A group of thirty-three humans arrives outside two isolated towns northeast of Vanhoover. What follows is a series of incidents and misunderstandings that result in them becoming enemies of the Equestrian state.
The Equestrian Northwest is a strange place. Sixty miles northeast of Vanhoover, two towns lay in almost complete isolation. Cascade Hills is a logging town populated primarily by Earth Ponies. Hornloft is a cult colony dedicated to getting away from Equestrian society, populated by unicorns exclusively.
Both of these towns do not like outsiders.
Thirty-three humans find themselves in the midst of these two towns. Outnumbered and limited by a language barrier, they become involved in several cultural misunderstandings, culminating in an incident that leaves at least one pony dead. All of a sudden, it seems like all of Equestria is after them as they make the trek to the southeast in search of safer territory. Some of them have not given up hope on returning home, but they have only one main goal at the moment: get out of Equestria.
With a country to cross, and a military, six national heroes, and a diarchy after them, it may not be so easy. They may seem doomed, but the humans have yet to play their own trump card.
"Albert?" a muffled voice tried to rouse the unconscious man from his slumber.
"Albert!" The shaking began.
Albert Satchwell fluttered back into consciousness after being disturbed. A cool breeze ruffled the man's hair, but in this situation he should not have been feeling a breeze in the first place.
"What?" Albert half spoke, half whined. He had been having a really good dream, and despite the odd circumstances, the breeze felt good. He never wanted to get up.
"Seriously, man. You need to get the fuck up. We've got a situation here, and it ain't pretty!" the voice said. Albert's half-asleep mind recognized the voice as Francis. But, what would his next-door neighbor be doing in his bedroom?
Blue skies....
That is what Albert Satchwell opened his eyes to find. Perfect blue skies with white, fluffy clouds overhead. Never mind the fact that he should've been looking at his bedroom ceiling. He didn't remember having gone to sleep, though, but him being sprawled out on the forest floor explained the breeze at least. Those clouds looked a little TOO perfect, though.
A lush green canopy of evergreens framed the sky, and Albert was suddenly aware of the pine needles that were sinking into his back. With a startled cry, he rose to his feet, causing his neighbor to roll his eyes.
Francis Budenburr was an overweight man of around forty whose brown hair was receding quicker than he would like to admit. He lived in the house next to Albert's on Hawthorne Ct, Ashland, unmarried and without any children. He usually wore a dirty wife-beater and jeans to go along with his handlebar mustache. Albert used to think he was a total sleazebag, but after living in the neighborhood for five years, he grew to learn just how reliable Francis could actually be.
As compared to Francis, Albert was a prettier sight to see. Now thirty years old, Albert was tall and thin, though with a fair bit of muscle below the thin exterior. His face was kept clean shaven with only a little bit of black stubble popping up from when he last shaved. His jet black hair was short-cropped and he had piercing green eyes.
His girlfriend, Natalie, had always told him that it was the eyes that won her over.
Speaking of Natalie, she was set to move in with him in two short weeks, but a cold aura of fear settled in his gut. He didn't know the situation yet, but he had a bad feeling about all of this.
"Francis! What are we doing here?" Albert asked.
"Don't know, but we ain't the only ones. Yer among the last ones to awake..."
"Last ones? Who else could possibly be here?"
Albert didn't know yet why they were outside, but at least it still looked like Oregon.
"Who else is here?" he asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Now that he got a better look at things, he could tell that there were a few dozen people in total all milling around a barren area within an evergreen forest. Some of them were sitting on fallen logs, or milling around, while a few others just looked unconscious, like he had been moments before.
What was striking was that he knew every one of them.
"Is that... the Andersons? And Bianca Morris and her boys? Nikolai and Nadia, too?"
Albert could see the troubled looks on everyone's faces, but at least they weren't too far from home, right?
"The entire cul-de-sac is here... all twelve houses." Francis continued. "I've counted thirty-three heads total, and that includes Martin, man." Francis started, saying the last part under his breath.
Realization dawned over Albert, and he gulped. The situation may have begun to look a lot bleaker than it already was. It may not have been entirely normal, but that was no coincidence with Martin living in their neighborhood.
Albert looked toward the short young man at the very far end of the clearing. Martin Louverture was one of the people sitting upon a log. His gaze was stony and downcast and he sat with his mother and two younger siblings.
"Oh..."
Francis rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, "oh". Our sorry asses better pray to the Lord above that we're still in Oregon. The Andersons, Bianca, the Sydneys, and the Lopezs all have at least one young'in. If we're lost, we won't know what to do."
"How are we going to break it to them? You and I know what Martin is capable of, but the rest of the neighborhood." Albert responded, a waver in his voice.
"I'm havin' a hard time believin' this was on purpose, Albert. That boy don't have a bad bone in his body, but we both know how unpredictable he can be. The rest of the neighborhood, well, they might react badly to the truth, on top of findin' out that he's the reason this happened in the first place."
"But, Francis. If we're anywhere near Ashland, then we should all be able to pack up and go home. Maybe we should ascertain our position first, and then try to keep a lid on the whole fiasco once we get home."
Francis looked contemplative for a moment, but Albert could see the trouble in his eyes.
"You just woke up; some of us have been up for an hour now, includin' myself. I've taken some looking around; you're not going to like what I'm about to show you. Clear the sleep outta ya eyes and follow me..."
Still groggy, Albert followed the hefty man around trees. Francis stopped to talk to some of the neighbors who were concerned and afraid. Bianca was trying to comfort her two boys, aged seven and five.
Albert and Francis weaved around a particularly large evergreen, seeing a gap in the treeline that led out into a clearing where yellow grass fluttered in the wind.
The two men entered the clearing, and Francis pointed to a mountain in the near distance. The situation was getting weirder and weirder. The forest seemed relatively normal, but those seemingly perfect clouds were still grating on Albert's nerves.
Then he saw the mountain.
It was a deep blue, like a perfect blue. It was steep and tall with a perfect snow peak, with clouds surrounding the peak in a shroud. Overall, much too perfect, but its perfection wasn't what Francis had wanted to show him.
"It ain't Roxy Ann, that's for sure. Too steep, and there's no snow on Roxy Ann at this time of year. There's no mountain that steep anywhere in Jackson. The closest I can think of is Shasta, but that ain't Shasta either. Looks too different."
Albert shook his head. Although he made sure that his expression was unreadable to his friend and neighbor, on the inside he was worried. There were eight children and two teenagers among their group, and it didn't look like they were anywhere near home.
"Where the hell are we, Frank?"
Francis didn't answer the question, but Albert found something new to focus his attention on. He squinted his eyes, wondering if he was still only half-conscious.
At the treeline opposite the clearing, there stood a family of rabbits. Two adults and four little ones. This wouldn't particularly be news to both men, but Albert noticed something strange about one of the adult rabbits.
"Jackalope? Francis, are you seeing this?"
Albert took a step forward in the direction of the rabbit family. They were still far enough to where they would not run away, but he didn't need to get in close. Just close enough to confirm that what he saw on that rabbit's head were in fact horns.
"I see it, too. It may seem crazy, but I think that's a genuine jackalope. And not one of those that have the papilloma virus. It literally has antlers sticking out of its head..." Francis muttered, falling into line alongside Albert.
They were halfway across the clearing, and the rabbits had not bolted yet. Albert could see the adult rabbit from this vantage point. The horns sticking out of its head looked hard and tan, like genuine antelope antlers.
Albert took one more steps, and the family of rabbits finally darted, little ones in tow. Albert and Frank let them go; their lives didn't depend upon discovering a mythical creature.
But the encounter left both men feeling more uneasy, and they knew it when they looked at each other intently. What were the odds that they would be transported to an unknown location, and they immediately happen to find a jackalope?
"So, we're in a forest next to a mountain that we don't recognize, and apparently it is the natural habitat of the jackalope? Strange, but maybe we should go find a town or somethin'. There are still thirty-three of us stranded in the middle of nowhere. We're not properly equipped to survive out here even in the short term," Albert said.
Albert and Francis turned back to go meet up with the rest of the group. Perhaps the remaining stragglers had regained consciousness.
"What supplies do we have?" Albert asked Francis, since the other man was clearly more in the know.
"The clothes on our backs!" Francis said bluntly.
"Wonderful. What are we supposed to do know? I doubt more than a couple of us have any survival skills..."
"Probably not. But, you're right. Some of the kids were carrying cell phones on them when we arrived here. Nothing... no service or anything, so we can't just whistle for help or anythin'. We need to find a town pronto. Weird jackalopes aside, there should still be people somewhere within a decent distance, a town or somethin'. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a mill around here, either..."
The two men exited the clearing and entered the treeline where the rest of the neighborhood was mingling. Nikolai was apparently arguing with Joe Anderson about something, and the Lopezs seemed to be the only ones that hadn't awoken.
Bianca's boys, Kevin and D'Angelo Morris, were distracting themselves by climbing over a hollow log as if it were a playground. Their mother was supervising them, the independent black woman sitting in stony silence.
"Great, infighting already. Hopefully we won't have to be out here long enough for this to devolve" Albert thought.
Albert nodded to Francis, who rolled his eyes and walked over to break up the argument with a fierce but not unexpected gusto. It ended with both of them going their own way and sulking, their argument clearly unresolved. What it was about Albert could only guess, but he wasn't concerned about those two right now.
There was one person in this situation who he wanted to talk to in this situation, and he was still sitting up the log with his family. They were apparently trying to reassure him of something.
Now that Albert looked a little closer, he looked a bit more down than usual.
"Martin?" he prodded, approaching the young man slowly.
Martin Louverture was a student at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, but he and his family were locals of the town. Twenty-one years old, Martin stayed at home with his mother and siblings when he wasn't at school. Standing a modest 5'7", with sandy brown hair and hazel eyes, Martin somewhat kept to himself. He was a mystery to a great majority of the neighbors, but Albert found out his secret when he had moved into his house across the way as a spry twenty-three year old college graduate.
He had witnessed the thirteen year old Martin light a candle with his finger.
Priscilla Louverture sat on his right. A short, frumpy woman in her late forties, Priscilla was the head of the Louverture home, the small one-story home in the very back of Hawthorne Ct. Her brown, slightly greying hair was pulled into a tight bun, and she was wearing a tacky forest green blouse that went with her chunky figure. She had raised three kids on her own once her husband passed away, and Martin always wondered how she did it. That was before he had seen the government agents enter their home, like they did at the end of every month. He didn't have to be a genius to relate their appearance to Martin.
Her eyes were set in disappointment over her son, but given the circumstances, it was a lot tamer than it should have been.
"Albert!" the woman said. "Please, take a seat. I can't get him to talk to me!"
The twins came into view behind the log. Now almost seventeen years of age, Steven and Lucy Louverture were juniors at the local high school. When Albert had first moved in while attending college, he remembered the rambunctious grade-school kids.
They were opposites of their older brother in every way. Steven was quarterback of the Varsity Football Team, standing an impressive 6'3" with a brown buzz cut. Albert had seen pictures of their father, Steven was every bit the spitting image of Patrick Louverture, save for the brown over blonde hair.
Lucy Louverture was a slender girl that stood 5'11", her blonde hair flowing loose to her mid-back. She was a cheerleader and heavily involved with anything extra-curricular, always trying to add to her active social life. She was enrolled in as many art classes as she could, and seemed determined to become an art student once she graduated.
Unlike their brother, neither of them had psychic powers.
Both twins were highly outgoing and intensely popular people, but their demeanor wasn't always pleasant.
"Really fucked up this time, bro," Steven said, mocking his older brother. "What did you even do?"
Albert rolled his eyes. Steven in particular had always resented his brother. He had wanted the "cool" big brother to look up to and hang with when he was growing up, someone who he could look up to upon the shining example of masculinity in his eyes throughout his high school years. Obviously, Martin was none of those things.
That being said, Steven very clearly was slightly afraid of his brother, a fact that he would never admit to his friends, or anyone really.
While Steven was always making a snide comment to Martin, Lucy by comparison usually just gave him the cold shoulder, which she was clearly doing right now.
"Steven! Watch your mouth! This is hard enough as it is! Blaming your brother won't solve anything." Priscilla scolded her younger son.
"I hope you're right. If the other neighbors find out, Martin may find himself as the scapegoat."
"Martin..." Albert began. "How exactly did we get here?"
"..."
"Ooo-kay. Does this have anything to do with your... abilities?"
"..."
Again, Martin did not answer. Yet his eyes were moving to and fro all over the place. He put his head in his hands, shaking it slightly, before he mumbled something under his breath that Albert could barely hear.
"I'll tell you tonight. Preferably with less people around."
Priscilla shot Albert a pleading glance while the twins turned their heads up and walked away. Albert sighed; he might as well wait for night to fall before speaking to Albert in detail.
Not to mention, they didn't even have any time to discuss it. They needed to find either a town or some makeshift shelter to hole up in until they could find people.
Luckily it wasn't winter; they wouldn't have to worry about hypothermia.
Albert didn't even notice Francis slide in place alongside him.
"Hey, Albert. Some of the kids are gettin' restless. Judging from the sun's position in the sky and the temperature, it's sometime past noon. We have only five to six hours before it gets dark. Probably best to find a town by then, but I was talkin' to Nikolai. He took me out of the treeline once again, and showed me the plume of smoke he had seen. It was definitely a controlled fire even though it was a big one, and it only seemed to be around three miles away..."
Albert smiled.
"Francis. Round up everyone, would ya? We're going to go investigate that fire. Hopefully we'll find a town or two on the way there. You four..." he said to the Louvertures, "Meet up with everyone in the center, and Martin..." he paused.
"I'll talk to you later tonight, after we've gotten everyone fed and sheltered."
