Prologue: The Rainbow Ticket
Prologue:
The Rainbow Ticket
"Come on, hurry Professor!" Luke shouted as he ran through the train station's corridor.
The underground tunnel wasn't entirely bustling with folks, but it did have enough to where Luke had to maneuver to make sure he didn't bump into anyone. The horn of the last train about to depart blasted throughout the station, causing people to rush onto the train. Before he entered the locomotive, Luke checked the platform number.
Professor Layton finally caught up to Luke, who stood outside the train with an annoyed look on his face. "It's not this one either, Professor."
The train soon left the station, taking most of the people with it. The ones who didn't go on the train exited the station.
"The directory indicates that that was the last train of the day, Luke. Are you sure the date is correct?"
"I'm sure." Luke riffled through his shorts pocket, eventually pulling out a rainbow-striped ticket. "See, it says right here: June eighteenth, one o'clock PM."
The Professor checked his pocket watch which read twelve fifty-eight. "It seems as though we still have a couple of minutes before our train arrives."
Luke scanned the area. "But, Professor, no one else is here?"
"Hmm... That is quite peculiar," Layton admitted before looking down at Luke with a reassuring grin. "But a gentleman is always patient, Luke."
"Right!" Luke agreed with new found excitement, always wanting to be as gentlemanly as possible. Layton and Luke rested on a nearby bench and hopefully awaited for a train.
"So Luke, I understand that this whole sweepstakes you won was for one of those television cartoons, but it's about ponies?"
Luke sighed. "Yes. I already told you, Professor."
"What was it called again? Tiny... Pony... Magic?"
Luke chuckled at his mentor's uncommon struggle with words. "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic."
"And which one do you have there on your bag?" The Professor asked, referring to the sticker placed on the front of Luke's leather satchel.
"Ha, that's Fluttershy. I like her because she's really nice to all of her animal friends."
"Ah, so you two have something in common," Layton lightly chuckled.
Luke gasped exuberantly. "Professor, you're like Twilight Sparkle!"
Layton, a bit turned off by his being compared to a feminine cartoon pony, asked, "Why is that, Luke?"
"Well both of you read a lot. You're both really smart, and both of you always try to solve any mystery."
More intrigued with this show now, Layton admitted, "I didn't know that this show actually had such character development and variation."
"Yes, it is pretty amazing compared to it's previous generations. Oh, I think I might have a picture of Twilight in my---"
Luke was promptly cut off by a loud steam whistle that resonated throughout the train station. The two stood up from the bench and proceeded closer to the train tracks. As they peered into the tunnel, they saw the train's light grow larger as it came nearer to the tunnel's entrance. As the train emerged from the tunnel, the Professor and Luke covered their ears from the screeching sound of the brakes suddenly, but swiftly, halting the train. The locomotive connected numerous units together. In fact, the Professor had never seen a train with so many rail cars. He counted sixteen that fitted inside the station, but some of the units still remained in the tunnel.
Examining the strangely punctual vehicle, the Professor didn't notice much too off about it, aside from its massive size. The exterior was a brown that was not uncommon for the trains in London, and there weren't any company designs or anything to distinguish the train in any way. The Professor and Luke stepped in front of one of the unit's doors, and waited for it to open.
"Hey!" Layton and Luke were shocked to hear this gruff call from outside the second rail car of the train. Hunched over outside the rail car was a burly man. He had tan skin and five o'clock shadow surrounded his mouth. He wore, what the duo could only guess to be, a train worker's uniform; a red sleeveless vest over a long-sleeved, white shirt, red pants, and a matching red hat. "Are yous twos jus' gonna stands theres or do youse wants ta get on the train?"
"Right, of course, sir," The Professor politely answered as he and Luke made there way over to the front rail car.
"Lemme sees ya ticket," the worker demanded as he held out his bulky hand.
"Luke."
"Oh yeah." Luke pulled the rainbow ticket out from his pants pocket again, and handed it over to the worker.
