The Empire of Discord

by themultiversewatcher

Parting Ways: To Appleoosa and the Mysterious Mare

It was already ten o'clock when the four travelers awoke. They stretched out their sore muscles and, in Nightchaser's case, a small magical exercise that included levitating the heavy vase set on top of the unused dresser.

"Careful not to drop it," warned Treble, playfully, "Cherry was kind enough to let us stay in her house, and it would be incredibly rude to break something, not to say that you would break it, I was just-" His annoying rambling suddenly became muffled thanks to the new vase sitting on top of his face.

"Shut up, dude," Chase replied, a small hint of smugness hidden in his voice, "Nobody likes you ramblin' on in their ears while they're tryin' to concentrate."

As Treble was busy trying to pull his head out of the tight neck of the vase that had taken up residence there, Dusty entered the room. After a few second of stunned silence, she suddenly burst out laughing.

"Bwahahahaha! You look ridiculous with that thing on your head! Hey, Rose, you've got to see this! Heeheehee!"

Slowly, Rose emerged from the doorway. She was busily trying to get her hair brushed, something she had not done since that fateful day. Momentarily looking up, she noticed the awkward situation that had befallen her friend.

"For shame, Lightning Dust, for shame. I thought you were better than that. Here, Treble, let me help you with that." Getting down on the floor in front of the poor stallion, she put her hooves on the sides of the vase, and began pulling. With an audible pop, the messy-maned Treble's face emerged, a look of pure bashfulness etched into it. Slowly, oh so slowly, he turned around and walked into the bathroom, closing the door silently. The others in the room heard the shower being turned on. Rose looked at the two troublemakers in the room with a look of disappointment. Dusty's tail retracted between her legs and a look of guilt flashed on her face. Chase, on the other hand, was busy making himself as small as possible. "Now, when Treble gets out of the bathroom, you two are going to apologize to him, and then you are going to try your hardest to never do this again. Are we clear?" The two ashamed ponies nodded their heads slowly. "Good. Now, go wash up, we've got a lot to do today."

As they got busy getting ready, Rose descended the stairs. Walking into the kitchen, she found Cherry Jubilee humming to herself.

"Good morning, Miss Jubilee."

"Good morning Rose," Cherry answered, "You know, you can call me Cherry. Calling me Miss makes me feel old. I trust you slept well?"

"Yes, very. Thank you again for your hospitality. You've been so kind to us."

"It's the least I could do. You know, you could stay another day, it's been so long since I've had company."

"I'd love to," Rose said, regret evident in her voice, "But we've got so much to do. It's been so nice being with you, and I hope we'll be back again when this whole Discord thing is over and done. It's time somepony did something about it."

"Oh, all right," Cherry conceded, "But, please promise me that you'll be safe? I don't want you to have to worry about you. By the way, I heard something going on upstairs. What happened?"

"Oh, well the boys were messing around, and that old vase got stuck on Treble's head. Dusty walked in, and, instead of being the good sister I know she is, she simply laughed at that poor stallion. I came in and fixed the problem, and made those two promise not to humiliate Treble that way."

"Well, it sounds like you've got quite the thing for that colt. Ah, to be young and in love."

Rose's face blushed beet red, "Oh...uh...well, we're not...that's not..."

"Would you look at that," Cherry cooed, "She doesn't even know she's in love. Aw, that's adorable."

As Rose stood there babbling, the other three members of the party arrived.

"We're all set, Cherry," Treble said, over the extreme embarrassment from the situation earlier, "All that's left is breakfast."

"Everything is already on the table," Cherry told them, "While you four eat, I'll get some food packed for the lot of you. It'll be easy as cherry pie."

Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs and hay bacon, with a small Equish muffin on the side. After they were done eating, the group went back to the kitchen to find four boxes full of food. Cherry informed them that all the food in the boxes were meant to last for a long time. The food consisted of trail mix and an assortment of dried fruits from her personal garden. With sad goodbyes, the four ponies set out on their journey.

"All right," started Treble, "We've got a lot of ground to cover. I want to be able to search for the Elements of Harmony first, so I think it might be best to split into two teams. We're going to draw straws to see who goes with whom. Here are four straws, two long and two short. I want the three of you to pick one straw, and the long straws go with each other and vise versa. Okay, ready? One, two, three."

The group picked their straws. Looking at them, the groups were set up as Treble and Rose in one, and Chase and Dusty in the other.

"According to Cherry, there are two paths to take. One path travels upwards towards the Diamond Dog's territory, while the other follows the train tracks to Appleoosa. I think the best idea is to meet up in Ponyville in order to corroborate with each other. I believe that you should be able to choose where you go. Rose and I will take the opposite route."

"All right," spoke up Chase, "Dusty and I agreed that we should take the route to the Diamond Dog area."

"Very well. We'll see each other in Ponyville. Dusty, keep safe. I love you."

