Chapters Prologue: A History Lesson
...but first, let's talk about history.
I’m sitting in front of a table, almost in total darkness. The dim lights of the bulbs in the chandeliers that hang on the roof barely help me to see anything but the quiet black void around me. There is a large window illuminating the room, but it is nightfall and the windows are thick. It can’t be seen anything outside, nothing but the opaque blue from the night sky… not even a star.
I am looking at nothing in front of me, just a dark shadow, so dark that I can’t even see the other side of the long table in which I took seat not long ago. I keep looking at that dark void, lost in my thoughts. The sudden noise of a chair being moved on the room makes me turn quickly, as if waiting for something to jump out of the darkness.
I slowly turn again at the dark void in front of me… but this time, I don't find the void alone. Right there, on the center, just in front of me, a pair of shining green eyes is watching me. They do not seem to blink or fade, they are just there, watching my soul. Whoever those eyes belong to is seated on the other side of the table, I know that. I’m now looking to the eyes, as if it was a contest. Silence.
The eyes suddenly seem to move as if looking down the table. They follow an object invisible to me. The sound of something being placed on the dark wood of the table caught my attention. The green eyes look at me again. The sound of slight push and something sliding over the wooden table makes me to look down at what just landed in front of me: a book.
I have to turn around the book because it was backwards. I read the title “The History of Equestria, vol. 4”, the old flag of Equestria features the cover and it has many golden ornaments on each corner. I turn again to the eyes. They are still looking at me.
“Was that what you asked for?” Says a neutral female voice, the female voice of the eyes. I now know that she is a female.
“Yes,” I answer in the same neutral tone.
The eyes seem to look down and close.
“I hope it will help your cause,” the voice says.
“It will,” its my answer. I open the book on the first page. I skip the prologue and the first chapters. I continue turning the pages over and over again. I’m looking for one in special… I finally reach it. “Chapter 8: The last years of the kingdom.” I take out a paper scroll, an ink pen, and I start reading.
“Year 1100 ABNM (After the Banishment of Nightmare Moon). One hundred years after the return of princess Luna and the apparition of the Elements of harmony, the princess Twilight Sparkle signs the official declaration of Ponyville as a city, now called Ponycity. Ponies of all races celebrate...”
I look at my paper scroll and start copying the text. I finish and turn the page, looking for another important point, my eyes scanning every single word.
“...To commemorate, the Friendship and Harmony monument is built in the downtown...” Not that important. What else? “...the considerable expansion of the once small earth pony ville had grown over the past years…” I take note of that. My eyes keep reading the same paragraph but skipping some words. “...sweet Apple Acres becomes the most important apple producer of the central region…” That part too, it's important for my research. “...The barn was destroyed again by a…” That one isn’t.
I jump to the next page of the chapter. “...the increasing population impulses the expansion of more cities and the creation of new ones…” That is important. “...1121, Appleloosa officially becomes a city…” That could be important. “...San Palomino´s Community is founded at San Palomino´s Desert…” Not that important. “...Horseshoe bay declared the main port of Equestria…” Useful, I write that. “...more zebras, donkeys, mules, alpacas, and deer arrive to Equestria. The first caravans of camels arrive to trade on the minor cities. The zebra consulate…” very important.
Next page.
“...necessity, the Royal Academy of Canterlot for Gifted Ponies is founded by princess Twilight Sparkle on 1138. The Academy…” Very, very important. “The third pegasi cloud city, Solstice, is founded at the southern east of Appleloosa on 1143 …” That is very important too.
There is an image on this page, I look it carefully. It seems to be a representation of a bigger painting. The image, which is divided on two parts, shows the once princess Twilight Sparkle writing a book on a podium while some ponies are around her holding scrolls and paints. On the other side of the image there are some pegasi building the main acropolis of the city of Solstice, clearly classic pegasi architecture. I turn the page and continue my reading.
“...in Equestria. The construction of the city leaded to the discovery of ancient ruins at the south of Equestria, many...” I finally arrived to the part I wanted.
“Numerous expeditions are made to the ruins. The experts return with all types of treasures. The gold, gems, and diamonds are sold to museums or in the market. The other part of the treasure, knowledge, is carried to the Royal Academy of Canterlot for studies and to..."
I take a moment to write all this down. Making all the words on my paper scroll fit perfectly. I finish and I continue right where I left it.
"...final transaction until 1213. From all the relics founded on the ruins of this ancient civilization, only one receives the full interest of the Royal Academy: a large, monolith type stone that seemed to be the master piece for an strange mechanism on the ruins..."
The sound of a door swinging on the other side of the room interrupts me. I only turn slightly to see what is it about, but I can’t see anything. I continue my writing, ignoring that the green eyes are not in front of me anymore.
"...the monolith is completed late on that same year, and it is tested... ...the monolit comes to be called as the Cycle Stone because it's power and ability to control the rotation of the main asters..." I proceed to write this important part. I didn't noticed first, but there is a small image on this page. It shows what think it would be the Cycle Stone. I take my time to admire it a little bit and then proceed with the next text.
"...The princesses demand the Royal Academy to end its operations. They infer the closure and, with the support of many ponies in all of Equestria, they... ...The princesses are unable to control the population, it's too much the influence of the Royal Academy... …The princesses finally stop the project, and... ...As a punishment for their acts, the princesses refuse to end the winter of the year, prolonging it over 15 months. This chapter of the history is known as 'The White Year'. The crops don't grow, there is no harvest, and the population starves on the cities. The efforts of the population to clean the winter are useless..." I must admit, this is one of the most interesting chapters of the Equestrian history, and a fundamental part on my researches.
"...a furious mob in Canterlot march towards the palace, the hungry guards let them in without any opposition..." Another image is here, on this one, a furious mass of ponies of every type are crossing the gates of the palace. There are some guards on this one, but they seem to be joining the mob or opening the gates. I take a time to write everything to this point.
I know what is next on this chapter: the “Canterlot Declaration”, a document that stated the abdication and the exile of the alicorns of Equestrian soil. Signed by magic, unless the declaration is cancelled by the council, no alicorn can place a single hoof on the ground as long as it is called 'Equestria'. I write that, but I skip the page and continue.
"Posterior effects: With the abdication of the alicorns on 1215, a council was formed in early 1216 to continue ruling Equestria as a single nation. A representative of each one of the mayor races formed the Supreme Council, while representatives of the minorities combined with the Supreme Council to create the National Assembly. A governor was set to each one of the great cities and a mayor for each one of the small ones or villages..." I write this on my scroll.
"...the Cycle Stone is set to work again. The Royal Academy of Canterlot for Gifted Ponies now passes to be the Academy of Canterlot for Gifted Ponies. The years start to count from the exile of the alicorns (AEA)..." The last part wasn't of my interest, but I write the text anyways.
I turn to the last sentence of the chapter.
"The kingdom of Equestria had failed after the increase of population. Will a council be enough to handle all these ponies?"
I smile and mutter to myself "No, they did not."
I close the book, pack my things on the saddlebags and stand up from the chair. I uselessly look around to see if there is anypony on the room. "I'm leaving now, hope you don't mind," I say to nopony.
I walk to the door behind me and open it. I leave the room, leaving nothing behind me but an old, lonely book on a table in total darkness...
A meeting at Ponycity's Train Station
*Achoo!* I sneezed. A sneeze? Really? In summer? I cleaned my nose with my hoof and threw the gross content into a pot outside the train station. I was lucky that nopony saw me doing that. Not that I was proud of it, but the hurry needed its sacrifices, right?
I walked into the train Station and then to the waiting room of the Subway Train Line, or STL, as everypony called it nowadays. The place was big, it was a wide room with white stone walls and golden ornaments and chandeliers. It had a lot of windows and lamps illuminating it. There were some doors that led to the small stores with crystal walls, and open tunnels which led to the rails. At the center of the room, there were a couple of benches filled with ponies waiting to either take a train or wait for somepony else. The noise of chattering ponies made me difficult to concentrate and try to find the correct tunnel to take. The colorful crowd moved in all directions! From side to side and up and down... Earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi, and one or two occasional zebras or deer walked around the station.
"Was that a camel?" I thought when I saw a... Bah, never mind, he's gone now.
I finally spotted the correct tunnel. It was the blue one: the one that received the trains from the south cities of Las Pegasus, Applewood, Baltimare, Appleloosa, San Palomino´s Community, Noge City, and, in my case: Solstice.
As I entered the blue-walled tunnel, I started recapping the plan: First, I was going to meet my friends at the train station; Then, we would go to the city´s square to find a hotel and let the luggage there; After that, we were going to the “Red Spark vs. Laser Lights” concert; And finally, we were going to return to the hotel and have some rest to then take the train to Canterlot the next day. Easy, isn't it? What could be better than going to a concert with my friends in summer? It's the perfect way to enjoy the last week of vacations…
All these thoughts were in my mind as I reached the end of the blue-walled tunnel and into the train line. The room was decorated almost exactly as the waiting room, except for windows, which apparently lacked in this room.
