//------------------------------//
// What are Trains, and Why are Ponies Standing on the Tracks? 
// Story: Lyra in the Sky with Diamonds 
// by CrispySparrow 
//------------------------------//

Lyra pedaled beside the road of soap. She was starting to feel as if she were going the wrong way.  She should be back in town by now, or at least see it somewhere in the distance. She did not see much of anything in the distance, just rolling hills. 

Train tracks intersected the soap road. 

Ponies stood in clusters on the tracks. 

Huh?

Lyra stopped just off the tracks. She hesitantly waved.

"Hi?"

She recognized many of them. Some were Ponyville natives, a few of them she even saw on the soap road today. 

The ponies did not notice her. Some talked to their neighbors, some busied themselves with books. Others stood smiling up at the sky, hooves outstretched. Some seemed to be paying attention to nothing at all. None of them noticed Lyra. 

From the distance, the scream of a great metal monster reached Lyra's ears. 

The Train!

She likewise screamed. She knew it would be coming. She pleaded with the ponies to remove themselves from the beast's path. 

They did not hear her. 

They only busied themselves with their neighbors, their books, and their scenery. Some of them were busy with nothing at all. 

The train grew nearer. 

At this point, for the first time today, she cast aside her bicycle. She knew that, while her bicycle could bring her to the place, she alone could complete the task that lay within that place. She galloped from pony to pony, pulling and pushing, in her struggle to get them off the tracks, but to no avail. Even when she grabbed them by their shoulders and shook them, they stayed in place flopping about.

She cried, she screamed, and she pleaded. But still they remained with their noses in books, in conversation, or pointed up at the sky.

The train was almost upon them. The screams were deafening. Lyra had no choice but to step off the tracks. There was nothing she could do for them, if they could do nothing for themselves. 

She could not watch. 

With trembling hooves she took the handlebars of her bicycle, and swung herself up onto the seat. She positioned her hooves on the pedals, and she was off, her hooves circling upon her vehicles machinery, back the way she came.

But then, one called out to her.

She paused, and turned her head. 

It was a stallion.

His mane black, his fur tan. 

He opened his mouth and said,

"They are behind you now,"

The Train came upon him. 

And then they were all gone.

The stallion in the conductor's car silently smiled.

Lyra did not see him.

Neither did you.