Blue knew this was coming. But what he didn't know is how to respond without making things awkward or scaring her off. A stallion couldn't help who he found attractive. That's just how nature worked. "I... think pretty much the same thing, honestly... although I'd add that you're very... pretty."

Fluttershy flushed lightly. "Pretty...? But... I'm disgusting right now... I smell and I'm filthy..." She peered up at him. "Why do you think that?"

Blue felt sweat forming on his brow as his heart rate increased. This wasn't the topic he wanted to delve headfirst into right now. "You're just... a pretty mare. I think you're pretty, is all."

Fluttershy gave an inscrutable little smile. The pink color in her cheeks remained. "Thanks... That's sweet of you to say..."

The shipping train is slowly commencing.

Around the caboose were dozens of hoofprints in the melted down snow, especially around the door.

What?

"What the..." Blue stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the prints. "No..." Blue ran off towards the other train cars, his heart racing. No, no, no... he thought, hoping this wasn't real. This couldn't be. Not after everything they'd been through.

What's the matter Blue?

Blue ran to the front of the wreckage where the three bodies he knew should still be there were. All he found were hoofprints in the snow.

They were gone.

Wait...

Blue fell to his knees, his eyes welling up with warm tears that threatened to pour out over his cheeks. "Fluttershy... we're not getting rescued..." he said in disbelief, gawking at the hoofprints. His mind was a tumultuous mess of thoughts now. He couldn't comprehend something like this happening.

Don't tell me....

"Fluttershy," Blue whispered, a tear finally rolling down over his cheek as he took a shakey breath. "We're not getting rescued because they've already been here. We were too late."

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Yas one of my favorite Fics updated!!! *does happy dance* I want to just sit and gush about this chapter but I really need to get to bed so I’ll try to keep it short.

1. My shipper heart is about to burst. Hhnng
2. I wonder if the wolf-thing will make a reappearance (I doubt it, but ehh *shrugs*)
3. NO! They did NOT come through while our little survivalists were off.. surviving. Gosh dang it

Welp that’s about all I can think of in my half consciencesness. Keep up the great work dandy!

Edit: WOAH WOAH WOAH WOAH don’t tell me I haven’t upvoted this?! What? smashes button there that’ll fix that!

9164473

I'm so glad you're still enjoying it. I will be trying to update this more often.

9164497

I will be trying to update this more often.

those words are like music to my ears

Ooooh man, first you throw the train over, then you send them over a cliff, then a waterfall, and now you hang US over a cliff?

I love this story!

9179648

I'm so very glad you're enjoying it.

You can has review!

9210844

Thanks again, friend! I greatly enjoyed your review and will most certainly take your suggestions for what they are worth.

Thank you for the story! I really like it!

Imho it’s very good that you do not go into much survival details like how to they sleep in the cave (they would probably have to make some insulation, it would nit be possible to sleep on the floor), situation with water, etc. The story is centered on characters in survival situation, not survival itself. And I like it about it. But still there were few inconsistencies I found while reading (or ate least they look like it, not being addressed by the story), so pointing them out as asked:

• Window. In the second chapter while in caboose “Blue looked out the window.”. They are making use of windows in caboose regularly while the windows should have shattered in the fall and the first thing they would do is to close them with some rags or anything to protect from the cold. If he is looking by shifting a bit or opening whatever was used to board the windows temporary – it would be nice to mention. While reading I was thinking "how did that glass survive the fall? and if there was no glass – how did not they freeze to death the first night?".
• Bodies. They have a mental breakdown about the death of stallion with head injury but not even once the situation with other deaths is touched. In the chapter five they mention bodies, but never ever discuss them during the story. It’s strange to see them never bringing up all other’s passengers deaths, and looking to the bodies as to the furniture or landscape. They did not see many deaths before; you would expect at least a few conversations about the people they were riding together who did not make it. Also the question of not even trying to bury or at least cover with something the dead is not addressed. They definitely had time.
• Blankets. In the chapter two after the fall – they have only one small blanket, which was the reason of them sharing it and sleeping together. In the next chapter they suddenly have multiple blankets and can sleep separately. Also I would want to add that they should have extremely warm blankets (magic?) or a lot of them to be able to sleep the first few nights in caboose without fire.
• Rescuers. Our heroes found their own hoofprints when they got back. If the hoofprints were there – it would be the first thing telling the rescue team that there is someone out there and where to look. The second would be the remnants of their stay in caboose. In any case if there are confirmed survivors – there would be a search campaign. And as soon as list of the passengers is known and Fluttershy is there in the list – there will be a huge search campaign. This is something that needs to be addressed I think - to explain why is noone waiting for them and why is there no search campain.