"The train from Solstice is arriving. The next train to Vanhoover is leaving." A mare voice on the station speakers could be heard. As I was walking and looking for the train I accidentally walked into a pony selling the newspapers. "Extra! Extra! Cloudsdale's governor, Sunburst debate with Solstice's governor, Dawn- ouch!" The pony was saying when I crashed with him.
"Sorry sir!" I said as I helped him to pick up some of the newspapers he had dropped.
"Don't worry kiddo! Don't you wanna buy the newspaper?" Said the pony with the same happy tone, obviously taking advantage of the incident.
"No thanks, sorry... I don't have any coins with me right now." I answered.
"Oh, in that case, take one for free. Go ahead to read it while you wait for the next train, it's important for you to know what is going right now in the world!" He said and handed me one of the newspapers I had just given him.
"Thanks!" I said as I took it and placed it into my saddle bag. The pony nodded with a smile on his face and continued his job. "Extra! Extra!" he restarted.
I moved faster to the end of the train line just as one arrived. Like all the Solstice's trains it was white and was decorated with the shapes of golden clouds all over the windows. The train stopped completely at the end of the line and its doors opened, another crowd of ponies, mostly pegasi, left the train.
'Alright...' I thought to myself. "Where could she be...?" I muttered.
I payed attention to the pegasi that I saw leaving the train. I started with those who went out flying: there was one black, one blue, two red, another blue, one gray, one light green, and... Ah! Finally! One yello- wait, no... She wasn´t that tone of yellow.
"Hmmm..." I muttered as I narrowed my eyes to see clearer the pegasi that went out of the train walking: There was one orange, one light blue, three dark blue, another not-that-tone-of-yellow, another red... another blue...
'Ok, I surrender!' I thought to myself, defeated by the crowd. 'I'm gonna shout, I'm not the only one doing that, after all,' I decided. I took a deep breath, but just as I was about to shout her name, I felt somepony poking my shoulder. I turned quickly and saw her, the tone of yellow I had been looking for: beige-yellow.
"Oh, Hi! How much time you have back there?" I asked casually, but she was clearly unamused.
"Like three minutes," she said. "I didn't even arrive on that train, you know?" she said, trying to make herself sound serious, but I knew her very well. Enough to know that she was laughing inside.
"Well... this is awkward,” I said. She nodded. “Did you see when I walked against the newspaper pony too?" I asked, trying to figure out the moment she had found me.
She couldn't resist any more and let out a little giggle as her serious face disappeared. "Yeah... That was the moment I spotted you!" She said laughing.
"Oh... Even more awkward," I said smiling.
She laughed a bit. "Yeah, I can be a pegasi, but you are the one with the head over the clouds all the time!" she said out loud and with an irony tone.
We laughed.
I started walking to the tunnel again; she followed me by my side, carrying her saddlebags on her back.
"Maybe I was distracted,” I said, “but I was distracted thinking on how we are gonna go to the concert tonight..." I said teasingly, and trying to save the dignity I had just lost.
"Oh! You have the tickets!?" She asked with enthusiasm on her voice. I could swear that her eyes became bigger as she waited for my answer.
"Well, not with me... But I'm sure that Classic has them," I said. She stopped smiling and looked at the floor.
"Oh... well... that's okay I guess..." she said, sounding shameful for being so excited about nothing.
"What's wrong, 'Sunny'?" I asked, calling her by her camp nickname. Classic and I had chosen that one for her six years ago at Miss Pollen's camp here in Ponycity. The camp had been the place we met her for the first time. She was new in the city at that time.
Her real name is Sun Seeker, but we were just foals, and we liked to give ourselves nicknames. She wasn't the exception and, as we usually do with our names, we took the first part of her name and modified it to end in -y. Classic White, our other friend's nickname was 'Classy' for example (it curiously fitted on his personality way better than his own name). Only Sunny kept the nickname after the camp, though.
Sun Seeker was the first of my friends who I had gone to the station looking for. She was a beige-yellow pegasi, her eyes were gray, and her mane was naturally white with a wide yellow stripe (a family mark, as she always had told us). Her Cutie Mark was a sun hiding behind three small clouds below it, and she had three dark yellow freckles on each cheek.
She smiled, but didn't lift her stare from the floor. "Nothing..." she answered.
I know very well know that 'nothing' doesn't really means 'nothing' if it comes from a mare, but I decided not to follow the game.
"Whatever..." I said. She nodded without lifting her head. "...maybe I don't have the tickets to the concert with me, but I'm pretty sure you will also like this!" I said as I took out of the saddle bag one pamphlet of the concert and handed it to her with my mouth. She looked at me. "Fvhat dfo yfou fsay?"
She quickly grabbed it from my mouth. She used her wings to continue moving forward as she scanned the pamphlet cautiously while holding it with both hooves.
"Oh, great!" She said enthusiastically. "Red Spark is going to play 'Wonderbolts' beat' tonight!"
"That's right," I said, nodding.
"Oh! Laser Lights is going to be at the concert too!" she almost shouted. I smiled. "Oooh... I really, really hope that Classic bought the tickets! I don't want to miss this concert for anything in the world!"
We were just leaving the blue tunnel and entering again at the waiting area.
"Yeah, hope he does-" I was saying when I bumped with another pony.
"Argh, not again!” I thought as I walked back to see who I just crashed with. Sun Seeker had turned to me almost immediately, but she smiled when she saw the pony I had bumped with. I quickly turned at him.
"Well... Hello, I suppose..." Classic said. I smiled and shook my hoof with him.
"Classic!" Sun Seeker said out loud.
"Quite right," he answered using his favorite catchphrase. He turned to greet her.
Classic White was the other friend I was looking for. He was a white-coated unicorn and had a light, almost golden mane and light orange eyes. His Cutie Mark was a white chess king in front of a half white, half black shield shape with small golden crown on top. As always, he was dressed with an elegant black bow-tie despising his young age (just like Sun Seeker and I, 17). He and I have been friends since primary school, but he just moved to Canterlot to study in the Academy of Canterlot for Gifted Ponies (or ACGP), in which his father is an “investor”. Other thing you should know about Classic is that he and Sun Seeker are cousins... or something like that; Sunny´s uncle is married with an aunt of him. But still, we three are best friends. And even though we all parted ways one year ago when Sun Seeker moved to Solstice and Classic to Canterlot, we have cared for our friendship very well, at least until now.
I was about to say something to Classic when Sun Seeker interrupted me.
"Do you have them!?" She asked quickly to him with a big smile on her face.
"What should I have? You mean these golden backstage passes for the concert of Red Spark, the famous Disk Jockey and Electronic Musician tonight?" he said teasingly and lifted three golden tickets with his magic out of nowhere.
"Oh, yes!" Sun Seeker said and grabbed the tickets from the golden magic aura, looking at them with full attention.
He turned to me with a smirk. I smirked back. He turned his face again to Sun Seeker and coughed intentionally. She quickly stop looking the tickets and looked at him. Classic had extended his hoof so she could give them to him. Sunny seemed to suddenly get out of the trance. "Yeah, sorry..." She said as she placed the three tickets on his hoof. "...thank you." She said softly but smiling, again in shame for getting so overly excited.
"You’re welcome." Classic said, placing the tickets into my saddle bag.
We just looked at each other in silence for a few seconds.
"Let's get going then!" I said, breaking the awkward silence that had formed between us. "We still have to find a hotel to let our luggage," I completed. Both nodded and followed me out of the station.
The first thing that came to my mind that day after leaving the station was the cold air... I mean, it was very cold outside. I rubbed my shoulders one at a time as Cobalt and I were waiting on the sidewalk for Classic.
"What? Are you freezing out here?" Cobalt asked when he looked at me.
"Well, I didn't remember the city was this... cold," I answered.
"Is that why you are shaking so badly? I thought it was for the concert…" He said teasingly with a smirk on his face.
"Am I shaking?" I asked, placing the hoof I had on my shoulder in the floor.
Cobalt smiled and opened his mouth to say something, but the sound of a claxon interrupted him. We turned to the street. Classic had arrived on his car, a big black one of our uncle’s company. It had tinted windows and golden wheels. I thought it was strange that Classic would bring a borrowed car. One of the front windows slipped down and Classic poked his head out of the car.
"Get in," he said and he pulled his head inside again. "I'm taking us to the hotel," he said with a smile on his face while placing a pair of sunglasses on his eyes.