The town of Cascade Hills was a small town community sixty miles north-east of Vanhoover. Home to three-hundred forty one ponies, the town was a quiet locale at the foothills of Mt. Cascade, the northernmost mountain in the Unicorn Range. Focusing mostly on the timber industry, the locals learned to live without contact with the outside world. The encampment of Hornloft was only two hours away on hoof, but the nearest town after that was well over a day's trot.
With their isolationist life, they were also not too keen on outsiders, mostly preferring to keep to themselves. They weren't even particularly fond of their neighbors to the west, though that was for different reasons.
Cross Beam grinned as he sauntered back into his cabin. Mail was only delivered to the remote town once a week, but the weekly mail that had come for the cold had filled him with nothing but jubilation.
The young unicorn with a cobalt colt and a curly black mane cheered and danced as he entered the kitchen.
"I got it! I got in!" he shouted to no one in particular. He slammed his cabin's door shut behind him, placing the fancy letter with the golden ink on the counter.
"Huh? What is it? Wha' happened?!" a wheezy old voice exclaimed from back bedroom. A door creaked open, and all of a sudden a small, creaky old stallion entered the kitchen.
"Granddad! It's here! My letter from Canterlot University!"
Cross Beam was a wiry teenager of around eighteen, and one of the few unicorns in the town. The son of a unicorn mother and earth pony father, Cross was sent to live with his grandfather at an early age.
His grandfather, Saw Mill, was one of the ponies who migrated to the region where the town was established. He had spent his entire adult life working as a logger, only retiring five years after Cross arrived to Cascade Hills.
"Whuzzat? Well, I'll be!" The crotchety old stallion with a silver mane and wood brown coat said. "Ya got into that fancy pants school after all, eh? I'm proud, son! Real proud! Y'all are too good to stay in a hick town like this 'un."
The old stallion looked contemplative.
"Now, what did ya say yer major was again?"
Cross flashed a look of irritation for just a moment, but it couldn't replace his jubilance for long.
"I told you already, granddad! It's ecology! Ecology! You know, the study of organisms and their relationship to the environment? My special talent is providing homes for animals, after all!" he replied, looking at his bald eagle Cutie Mark.
Saw Mill squinted his eyes, before he clapped his grandson on the back.
"Well, that's just dandy, son. Though, ya already know so much about the 'vironment here it's probably gettin' dull to ya, now. Ya spent more time with the animals out in the woods than with colts yer own age when you were younger!"
"That gives me an idea, granddad! I'm going to catalog the woods outside town sometime before I leave. My entrance exam is in two weeks, and I'll be meeting up with the top ecology professors in Equestria. I want to provide them with a detailed case study of my home's environment!"
Saw Mill took a seat at the table.
"Well, ya still got a while before ya leave, and they might not even ask 'bout somethin' like that. 'Sides, I need your help fixing the deck today. Ya can head out and do your fancy catalog thing tomorrow..." he said, plucking an apple from the fruit basket resting on the table.
Cross Beam sighed and rolled his eyes, taking a seat beside his grandfather, nodding his head. The young pony had no idea what was residing outside their small community at that very moment.
"Stay in a single file line, everyone! We don't want anyone getting lost! And keep up!"
An hour after they had discovered the plume of smoke hanging over the forest, Albert and Francis rounded up the entire group of thirty-three humans, attempting to get them safely moving in the direction of the smoke.
It had taken some doing, but they managed to get all thirty-three of them in a single file line, with only moderate grousing from some of the children.
With Albert taking the lead and Francis rounding out the rear, the group made their way through the forest in the direction of wherever the smoke was coming from.
As they trudged through the forest, Albert kept a trained eye on the group as much as he could. He had ordered the line by families, so hopefully there wouldn't be anything to worry.
Directly behind him were the Louvertures: Martin, Lucy, Steven, and Priscilla.
After them were the Sydneys, a well to do black family who lived in the third house on the left within Hawthorne Ct, which also happened to be the largest, most expensive house on the street. Dwight Sydney was a tall, clean-cut black man in his forties who ran a successful law firm. His wife Riley was the manager of a bank. She was currently keeping an eye on her two children, twelve year old Bernice and ten year old James. Albert knew it wouldn't be necessary, both of them were good kids.
Dan Bradley came after them. The oldest neighbor on the street, Dan was a cantankerous and ornery seventy-three year old who lived alone in the first house from the right, directly opposite Albert's own.
Mostly bald with a pot belly, Dan was notorious for not getting along with anyone. He kept to himself mostly in his slightly run-down house, and no one really knew where he had come from or what he did before he moved in. Despite his unpleasant demeanor, Albert knew that Dan was just as big a liability as a child. His arthritis was serious, and he had suffered a heart attack four years ago.
Beyond him were the college kids who lived in the duplex, the fourth house from the right. Anthony, Richie, and Tim the boys, and Natalie and Candice the girls. They were a group of friends who went to the local high school around the same time as Martin. They ranged from the ages of twenty to twenty-three.
In the middle of pack were the Morrises: Bianca and her boys. D'Angelo and Kevin would no doubt be the biggest handfuls as they made their way throughout the forest, but Bianca was a tough as nails twenty-nine year old who kept them in line as best she could by her lonesome. They lived in the sixth house from the left, right next to the Louvertures.
Next up were Nikolai and Nadia, a middle-aged Russian couple who lived in the third house on the right. And beyond them were Ryan and Brit, a young couple from the fifth house on the left.
The next couple was Vang and Monica, from the second house on the right opposite Francis. Monica was a stout white woman of around sixty, while her husband was an Asian man who, like Ray, never seemed to get along with the rest of the neighborhood.
The last two families were the Alexanders and the Lopezs. The Alexanders were a white couple from the fourth house upon the left, who lived with their nine year old daughter Ashley. The Lopezs lived next to the Louvertures, on the fifth house from the right. Jesús, Mercedes, and their three children: thirteen year old Ramón, eleven year old Emilia, and eight year old Augustin.
Rounding out the back was Francis.
Francis stood in the back a fair distance away from Jesús Lopez, watching for any stragglers. His eyes were trained on Kevin Morris, who walked between his mother and brother somewhere in the middle of the pack. Bianca was keeping an eye on both her sons, but her younger one was almost too rowdy for the single African-American woman to handle.
The trees became thicker and denser, and because of that the group lost site of the plume of smoke. The trail they were following was clearly man-made however, and Albert had memorized the direction in which their presumed town could be found.
"Let me know if we have any injuries or accidents! Kids, stay close to your parents! And no potty breaks!" Albert made sure his voice carried to the very back of the line.
"We're really lucky we don't have a higher number of people to worry about."
Despite Albert's instructions, they had eight kids to look after amongst their group, and they ended up taking more potty breaks than they would have liked.
Moving to the source of the smoke took longer than any of the adults would have liked, and Albert realized that they had zero supplies on hand other than the clothes on their backs.
"Hey! Look!" someone shouted from the group. Being in the front, Albert of course was the first one to see the small forest town they had come across.
A smile of relief made its way onto Albert's face, and when he looked behind himself, it seemed like he wasn't the only one who was smiling. From their vantage point, the group of people were standing on a hill, and the ground dipped down to become an unforested valley where what seemed to be a normal human town had been built.
"Thank the Lord above! Civilization! Just imagine what would have happened if we were dropped in the middle of nowhere!" Albert breathed out.
The group of thirty-three broke off from their single file formation, the mothers tending to their crying and complaining children. They were also lucky there were no infants in the group, just children that were clearly old enough to walk on their own.
"Looks to be pretty small of a town. You can see almost all of it from up here. Look, that must a been the smoke we saw!" Francis Budenburr said, walking up to Albert.
The two de-facto leaders of the group saw a large, rectangular building to the left. The landscape dipped down even more as a trail led to a narrow river at the bottom. A large waterwheel was turning and a chimney spewed the smoke that they had likely been seeing.
"A saw mill. I'm not surprised, this town was probably founded on the timber industry." Albert commented.
"Yeah, but are you guys seeing this?" a new voice piped up.
Albert and Francis were surprised when Martin Louverture broke off from mingling with his family to join the two leaders of the group. Apparently he had noticed something that the two had not, but what was really surprising was the fact that he would actually speak up.
"That's not normal..." he said simply.
Francis almost snorted. Martin proclaiming what was normal was really rich, but he looked down to see what the kid had spotted anyway.
"What the fuck?" his jaw almost dropped.
"What is the meaning of this?" Albert chimed in.
While the three of them were watching the village unseen, someone opened their door on the far end of the town and stepped out onto the street.
"Is that a goddamn horse? Now I've seen everything!" Francis deadpanned. It was true, a small equine was the only one wandering around the village at that time. There was no sign of any people thus far.
"It's wearing clothes, kinda looks like something a logger would wear. And look at those eyes, I've never seen eyes that big on a horse. And it's small, never seen a horse or even a pony that size."
Albert snorted at the simple explanations that Francis was giving. There was something very off about that horse, though. Even from this distance, he could tell that beyond all the odd characteristics, it was moving with a sense of purpose.
"I know this may sound crazy, but I can't shake this feeling in ma gut. I got a feeling that thing over there ain't just a dumb animal..." Francis pondered.
"What's going on over there? What are you guys talking about?" someone, Brit from the sound of it, asked from behind the treeline. Martin, Francis, and Albert all looked at each other with unease.
"How the hell are we gonna break this to 'em? I mean, we don't really know what's going on down there yet, but I'm not so sure that we as a group wanna go down there yet. That is, until we have a grasp on the situation..."
"That's not all! Look!" Martin pointed to the left, directly where the saw mill was. Albert and Francis' eyes panned over to the small mill at the base of the river. It was the same, but the main doors had been opened by they were preoccupied with the strange horse that was now wandering into what appeared to be a lodge.
"More!?"
From their left, a group of nine or ten of the horse things were walking up the path that led from the mill to the town. Each one wore the exact same worker's clothes, but their fur and manes were of varying colors.
"And now they're technicolor? Perfect, just perfect!" Francis groused.
"It's almost creepy, to be honest. Some of them look like they're talking to each other, and that one in the middle just laughed. At the very least, they're doing something that normal horses should be incapable of." Albert commented.
Martin shook his head, the solemn look that was usually plastered on his face never leaving.
"That's not it, either. Look at that one," he said, pointing to a pony in the center of the group.
"Most of them are "normal", for lack of a better word. From this vantage point, that one in the middle looks clearly has a horn. And another one kinda looks like it has wings."
"Unicorns. Freakin' unicorns! Ain't that just dandy? I mean, if they weren't fuckin' horses, I woulda just mistook them for a bunch of workers gettin' off their shift!"
Albert rolled his eyes.
"This is all really strange and all. I mean, if what you're saying is true, we've basically stumbled across a settlement of mythological creatures. But, have either of you noticed what seems to be missing here?" Albert piped up.
"....people," Martin said, with only a few seconds of hesitation.
"Exactly. I mean, like it or not, this is a situation we're going to have to deal with. We could assume that we're still on Earth, and that's there an entire town of mutant horses that just happen to have gone unnoticed by the entire world. Or we could assume that we're not on Earth anymore. Take your pick, because they're both ridiculous to believe..." Albert said, shaking his head.
He caught Martin's eye, and the younger male tilted his head away. Albert instantly knew what he was thinking; the shame was getting back to him. The ponies had made it back into the town proper by that point, the group going their own way. A couple entered houses, but others mingled as more and more ponies were making their way out onto the street.
Francis shook his head at the ridiculousness of it all.
"Forget the horses for a second. What the hell do we do? There are no people in this town, do we just go barging into a town of magic horses and ask for help?" he asked.
"Everyone! Get back inside the treeline now! Don't make yerselves visible until you get the okay from me!" Albert ordered, a small quaver in his voice. The other thirty humans broke out in murmurs of protest and confusion.
"Hey! Who the hell put you in charge, pal?"
That voice could only belong to Richie, but it was clear that there were a few others that shared his sentiment. While some of the families, particularly the ones with children, had opted to listen to Albert and Francis, the college kids, Dan, and Vang were now voicing their concerns.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Francis roared, a little bit too loud for Albert's liking. They were still far away from the town, but who knew whether or not those horse things could hear them.
"Hey, fuck off man! We're finally back to civilization! This trip has been just awful for me and Natalie, and now you're telling us we can't even go get cleaned up?" Candice, one of the female college students, joined the conversation.
Albert rolled his eyes. Off all the college kids, only Tim and Natalie were really nice, pleasant individuals. Richie was pretty much who Steven Louverture would be three or four years removed, yet with a fair bit more anger and bit more smarts. Candice was a pampered princess who was loathe to deal with any kind of hardship. Of course they would be the ones to start complaining first. All the five did was hold their obnoxious college parties in their duplex. Their moronic friends would show up in the neighborhood every once in a while and annoy everyone else who lived there.
"We'll explain everything later. Please, just get back into the treeline..." Martin said.
"He's damn talkative today..." Albert thought to himself, especially with how silent he had been not too long ago. Maybe he felt responsible to keep everyone safe?
"Shut up, pencildick." Richie snarled. Martin didn't even flinch. He and the other college kids didn't always get along, but Martin's plethora of other issues made it easy for him to deal with their apparent disdain for him.
"Hey, meathead, we've got bigger problems right now than you spoiled kids' need to be pampered. I understand that this is a rough situation, but it's about to get even rougher. Just go back and hide behind the trees, so you can't be seen. I'll explain everything in a couple minutes..." Albert said.
Richie and Candice both scowled, but they reluctantly turned away from the two of them and back into the treeline. That left Vang and Dan, the stubborn old codgers that they were.
"You better have a good reason, Albert. No one wants to be stuck out here longer than we have to..." Dan spat, and he and Vang followed the younger generation back to the rest of the group.
