This is the Last Train Car

by Unwhole Hole

Chapter 6: Data

The pair regrouped that night. Or, rather, Berry Punch was suddenly awakened from where she had fallen asleep on her desk as Sparkler touched her shoulder.

“GAH!” she cried, tipping a nearly empty glass of punch onto the floor. Sparkler caught it in her magic.

“Please don’t spill,” she said. “I know it’s your room, but I hate having the floor stained. You know that.”

“Sorry,” said Berry. “Sorry…Sparks, don’t sneak up on me like that.”

“Sparkler. Two syllables. It’s not hard to remember.”

“Sorry.” Berry ran her hoof down her face.

“You look terrible.”

“Thanks,” groaned Berry, sarcastically.

“It’s not new. You never look especially good.”

“I look a lot like you.”

“Then perhaps I have self-esteem issues.” Sparkler shrugged. “But on a more serious note, you really should sleep. In a bed.” She set the punch down on a coaster set on an end table. “And don’t drink this. You know what it does to your blood sugar. The doctor said- -”

“The doctor can cover himself in leaves- -”

“And have the apples bucked out of him by a member of the Apple family. Yes, I know. But he is right. Your diabetes- -”

“Prediabetes,” said Berry, pouring another glass of punch in a cup that had the stains from older punch dried in the bottom. “And it’s my punch. I’ll drink it if I want.”

“Fine. Because stallions certainly like dancing with a mare with no feet.”

Berry groaned. “Did you find anything?”

“I think so,” said Sparkler, putting down a pile of papers and notes on Berry’s desk. All of them were neatly collated and organized, but Berry knew that Sparkler had not read a single one. “I spoke with Twilight Sparkle.”

“Seriously? She actually talked to you? She never talks to us.”

“She is one of the leading experts in magical theory, not just in Ponyville but in all of Equestria. The mare who built your Continuum engine is one of her dear friends.”

“Who isn’t one of Twilight’s ‘dear friends’?”

“You mean aside from us?”

Berry flipped open the top binder. The notes were copies of texts, replicated by a spell, but some of them had Sparkler’s characteristic blocky writing with many of the letters reversed. Most important, though, were the pictures and diagrams. “And what did she say?”

“Quite a bit. And a lot I didn’t understand. My sister is more adept at that sort of thing than I am.”

Berry looked up. “Dinky? She’s, like, nine.”

“Yes. She is. And already applying for magic school in Canterlot. Should I call her?”

“No. I don’t want to get a kid involved in this. It’s bad enough I have to deal with a twenty year old filly.”

“I’m seventeen.”

Berry looked up and nearly spat out her punch. “What the filly, Sparks? Seventeen?”

“Yes. You were at my last birthday party. If I recall, I had to pull you out of the punch bowl. After you drank all the punch.”

“Great. That’s just great. Now I feel old.” She paused. “And what does the town think of me, then, living with you?”

“Do you really want me to answer that question?”

Berry rubbed her temples. “No. No I don’t.”

“I didn’t think so.” Sparkler took out another binder and opened it, gesturing to the contents with her hoof. “I followed the lines of reasoning you suggested. You are correct.”

“About what?”

“About the fact that this is a test of Moondancer’s engine. Although from what I gather, it was never meant to be actually used by ponies.”

“But it stops and boards.”

“Yes. Just like it would in operation. But no one is supposed to get on it. Its space on the timetable was a misprint.” Sparkler sighed. “In all probability because of an error on my mother’s part.”

“What about the train itself?” said Berry hurriedly.

“A great deal of technical stuff. See binders four B through sixteen G. But from my understanding, all previous tests showed no anomalies in its behavior. Certainly nothing that would cause the events you described.”

“Grape nuts.” Berry’s harsh language surprised Sparkler, but she elaborated. “I was sure that the new engine had something to do with it. What about the cars?”

“They’re just cars. The same as all the new commuter trains have. Five per load, though. Twilight was very specific about that. Although she did not know too much more.”

“Why?”

“Why? She’s a Princess, Berry. She’s not involved in trains. Although she did give me Moodancer’s address. You can write her if you want.”

“Maybe,” said Berry. She unfolded several more binders. The one that struck her most contained a partial diagram of the ancient notes that had described the original crystal reactor. The manner in which they were drawn and the unorthodox style of faded runes used to annotate them was somehow ominous and unpleasant, and Berry could not help but wonder what the machine pictured in the diagram actually was. “So what are you telling me?”

“I’m telling you that it’s just a train. Or it should be.”

“And should we just leave it at that?”

Sparkler blinked. “What do you mean?”

“It’s just a train. Maybe I did have too much punch. Maybe I’ve finally pickled my brain in fruit sugar. Should I just let it go? Leave the train be? I mean, if I just don’t go on it anymore, it isn’t a problem, right?”

“No.”

“What do you mean ‘no’?”

“I mean you should not give up on this. We still have not reached a conclusion.”

“That my mental health is decaying?”

“Or that something really is wrong with the train.”

Berry raised an eyebrow. “But I thought you didn’t believe me?”

Sparkler sighed. “I saw the notes, Berry. And I don’t like them. I can’t read what they say…”

Berry lifted the notes and pointed to the runes around the incomplete diagram of the ancient reactor. “I don’t know if anypony can read these, Sparks.”

“Sparkler. But it’s more than that. Those pictures. I don’t like them.” She shook her head. “Maybe it’s because I’m a unicorn. I didn’t realize what that locomotive was. And I don’t like it.”

“I didn’t take you for a luddite.”

“Opening up ancient secrets is never wise. We’ve both seen that enough times.”

Berry nodded. They had indeed. Tirek, Discord, the alicorn amulet- -there were many things that were best left in Equestria’s past.

“So…I think we need to investigate the train itself.”

All Berry could do was inhale sharply. “I was afraid you would say that.” She looked at Sparkler, and saw the fear on her face. “Just the two of us?”

Sparkler shook her head. “No. Two is too few.”

“Too few for what? You don’t think…” She trailed off, and Sparkler nodded.

“That this could be dangerous?”

“Or that I could be?”

“Either way. With a pair, the loss of one leaves one all alone. And if I really do end up standing on the sixth train car? I don’t want to be alone.” She shivered. “We need a third.”

“We’re not taking Dinky.”

“No, of course not. I was thinking a different sister.”

Berry Punch’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t mean…”

“Berry, who else do we have?”

Berry looked down at the schematic, and closed the binder. She sighed, and then groaned and put her head on the fake leather cover. “Fine,” she said, lifting her glass of punch and draining it with her head still down. “She is the best choice…but I hate that you have to be right. We’ll go ask Cheerilee tomorrow.”

+��<�

Comments

[nicksterra]

This is good. Also unknown. You deserve more views.

[CoffeeMinion]

I like the family stuff you're bringing in. It's not essential to the plot (I think?) but it's a good way to help ground the train and the characters in the world.

8404411
Ditto!

[Silvermyr]

Strange trains, strange notes, strange runes from a long lost empire?

Maybe King Sombra was involved with making the first engine? He was the only unicorn in the Crystal Empire and he had a penchant for making near infinite stairs... just a thought which is probably wrong. Liking the story though.

[Zaknel]

Is this anthro? "A mare with no feet," is that an error? Or, is this anthro?

[Unwhole Hole]

8411149
No, it is a result of unmanaged diabetes.

[ExplosionMare]

8411149
Probably an error