Chapters Medley Hearth's Warming Everypony
Bluenote yawned as she trotted up to Ponyville station. It was mid-morning, normally a little earlier than she’d prefer to be up on a day when she had no work to do, still she’d be traveling all of today and tomorrow so she could probably get a nap or two in. She mentally ran over the content of her saddle bags to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything, a few reading books, her diary, basic toiletries, a few snacks, her tickets and a large-ish bag of bits. All of Medley’s friends had put in what they could afford, to pay for tickets for her family, Octavia had been particularly generous. Bluenote was somewhat curious as to what her stipend from the princess actually was, but it seemed rude to pry, she supposed the student didn’t actually have much in the way of outgoings apart from her rent to Bonbon. She lived a rather spartan existence.
Lost in her thoughts she almost walked into Lyra as she walked out onto the single platform of the station.
“Morning Bluenote!” cried the minty mare. “Ready to head out on our quest for Medley’s family?”
Bluenote smiled, Lyra managed to make even the simplest of tasks sound like death defying feats, she was sure going to the shops for milk would become an epic quest to her. It was one of the reasons she liked her friend. “Morning. Yep I think I’ve got everything I need. Maybe a map of Manechester would help, but we can probably pick one up on the other side.” She glanced around the station and the half dozen or so ponies waiting. “Have you seen Vinyl? She should be here by now.”
“No, should we check her house in case something’s happened to her?”
Bluenote considered, Vinyl’s place wasn’t far, but the train into Canterlot was due to arrive in less than ten minutes according to the station clock. If Vinyl had overslept it would be tight squeeze to get there and back. Once they arrived at the capitol they only had an hour or so before their train to Manehatten left. Then they would be travelling for two nights before they arrived at their destination. Before she could reply to Lyra she caught the flash of a white coat out of the corner of her eye and turned to see Vinyl approaching. If Bluenote felt tired the DJ looked exhausted; if they hadn’t been covered by her trade mark coloured glasses she was sure the white mare’s eyes would be weighed down by deep bags. Vinyl held a can in her aura and took a swig as she approached, her saddlebags bulging.
“Vinyl! I didn’t think you’d make it,” called Bluenote.
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world. Inspiration stuck last night and I had some things I just had to work on, lost track of time,” she explained.
“Well you’re here now. Got all you need?”
“Yeah, and a few things to work on during the journey.”
“Look! Look!” cried Lyra jumping up and down and pointing as the train appeared in the distance.
Bluenote couldn’t help but smile at the mare’s reaction, she was just like a little foal sometimes.
“Looks like a duel gage light engine, probably a class five fifty, maybe six hundred,” said Vinyl holding a hoof to her eyes.
Bluenote frowned. “I didn’t know you were into trains Vinyl.”
The white mare pinked up a little. “Well, Alder’s the real train nerd in our family but he used to drag me along sometime.” Her eyes grew a little distant. “He let me ride on his back if it was cold or wet, and we’d spend hours watching the engines rolling backwards and forwards, I used to make up names for them. Once it got dark we’d head off to granddad’s and have cocoa, I always fell asleep and he’d carry me home. Um, anyway,” she broke out of her revelry blushing a bit. “They’ve given me a few ideas for some gear over the years, trains are cool, although they could do with using more powered by magic, steam only takes you so far.”
“Hi girls!” came a cheerful cry from beside her, “What are you doing here?”
Bluenote turned to see the local postmare, Ditzy Doo, standing next to her. The mare was juggling half a dozen snowballs with her wings, sending them flying high into the air and then catching them as they fell without even watching. “Morning Ditzy, we’re off to Manechester.”
“That’s a long way, you spending Hearth Warming there?”
“No!” exclaimed Lyra rushing over as the train started to draw into the station. “We’re on a quest to reunite Medley with her family!”
“She can’t make the trip this year,” explained Bluenote, “So if she can’t go to them we’re going to bring them to her. What are you doing here anyway?”
“Oh, I’m waiting for the mail train, it got held up this morning, overloaded with presents no doubt. It’s nice of you to help out Medley, it just wouldn’t be Hearth's Warming if my parents didn’t make it, Dinky would be heartbroken.“ She bit her tongue for a moment. “Actually that explains something, Medley was at the post office yesterday, she had a load of parcels with her.”
“Oh, do you know where she was sending them to?” asked Bluenote, this could be good way to find out where her parents lived.
“Um, Manechester I think,” the postmare closed her crossed eyes, a look of extreme concentration passing over her face. “Feed-Bagley, some lane?”
“Hey Bluie, we better get going,” called Vinyl, the train had come to a stop and ponies were starting to stream on and off of it.
“Hold on a minute, Ditzy might know where Medley’s folks live,” Bluenote called back. “Was it Jangle lane?” she asked turning back to the grey mare.
“That’s it! One hundred and twenty three Jangle Lane, Feed-Bagley, Manechester!” exclaimed Ditzy.
Bluenote paused for a moment, “Girls!” She called to her companions, “Ditzy’s got Medley’s family’s address we could just write to them.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” yelled Lyra from the train. “This is a quest, we should meet her family in person or die trying.”
“Plus if the mail’s running late it might not make it to her family in time,” said Vinyl.
Bluenote shrugged, she guessed they were off on an adventure then. “Thanks Ditzy!” she called as turned towards the train. “Have a happy Hearth's Warming! Say hi to Dinky for me!” She hopped up onto the train itself just behind Vinyl, the guard slammed the door behind her and moments later they were off.
“Hey look at that forest!” cried Lyra staring out the window. “Who knows what monsters and treasures could lurk in there! Did you know that Sir Grain found the Green Knight’s castle in that very forest, well one quite near here anyway.”
Bluenote looked up from her book, a Rushian comedy (you would tell it was a comedy because she had almost finished it and only half of the cast were dead), and tried not to roll her eyes. It wasn’t until you were cooped up in a confined space with Lyra for an extended period of time that you realised just how annoying the mare could be, she loved her dearly, but she just never stopped! Even when she wasn’t talking she tended to fidget and pace like she wanted to be in several places at once. Bluenote liked to relax when she was on a train, it gave her time to think over her student’s lesson plans, and when she’d done that she could lie back, do a little reading or take a nap. No such luck while Lyra was about. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it’d been possible to get away from her, but apart from their cramped cabin, with its bunk beds only just long enough to fit an average sized pony in, there was only the corridor outside, an observation carriage which was packed most of the time and the dining carriage, which was currently closed. The first class sections of the train were off limits, her vouchers only applied to second class tickets unfortunately.
Lyra quietened for a moment still staring out the window and Bluenote relaxed returning to her book. Then there was a whinnying snore from the bunk beneath her, somehow Vinyl managed to sleep most of the day despite Lyra’s chattering. The unfortunate downside of this was she then tended to be active most of the night. She was somewhat less distracting than the bard but she had been working on a device to record and playback music, like a record player only much smaller. It played the music back via some devices Vinyl put in her ears but they didn’t entirely block the sound making it seem like insects were whispering away in the corner, an image which didn’t help Bluenote sleep.
Unfortunately she’s have to put up with the situation for at least another night. They’d made their connection to Canterlot without a problem and had been traveling for a night and most of a day now. Putting down her book Bluenote looked out the window, the sun was starting to dip behind the, admittedly spectacular, forest as Princess Cadence put it away for the night, unless of course Princess Celestia had built up the strength to return to her old duties.
“Wow, look at that sunset,” said Lyra staring up into the sky. “It’s beautiful! Almost as beautiful as my lady love, the sky is almost the colour her mane. I’ve got the write that down!” Horn glowing she lifted a book and her lyre to her and began to scribble while strumming a few cords.
With a groan Bluenote put aside her book and rolled off the bed landing on the ground with a thud. “I’m going to see if the dining car’s open yet,” she explained, hoping Lyra wouldn’t ask to come with her, but the minty mare seemed engrossed in her writing and just nodded. Bluenote left the cabin and stood outside for a moment basking in the silence, only the regular clatter of the train itself could be heard. Just one more night, she thought to herself, only one more night and a few hours of daylight and they would be in Manechester, then the job of finding Medley’s family could begin.
She trotted down the train enjoying the feeling of stretching her legs, she wondered if the train would stop anywhere soon so she could actually run about for a bit. The conductor had told her the schedule at the beginning of the journey but she’d forgotten most of it. She opened the door into the observation carriage and the quiet mumble of conversation rolled over her. One of the trains staff was off to one side pointing out sites of interest as they passed, she sounded scarily similar to Lyra, although she tended to wave her hooves around less. In one corner a pair of old stallions were playing chess. She wandered past them all towards the dining car. She stuck her head in to find the staff setting up for the next meal, giving them a friendly smile she sat down at a table.
“I’m afraid food will not be served for another half an hour,” explained one of the staff.
“Is it ok, for me to just sit here and peruse the menu?” she asked, a bit of time to herself would be very welcome.
“Of course, madam.”
She glanced through the menu, Courgette and cheese tart, Green salad with Avocado, Risotto with Squash and Sage, Peach Melba, this was more like it than the slop they’d served for lunch! Her mouth began to salivate at the possibilities.
“I’m sorry madam,” said the waitress glancing at her, “That is the first class menu, I don’t know how it got here, that is the second class menu.” She passed over a smaller sheet of parchment showing the choice of a rather bland sounding stew or macaroni and cheese, her ears dipped in disappointment.
“Hey Bluenote.” The music teacher looked up to see Vinyl enter the carriage her mane even scruffier than normal.
“Hey,” replied Bluenote as the DJ sat down next to her and picked up a menu.
“Yum, mac and cheese, one of my favourites!”
“No, Lyra?” Bluenote looked around the carriage.
“Na, she conked out just after I got up.”
Bluenote smiled. When the Bard did fall asleep almost nothing could wake her, she even tended to stop half way through sentences.
“So,” said the DJ looking a bit uncomfortable. “You think we’ll find Medley’s family?”
“Shouldn’t be too hard with what Ditzy told us, as long as she was right. It could be tricky to persuade them to come with us I suppose, but Hearth's Warming is a time for family to be together.” Well for most families anyway, she thought of the number of times he dad hadn’t made it home for the holidays, she knew he tried but he always seemed so busy.
“Yeah, I suppose it is, it would be a shame if I missed Mogwy’s first Hearth's Warming,” mused Vinyl.
Bluenote reached out a hoof and laid it on top of Vinyl’s. “Don’t worry, I’m sure we’re get back in time for you to see your family. We’ve got a whole day to find them and get them to come with us before the last train back.”
“Yeah,” said Vinyl perking up. “I guess you’re right, not much can go wrong really.”
