“Next stop: Ponyville!”

“Gah!” Dash immediately jumped from her sleep, scared awake by the sudden loud voice. She rubbed the side her head softly, wiping away a soft itch that bothered her. As soon as she completely awoke, she surveyed her surroundings, finding herself to be in one of those carts she mentioned yesterday.

She felt something else stir around in bed next to her. Startled, she turned her head to see George, his left wing wrapped around in a small cast, as well as bruises all over his body, all of them a combination from his ‘flight lessons’ with Blaze, and the fall.

Slowly remembering why he was there, she felt her heart crack at the sight of the poor stallion. Not because of the bruises, but rather, the fact he has that cast on his wing because she failed to catch him. For once, she wasn’t fast enough, and it worried her.

“What if somepony else falls?” she thought. “Will I be able to catch them? Will I be fast enough…?”

Not wanting to make matters worse for herself, Dash quickly tried to snap herself out of it, and slowly got out of bed, trying as hard as she could to disturb the sleeping stallion. She investigated the room she was in a little more, the last time she was on a train, these rooms were mostly empty, and only had a bed. The more she looked around, the more she realized what these rooms were for.

They were hospital-carts.

All the times Dash had snuck into these rooms, they were still work-in-progress. Now, she assumed that they were completed, as she found certain hospital-esque items. A heart-rate monitor, stethoscope, et cetera.

“Guess I won’t be able to sneak into these rooms anymore…”

She shrugged, no longer being able to use these rooms like she used to didn’t really bother her, she was fine sleeping in her seats if the train took too long, anyway. Then again, don’t they have those public be—

“Annnnnd now I remember why I kept sneaking into these rooms. Crap…”

She walked out of the hospital cart, and made her way onto the cafeteria cart. Her stomach was rumbling, telling her she needed to stuff some food in her mouth as soon as possible. Since it was relatively early, they were only serving breakfast items. Which was perfect, since she was craving another one of their hash browns for a while now.

After making her order composed of a biscuit and a hash brown, Dash took her tray over to an empty table. She took a bite of the hash brown, savoring in it’s crunchy goodness, but then looked over to the biscuit, and back at the hash brown in her hoof. Curious to try something a new experiment, she broke the biscuit in half, and put the hash brown in between the two halves. Making a hash brown sandwich.

She took a bite out of it, and was surprised to see her little experiment returned with delicious results. She blissfully moaned as the soft biscuit combined with the crunchy hash brown yielded a perfect combination of flavors, sending her tastebuds wild.

“Sweet Celestia… This is amazing…!”

In her peripheral vision, she saw a familiar stallion walking by. She turned her head to see George making his own order. Though before he had the chance to even finish his order, Dash had the best idea in her head.

“George!”

The stallion turned his head, seeing her calling out to him. She waved her hoof around crazily, which only made him raise an eyebrow at her actions.

“Get your flank over here!”

He reluctantly looked back at his half-finished order, and back at her. Sighing, he canceled his order, and walked over to her table. He sat down on the chair in front of her, and groaned as he attempted to get comfortable.

“Try this,” she told him, pushing her tray over to his side of the table.

“What is it?”

“Try iiiiiiiit!”

“But…” George gave up trying to resist. He knew if he kept resisting, the more the persistent mare in front of him would just keep going until she won. He slowly picked up the sandwich, curiously investigating the contents.

“Just bite into it, already!”

He sighed in defeat. No longer trying to prolong the inevitable, he bit into the sandwich, mixing around the flavors of the biscuit and the hash brown, both of which he had never tried before.

As he chewed his food, he looked up to the mare in front of him. She had a look that was a mix of impatience, excitement, and curiosity. Since she knew he had never eaten many other things besides what Twilight or Spike would make, and while he tried a few new things back at her parents house, this was something entirely new.

He raised an eyebrow at the mare’s constant staring, wondering if she was waiting for a response of some sort. Not wanting to let her down, he swallowed the food and let out a soft hum, eliciting a grin to appear on Dash’s face.

“Good, right?” she raised an eyebrow.

He looked back down to the experiment that she had created, then looked back up to her. As soon as she was about to speak, he quickly engulfed the rest of the sandwich.

Dash raised a hoof in the air, and quickly slammed it against the table, “What the heck, George!? That was my breakfast!”

The stallion in front of her quickly swallowed the meal. “It’s mine now!” he retorted, “Maybe if you hadn’t cut me off from making my own order, you wouldn’t be in this mess!”

“How is that my fault!?”

George shrugged in response, “I dunno,” he smiled sheepishly. “That sandwich was amazing, though.”

“Ugh,” Dash rolled her eyes, “Now I’m gonna have to get another one…”

The instant she had gotten up, his ears twitched at the realization of what she said. “Oooh!” he lifted his hoof in the air, catching the prismatic-maned mare’s attention. “Could you get me one too?”

She chuckled softly at the stallion’s childish behavior, “Sure,” she nodded. “As long as you stay away from mine.”

“No promises.”