"I'm going to head back now..." Martin said. "You two will keep things running smoothly, right?" he said, with an almost pleading glance.
Francis and Albert looked at each other.
The rabble of the neighborhood could be heard as they once again gathered in a small clearing approximately one-hundred feet away from where Albert and Francis had discovered the town.
Albert stepped up on a large stump, giving him a position on which he was higher than everyone else, who was standing around on the forest floor or once again sitting on hollow logs.
"People, people! I understand you all may have questions as to why we intentionally avoided seeking help in a town we have just found," he began, with the few dissenters snorting.
Albert ignored them and continued.
"While it is true that we have found civilization and a place where we could receive possible aid, the circumstances of this small town are less than ideal, and it has brought to light several more issues that we may be facing."
More murmuring. Some of the kids were beginning to turn to their parents with questions.
"Let me be direct. In the town that lies in the valley, there are inhabited houses and a working saw mill, but there are no people in that town that we could see. Not a single one out on the streets."
The silence was uncomfortable.
"This is where it gets really weird. There has been something off about this place the moment we have arrived, and this town is no different. What Francis and myself have found is what appears to be a town populated by nothing but small horses. These horses appear to be intelligent, and they've been acting a hell of a lot like humans do."
That was when the silence broke.
"Bullshit!" one of the college kids cried out.
"Why are we even avoiding this? If we find a town, there's bound to be people in it. Why the hell would you make up this fake story about horses?"
"That honestly sounds hard to believe, Albert." Dwight Sydney chimed in. Some of the parents were also sharing their views of skepticism, and the children were continuing to ask questions.
Albert held his hands up in a placating gesture.
"Look, I couldn't make this up if I tried. For those of you who are skeptical, you can go take a look at the town over there. Just... just don't alert yourselves to them. We don't want to just walk right in to something we don't know about."
Several members of the group looked at each other with varying expressions. Some of the group decided to take Albert's word, and remained seated. They were prepared to follow his directions.
The more abrasive members of the group in Richie, Vang, and Dan rose from their seats, exiting the treeline to take a look at the village down below.
"Holy shit! What the hell? He was right all along!" Richie said.
"There must be fifty of them down there. What are these things?" Dan's voice rang out.
"No people. No people down there. Only horse things..." Vang's voice.
"That's new. There were only about ten of them before. Is there some sort of event going on that we don't know about?" Albert thought as he registered the cries of his neighbors.
The two older men and the college student came back to the clearing in a daze. All three of them apparently ran out of steam upon the shocking revelation.
"Now you know what we're dealing with." Albert said nonchalantly.
"Wait, you were serious?"
The sound Albert heard next was of the many people who went to view it for themselves. Some of the kids left their parents to attempt to run out of the treeline, but Francis was there waiting to stop them.
"Wait! Wait! WAIT!" he roared, grabbing Augustin Lopez before he could enter plain view. "With all of you rushing there, we'd stick out like a sore thumb. We'd be visible to them!"
"So what? What if they're friendly! Maybe they could help us?" Natalie suggested.
It wasn't like Albert and Francis had planned on going forever without making contact with the strange horses, but it could've been avoided if possible.
"Well, like I said earlier..." Albert hopped off of his stump, "We don't want to all just rush in at once to face something we literally know nothing about. I mean, they don't look very threatening or anything, but we need to be careful. These are some strange circumstances we're in right now. Weird horses, our strange appearance, and the lack of anything human besides us so far."
"I'm not against sending out a delegation to meet those ponies, but we should weigh our options first. This is new territory for all of us. The sun is going to set in a couple hours. Let's use the remaining time to see if we can find some shelter for the night. We can discuss what we're going to do once we do. My suggestion is that we send one person into the town as an emissary. We may startle the townsfolk if we all head in at once, and who knows what would happen from there?"
The group began to settle down upon Albert's explanation, but they were still stuck out in the wilderness. Some of the children couldn't keep going like this.
"Okay, anyone under thirteen needs to stay here and rest. We need three people to stay here and watch the kids, make sure they don't hurt themselves. The rest of the adults, split off into five or six groups and start searching in several different directions. We need food, water, shelter, and supplies. If you find something that looks like food, take note of it but DO NOT EAT IT! If you find water, same thing. We have to make sure it's sanitary. Don't lose your way, keep track of the sun and make sure you're able to retrace your steps. We will meet back here at sundown!"
Richie still looked conflicted, but the sight of his friends preparing to go to work seemed to uplift him. Dan, Riley, and Candy seemed to volunteer to stay and watch the kids. Dan's reason was likely because of his arthritis.
"Hey Albert," Francis said, approaching the de-facto leader of the group. "Speaking of shelter, while we were walking through the forest, I saw some train tracks running through. They looked old and worn out though; I don't think the train has run through here in years."
"Interesting..." Albert scratched his chin, "Perhaps we should follow them? There might be a train station or something around here that we could hole up in."
"One more thing." Francis' expression turned more serious. "You're right about earlier, what with the whole not being on Earth anymore thing. It may look the same at first, but too many things are different. We can't hide that from the others forever."
Albert sighed.
"I know. Let's just go find those train tracks first. We'll tell the others when we're settled in."
"Yes! We don't have to sleep on rocks and twigs tonight!"
"It looks abandoned. I doubt there are many supplies here, but it should at least be a good enough place to hole up."
Albert smiled at some of the people in the group, who looked ecstatic at finding a place to rest after hours of hiking in the forest. Francis' intuition had once again turned out correct. The railroad tracks they had found branched off in either direction, running through forest that had obviously been cleared for development.
Francis and Albert had continued for about two miles to the west down the track, before it curved into a shaded section of the forest. There, cut out into a tiny clearing was where a station had been built, with the railroad tracks continuing on past to who knows where.
The station was a two story building, with only one to two rooms on the second floor as it rose up out of the center. It was all made out of a deep brown wood, which may have been colored greyer with age. The was long and narrow, running about fifty feet with a staircase leading to the main deck and the single door that led to the interior.
The whole station seemed like a rustic 19th Century train station from the Western United States, and was clearly not a modern train station in any sense of the word.
If they were back home, it was clearly the sort of place that would have become a historical exhibit, if it survived at all.
"Hey! The doors locked! Goddamnit!" Anthony the college student's voice rang out. While Francis and Albert were admiring their newly found shelter, people had wandered off in an attempt to get inside.
The large double doors had apparently been sealed shut with age.
"Hey! Someone gimme a hand over here!" he hollered to the rest of the group, who were just milling about. Kevin and D'Angelo had taken to playing around on the train tracks, while their mother waltzed over and gave them a piece of her mind.
Jesús Lopez and Joe Alexander responded to the call of the younger Anthony, and together the three of them attempted to bust the door clean off its hinges.
Bang!
"Wait, maybe we should try to find another way..."
Smash!
"...in," Albert finished his statement with just a whisper, as the large door was pummeled down underneath the weight of the three men. The rest of the group gave a loud cheer, clambering their own way up the stairs as people filed into the train station.
"Do these people ever use their brains?" Albert muttered to himself, as Francis chuckled beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't let it get to ya. Hopefully we can fix the door later before some wild creatures get in. But, it's hard to fault them for being jittery. It's been a long day."
Martin Louverture walked past the both of them with his family.
"So, after we all get settled in, are you gonna..." Francis asked. Albert nodded back at him.
"Yeah. I'm gonna have to. Now, come on. Let's get inside," Albert said, noticing that most of the others had already filed themselves into the station.
"Okay, everyone! Roll call!" Francis hollered as he and Albert entered the station. Albert began to take a head count, while Francis tried to prop the door back up as best as he could.
Albert took a head count as best he could in the dark, counting thirty-one people total.
"Everyone's here. That's good..." he said, not counting Francis or himself. The sun was just about to go down in the forest, and when it did, their only light source in the dark station would be extinguished.
The room was fortunately large enough to contain that amount of people comfortably, and Albert realized that they must have been in the main lobby.
The ceiling hung over them at about eight feet, which struck Albert as odd that it would be so low. Then again, if the only people here were those horse things, maybe not.
"Gonna have to find a way to fix this later. It's not going to hold forever..." Francis said. Albert nodded to him, and it wasn't lost on him that Francis just implied that they were going to be here a while.
"I'm gonna go check in the back; see if we have anything we can use for the time being." Francis whispered to Albert, who nodded. The older man took off to the southeast part of the room, where another door was.
The room everyone else currently resided in was clearly a lobby of some sort for passengers. The other people were murmuring to themselves in the southern part of the room.
In the center of the long narrow room was a silhouetted structure that seemed to be a timetable, some of the wood had rotted off with age. In the back were no more than four ticket booths.
The rest of the room was pretty barren, save for some tables and chairs and even a couch or two for passengers to sit upon while they waited for their train.
"Well! Okay, everyone!" Albert said, trying to keep himself chipper and optimistic for the sake of the group, "I know we've had a long day! We've walked more than we usually do in a week, we probably all smell bad, and we've witnessed several things that should be impossible. Despite that, if we want to get back home or take away anything positive from this situation, we need to be united. We have to work together!"
"Yeah, right! We're sleeping in an abandoned train station, for Christ's sake!" someone shouted, to which there were several murmurs of agreement.
"Look, everyone! Hopefully our um... living arrangements are only temporary. But, we should consider ourselves lucky; we have a roof over our heads for the foreseeable future."
"So what! We saw those horse things down in the town! Those things ain't normal, and we ain't anywhere near Ashland. How the hell are we supposed to cope with this if we don't have any way back? Are we gonna be stuck here forever?" Richie shouted, one of the few who had actually seen the ponies. He seemed to figure out that they were not on Earth anymore.
"Stuck here forever? What is he talking about?" Dwight Sydney piped up.
Albert began pacing back and forth, his eyes starting to adjust to the dark. How to break such a thing to them?
"Well, I'm sure Richie and those who have seen the "ponies" have come to the same conclusion. From first glance, they act like us; they've even built a very similar town within the forest. This train station itself probably belongs to them too. Just look, the ceiling hangs too low and those ticket booths are too small for a human to properly man."
Albert paused for a moment, letting the words hang on the group.
"This is just a theory, but I think we should be open to all possible conclusions. The truth is-"
"Hey, Albert!" Francis cut Albert off, stepping out from behind the door he had gone into. He was carrying a dimly lit candle lantern, providing at least some semblance of illumination to the rapidly darkening train station.
"I want you to come check something out with me! The rest of y'all, stay seated and don't move! Albert'll be back in a sec..."
Albert looked reluctant enough to leave the group unsupervised, but Francis was waving him over aggressively. He turned and looked at the group. Even in the dim light they looked impatient.
Still, something must have been up, so the younger man entered the smaller room and shut the door behind him.
The only light in the room came from Francis' lit candle, but it was enough to which Albert could clearly see what was in the room. The mainstay was the old desk in the back, with numerous trinkets and items sitting upon it collecting dust. A rustic wall clock hung on the wall behind it, the gears on the clock having rusted over years ago.
Albert blinked, for the numbers on the clock were clearly not Arabic numerals. Instead, they were strange symbols in a script that he had never seen before.
Another thing that caught Albert's eye were the multiple pictures set upon the wall. Most of them were sepia toned photographs of various events that happened around the train station. Some were just of the old steam locomotives, while others showed those same horses exiting and entering those trains, milling around the station, and various other activities.
One pony seemed to be a regular in all those pictures, a male who always seemed to be dressed up in a vest and a large coned hat. Other ponies in the picture also wore uniforms like those. Employees, perhaps?
Of course, there was not a single human in these pictures.
"This must be a director's office or something..." he muttered. After seeing the office, Albert's hopes for returning home were all but shot. He was now one-hundred percent sure they were not on Earth anymore.
An entire town of mutant horses could not go unnoticed by human civilization, but this train station had been non-functioning for years. From the pictures, that meant that they had an active transportation system, some advancements in technology, and a very clear history.
"Man, what are we gonna do?" Albert asked, almost rhetorically, but he knew that Francis thought the same thing once he laid eyes on this room.
"Don't know. But, check this out!"
Albert heard something plop down on the desk, after Francis had been fidgeting with the old drawers of the desk. Francis placed the lantern down on the desk as Albert walked up to him.
What Francis had found was a dusty old newspaper that had clearly been published years ago. It showed the train station in all its glory. Maybe the director of the station had kept a special newspaper that covered the station? Who knew, but the paper itself revealed key information to the two men.
They could not read any of it, but both of them could recognize the script that the newspaper was using. Beyond some symbols that Albert recognized as the numbers on the clock, the newspaper was printed in a twenty-six letter A-Z script, just rearranged to form a language completely different than English.
"What the hell do you think this is? Horse language?" Francis asked.
"Must be. I can't make sense of this. But, have you noticed? Ia nu drane lo Piurna, bavane drutin..." Albert began, reading the first few words of the paper.
"It's a whole new language, but it uses the same alphabet as English. Why would a civilization of small horses, who presumably have had no contact with humans before, develop the same written script as us?"
"Creepy..." Francis commented, and Albert couldn't deny it. It made zero sense according to the natural progression of things. There was no logical reason that horses from another world would develop the same written script.
Unless they had come into contact with humans before, but that was unlikely.
"Ugh... we can't read this, but I think I might wanna take a look at this. There's a few context clues in the newspaper. That symbol right there..." pointing to one of the indecipherable letters, "is the same as one of the numbers on the clock. So, it's probably same to assume that's a number, "twelve" from the looks of it. We might be able to pick up snippets of the language by picking up written material like this..."
"What's the hold up in there?" someone shouted from outside, to which Albert groaned.
"I better go and placate them before they all riot. Though, from what I'm about to tell them, there's probably going to be a riot anyway!" he said, walking out the door while Francis winced.
