I set down my luggage by the ticket booth, softly rapping on the window, not bothering to look in, “One ticket to Ponyville please.” To which no response was given. My brow furrows, “Hey, Ponyville, let’s hurry it u-” I look into the booth, the pony sits back in his chair, headphones over his ears tuning me out, and a newspaper keeping his eyes from me. I huff and knock hard on the glass, near cracking it. He looks up at me.

“Oi!” he throws down the paper and rips off his headphones, “Whaddya want!?” I only sigh and roll my eyes.

“Ticket to Ponyville.” I don’t bother with manners. Five years in Manehattan either warps your pleasantries, or shatters them. The stallion shakes his head and presses a button, spitting out a ticket for the train. I take it and my bags, then go and sit at my terminal.

‘If I didn’t know any better, I’d guess this place was Tartarus itself.’ I mused in my head. The first year in the Big Apple wasn’t the worst experience, until my books weren’t purchased by publishers, I got kicked out of my apartment, and I lost my job all in 3 consecutive days. I managed to survive at a below-minimum wage job for the remainder of my stay, and as for living quarters, the one I found was discounted due to the stench that made a rotting corpse smell like roses.

The only hoofful of good things that happened was I grew a goatee, I finished my novel, and I was getting the buck out of here.

Somewhere in my train of thought, a young pegasus mare taps my shoulder, “Excuse me,” I look at her, first with a slight scowl from my mood, then my features softened at her beauty, “is this the train to Ponyville?”

“Erm...” I shake my head, clearing my thoughts, “Yeah, thanks for snapping me awake.” I smile, laughing a bit, “Are you moving there as well?”

“Oh no,” she smiled, shaking her head. Her spiked white mane with frost blue tips and vibrant violet eyes were enchanting, and her voice was like velvet. I shake my head again, missing what she said.

“I’m sorry, what? Your beauty seems to have distracted me,” I smirk playfully, holding a chuckle from her sudden blush on her bright indigo coat.

“Oh, you’re all smooth talkers here, aren’t you?” she giggled, “I said my sister and I came to visit some of our relatives here, and now we’re headed home.”

“That sounds like an adventure,” I smile to her, my ear flicks at the loudspeakers, “It seems our ride is here, Miss...?”

“Cloudchaser!” another pegasus comes from across the way, two tickets in her hoof, “Thank goodness, just in time.” She looks at me, smiling, “Who’s your cute new friend?”

I smile, bowing before her, she had the same coat and eyes, but her mane was more combed out and bright mint in color, “I’m Silver Script, a pleasure to meet you.” This place might have fowled my mood for the past four years, but now that I’m moving, I don’t see why I can’t try to remake myself... again.

“Oh, a gentlecolt.” she smiles, “Come on, let’s get on the train before it leaves us!” She and Cloudchaser gallop to the train, “I’m Flitter by the way!” she smiles as I sprint to catch up.

The three of us all decided to relax in the same booth, they told me about their trip to their family’s, and I told them about my nightmare in the city, they laughed at most of it. My mom always said my abilities to make the mares laugh would always get me far with them.

“So, you mares know Rainbow Dash?” I smile to them, Cloudchaser was the first to speak.

“Oh yeah! She was the one who coordinated the water transfer to Cloudsdale a spring ago.”

“We barely made it that year, a bunch of the team got the Feather Flu!” Flitter chuckles softly.

“Fluttershy really saved our flanks that time!” Cloudchaser smiles, my ears flick to them.

“Fluttershy? The butter yellow mare that’s scared of her own shadow Fluttershy?” I blink a couple times, they both look at me, “I went to school with them about five years back.” I chuckle, scratching the back of my head.

“Ooooh.” they say in unison, I had to admit, it was a little freaky, “So you’re like, Rainbow’s old coltfriend from school or something?” Flitter giggles. My expression falls and a slight blush spreads on my cheeks.

“Oh my gosh look at his face!” Cloudchaser laughs out loud, rolling on the bench they share, Flitter joins in, making my face more red, and making their light indigo faces go blue from laughing so hard.

“Har har,” I roll my eyes, “Come on it wasn’t that funny was it?” The fact that they were still laughing answered that.

After the two mares’ giggle fits, I started asking some small questions about Ponyville, “Oh you’ll love it Silver!” Flitter smiles, “Everypony is basically your best friend!”

“But there is a pink earth mare, you’ll find out about her soon enough though.” I raise my brow.

“Pink mare? What is she, the town nut or something?” I joke, smiling at their laughter, followed by a look to each other then me. “... she is, isn’t she?” They laugh again, and I suddenly don’t feel very confident.

As the train pulls into the station, I reach for my bags, hoofing Cloudchaser’s and Flitter’s bags to them first, “So, can you show my where Rainbow lives? I think seeing her after so long would be one of the first things I have to do.”

“Sure, I’ll show you where she stays,” Cloudchaser beams as she steps onto the platform, followed by Flitter, then myself, “Flitter, can you take my bags back home with you?”

“Sure sis!” Flitter smiled, then turned so I couldn’t see her face. I could swear I heard something muttered about being alone with the cute new guy, before I could fully make out what she said, she turns back to me, “See ya around Silver!” she winks as she flies off with her and Cloudchaser’s bag.

I trotted up to Cloudchaser, “What was that about?” She shakes her head and giggles.

“Oh just Flitter being Flitter! Say, I think Rainbow is actually working the weather right now, how about a tour of Ponyville?”

____________________________________________

“And finally, the last stop, Rainbow’s house!” I smile to Cloudchaser, then look in front of me.

“A mailbox?” It was all I could see in front of me, I look back to Cloudchaser, who snickered as she pointed up. “Oh, right.” I chuckle, looking at the fluffy cloud home, “Wow, it looks like her place in Cloudsdale.”

“Cloudchaser? You’re back already?” I turn my head to the new voice, a pegasus, mid-flight, silhouetted by the falling sun behind her. She stops a moment, turning her head toward me.

I strain my eyes to see past the black shape in front of the glowing sunset, only to be tackled to the ground in a hug by it. I fall on my back with a thud, then noticed the black shape had a colorful vibrant mane. “Rainbow Dash!?”

A second after the tackle hug, I feel a firm slap across my muzzle, “THAT’S for not writing!” and another slap on the other side, “And THAT’S for not visiting!” She continued talking, but I didn’t hear it it as my vision went black.

Author's Note

You may have noticed the story going from past, to present tense. It's no mistake. The past six chapters were more like a line of memories Silver recalled, and at this time and from this time forward, everything is happening here and now, hence the chapter title.