I rolled my eyes and smiled as I entered the car, Cobalt followed me inside. The car’s inner decoration was white and crème color, and it was pretty big enough for me to do need to take my saddlebags off to sit down. Once inside, I noticed that Classic wasn't driving, there was a driver. I knew it! Cobalt entered the car and closed the door. Classic was watching us through the driver's mirror.
"To the downtown, please," he instructed the driver, and turned to us. "So... what's up?" he asked casually. Cobalt rolled his eyes.
“Well, we have the tickets and the transport. We need to find a hotel close to the downtown. The concert is going to be on sweet Apple Acres, so I think that a hotel close to the city square should be okay,” he said.
“Very well,” Classic answered, “you have the plan, I have the tickets, and Sun Seeker has the desire to go.” They both looked at me smiling. I smile to them blushing. They knew that the concert was… especially special for me.
I must admit, I was very excited for all this. I was going to meet my idol! I have been listening to Red Spark's music since I moved to Ponycity. My dream was to go to one of his concerts, and when Cobalt called me one week ago to my new house in Solstice to invite me to the concert... well, I couldn't have been happier.
"Completely,” I answered. “I would like to help you in anything I can,” I said, thinking of what Classic had said before. He was right. What I was helping to? I just had come, I wasn't helping with anything at all.
I looked to the city through the car's window, remembering the years I used to live here in the city. As we moved into the downtown of the city, Cobalt and Classic started talking about our first year that we haven't been together. Not since Classic moved to Canterlot, or me to Solstice. It had been "thanks" to my uncle. He had suddenly come with the idea that it was better for me and for my "proper education and formation as pegasi" to move to any of the cloud cities. Gosh... what could he know? He is not even a pegasi like me, he is a unicorn!
I shook my head trying to get rid of those thoughts, remembering my uncle only reminds me of... well, my parents. And I don’t like to talk about them… or think about it.
I keep looking at the buildings and houses as the car moved, I needed to get distracted of those memories. I noticed that Classic and Cobalt had stopped talking. They were now looking at me in silence. I turned to them.
"Are you crying?" asked Cobalt, worried. Crying? Oh my gosh... Did I let myself to cry again for that after all these years? I took my hoof to touch my cheek, I felt it slightly wet. I quickly cleaned the tear I didn't felt falling from my eye.
"Is it everything alright, Sunny?" asked Classic. He rarely calls me by my nickname.
"Yeah, yeah... Everything alright, just... remembering the old times." I answered and forced a small smile out. Cobalt smiled at me.
"Sure, those times were the best," Classic said. "Remember that time when...?"
It was very lucky that they didn’t come with more questions. I truly didn’t want to answer them. Cobalt, Classic, and I started talking about our old adventures in the city, which calmed me down. We remembered our six years together, since the day we met for the very first time at Miss Pollen's camp on summer six years ago... to our secret party the night before Classic left the city last year. I wasn't sad anymore, I was happy to be with my friends again. We were so entertained talking that we didn't even notice when we arrived to the downtown.
The car stopped beside the sidewalk and the driver nodded to Classic.
"We are here Mr. Classic, what do you want me to do now?" asked the driver.
"Tell him to meet us tomorrow at the hotel, Classic," said Cobalt "We won’t need transport while we are here." Classic nodded to him.
"Wait us at the hotel tomorrow at 12 pm to take us to the train station," instructed Classic.
"Sure thing," answered the driver. We got out of the car. Classic had to take his saddle bags out from the car's trunk before joining us in the sidewalk. Once we were ready, the car leaved.
"Let's go, we must find the hotel before the nightfall," said Cobalt. He started walking into the downtown, which hadn't streets for the cars. We followed.
Cobalt Value, he is an earth pony, and probably my best friend. He is silvery gray and has an obsidian black mane. His eyes are green and his Cutie Mark is a cut of a cobalt rectangle, shining as a reluctant gray metal. He is just one of the best ponies you can ever meet. He was the first foal to talk to me on Miss Pollen's camp, and along with Classic White, the first one to be my friend. Classic on the other hoof… well, he surely is my friend, but, I don’t know… he teases me a lot. But still, he is one of the best and kindest ponies anypony could find around. He is my cousin actually… or something like that. My uncle is married to his aunt. I think that doesn’t truly make us anything, but we still say that to the ponies we meet, it’s kind of a joke we always have made.
We walked through the main square, passing in front of the Harmony monument, a big and white statue that featured the six first portrayers of the “Elements of Harmony”. As always, there was a huge mass of tourists taking photos around it. The monument surely was pretty impressive, but I lived here for six years, it doesn’t have any effect on me anymore.
I was watching everypony around me. I really liked to walk on the downtown, so much... variety. There were all types of ponies and non-ponies around the place! There were earth ponies and unicorns walking on the street, sitting on benches, or eating on a restaurant on the street.
There were some mules, donkeys, alpacas and zebras too. I even saw a camel I think. I looked up to the sky. Pegasi and gryphons flied over the city and played in the clouds. Ponycity is well known for being the most cosmopolitan city in all Equestria, you would never find such variety anywhere else. I was smiling, of course. I enjoyed all this, in Solstice you couldn’t feel so much presence, I mean, it is a cloud city, only pegasi can live there.
We kept walking on the main street following Cobalt until he turned on a little alley. We crossed the alley to later enter on a parallel street in which we knew there was a hotel. The building was three stories tall and had many windows and balconies on the second and third floor.
As the rest of the buildings of the downtown, it was white and had an old medieval earth pony architecture style. We entered the place and walked to the reception. On the inside, the hotel was very well lit and beautifully decorated. There were a few ponies on the lobby, and one behind reception bar. He was dressing a red uniform and was typing something on the desk computer he had in front of him. We walked there.
"Good afternoon, my friends. What can I do for you?" said the pony of the reception.
"Let me handle this," Classic said to Cobalt and took a step forward and cleared his throat. I caught a glimpse of Cobalt rolling his eyes. I muttered a laugh.
"Do you have any rooms left?" He asked.
"It depends, sir. How many are you?" The pony answered.
"Three," Classic said.
"Then I am afraid I don't," said the pony.
"Oh, well... in that case, thank you. Good after-" Classic was saying when Cobalt interrupted him.
"You have any rooms for two?" He asked. Classic narrowed his eyes at him and walked backwards.
"Yes, we have," said the receptionist.
"We will take one for tonight," answered Cobalt.
"That would be 120 bits, sir," the receptionist said pompously.
Cobalt paid with some bills and the receptionist gave him a key. He then wrote something on the computer he had on the desk. We walked to the stairs. The room was on the third floor.
"Why did you accept that room? We are three, you know." Classic asked, almost offended.
"Relax, Classy, you two will stay here. I can return to my house right after the concert, we will meet again on the morning," Cobalt answered. "Besides, we probably couldn't have found another hotel. There are too many ponies coming to the concert too."
We went through the stairs and into the third floor. There were only 4 rooms. We have got the number 34. We entered the room. It was pretty nice. It had its bathroom, a closet, two dark red beds, a small table with a lamp over it, and a TV.
Classic, Cobalt, and I let the saddlebags on the floor, sighing at the release of the weight on our backs.
"I have to use the bathroom," Cobalt said and entered it. Classic used his mouth to carry his saddlebags close to one of the two beds. He took the TV remote, which was on his bed and turned on the TV. I noticed there was a balcony on our room. I moved my bags close to the other bed and entered the balcony.
I looked outside to the street. There were many ponies walking by. In the sky were ponies and gryphons too. I looked at the city, I couldn’t see most of it, but I still liked the view. The sun was already going down. The sky wouldn’t late to paint itself of orange and red. I smiled, but a small breeze of wind made me shake of cold, losing the smile. I entered again to the room.
"...of governor Dawn Song. The new politics were not taken as well to governor Sunburst, who openly attacked him on an interview stating that Dawn Song didn't had the experience to manage such an important responsibility. Governor Horizon decided to..." I could hear the TV news.
I closed the door of the balcony and sat on the bed to see what was going on in the TV.
"...Dawn Song accepted to assist the Great Council meeting this weekend..." I looked at who was being showed on TV, it was Dawn Song, the young pegasi governor of Solstice. He was... ehm, well, young and a bit handsome too. He had a night sky blue coat and an orange and light blue mane. He had dark orange eyes and a Cutie Mark of a sun rising behind a sea, which anypony could see unless he wasn’t wearing a suit or any clothes.
"What's happening?" I asked Classic, who was paying attention too.
"I don't really know... I heard something about the Supreme Council meeting this weekend," he answered. I nodded.
Cobalt opened the door of the bathroom and walked out.
"Let's get ready," he said. "I want to get there early, there is going to be too many ponies tonight."
Classic turned off the TV with the remote and went to retrieve the golden tickets from Cobalt's bag. Cobalt took out a dark red hoodie from it. He put it on, it had Red Spark's Cutie Mark, a flame, on its back.