I hope you’re right, thought Bluenote as she picked up the depressingly boring menu again.
Bluenote staggered out of the train and gave a long sigh as she stretched out as much as she could, enjoying the cracks and pops from her joints and back. It felt good to be out of the train after two days cooped up and wasn’t looking forwards to the return journey. Next to her Vinyl was doing the same, rolling her head around and trotting on the spot. Lyra didn’t seem to want to waste a moment and was already making her way through the crowded station towards the nearest exit.
“Come on,” urged Vinyl. “We don’t want to get separated, we don’t have much time.” Bluenote raised an eyebrow as she took off after her two friends, Vinyl was normally more laid back than this. “We need to find Bluenote’s family, get them to come to us and get back here in less than a day,” she clarified. “Wouldn’t want this whole trip to be for nothing.”
Bluenote nodded, they’d discussed their plans on the train. They should find a map as quickly as possible to track down Medley’s family, visit them and get them to agree to the trip, then find a hotel for them to spend their night in. She felt her stomach rumble a little, well maybe they could find a cafe or something first, it was about lunch time.
Bluenote and Vinyl pushed their way out of the station to find Lyra looking around in wonder at the city outside. It occurred to Bluenote that Lyra might not have been away from Ponyville much in the past, she knew she was a native of the small town and although she often disappeared on ‘adventures’ she tended to travel under her own power rather take the train.
“There are so many ponies!” gasped the mint unicorn.
Looking around Bluenote had to agree; although not as grand as Canterlot, Manechester seemed to be much more crowded. Around them earth ponies and unicorns made their ways through streets of red brick building stretching high into the sky where pegasus flew. In the distance numerous cloud buildings could be seen among further rows of houses. Lyra seemed to vibrate in place unable to decide what to see and do first, before she could run off Vinyl enclosed her in her aura and lifted her gently off the ground. “Let’s stick together shall we?” said the white unicorn.
Lyra pouted. “But there’s so much to see!”
“We need to find Medley’s family, then we can do some sightseeing,” said Bluenote, she hated being the sensible one, it didn’t suit her.
“Well, we are in a hurry,” added Vinyl, “But there are some clubs around I’d like to look at, they probably aren't open yet, but it’ll be good just to see them. It shouldn’t take that long.” She sounded conflicted.
Bluenote sighed. “I suppose we can spare a few hours to look around, maybe get something to eat first. The train doesn’t leave till midday tomorrow.”
“Yay!” cried Lyra bursting out of Vinyl’s aura. “Let’s see what’s in this direction first.” She trotted off into the crowds followed by her two friends.
It was starting to get dark by the time the taxi carrying Vinyl, Lyra and Bluenote rolled into Jangle lane. At first glance it seemed like most of the other streets in the area, lines of red terrace housing stretching along as far as the eye could see, but a closer inspection showed specks of colour here and there, small homemade Hearth's Warming decorations could be found in almost every window giving the place a more homely feel.
The road itself was hardly deserted, ponies sat on many of the door steps chatting to their neighbours, a large herd of foals were rushing about in a rough and tumble game, something like a mix between tag and hoofball. A street market must have taken place earlier as a few sellers were still present, calling out their last minute bargains or dismantling their stalls for the night. Despite being in the outskirts of a large city it strongly reminded Bluenote of Ponyville. It was nice, not as stressful as most big city life.
“So this is it?” said Vinyl looking around as the taxi trundled away.
“Jangle Lane,” confirmed Lyra looking up at the sign at the entrance. “So where’s one hundred and twenty three?”
Bluenote glanced around, she couldn’t make out any numbers on the doors. “I don’t know, I guess we ask somepony.”
“Excuse me madam,” said Lyra turning to an elderly earth pony sitting on a nearby set. “Do you know number one hundred and twenty three?”
“That’s Trotsy’s place. What do you want with her?” asked the mare good naturedly.
“We’re friends of her daughter Medley. We’ve come to make sure they have the best Hearth's Warming ever!” exclaimed Lyra.
“Medley? My I haven't seen her for years,” the mare mused, “She moved to some town out east didn’t she? Pony something I think it was called, Pony Town?”
“Ponyville,” corrected Vinyl. “It’s where we’re from.”
“That’s it, Ponyville! Helped deal with the tyrants didn’t she, not that her mother ever stops talking about it, that could have been my Foggy if he’d been lucky,” she grumbled.
“So which one is her house?” said Bluenote, glancing down the road, the street was starting to empty and weather pegasus were pushing in dark clouds, as she watch the first few snowflakes began to fall. They were beautiful to watch but she didn’t want to spend too much time outdoors now the temperature was plummeting.
“Trouble!” yelled the old mare making Bluenote jump. “Is your aunt home?”
A small body detached itself from the scrum of foals and trotted over, at first glance it seemed to be a young pegasus colt, his, somewhat scuffed, coat dark blue and his mane dark green. Then Bluenote noticed his mane was not a mane but a thick layer of feathers, and he had a beak and talons! A pony / griffin hybrid, a hippogriff! She’d seen one of two in Canterlot, but even in the capital they were rare, there were none in Ponyville. He was quickly followed by a second identical looking creature. “Yeah, she’ll be back from the library by now, Mrs Cloudson,” said the first hippogriff.
“No she won’t be, it’s too early” said the second stepping up alongside his twin.
“It’s gone dusk stupid,” said the first turning to his brother.
“She said she was going to see Mrs Fire today, and I’m not stupid,” said the second raising a tiny clawed leg.
“That was the second, and you are so!” said the first pouncing on the second, their disagreement quickly dissolving into a whirling ball of hooves, talons and beaks.
The old mare waited a moment, “Honestly they're as bad as their father. Boys!” she called in a raised voice causing the two to stop mid fight. “These young mares are friends of your cousin.”
Both colts leapt up in excitement, their fight forgotten. “You’re Medley’s friends?” asked the first excitedly.
“You’re just as she described in her letters!” said the second walking around them as if to examine them from all directions.
“Yeah! Lady Octavia, Vinyl Scratch and Fluttershy! Wow!”
“You’re just as cool in real life!”
Vinyl grinned at the foal’s mistake. “Sorry kids, but you got us mixed up, She,” she gestured to Bluenote, “Is Bluenote not Octavia and she,” she pointed at Lyra, “Definitely isn’t Fluttershy.”
“Of course not! She’s Vinyl Scratch, isn’t she,” said the first foal hopping over to Lyra, “The best DJ ever!”
“The most powerful unicorn ever!” added his twin.
Lyra grinned, “It’s not often I’m recognised by fans.”
“’Fraid you got it wrong shrimps, she’s not me, I’m me,” said Vinyl her horn glowing.
“You are?”
“I thought you were Lady Octavia! You look like a nob!”
Vinyl scowled.
“That means noble around here,” whispered Bluenote.
“Really!” said Vinyl her eyebrows raising above her glasses. “I don’t look like Tavi do I?”
“Like you were separated at birth,” said Bluenote with a grin. “Sorry to tell you kids, but I’m not Fluttershy either. I’m Bluenote, and that’s Lyra,” she nodded to the mint unicorn.
“Oh, well that’s almost as good,” said the foal.
“Almost,” agreed the other looking a little downcast.
Bluenote wasn’t sure how to react to that. “So what are your names?” she asked.
“Were Trouble and Double,” said the two small pony hybrids together.
“I’m Double,” said one pointing to himself, “He’s Trouble.” He pointed to his twin.
“I’m Double,” said the other. “He’s Trouble.” He pointed to his twin with a grin.
“Clear as mud,” muttered Bluenote with a smile. “Can you take us to your auntie? We need to talk to her about Medley.”
“Not a problem,” said Double or Trouble. “Follow us,” they yelled rushing off down the road hopping into the air to glide for a distance before running on their mismatched legs and jumping again.
The adult ponies took off after them, having to gallop swerving between the remaining pedestrians to keep up. They zoomed down Jangle Lane past a barber shop its windows full of pictures of various manes and a uniform wearing pony polishing a picture of Princess Cadence positioned just inside his doorway.
It wasn’t long until they came to a stop outside of one of the anonymous houses that made up the street. “We live there,” said one of the foals pointing to the house next door.
“Aunt Trotsy and Uncle Dogger live here,” said his twin pointing up to the door before scampering up the steps quickly followed by his brother. “Auntie Trotsy!” they bellowed. “You’ve got guests!”
“Quiet you two!” came a replying cry as a rather harried looking pegasus mare rushed to the doorway. Her coat was a dark red and her mane a light green speckled with grey. She saw the three strangers and came to a halt. “Oh, evening,” she said.
“Evening,” replied Bluenote. “I’m Bluenote and this is Vinyl Scratch and Lyra Heartstrings. We’re friends of your daughter, we’d like to talk to you about her.”
“Friends?” she frowned, “Oh you’re from Ponyville! Whatever are you doing here? Come in, come in out of the cold. You too you little terrors.”
The girls, Double and Trouble all filed into the house. The hall way was quite cramped and they were forced to flatten themselves against the walls as they shuffled in. Trotsy lead them down a short passageway and into the house’s living room. It, like the rest of the house, was cramped, but warm, thanks to the large fire burning in the hearth. The walls were covered in pictures of the family including several of Medley, Bluenote noticed the newspaper clipping of the report of them dealing with the Tyrants. In one corner sat a rather sparse looking Hearth's Warming tree. The room was already crowded with two stallions present.
“This is my husband, Dogger,” said Trotsy indicating a large pegasus stallion lying back in a cloud chair. Even if he hadn’t been introduced Bluenote could have guessed his relationship to Medley, his coat was only a little darker than his daughter although his mane was straw yellow and mostly covered by a flat cap. “And this is my brother in law, Rockall” she pointed to a short but stocky earth pony with a dark blue coat with the same mane colour as his brother. “These are Medley’s little friends Lyra, Vinyl and Bluenote.”
“Dad!” yelled Double and Trouble as they pushed past the girls and rushed up to the earth pony.
“Evenin’ terrors, how’s your day been?” he asked. “Been fightin’ again?”
“Not with anypony that didn’t deserve it Dad,” they chorused.
“Good Lads,” he said mussing their feathers.
“You’re the lass’s that helped our Medley deal with the Tyrants?” asked Dogger standing laboriously from his chair. “I’d like to shake you by the hoof.”
“We just did our duty,” said Lyra as Dogger gripped her foreleg and pumped it vigorously.
“You and our little girl saved us all from the Tyrants,” he said. “That’s more than just duty, you’re heroes.”
“That last thing we need are more Princess’s,” said Trotsy. “At least they’re paying off their debt to society with real work now, Cadence could do with more of that herself.”
“Let’s not bring politics into this dear,” said Dogger.