"Okay, okay, settle down!" Albert called, his voice just barely being able to be heard above all the griping, "We looked in that back room, which seems to be some kind of director's office. But, you're not going to like what I'm about to tell you."
Francis had forsaken him, taking up the task of shuffling around the perimeter of the train station to look for more doors. That left Albert as the sole spokesperson for the group.
"...We are not on Earth anymore," Albert finished, waiting for the inevitable explosion. It did not disappoint. A cacophony of angry screams and roars permeated the area, as several people rose to their feet to mark their protest.
"What the fuck?!"
"Fucking a!"
"What about the children?!"
"This is impossible!"
"People! People, please!" Albert tried to placate the group, "I know it sucks, but we have to deal with the situation as best as we can. We shouldn't give up on returning home, but we need to take this One. Step. At. A. Time!"
"We have to work together on this. Although I corralled all of you away from that village of ponies, the fact remains that we can't hole up in here for the rest of our lives. We should contact them, but in a way that will be sure not to frighten them."
"So, what are we gonna do? Send in one person to be the guinea pig?" Joe Alexander asked. The plan in general seemed to calm some of the people down, but there were still questions to be raised.
"That's exactly what we're going to do!" Albert said steadfastly.
More murmuring.
Albert locked eyes with Martin Louverture; he seemed complacent about all of this. However, Albert couldn't help but shake the feeling that his days in the group were numbered.
"So, who's it gonna be? I know I definitely don't wanna go down there to meet those things alone!" Ryan said. Several others nodded in agreement.
"Quit being pussies! They're just horses! How threatening could they possibly be?" someone else piped up, to his own share of agreement.
"No one needs to worry about any of that," Albert continued, "because none of you are leaving this station to go meet those ponies. It should be acceptable if I'm the one thrown to the lions, correct?" he challenged.
"Whatever! I'm still trying to figure out who died and put you in charge, though!" one of the college kids shouted. Albert rolled his eyes and sighed.
"I swear, once we establish contact with these horses, we'll have a more democratic process when it comes to deciding things. Just be patient, everyone! We have children in the group, and we want to do things as safely and cautiously as possible!"
A few women, such as Candy Alexander and Mercedes Lopez seemed to agree with that statement. Some of the kids were starting to get sleepy, and were complaining to their mothers about the unfortunate situation.
"Hey, Albert! There's a storeroom over here in the back!" Francis cried from the very far end of the lobby. "There's a whole mess of supplies in here, includin' a couple of old sleeping bags. They're too small to fit an adult, but I'm thinkin' a kid can use 'em just fine!"
"Okay, great! It's been a long day, and I'm sure a bit of sleep could do everyone good! I'll be heading back to that town by myself tomorrow to see if I can contact the locals."
Several minutes later, and the group meeting had dispersed as Albert allowed people to go into separate ways. Nearly everyone split off into their family or couple groups.
There were half a dozen sleeping bags in the back storeroom, with Francis trying to distribute them as best as he could. Albert glimpsed Mercedes Lopez tucking Augustín into the small, moth-eaten bag after checking it for parasites, her other two children looking on. They would have to sleep on the ground tonight.
The Louvertures were closest to him, having had nothing but a candle lantern distributed to them. Steven and Lucy were getting ready to pack it in for the night, but Martin seemed to have remembered their conversation from earlier.
Albert walked up to the family, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Meet me on the back deck in about two hours."
"Hey." Albert greeted simply.
"Hey, yourself," the younger human said simply. There was no happiness, resentment, or annoyance in his voice. Just a simple acknowledgement from an acquaintance.
Martin was sitting in a rotting old rocking chair that was placed upon the back porch of the old timey train station. Three other chairs surrounded a small wooden table that looked like it had seen better days. Everybody else had turned in for the night, leaving Albert and Martin alone in the cool midnight air.
Crickets chirped around them as an animal howled somewhere off in the woods. Albert realized how nice these woods actually were for camping; if only they had arrived here under more pleasant circumstances.
He looked up, taking in the clear night sky which was not ruined by light pollution. The moon here was a full one that looked just a little too perfect, which visible constellations and galaxies dotting the skies around it.
"Listen..." Albert began, taking another of the seats beside Martin, "I wanted to talk about... y'know. We discussed this before," he finished.
Martin lit a cigarette, to which Albert made a face. The older man realized that his pack of cigarettes and lighter must've been the only thing Martin was carrying on him when they arrived.
"Must you do that here?" he asked, rolling his eyes. Martin placed the half-empty pack of cigarettes on the table, and Albert shook his head. The boy had started chain-smoking when he got back from his second "vacation". That had been almost six years ago.
"No wonder your brother and sister started picking up your habits..." Albert groused.
"Steven and Lucy don't smoke cigarettes, only weed. And it's their friends that got them hooked on that. It doesn't have anything to do with me," Martin said, without missing a beat.
"I suppose I can't blame you too much. Those two smoke for recreation. You only smoke when you're stressed."
"Given the circumstances, that tends to be a lot..." Martin said as he put out the cigarette on the table before lighting another one.
"We're getting off-topic. How about you tell me how you brought us here, and what do we going to do to get back?" Albert asked. In all honestly, Albert was almost pleading that Martin knew the way back to Ashland. He had talked to the group like this was going to be a more permanent adventure, but if Martin could bring them back now...
The cigarette hung between Martin's lips, and Albert just realized a sickening thought. He may have been carrying cigarettes when it occurred, but he definitely wasn't carrying his antidepressants.
Would there be a relapse in his depression? Not to mention, the possibility of panic attacks.
"It wasn't meant to happen, but I'm surprised an incident like this didn't happen earlier. Teleportation PSI is something that I don't have the ability to control. Well, I don't have much control over anything I do really, but teleportation is especially unpredictable. It's happened before in smaller spurts, but I can't believe that it encompassed the entire neighborhood!"
"Teleportation? How many abilities do you have?" Albert gawked. He knew Martin had psychic abilities, but he had never seen much of what he could actually do with them. The government took every precaution to only minimally expose his abilities to the outside world, and he had only caught a few glimpses before.
He wasn't aware that something like this was possible, even for him.
Martin pondered the question a bit.
"Seven." he said finally. "Seven disciplines I have at least some manner of ability over. Some are stronger than others."
"Strange that you would call them disciplines..." Albert commented. Martin looked at him strangely while taking another drag on his cigarette.
"That's what they are. Or, at least, that's what I call them, because you have to be disciplined if you want to use them," Martin explained, to which Albert raised an eyebrow.
After that, Martin changed the subject.
"I heard you're going down to that town tomorrow. Are you sure about that? I could always go in your stead, you know?"
"Don't change the subject. The others deserve to know how they got here! We're going to have to tell them sooner or later, lest something like this happen again!"
"...Well it was nice knowing you."
"Don't say that! I'll vouch for you; I'm not going to let you take all the blame for this. We need you now more than ever!"
"You kidding? How do you think they'll react to finding out that there's a literal psychic in their midst? I know we've gone through a lot of weird stuff, but I'm a part of the group! The parents won't want me around their children once they found out its my fault we're even here..."
Martin took a drag on his cigarette.
"Besides, I might deserve every bit of anger they throw at me."
"But it was an accident!"
Martin exhaled more smoke.
"So what?"
"They can't just kick someone out like that. I won't let them," Albert said.
"In systems like these, it usually comes down to majority rule. If everyone in there," he said, gesturing to the dark interior of the train station, "figures out what I'm really like and decide they don't want me around, I'll have to go. If you just decide to lord over them like that, they may stage a mutiny. Splitting up like that only hinders the group, and lowers our chances of surviving," Martin said.
"If it comes down to it, I'll take the fall. I'll be the scapegoat." he finished, putting out the last cigarette he was going to smoke for the night. Albert shook his head.
Despite him trying so hard to keep determined conviction in his voice, Albert could tell by the expression on his face that he was not ready to face what was in store.
The morning sun rose over the abandoned train station, bathing the interior with light and waking up several humans who were sprawled out on the floor.
Thirty-three humans gave collective groans of pain and discomfort, no doubt stemming from sleeping on the cold, hard ground all night, as well as the hardships from the day that had come before.
A few of them were probably still working out that it wasn't a dream they had gone through.
Francis and Albert were already up, having risen with the sun. They had a responsibility as the de-facto leaders to make sure that everyone was running smoothly, and that meant getting up earlier than everyone else to prepare for today's assignments.
"Are you sure you want me to handle this? It seems it would boil over better if you were here to control the crowd," Francis asked Albert as the two men began readying themselves for Albert's trip.
Albert nodded, while lifting his armpit and sniffing. It wasn't a high priority, but they would have to find someway for all of them to bathe and wash their clothes. The smell would become overpowering after a few days.
"Yeah, I'll let you handle it. Making contact with those equines should be a high priority of ours, and I need to be the one to do it," he replied.
Francis nodded.
"Are you ready?" Francis asked Martin, who was standing alongside him. Martin nodded, and Francis placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder before looking out at the lobby.
"Don't worry. Everything is going to be fine."
About half an hour later, Albert had left the station, and the rest of the group had been called for an important meeting. Therefore, thirty-one people sat side-by-side in the station's lobby, much like they did the previous night.
"Where's Albert?" Dan Bradley asked irritably. "And why's the kid up there with you?" the old man asked, pointing a gnarly finger at Martin Louverture.
Most of the group wore expressions of curiosity, save for Martin's family. They knew exactly what was going on, and Priscilla in general was ready to deal with the consequences, for better or for worse.
"Well, everyone. We have figured out the truth of these circumstances. I am about to tell you the reason we are here..."
The world seemed to like surprising the group, because once again they fell silent enough to hear a pin drop. People began to shout and argue like they weren't used to such things by now, but Francis of course was made of tougher stuff than to bow down to their will.
"QUIET! Now, I'm gonna explain to ya'll what happened, so sit down and shut up! We've got a big decision to make after this!" Francis shouted, being far less gentle in his approach than Albert.
His face softened, and he took a deep breath before turning to Martin.
"Martin, would you demonstrate please?"
"Demonstrate? What the fuck are you talking about, dude? Why is pencildick up there like he's some kinda important..." Richie started to argue, but he was cut off by the "demonstration" in question.
The entire crowd was stunned. The entire groups eyes moved in tandem upon a single candle lantern that was levitating before their very eyes, with no clear force, object, or aura acting upon it.
Martin's eyes were watching it intently, as the lantern moved back towards the young man, where he grabbed it out of the air and held it at his side.
Everyone except Martin's family and Francis was stunned.
"F-Floating! That lantern was floating!" someone shouted.
"That's how we got here. Martin is psychic, and telekinesis isn't the only thing he's capable of," Francis' voice tried to raise above the murmuring that beginning to start.
"We're really not in the mood for jokes! We're stranded out here, and you guys are pulling pranks to make us believe that he has superpowers. C'mon now..." Brit shouted above the din.
In response to that, Martin used his telekinesis to levitate an old newspaper upon the table, floating it over until it hung directly in front of Brit's face.
The young woman was stunned. There were no ropes or pulleys or anything that were capable of moving that object, and those around her were beginning to see that too.
Some people were beginning to seem wary of Martin. One woman even screamed.
"Cool!" the five-year old Kevin Morris squealed, the small African-American boy running up to Martin. His brother D'Angelo also seemed interested, as he eyed Martin from his mother's side with wonder.
Martin himself locked eyes with D'Angelo, a small smile on his face as he did. His eyes then widened with surprise as the college student seemed to notice something, and he stroked his chin knowingly.
D'Angelo was confused. What could that have possibly meant?
"Kevin!" Bianca Morris scolded.
"Someone get him away from there!" Candy Alexander cried, having been the woman who screamed.
"Wait, wait, wait! So, Pencildick here is some kind of mutant?!" Richie cried, and the college kids from the duplex looked angry and slightly afraid. They had never gotten along well with Martin, and for Richie at least, it seemed like they had made enemies with the wrong guy.
Most of the others seemed to murmur in agreement, to which Martin cast his eyes downward.
"Any-WAY, like I was saying," Francis continued, raising his voice and glaring at the crowd, "I understand it's a big shock coming to learn that psychic abilities actually exist, but I need to remind everyone that until proven otherwise, we're in a magical world of fucking talking horses. Start dealin' with it already!"
"Yesterday morning, Martin here had an accident with his abilities. I don't know exactly how it occurred, but he told us last night that teleportation is somethin' he can use, and he has "episodes" every now and then. This one just happened to be the strongest one he has ever experienced, and because of it, he managed to engulf the entire neighborhood by accident."
"Accident?! So that makes it okay, huh? We're never going to make it home because of an accident!" the first protest came in the form of Ryan, who was one of the first to begin glaring daggers at Martin.
"We're lucky no one was hurt..." his girlfriend Brit commented, taking the side of her significant other.
Priscilla Louverture frantically looked around the room, noticing that the majority of the people were now angry with her oldest son. Even Steven and Lucy seemed concerned at this point.
"And we're just going to allow this to continue? Like, this guy's been living among us for years!" Candice raised her own voice, "He's such a weirdo! Who knows what could set him off again?"
"SHUT UP!" Francis roared, his rough voice quieting down the crowd instantly, "How many times am I gonna have to do that?" he yelled in frustration.
"It's true. It's basically my fault that we're even here," Martin said quietly.
"Aha! He admits it! A menace he is!"
"Shut the hell up, Vang!" Francis called, but he was started to get drowned out by the number of angry voices that were calling for Martin's blood, so to speak.
"I don't want him around my children!"
"Get him outta here! What if he blows us all up when we're asleep, huh?"
"You son of a bitch!"
That last cry came from Richie, who was climbing over people to apparently start a physical confrontation with Martin. Guns blazing, he ran up to the "stage", a fist cocked and ready.