"Oh! Let me see it!" I said as I approached to him. He had turned around and sat down on the floor. I could watch it perfectly, it was awesome.
"Thanks!" I said, smiling.
"I knew you would like it," he said and turned around, "I even brought this to you!" he said and threw me a piece of cloth. It landed right in my hoof, which I just had put in front of me to protect my face.
I looked at what had arrived on my hoof. It was a hoodie just like his. I smiled widely. Was he really doing all this for me?
"Oh, thank you!" I said with a big smile. It was awesome! I put it on. It even had the holes for my wings.
“Perfect, we now can go the concert perfectly dressed.” said Classic. He was talking with a slightly annoyed tone. I noticed he was also wearing a hoodie, and he had taken off his bow tie. I giggled, he looked funny.
“I didn't know you were fan of him too,” I said, teasingly.
“I'm not, Cobalt convinced me,” he answered with a serious tone. Cobalt and I smiled and walked to the door.
We leaved the room and went down to the lobby. There was another group of three ponies in there, wearing a gray hoodie, a vest, and a shirt of the concert respectively. They would surely go too.
Cobalt, Classic, and I walked out of the hotel. The sun was going down, the street lights turned on.
We started walking again to the main street. We were going to cross the alley we used before. Cobalt and Classic crossed it without hesitation, but I… I don't know, it seemed darker than before. I walked backwards, I was about to call them, but I accidentally bumped against somepony. I felt it: big, too big for a normal pony, and it had too much fur on his coat. I gulped. What if it wasn’t a pony? I turned slowly around. A big, brownish camel was looking down to me.
“Uh… Hi?” I asked nervously, turning completely to him and walking backwards slowly into the alley. The camel just kept looking at me with his black eyes without saying anything.
“Look brother, another pegasi!” said a soft feminine voice behind him. A head poked behind him and the silhouette of another camel came closer to me.
“It is the first one I see walking instead of flying,” said the first one, the one I had bumped with.
“Then don't miss the opportunity,” said the female one.
The two camels didn't look different, only that the female was wearing some kind of jewelry on her ears and neck. The first one walked around me. I was too scared to say something or walk away, they looked intimidating. As the first one examined me with full attention I looked to his back, two tall hunchbacks emerged from it. He had some saddle bags on them and other things, like paper scrolls (which seemed a bit odd, because nopony use scrolls anymore). The camel walked close to my side and used his hoof to grab my wing and stretch it. I closed it quickly and walked backwards to the alley.
“I'm sorry, really, but I have to go now,” I said nervously and I walked more into the alley to escape.
“No! Wait please, just a moment,” the camel said like trying to calm me down. He had a strange accent.
“I… can't,” I said. Those camels were starting to scare me. What do they wanted from me? Why had he stretched my wing just like that?
“Please, just a second, you are the first pegasus I have seen on the street. I just want to take a look,” said the camel.
They were not the first camels I have seen before, but they were the first ones I had actually talked too.
Camels have been coming to Equestria since long time ago, always wandering and studying us and our culture. They only travel on independent caravans, so each one makes its own different studies.
“But I am going to be late, and my friends-“ I was saying while walking backwards when I bumped with somepony again. At first I thought it was Classic or Cobalt who had returned for me, but as I turned around I noticed that it was another camel.
“Oh! Another feathered flyer from the west! It is sooo opportune to us that you are not walking on the clouds like the other ones,” said the third camel.
“Wa- walking on the clouds? You mean flying?” I asked. I was starting to get really nervous. Where my friends could be? The three camels were now surrounding me inside the alley.
“Just a look, I have to make one annotation. Just one, please,” said the first one I had bumped too. I looked at him nervously.
“Do what he says, we have traveled a long way here, reward our patience with a bit of your cooperation,” said the female one.
The three walked close to me, I walked backwards until I hit the wall of the alley. I was about to fly away when one of the camels restrained me to the wall. I gasped and I closed my eyes flinching, I was truly, truly scared. I felt some tears falling from my eyes as I felt one of the camels stretching completely my wing. I couldn’t look at it, for one moment I thought they would take a knife from their saddle bags and cut it off, but instead I heard something like a pen writing on paper.
After some seconds that felt like minutes, the sound stopped and the camel stretching my wing let it go after ripping one of my feathers from it.
“I’m sorry,” apologize the camel, “we couldn’t let go opportunity.”
I opened my eyes and looked at them. The female camel was holding my feather with her hoof, observing it with full attention. The other one was saving on his saddle bag a scroll that had my wing perfectly drew along with some annotations.
“You- you drew that?” I asked, my voice still sounded a little nervous.
“Oh, yes,” said the third camel, “thank you very much for your support on our studies.”
I noticed that he was slightly older, and smaller. The fur on his chin formed a small beard of the same color as him. He didn’t look threatening. He even seemed funny and friendly with that beard.
“It is wonderful how feathers can grow from you. It is peculiar, very peculiar,” he said, his old voice made me smile.
“Tell me, young pegasus. Do all your feathered compatriots need their wings to walk in the wind?” he asked.
“Uh… yeah, it is impossible to fly without them, why?” I asked. It was a strange question coming from creatures that devoted their lives to knowledge. They should know that too, right?
“We spotted a crystal blue un-winged equine galloping over the clouds and the air to the northeast on his majestic might towards the mountain city...” said the old one in tone of a storyteller.
“Huh?” I asked. I was trying to understand what he had said.
“Don’t mind him, Sand Wise is very old and crazy,” said the first camel. I turned to him. “We respect our elder, but I am afraid he had lost his mind watching the sun for too long.”
“Let´s continue our journey, brother,” interrupted the female, “we need to find a place to sleep tonight.”
The camels saved their stuff on the saddlebags and start walking out of the alley.
“Thank you again, young pegasus, we won't forget your help,” said the old one, Sand Wise, to me before turning around and leave the alley.
I didn't said anything, just watch them leave the alley. The three camels disappeared on the other street.
I opened my wings and started flapping, leaving the ground. I hurried to fly over the Main Street. Where do my friends could be?
A Good Concert and a Cold Night
"Hurry up, Classy!" shouted Cobalt. How much I hate that nickname. "Look in the sky! I will try on the street," He ordered. I nodded. I had never liked him when giving orders, but in times of need I could make an exception on making any comment.
We stopped at the entrance of the alley we had crossed before to arrive to the hotel. We were looking for Sun Seeker. Apparently, she had been left behind in a neither point nor Cobalt nor I had noticed. We realized that she was missing when we were almost at the end of the main street, so we went down all the way to the hotel looking for her. So far we didn’t have any luck.
I looked at the clouds following Cobalt's orders. All color of pegasi flied over us in the sky: blue, red, orange, gray, black, white... Curiously, there were just a few yellow pegasi. I don't know if that made my quest easier or harder.
I supposed that she wasn't flying up there, so I helped Cobalt to look for her down on the street, but it was just worse. A huge multitude of all kinds of ponies (and others) were walking down the street and crossing the bridge to go to the Sweet Apple Acres, the place where the concert was going to be. The great majority was wearing if not dark red or gray hoodies, vests, or shirts with the logo of the concert on the back- The hoodies! Right! She was wearing a dark red one!
I turned up again at the sky with new instructions in mind, there were just few pegasi wearing them. There! Found her! Right up in a cloud, close to one building. She was apparently looking for us too from up there. Obviously she had not spotted us yet. I waved at her, hoping she would eventually see me. After a few seconds of intense waving she finally turned on my direction and spotted me and waved me back. She then jumped off the cloud and planned towards us, landing a few hooves in front of me.
She made a nervous face, like apologizing for suddenly disappearing, but not saying any word. I nodded at her and turned to Cobalt. He was looking at the other direction still looking for her, obviously he hadn’t noticed anything.
“Found her, let’s keep moving,” I said without looking at his face, just walking with the multitude.
“Wha- What? Where? Oh!” I heard him saying behind me. The obvious question came from his lips.
“Where were you?”
*** ***** ***
As I mentioned earlier, the concert was going to be on Sweet Apple Acres. We were just arriving to the main gate. There was a huge line to enter, and it was moving slowly. As it used to happen, there were peddlers seeking the opportunity to sell the stuff they had brought on their wagons to the ponies that formed the line. Some police ponies we're scaring them out of the way using their batons.
All the way long, Cobalt and Sun Seeker had been involved on a chat in which I voluntarily hadn’t any participation, but I had been hearing them anyways. And for what I heard, the motive of her sudden disappearance was because she had been “interviewed” by some camels, which didn’t let her go from the alley we had to cross before to arrive to the main street until they got the information they were looking for. Expected from a camel, they are very curious. I have been used to them back on the academy in Canterlot. It is one of their main stops, specially the library and the archive.