“I suppose it can wait,” she agreed. “Sit down, would you like a drink?”
Bluenote, Vinyl and Lyra all agreed and Trotsy headed off to the kitchen to get them. While she was away Rockall moved to one side of the battered settee drawing the two foals with him leaving just enough space for the three mares to slip in. A few minutes later Trotsy returned with their drinks and took her own seat. The presence of the five adults and two foals almost filled the entire room.
“Now what brings you to our city?” asked Trotsy.
“Well, you know your daughter isn’t visiting for Hearths Warming this year,” began Vinyl.
“Yes,” nodded Dogger. “It’s a shame but she had a big order come in and she just can’t make it this year. We’ll miss her but this sort of thing happens.”
Vinyl looked a little uncomfortably at her friends, it hadn’t occurred to them that Medley had lied to her parents about the situation. “Well that might not be entirely true, there was a mix up with the train tickets and we don’t think she could afford them this year.”
Dogger look surprised for a moment then his face darkened. “The shop isn’t doing well?”
“It’s going great! Medley’s great at making instruments and stuff, a bit old fashioned inn her methods but they still work. She just didn’t expect the price of the tickets to change, and well you know how she is about money...” she trailed off awkwardly.
“She’s got you there,” chortled Rockall, “You know Medley’s a lot like you that way, you old miser.”
“I’m financially responsible! Not miserly, there’s a difference, I don’t throw all my money away down the pub! or the bookies!”
“Well we thought about getting Medley tickets to come and get you,” said Bluenote, “But we didn’t think she’d accept.”
“So we came here to bring you back with us to make sure she gets the best Hearth's Warming ever!” continued Vinyl.
“We clubbed together and we can get you tickets,” said Bluenote. “Octavia was particularly generous.”
“You can put away your bits,” snorted Trotsy. “We can pay our own way to see our daughter, I’ll not accept charity from the nobility to see my own baby!”
“Now Trot...” began Dogger.
“No, we’ve been saving up for a holiday, well this is it, a week or so in Ponyville will make all the difference.”
“She’s got you there Doggy,” chortled Rockall. “You’ll have to prise open the purse strings now.”
“Can we go too, dad?” asked Double.
“Can we?” said his twin, “It’s been ages since we saw Medley.”
“Ages and Ages!”
Rockall turned to the element bearers. “Me and the kids are in as well, I managed to pick the winning wonderbolt at the last derby, it got me a pretty jangle, and was far more fun that being financially responsible.” He made a face.
“So that’s settled then,” announced Trotsy.
Bluenote smiled, this seemed to have worked out easily enough. “Good, do you know any good hotels around where we can stay the night?”
“I’ll not have my daughters friends stay at a hotel! You’ll stay the night here, we can sort you out somewhere to stay, Medley’s old room is empty for a start.”
“Somepony can use my room,” said Rockall, “My settee is just as comfortable, and probably cleaner.”
“Don’t worry dear,” said Trotsy with a scowl. “I’ll get him to tidy up before you use it.”
“Can one of them stay in our room dad?” asked Trouble.
“I think it might be a bit crowded, Lad,” said Rockall, “I thought it would be a few more years before you wanted fillies to spend the night.”
“We can set up some sheets down here for the last of you,” said Trotsy.
“It’s no problem, we don’t want to force anyone out of their beds,” said Bluenote, Vinyl and Lyra nodded their agreement.
“No, you are our guests and we will look after you, any friend of Medley is practically family after all. I’ll hear no more of it!” exclaimed Trotsy. “Now I better put dinner on. You can tell us all about how Medley is doing in Ponyville.”
Bluenote yawned a little as made her way down the stairs. After a bit of deliberation she’d ended up sleeping in Medley’s old room, Lyra had taken Rockall’s offered room and Vinyl was camping down in the living room. Her quarters had been rather cramped, but pristine, frozen in the moment that the mare had left home and clearly well looked after. There had been a few posters of various musicians, mare and stallion, stuck to the wall was well as some part completed instruments displayed on a table, Bluenote had recognised what looked like a scale model of Medley’s harp. There had also been, to her surprise, quite a few knitting magazines and half-finished crosswords stacked up, she’d have to ask her friend about those when she next saw her.
Breakfast was taking place in the living room which was just as packed as last night. Despite living next door Rockall and the twins were present and it seemed like the family migrated between the two properties as needed. As she entered the scruffy stallion was serving up the meal to the rest of the family, Double and Trouble were squabbling about who’s breakfast was larger, little claws flailing, until quietened by a glare from their auntie which caused their father to chuckle.
“Did you sleep well?” asked Trotsy from behind her newspaper.
“Like a log, you might have heard the sound of sawing,” she grinned. She sat down and flipped half a slice of bread towards the nearest of the twins who caught it in his beak before crunching down on it and grinning at his brother. “This is good,” she said biting down on the other half of the bread.
“Thanks,” said Rockall.
“So, the train leaves in a few hours,” said Vinyl levitating their tickets in front of her, “We should get home just before midday on Hearth's Warming Eve. Then you can spend all of the holiday with Medley.”
“Once we finish eating, I’ll go talk to Pumpernickel about borrowing his cart to get us to the station,” said Dogger.
“We can get a taxi.”
“Waste of money.”
“I’m glad you can all get away for the holidays,” said Bluenote.
“We booked our holidays for Medley’s visit,” explained Trotsy. “When we found she wasn’t coming it was too late to change.”
“Normally they want all hooves to the pump at the weather bureau this time of year, heavy snow all day for the Eve then a full melt on Hearth Warming day as always, but my little girl comes first,” said Dogger.
“So there’s going to be eight of us heading back to Ponyville then?” asked Bluenote. She wondered where the twins mother was, the family had not mentioned anything about her so far, almost pointedly so.
“Yep, I’ll be nice to see Medley’s new home, and her shop, she’s told us so much about it and we’ve never had the chance to visit before.”
“And the colts have never left Manechester before,” said Rockall, “It’ll be an adventure.”
“Yeah, isn’t Ponyville next to the Everfree Forest?” said one for the foals, Bluenote decided he was Double. “Where all the monsters are?”
“Oh yes,” said Lyra with a twinkle in her eyes, “There are all sorts of creatures that live in there.”
“And they all come out for Hearth's Warming to put on a big parade,” added Bluenote with a grin.
“Really?” gasped Trouble his mouth wide, his brother looked equally excited.
“I think Miss Lyra and Miss Bluenote might be playing a joke on you boys,” said Dogger.
“Sorry,” said Bluenote with a laugh, “No monster parade, but there are still lots of cool things to see in town.”
“Yeah, the monster parade isn’t at Hearth's Warming, it’s nightmare night. It’s quite a sight.” said Lyra seriously, earning her glances from her friends.
Breakfast was soon over and the family hurriedly packed for the trip before loading themselves and their belongings into the back of a wagon for the trip into town. The station was, like last night, completely packed, it took quite a while for them all to fight their way to the ticket office and even longer for Bluenote and Trotsy to get to the front of the queue. That was when the problems started.
“What do you mean there aren't any seats remaining?” asked Trotsy her voice a bit shriller than normal.
“Sorry Madam,” said the stallion behind the desk. “But the Canterlot sleeper is full, even first class, and there isn’t another until after the holidays, sorry.”
“First class is the problem!” she cried, “How many more hard working ponies could you fit on if you treated them all the same?” She flushed for a moment, then her head slumped. “I’m sorry, that’s nothing to do with you. I just want to see my daughter,” she mumbled.
Bluenote felt her heart go out to the older mare, there’d certainly been enough holidays when her family couldn’t be together. Trotsy had already had her heart broken when Medley told her she wouldn’t make the holiday, then she and the girls had seemingly held out a life line only for it now to be snatched away again. She thought about their carriage on the train, it was built to hold four and Double and Trouble were only small, they could probably be fitted into one space. She was about to offer to give away her own tickets when she stopped, she should talk this through with her friends first. “Look, Trotsy, I might have any idea how you can see your daughter this year,” the mother looked up in hope, “But I need to talk to the girls for a bit. I’ll be right back.”
“I think that’ll work,” exclaimed Lyra after Bluenote explained her plan, “Medley will get her perfect Hearth's Warming.”
“But we end up stuck here, that’s not cool, we won’t get to see our families, you won’t get to see Bon Bon,” pointed out Vinyl.
Lyra blinked a few times, her smile dipping a little. “And that will hurt, but I don’t have to be near her to love her. I wouldn’t be worthy of her if I didn’t do all I can to make sure my friend has the best holiday ever. I left her present with Fluttershy, she’ll deliver it if I can’t.”
“I can telegraph Mum to tell her I can’t make it,” said Bluenote. “She might even be able to catch up with Dad instead.”
The white unicorn’s tail writhed in agitation and her ears lowered. “But I’ll miss Mogwy’s first Hearth's Warming,” she moaned, “And me Dad, Ash, Spruce and Alder always go out for a drink Hearth's Warming Eve, it’s nice to see them all.”
Lyra put a foreleg over Vinyl’s back, “If you’ll miss your family than much, we’re work something out. Maybe one of Medley’s family would agree to stay home?”
Vinyl glanced over at the rest of the family, Trotsy seemed to have broken the bad news to them, all of them, even the colts looked depressed. She thought about her own family, they lived only a few hours away, she could see them any time, Medley only saw her’s once a year, and not even that this year. She thought of all the times that the blue pegasus had been willing to give her up own time and resources to help her with some invention or another. She had to help her friend. Lyra and Bluenote were willing to give up their Hearth's Warming’s to help Medley, what sort of pony would she be if she didn’t stay with them? “No,” she exclaimed sadly. “If any of us stay, we all stay. Let’s make sure Medley gets her Hearth's Warming.”
The three of them trotted over to Medley’s family. “We think we’ve sorted something out,” said Bluenote. “You can have our cabin, it’ll be a bit cramped but you’ll survive.”
A smile passed over the family’s faces, then Dogger frowned. “But what about you, how will you get home?” he asked.
“We’ll stay here, find a hotel or something, follow in a few days.”
“No, we can’t accept that, it’s too generous,” he shook his head.
“No, you have to,” said Vinyl. “We’ll be alright, but Medley hasn’t see you guys in a year, you need to go. This time of year it’s the time for fam-families.” She was glad her glasses hid her teary eyes.
The family looked back and forth for a moment, then Dogger reached forwards and put a forearm around Vinyl’s neck. “Bless you lass,” he said quietly.
“Thanks,” she replied trying to keep her voice steady. “It’ll give me time to really look around town.”