________________________

As the train finally made its arrival to their hometown, the two had made their way out of the train. As they stepped out, they looked around their surroundings, completely ignoring anything they hadn’t seen before, and only searching for major changes compared to how they remembered it a week ago.

“Hm,” Dash hummed. “I was wondering if we missed out on anything…”

“Doesn’t look like it,” George added with a nod.

The two continued their walk, exiting the train station. They still continued to look around, watching birds in a variety of colors flew by. And as the wind rustled against the trees, around them, ponies made their way onto their own paths. Some were just making their way to work, and others were just grabbing groceries for home.

Yet none of that mattered to the two pegasi walking around. They simply continued looking around for any changes that might have happened while they were gone.

George was the first to give up on looking around, and settled on the fact that nothing too significant had happened while they were gone. However, much to his surprise, upon looking straight ahead in his path, he noticed something strange. Far off in the distance, he saw something pink speedily making its way closer to them.

He nudged the mare next to him with a hoof, “Dash.”

“Huh?” Dash snapped out of her ‘investigation’, “What’s going on?”

George simply lifted his hoof, pointing in the direction of the growing pink mass, which now seemed to be just a few feet away.

Dash squinted her eyes, attempting to examine the pink object nearing them. “It kinda looks lik—Oof!”

In an instant, the two pegasi were tackled down onto the ground. Both of them felt a hoof wrap around both of them individually. And before either of them could attempt to register what was going on, the embrace between the two had tightened, making it feel almost bone-crushing for them. Unfortunately for George, that bone-crushing experience was only worsened, as the grip around him also surrounded his broken wing, inflicting more pain on top of whatever happened to him in the first place.

“Georgie! Dashie!” their attacker shouted in joy, “You’re both finally back!”

Dash was the first to recognize the voice, she sighed a breath of relief, knowing she was no longer in any actual danger. “Geez, Pinkie…” she muttered softly, “You had me going for a minute there…”

Pinkie tightened her grip further, reveling in their group hug. “You two were gone for forever!”

George groaned softly. “B-But we were only gone for a we—”

“Exactly!” Pinkie looked up to the wincing stallion, paying no attention to his pained look. “Seven days! 10,080 minutes! A whole 604,800 seconds! Do you know how long that is!?”

George attempted to wiggle out of the mare’s painfully tight hug, though as he did so, he inhaled sharply at the excruciating pain as he’d move his wing around in ways he shouldn’t, at least until it healed.

“P-Pinkie…” he cried out in a hushed voice, “C-Could you… uh… l-let go…?”

Dash raised an eyebrow as the stallion’s efforts to escape from Pinkie’s embrace. Though by the tone of his voice, she quickly realized his situation, and winced as she finally figured it out.

“B-But how else would I show my friends how much I care for them?” Pinkie asked innocently, still oblivious to his pain.

“Pinks, I think you’re crushing George’s broken wing…”

“I am?” Pinkie loosened her grip slightly. “I didn’t know George had a—” she finally looked at the wing in question, which was still fully enveloped in its cast. As soon as a wave of realization washed over her, she gasped loudly, and jumped off of the pair. “Omigosh, omigosh! I’m so sorry! I didn’t know you had a broken win—”

George quickly interrupted. “It’s fine…” he spoke with a groan, slowly getting himself up from the ground. “Just… be careful next time… Alright?”

“Okey-Dokey-Lokey!” Pinkie cheered, bouncing up and down as she spoke.

As Dash also got herself up, she looked up to the mare, who simply continued with her bouncing. “So—”

“Omigosh! I just remembered!” Pinkie interjected. “You two missed my birthday party!” her bouncing immediately ceased, as she stomped a hoof onto the ground, emphasizing her attempt at being angry.

“Eh?” George tilted his head in confusion. “When was your birthday?”

“Yesterday!”

Dash also tilted her head in confusion, “Really?” she queried, “I thought your birthday was next week…”

Pinkie shook her head, “Nope, it was yesterday.” she immediately placed a hoof on her chin. “Pretty sure it was yesterday… That’d be really awkward if everypony thought my birthday was a week sooner…”

“Huh,” Dash blinked. “Anything else we missed?”

“Let me think…” Pinkie rubbed her head softly with a hoof, closing her eyes as she began to recall the past week without Dash and George.

Meanwhile, George slowly opened his broken wing, and moved it closer to his face. He examined his appendage closely, finding everything was the same as it was when he woke up earlier today. Curious, he lifted a hoof, and sent it on its journey to its new target; his wing.

Halfway through its journey, his hoof was immediately cut off by someone else’s hoof crashing down upon it. He looked up to the hoof’s owner, being the pegasus mare next to him, who simply deadpanned.

“Don’t touch it!” she huffed. “Do you really want to make it worse?”

George shook his head in response, and folded his wing back to his side, as well as his hoof slowly making its new trip down to the ground.

Not long afterwards, Pinkie slammed the hoof that was rubbing her chest down onto the ground below her. “Nope! Not a whole lot has been going on!”

Dash blinked. “Huh… Well, I guess that’s a goo—”

“Besides Rarity needing the both of you for measurements,” Pinkie quickly spoke up once more.