We finally stopped beside the huge line. It was so long that it crossed the entire highway and even entered to the parking lot on the other side. I waited for my friends to stop besides me.
"Too good that we don't have to do the line," said Cobalt. He was right.
Like two weeks ago he contacted me and Sun Seeker to invite us to the concert. He was the one who came with the idea. And I accepted, even offering myself to buy the tickets, which he agreed to do. I knew that these concerts (particularly the ones involving known celebrities) are awfully crowded, so I decided to buy the passes that set us on first line, quick line, and backstage. Basically, VIP (Very Important Ponies).
Nevertheless, I must admit I don't enjoy the genre that this particular musicians play. And for me I could have bought any other normal passes, but Cobalt and Sun Seeker (especially her) do like it, and father allowed me to do them the favor of buying the expensive passes too, so I had nothing to lose.
We moved to the fast line entrance. The line was considerably shorter. We didn't stayed there for too long, it advanced quickly. At the improvised box office of the entrance the pony in charge changed the golden tickets I gave him for three equally golden badges, which we placed around our necks. Cobalt (maybe for the emotion) couldn't stop playing with it.
We now were inside the Sweet Apple Acres, and moving towards the improvised stage that laid close to the barns. We walked through a small metal fence and it's respective gate, which had a small plaque reading "400th anniversary". That had been ages ago. I still lived on the city when the event was, but well... maybe the intention was to keep it there until they could change it to the "500th anniversary" plaque. I personally know the actual owner of the Sweet Apple Acres, Apple Harvest. That old mare could surely had left the plaque there just to feed her proud of taking the old farm this far.
"Hey, Classic! Where does the seats-" Cobalt was asking me when a loud sound of air being cut by rotating blades was heard over, shooting off any other noise. The sky was dark now, and the reflectors of the stage pointed at the object moving over us: it was a motor-chopper, a big one, white and red, and it had the logo of the news channel on it. Surely the newsmare of the city was on board: Winter "Windy" Fresh, “the mare that all the city love”. They surely were here to film the event, it was something big for the city. As the copter flew away up the stage Cobalt restarted his question.
"Where are the seats?" he asked. And it would be spots to be more exactly, there weren’t any chairs or benches at all. I supposed that we would have to watch the entire concert standing up.
"On the first line, of course," I said pompously, omitting my other thoughts.
"Really!?" Sun Seeker asked excited. She couldn't believe herself, I know. At least for her, Red Spark was an idol... or was it Laser Lights? I couldn't make it clear.
We got closer to the stage, as all the rest of the multitude. I looked around to see it better, it was amazing... it was really crowded around the stage. There were even some stands on the borders. I was looking around, not paying attention to my friends when I heard a familiar squeaking voice coming from behind me.
"Hello Cobalt! Glad to see you here!" said the voice, one I knew very well... China Cup.
I turned around to see the white porcelain mare, her big water blue eyes, and her shining cooper mane, which he combed as a ponytail with a blue ribbon. She was showing her double white cup Cutie Mark almost under the silvery gray vest of the concert she had on. She greeted my friends first before turning at me.
"Hello Classic! Good to see you again too!" she said cheerfully.
China Cup had been an student of our old group here at Ponycity's school #2, miss Pollen's one. She surely wasn't part of our trio, but she had always being around since ever. China Cup or just "China" has two brothers, which I truly prefer to meet on the street than her.
"Hello China! A pleasure," I said faking a smile and a happy tone. It is not personal, but I don't like her. Nothing. It's rather complicated to explain why. And right now she was there, in front of me... smiling with that hateful smile.
A small awkward silence formed between us, as nopony didn't want to say anything, but Cobalt interrupted it before anything else.
"Sooo... who do you came with?" he asked.
"Ahm... with TC and Arty," she said as "trying" to sound she couldn't remember easily. Why does she do that? How can harder can it be? If somepony asked me who did I come with I wouldn't take too much to answer. "With Cobalt Value and Sun Seeker" end of the story.
"And where are they?" continued Cobalt.
"I don't know... maybe on the bathrooms? Or they probably went to buy some snacks at the barn market before the concert? No, in the bathrooms... yeah," she answered, never leaving the wide smile on her face.
"Very good," said Cobalt.
Suddenly the reflectors around the stage turned off, leaving us, the audience, almost in total darkness.
"Ups! Sorry, I got to go!" China said and disappeared into the multitude.
"Oh! It’s going to begin!" Sun Seeker said impatiently, flapping her wings and leaving the ground for some seconds.
Even with the lights off, the sound of a chattering multitude could be heard around. We probably would need to raise our voices to hear us.
The lights of the stage suddenly lighted on, pointing at the center of it. There was just a moment of silence before the subsequent hysterical shouts of the audience, mostly mares. I knew that Sun Seeker joined them.
Smoke machines filled the scenario, and a silhouette appeared on the middle as background music, lights, and sound effects filled the stage.
"POOONYCITY!" a voice was heard. "ARE YOU READY FOR REAL GOOD MUSIC???" it shouted. A silhuette appeared on the center of the stage.
The Smokes failed to cover one of the legs of the pony speaking in the middle of the stage, which was standing on two legs and holding the microphone with one of his front limbs. It was red, dark red. We were at the first line, and Sun Seeker, who was obviously paying attention, contained a shout of emotion.
The multitude answered cheering at the silhouette.
"THEN GET READY! WE ARE GOING TO START!" said the voice.
The smoke dissipated, but the audience only saw a glimpse of the red coat of the DJ until he reached his machine. When the smoke was totally gone we saw him completely. Right in front of us, a few steps and over the scenario was DJ Red Spark.
The music started immediately, the rhyme of the first song caused the crowd to stomp hard on the floor at the rhythm of the song. I joined them after a while because I noticed I was the only pony there wasn't stomping too.
The song ended abruptly, like being cut intentionally. A new beat started, everypony around me looked confused. Even I could notice that it wasn't Red Spark's style. The reflectors of the stage turned off to then turn on again on a crimson and silver shade.
A voice sounded on the speakers around the improvised stage. "WELL, WELL, WELL... DO YOU CALL THAT AWFUL BEAT "REAL MUSIC?" JAJAJA" the voice's laugh sounded a little goofy.
A reflector pointed at the multitude, moving all around as some loud cheers were heard.
"LET'S TEACH THIS "DJ" A SMALL LESSON OF MUSIC!" The voice shouted.
I had been too busy looking around and at my friends that I never saw when the other pony entered to the stage. I looked at him. The steam was dissipating around him, a unicorn, just like the other. This one was showing a silver coat, and a metallic red mane. His horn was tainted in black on the point, and he had electric blue eyes and a red rays notes Cutie Mark. He was elegantly porting a black tie, contrasting the other one, who only was wearing his white earphones around his neck. If I knew who was this pony on the stage it only was because of all the things that Sun Seeker and Cobalt tell me about the two DJs. This one was Laser Lights.
*** ***** ***
I won't make it longer. The concert was good, yeah. After the intro the music battle began, obviously with an undecided winner, because there were as much ponies here for Red Spark (the ones wearing red clothes) that ponies for Laser Lights (grey or silver clothes). The concert ended with a song played by both DJs at the same time, everypony danced, sang along, and cheered at them as they fade away on the smoke that was realized during the song.
We left our spots after that to the meeting with Red Spark on backstage, as our golden passes allowed us. After passing the forced (and useless) revision of the security guards we joined a small group of ponies (and a gryphon) to meet him.
We did, and it was quite nice. It had been kind of an interview. Sun Seeker and other mare on the group, an orange earth pony, almost fainted there. But at the end, it all went well.
We were now leaving the backstage. I noticed that the motor-copter we saw before the concert was parked close to the barn on a small improvised platform. If that was there... that would mean that the news team would be close. We three turned the corner of the stage. They were there, interviewing some members of the previously formed group. A trio formed by the orange mare, the gryphon, and a black pegasi were being interviewed in front of us by Windy Fresh.
"...And how do you think is in real life, you know, like out of the stage?" I heard Windy's voice asking. I knew very well that voice, it was the one I heard almost every morning on the daily news.
We surrounded them to pass and entered into the small market close to the entrance, it was crowded. I saw some familiar faces there, especially ex-students from our old school group. We didn't bother to greet all of them, but I only didn't want to meet...
"Hello again!" said China from behind us. Well buck...
I turned. Thankfully, she was still far away enough. She wasn't alone this time, her brothers: Tea Cup (T.C.) and Art Canvass (Arty) came with her, TC mounting her back, as she was still pretty small to do so.
"Classic, it's it okay if I wait you outside? I want to meet somepony I think I saw," I said, not more or less than a lie.
"If you want..." he said.
"Great, meet me at the main gate," I instructed him and left before China arrived to us.
