End of the Line
The sound of train wheels on rails is like a heartbeat. Apple Bloom discovered this when she closed her eyes after pulling out of the Ponyville Station just after sunset. Even the chugging of the engine and the rocking of the cars, though mechanical, seemed natural like the lapping of ocean waves.
On the platform, Sweetie Belle had wrapped her forelegs around Apple Bloom, sobbing. "It's so beautiful," she sniffed. There was something so inexplicably alluring in the unseen promise of running away, to throw caution to the wind, put your life in a bag and go searching for a brand new existence in a brand new place. It was the freedom of dandelion down riding a warm summer breeze; it was a forbidden high that only the most daring could know.
"I want to disappear over the horizon with my coltfriend too!" Sweetie Belle wept.
"You'd need a coltfriend first," Scootaloo pointed out bluntly. Least susceptible to flights of romanticism, her sensibility had left her glum and skeptical of the whole affair.
“You won’t forget to write to us?” mumbled Scootaloo, afraid to look her in the eye, afraid to lose her composure.
“Of course not,” assured Apple Bloom, shaking her head fervently. “I’ll always be thinkin’ ‘bout you two. Cutie Mark Crusaders are forever!” The moment those words left her mouth, she regretted them. Her carelessness hung in the air like smoke from an overcooked casserole.
Scootaloo’s expression soured even more as a silence passed between the four of them. The three girls had made a pact to get their cutie marks together and they never did.
“We’ll see eachother again,” promised Rumble, trying to steer the conversation back into calmer waters. “It’s just until we get established and prove ourselves, ya know?”
Scootaloo hugged the both of them loosely, silent in almost an emotionally detached way. It wasn’t that she didn’t care. Rumble would never say it out loud but he thought it was some kind of coping skill she’d developed from having absentee parents. She’d never imagined that same level of abandonment from Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle. Maybe the three of them would drift apart when they were adults but not before they’d gotten their cutie marks. That was an inconceivable betrayal, a dereliction of their oath.
Apple Bloom watched the lamp lights of Appleoosa glide past in the blue dessert night and wondered if Scootaloo was awake in bed, regretting their friendship. She felt a leg slip around her back and pull her away from the window. She went limp and flopped over backwards into Rumble's lap. The two giggled at one another.
"What are you thinking about?" asked Rumble, tracing his hoof along the edge of the bow in her mane.
"Nothin'" she replied, smiling up at him.
"You always say 'nothin’”, he grumbled. "You're not worried, are you?"
“No… Maybe a little,” she admitted.
“Don’t worry; anypony can make it in Vanhoover,” He replied with the unwavering hubris that only a colt like him could muster. “You’ll see. The hardest part was getting money for the tickets.”
It was that gravity defying self assuredness that she liked best about him. In the past, she’d fantasized many times about running away from the apple farm. Sense and fear always quashed those dreams in the end and she would wake up the next morning once again grudgingly compliant with her older siblings and the will of the old farm. With Rumble beside her though, it didn’t seem so scary and daunting. Anything seemed possible now. In his eyes she saw freedom and promise and invincibility.
It was purely incidental that they were leaving right on the hooves of her fight with Applejack. Apple Bloom told herself this wasn’t a rash decision. It wasn’t some spur of the moment machination, something that manifested while in the throes of grade schooler fury and wistfulness. It was a calculated and appropriate response to their situation. They had planned and prepared for this day for over a month. Their saddlebags sat beneath their seat, nearly bursting with apples and granola bars. They had a modest pouch of bits too. They could have collected more but they both agreed it was time. Surely it would all be more than enough to hold them over until they got jobs and a place to live.
Yes, their plan was just as legitimate as any adult’s, even being executed in the wake of a family disagreement. Though Apple Bloom would not deny herself the petty reverie of thinking how sorry Applejack would be. She’d read the note on her bed tomorrow morning and the first thing she’d do is relive their fight and blame herself for being too hard on her.
‘This ‘stupid farm’ has put food in yer mouth fer yer whole life!’
The words reverberated in her brain. Applejack was wrong. Why should she have to consign herself to farm life just because it was what she was born into? If she was really meant to be there, wouldn’t she have an apple cutie mark by now? She’d show them her potential was more than picking apples.