George slowly raised an eyebrow at Pinkie’s sudden statement, “What does she need our measurements for?”

“Riiiiight, Rarity needs our mea—” Dash quickly cut herself off, instantly taking in George’s own response. She turned her head to the confused stallion, whom still had his eyebrow raised as he awaited a response. “Did Twilight ever explain to you what that golden ticket was?” she asked.

“Ticket? What tic—You mean that thing Princess Celestia gave me a few months back?”

“Yeah, that!”

“Actually, I think Twilight forgot all about it…” George scratched the back of his neck. “I probably still have it in my room somewhere, but she kinda never told me what it was…”

Dash let out a soft “huh”, as well as a sigh simultaneously, “Well, it’s basically just an invitation to the Grand Galloping Gala.”

“Cool…” George smiled softly, though it quickly faded out as he tried to figure out what exactly he was invited to. “...What’s that?”

“I’ll explain later."

“But that’s what Twilight told me when I actually got the tick—”

“Yeah, but this time’s different. Because I won’t forget!”

George scoffed, “I hope not.”

________________________

“I still don’t get why we need to wear clothes to go to some gala thing…” George rolled his eyes, as well as sighing deeply as Rarity continued to measure his waist. “I’ve never seen anypony wear clothes, why is this any different, now?”

“Formalities, Darling,” Rarity stepped away from him, taking notes of his measurements. “The Grand Galloping Gala is the fanciest party in Equestria! You can’t just waltz in like nopony’s business. It’s…” she trailed off for a moment, searching for the right word, “not right...”

George looked over to the rainbow-maned mare, whom was sitting on a couch not too far from him. With a raised eyebrow, he spoke, “So then… why are you going, Dash? I thought you didn’t like those types of things…?”

“Eh,” Dash shrugged. “The wonderbolts are gonna be there. And I’m kinda debating on the whole ‘wanting to be a wonderbolt’ thing.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well… Personal reasons,” Dash crossed her hooves. “That’s all you really need to know,” As she finished her sentence, another thought came to mind. “I also heard a few things about being a wonderbolt, but I want to check with Twilight about it.”

“What’d you hear?” George tilted his head, ignoring the fashionista taking her measuring tape to one of his rear hooves. “...And when?”

“I can’t really say, cause I don’t know if it’s true or not,” Dash shook her head, “As for the when part, it was during the week with mom and dad.”

“Hm. I don’t remember you two talking.”

“That’s cause we kept locking ourselves in her room, just talking.”

“Ab—”

“Personal. Stuff.”

“Fine,” George groaned, “Don’t tell me.”

“Not my fault you’re such a curious George,” Dash stuck her tongue out in a playful manner.

“Ha ha,” George rolled his eyes, “Very funny.”

Dash softly giggled, “Why do you want to know so badly?”

“I was just…” George sighed in defeat, “curious…”

Unfortunately for him, his response only made her giggle noticeably louder.

“Alright, last measurement, dear,” Rarity cut them off. “Lift up your head.”

George slowly lifted his head a little, not knowing how far up he was supposed to lift it, he simply lifted his head to the point where he’d have to shift his eyesight a little down just to see the two.

“More…”

His head went up higher, both of the mares were still in sight, but his eyesight would have to be shifted to its lowest in order to see them. In his current position, his muzzle was pointing towards the sun’s direction.

“Keep going…”

With the roll of his eyes, he lifted his head up as far as he could, staring directly at the roof, as well as his muzzle pointing directly up.

“Perfect!” Rarity smiled, grabbing her measuring tape, and began taking it around his neck.

Moments later, she stepped back, removing the tape from his neck, and wrote down her measurements down on her notebook.

“Annnnd... done,” Rarity said with a hum, “You’re all set, George.”

George finally let his head go back to its original position, resting his neck from holding his head in that position. He slowly began rubbing the back of his neck in an attempt to wipe away the irritating feeling.

“Finally…” he muttered, “Your turn, Dash.”

“Ah crap...”

Author's Note

Crap, has it really been five months since the last update? August? Geez... Sorry I've been taking so long, I've been taking a small break. Cause writer's block, and all that...

This chapter isn't as long as I hoped it would be, but I can't seem to find anything else worth putting into this filler chapter. The next chapter, however, I already have a ton planned. So stay tuned for that.

Art done by MrFulp, so thanks to him for being a gr8 b8 any m8 would r8 8/8.

On another note: So, if you haven't been keeping up-to-date on my blogs. Basically, I've kinda sat through the first few chapters of Equestria's Time, and as I kept looking at them over and over, the more they bothered me. As much as I'd love to sit through those chapters and give them a good rework through some of the more annoying scenes/rewrite some of those chapters entirely. I'll only end up wasting more time, so instead, I think I'm just going to work on/rewrite said chapters once the story itself is finished.

After all, each chapter slowly starts to increase in quality as it progresses. It's towards the 9th chapter mark where my writing slowly starts getting better, so I'm not that bothered by it, but, geez...