Falling Into the Unknown

The light of the next day shone in my eyes, quickly awakening me. I looked around, noticing the forms of Amber and Azure nearby. Luna was gone, apparently. We had all spent the night sleeping next to the lake, apparently.

I slowly rose to my feet, creeping over to Azure. I grabbed a nearby leaf, slowly running it across his ear. It twitched, so I did it again. Another twitch. Finally, I thought ‘to hell with it’, and cupped my hands.

“STAND TO ATTENTION, AZURE!” I yelled.

To his credit, he shot up seconds later, standing stiff before seeing me. I was rolling on the ground, laughing. The score was, Tyler 4, Azure 0.

He glared at me as hard as he could, trying to enter into a staring contest of sorts with me.

“Is this going to become a trend?” Amber asked, awake. “Continually waking each other up every day with yelling and/or kicking? Because, if so, I want a transfer.”

“Too late, sis.” Azure said.

“Yea.” I commended. “You’re stuck with me and this idiot over here,” I gave Azure a little push, “So you’d better get used to it.”

Amber sighed. “Alright, you two. Let’s go see Celestia. I recall Princess Luna whispering to me last night that Celestia wanted to see us.”

“Is that all she whispered to you, Amber?” I joked.

Amber’s face turned a shade of maroon, completely contrasting with her normal color. Azure’s eyes nearly bugged out at that crack.

“Tyler, are you trying to get yourself banished to the moon? Or wherever Celestia sends ponies that she doesn’t like?” Azure asked me, half joking. “You’ve got more nerve than you know what to do with, so you go out and say stuff like that. Just pray to Celestia that Luna doesn’t hear you say that.”

“On the contrary.” The voice of Luna rang out. “I did hear it.” We all turned to see Luna walk towards us. “Every. Word.”

I backed away an inch. “Hi Luna!” I said.

“Tyler,” She said, managing to appear to ignore me while at the same time addressing me. “My sister does want to see you. Therefore, please go now. I need to do some… Duties.” She unwrapped her wings, and flew off towards a tall tower near the wall.

Amber unfurled her wings, as did Azure. Neither of them were in armor, so it was apparent that they hadn’t gone back to the barracks after the party.

“Want to race, bro?” Amber asked Azure.

“Hey,” I said, interrupting them. “What about me?”

“Oh, don’t worry.” Azure said, shooting a knowing grin at Amber. “I think you’ll figure it out.”

While I was pondering what he had said, Amber suddenly flew up into the air. She circled and grabbed onto my shoulders, sending me skyward with her.

“AHHHHHHH!” I yelled as the familiar sensation of vertigo I remember from before my capture returned.

“Just stop moving and panicking, Tyler. Dear Celestia, it’s as if you’ve never flown before.” Amber said, obviously having been told of how I nearly escaped my first time.

“That time I had branches to break my fall!” I said as I stopped moving, just grabbing onto her foreleg for dear life.

Two minutes later, we met up with Azure at the throne room entrance. He was sporting a gigantic grin, as were the two, normally stoic unicorn guards at the throne room entrance, as Amber set me down, landing herself a second later.

“Sup, Tyler.” Azure said. “Enjoy your flight?”

I shot a glare at him. “Fuck… You…” I said, slowly, as his grin became even wider. Apparently, it was now Tyler 4, Azure 1.

“So,” I said. “Are we ready to go in and see Sunny Butt?”

Azure facehoofed at my terrible nickname, while the unicorns at the doorway simply stared.

“Yes, we are ready to go and see Princess Celestia.” Amber said, putting emphasis on the words ‘Princess’ and ‘Celestia’. As if I would pay more attention to her that way.

The two unicorn guards opened the doorway, allowing us to walk in, with me to the left of the two siblings. Celestia sat in her throne at the end of the room, waiting for us as we continued down the aisle. Once we reached the dais, both Azure and Amber bowed down, while I simply gave a nod.

Celestia smiled. “Welcome, Azure Star, Amber Star, Tyler Maddox.” She stepped down from the throne as Azure and Amber both stood up, slowly walking town it until she was level with them.

“I have decided on a location for Tyler Maddox.” Celestia said.

“Don’t I get a choice?” I interrupted.

Celestia blinked. “There are several suitable candidates. Would you like to see the list of towns?”

“Please.” I said.