Rumble held his ticket up, watching the lantern flame flicker through the little punched hole. He'd wanted to go to Cloudsdale but they couldn't. It was too difficult for an earth pony to live there and too many pegasi knew Rumble there. After Ponyville, that would be the first place that Thunderlane and his parents would look for him. He was going to be a Wonderbolt one day so being away from the home of their prestigious academy wasn’t ideal. But wherever the two of them ended up, he’d be training for it every week. This was how he’d get out of his brother’s shadow. In a new place he could make a name for himself on his own terms instead of just being defined as 'the little brother of Thunderlane.' When he came back, older and stronger and maybe even better than him, wouldn’t he be surprised? He’d get his wings with honors and his family would have to acknowledge him. He'd be a son worth mentioning.
Apple Bloom unknowingly shattered his daydream. “Are we gonna go to school in Vanhoover?”
Rumble frowned. He hated the question. It implied more responsibility, a wet towel on their giddy high. School wasn’t freedom but knowledge was, he supposed. He sighed. “I think I have to, to be a Wonderbolt.
“Then ah’ll go ta school with ya,” she chimed.
Rumble smiled. “This’ll be so great. No matter what we do or where we go, we’ll be together forever.”
Apple Bloom sat up beside him and the two nuzzled each other in delirious excitement over everything. They yawned and leaned into one another, slowly sliding down onto the bench seat. It was cheaper not to get a sleeping cabin and they were just fine laying together right here.
Apple Bloom awoke with a start. She gasped when she saw sunlight coming in through the window. That’s not right, she thought. Rumble sat up and rubbed his eyes before looking around, up and down the aisle and across the way. Every seat in the car was empty. Not only that, the train sat still and quiet. “We slept through our stop!” he said in alarm. He slid to the floor and ducked down. To his horror, there was nothing beneath their seats. “Somepony took out bags!”
Apple Bloom's face fell. "What are we gonna do?" she moaned. "That's all our food and money."
Rumble put a hoof on her shoulder. "It'll be okay," he assured her. It wasn't his words but his eyes that slowed her heart and steeled her resolve.
"Let's just figure out where we are, first," he offered softly.
The two of them headed up the aisle, unencumbered by their now lost luggage. Apple Bloom pushed open the door and stepped out into the warm wind and the golden glow of a low hanging sun. From the color, it looked like it was late afternoon going on evening.
"It's like we missed the whole day," gasped Apple Bloom in disbelief. "How long did we sleep?"
Rumble scanned his eyes over the scenery, rolling green foothills before a purple snow capped mountain range. A smattering of ancient oak trees watched over the waving green fields before them. There wasn't a soul in sight, nor was there any sign of civilization.
"Well, we went all the way past Vanhoover, I guess," he muttered. He looked down the length of the short passenger train which had brought them there and his eyes landed on a little wooden station sitting beside the track. "Hey," he pointed. "There's a station, c'mon."
The two foals sauntered up to the simple kiosk which stood next to a pair of benches beneath a slanted roof. A faded wooden sign hung over the platform, squeaking in the breeze. Apple Bloom squinted up at it.
"Big Rock Candy Mountains Station? Big Rock Candy…" she murmured in wonder. "Ain't never heard of it. Have you?"
Rumble shook his head as they hopped up onto the platform. The ticket booth was empty but was not shuttered and had no 'closed' sign over the window as would be expected at any operating train station.
"The train tracks just end right here like it's the last stop," began Apple Bloom bemusedly, pointing just past the now cold engine. "But there ain't even a turntable er nothin' to turn the train back 'round again. How can that be?"
"You're right," agreed Rumble, putting a hoof to his chin. "That's weird." He pondered this for a moment, still scrutinizing the environment for some sort of clue or direction for a new course of action. On the opposite side of the platform he saw a well worn trail cutting through the oak fields and seemingly toward a gap in the mountain range. "That path must go somewhere," he mused.
"Yeah but probably not Vanhoover," argued Apple Bloom, worry begining to flourish in her voice again. "The train track will take us back thataway."
"We should try the hoof path," countered Rumble. "I think it's a sign. We ended up here 'cuz we were supposed to. We were meant to follow this trail to wherever it goes."
Apple Bloom stared at him cockeyed. "Are you serious."
"Of course," he boasted, stretching out his wings so that every feather was splayed like an anatomical illustration. "Look, if that's not enough for you, you said yourself it doesn't look like this train turns around and that means walking back. We don't know how far it is to anything in either direction but if I had to guess which takes us to the closest anything, I'd take a trail made for walking distance over a track made for train distance. Get it?"
