1 The third way out

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria there was a pegasus. His name was Breeze Wake. He lived in Manehattan, where ponies tended to be rude and cruel.

Therefore he isolated himself from everypony he knew, and made up a rather quiet and dull character, that can't be picked on by others so he could stay out of trouble. Although a matured stallion, he still lacked his cutie mark. When he was a filly, he kept trying to find what his was going to be, but eventually, he gave up on it.

Since then, he lived every day in a repeating pattern and besides casually working out, had nothing going on in his days. While the patterns seemed to repeat without an end, there was one day, which set him on a new path.

That day was just like any other at first. Gloomy weather, cold air sweeping through the streets. Everypony doing their jobs. They had their cutiemarks, and each was serving their duty. Walking up and down, they had things to do, places to go... and there he was, all grown up, sitting near one of the houses watching them all, wondering what life they could be living. To have a purpose, a motive, a goal to pursue.

As he was wondering however, he noticed a little filly rushing through the crowd, although exhausted. She had a brown coat, pink mane, green eyes, and freckles.

"Hmm, what is that filly up to over there?" - he thought to himself "Why should I care anyway? ...On second thought, it could be my only chance of some action today. I'd give anything for some time killing, all this boredom could make me crazy."

With that settled, he decided to look into the matter, and walked up to her.

"Hey there, little filly. Where's the hurry?" - he asked her.

"None of your business mister!" The young pony tried to run faster, but it was no use.

"I'd give you a lift if you told me..." he told her.

"Weeeell, in that case there's a train I've got to catch," - she replied

"To the train station then. Here, hop on!" He lowered himself.

The filly jumped on his back and Breeze started to make a run for it. The other ponies and the houses were a blur as he was speeding down street after street. With his size and speed, anypony in front of him stood out of his way. Soon, the train station was in view.

"Oh no! My train already left..." - the filly said in an upset tone "I'll be late from the family reunion..."

"Don't give up just yet," - said Breeze calmly, as he started to run after the train.

He was able to catch up to the last car, but then the train entered a narrow passage were they couldn't fit near it. The sidewalk lead them to a walkway overlooking the train. Breeze had no other choice now.  With the train getting faster, he had to jump.

"Hold on tight!" Breeze told the filly, as he jumped. He flew over a small hoofrail, and landed smoothly on top of one of the cars.

"Wow! That was really cool! Thanks mister!" - she blew her mane from her eye.

Considering the little event they went through and the likeliness of being stuck together, Breeze thought it would be no harm to get to know the little filly.

"I'm Breeze Wake," - he told her.

"Hey Breeze, I'm Babs Seed," - she replied.

"Nice to meet you, Babs," he offered a hoof

"Same. Thanks again for the lift," she smiled as they shook hoofs.

"Hey! You don't have a cutie mark? Wow, you're the oldest blank-flank I know! After you helped me, I guess I could invite you into the cutie mark crusaders," - said Babs.

"Well, it sure sounds nice but I don't feel like grouping up yet," - he said

"Alright. Tell me if you change your mind," she blew her mane out of her eyes again.

They got down from the roof, and found seats. The car on the inside was mostly chocolate-brown, since most of it was covered by wooden decoration. Although Breeze was now traveling further away from the place he knew and called home, yet he wasn't homesick at all. The gloomy weather of Manehattan became sunny, warm with clear skies, and green fields as long as one could see instead of rows of houses blocking the view. Nothing he left behind mattered to him, and he was taking the sight in. This refreshing feel of true freedom even brought a smile on his face, something he otherwise rarely had.

But this nice sightseeing experience came to an end, when he noticed a ticket inspector was about to come into the car he was in. So he quickly stood up, and made his way to the end of the train, yet Babs didn't notice him. He thought about hiding, somewhere, but as he looked around nothing seemed to work. He looked around again as the train got on a bridge above a river, with a high waterfall on one side.

"Wow, that's a long way do-whoa-whoa!-WHOA!" his thought line was interrupted by a bump the train ran over, which got him out of balance.

He failed to grab onto anything and so, he fell down into the river. Thankfully the water was deep enough to keep him from a hard landing, however the river was rather fast, and the back of his head bumped into a rock, while he was underwater, knocking him out on the way down.