“If you’re doing this for us I’m not going to let you stay in some hotel. I’ll give you the keys and you can stay at our place,” said Trotsy. “I’ll be more homely, tell Quick Change at number ninety seven I’ll calling in my favour and she’ll cook for you. She always makes too much for Hearth's Warming anyway.”
Each of the other family members also thanked Vinyl, Medley and Lyra for their sacrifice, Double and Trouble looked up at the mare with their big eyes, glittering with the excitement of a train journey and meeting their cousin. Slapping on a fake smile Vinyl helped the family pile their luggage onto the train before returning to the cold and lonely station.
She sighed as she watched the rest of the passengers getting on, all ready to meet their families for the holidays. She supposed she could see Mum, Dad and her brothers anytime but it just seemed sad to not be there for the festive season.
Bluenote picked up on her undisguised depression. “Maybe there’s some other way to get a ticket,” she suggested. “I’ll check the ticket office again, somepony might have cancelled?”
“I’ll ask the other passengers!” said Lyra, “Maybe somepony has a spare? While there’s life there’s hope!”
Vinyl managed a weak smile as the other two ponies hurried off, she had some of the best friends, but it did seem hopeless. With another sigh she looked up and down the train, if nothing else it was a beauty, larger than anything that had ever run through Ponyville. Turning towards the mighty engine she noticed two ponies in the uniform of the train company arguing. Her curiosity peaked, she cast a quick spell to let herself listen in on their conversation.
“What do you mean they’re not here yet?” said one. An older mare with her pink mane tied up in a tight bun.
“No one’s seen them, ma’am,” said the other, a younger mare, looking rather nervous. “We think they might have been sent to the wrong station.”
“You think?! Find out! You can’t have lost all three of them! We’re due to leave in less than a quarter of an hour and I’m already understaffed. Find me somepony!”
“Yes ma’am!” the younger mare rushed off in a panic.
Slowly a grin started to spread over Vinyl’s face as a crazy plan formulated in her brain. Spinning around she saw Bluenote standing in the ticket queue, she ran over and grabbed her in her aura almost lifting her off the ground as she dragged her back to the train while looking around for Lyra. “Come on!” she cried to her surprised friend, “I think I’ve figured out how we can get home for Hearth’s Warming, all of us.”
Author's Note
Jangle Lane = Penny Lane
I know that's Liverpool rather than Manchester, but I just wanted to fit in the reference.
As always comments are appreciated.
Medley Hearth's Warming Everypony
“So you’re the missing crew members?” asked the senior conductor looking at the three element bearers rather suspiciously. Around them several other staff members were bustling around preparing for the journey. The conductor was an older earth pony mare, a little short and plump, her white coat was well brushed and her pink mane done up in a tight bun. She was wearing the uniform of the train staff, a short green waist coat and a pill box hat with, in her case a shiny golden star on it. “Where are your uniforms?”
“There was a fire!” began Lyra
“We lost them!” said Vinyl.
“They were stolen!” said Bluenote at the same time.
“We thought we’d lost them in a fire but it turned out they were stolen instead,” explained Vinyl. The other mares nodded quickly.
“Well that explains everything,” said the conductor with withering sarcasm. “Still beggars can't be choosers. This close to the holidays it’s hard to get any staff at all. We should have some spare uniforms about, just don’t lose these in a fire. Anyway my name is Silver Service, and this is the Spirit of Friendship.” She indicated the train around them. “We will be leaving for Canterlot in less than five minutes, you will be serving on board until Los Pegasus tomorrow morning when we will be changing most of our crew... yes?” She asked as Vinyl raised her hoof.
“Could we stay on board all the way to Canterlot?” she asked.
The conductor paused blinking, “You’re looking for overtime? Most ponies want to be home with their families this time of year not stuck on the train for two days.”
“Well I just thought it would be a chance for other ponies to stay home.”
“That’s very nice of you, well if you wish, once we swap crew you won’t be my problem anymore anyway. I’ll send a message down the line and see what I can do. Now sign your papers and we’ll be on our way.” She passed over three thick sets of paper to Vinyl who passed a copy to each of her friends, they quickly signed them without reading and returned them to the conductor who filed them away.
“Good,” there was a slight shudder as the train started to pull away. “Well it’s too late to change your minds now, we’re off. That will be your quarters,” she indicated a door off the trains corridor. “Drop off your bags in there.” The element bearers quickly complied. “Ok, which of you is the cook?” Silver asked.
The three ponies looked at each other for a moment. “I guess that’ll be me then,” said Bluenote stepping forwards.
“Good, we start serving lunch in two hours, I’ll get you a uniform and you can head over to the kitchen. I’m afraid it’ll just be you, we’re short staffed but do your best. Assistant conductor?”
“Me!” cried Lyra raising a hoof. “I mean that’s me.”
Silver frowned, “Very well, I’ll show you around in a bit.” She turned to Vinyl. “I guess that makes you the firemare then,” she frowned. “Odd, but you must have chosen the job. You better head up to the engine then, Heavy will be glad of the help. Hop to it!”
Vinyl nodded and glanced back at her friends, she hoped they wouldn’t have too much trouble with their adopted professions, all this had been her idea after all, crazy as it might seem now. She just hoped they wouldn’t suffer just because she couldn’t stand to spend the holiday away from her family. She quickly made her way towards the front of the train. So she was going to be a firemare, she mused, didn’t sound too hard, just shovelling coal for the rest of the trip.
She reached the door at the end of the passageway and opened it. She was instantly struck in the face be an almost hellish heat. She felt herself begin to sweat and was almost forced back by the physical force of the increase in temperature. Within the room stood a large earth pony stallion, almost half again as tall again as her and probably double her mass. His face was largely covered by a harness linked to a shovel like blade which allowed him to pick up and manipulate the mass of coal piled in the back of the room and feed it to the hungry flames of the train’s boiler. Noticing her he lowered the device. “Hey, no passengers allowed up here,” he said. Once she could make out his face she saw that he was surprisingly young, not much older than she was. It was hard to tell his original coat colour, the coal dust had reduced it to a dull grey, but his mane was dark blue and cut, or burnt, short.
“I’m crew,” she said, “Firemare, you must be Heavy then? Silver sent me.”
“That’s can’t be right, you’re far too scrawny for the heavy lifting.” His brow furrowed. “Anyway trains are for Earth Ponies not unicorns.” Behind her glasses Vinyl raised an eyebrow, trains did tend to be the territory of Earth Ponies but other tribes were hardly unknown, as for her being scrawny, well size wasn’t everything, her magic should be more than enough to put this tribalist in his place. “Whatever are you wearing?” he gestured to her glasses.
“Safety glasses, all the rage nowadays. Shift aside,” she barged into the larger pony and wasn’t particularly surprised to find he hardly moved, she could feel the mass of muscles under his skin.
“Come off it, when we get up to full speed the Spirit needs ten tons of coal an hour to keep her fed. Why’d you ever choose this job?”
“Oh, you know there’s something about a train, all that huge thrusting machinery, catches a girl’s interest.”
The large stallion blushed and stepped aside. “Well... I don’t...” he stammered.
Vinyl grinned wickedly, “Tell you what I’ll race you,.”
“I don’t even know if the shovel will fit you,” complained the stallion.
“Shouldn’t be a problem,” she said, her horn glowing as she opened the door to one of the boilers, blinking against the heat, she glanced up at the bank of dials above it and began to levitate lumps of coal into it from the pile behind her. “Ready, get set, go!” she cried as she loaded the rocks into the engine.
“Hey!” cried Heavy, quickly struggling to put the shovel back on before hurrying to load more coal into his part of the boiler.
“Right, you two follow me,” said Silver Service to Lyra and Bluenote. “We need to get you in uniform.” She led them back through the train past a staff only sign and into a cramped room with a table and several chairs. “This is the staff room, and that,” she pointed to another door, “Is my office and quarters.” She opened up a locker and rummaged around inside before tossing a chef’s hat and apron at Bluenote who caught them and put them on.
“Ah, I feel more chef like already,” she exclaimed.
“More like?”
“Well of course I feel chef like most the time, given that I’m a chef,” said Bluenote her smile a little too wide. “I better be off to the kitchen then.” She backed out of the room and headed towards the front of the train.
“The other way!” cried Silver.
“Right, I knew that,” said Bluenote rushing back the other way.
Silver sighed and held her head in her hooves. “Anyway, let’s see what we can find for you.” She rummaged around the cupboard and pulled out a smart green jacket like she was wearing and passed it to Lyra. It turned out to be a little large, hanging loosely on the skinny mare. “I guess that will have to do,” mused Silver. “Now this,” she held up a small circular hat with a shiny badge on the front, “If the most important thing. It tells everypony, crew and passengers who you are.”
Lyra looked at the hat apprehensively. “So, um, who am I?”
“You are an assistant conductor, the second most important pony on this train, after myself. It is your job, neigh, duty to ensure the smooth running of the train, to ensure that everything and every pony are where they should be at all times.”
“So not just checking tickets then?”
“No,” Silver frowned, “Didn’t you get training?”
“Oh! Well, we were in a bit of a hurry and..”
Silver sighed again. “Never mind, just follow me and pay attention. Yes we do check that all the passengers have tickets but we also have to make sure that the customers are happy and have all they need, well the ones in first class anyway, standard class not so much. Anyway, look here.” She trotted into her office and returned with a large book, “This shows what passengers we are expecting at each stop and where they will stay as well as any who will leave and any empty cabins, we need to check that they’ve all settled in and are in the right place.” She drew a hoof up the picture of the train. “We’ll start up here then move down towards first class where our real job begins. Are you ready?”
“Yes Ma’am,” cried Lyra saluting crisply.
“You know you don’t have to do that, it’s nice and all, but we’re not in the military.”
“Yes Ma’am.”
Bluenote adjusted her apron and hat as she entered the dining car near the back of the train. The first class coaches stood to one side of her, the rest of the train’s passengers to the other. Glancing around for a bit she noticed a room which made up one side of half of the carriage, sticking her head inside she realised she’d found the kitchen.
It was the most cramped cooking area she’d ever seen in her life, she doubted she could even turn around in it. The walls were lined with cupboards and drawers. One whole wall consisted of row after row of little doors. She recognised some of the equipment sitting on the counter, what looked like a gas stove, a tea urn, and a large sink but others were entirely alien to her. What had Vinyl gotten her into? She supposed she owed the DJ for dragging her away from her family for the holidays but she really wasn’t sure this was going to work, they’d probably be thrown off the train before they even got close to Canterlot.
Sighing Bluenote started to search around the kitchen for some sign of what she was supposed to be cooking. She quickly found a menu for the next few days, a few basic meals for standard class and a much wider range of food for first class. She systematically opened cupboard after cupboard, she found a range of plates, cups and cutlery and a few limited supplies but nothing like enough to make meals for the hundreds of ponies on the train, oddly many of the cupboards were empty and warm for some reason, did they forget to stock up at the station?