Apple Bloom paused in thought, then threw her head back and laughed boisterously. "Well, look at you, little Mr. Smarty-Britches. I guess that does make sense."
Rumble smiled, happy to hear her laugh and her quaint country saying about being smart. Those were his favorite things about her.
She sidestepped and playfully bumped him off balance with her hindquarters. "Fine then, let's go," she smirked.
They set off leisurely on the little dirt path which stretched out further than their eyes could see.
"Oak trees make good tree forts," mused Rumble, looking up through the branches of one of the giants as they passed underneath.
"Do they?" asked Apple Bloom. "Never got ta make one mahself. Ah inherited mah 'fort.'"
"You can still make one," he offered. Maybe we should make one tonight. Maybe we should just live there," he gasped in put-on excitement.
"This whole plan's getting less 'n' less glamorous by the minute," she chuckled.
Rumble was always daydreaming. It was difficult to tell whether any given daydream of his was just for fun or a serious conviction that he'd try to make a reality. He stretched a wing over Apple Bloom's back as he plodded beside her. She took a big sniff to see if she could smell the many buttercups which lined the trail. Although the two had been completely thrown off course in their plans, they shared a serene mind caught up in the beauty of the secluded land. For a misadventure, it was quite lovely.
Rumble hummed a tune to himself and although his musical abilities were wanting, Apple Bloom recognized the song immediately. 'Strike a Match' by Out of Air. He was always singing it. It was the band that he'd discovered through his older brother and then passed on to her. She waited until the good part to cut in and sing over him.
"Let's throw a party drenched in gas."
He looked back at her and started singing too. "Won't let you sleep till it's all ash. Tear it down and burn it up. Then run away. Fire is the way to play. Take my hoof. Don't be late, it's a date, incinerate." Rumble's eyes widened in revelation. "We should go see them now! At a concert! They never would have come to Ponyville."
"Yeah!" exclaimed Apple Bloom. Ah never been to a real concert. Have you?
"Nope. Just the silly local stuff."
Apple Bloom sighed dreamily as she herself drifted away in a fantasy of their future. They'd already escaped. They were almost there now.
The sun sank lower as the peaks of the mountains before them began to shimmer like diamonds scattered across a golden shoreline.
"Are you getting hungry," asked Rumble.
"Nope."
"Thirsty?"
Apple Bloom screwed up her face. "Actually… also nope."
"Me either." He was about to make a quip about how convenient that was since they now had nothing to eat or drink but then he noticed something missing from her mane. "Hey, your bow's gone."
Apple Bloom stopped in her tracks. "Huh?" She patted down her mane with one hoof, unable to detect her ever present hair bow. "Aw, shoot,' she moaned. "Well Ahm not going all the way back just ta-" she turned to look behind them and nearly lost her breath at the sight of the glorious sunset. After rising a bit in altitude, they could now see past the little Train station and a grove of eucalyptus trees to an incredible lake that stretched over the horizon and into infinity. It was so still that it mirrored the sky and it appeared that two suns were colliding in the midst of a stratus cloud explosion. It was an artist's pallet with everything from dark purple and hot pink to dazzling gold. They stood in awe as the two suns collided and the colors changed, only turning away when the last bit of pink drained from the clouds and a silken veil of dark blue settled over the sky.
By the time they got into the foothills the sun had set entirely and the air was sweet as dew began to collect in the muzzle high grass. The trill of crickets replaced birdsong and a pale blue glow backlit the mountains as the full moon rose, trying to escape their eclipse.
"Can't believe we've never heard of this place," began Rumble. "A lake that big…" He turned to Apple Bloom and suddenly realized that she wasn't there. "Apple Bloom?" He spun around and looked in every direction but she was nowhere to be found. Suddenly, over the night bugs and the whispering grass, he heard muffled giggling.
"Oh, is that so?" he muttered to himself. He spread his wings and launched straight up into the air. He hovered there scanning the area and quickly zeroed in on a hole in the grass where Apple Bloom crouched low in wait.
"Found you!" he called with a smirk.
"Hey! No flyin'. That's cheatin'."