Francis grit his teeth and glared, preparing to take action while Martin just stood there as if he were about to take it.
Smack!
The strong college kid gave Martin a whack that he wouldn't forget for a while, with enough force to knock the smaller Martin back and into a table with a bunch of old papers on them.
The crowd erupted, some in cheers and some in protests as Martin shakily got to his feet and checked his mouth for blood. A large welt had appeared on his face where Richie had hit him.
"That's what you get, motherfucker!" Richie spat, seemingly ready for more. He was promptly tackled by Francis and Joe, before any more violence could occur.
"You fucking dipshit!" Francis roared, "Do you actually think before you act?! You're lucky he's not some lunatic, otherwise you'd be dead by now, you fucking idiot!"
"Fuck you guys!" Richie roared, struggling under the strength of both men. Joe had him in a chokehold.
"Alright, unless anyone else has any other bright ideas, do you mind if I continue?" Francis spat at the crowd, who had grown silent over the display of violence.
"This will be the first time we're ever going to vote on the issue, and I doubt it will be the last. Normally, I would just tell you all to shut the fuck up and deal, but that would be against Martin's and Albert's wishes. So, it comes down to this: does Martin Louverture have a continued place in our "colony", or is he expelled from the station and the group?"
"Get him the hell out of here!" Richie cried from his submission hold.
"You shut up!" Francis roared, "Everyone, raise your hands if you think Martin should stay!" he snarled.
Several hands went up, but Francis looked at them and grimaced. There weren't enough hands in the air to constitute a majority. Martin's mother Priscilla was raising her hand, and glaring fiercely at her other children to raise their own.
But overall there were only seven hands up.
Francis sighed.
"Okay, who believes that Martin Louverture should be expelled from the group..."
Thirteen. Thirteen hands shot up. Add in Richie and that was fourteen. Francis himself and Joe Alexander did not cast a vote, due to them being the leader and holding down Richie respectively. After Francis disregarded the children in the group, there were only twenty-one vote castors. Fourteen was easily enough.
Martin had risen to his feet completely, a solemn look on his face. He had seen the majority, and Francis reasoned that he was clearly trying to not let it get to him.
It was failing.
Francis sighed once more; he had been doing a lot of that lately.
"Democracy has spoken. Martin Louverture, you are hereby expelled from the group upon the crime of negligent use of your abilities. You will have to leave this station immediately and find your own way," Francis said.
"No! You're not going to take him away from me!" Priscilla Louverture rose to her feet, a look of despair on her face. Her other children placed their hands on her shoulders, trying to calm her down, while Martin walked out into the crowd.
"Calm down, Mama!" Steven cried, while Lucy held her down before the frumpy woman could do something she would regret.
Some people gave him a wide berth, like he was infected.
"It's alright, Mama. These people here have a right to be mad at me. If they want me gone, I'll just have to listen..."
"Then we'll go with you! It's a cold world out there, and an alien one to boot. You'd be all alone out there in a place that you don't know anything about!"
"Mama, you know you can't handle being out there with just us; your back will start acting up before long. You need to stay here where you don't have to move so much, and there will be more people here to take care of you..."
"Yeah, yeah! It's all very touching! Now get out, or we'll have your family thrown out with you!" Richie snarled, even though he was still being held by Joe Alexander.
Martin finally scowled at Richie, but he took a deep breath and tried to regain his composure.
"Just take care of Steven and Lucy..." he whispered in Priscilla's ear, "That's another thing. They shouldn't get dragged into this just because I made a stupid mistake."
Priscilla finally seemed to calm down at that, and she nodded glumly. It took some doing, but she would trust her oldest son's judgment. It was his decision to take the fall.
After that, the exiled psychic walked up to Francis.
"Can you keep an eye on Mama for me? And my siblings too? They're going to need help, and I don't think the rest of the neighborhood is ready to accept them lying down. We were already seen as the neighborhood weirdos; things are going to get worse from here once they realize the cause of that."
Francis nodded.
"You got it, kid."
"Well, everyone! It's been a short time, and I wish I could say it was a pleasure..." Martin said, turning around to the other thirty or so humans for the final time.
Some gave him scornful glares, while others look somewhat solemn.
He reached the double doors of the station, and pulled them open. The sunlight washed over the station once more, and without turning around again, he stepped out into the forest by his lonesome.
"Easy, Albert. You can do this."
Albert Satchwell stood upon the hill overlooking the town all by his lonesome. It was approximately noon, and there were ponies out and about in the logging town below.
That meant that he couldn't sneak into town and corner one, but that plan probably was out anyway. It wouldn't look good when trying to establish a hopefully peaceful relation.
No, he would have to walk straight into the fire, completely visible and in front of multiple horse things that he had never interacted with before. He had to hope his gestures of peace would be enough to convince them; he couldn't communication with them through language.
He was hoping to enter the town through its main gate to the right, and there was a small path down the hill that would lead to a fork in the road, where the left fork led directly into town.
He took the path down to the bottom of the hill and hung a left, taking a deep breath over what he was about to do. A few ponies were milling about in the village, yet none had noticed him just yet.
Releasing his breath, he walked toward the town, stepping into the gates and into the vicinity of wooden house flanking each other. By doing so, he had caught the local's attention.
A plain brown pony, male from the looks of it, with a silver mane was the first to notice him, the intelligence in his eyes very clear to Albert close up. That wasn't the only thing Albert noticed, however. Now that he was a big closer, he could take in their features a little more easily.
From the encounter yesterday to the pictures he had looked at last night, he could tell that these horses were obviously very different than any equines that existed on Earth.
The think that caught his eye was the marking on the pony's flanks. This brown stallion had a tree marking on both his flanks, and it didn't look like a tattoo or brand. It was too neat and tidy, like each individual hair had been dyed to perfectly resemble a tree.
"That's odd..." Albert thought, but he stored away the concern for the time being. What was more important right now was the look of fear in the stallion's eyes.
"Nocola! Nocola! the stallion screamed in that strange language of his. It was only one word this time, but Albert didn't know what it meant. Nothing good, probably.
Albert held his hands up in a placating gesture, trying to calm the stallion.
"Hey, calm down. I know I don't look exactly normal to you, but I'm just here to..."
A door swinging open cut him off. Apparently someone else had heard the shouting that the pony in front of him was doing, for another horse moved into the main street at a seemingly frantic pace.
"Nocola! Drusina joct! Joct!" the same pony cried at the one who had exited from the house and looked frantically at Albert. This one was of a weirder color. Banana yellow with a fluffy blue mane and a horn on its head, this stallion didn't look like a logger like the others he had seen.
"Utyura! Panin Lusina!"
The shout could clearly be heard from houses down, because within minutes doors were swinging open and more horses were flooding into the streets.
"Wait, everyone! I just want to talk! We have a group holed up in the old train station! We're lost, and we could use a bit of help! Please, there are children there!" Albert tried, but only the pony in front of him heard him. Even still, he showed no acknowledge that he understood Albert, or that he was speaking.
"Ahhhh!" the brown-haired pony screamed, apparently in response to his speaking. That was odd; Albert could clearly recognize what he was saying as a language, even if he didn't understand it. So, why didn't this pony show the same in reverse?
The sound of banging metal brought Albert's attention back. The brown "normal" pony was now running away, but the screams had amassed a group of about a dozen ponies who were now staring him down in the middle of the street.
"Oh no..." Albert whispered, when he realized that they were all carrying weapons of some kind. Mostly axes, but a few saws and pitchforks were mixed in for good measure.
The ponies did not look happy.
A cacophony of shouts and voices from the twenty ponies overwhelmed Albert's senses; he couldn't even begin to try and understand the ponies now.
From the way that they reacted to him, they probably did not believe him to be a thinking creature.
"Not even a glimpse of humans for miles, and the only intelligent life here thinks you're a monster. I have to convince them otherwise..." Albert thought, though he wondered if it wasn't smart to just turn tail and run.
"C'mon, please. Let something register with you!" he pleaded to the marching group of ponies that were rapidly approaching. He tried every gesture he could think of: waving his arms around, pantomiming various actions with his arms and legs, but they seemed to have no effect or even made the ponies angrier.
"Okay, plan failed! Time to go!"
More and more ponies were poking their heads out of windows and doors to see what the commotion was about. While Albert could tell that most of the town was clearly male, there were some females and a few children within the houses. If the town was really made business on the logging industry, then there were probably only a few of the workers who brought their families up with them.
Without looking back, Albert bolted out the gates of the village. Several ponies screamed in their language as Albert didn't bother to look behind himself, but it was clear that the small mob was going to give chase.
"Okay, so as it turns out, the horses here are NOT friendly. Or at least, someone like me is completely alien to them. Trying to get their help is a definite "no" right now, until we can figure out how to communicate with them!"
Albert didn't have faith that he could outrun the mob. They had been carrying a variety of painful objects, and Albert had no idea how. Even with the apparent awkward poses they were taking with those items, they were probably still very fast.
Therefore, Albert decided to NOT run along the dirt path leading away from the town. As soon as he was able to, he cut left into the forest, in the opposite direction of the train station.
The shouts behind him were getting louder, but he was going to use his agility to his advantage within the dense underbrush. Trees and bushes abound, he weaved his way through, jumping over obstacles and running around trees. He got cut up a few times upon bushes and plants, but the adrenaline in his system wouldn't let him stop for anything.
He leapt over a fallen log, no longer concerned about where he was going. Until he could throw off his pursuers, he would not lead them directly to his hideout.
"Can't even attempt to fight them off. I have nothing. Just evade them until they stop searching for you. Though, who knows what they'll do if they find you..."
Albert shook his head free of his thoughts, hearing the ponies enter the treeline. He could hear a far off cry of frustration and pain; one of them must've tripped or something.
"Wait a minute..."
As he weaved through another bush, a plan formed in his mind as he passed a large evergreen tree. Coming up to the base of it, he stopped, hearing the distant shouts of the ponies who were clearly still searching.
Not wasting anymore time, the agile man threw himself against the wide trunk, shimmying up it until he reached the first low lying branch, which he grabbed and pulled himself up.
It almost buckled under his weight, but he redistributed it by climbing ever higher into the large tree, ignoring the pine needles that poked him painfully as he ascended.
About mid-way through the tree, he stopped, placing both shoes on adjacent branches and grabbing two more with his fists. A thick blanket of green shielded him entirely from view, and unless they looked up directly from the trunk, they would scarcely be able to see him.
With bated breath, he waited as the shouting grew ever closer. His gamble in running through the forest had paid off; he was much better equipped for it than these ponies were.
From the very small window between the thicket of pine needles, he saw a group of six or seven ponies stop about twenty feet away from the base of his tree. Apparently, they had split off into groups, but this one looked worse for wear.
Albert could see very clear cuts and scrapes along their bodies, more so than him. One of them seemed to have a bruised face, possibly from running into a tree.
They chattered in the language, and seemed more agitated than they were at the town, probably from running through brush for a good ten minutes and coming out worse for it.
"Better wait it out, just to be safe."
It was clear by now that he had lost them, but Albert didn't know how long they would be combing the forest searching for them. A few minutes later, and the voices from the group that just passed faded out completely.
"God, this is uncomfortable," Albert said, the needles poking him as he held the awkward position within the tree. Steeling himself, he managed to ignore it until he was almost completely sure that the ponies had given up their search.
Slowly but surely, he wriggled his way back down the trunk until he jumped off and landed on the forest floor.
"Okay, now what?"
If there was one word to describe the town of Cascade Hills, it would be rough. Being isolated from the rest of Equestria meant its disadvantages, and the stallions who were worked in the mill and their families were used to dealing with the rugged expanse of nature.
This far north, pony control over plants and animals was starting to fade, simply because there were so few ponies to keep the weather and nature under maintenance. The entire northwest had its own pegasi weather team, but animals up there often acted a bit more wilder than their central counterparts. Bears and wolves were common, and there were even reports of the Sasquatch that showed up from time to time.
Clean Cut worked as a craftspony within the town of Cascade Hills. Unlike the rugged loggers and lumberjacks, Clean wasn't really at home in the great outdoors, preferring to stay within his little wood shop and produce wooden goods for the rest of the town and Equestria.
It was around noon when he went outside, after finishing his morning's work. His home was not too far away, and he was going there to take his lunch break and return to the shop within the hour.
The brown haired stallion hummed to himself; he wasn't as rugged as the loggers, but that didn't mean that he wasn't welcome within the town. After a while, most of the residents seemed to have accepted his presence.
"Hmm, what is that?" he asked himself, stealing a cursory glance to the town gate near where his shop was located. No one else was on the street at this time.
His eyes widened as the thing got closer.
"Sasquatch?!" his frantic mine thought as it stopped before him. No, it wasn't the mythical beast. The Sasquatch was supposed to be covered in fur with large feet. This creature very vaguely resembled it, but it was too off.
The being was tall and hairless, with a very short black mane perched on its head and nowhere else. It had a strange coloration to its body, its skin mostly pinkish with different color parts on its torso and legs. Unless those were clothes, but why would this thing be wearing clothes?
It stood on two legs, with its back legs ending in a circular hoof-like appendage. Yet, what was on the ends of its forelegs were not hooves, but instead claw-like appendages ending in five digits.
What struck Clean Cut the most were its eyes, however. Ponies read facial expressions through their eyes, and Clean Cut had never seen a sapient race with eyes that small. He couldn't read any intelligence in this thing's expression.
The thing opened its mouth, releasing forth a bunch of guttural growls and grunts that made Clean Cut's ears fold back. Clean Cut gulped, suddenly feeling very small in this thing's presence.
"Monster! Monster!" the work stallion roared.
Within minutes, doors swung open and Clean breathed a sigh of relief as his fellow townsponies came forth. The thing looked all around, its stupid mind no doubt confused by all the commotion.