“Have you got the trolley ready yet luv?” came a call from outsider the kitchen.
Bluenote opened the door to find a young orange coated earth pony mare. “What?” the music teacher asked.
“The trolley with the food and drink for the standard class passengers?”
Frowning Bluenote remembered that the staff had brought around a trolley of snacks every few hours on the outbound journey. She’d found the thing a few moments ago when searching the kitchen. “Just a minute,” she called. Rushing back into the Kitchen she wrestled the trolley out of its storage space and tore into a few boxes of supplies to arrange a selection of snacks on it, she realised the trolley had its own hot water container and started up the kitchen’s urn. It heated up remarkably quickly, she suspected magic was involved, and quickly filled up the smaller container. Finally done she shoved the whole thing out of the kitchen. “Here you go!”
“Thanks luv.”
“Sorry for the delay, it’s my first day!” explained Bluenote.
“Don’t worry, you just better make sure you keep a brew on for when the VIPs start getting thirsty, put out some of the fancy cakes and the like as well.”
Bluenote thanked the other pony for her suggestions and returned to the kitchen to continue her search. She eventually found a collection of recipe cards which matched most of her menu, but the recipes only seemed to be partially completed, frowning she sat down puzzled over what that meant.
Vinyl leaned back trying to look relaxed as she continued to load coal into the ever hungry furnace. It wasn’t as easy as it looked, her magic was strong but she had her limits, a gentle ache was starting to build up in her horn, she could keep going for a while but not forever. She’d need to pace herself, once she showed this muscular neanderpony what she could do. Heavy was working like a stallion possessed lifting load after load of coal into the engine, his muscles stood out as he heaved against the weight, sweat streaming from his form and dripping onto the floor before quickly evaporating.
“Will you... stop... staring at... me!” he gasped.
“Hey, I’m just enjoying the view.” Vinyl winked leering at Heavy’s flank and weight shaped cutie mark as he strained to lift another shovel full of coal. “And a very nice view it is. Great wide open tracts of land, chiselled rocks, maybe even the hint of a mighty tower in the distance.”
Blushing the stallion tucked his tail between his legs and sank to the ground panting. “Ok, ok, I give up, you win! You can do this job!”
“Good! Now, my names Vinyl Scratch.” She dropped the load of coal she was carrying glad to rest her horn for a moment.
“Heavy Load,” said the stallion struggling to his hooves again.
“Pleased to meet you, now this is my first time as firemare, so I’ll probably need your help.” There was no harm throwing him a little life line rather than totally humiliating him.
“First time?”
“We’ll there was a bit of a staffing problem, just pretend I know nothing about the job, well apart from that gage says we’re at optimum pressure for the moment.” She pointed at an instrument. She wasn’t a complete novice to steam power, her grandfather had worked on the trains in his youth and she’d tried it as a power source for a few instruments in the past but not with much success, still she understood the basics. The fire heated the water creating steam which was used to run pistons which turned the wheels and moved the train.
Heavy looked at his colleague for a moment. “Ok, well this fine young lady is the Spirit of Friendship, the first of the class twelve hundreds.” He gently patted the wall of the train. “She has a 0-8-0 configuration, and a potential maximum speed of about one hundred and twenty miles per hour, although we rarely run past about eighty. If you treat her fine she’ll purr like a kitten,” he tapped a wall of the cabin again, “But she’s temperamental, if you don’t pay her full attention at all time she can throw a tantrum and we won’t arrive at Canterlot before Hearth's Warming, next year.”
“Nice to see you know how to treat a mare. I was joking when I said trains got me excited but would you like me to give you and Spirit some time alone?” she grinned.
“Anyway,” he hurriedly moved on. “You and me will be on shift for the next ten hours before we take on more staff at Fillydelphia.” Vinyl whistled, that was a long time and a whole lot of coal to shift, this wasn’t going to be as easy as she’d hoped. “We’ll have to help top up the water tanks every few hours as well as shift the coal, plus help Steep Gradient, the driver, and Stopping Distance, the brakestallion, if they ask.”
As he was explaining the train gave a slight shudder, the door to the front of the train opened and the angry face of an older black coated stallion appeared in it. “Enough jabbering back there, pressure’s dropping, get on with it!” he yelled.
“Sorry Steep,” called Heavy turning back to the boiler, “She should be running better than this. I don’t know what...” he checked Vinyl's engine. “Did you just dump the coal into this all higgledy piggledy? No wonder you beat me! You need to lay it out right,” he started to poke at the pile of coal with the shovel around his neck, behind him Vinyl peered over his shoulder. “What do they teach new starts these days?” he grumbled.
The trip through the standard class parts of the train had been quick and business-like. Silver had explained to Lyra the role of the various staff and the internal communications system which consisted of cords which could be pulled from various points around the train to summon more staff or to stop the train in an emergency.
Silver had been polite to the passengers as they checked each cabin, and greeted each and everyone of them. There had been a few mix ups when the newly arrived ponies settled into the wrong cabins but that was soon sorted out. Still it seemed to Lyra that Silver’s heart wasn’t really in her job. She kept running through the same script again and again, schedule, rules, where the dining carriage was, etcetera, etcetera. Lyra wanted to ask if they could shake it up a bit but the older mare seemed to be in such a hurry.
The only problem had been when they had entered the cabin containing Medley’s family. Of course they had recognised Lyra and had been overjoyed that she had managed to get on the train. Lyra had done her best to secretly confirm that yes, she Vinyl and Bluenote were on the train but that the family shouldn’t mention that they weren’t really staff. It hadn’t been easy and she thought Silver was suspicious but she didn’t think she’d given the game away.
Eventually they reached the first class carriage, Lyra hadn’t been in it before and was rather curious as to how it looked. When she eventually asked Bon Bon out she had considered taking the mare of her heart on trips to various sights, of course they would travel first class, the candy mare deserved nothing less, seeing the carriages in person would help her picture those glorious days when they finally came.
“Right, now this is the important part,” explained Silver. “Did you know that if the first class carriage is full then everything else on the train is pure profit? These are very important ponies indeed, their every wish should be your command, preferably before they even know what they want. Do you understand?” Lyra nodded.
“Good, so first carriage is,” she checked her book, “Duke Fancypants, let me do the talking, he is a very important pony indeed.” Taking a deep breath Silver knocked on the cabin door.
“Come in,” came a plummy voice from the other side.
Silver pulled the door open and entered giving a shallow bow to its occupant. “Welcome to the Spirit of Friendship my lord, I hope you are comfortable in your quarters?”
“Ah Silver Service, I did hope you would be in charge for this trip,” said Fancy Pants, he was a unicorn stallion with a white coat and a carefully styled blue mane.
Entering the room carefully Lyra looked around, as expected the cabin was much nicer than the one she had shared with Bluenote and Vinyl on the way here, it was easily four times the size despite only having one occupant. A large plush bed stood against one wall while the rest of the room contained a smallish office space with a desk and chair, and a living area with a long settee and what seemed to be a mini bar set under the window. This certainly seemed the sort of place her and Bon Bon could laze about in while travelling between adventures.
“Ah, who is this delightful young mare?” asked the Duke looking at Lyra, “I don’t think I’ve seen her before.”
“She is my new assistant,” said Silver, “She’s just started.”
“Hi, I’m Lyra,” said Lyra, “Pleased to meet you!” she held out a hoof to Fancy Pants.
The smile froze on Silver’s face and sweat started to bead on her forehead as Fancy Pants looked at the hoof as if it was going to bite him, then he gave a booming laugh and shook the outstretched limb. “Good to meet you Lyra.”
“Is there anything I can do to make your stay more pleasant?” said Lyra formally.
“Well there is something.”
“Yes, my Lord,” said Silver.
“Well it’s only a little thing, but these cushions,” He gestured at the seats, “Well they’re a little flat, do you any anything plusher?”
“Of course, I will...”
“I will quest from one end of the train to the other, and beyond, to find the softest, fluffiest cushion in existence!” declared Lyra rearing up and striking a pose before turning and galloping out the door. Silver and Fancy’s mouths dropped in surprise.
“I say,” said Fancy Pants recovering first, “She is rather a firecracker isn’t she.”
“I do apologize,” said Silver quickly, “She is new and...”
Suddenly Lyra reappeared in the door followed by a whole flock of cushions held in her aura. “I couldn't decide which was softest,” she explained, “So I brought a selection. This one has a nice pink and blue pattern on it, and this one is very fluffy but it’s a bit small, and this one is in the shape of a duck, and...”
“Oh, I do like her!” exclaimed Fancy to Silver.
With a gently shudder the train came to a stop in a station. In the Kitchen Bluenote remained confused as to how her job was supposed to work. There was no way the kitchen contained the resources to feed all the hungry ponies on the train, she doubted she could even make all the food needed in the hour or so she had left even if she had supplies. The trolley pony had returned a few times to top up and now even the snacks were getting low. Outside in the dining car other members of staff were starting to lay out cutlery for lunch, however did it all work?
Suddenly there was a knock at the kitchen door shaking Bluenote from her examination of the recipe cards. She opened the door and looked out expecting to need to refill the snack cart again instead there was a small group of ponies, trays held in their auras or resting on their backs on padded saddles. “Got the food for you,” explained the leader.
Surprised Bluenote stumbled out of the Kitchen and watched as the Ponies opened the rows of doors against the kitchen wall and placed their loads within. “Here did you forget to turn the heating on?” one asked, “It’ll get cold.” He took a large lever in his mouth and turned it about half way, there was a bubbling sound like water flowing and the temperature in the room started to increase. The ponies worked in relay and in only a few minutes they had filled the whole kitchen, before leaving to return to the station.
As the train started to move off again Bluenote cautiously opened one of the doors and felt a gentle heat within, she lifted a small foil covered packed out and unwrapped it. It contained a portion of macaroni and cheese, once again on the standard class menu, she checked the next door container, a bowl of stew, the next one along salmon. Her mouth watered at the smell, fish was not a common food for ponies but many considered it a delicacy, in small doses.
Bluenote started to smile as she realised what this all was. Most of the food was cooked at the stations and delivered to her kitchen where it was stored in these heated containers, she only had to add a few last minute touches before dishing it out to the hungry passengers. Considering the time, she better get started, she thought as she checked through the menu. Most of the extra work seemed to be for the first class passengers she noticed, whereas the standard class only got the precooked meals, it didn’t seem fair really, there had to be some way she could personalise the food for them, she thought.
“Come on Dad!” called Trouble as the small hippogriff pulled his father through the train towards the dining cart.