Also need to add the same as Paul mentioned in his review – switching pow to beast hurts the story. The story is told from perspective of our two survivors and adding the third one just kind of messed up the experince from that part for me.

But nevertheless the story is nice and interesting, and I definitely look forward to the next chapters. Thanks again for bringing it to us :)

9230505

I thank you for your time reading and reviewing my story! Any and all criticism is appreciated and I always take it into account when writing! I must say that yours is pretty detailed and overwhelming so I will reply to your finds one-by-one (NOTE: Keep in mind this story has no editor. I do it all by myself and on a phone which greatly reduces my ability to edit accurately):

Caboose windows Yes, the train suffered heavy damage in the fall, but not all the cars rolled over. The idea was that the only reason the caboose remined (mostly) intact was due to the fact that it slid down the mountain instead of rolling, meaning the windows were not broken out during the crash. I suppose this isn't clear in the story and I will likely edit that in the first chapter to clarify for anyone else who might have had the same thoughts.

Bodies I honestly don't have a very good excuse for this. I was more trying to deviate away from those and focus more on the survival aspects of the story, but I suppose that mental effects are part of the survival aspects. I will be looking for a good place to insert a couple paragraphs involving this topic.

Blankets If I'm not mistaken, I did say they had only one blanket to cover up with, not just one blanket altogether. They had two, and one needed to be used as ground cover to lay on. Later, for the sake of personal space, they decide to just use both blankets for cover. For future reference though, I might do some editing to these two parts so as to clear up any confusion that might arise.

Rescuers It is good you point out that the rescuers should've sent out a search party. I was hoping readers would notice that. The thing is, that is a plot point that I cannot yet discuss, not an error. If you so choose to continue reading, you will eventually see what I mean.

POV change Two POVs are hard to follow, but interesting. This is true. Introducing the predator's POV was an age-old form (in Hollywood movies, at least) of foreshadowing. Things that we as readers see and fear, but our poor heroine and hero cannot. The ultimate form of suspense is knowing what the characters do not and being unable to tell them of impending danger. This type of foreshadowing is not everyone's cup of tea, I understand, but in my honest opinion, it fits well in this particular story due to it being an important part of the plot.

I thank you again for your time and hope you keep up with this story as it updates!

9233314
Thank you for the answers!

Few more comments:
Caboose - here are two phrases which made me think it was damaged enogh for windows to shatter: "running them to the caboose and setting them just inside the twisted entry"; "The caboose was moderately damaged, but had hardly any holes from the fall.".
I assumed that this train was not the kind of modern trains with reinforced windows but more like trains in 50s-70s with usual glass. In that case even smallest change of geometry (stretch, twist) - will cause windows to shatter. And in case if it fell and had enough damage to twist entry - I expected that there will be holes with shards, no single intact glass window; no normal glass windows would stay whole in such scenario (unless magic of course).

Blankets - this one: "She sighed resignedly. "Then what do you suppose we do, since this is the only blanket we have?"". Probably needs to be corrected. Though I personally like the idea with one blanket :) As an idea - you might tell that they were too tired to prepare any insulation except sleep on the second blanket (though those blankets do have to contain a spell or two to be able to sleep like that). And the next day - they could cover the floor with few inches of some insulation (branches, leaves, bush or whatever grows there), sleeping on such bed could be extremely uncomfortable though if you do not know how to prepare it.

POV change - that's just imho in this case. I when I was reading I was basically skipping these parts - it was just too direct and too holywood-style (oh, this thing will confront/attack them in short time) and, well, I care about our heroes, but I do not care about the beast. I do not pretend to suggest you to edit it out, just wanted to add that I got the same impression as Paul - that the story would be better without it. Finding that pawprint would be more than enough for me to understand that something is wrong, very wrong, while leaving it up to the reader to fantasize about possibilities.

Rescuers - Oh, so I was thinking in the right direction. :)

" If you so choose to continue reading, you will eventually see what I mean." - definitely :)