I looked over the list, which had the following towns on it:

Trottingham

Las Pegasus

Foal Mountain

Enticorn City

Trotterville

Pullmare

Saddle Mountain

“Hmmm.”  I said, going through the list again.

A lot of them seemed like major cities. Las Pegasus was definitely out – sounded too much like Las Vegas, and I don’t like gambling. Looking through the list, I finally settled on Pullmare.

“How about Pullmare?”

Celestia tilted her head in thought for a moment before nodding.

“I can easily arrange for train tickets to there.” She said.

“Sure.” I replied.

Celestia smiled. “Excellent!” She said. “Leave whenever you are ready: The train departs in two hours.”

I nodded at her. “Thanks, Celestia. Tell Luna I said ‘Hi!’.”

We all left the throne room. Amber went to gather their things, while I waited outside the throne room with Azure.

“Azure?” I said, silently asking a question.

“Yes, Tyler?”

“Do you want to come on this trip? I’m pretty sure nothing much will happen, other than a few minor incidents that might pop up.”

“Of course I do!” He said, almost with glee. “I’ve been waiting for YEARS to get out of this town, and now I’ve got the chance!” He snorted, keeping his voice low. “Better than having to deal with Unicorn Supremists in Canterlot, at least.”

Amber came rushing down the hall, almost dragging two large bags. She set one down in front of her brother, and pretty soon, they both had small bags at their sides, connected by a strap across their backs. I already carried all of my stuff with me, so I didn’t have to worry about it.

“Are we ready?” Azure asked. When he received two nods, he started walking across the hall. “Then we’d better get moving. Train leaves in an hour now.”

He started down the halls, Amber and I closely following him. We wove through the hallways, almost like a maze, before emerging into what I thought was the main entrance. We walked up to the door, which two unicorn guards opened for us, and stepped outside.

The bright sunlight shone on us, blinding me for a moment before my eyes adjusted. Nearly the entire city stopped when we came into view. Slowly, Azure and Amber escorted me through the streets, past small crowds of staring ponies as we went towards the train station.

We crossed several tracks upon reaching there, eventually reaching ‘Building 3’, which housed the train that would take us and several other passengers to Pullmare. We got in the second to last cart, where our tickets directed us to, finding it completely empty.

Finally, half an hour later, the train started rolling. It moved along the tracks, the *click-clack* of the wheels on the rails making a comforting rhythm.

After two hours of doing nothing but sit around and talk, I pulled out my laptop. Azure and Amber both noticed, scooting closer, one blue pegasus on each site, left and right, dark and light.

“What are you going to do now?” Amber asked.

I smiled. “How much have you two seen of my laptop?”

“Not much.” Amber said.

“Quite a bit.” Azure admitted.

I nodded to them before opening Battlefield 3. I started up the last mission, going through the subway train, Amber rapid-firing questions the entire time. After two hours, I decided to see how good they will be.

“Hey, Azure?” I said. “Want to take a crack at playing this?”

The blue pegasus shot up. “How?” He asked.

I thought for a moment before asking something. “Are your wings flexible enough to easily hit several keys at once?”

Azure and Amber both nodded.

“Well,” I said. “These are the controls…”

After a fifteen-minute explanation, plus setting ground rules, Amber was playing through part of the first mission. With their hooves, they could use the touchpad, while they hit keys with their ‘primaries’, as they called the larger feathers on their wings.

Every time one died, the other would switch off.

Speaking of which, Amber outright failed one of the quicktime events, causing her to die and hand it off to Azure.

I did a tiny clap. “You two are getting better at this.”

“Yeah.” Azure let out a nod. “What time is it?”

Ignoring all the voices in my brain telling me to check the laptop, I simply looked outside. The sun was setting at the moment, so I was pretty sure that it qualified as ‘late enough’.

“Let’s get some sleep, Azure.” I said, turning off the laptop after saving the game, despite their protests that they were fine. I put it back inside the case and lay down on a cushioned seat, finding plenty of leg room. I closed my eyes, letting sleep take me.

I awoke several hours later, for what reason I could tell why. I rubbed my eyes, trying to draw the sleep from them. I looked around; same small space, same train, same pegasi sleeping on the seats across from me.

Without warning, however, a loud *BANG* rumbled through the cart. Azure and Amber were instantly up, on their feet. The car suddenly felt like it was slowly down, turning, and then tumbling on its side. I crashed into the wall, followed by Azure and Amber.

The train had crashed.

And I didn’t have a clue what had caused it.