“If we’re too late there won’t be anything left!” warned his brother.
“Well, we can’t have that can we?” agreed Rockall as he broke into a slow gallop down the train’s gently rocking corridor before bursting into the dining carriage. Spotting an empty bench he plopped himself down onto it, Double and Trouble crawled over him to take their own seats while Trotsy and Dogger approached at a more sedate pace. “So what do you want boys?” he asked lifting a menu and holding it in front of his sons.
“Hey, Mac and Cheese! My favourite,” squealed Double.
“Is not! You said you liked porridge more yesterday,” said his brother.
“Is too! I’ve always loved it.”
“Since when?”
“Since forever!”
“Three Mac and Cheese,” said Rockall to a waiter as he passed ignoring his squabbling offspring.
The food was soon delivered and both colt and their father grinned at the large smiley face drawn on the top of the dishes in sauce.
After several hours Vinyl though that she knew more about working a fire than she ever thought she would need. Still it was a fascinating subject, you never knew when that sort of thing would be useful. After their initial tension Heavy had turned out to be quite good company having a wealth of stories about past trips. The two of them had slipped into an easy rhythm which allowed each of them an occasional rest while the other made sure the engine was running at maximum power. The train had stopped at its first destination a while back allowing them to take on water which had at least broken the monotony.
It was just as well, the gentle ache in her horn had begun to grow and spread into the rest of her skull, she was proud of the power of her magic but she considered her forte to be delicate manipulation rather than pure strength, it wasn’t going to be easy to last all day. She’d tried a few tricks to make the job easier using the force of the falling coal to lift the next load, and even using the heat of the fire to help power her magic but nothing was perfect. She had even, with difficulty, tried on the shovel designed for earth ponies and started to move a few loads using that, it certainly gave her an appreciation of Heavy’s muscles that he was able to move so much weight with the contraption.
She was just lying back and resting her aching form for a few minutes while Heavy rearranged the coals to get the greatest heat when the door to the driver’s compartment opened again and Steep entered the fire compartment again. “You’re the new lass then?” he asked.
“Yeah, Vinyl Scratch,” she said, hopefully this stallion would have less problem with unicorns, she didn’t feel like having to prove herself to every member of staff.
“Well Miss Scratch, you and young Heavy have done a fair job so far, how’d you like a chance to drive a train for a few minutes?”
Vinyl’s ears perked up. “Really?” she asked, Alder would be so jealous when she told him of this. The thought of her brother brought a surprising wave of homesickness, still she’d be back in Ponyville in a day or two, in time for the holidays she assured herself.
“Follow me,” said the driver as he retreated back into his cabin. The front of the train was open to the air and Vinyl gave a sigh of relief as she moved away from the heat of the fires behind her. Around her the scenery was a blur as the train powered on, eating up the miles between it and Canterlot.
“Now this is the throttle,” said Steep gesturing to a lever, he wrapped his fetlock around it. “Forwards is faster, back is slower. You think you got that?”
Vinyl rolled her eyes. “I think I can manage.”
Steep chuckled. “I can be a little more complicated that it looks. Now give it a go.” He stepped aside.
Vinyl walked forwards feeling a little nervous for some reason, before resting a leg against the leaver. “So forwards for faster right?” Steep nodded. She gently leaned forwards and felt the rumble all around her change its pitch as the great iron beast responded to her, the tens of thousands of tons of it its body eagerly leaping forwards. Despite her best attempts a wide smile spread across her face as the vibrations of the engine spread up her legs, Alder was going to be so very very jealous. “Choo Choo!” she whispered.
Bluenote slumped down for a rest, she’d finally dealt with the lunch rush. She was lucky she had some cooking experience, despite most of the food being precooked she’d needed to mix up over a dozen sauces to go with the meals and some of the first class passengers had been very demanding, she’d gone through half a dozen meals for one of them before getting the fish cooked just right and properly flavoured.
The staff had quickly grabbed most of the left overs when it came to their own time to eat, there was apparently a strict hierarchy as to who got to choose from the remains first. She, the cook, apparently got first dibs, probably in recognition of being able to hide anything she wanted, followed by the head conductor, then the other conductors and so on down to the cleaners.
She’d had a quick chance to talk to Lyra as the new assistant conductor ate, she seemed to be settling in well and even seemed to enjoy trying to fulfil the needs of the various passengers, it sounded hard work to Bluenote. The engine staff apparently put their orders in and had the food delivered to them, it was a shame Bluenote would have like to have seen how Vinyl was doing.
At the next stop a small army of ponies had come to take away the empty containers and restocked the train with snacks. Unfortunately, Bluenote was left with the onerous task of washing up the plates and cutlery for dinner, which was never her favourite part of cooking, still it needed to be done. Filling the sink with soapy water she began to clean. She needed to hurry, once she’d finished she’d have to start on the sauces for the next meals which would apparently be delivered to her in a few hours. She began to hum to herself quietly.
“So why did you choose to become a conductor?” asked Silver.
“It was sort of a split second decision really,” said Lyra. The two of them were sitting alone in the staff room, the rest of the staff currently occupied. The train was quiet for the moment, the sun had set and dinner was still a while off, but they were ready to spring into action if needed. Or in most cases it was Lyra who had to spring into action, Silver was content to leave her assistant to deal with most requests after she’d shown herself to be competent. “And you?”
“Oh, when I was younger I liked to travel, always going here and there, working on a train seemed natural. Of course later I found somepony I’d like to travel to and settled down with,” a small smile passed over her face, “He’s a copyeditor for a newspaper in Los Pegasus, and well travelling away doesn’t seem so fun anymore. I’m in line for a desk job soon, if nothing goes wrong. I’m just glad I’m home for the holidays this year. I’ve got two foals to spend Hearth Warming with, well not foals any more, one of them's going to be a mother in a few months.” She sighed. “I was most pointed when I explained to her that I was far far too young to be a grandmother, but I didn’t get any say in the matter.” She looked up. “Enough about me, do you have a special somepony to go home to?”
“Oh, yes,” said Lyra nodding vigorously. “She’s the most wonderful pony in the world!”
Silver laughed. “I guess she’d have to be to make you impersonate a member of train staff for.”
The smile dripped off of Lyra’s face. “Oh, um, I don’t... oops.”
“It wasn’t very hard to work out, I checked the telegraph when we stopped to take on water, the real staff got put on the wrong train due to a mix up. So why are you and your friends here? You don’t seem like robbers or con mares but why shouldn’t I put you off the train at the next stop?”
“We were trying to get a friends family to her for Hearth's Warming,” explained Lyra, “We didn’t have tickets for them and us.”
“Well it’s just as well you seem to be good at your fake job isn’t it? Your friend’s not a bad cook either, and I’ve heard no complaints from the cab.” She seemed to weigh her options for a moment. “I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt for the moment, I’m off the train in about eight hours, then you’re somepony else’s problem. If you don’t mess up by then I’ll keep quiet. Deal?”
“Deal!” agreed Lyra reaching out to shake Silvers hoof.
“Good, now there’s something you won’t know about, given you’re a fake. One of the jobs of the conductors is to provide entertainment to the passengers of an evening. They used to hire professional entertainers, but of course this is cheaper. Normally we have to put on some sort of lecture, maybe music or storytelling, I even know a half decent stand-up comic on the line. Now I can keep first class entertained, I’m not a bad raconteur, but I’ll be your job to keep the standard class passengers happy. I hope you’ve got an interesting hobby or something.”
A big grin spread across Lyra’s face. “I would consider it an honour to entertain our passengers with tales of glory,” she exclaimed.
There was a quiet ringing in the background and Silver turned to check the alarm call. “Somepony in carriage three is calling. Off you go...” she said, but by the time she’d turned back Lyra was already gone.
“Far too enthusiastic that girl,” she mumbled to herself, “Was I ever like that?”
Vinyl Scratch staggered down the corridors of the train, exhausted almost to the level of collapse. Despite a quick shower from the last water tank the train had stopped at, her normally pristine white coat was stained a dirty grey from the coal dust. She leant against Heavy and would surely fall over if it wasn’t for his help. Under normal circumstances she might enjoy the move of the thick muscles under his coat but tiredness had sapped her libido. Her horn felt like it was going to drop off and her every muscle screamed at her, she didn’t think she’d ever been more tired in her life, still she felt a warm glow of a job well done in her chest.
“Here you are,” said the large stallion gently pushing open the door to the female staff’s cabin. It was even more cramped than the cabin Vinyl had been in for the trip out, she was sharing with five other staff members, but to her the bed looked like heaven.
“‘hanks,” she mumbled staggering forwards like a zompony, she was off duty for the next nine hours now and she had no intention of wasting a single second of possible sleep time.
“Yeah, I remember my first day,” said Heavy with a grin. “They had to wake me up with a bucket of water. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He turned and gently closed the door behind him.
Vinyl fell forwards onto the small bed and was asleep even before her head hit the pillows.
Dinner was finally over and many of the passengers had packed themselves into the observation carriage awaiting their evening’s entertainment.
Lyra paced nervously back and forth waiting for the last of the stragglers to arrive. It was a good sort of nerves which most of her friends knew well, even the normally stoic Octavia had told her than she felt her pulse quicken before a public performance and for Lyra this was quite a large audience. Not for her the packed clubs of DJ Pon-3, or the concert halls Octavia might be used to, she normally performed to a smaller crowd, a few dozen ponies in the park or streets. Still a change would be good, she peeked into the cabin and gave the strings of her Lyre one last tune before stepping forwards.
“Good Evening everypony,” she said brightly, there near the back stood Medley’s family. Trotsy and Doggar were sitting on one of the seats while Rockall stood next to them, Trouble and Double were hovering near the ceiling of the carriage, kept aloft by rapid flaps of their wings. There was a rough rumble of welcome from the rest of the passengers, it looked like they might be a tough crowd, still she knew how to deal with them.
“Given the time of year I thought I’d start tonight’s show with something a little traditional.” Surprising the audience Lyra reared up and brought her Lyra to bear as she began to strum it as she pronounced the ancient words of the story of Equestria.
“Once upon a Time,” she began. “Long before the peaceful rule of Cadence, and before ponies discovered our beautiful land of Equestria, ponies did not know harmony.”
Her horn glowed and an illusion materialised above her head, she wasn’t that skilled in that type of magic and the figures were rather cartoony with huge eyes and pointy hooves but they were enough to get the idea across.
Slowly she outlined the history of the tribes, the earth ponies ruled by the eccentric blue coated earth pony Chancellor Puddinghead and her assistant the stoic grey coated Smart Cookie. The pegasus lead by the grumpy Commander Hurricane and the timid but good hearted Private Pansy and finally the unicorns ruled by the beautiful Princess Platinum her pink and blue mane streaming behind her and her major domo the glasses wearing Clover the Clever.