"Love you too, Trebs," Dusty replied, "You also stay safe."

With that the two parties split ways, one heading northwards, the other west.

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As they waved goodbye to Dusty and Chase, they could feel the uneasy tension in the air. Treble and Rose began moving once the others were out of sight. Silently, they contemplated individual thoughts while on the move. The going was slow and quiet, not even the birds were singing. It was as if the whole world watched the two companions trudge along at a snails pace. For some reason, they couldn't bring themselves to talk to each other. With Dodge Junction far in the distance, the two friend chanced a look up.

There, sitting in the middle of the tracks was a beat up, rusty old train, no doubt the Friendship Express. Despite what it had looked like in the human world, the train was not, in fact, extremely colorful. The dark red with black highlights had sort of an old-timey feel. The old coal-fire train was not in inoperable condition, though. It looked as though it could still run.

"Hey, Rose," Treble said, "We'd move much faster if we took this!"

"Are you sure?" Rose asked, "Do you even know how to drive a train?"

"No, not really. But, hey, how hard can it be? We just need to shovel coal into the furnace, and the train should move itself forwards. If we need to stop, we just pull the break leaver, and the train will stop. Easy as cherry pie, right?"

"Okay...it's not like I don't trust you or anything, but I really don't like the idea of being in a train without someone who knows what they are doing."

"Hush," Treble insisted, "Come on, haven't you ever wanted to drive a train before? This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience!"

"Fine, fine," Rose sighed, giving in, "Just don't blame me if something bad happens. If it does, it's all your fault."

Once inside the cab, they found a large pile of coal next to a pair of iron curtains. Opening the curtains, they found that the area inside was as dry as a desert. Smiling, Treble looked around, setting his eyes on the fire starter. He quickly began heating up the coal, which soon caught fire. The train began to lurch forward, starting out slowly, rust creaking as the ancient machine moved. Eventually, the train was moving at a slow, yet steady pace.

"See," said Treble happily, "Nice and steady. Easy as she goes."

Rose was too busy shoveling coal to notice. Treble, realizing he was being ignored, stopped chatting, and began looking where the train was going. The tracks lay stretched out ahead, with no visible sign of anything wrong. The area seemed clear for miles. Very slowly, he began to make out a faint outline on the tracks ahead. As the train kept moving forward, the outline became clearer. The shape slowly materialized as a passed out ocean blue mare with a seaweed colored mane and tail. Reaching over, Treble pulled on the horn chain. The train let out a loud, foghorn like sound. Still, the mare did not move. Thinking quickly, Treble pulled on the emergency brake. The two passengers were shot forwards, landing in a heap.

"A little warning, next time," grunted Rose. She got up uninjured, partially thanks to a nice, soft Treble cushion, "Why'd you do that?"

"I'm sorry I'm trying to save a mare's life right now," Treble said, "Just being safe."

"What about a mare?"

"There's a mare on the tracks. I think she might be hurt!"

"Or dense. Doesn't she know she shouldn't be on the track?"

Not wanting to argue with his bitter companion, Treble instead rushed off the train and to the mare's side. Looking carefully, he flipped her over. There, on her side, was a massive gash. The blood soaked into the grass and Treble's coat. Horrified, yet fascinated, Treble picked up the pony. He quickly flew over to the train and placed her gently into the cabin, and into the waiting hooves of Rose, who quickly began to stitch the area with the sewing needle and thread she found in the first-aid kit. When she had finished with that, she put bandages around the mare's torso, holding the stitching in place.

"Treble," said Rose, urgently, "We've got to get her to a doctor. Someone who actually knows about pony anatomy. I don't think I did a good job."

"We've got to get to Appleoosa as fast as we can," said a worried Treble, "For her sake."

He began frantically shoveling coal into the matchbox, and the train began to move much faster than it had before. Soon, Treble felt he no longer needed to shovel coal, and ran to the young mare's side. Keeping a lookout behind himself, he felt that she needed his attention. Taking a quick glance, Treble noticed that the tracks forked in two directions. He also noticed that he was going to be headed in the wrong direction. Thinking quickly, he saw the signal for turning, and, just as quickly, used the shovel to switch the tracks in favor of Appleoosa.

After a few more minutes, the train station became clearly evident in the distance, and closing fast. Grabbing the break, Treble started bringing the speed down to zero, just in time to touch the end of the tracks. Opening the cab doors, Treble and Rose quickly grabbed the mare between them. There to greet them was the hardest stare they had ever seen. Flanked by what the twosome could only think of as the Chaos Guard, stood Applejack, the Element of Honesty. She was wearing the official Guard uniform, which consisted of black, steel plated mail and helmet. On her hooves were black boots of the same material.

"Please state yer name and business," the farm girl turned military elite stated. She simply oozed command and respect, and was certainly not the pony Treble remembered. "And tell me, what the hell are ya doin' pilotin' a decommissioned train?"