"Monster! Somepony help! Help!" he shouted at a banana yellow pony.
It began making more of the same grunts at Clean Cut, and by the time that a posse had been formed, the workpony was terrified. It was swinging its appendages about like a madpony and doing some odd gestures that involved all of its limbs. Clean Cut took a step back; perhaps it was a display of aggression?
He vaguely saw a yellow pony beside him, but Clean Cut was too focused on the strange being.
"Roundup! Hoof yourselves!" another pony shouted upon seeing the beast. A few minutes later, and the being had not attacked or made any other moves. A posse of about twenty ponies had been gathered up, as was tradition where they was a threatening animal encroaching too far into the town.
When the posse was ready, Clean Cut stood back as the mostly Earth Pony stallions gave a battle cry, armed with their axes and saws, ready to engage the monster.
As Clean Cut took safety within his own shop, the last thing he saw of the incident was the strange creature running away from the town and into the forest.
Martin Louverture had decided to watch the sunset. It had been mere hours since he had been expelled from the rest of the group. He had expected it to occur, but that didn't make the sting any less painful.
It was for the best, however. Someone like him couldn't be allowed to exist within a community of normal people, no matter if his family were there. The sunset helped calm his frazzled nerves, even though he knew that he and the others were not making it back to Ashland anytime soon.
As the sun went down, he continued following the tracks westward, away from the train station. Survival skills weren't quite as much a concern with his abilities, but they were still an issue now that he was alone.
Besides, he didn't like overusing his abilities, preferring to do things the "normal" way if it were possible. He may not have much of a choice if this is how things were going to go down.
The sun had set by the time he had exited the treeline, and he had followed the train tracks to an interesting place. The tracks dipped down slightly, but forking off to the left was a small settlement within a tiny valley. Similar to the one they had encountered yesterday, but it was distinguishably different.
Aesthetically, it looked very similar to the other town. It mostly used log architecture for its cabins and lodges, and there was also a very big townhouse in the center like the other one.
This place had quite a few more buildings however, and was situated in a different geographical location, so it was pretty obvious to anyone that it was a different town.
"Hmm..." Martin muttered to himself, closing his eyes and placing his hand on a tree. He relaxed his posture and waited, before images passed by within his mind's eye faster than one could comprehend.
Still, Martin caught several snippets of information via using his clairvoyance, even if he couldn't control it at this point in time.
"Ponies. They're all ponies here too. It's another town of them, and not a human in sight. I heard what happened from Albert before I left for good; the ponies at the other town didn't seem too happy to see him."
The psychic focused his clairvoyance once more, trying to find more specific information on the town. Images popped into his mind once more, slower and more controlled this time.
"Still couldn't get a name for this place, or any information about this world. What's it called? How big is it? Is it just these ponies who live here? Is there some kind of ruling body or hierarchy?
Those questions and more popped into Martin's head. It made sense that there would be more than one isolated town of ponies, especially if they were advanced enough to build their own railways.
Martin's thoughts drifted back to his family and few friends back at the train station. After the reveal it was safe to say that the majority of the group didn't care for him.
Whether they liked him or hated him, it was clear that he and the rest of the group were in serious trouble. He had been there when they had found a temporary shelter, but they needed more than shelter.
They had found a stream in the forest out near the back of the train station, but they had not found a way to sanitize it yet. The water main had gone defunct years ago in the old train station. Food, fuel, and clothing were in very limited supply, something that they found out after the first day there.
For someone like his mother Priscilla, she couldn't handle any extended time with these limited living conditions. Lucy and Steven were there to take care of her, but...
"Wait a minute!" he said out loud, as an idea overcame him, "Desperate times call for desperate measures!"
Even if Martin had been officially banned from the group and forced to survive on his own, there was still a way he could help both himself and them at the same time. He had people he was responsible for in the group; this wasn't the time to waste away from loneliness and depression. As long as he had that goal, he could keep going.
"I can't be seen..." he muttered to himself like a mantra. Pretty soon the blanket of night would completely cover the forest, and he could make his move.
For the time being, he waited. Watching the town below like a hawk, trying to scrape up some information using his clairvoyant abilities.
Along with teleportation, ESP was not a psychic discipline that he had a great deal of control over. It fluctuated wildly, usually showing him nonsense or irrelevant information. Martin tried to focus this time as he placed his hand on the tree once more, and he was rewarded with at least small slivers of information that he could use.
In his mind's eyes, images of specific ponies flashed through every couple of seconds
"Almost all of these ones have horns on their heads. I saw the regular ones and the pegasi at the other town, and there are none of them here. Multiple races of these creatures, perhaps? This place seems to be a town where one race and one race alone lives."
His ESP flashed through images of dozens of multi-colored unicorns doing different tasks. Some were sitting down at tables eating, eerily similar to human families at dinner. A few were in their beds and others were walking around their houses. For just a split-second, Martin saw a more unique scene.
His mind brought him to what appeared to be the large townhouse in the very center of the community. Inside there appeared to be a meeting of some sort, with his mind flashing to an image of a podium in the very back of the lobby.
There was a unicorn standing on top of the stage, looking over the podium in order to address a... crowd? Martin wasn't getting any images of a pony crowd, but he just assumed that there was one.
The pony in question was clearly a female. In fact, most of the ponies he was shown were clearly feminine, as opposed to the other one which had a predominately masculine population.
The unicorn had a bright yellow coat that was nearly blinding to look at, with a shiny golden mane that was pulled into an elegant looking bun. For such a isolated place, this pony sure took care of herself well.
That was all Martin could glimpse of her appearance, but the meeting gave him quarter. The sun had almost completely set beyond the horizon, and if they were holding some kind of town meeting or something of the like...
As soon as he felt it was dark enough, Martin took the left fork in the road to enter the town. A cabin isolated from the rest of the town marked boundaries, and he stood there, waiting to make his move as he hid in the darkness and awnings.
This bunch of cabins was apparently out of the way from the main district of the town, located off one of the side dirt roads in the southwestern portion of town.
The sound of dripping caught Martin's attention. He stepped out from the shadow of the furthest cabin, making sure that none of the horses were around. He crouched low and avoided the windows, crawling into the dim and dank space of an alleyway between two houses.
There were a few empty boxes and trash bins, obviously waste from whoever lived in the house. Yet, at the very entrance to the alleyway, opposite to where Martin was now was a barrel. That was where the dripping noise had been coming from.
The barrel was open and situated directly above a drain gutter, where it was collecting excess rain water. Trying not to make a sound, Martin bounded past the trash bins and boxes and placed his hands on the old wooden surface of the barrel.
"Damnit. It's almost completely full..."
Concentrating, Martin revved up his telekinesis, feeling the wooden and watery structure of the barrel. The barrel shifted underneath the psychic force, and lifted into the air slightly.
A few seconds later, and it was released with a quiet thud, coming back to rest on its original position.
"No good. It's too much weight, and I don't even have a way to transport it back to the station. I should probably try to find a cart or something I can load all the stuff into." Martin thought, moving away from the barrel and back into the shadows before someone saw.
"There's a stream near the station anyway. If I can get some pots and fuel for a fire, they can purify that water." The only problem here meant that getting those supplies probably meant breaking into a pony's house.
Martin looked out the alleyway, seeing the main road of the village and the very edge of the large townhouse. Curiosity overtook him, maybe he should get a glimpse for himself on what was happening in that building?
Martin peered out the alleyway, squinting his eyes to see as well as he could in the dark. No one seemed to be lurking around; it was past nine o'clock. They were probably all either in their houses or at that meeting.
"Okay... I can probably go, but I need to play it safe..."
There was another alleyway his eyes were locked on directly across from him, on the east side of town near the townhouse.
Instead of making a break for it when the coast was clear, he looped back around from where it came, trying to remain within the shadows. Once he was out of the village proper, he entered the eastern side of town, which was in a similar layout to its counterpart.
"These ponies really don't like the night. I know it's a small town, but you'd think there would be some social drinkers or something out and about. Then again, maybe I'm overthinking that they're similar to humans."
After a few minutes of climbing through backyards and alleyways, Martin reached the right side of the townhouse. Six windows were built into the first floor of the building, light filtering through them as Martin crouched low and took a place by the one nearest to him. He remained deep in the shadows, making sure that he wasn't visible in the window.
If only his clairvoyance was under control; he could find out information without having to resort to this. Since it wasn't however, he carefully snuck a peek through the window.
True to his abilities, he saw the yellow unicorn from his mind's eye on the podium. There she stood up on the stage, and Martin noticed the gleam in her eyes as she orated. It was unnerving, and Martin didn't like it.
She was speaking loudly and passionately, to the point where Martin could hear her clearly in her language even if the windows were closed. Martin squinted his eyes to see a banner directly behind the podium.
It was a dual color of green and gold, a green symbol upon a golden background. The green symbol appeared to be that of a tree, with a long point resembled one of the unicorn's horn jutting out from the top of the branches. A line connected the horn to a large circle above it, and Martin speculated that the circle represented either the sun or the moon.
When the unicorn spoke, a flurry of voices answered her in the same words. Martin's eyes panned away from the orating unicorn to the rows of benches set up around the town hall.
Dozens of ponies filled the large townhouse, seated in rows upon rows. Like his mind had told him, they were mostly female and almost all unicorns, with maybe six or seven of the regular type mixed in. There were absolutely no pegasi.
They were all grinning as they heard the unicorn speak, stomping their hooves or smiling wider when they heard something that clearly agreed with especially.
They were all wearing clothes, too. The same type, on top of it all. Some kind of uniform perhaps, but the golden cloaks were fashioned in the same manner as their apparent logo, with the same tree, horn, and sun icon plastered upon the front.
"Okay, this is getting weird..." Martin muttered to himself, pausing, "Not like it wasn't weird before, but for some reason I feel uncomfortable in this town. Did I stumble across some kind of cult?"
"Vini nu Nosin!"
The unicorn female's powerful oratory voice seemed to pierce through the hall with that statement, as the entire hall erupted with cheers upon the apparent end of the speech.
Martin stole one last glance in the room to see every single pony stomping their hoof in unison in a quick beat as the yellow unicorn left the podium.
Martin's heart almost froze in his heart when he heard the double doors to the townhouse slam open, just a few minutes later.
Not bothering to risk anything, Martin carefully retreated back into the shadows to the very back of the townhouse, until his back hit a stone wall that seemed to separate the town from the rest of the forest.
He looked to the right, noticing that a metal fence had been built between the building and the wall, leading to a back crevice. He leapt over the small fence after only a bit of climbing, stepping over a forgotten garbage bag and a few empty boxes. He squeezed past a dumpster and crouched low behind it, hearing the shouting of the ponies as they exited the townhouse.
"They're all going home now. What was that? Half the town seemed to be there just to hear one horse talk."
Martin crouched behind the dumpster for a few extra minutes, just to be on the safe side. He couldn't be entirely sure whether the townhouse was completely vacated, but the back area of the building had windows and a staircase down which ended in a door. A basement, perhaps?
He would find out later. For now, he waited until the lights went out in the town hall. Peering inside through the small window in the back, Martin saw the view the unicorn pony had as she gave her speech. The banner was in the way, but he was able to see most of the main floor of the townhouse, dark and empty.
"Okay, time to do this..." he muttered to himself. Leaning up against the wooden wall, he placed his hands against the wall as if he were trying to push directly through it.
After a few minutes of concentration, his fingertips slipped directly through the solid matter, and Martin began to pull the rest of his non-corporeal body through with them.
Martin blinked, and a split second later he had phased directly through the wall, and was now standing upon the raised stage that the unicorn had taken.
Intangibility, the fourth of his seven PSI abilities. It would no doubt be very useful for these types of situations. Even if the town burglar proofed their homes, it was of no matter to him. If only he had invisibility on top of it.
A small flame lit on the very tip of Martin's finger. Pyrokinesis, the fifth of his abilities. He absentmindedly remember that Albert had figured out his true nature when he had been first discovering this particular ability.
The flame on his finger functioned in the same manner as a candle, and it dimly illuminated the otherwise pitch black room. The young man walked up to the wooden podium, placing his free hand on the smooth wooden finish. The banner behind him hung proudly, and he noticed two other standards of the same symbol hanging in the eves near the entrance of the door.
"Alright, I'm gonna scour this place from top to bottom. I'm gonna need a whole bunch of stuff; this building probably has some kind of storage room."
Looking around, Martin had two options. He saw two parallel staircases running to a second floor on either side of the stage. There also seemed to be a basement which he saw before.
The basement would come first, as Martin found a door underneath backstage, near to where he had entered. Following down a dirt path beneath the foundation of the building, he was brought to a clear storage area with boxes and other items stacked up to the ceiling.
"I could use this..." he muttered to himself, grabbing an unopened pack of what appeared to be black, multi-gallon garbage bags. He pulled one out and opened it, depositing the pack within the bag. Carefully, he began to rummage through boxes and bins, hoping to find something that could be useful.
Most of the stuff he found was home repair items. Using his telekinesis, he emptied a box of its contents to use as another container for the baubles he was going to pick up.
If only there were a backpack around here for him to use. Then again, why would equines create something that more properly fit a human body?
When Martin had finished, he phased through the basement wall. He had found a good chunk of supplies after checking both the basement and upstairs, and had made sure not to pack anything heavy.
In the basement, he had taken some undersized tools. Four hammers, three wrenches, and an axe were placed neatly into the box he had taken. Thankfully, he had found four bottles of lighter fluid which had been the thing he was searching for most. It wasn't much, but there wasn't going to be a running propane tank within the train station anytime soon. He had gotten enough suitable fuel to make fires.
He had also found a few books, and some really helpful maps which went in the box. They didn't know the language, but perhaps they could pick up on a few things by looking through the books, and the maps were readable on a rudimentary level.