The three tribes were forced from their homes by the ice age created by the monstrous Windigo and their own bigotry, after many a quest found the land of Equestria only to bring their old hatreds with them almost destroying the land before it was founded.
The rulers and their seconds were trapped in a cave and slowly freezing to death when they realised the stupidity of their fighting hastening their demises and decided to come together in their last moments. The ponies joined their voices together in song, a spell and special training allowing Lyra to voice all three ponies at once and their friendship ignited a flame driving the Windigo away and allowing Equestria to be founded.
The last chords died away and Lyra dispelled her illusion before dropping back to all fours, the crowd blinked a few times then began to stomp enthusiastically. Lyra smiled, she was rather proud of herself, now if she’d read the audience correctly...
A small filly wriggled away from her mother and nervously padded forwards. “Um, excuse me miss but what happened then? Can you tell us another story?”
“Ah, there are always other stories, and other songs,” said Lyra raising her instrument. “You see even after Equestria was founded there were still dangers in the land and many brave heroes were needed to defeat them, perhaps the greatest of them all was the mare who would later claim Princess Platinum’s hoof in marriage...”
With a mighty yawn Bluenote made her way towards her cabin in the middle of the train. Dinner was finally finished and every single piece of cutlery washed and packed away. The rest of the staff could deal with any requests for snacks for the rest of the night. If she understood the schedule she’s need to get up several hours before dawn to collect the breakfast supplies, judging by the menus and recipes she’d need to do a bit more work to get those ready.
Slumping down into the first free bunk she began to curl up, then she glanced across the cabin. There led Vinyl on top of the sheets, her dusty coat blackening the bed clothes, entirely insensate, she let out the occasional quiet whinny. There was no sign of Lyra yet. Bluenote reached over the prodded her friend in the ribs. “Hey Vinyl,” she hissed, “How was your day?”
The whitish unicorn gave no sign of having heard remaining almost motionless on the bed. Bluenote poked her again and she turned away curling up into a ball. Bluenote smiled the DJ must really be tired, her friend was normally such a night owl, she wondered what she’d been doing all day. Gently dropping to the floor Bluenote trotted to Vinyl’s bed and pulled the bed clothes over the sleeping unicorn, the cabin was a bit chilly. “Good night,” she whispered, “Don’t worry we’ll get you home for Hearth's Warming.”
“Night mom, love...” muttered Vinyl.
Bluenote grinned, her friend could seem so tough sometimes but underneath it all she was a big softy. She was glad she’d agreed to go the extra mile to make sure she could get home, she deserved it.
She was just falling asleep herself, when the door opened and Lyra appeared in the gap. “Bluenote!” she cried then lowered her voice as she noticed Vinyl’s sleeping form. “How was your day?”
“I don’t think you need to whisper, she’s totally wiped,” said Bluenote poking Vinyl again, the comatose pony didn’t even move.
“I hope she’s alright,” said Lyra, clambering up a ladder to take the bunk above Bluenote.
“I’m sure she’ll be fine. My day wasn’t bad, I’m glad I got a job I’ve got some skills with, otherwise I’m sure I would have been thrown off the train by now.”
“Oh, Silver knows who we are!”
Bluenote sat up in bed almost knocking her head against Lyra’s bunk. “What!” she exclaimed.
“Don’t worry,” said Lyra leaning her head over the bunk so she appeared in from of the music teacher upside down. “She’s ok with it.”
Bluenote let out a breath. “That’s good then. So how was conducting.”
“Like lots of little quests to make ponies feel better, I liked it! I even got to put on a show!”
Bluenote laughed. “I heard it, or the stomping anyway, sounded like you knocked them dead. We’ve got another day to go and then we’re home, shouldn’t be a problem really. Still we better get our sleep, I’ve got to be up to make breakfast tomorrow and you’ve got to conduct something I guess.”
“Good night Bluenote,” called Lyra as she retracted her head.
“Good night Lyra,” said Bluenote wrapped herself up in the covers.
“Good night Vinyl,” they both chorused.
*Snore!* exclaimed the DJ.
Author's Note
My apologies to anyone who actually knows how a steam train works and is operated, I didn't do much research and this is probably a highly fictionalised description of what actually happens.
As always comments are appreciated.
Medley Hearth's Warming Everypony
Vinyl was riding an instrument, she wasn’t sure what it was but it made beautiful music. Its body was made of rack after rack of speakers booming out their voices to all they passed. Each clack as the speaker train ran down the tracks was a deep throb of bass providing a perfect tempo. She sat at the centre of the machine, it was all under her control as if it was an extension of her body, the slightest pressure on the controls altered its path, its music, her destiny, all hers to control.
But...
There was something wrong, something out of place, something discordant, a sound not created by her. Sighing she turned in her machine / body / womb and tried to find a tool to fix whatever it was that had broken. It was getting louder and nearer, it almost sounded like...
“Wake up!”
“Huh, flubble?” murmured Vinyl as she was dragged back to consciousness.
“Wake up! You’ve got hungry passengers to feed! I’ll have no laziness on my train.”
With a titanic effort she opened her eyes to see an angry dark blur in front of her, she blinked a few times and the blur resolved itself into an angry dark coated earth pony stallion. He was old, older than her parents, his coat so dark a blue as to be almost black, his mane, his mane was missing for some reason although his tail was a greying green. He was wearing a smart green jacket and a hat with a shiny badge on it.
“Lower the decibels dude,” she moaned as she struggled through of the lovely warm sheets she’d been tangled up it. She rolled onto the floor and almost fell, her legs, and even her horn, felt rubbery after yesterday’s exertions. She glanced towards the carriage’s small window, it was pitch black outside, surely it wasn’t time for her next shift yet?
“What have you been doing? Your coat is filthy,” exclaimed the angry stallion.
“Shovelling coal, I guess they forgot to polish it before they loaded it.”
“You’re Vinyl Scratch right?”
“Yeah, and you are?”
“I am Spitshine, head conductor.”
“Head conductor? What happened to Silver?”
“Silver Service departed from the train about an hour ago at Los Pegasus, where I embarked, this is my train now,” he sniffed and drew himself up to his not particularly impressive height.
“Anyway, you’re due in the kitchen, food will be delivered in,” he checked a shiny pocket watch, “Forty two minutes, and is due to be served in two hours sixteen.”
“Kitchen? Why? I’m a firemare.”
“You said you’re name was Vinyl Scratch right?” He peered at her.
“Yeah,”
“Well this form says you signed on as the trains cook!” he shook a piece of paper in front of her, she recognised it as the one she’d signed yesterday, she hadn’t paid much attention to at then. “Silver said something about new starts,” continued Spitshine, “I knew the mare was sloppy but to assign you to the wrong roles for your first run, unacceptable,” he spat. “As it says you are the cook, and the cook you will be!”
“Um actually, *yawn* I’m the cook,” said Bluenote looking up from her own bed.
“And you are?”
“Bluenote.”
“Then you Miss Bluenote are not the cook, you are my assistant and I expect you to be in my office in full uniform in three hours fourteen minutes. We have a full train of ponies wanting to be home for the holidays and I expect to deliver perfect service to them. I assume that she,” he pointed to Lyra who was still asleep hugging her pillow tightly and drooling slightly, “Is Miss Heartstrings, our fire mare; I expect her to be in position in four hours fourteen minutes. Kindly tell her once she regains consciousness. In the mean time I expect you Ms Scratch to use the crew shower before you come on shift.” With that the elderly stallion turned and stomped from the cabin leaving two shocked and one sleeping mare behind him.
“That... that was not good,” said Bluenote once she could talk again.
“Think we should try to set him right?” asked Vinyl raising her glasses and rubbing her eyes, the grime covering all of her not protected by the lenses made her look like a reverse panda.
“You think it would work?”
“No, I know his type, he would ignore the two tyrants if they weren’t on his schedule. I guess we’ll be switching jobs then, can’t say I’ll be unhappy not to have another day of shovelling coal, no offence but cooking seems the easy option.”
“It’s trickier than it seems.”
“Hey, I can cook, mostly noodles, but I’m not helpless in the kitchen.”
“Well,” said Bluenote getting to her feet, “It’s fairly easy, there’s a preset menu, recipe cards and they bring on most of the meals premade. Some of the passengers are really picky though.” Stretching she reared up and prodded Lyra, “Lyra, wake up!” The mint pony didn’t move, she poked her a little harder, still no reaction.
“You’ll never wake her like that,” said Vinyl, “She’s a really deep sleeper. You’ve got to know the trick. Why, Bon Bon what are you doing here?” said Vinyl quietly.
“Huh, what? Bon Bon, where?” asked Lyra instantly awake, her head swivelling around.
“Sorry, false alarm,” said Vinyl with a grin. “We got a problem, there’s a new conductor on board and we’ve all got new jobs, you’re fire mare now.”
“Cool! Do I get to drive the train?” asked Lyra hopping down from her bunk.
“No you get to shift ton after ton of coal, there’s a guy called Heavy Load up there, should be able to show you the ropes, he give you any trouble just remind him I can kick his ass.”
“Got it. Who’s being a conductor?” Bluenote nodded. “It’s really easy just make sure you do whatever anypony wants you to do, look after the first class passengers and if you’ve got the time keep an eye on the standard class. Listen out for the call cords, that’s about it.”
Vinyl nodded. “Right I better be off, there’s a shower with my name on it, see you girls later. Remember we’ll be home tomorrow.”
Shivering slightly Vinyl made her way into the kitchen, it was amazing how on a machine which ran on hot water the shower only seemed to manage cold or icy. Still it felt good to be clean, well cleaner, a problem with a white coat was that all the stains showed, even after a good scrub some coal dust still remained. She had only just donned her uniform when she felt the train start to slow beneath her as it pulled into a station.
As Bluenote had warned her a small army of ponies marched on board with trays of food and began to load them into the heated hatches. Vinyl told herself she’d have a look at them later, they sounded interesting. Once the food was loaded and the train moved off again a few other staff members started to set up the tables and lay out boxes of cereal. Vinyl led back against one of the counters, it didn’t seem like there was much for her to do right now. She stretched again, her muscles still ached from fatigue, maybe she could shut her eyes for a few minutes, the warmth from the all-around was very soothing.
Lyra trotted towards the front of the train feeling a little apprehensive. She’d seen how exhausted Vinyl had been after a day shovelling coal and the DJ had far more magical strength than she had. Still she liked to think her body was stronger than Vinyl’s although the white unicorn did spend a lot of time climbing around the jungle gym that made up her house. She shook herself, and whispered the words of Sir Gallant Hat. “My strength is like the strength of ten, for my heart is pure!” Bolstered, she opened the door to the engine itself and forced her way in against the wave of heat that burst forth.