"Cobalt! How was the concert?" I heard her cheerful and annoying voice, but I was far enough to mix myself into the crowd.
The small mounted stands were selling mostly food, some small souvenirs of the concert, and some CDs. I couldn't spot anypony so far, and China may have been still with them. Maybe I just had to take a breath. Yes, I would do it. I walked to the entrance and left the place behind. Curiously I didn't saw anypony outside, not even the police. I walked, almost touchung the highway, no cars seemed to pass by. It was completely alone, and unusually cold…
What was that? I swear I saw something, somepony right there, just passed by me. It felt like a sudden cold breeze, maybe a pegasi flying really fast.
However, I looked at my pocket watch, which I had placed inside my hoodie. Almost 1 am. I just wanted to go to have a rest I was tired of this. Where do Cobalt could be? Surely still speaking with China Cup… if I knew something about that annoying mare is that she could spent hours and hours talking. I have never liked her anyway… Never…
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Oh my! I can't believe it! I seriously can't believe it! I was at the first line of the concert of my favorite DJ and I meet him! Best night ever.
I was walking besides Cobalt and behind Classic, returning to the hotel. At these hours of the night the streets were almost empty, except for other ponies that had gone to the concert and now returning to their houses or hotels.
By now, the encounter with the camels seemed long ago and now forgiven. The horrible scare I got back there was replaced completely by all the emotion of the backstage. He even called me by my name! I almost fainted of the emotion on that one, yeah...
We were walking in silence back to the hotel. We didn't had nothing more to talk about. The street lights of the city made me smile, just like the good old times.
I was tired, and besides all the happiness and emotions of tonight, the only thing I really wanted was to sleep. A good night’s rest, yeah...
Some minutes passed and we finally arrived to the hotel, the lights of the lobby where still on, but there wasn't anypony on the reception. We walked the stairs and into our floor. Classic opened the door to our room carefully and silently. We entered and he closed it behind with the same care. I was the first one to speak.
"I have to use the bathroom," I said and quickly grabbed my saddlebag, but I entered it not waiting for an answer. I hope they didn't want to answer...
I yawned, and look myself in the mirror... where was? Ah, true... I took of the hoodie. I looked at it smiling one more time before placing it on the bag. I washed my hooves and my face quickly. Looking myself at the mirror again I noticed that I seemed dirty and disheveled a bit from my mane, my coat, and my feathers. I carefully removed the loose feathers from my wings and slightly fixed my coat and mane with the brush I took from the saddle bag. I took all what felt from me and placed it on the trashcan.
I opened the bathroom's door, only to find myself face to face with Classic. He looked upset, somehow angry. What does his eyes had? He was staring me like... I don't know... wrong, bad, with hate.
"Well I don't understand how can you mares take so much time inside there," he said with a hard tone on his voice and entered the bathroom, closing the door harshly in front of me.
"But I..." I wanted to say, but it was too late. Why did he have done that? I didn't did anything wrong, did I?
"Don't mind him," Cobalt said from the bed, "he is just tired, and he wanted to use the bathroom since we left the concert."
"He would have said something..." I said. He shrugged. I didn't like that from Classic... just to think that I would have to spend the night with him...
"Well Sunny, I think I have to go now..." Cobalt said and stood up from the bed. I remembered what he said when we got the room. It wasn't for three, but... I didn't want to pass the night with Classic alone.
"No, wait!" I said quickly, he turned at me. He was almost at the door with his saddlebags.
"Don't worry, Sunny. I'll be back early in the morning," he said.
"B-but you don't have to go! I have an idea," I said quickly, thinking of something that I could try to make him stay the night.
"What are you thinking?" He asked.
"I can go for a cloud to sleep right now, I will return in just a second," I said, it was the first idea that came to my mind.
"Are you sure Sunny? Don't you prefer the bed?" Cobalt asked.
"Yeah, it won't be a problem,"
"Well... If you want," he said. I smiled relieved. He would stay.
"Okay, I'll return in a few seconds, open the door of the balcony when I return, please," I said and entered it. I unfurled my wings and flapped, elevating into the air.
The air was still slightly cold, but it didn't matter, I was already used to it. The lights of the city helped me to see around in the dark night sky, especially the ones coming from the cloud district of the city. It wasn't difficult to spot a cloud big enough for me. It was high on the sky and close to another one bigger. I flied to it, taking some minutes to arrive. I flew some circles around before stepping on it. Yes, it was perfect to sleep the few hours that rest to dawn. It wasn't compared to any bed, specially the hotel ones, those where the softest, but at least I would sleep comfortable tonight.
I lay on it and used my limps to grab the whole cloud. I lay there some seconds, feeling it under my coat. Maybe it was because I was already tired, but it really was soft and... comfortable... maybe I... ZZZzzzz
ZZZzzzz...
A sudden cold wind waked me up and made me shiver to the bones. What? Where? I felt like somepony just happened to fly close to me. I looked around to see. The darkness of the night didn't allow me to see clearly, we were considerably above from the city, but I think I saw somepony moving. It was a very very light blue pony, almost crystal. It flied all the way towards the south like galloping in the air. Galloping? I thought that antique way of flying its... well, very old! Very very VERY old. And I couldn't see his wings, maybe due to the night sky. That was strange. I watched him until he disappeared into the night.
However, I was taking too much time and I didn't want to worry Cobalt. I grabbed the cloud with my body and flied again to the hotel room. The balcony door was open. I flied slowly and carefully through it, making me sure that the cloud would not touch anything rough or else it will just *poof!* disappear. Also, not Cobalt or Classic could touch it too.
When it was completely inside the room Cobalt closed the balcony door. I then let the cloud go floating inside the room. I placed it between the right bed and the television furniture. That's it, I was ready to sleep. Before I did, though, I noticed that Classic still missed.
The door of the bathroom suddenly opened and Classic walked outside from it. Did he took all this time? Just to think that he claimed me that I took too much time made me slightly more upset at him. That stupid unic-... No, sorry.
He had stopped a few seconds when he saw the new cloud close to the beds. However, he didn't make any major sign of surprise and walked to his bed. I noticed he wasn't wearing his hoodie or the sunglasses anymore, surely something strange to see him without any cloth at all. I turned to the cloud just in time to see Cobalt about to touch it.
"No!" I shouted before he did what he intended to. He stopped and looked at me amused. I covered my mouth with my hooves. It wasn't supposed to shout inside an hotel! "Sorry, no. Remember that if you touch it will disappear..." I said on a soft, really soft tone of voice, trying to compensate my first shout.
"Yeah, sorry," he said equally softly and with a small blush. I looked at Classic, who was had almost fell asleep already on a strange uncomfortable position. "We better sleep then, I want to go to the city square with you in the morning before we take the train," Cobalt said and entered into his bed. "Good night Sunny, it was a good night."
"It was..." I answered greeting him with a smile, surely it had been great. Cobalt turned off the lights of the room from the switch beside his bed on the night table, leaving everything dark around me.
It laid again on the cloud, placing my face on its soft surface. I closed my eyes thinking of all what happened today, starting from the beginning: the train... the concert... the meeting... the blue pony... Classic... the three camels... ZZZzzz
ZZZzzz
I know I am awake... but I don't want to open my eyes... I am so comfortable... The bed... so sweet. Good thing that Sunny found a way for me to stay... Hotel's beds are just... the best...
My eyes open without my permission, the light that entered the room enlightened me... Damn... I knew I should've closed the curtains.
After some seconds my eyes finally got used to the morning light. The first thing I saw clearly was the TV. As it was black, it stood from the white walls of the room. I saw Sunny sleeping over the small cloud she had brought last night. She was apparently very comfortable laying there... Those clouds surely seemed soft and comfortable. Too bad I can't touch them. She was placed on the end of Classic's bed. The peace and quiet scene made me happy. I smiled.
"*Ahem*... Excuse me, Cobalt..." I heard Classic saying. "I need the-"
"*Shhhh!* I hurried to say. He was speaking too loud, and Sunny was still sleeping. He also destroyed the peace that I loved to see with his loud voice.
I pointed my hoof to Sunny to make Classic know that she was still sleep. She moved slightly and groaned. Classic limited to only roll his eyes with an annoyed face and restarted his question.
"Where does my bag isssssss?" He said exaggerating the whisper... Ugh. So early and already like that?
"Itssss theeeere..." I said copying his exaggeration. I pointed to his bag, which was in front the bathroom door.
"Thank you," he said and silently stood up on the space between my bed and his.
My bed was the one closer to the door and therefore to the bathroom. Last night, while he was on the bathroom I placed his bag besides its door in case he needed something. He would have to walk between the beds and close to Sunny's cloud to get to it.
He walked weakly through the beds, seeming tired. Maybe he didn't have rested well last night. Now that I remember, he had been on a rather uncomfortable position while sleeping...