He had hit the motherlode when he stumbled across the kitchen and pantry upstairs. The kitchen held mostly perishable foods, but he managed to snag a few knives, ceramic pots, and can openers.
Out of the pantry, Martin had grabbed no less than forty canned goods which he deposited within the garbage sack. By the time he was done, he had two garbage sacks and two boxes worth of supplies which he had stored within the back area of the townhouse.
Only problem now was getting out of town with the supplies in hand. If only there was a cart or something, but even then he doubted he could push one out of town without being seen or making too much noise.
Once he was out of the townhouse, Martin once again took notice of the cinder wall that the ponies had built around the eastern part of the town, separating the town from the forest in a boundary.
"Hmm..." he pondered, scratching his chin. With enough effort, he had lifted the two boxes and two garbage sacks over the fence and out into the wide back alley between the lodge and another house.
The cinder wall was about eight feet high, by the standards of these horses it was probably around eleven feet high. Clearly meant to keep out animals and intruders, but it shouldn't pose much of a challenge for Martin.
One at a time, he lifted each box and bag using his telekinesis. The last time he had checked, his limit for lifting items was around one-hundred and fifty pounds. It wasn't more of a mild strain on his capabilities, but he couldn't get all these supplies back to the train station just by using telekinesis.
The crates and bags rested snugly down behind the fence, invisible to anyone that didn't go looking for them. They would be safe there for now, and he wouldn't have to worry about them while he went in search of some kind of transportation.
"Need to camp out here for a while. Those ponies just exited their meeting not too long ago, but this seems to be a sleepy little town in the middle of nowhere. Everyone should be settled in for the night eventually."
So, Martin waited for about another hour or so before he took to the streets again, making sure that he once again stayed out of sight beneath the awnings.
He searched the area around the townhouse for any kind of transportation he could, checking around the properties for any carts while steering clear of any windows.
"Bingo!" he whispered from a back alley a few properties away from the townhouse. After around ten minutes of searching, he found what he was looking for. Resting near the front porch of a house in the northeast part of town was a medium sized horse-drawn cart. It was similar in shape to ones that he had back on Earth, but a good deal smaller.
A thought jumped into his head as he imagined the ponies pulling these wheeled wagons themselves.
Martin crept up to the device, grinning wider when he pulled out a large dusty sheet from the interior of the cart. It was moth-eaten and ragged, but it was perfect if Martin wanted to think about stealth.
He pulled the wagon out of his place, testing for loose hinges on the antiquated wheels. It was heavier than he thought, but luckily it didn't make any creaking noises as he moved it along the street.
Before heading out of the alleyway, he hopped into the cart and covered the top with the white sheet, laying down in the bed of the cart as he began to work his telekinesis.
"Okay, this is the riskiest part of the entire procedure. It should take about a minute to reach the village gates, and in the meantime all I gotta do is hope that no one hears the cart or comes out of their house otherwise."
Even still, the idea of a haunted wagon was preferable to being found out. Either way, it would probably be the talk of the town the next day, but the former wouldn't have ponies out there looking for him and his former group.
Slowly and steadily, he used telekinesis to move the cart along main street. The owners of the cart would no doubt notice their cart was missing, and careful as he was, someone was bound to notice the missing supplies sooner or later. Returning trips to the town would be much tougher.
He was finally allowed to breathe easier when the village was in his view at the bottom of the hill. Throwing the moldy sheet off himself, he adjusted the cart upon the path.
None of the horses had come out of their homes. He couldn't be sure if anyone saw the cart out their windows, but he could live with. After a few trips of fetching the stolen supplies, they were loaded into the cart as Martin began the journey back to the train station.
The cool morning air calmed Francis Budenburr down. It would get much hotter later in the day, but Francis guessed that it was around nine in the morning right now, cool enough to do some morning hunting.
While the rest of the group slept, Francis and a few others had gotten up at the crack of dawn. Leaving through the back door of the station, they prepared to go hunt for food.
After Martin's banishment yesterday afternoon, Francis had decided to craft crude atlatls from the stone and wood found in the forest. He was clutching his handmade spear thrower now, a few darts strapped onto his back.
Some rustling in the leaves drew Francis' attention elsewhere, and the thought of prey entered his mind. Perhaps a big buck would come riding out of the bushes.
Slowly but surely, the overweight man crept around a few trees, trying to avoid spooking the inevitable prey. Once passing the tree, he leaned into the bushes where beyond the animal was making noises.
"If we can get a big buck, that's a lot of food to hold us over..."
Peering through the bushes, Francis realized that was he was looking at was not a buck. It was one of those pony things that they had seen in the town and in the old pictures.
The pony jumped at the sound of his rustled, and looked his way. Cursing, Francis ducked down back into the bushes, trying to think of a plan. It wouldn't do good to be discovered out here when Albert had received such a lukewarm reception.
This was in particularly was a deep blue unicorn with a curly black mane who was wandering around the forest with a dopey look on his face. Francis almost smacked himself when he realized that the unicorn was levitating a notebook and pen using some indeterminate force.
"What the hell? Telekinesis like Martin's? Are these things psychic to boot? No... not psychic. It's different than Martin. There's a weird blue aura surrounding both the horse's horn and that notebook its carrying. This isn't a psychic power or anything..."
Francis backpedaled away from the business, realizing that the unicorn was probably from the town that had given Albert such a warm welcome. Being so close to the train station, he didn't want to give away their hideout.
Snap!
"Of course there would be a twig there! Why wouldn't there be?" an annoyed Francis thought to himself, seeing the pony's ears swivel in his direction.
"Don't you dare! Don't you fucking dare!" he thought as the blue pony adopted a look of curiosity. The pony had definitely heard him move, and was on his way to check in the direction he had heard the noise.
"Sula?" he heard the pony say. Its horns began to glow in that weird color again, and Francis noted with dread that he was pointing the damn thing directly at the bushes he was hiding behind.
Francis nearly gasped when the bushes seemed to be enveloped in the same blue glow, before being pulled apart as if by hands. The pony had adopted a look of concentration while doing this, but that changed to a look of shock from Francis in all his glory was revealed to the unprepared unicorn.
"Shit!" he cursed. The blue unicorn stood frozen in place, but at least it wasn't running back to its shithole town screaming bloody murder. Maybe this situation could be salvaged, as long as no one else came around and he didn't lead this one back to the hideout.
"Wait, what's it doing now?"
Francis watched as those ever expressive eyes changed from a shocked and fearful look to a pensive look. The pony's mood seemed to change when he realized that Francis was just standing there, and the pony got out that notebook of his and began jotting something down while jibber-jabbering in his own language.
The pony had finished writing down in his little book, but was still talking. Apparently he had stopped writing in his little book, and was now clearly speaking at Francis.
He watched bemused as the cobalt blue pony took out several kinds of nuts from one of his saddlebags, and placed them in a neat pile upon the ground while speaking very slowly to him in that language.
The pony continued to watch, waiting for Francis to make a move. Was this pony really going to treat him like an animal? He was clearly laying out those nuts in order to appease him with food.
"Nice try, kid. But I ain't no animal."
He didn't know why he had tried speaking to the pony; he already knew that they didn't even speak the same language. Yet, the pony only cocked his head in confusion before squealing in glee as he wrote down more in his notebook.
He didn't even seem to realize that Francis had spoken. Even if he didn't understand the words, shouldn't he at least have understood that he was talking with advanced linguistic capabilities?
Frustrated, Francis glared at the pony and pointed a finger at the unicorn, before pointing the same finger back at himself. Again, no response that told him the pony knew he was more intelligent than an animal.
No matter what he pantomimed, he couldn't get through to the pony. He tried to charade out for the pony to go home, to get through that he wasn't an animal, or that he didn't want any trouble. Nothing got through.
If he had to guess, Francis figured that the pony was registering all of what he was doing as animal behavior.
"Something ain't right. We can recognize these horse things as intelligent, but for some reason, they can't do the freakin' same. That ain't normal, no way no how."
Francis took a step forward toward the pony. This seemed to please the curious pony at first, but just now he seemed to realize the type of thing Francis was holding.
Couple that with Francis imposing over the small horse, and maybe he was starting to have second thoughts. The human stood over the pony, and that was all he needed to panic.
The notebook flew from the pony's telekinetic grasp as he screamed something in his language and began in a full gallop in the other direction.
Francis blinked. That was really not what he had wanted to happen. He wasn't particularly trying to make any threatening gestures or noises. He thought getting in closer could help them establish better contact.
They were dealing with creatures they had never seen before in their lives, however. Behavioral patterns of these equines weren't exactly common knowledge. He really should've dropped the weapon before he stepped forward.
The pony running away like that was really a poor scenario for Francis and the group. There was the disastrous meeting Albert had with them yesterday, and now this.
If he could've at least got that pony to understand him in any way, shape, or form, it would've been better. Hell, if he just backpedaled and walked away, it would've been better.
This had been a case of sheer bad luck. Francis had run into a pony while he was out hunting, and now that pony thought he was nothing more than a strange and aggressive animal. That pony was now likely to tell everyone back in his town.
"Damnit!" Francis snarled, retreating away with hunting game as the last thing on his mind. Albert's appearance in the village probably set the village on edge; this one would probably have them actively sending out search parties.
Francis made his way back to the train station, ready to tell the rest of the group about the encounter.
Cross Beam always liked to catalog the different species of birds near his home. He had had a spring in his step for the last couple of days, ever since he had gotten that application to Canterlot University, and thought maybe showing off his research to them would put him in favor with the professors at his new school.
"Ah, is that a Western Meadowlark?" he said aloud, seeing the distinctive plumage of a bird in a tree. It was singing its song while Cross Beam cataloged it in his notebook.
He had gotten a fair bit done today, and was able to gather enough material to impress his professors and enjoy himself at the same time. He was about to move along through the forest when a rustling noise suddenly drew his attention away from doing just that.
"Hmm, what's that?"
Curiosity overtaking him, Cross Beam moved in the direction of the bush, warming up his telekinesis in order to push the leafy plant aside. The wiry teenager was able to see what it was within a few seconds, and when he did, more curiosity and a little fear came to the surface.
Standing behind the bushes was... well, he didn't know what it was. His working knowledge of ecology and animal species seemed to indicate that it was some kind of primate, but this particular subset he had never seen before. He had read a few books on primates before, nothing like this had ever been cataloged within them.
First of all, it lacked hair, and was rather rotund. But it had a distinctly monkey-like body shape, with what appeared to be complete bipedalism and obvious hands on the ends of its forelimbs.
Excitement and fear battled in his mind for supremacy. Excitement because he could very well have been the first to catalog a brand new species, or at the very least a particularly rare species. Fear because he noticed how imposing the creature, and how unnerving it was to look at its face.
"Fascinating. That stick clutched in its hands; it reminds me of certain primates that use sticks as tools to help them complete certain tasks. I take it this species has some rudimentary tool use. It must be a highly intelligent animal, like most primates."
Cross Beam jotted down such revelations in his notebook, keeping a trained eye on the beast before him. Part of being an animal lover meant dealing with dangerous (and creepy) animals, but that didn't stop the monkey's eyes from unnerving him.
They were so small and beady, which made it hard for Cross Beam to pick up on any emotions, intelligence, or mannerisms that the creature before him may have had. The pony brain recognizes complex facial expressions and temperaments through their expressive eyes. In fact, most sapient species on the planet evolved large eyes for this purpose.
Body language is not a trait that equines are readily capable of picking up on, beyond learned behaviors from other equines that they picked up on after years of being involved in pony society.
"Strange eyes. I've never seen anything like them. They're so small; I can't tell what it's thinking. Still, it's just sorta standing there with that blank look on its face, maybe this is an opportunity to get to know more about it!"
Cross Beam put his notebook away, levitating it back into his saddlebag. Keeping the zipper open, he levitated about half a dozen walnuts from a pouch within his bag.
He cleared a few leaves away and placed the six nuts in a neat pile in the dirt, hoping the promise of food would coax the creature into a sense of security.
He almost jumped out of his skin when the animal made a noise. To Cross Beam, it sounded like nothing more than low grunted with a little bit of rhythm and cadence to it.
The creature then made some sort of strange gesture at Cross Beam that the unicorn couldn't pick up on, and then did the same thing in reverse.
"What was that supposed to mean?" Cross Beam wondered, "Probably some fort of instinctual communication or behavior on its part..."
Cross Beam pushed the gestures out of his mind, and focused on the animal taking the food before him. He waited with bated breath, ready to sprint out of there at a moment's notice.
Then, the thing took a step forward. Cross Beam's grin suddenly morphed into a look of horror as he suddenly realized how tall the upright primate actually was.
The fear that had been present in the back of his mind came bursting forth. As a natural prey and herd species, instinct kicked in after he realized that the thing in his hand could be used as a weapon.
That, and the puzzling look on the creature's face seemed really intimidating.
Leaving the nuts behind, Cross Beam turned and peeled out, not noticing the notebook fly from his open saddlebag as he galloped through the forest. He didn't bother to check whether the thing was chasing him.
Luckily, he wasn't particularly deep in the forest when he was out and about. After about six or seven minutes of galloping and avoiding trees, he had made it back to Cascade Hills.
"Granddad! Granddad!"
Ponies stopped and stared at Cross Beam strangely as he ran through the main street of his town to make it back to his home. A few stallions stopped in the middle of the street to try and corral the frantic teenager, surprised the normally mellow Cross Beam's outburst.
"Whoa there youngster! Where's the fire?!" a yellow pony that Cross Beam recognized as Golden Trunk said. The other two stallions beside him were Clean Cut and Night Stand.
"Thing! In the forest!" he wheezed out, catching his breath from all the running. Cross Beam wasn't the most physically fit pony out there, but the adrenaline in his system had kept him going through the whole distance.