Rumble crossed his arms and sank slowly back down to the trail. "Fine." He heard excited rustling as he poked his head into the grass. "See if you can keep from laughing for two seconds," he chided. Then he heard nothing but the crickets again. He hurried to the spot where he saw her before where the grass was now bent down flat like a bed. While Looking for a trail to follow, he was suddenly blindside tackled by Apple Bloom, bursting out of the green wall. They went tumbling over the ground and she landed atop, inadvertently pinning him beneath her.
"I got yo-" She suddenly lost her words when she realized how close their faces were. His hot breath tickled her muzzle and for a moment she was paralyzed with uncertainty.
Rumble blushed uncomfortably.
She swallowed and pulled away. "Uh, well, we should probably get out of the grass actually. Don't wanna get ticks."
Just then, she saw a pair of little yellow flickers out of the corner of her eye. They fluttered up over the top of the grass. "Hey, lightnin' bugs."
The two got up and followed the pulsing specks as they danced in the air toward the hoof path. As they exited the grass, they saw more fireflies swirling about in the open. Rumble stood on two legs and looked up the trail where he saw even more fireflies. They seemed to congregate more so in the path, lighting it up all the way to the gap in the mountain range where the moon was now peeking out as if to welcome them.
"I've never seen anything like this," breathed Rumble. "This is the most amazing thing I've seen since the sunset."
"Well look straight up," said Apple Bloom.
Rumble went down on all fours again and tilted his head back. Despite the moonglow, the heavens above them were teeming with stars. There was nary a swatch of sky that didn't shine and a cloudy white band stretched clear across it from one compass direction to the other. As he tried to remember what that thing was called, he felt Apple Bloom's lips press against his cheek. He gasped and looked down, only to see a yellow blur gallop past him and up the trail toward the mountains.
"Gotcha!" she giggled.
Rumble stood breathless, mouth agape. When he finally came to his senses, Apple Bloom was only visible by the displaced fireflies left reeling in her wake.
Heart pounding, Rumble took to the sky again and followed the ribbon of swirling lights until he caught up with her. He swooped to the ground, galloping beside her until she slowed to a walk and then stopped once more.
"Ah ran as fast as Ah could but Ahm not even outta breath," she laughed.
"Well I am," admitted Rumble, though it wasn't from physical exertion.
Apple Bloom sat on her haunches and began to chortle as the fireflies flickered around them. Rumble began to laugh along with her out of contagiousness and soon they were swept away, cackling in manic delirium.
In that moment it no longer mattered if they made it to Vanhoover because the best place to be was right here and now.
"What's so funny?" he managed between gasps for air.
Apple Bloom raised her hooves to the sky. "Ah just realized… What are we even doin' out here? We don't have any food or money. We're completely alone. We don't even know where we are or where we're goin'."
"But we're having fun," smiled Rumble. He held out his hoof to her. "C'mon, we're almost there. I really wanna see whatever's on the other side of the mountains with you."
"Can not believe this is what Ahm doin' first thing in the mornin'," growled Applejack to herself as she stomped up the steps of the Ponyville train station.
When Apple Bloom failed to come downstairs for breakfast, it prompted Applejack to go check on her. She found the filly's bed empty with a note upon the pillow full of whimsy and romance and a hint of bitterness. Applejack immediately interrogated her sister's two closest friends besides Rumble. Scootaloo was the more forthcoming and useful of the two. Once she learned where she went, Applejack told Rainbow Dash to tip off Thunderlane. With any luck, he was already flying to Vanhoover himself. The prospect of tracking the two down in a huge city sounded like a fool's errand but they had to do it. How far could they go, anyway? They were just a couple of starry-eyed foals with a lot of feelings and half an idea.
Applejack wanted to stay angry over this. If she could stay angry then she wouldn't have to have a self reckoning about her efficacy as a guardian but it was no use. Ah can't do this, she thought. We can't be her siblings and the parents she needs. This wouldn't be happenin' if ma and pa were still here like they're s'posed ta be.
She pushed up to the ticket window, lips trembling in despair. "Ah need one ticket fer the soonest train ta Vanhoover," she demanded weakly.
The station master looked up at her, sighed and shook his head. "Nothing going that way for a couple days probably."
Applejack blinked "What? But yer board says-"
"Sorry, those are all canceled," he clarified matter-of-factly. The 6:38 sleeper to Vanhoover derailed last night. Sounds like it was really bad too; hardly any survivors. They have to clear the tracks before anything can get through that way."
"Sugarcubes," she whispered.