Professor Layton and Luke watched in confusion when, instead of just stamping the ticket like in normal train procedure, he gripped the ticket with both hands, and gently peeled the two pieces off of each other. The worker stuck one of the two sides into his vest pocket, and then extended the other side of the ticket out for Luke to take again.
"What game are you playing here?" Luke questioned, annoyed by the seemingly pointless exchange.
"Luke, what does the other side of the ticket say?"
Luke flipped the ticket over, revealing the new side that they had not seen before.
If you wish to get on the train, then you must chose the correct answer.
"Ah, it seems we have a puzzle on our hands, Luke."
"No offense Professor, but this is a question about My Little Pony, so I think I better answer it."
Puzzle 1
Which one of these is the most odd?
a.) Twilight
b.) Fluttershy
c.) Applejack
d.) Pinkie
e.) Dash
f.) Rarity
"Oh, this is an easy one! Pinkie Pie is the weirdest pony in the whole show! The answer is 'd'!"
Assessing the riddle, the Professor cautioned, "Don't assume things too quickly now, Luke."
"What do you mean, Professor? I know for a fact that Pinkie Pie is the oddest pony!"
"That may be, but is that what the question is truly asking?" Luke reread the question as the Professor explained, "First off, you said that this character's name was Pinkie Pie, correct?"
"Mm hmm."
"Then why would the riddle have the name abbreviated like it is? Are any of these other names abridged?"
"No others except Rainbow Dash which is written as Dash."
"This proves my theory. Luke, consider another meaning of the word 'odd', such as with numbers. If you do that, then you should be able to find the real answer."
Luke connected the dots in his head for moment. "Oh! So you're saying that the actual answer is the one which has an odd amount of letters. So the correct answer is... 'c'!"
"Exactly."
Luke gleefully handed the ticket back to the worker and said, "The answer is 'c'!"
The worker took the ticket back, shoving it into his vest pocket, and moved out of the way of the unit's door. "Alright, yous twos can get on now."
The Professor and Luke stepped onto the train, passing by the worker who hopped on afterwards and slid the door shut. Again, the two couldn't find anything about the train to be too peculiar; it looked like a normal London train. Brown and tan were predominant among the walls, with green carpeting making up the floor.
"Yous guys are in room '1b'," the train worker informed the two, pointing at a sign above a door that read "1b". "By orders froms the boss, please do not go intos any car behinds this one, but you may go intos the car infronts of this one for dining and bathroom needs." Layton pondered as to why they would put restrictions on going into the other railcars, but brushed it off. "If yous need anythings, there's a button that yous can press in your room to call a stewardess. Another announcement will bes made in a moment froms the boss. Haves a nice rides." Finishing his spiel, the worker made his way into the front rail car.
"Well Luke, I guess we should get into our room then. Shall we?" The two moved for the room parallel to the unit's doorway. Luke turned the doorknob and opened the door to the small room. The room's interior was similar to the rest of the train. The room contained a bed with brown comforters, a tan couch, a window, and the rest of the basics for a sleeping car.
Luke set his satchel down on the couch as the Professor took a seat on the bed. The compact car did not offer any sort of luxuries for entertainment, leaving Luke and Professor Layton to wait for the boss's announcement. Layton opened up his briefcase and took out a notepad and a pen. He licked the tip of the pen and jotted something down.
"What are you writing there, Professor?"
The Professor hesitated to answer his protege, but upon finishing his documentation, Layton answered, "I was just making a note of some of the peculiarities I've noticed so far."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I'm not sure if any of this even means anything, Luke, but why would a train this size make a stop just to pick up two passengers?"
Thinking, Luke put his hand to his chin. "Yeah, I guess that was a little weird, but I did win a sweepstakes. Maybe this is like a Hasbro company train."
"Hmm, that is quite unlikely, but still a possibility." The Professor made note of Luke's theory in his notepad. "I also had a funny feeling about that worker we met."
"What about him?"
"First off, his accent was quite foreign. I couldn't exactly tell what accent that was."
"He probably is just from another country, Professor," Luke suggested.
"Finally, the instructions for us not to go into any of the cars behind us. I've never encountered a company that would require that of its passengers."