Now that he was back in town, and not monster chow he was beginning to calm down. He had heard cases of ponies panicking when there was no real danger, and he supposed that was what happened to him.
He couldn't help it; for some reason that animal just screamed "predator".
The three stallions before him raised eyebrows, before looking at each other knowingly.
"Thing? Son, did this "thing" you're talking about a tall, hairless creature that walks on two legs?" Golden Trunk asked. Cross Beam barely heard Clean Cut mutter "sasquatch" under his breath.
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
"And this thing... it tried to attack you?"
"Well..."
Cross Beam didn't get a word in otherwise, as the very headstrong yellow earth pony took his hesitance as all the confirmation he needed. He barked an order to Night Stand.
"Get in contact with the mayor. It might be the same thing we encountered in town. If it's out there attacking ponies, then we need to take a stand as things are now!"
Cross Beam looked on in puzzlement, trying and failing to get a word in otherwise. The three stallions in front of him looked scarily intimidating, and angry.
Speaking of the mayor, Cross Beam felt it would be a good idea to try and talk to him as well. Although he had panicked, he wasn't entirely sure if that thing was even going to attack him.
Whatever the case, the tall hairless primate he had encountered in the forest just became the number one target of Cascade Hills, at least for the time being.
"Well, this is... something."
Albert was the next person up after Francis and the others left at the crack of dawn. He stepped out onto the porch of the old train station, and immediately noticed the twin crates and garbage sacks neatly piled in a heap directly at the bottom of the steps.
Alarm bells sounded in the de-facto leader's head. How did these get here? Who the hell brought them here? The only ones he could think of were the ponies from the nearby town, but if they did...
That meant they knew where their group was, but if they were giving them these supplies, that should mean they want to help them. But, after the reaction the other day.... that didn't make any sense!
"PSSSSTTT!"
Albert nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the whispered call to him. Over by the trees near the train station was a shadowy figure resting in the shade of an evergreen, waving him down.
Well, at least it was a human figure. But, as Albert drew closer to the person, he realized that it was Martin Louverture that was waving him down from within the shadows.
"Martin? What are you doing here? The others "banished" you from the group!" he told Martin in a low voice as he entered the treeline. They had cast the vote while Albert was done trying to contact the equines, but he was obviously against the young man leaving.
Nevermind the fact the provoking him could've been the stupidest thing they could've done. Martin usually wasn't one for confrontation, but it wasn't a secret to Albert that he was emotionally unstable.
"I know..." he said, with a hint of sadness in his voice, "I won't stay long. I just thought you'd appreciate the little present I left behind..."
Albert blinked.
"Wait, you mean you brought all this stuff here? How?! Why?! And where did you even get all this?" Albert asked. He had a sneaking suspicion where he had actually gotten the supplies from.
"I have my ways. And while you may think I'm crazy for helping a group that kicked me out, I should remind you that my family is in there. You guys needed supplies, and I wanted to be of help to my mom and siblings..."
"That still doesn't explain where you got it. Don't tell me..."
"That's something else you should know, Albert. Make sure you let the others know too. There's another town of them. The ponies, that is. About three miles from here in the other direction."
"And you thought it would be a good idea to just take their stuff! What were you thinking?!" Albert cried, suddenly feeling a little angry. Martin's actions could've alerted the entire area to their presence.
Martin almost cowed underneath those words, but remained steadfast at the last minute.
"So what? I went into the town in the middle of the night, and stole some supplies from their townhouse. I wasn't seen Albert, you don't have to worry about that. I know your group has no drinkable water and limited food. There are kids in there that need to be fed; I don't know what your plan was, but we can't go any longer without the supplies in there. If that means alerting a potentially unfriendly town to our presence and doing some morally questionable acts, then so be it!" Martin shot back, just as forcefully.
Albert took a step back as the two glared at each other. He had lashed out at Martin's reckless behavior, but Martin was right. The lack of supplies had been on everyone's mind since they got there. And they did NOT have a survival expert in the group.
"Just... come take a look at the things I've brought. I think you'll be surprised at what I managed to find in that place." Martin gestured to the garbage sacks and crates.
Albert looked at him one last time, before walking over with him to open the top off one of the crates. His eyes widened as he ruffled out several sheets of fine paper. Beneath the paper were multiple books, albeit in the language that no one understood.
"Holy shit! Are these maps?!" Albert gawked. Martin nodded, pulling out the largest one from the stack and laying it out on the forest floor.
"Yeah. I spent this morning going through them. This one appears to a map of the country or continent we are currently on," he said. Albert took a glimpse at the map; it resembled an old timey map from the eighteenth or nineteenth century. The first thing that drew his whole was the mountain the center, with what appeared to be a city built into it. There were oceans to the west and east, a desert in the south, and a mountain range to the north. Along the map's borders, there were arrows that pointed to some unknown feature not displayed on the map.
"Koyersia? The capital?" Albert said, hovering a finger over the city built into the mountain. A small black star was painted into the map right near it.
"I'd assume so. But check out this one." Martin pulled out another map from the stack. This map seemed to be more in line with the area they were in, and clearly was not meant to represent as large an area as the first one.
"I think this is a map of the local region. Look, there's one really big mountain in the northeast-center of the map. Suwicka Fom. Right there..." he said, pointing to the large mountain on the map.
"I think that's the mountain you and Francis saw on our first day here. And here's the two towns we know of. Based on the terrain and geographical location, I think we can safely assume that. And when you look at the regular map..." Martin paused for a moment, putting the two maps side by side.
"Suwicka Fom." he pointed to the larger map, in the northwestern corner. "It's right here. Judging from the maps, we're in the northwestern part of this landmass, far away from the apparent capital. Even on the local map, you can see that there aren't any towns beyond those two for miles."
Albert was impressed, and it showed. While the attempt may have been reckless, he didn't think Martin capable of such resourcefulness on his own. He had just made him a lot more comfortable in their chances for survival.
"This is great news. While it doesn't help us when getting home, we at least have an inkling of where we are when we decide our next course of action."
"Yeah, I imagine you guys don't want to stay in this train station for the rest of your lives. Eventually, you'll have to move somewhere else."
"If the ponies are anything like the ones in that town, it'll be a rough trip."
"Anyway, let's put that aside for now. Come take a look at some of the other stuff I've brought."
Albert spent the next few minutes rummaging through the first garbage sack with Martin. He took out canned peaches, baked and green beans, and fruit cocktail, among other things.
"Ugh, what is this crap? Canned hay?" he said, looking at the label on the cover.
"Well, what do you expect? These are miniature horses, after all. And I wasn't looking too thoroughly when I was taking all this stuff last night..." Martin shot back.
Martin and Albert continued to go through the items the former had brought back after his incursion. He also continued to pleasantly surprise Albert when he revealed the tools, kitchen utensils, and containers he had revealed, along with the lighter fluid he had snatched.
"So, let me get this straight. Our group now has food, fire, the ability to purify our water, information and tools." Albert said, taking stock of everything after the two put the items back within their containers.
"That should cover it... You have enough food to last for the next two to three days. I've taken the liberty of taking a share of these supplies for myself, but the majority of it is right here."
Martin continued speaking.
"I should get going now. I told you about the supplies and where they came from, but I'm still banished from the group. If you need anything, I'll be around..."
"Wait, Martin!" Albert called, halting the college student in place, "I really appreciate you doing this for the lot of us. Especially after the way the group has treated you. I want you to know that I was against your ejection in the first place..."
Martin smiled lightly but didn't say anything.
"I'll see want I can do to get you back in the group, but I can't make any promises. People tend to fear things they don't understand, and that is definitely something that rings true with your powers."
"...Yeah."
"So, listen. These supplies aren't going to last forever. I mean, we'll probably be out of food in a couple of days. Until we can establish peaceful contact with these equines, I'm afraid this may be the only option. With that being said, I'm going with you the next time you raid that town," Albert explained.
"Say what?"
Albert laughed.
"Well, I figured you'd need some help. Moving all those supplies from the town to here must've been tough, psychic powers or not. I'm just a little concerned about how this will affect our relationship with these ponies. I don't think they'll be ready to trust beings that steal from them..." Albert pondered.
"We shouldn't even try to establish "peaceful relations" with this town. The one you entered, sure, but not this one. That place is bad news, I can feel it."
"What do you mean?" Albert asked, raising an eyebrow.
"From what I've seen of them, they appear to be some kind of cult. I don't know how deep it runs, but there's definitely some sort of fanaticism within every individual in the town. I have a bad feeling about them Al, that's why it's so important that we remain unseen while we're out on this "job"," Martin responded.
Albert frowned.
"Cult? What do you mean cult? Of all the... You're sure they're not one of those peaceful, live-with-nature types? Because this location seems like it would be perfect for them?"
"No... I don't think so. While I think they do have something to do with nature based on their emblem, the way their leader spoke and the way the followers listened, I don't think we should take any chances with them," Martin replied.
"I... see."
"We also need to be prepared that the town will have noticed the missing items and have wizened up to our thievery. Your concerns now should also be trying to establish contact with that other town while pilfering the necessary number of supplies from the cult."
"This is insane. I never thought I'd see the day when I'd have to resort to petty theft. You're the boss, when do we go again?" Albert asked. To him, it felt a little weird that he was essentially proclaiming himself as this younger man's subordinate.
"Three nights from now," Martin said, holding up three fingers, "The food supplies I got will start to run low by that time, and there are still a few more tools that I think you could benefit from. Be out on the deck after everyone has gone to sleep. I'll be around and ready when the time is right."
Radiance was not a happy camper.
She should've been. There were two places that a unicorn such as herself felt at home. First was in the pristine natural beauty of Equestria, for Radiance was a mare who appreciated anything beautiful. Second was when she was giving a particularly rousing speech to her beloved followers.
She had just done the latter the previous night, and with even more gusto than normal! And the look on her ponies' faces as she orated! She should have a spring in her step after such an affair!
Nevertheless, when morning broke there had been a string of bad news. As leader and founder of Hornloft, it was her responsibility to ensure that complaints from her ponies were dealt with swiftly and fairly.
Spring Breeze and Pine Seed had approached her that morning, and had informed her that their cart had been stolen. That was surprising; they were a town of about one thousand ponies in the middle of nowhere, where everypony knew everypony else. Theft had been a non-issue up to this point.
That unicorn couple tended to be more than a bit melodramatic however. If it were true though, suddenly they had a problem in their idyllic, peaceful little village.
So, here she was outside standing outside their house, while the mare in the relationship made overly dramatic gestures to where the missing cart had once been.
"I see..."
"Thieves! Thieves in our beautiful little colony! I bet it was those filthy earth ponies from over in Cascade Hills; they're the only ones for miles around!"
"You'll do something about this, won't you Radiance?"
The golden yellow unicorn pondered the question. Normally, she couldn't be bothered to deal with such a trivial matter as a missing cart. She was the leader of a colony, for Nature's sake! Then again, theft in the village could've been a problem that she needed to stamp out with fierce authority.
"Good sir, madam, I promise on the word of Nature that we will find your belonging. Theft in the village is a crime that must not be tolerated. As we are so few in number, it is our duty to look out for each other as brothers and sisters above all..." she preached, using her orating skills to her advantage.
"See, honey! Radiance will take care of it!" Pine Seed tried to reassure his wife. The mare looked between her husband and town leader for a moment, before she relented and chuckled.
"Well, alright. If Radiance says she will stomp out theft, then she will stomp out theft! How silly of me to worry over such a trivial matter!"
Radiance gave her brightest smile at the couple, a feat she had cultivated over years of practice. A smile like hers just seemed to radiate warmth and reassurance.
The couple waved to her, and when they turned around to enter their house that smile vanished and was replaced just as quickly by a scowl. The revelation of thievery had ruined her good mood.
The rest of the day did nothing to brighten her mood once again. In fact, it just seemed to make it more and more dour. There was plenty of work to be done in their little colony, but the lowlight of the day must've been when her assistant had told her that the mail had arrived.
Since they were such an isolated colony, news and mail only came to town once a week from the nearest postal service in Vanhoover. Most of the mail was care packages or letters from ponies' hometowns, nothing particularly major.
Honeycrisp, the red-coated green-maned assistant of hers had already placed the stack of letters delivered to her on her desk. Radiance sighed, nopony said running a town would be easy. She would much rather be out in the forest enjoying the beauty of nature.
Radiance flipped through the letters with an air of boredom until she stopped on one that caught her eye. It had a certain seal of approval that she was all too familiar with.
"Cascade Hills? What do those mudponies want now?" she asked outloud, not caring when Honeycrisp the earth pony flinched. The letter was a addressed in piercing black ink while contained within a royal blue envelope, but when Radiance opened it, she found nothing more than a simple sheet of paper.
She mulled over the words, eyes narrowing in anger as she did so.
"What does it say?" Honeycrisp asked.
"The mayor of Cascade Hills has called for a meeting between the two of us. Apparently it's about something urgent. The last thing I want to do is lower myself to meet with them, but we must set an example. I'll have to see what they want..."
"Got it. When should I pencil this meeting in on your schedule?" Honeycrisp asked, taking out what appeared to be a small, portable calendar from a saddlebag on the desk.
"Three days from now in the evening. Luckily, I'm not busy at that time, otherwise I'd just blow it off."
Radiance pondered blowing off the meeting anyway, but decided against it. No matter how much she disliked these kinds of affairs, it was best to get it sorted out so Hornloft and Cascade Hills didn't mingle with each other more than necessary. If Cascade Hills had some kind of grievance, then there would never be an end to the proverbial conflict their towns had.
"I wonder what this is about..." Honeycrisp commented, "It's pretty rare for the mayor to contact us. Whatever it is, it must be serious."