He took too much time to get to the end of the beds. Almost at it he lost the little balance he had when he walked over my bag. He reeled just a few moments before placing his front hooves on the first thing he had close to stop his fall. That place wasn't other place than Sunny's cloud…
*poof*
The cloud dissipated on the room. Sunny felt to the floor with a loud thud. I flinched at the scene... that must had hurt.
Classic managed to place his hooves on the floor after touching the cloud, recovering the balance. He now seemed confused.
"Ooouch..." I heard Sunny's voice, my ears felt flat over my head. I sat on the bed, ready to stand up.
"Uh... ups?" Classic said like if the accident had been just a joke, maybe to apologize... Yeah, Classic's apologies aren't the best.
I was expecting any comment coming from Sunny. Maybe a reclaim or a-
"YOU!" Sunny SHOUTED angrily. That's was unexpected. Getting angry isn't her style, she would have normally just get upset or sad or-
What the hay?
Sunny THREW herself at Classic! She flied low and attacked him! Classic lost the balance again and fell to the floor. Sunny threw herself completely over him ATTACKING his face. Classic could barely stop her. How was this even possible? I got out of the bed trying to get there before something bad happened. Classic managed to hold Sunny's hooves with his own. Sunny started a groan which ended like a shout.
"I NEVER LIKED YOU ANYWAY!" She shouted with all her strength.
Sunny's eyes opened widely, like realizing what she had done. She gasped loudly and covered her mouth with her front hooves. She suddenly stopped the aggression to Classic and fell back slightly.
Classic quickly managed to free himself from Sunny, using the chance to kick her with his hind legs. The hit sent her sliding backwards towards the crystal door of the balcony. She bumped with it but didn't flinched or anything. She still had the same astonished face. We had some seconds in complete silence.
Sunny's face took a tone of worried. Her eyes filled with tears. She had her mouth open, but no words came out.
"I... didn't... I didn't... meant, Classic... so- sorry!" she finally said and broke up to cry, hiding her face behind her front legs.
What the hay had just happened? For one second she tried to HIT Classic with all her strength, for then crying for doing that?
Classic didn't seem to take the apology seriously. He was seated on the floor fixing his disheveled coat and mane with his hooves, looking at Sunny with indifference. Obviously he took the insult very personal.
I just was there... standing between the beds, doing nothing. I decided to help Sunny. She had curled up in the floor, still sobbing. I sat besides her and wrapped one of my hind legs around her back, she felt strange... Like if she had been awfully cold for some seconds and now warming up... I don't know how to explain it.
Classic just stood up and entered the bathroom holding his bag, closing the door harshly after him. He was the angry pony now. Sunny lifted her head and looked at me.
"Cob... I didn't meant to... I really didn't meant to do it..." she lamented.
“Don’t worry”, I said to calm her down, but the truth was that I didn't understood what happened.
The room's phone rang, it was placed over the table between the two beds. I stood up to answer. Sunny stood up and walked into balcony, cleaning her tears. It worried me that she could just go away flying. I answered the phone looking at her on the other side from the crystal door, making sure she would still be there.
"Hello? Excuse me sir, but what is all that noise you have over there?" The voice on the other side of the phone asked annoyed. It was the same voice of the pony who gave us the room.
"I'm sorry, we had an accident,"... "Yes... a bit loud, I understand,"... "No, thanks"... I hung the phone.
I walked to the balcony too, Sunny was still there... looking at the street. The sound of another door being opened made me turn back. Classic got out of the bathroom. He was wearing again his bow tie neck and his sunglasses, holding his pocket watch on one hoof. He had his saddle bags on his back.
"Very well, Cobalt, its 10 and a half am. The train to Canterlot will depart on one hour. I suggest getting going now to arrive there in time, shall we? I will wait you two on the lobby," he said coldly. He turned around and left the room without giving me the chance to answer him. Classic surely was difficult pony.
At the sound of the door of the room being closed, the sliding door of the balcony opened and closed. Sunny walked besides me and sat in front of her saddle bags. She started peeking inside. I did the same from my part. I guess that nopony was going to talk... I was still confused and afraid that I could say something that will make the things worst. I turned the TV on to make some sound as we packed the few stuff we had.
"...finally celebrating tonight!" said Windy Fresh with her sweet voicejust as the TV completely turned on.
Winter "Windy" Fresh is the newsmare of the city, and she is also known as the "pony that the city loves".
"Why is this happening? Are the new reforms of Cloudesdale's governor, Sunburst, going to affect us all? Why is he doing this? Stay tuned on TV or radio #5 to discover the answers after this commercial cut!" I paid attention to all what she said. Why do I always fall for her voice? They were talking about a new that had been around for some time now: there are being reforms at-
"Cob..." Sunny said softly. I turned to her, my other thoughts fading into oblivion. She had her saddlebags on and mines at her hooves. Had she finished packing the stuff for me?
I turned off the TV, as it started an old known song, the same they have been using to announce the parasprite repellents for years. I walked my saddle bags, placed them on my back and smiled to her. She didn't smiled back and just walked out of the room, leaving the door open for me to leave. I followed her in silence... Trying to figure out when did everything screwed up.
We walked down the stairs. I had in mind the words that Sunny shouted to Classic: 'I never liked you anyway'. What does that meant? I always knew that those two had their differences... but I never thought the situation had been so... bad. We three had been best friends for six years! Why does this happen now? I don't know... It was like if we weren't friends anymore.
We entered the lobby. The pony of the reception, the one who had phone called us, looked at me with an indifference stare. At least we were leaving now. I think that I will never come here again.
I thought that I would found Classic sitting in the lobby's living room watching TV or reading the news, but he wasn't there. In fact, there wasn't anypony on the lobby... I looked at the door. A concentration of all the clients of the hotel was staring at the outside with surprised faces. Something was happening outside.
I walked to them and made my way to the outside. It was strange that anypony had done the same. When I finally reached the street I could see what the hotel guests were staring to, and they weren't the only ones. From where I was standing I could saw that the ponies at their houses or stores were also looking at the outside through the crystal doors and windows of their buildings. Classic was in front of me, he had put on the hoodie of the concert. Classic was not the type of pony you would see around with any other cloth than his bow ties or sunglasses, but he now had a good reason to be wearing something else. Out there on the street, besides the cold wind of the outside, everything was white.
“What is this snow doing in summer?” I heard somepony exclaiming.
*** ***** ***
"All right, all right, calm down!" said a police pony through a speaker. He gave it to another pony before he joined others police troops to hold back the multitude.
"What is this? I demand an explanation!" shouted an angry mare.
"I don't know... If you could please calm-" said the new pony with the speaker.
"This snow is going to ruin us all!" said a stallion before being forced to step back by the police ponies.
"Please, stay calm, we don't know where does the snow fell, it was probably only on the city," tried the speaker pony.
"The pegasi did this? Was it part of Sunbursts reforms?" asked another mare.
"Look, I don't know... If you could please let me-"
"What does Cloudsdale has to say about? Why did they did this to us!?" said a journalist.
"I'm already trying to contact them, but the storm took down the signal-" explained the poor speaker pony.
"What are we going to do?" said a desperate mare. The question aroused the mass of ponies that were congregated outside the governor's house.
"Looks that they got him... poor governor Spring." said an old brown pony wearing an equally brown sweater. He was standing right next to us looking at the scene.
"If we were back on the old days they would already have exiled him!" said a grayish white pony. He was old as the first, but this one was grayish white and was wearing a jacket and a scarf.
Both old ponies laughed and continued their way. Us? Well... We were still looking the scene.
The car that was supposed to pick us from the Main Street never arrived. We didn't had any other choice than to walk to the STL, which was already far away from the center of the city. We happened to pass in front of the governor's house, almost at the end of the city's downtown. Some citizens had built up a loud turmoil in there.
"Let's keep moving, the train will depart soon," Classic said.
"But, Classic, we hadn't breakfast yet... Last night we hadn't dinner too," I said and didn't lied, at least I was truly starving. Sunny supported my statement by nodding sheepishly when Classic turned to us.
"No. We must get there first. What if the snow causes the rest of the trains to stop? I want to make sure we will arrive to Canterlot City before midday, fine?" Classic answered us. He seemed to be slightly angry. To think that he used to be my best friend was strange. It seemed like if I didn't knew him now. He had changed too much.
"As you want, Classic," I said. Maybe he wasn't being polite to us but at least he was right. The snow took us by surprise. Though some colts and fillies were happily playing outside on the snow, the rest of us was really worried... What does this could arise to happen? If very well the political situation in Equestria it's already untestable with the pegasi cities...