Luke brushed off his mentor's suspicions by claiming, "It's probably to keep us from getting lost or something. This is a pretty big train."
The Professor closed up his notepad and tucked it away into his briefcase. "Alright, I'll drop these subjects for now, but I will be keeping an eye and ear open for more hints."
"Professor, you need to relax. We're finally going on a paid vacation and you want to turn it into another mystery."
Layton grinned as he chuckled, "You're right, Luke. This will be one time when I can actually take a breather for awhile. I might as well enjoy it."
"That's the spirit!" Luke encouraged as he laid back on the couch.
"Luke, how about a puzzle to pass the time?" The Professor gladly offered.
Luke placed his fruit snacks on a small table beside the couch and sat up, giving his attention to the Professor.
Puzzle 2
A young man has just been given a car on his sixteenth birthday. The young man's life is pretty routine, so he was able to make a chart of just exactly how much gas he uses on a given day. Also, the young man will only drive every other day. According to the chart below, if his car can hold a total of thirteen gallons of gas, what is the longest amount of time the young man will ever go without refilling his tank?
Sunday - 1 gallon
Monday - 3/2 gallons
Tuesday - 1 gallon
Wednesday - 3/2 gallons
Thursday - 1 gallon
Friday - 2 gallons
Saturday - 3 gallons
Layton pulled out his notepad again, and wrote the chart of rules down. Upon finishing, the Professor handed it over to Luke for him to peruse."Now Luke," the Professor began. "This question should only take you a certain amount of time, so I'll tell when I expect you to be done?"
"Okay Professor." Luke scanned over the list of numbers and days, attempting to do the arithmetic in his head. Luke decided to test the process starting with Sunday, but within a couple of seconds, his train of thought was disturbed by his teacher's chuckling.
"Are you still working on this one, Luke?" The Englishman asked with a smirk.
"Well, uh..." Luke hesitated to answer, and merely looked down at the note again.
"This riddle should have only taken you half a second at most, Luke."
"Quit messing around, Professor. I know I'm not the best at math, but I'm not a calculator."
Another small laugh escaped the Professor's lips. "Why are you doing math? Isn't the answer quite obvious?"
Once more, Luke glanced at the notepad, struggling to see the loophole with this puzzle. The Professor swiped the note pad from his protege's hands, ripped out the piece of paper, crumpled in up, and threw it away. "Professor! How am I supposed to solve the puzzle now?"
"Without that."
"I'm sorry, but I don't follow."
Layton tucked his notepad away and smiled at Luke. "Have you ever heard of unnecessary information?"
"Unnecessary information?" Luke effortlessly understood what the Professor meant. "You mean that I didn't need those rules for the puzzle?"
"Precisely, Luke. If you examine the puzzle closely, you can get the answer from the first sentence," Layton explained didactically. "Listen. 'A young man has just been given a car on his sixteenth birthday.'"
"Aw, that puzzle's so easy!" Luke moaned as he realized his foolish error. "If he never had a car for sixteen years, then sixteen years is the longest he'll go without refilling his tank!" Luke slapped himself flat on the face as the Professor chuckled once more.
*BING-BONG*
"Attention all passengers," a man said, his voice emanating from small speaker system that was installed into the room's roof. Professor Layton and Luke both silenced and listened attentively. "This is your captain speaking. I would just like to advise everyone to make their way back to their rooms, for we will be departing shortly. This was our last stop, so fifteen minutes or so after we have left, you may make your way freely to the dining area. The time now is one eleven and we will be arriving at our destination at three thirty eight. Thank you and enjoy the ride."
*BONG-BING*
"Luke, I'm going to lie down for now. Once we are able to leave our room, how about we get some lunch?"
"Yeah!" Luke happily replied. The last meal he had eaten was some oatmeal the Professor had heated up for Luke this morning.
Professor Layton removed his brown top hat and placed it on the counter beside the bed. He crossed his hands over his chest and rested peacefully. Luke began to quietly occupy himself with a small crossword puzzle book he kept on his person. The train may be departing soon, but the Professor and Luke have only just embarked on what will be their most peculiar adventure yet.
TO BE CONTINUED...