you will prompt an altercation. Keep such observations of their size silent." Roll looked along the line. "I do not see the station we are to wait at. The workers here likely know the status of such things. We should approach."

Approach they did, trotting towards the workers. They seemed comprised mostly of earth ponies, but there was a unicorn with them. Of the dwarves, none of them knew enough to say much on them, besides they were dwarves.

A dwarf met them with a musket over a shoulder. "Hoi. This is workers only past here. Unless ye got a pass, no passing, get it?"

Sunset nodded at the dwarf. "We're not here to cause trouble. We're looking to get on a train headed that way." She pointed along the longer bit of line. "Is there a station near here?"

"Oh? Well of course there is. What use is a blasted rail line with no stations on it?" He sounded annoyed at the very idea. He thrust a meaty finger down the line. "Just keep followin' her and you'll run into a station in no time at all. Should be one about half a day back. We'll make another one about half a day forward. Just yer luck, catching us dead in the center, ha." He tipped the hard hat he wore. "If'n that'll be all."

Twilight suddenly stepped forward. "Wait! I want to try out some dwarven ale." Everyone blinked at her, friend and stranger alike. "I heard it was good?"

The dwarf laughed. "Ye done heard right! I thought you pointy-headed types didn't know a good drink if you were drownin' in it, but here you are provin' me wrong. Alright, the way I sees it, I provide at least one drink, so yous can tell your friends all about it." He pulled a flask off his belt.

Sunset moved quickly to Twilight's side, harshly hissing out, "What are you thinking? Now is not the time to go getting drunk!"

Twilight gave a nervous laugh and nodded at the dwarf. "The... The way I see it, two people that drink together can't be too strange, right?"

"Too right!" He thrust the flask at her and she took it in her magic. "Drink up."

Twilight glanced at her nervous friends. Even True on her back was tense with anticipation. There was no backing out, not without looking awful, so she tilted the flask back and took a swig, only to cough half of it right back up.

The dwarf laughed as if he'd seen the most hilarious thing in quite some time even as he snatched his flask back out of Twilight's magic grasp. "Ye get a point fer trying. Have ya even drank before? Shame I tell ya. Ya pony types... A deals a deal though." He slipped the flask back onto its hook at his belt. "Ye can't be so bad. So, whattaya want?"

Twilight coughed softly, covering her snout with a fetlock as she blushed. "It was... good." It was strong, but she hadn't drunk much of it. "Um, well, we really do need to get to that station. Is there a faster way to  get there?"

"Oh, aye. You could stay with us." The dwarf gestured to the working crew. "The train comes by and stops here to get us supplies. Food, drink, building materials, you know, what we need to keep on makin' the rail fer it. You could hop on when it does, provided you have funds."

Roll was quick to display the coins they had obtained from the brigands. "That will not be an issue."

"Right, then all ya gotta do is wait. Now, 'xcuse me, Ah really should be doin' me job." With a laugh, he turned away and resumed his patrol. With his departure it seemed their group was accepted. They had been vetted without words to be there.

Sunset blinked incredulously at the departing dwarf before looking at Twilight. "How?"

"Dwarves like to drink." Twilight nodded as if she were quoting from a dictionary. "I figured drink would be the fastest way to make friends."

"You were correct." Roll raised a brow. "Very expedient."

"Expedient, right..." Sunset shook her head. "Have you even tried a normal drink before, let alone whatever that was?"

"No..." Twilight trotted away towards the collection of tents. "Let's see if we can't borrow a soft place to lay down while we wait."

"Hey, no changing the subject!" Sunset dashed after Twilight, with Roll strolling behind at a much more sedate pace.

True hopped off of Twilight's back and stretched out, only to find another Dwarf had spotted him and was staring at him. He squeaked at the biped softly.

"Are you the ponies' little child?" He raised a brow, looking over to Twilight, who had been holding up True. "Hey, nice, uh... Whatever ponies call them."

Roll settled onto an unused cushion. "Negative. He is an adult."

"What?" The dwarf looked skeptical even as True tried to stand tall and proud. "Yer itty bitty as ponies go."

Twilight glanced at her friends and the dwarf. "Um, you're not exactly..."

Sunset shoved a hoof in front of Twilight's mouth. "Isn't it a curious thing?"

True squeaked softly and frowned as if not taking being called small all that well.

"All the better for giving rides to," noted Roll.

This sat better with True who smiled and trotted over to Roll, settling in against her.

The dwarf shouldered a shovel as he turned away. "Jus' curious. No harm meant."

The ponies who wandered past were less pointedly curious about True, especially with him curled up beside Roll. Though unspoken, the idea that he was somebody's child was likely near the surface.