Classic continued the walk, which I followed closely. It took us about another half an hour to finally get to the station. We entered and walked into the great waiting room. There weren’t many ponies there. Probably the ones that would usually be there were on their houses waiting to be called to snow cleaning duty. Rare are the cases when a governor has to call the ponies to group on a cleaning duty, except for the wrap-up, of course. By our age, we three still don’t have to take part of it. But that privilege it's going to end soon.
At age of 18 everypony must attend its responsibilities on the society. And I don't mean to work. I mean to take part of the auto-sustainable cycle of Equestria. Easy to explain: Earth Ponies: harvest food. Pegasi: keep the sun visible so Earth Ponies can harvest food and provide rains. Unicorns: organize, defend, and do... that magic stuff. Note: it used to be their responsibility to move the sun and the moon, but we already have something else taking care of it. All this rules and changes were established after the Exile of the Alicorns. Everypony has to work now! I sometimes wonder how the life before this…
Now, once a week, every pony has to do a 14 hour workday. There are many different activities to do, but you would always do the same activity for the rest of your working life. It depends on what you are chosen to do during a kind-of-test the Supreme Council makes on your 18th birthday... The worst birthday party. Ever. And we three are just a few months away from it, so we need to go to Canterlot to present ourselves as the future generation of not-paid workers. *ahem* slaves *ahem*. This action is called “Duty to the Nation”, and it was the first law to be approved by the council after the exile of the alicorns.
I kind of forgot to say before that that was the reason we are going to Canterlot today...
"The train to Canterlot City it's departing on 5 minutes. The train for Vanhoover will delay 10 minutes," said the almost robotic voice of a mare announcing the train schedule.
"Come on, let's go!" Said Classic and broke into full gallop across the station, we two followed at his same speed.
We arrived to the train just in time to hear a train pony shouting. "All on board!"
We entered and start looking for seats, which wasn't very difficult to find as there wasn't many ponies around. The doors closed right after we took seat. One of the main advantages of the STL is that it's free, so we don't have to buy tickets. If we had to buy them we would have never made it on time.
The train started moving. The STL connects the entire nation by underground tunnels, due to that the old train system was replaced by highways. Canterlot is the only city that actually needs to be reached by train, the cars can't move very well on a giant slide of highway to reach the top of the mountain.
We had chosen to sit around a table that had 4 seats, which formed two rows of two seats facing each other. Only Sunny and I were using it, though, one on each row. Classic preferred to take a seat two rows away from us on my direction. Was he still so angry with her? I thought earlier that everything was cooling down, but this didn't helped.
The interior of the train to Canterlot city was very elegant. Crimson red velvet covered the inside and the lamps hanged from the ceiling instead from the walls. Close to us, a pair of two old earth pony mares had taken seat. They were avidly taking to each other while knitting with their old hooves.
The trip on train was going to take between 30 to 40 minutes. I made myself comfortable and placed my saddle bags on the seat that Classic didn't took, Sunny did the same. It was dark inside, but red lamps and dim lights gave the train an elegant atmosphere, just as its city it belonged.
The train moved and entered to the subway tunnel, which made everything darker. The first 5 minutes happened almost in total silence between Sunny and me. She seemed really sad and guilty. She had almost all her front legs over the table between us, her hooves were crossed and her head laid on top of them, she looking outside the window. It was a very sad view. I decided to break the ice (again).
"What's wrong? If he wants to be mad at you then let him! It will go away... just like the time we sneaked a toad on his pillow, you remember?" I said trying to cheer her up.
She smiled and muttered a short laugh, but didn't change her position. Very well... If she doesn't want to talk then it will be a long 30-40 minutes trip for me. I just hope that somepony offer us food soon.
"Cob..." She started, using my less famous nickname. I paid attention. "...what happened at the hotel... I don't know..." She was confusing me more of what I was already. "...I didn't want to... You believe me? I truly, truly didn't want to say that, and don't know why I acted like that..." She said looked at me sadly without leaving her position.
"Of course I believe you," I said. I don't know, maybe she was right. Maybe it was just a reflex or a really bad moment what happened. Everypony has its reasons.
"Thank you... but I know he doesn't... I- I just can't live with that. I would want to say sorry, but he scares me... What if-"
"Does he scare you? Come on, Sunny. Maybe is just sad because you acted rude with him. You already know him," I interrupted, and the truth is... I was right, heh. Classic usually keeps the problems to himself. He is not the kind of pony who will go into the hooves (fists) fighting. "Maybe you should just talk to him,"
Sunny denied quickly with her head, pasting her back to the seat.
"I can't..."
"And why not?"
"He could hurt me..."
"No more than you already did!" Ups! I... shouldn't had said that. Sunny now looked at me flinching. She recovered her last position.
"Sunny..." I started, placing one of my hooves in her head to make her look at me. "...it's better try to talk to him. If anything goes wrong I will get your back, deal?" I offered. It was good that we had this conversation. I just wanted to solve this mess as soon as possible.
Sunny seemed to doubt my words for a second, but then looked at me straight into my eyes, like looking for some kind of trust.
"I... O- Okay," she said slowly. She stood up from the seat. "But, stay close please,"
"Yeah,"
Sunny walked the two rows on my direction to meet with Classic. I pocked my head to the corridor after she passed by, making sure nothing would go wrong this time.
"Classic? May I seat with you for a moment?" I heard her saying.
"Sure..." Classic answered with a neutral voice and moved to the other seat so she could take place.
"Classic... I'm sorry-"
"It's okay. Just tell me what happened exactly," Classic interrupted.
I smiled and returned my head back to the seat. He had accepted to talk.
***
The next 20 minutes of the trip happened slow… or at least they were slow for me. Classic and Sunny had spent the entire time on a long apology that turned into an explanation, a promise, and thankfully, reconciliation. They were now talking about other stuff. I had read the newspaper that the newspony gave me yesterday when I accidentally bumped with him. The news wasn't new after all.
I have been hearing that exact same thing all the week, everypony talks about it, the news repeat it all the day… it is kind of boring. As I said before, the politics right now are a bit difficult. I’m not really into them, but at least I can understand what is happening.
If I’m not wrong, the three major pegasi cities: Cloudesdale, Solstice, and Las Pegasus are bowing for independence or something like that. The problem is that they want to form a huge “Cloud State” but the actual Supreme Council won’t allow it. And one of the three governors, Dawn Song of Solstice, forms part of that council. This has the governor of Cloudesdale, Sunburst Solar Flare, completely mad about it. He is the one who is trying to get the independence, and I mean “he” because the other governor, the old Typhoon of Las Pegasus, it’s his puppet… everypony knows it. Sunburst only needs the approval of Dawn Song, but he already stated a “No”, so Sunburst it’s openly attacking him, taking advantage that the governor it’s too young for the charge of both, counselor and governor, which is technically right. The Supreme Council it’s already taking the situation on their hooves, but we already know the answer.
Since the Exile of the Alicorns, every city manages itself independently. The only thing that keeps Equestria as a single nation are the Councils of Canterlot, the Canterlot Declaration, and the Act of Duty to the Nation. The council will not allow the declaration of independence by their own, that would mean the loss of one part of the national territory, and they are worried that if Sunburst manages to triumph he will cut all relations with Equestria. That would be a very hard hit to the society… pegasi it's at least one third of the total population of Equestria, and more than the half of them lives on those three cities, including Sunny. Of thy cut relations who would control the weather? The situation has everypony very worried these days, as Sunburst hadn’t made public any declaration yet.
I don’t know what to think about the whole situation, a council meeting will happen tonight at the Canterlot’s Palace, the headquarters of the Council. I hope we end our business soon so we can see it on TV. My father once told me to start watching the news to keep myself informed, and I followed his advice. I know that Classic does the same, and Sunny… she once said jokingly that if Solstice separates from Equestria she would keep visiting us to help clear the sky every day on our Duty to the nation.
I folded the newspaper and threw it to the trashcan. We were almost about to get to Canterlot, just a few more minutes and we will start ascending the mountain, which is the only part of the trip in which we can see the exterior of the tunnel.
I looked through the window. The light was coming on our direction. The tunnel started illuminating with sunlight. We were almost outside. I was preparing myself to see the beautiful view of the valley when we felt a loud crash.
*Pfrrrrr Crash!*
It sounded as the train tried to stop, the rails squealed, metal against metal. We felt as something had pushed us. The train didn’t stop though, it just moved slowly now. Classic and Sunny came immediately to my side.
“Everything okay?” asked Sunny, worried tone.
“Yeah, sure,” I answered. The hit had barely moved me from my position.
The wagon we were in finally made it out of the tunnel. Almost immediately I heard one of the old mares that were close to us screaming.
“NO! THE HARVEST!” she screamed loudly. What she had said also was really worrying. I looked at the outside as soon as I could see.
Everything was white… the far mountains, the forests, the valley, Ponycity!
…and the fields.