“Oh, hi Vinyl, I thought I’d...” started the large stallion in front of her, although dusty his coat looked and smelt freshly washed and his mane was neatly combed. “Wait a minute, you’re not Vinyl!”
“So many ponies seem to be making that mistake recently, did my coat get dyed or something,” she joked turning around to look at herself. “I’m Lyra Heartstrings. I’m afraid Vinyl’s been reassigned so you’ll have me for the rest of the trip.” She held out a hoof.
“Oh,” he sounded rather disappointed. “I’m Heavy Load, pleased to meet you miss.” He gently bumped his hoof against hers.
“Vinyl told me about you, she said you’d help me settle in.”
“She talked about me?” his ears pricked up. “Oh, yes I can help you. Well basically we move the coal from there,” he pointed to the large hoppers behind them, “To the engine, but it’s a bit more complicated, we want to keep a steady burn not go all out.”
“Got it!” said Lyra.
“You can use a shovel or your magic, get a couple of loads into the furnace and I’ll show you how to arrange it properly.”
“Ok,” Lyra looked back at the coal supply, she mostly used her magic for fine manipulation like playing her lyre or illusions, her lifting capacity wasn’t great, she decided against trying to move tons of coal with her horn and started to crawl into the shovel. She got it around her neck but the large tool made her look very small.
“Let me help you with that,” said Heavy adjusting a few straps and finally managing to draw it light around Lyra’s diminutive frame. “That should do.”
Lyra moved around a bit to get used to it, then leaned forwards and stuck the blade into the coal, with effort she straightened and staggered over to the fire before dropping the load into it. She turned and started to repeat the process with difficulty starting to feel her back and neck muscles complain. It wasn’t easy but she would do it, her friends were depending on her!
Heavy watched Lyra for a moment before turning back to his own work, a look of concern on his face.
“Hay bacon and eggs for table two,” came a cry, “Full Equestrian for table five.”
Vinyl shook herself awake and looked around blearily, “Huh?”
One of the servers was standing at the kitchen door, looking worried, “You alright?” he asked.
“Yeah, no problem,” said Vinyl, it was just as well the kitchen was so cramped or she would have fallen down when she fell asleep. “A hay bacon and eggs and a full Equestrian, right?”
“Yep.”
“Right, give me five minutes,” she started to open random cupboards to try and find the meals, she guessed she might have to cook the eggs now so she levitated a frying pan and turned on one of the small gas burners.
“Porridge for table twelve,” called another server.
“Eggs benedict for eight.”
“Full Equestrian, hold the tomato’s for fifteen!”
Vinyl groaned, maybe shovelling coal would have been easier.
“So you’re the new assistant conductor then?” said Spitshine looking down his muzzle at Bluenote. The two of them were standing in his office at opposite side of his desk, it was clear he didn’t think much of her.
“Apparently,” said Bluenote, briefly wishing she was back in the train’s comfy kitchen.
“So what does a conductor do then?” he asked.
Buenote was glad she’d talked to Lyra earlier. “We’re here to do whatever we have to keep the passengers happy. We mostly focus on first class but do what we can for standard class as well.”
“Wrong!” roared the stallion causing Bluenote to jump back into the partition behind her. “You’ve been talking to Silver Service haven't you? We are here for all the passengers, standard or first class, everypony deserves the best possible service we can provide. If you don’t understand that then you won’t have long in this business.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be! Be better!” A small bell rang against the wall, Spitshine glanced up at it. “Carriage two, come on, we’ve got work to go.”
The old stallion checked his watch again and stiffly trotted towards the door followed by Bluenote, they made their way down the train and into the first class section. As they entered there was shouting from ahead and two diminutive forms almost slammed into them as they rushed past. Bluenote just about recognised them as Double and Trouble half running, half gliding down the corridor.
Ahead of them a carriage door opened and a light blue coated middle aged mare with her white mane wrapped around curlers stuck her head out and shook a hoof at the foals as they disappeared down the corridor. “Young hooligans,” she screeched. Then she noticed Bluenote and Spitshine. “You there, conductors, those little monsters have been rushing back and forth for hours now, do something about it! I didn’t pay for first class to be awoken by those creatures, they’re not natural you know! No true pony would, well you know, with a griffin.”
Bluenote felt her hackles rise at the comment but she tried to keep herself under control. “I’m sure they didn’t mean to disturb your beauty sleep,” she said trying to sound calming. “But kids will be kids you know, I’m sure you remember what it was like being their age, even if it was a while ago,” she grinned.
“What do you mean by that!” bellowed the mare, no doubt waking her neighbours if the colts hadn’t already.
“It was a joke, sorry.”
“Not a very funny one! I will be complaining to your manager about this!”
“That would be me madam,” said Spitshine smoothly. “I apologize for her poor choice of humour. Rest assume I will have words with the children and you will not be disturbed by them again. Now is there anything else we can do to make your time with us better?”
“Well,” said the mare seemingly mollified. “I think I would like breakfast in bed, porridge covered in rose petals and a glass of orange juice.”
“I will see to it personally madam, if that is all?” The mare nodded and Spitshine gave a bow before turning and grabbing Bluenote’s leg and dragging her down the corridor. “What do you think you were doing?!” he hissed.
“You heard what she said about them, she deserved to...” Bluenote was interrupted as the two colts returned rushing down the corridor chasing each other and screaming loudly.
“Lads!” said Spitshine threateningly as he put himself in the way of Double and Trouble. The two young hippogriffs skidded to a halt in a tangle of wings, hooves and claws. “You know you kids aren't supposed to be here!” he growled.
“We’re sorry!” said the two little hybrids looking up at the conductor eyes wide. “But we’re so bored!” they chorused. “There’s nothing to do and auntie’s got one of her headaches!” said one as the other nodded.
Bluenote readied herself to try and distract the older pony’s fury but to her surprise Spitshine knelt with some difficulty in front of the kids. “Now Lads,” he said gently. “I know how you feel but you can’t just run up and down the corridors, you’ll disturbing other ponies and you might hurt yourselves.” The two colt’s heads drooped. “Tell you what, we’ve got some games and books on board, I’m sure you can find something to amuse yourself with for a few hours. How about that?”
Both children nodded rapidly.
“Good,” said Spitshine getting to his hooves again. “Bluenote, take these two young gentlestallions to the supply cupboard in carriage six, you should find what they need. If you’ll excuse me,” he nodded to Double and Trouble, “I’ve got to get somepony’s breakfast.” He turned and walked away.
Bluenote watched in astonishment as the older stallion walked away.
Finally after several hours and what seemed like hundreds of different recipes the breakfast crowd died down. Some of the passengers had been so finicky, she’d had to go through a dozen boiled eggs for one they were all too runny, or too hard leaving Vinyl with the washing up. A few quick bring to life spells dealt with that particular chore although they brought a little twinge to her horn. She guessed she had a few hours before she was needed so Vinyl decided to have a look at the equipment around the kitchen to pass the time.
Most of it was fairly standard, if miniaturized, still it was fun to take it apart and have a bit of a look around inside. The heating system for the cabinets was interesting, it seemed to draw waste water from the engine itself and used it to keep the contents warm. It was a bit wasteful though, maybe some sort of heat exchanger could be added so that less of the heat was lost, it might even be possible to use the steam directly for some meals, she wasn’t sure about the hygiene implications though, although steam was steam right? It wasn’t anything she could do on the fly anyway but it might be interesting to try in her kitchen at home, she thought she still had some of granddad’s stuff in the basement, she should be able to build a small boiler without any trouble.
The last device she found was the most interesting to her, it was a medium sized oven, about the size of a ponies head, with a glass panel in one. Most of the kitchen, although cleaned, looked worn but this thing was pristine, untouched. After scanning it with her magic she discovered that it seemed designed to react to a unicorn’s field but it wasn’t clear how. She turned it on and a short blue flame appeared at the bottom, she concentrated and realised she could control its position and strength through her magic. Finally it occurred to her what it was, a live flame, a quick magical way of cooking food. She’d heard of them but never seen one before, they were supposed to cook really quickly, she couldn’t see why they didn’t use it, her hooves itched to give it a go. She flipped though the recipe cards but none mentioned using it. So she just filled up a cup with water and loaded it in. Carefully steering the flame under the cup and elongating it she watched with interest as after a few seconds the water started to boil, neat!
She was about to start a few more experiments when the train came to a stop and the lunches were loaded on. She flipped through the menu, the ever present mac and cheese, she could deal with, the courgette salad the same, but there were things she hadn’t even heard of before on the first class menu, what was scampi anyway? She glanced at the live flame, maybe she could use that to make things easier? She mused for a moment, probably not, she didn’t understand it properly yet, maybe later.
Gritting her teeth Lyra tossed another load of coal into the furnace, she stopped for a moment to use her magic to settle the coal out like Heavy had shown her to make it burn more evenly. Then slumped back for a moment, her neck muscles were screaming at her after moving so many loads of coal and her legs had started to feel like lumps of coal themselves, but she would not give up! Everypony on the train was depending on her to get them to their destination.
“You really should take a break, you’ve been at it for hours,” said Heavy looking concerned. “Here take a drink, you need to keep hydrated.” He raised a bottle of water and she took it in her aura, it was heavier than she expected and she almost dropped it before she concentrated and it make its shaky journey to her, she poured a good load into her mouth and swallowed gratefully before upending the rest over her head. She sighed feeling the luke warm water wash over her mane, it felt heavenly in the boiling heat of the engine.
“I’m good, I can keep going,” she assured the large stallion.
“You should listen to the lad,” said Stopping, the break-stallion, sticking his head into the engine room. “I remember back when I was a fire stallion my partner damn near killed himself one time, trying to impress a mare he was,” he glanced at Heavy. “Ended up putting himself out of commission for weeks.”
“I can do it,” insisted Lyra, “Just another ten minutes.” She lifted another load trying to stop her legs from shaking. “So why did you all decide to work on the trains?” she asked.
“It’s in my blood,” said Stopping, “My father was a driver and my grandmother was an architect, laid out a good chunk of the railways in the south and west of Equestria she did.”
“I’m in it for the speed,” called Steep from the front of the train. “Not that you get much of that on the passenger runs but I got to run tests on the Spirit when they first put her in service, damn she was fast, weren't you girl, she’s rated for one hundred and twenty but I saw her do twenty over that down a hill.”
Lyra grinned at the old stallion talking to the engine, all the staff seemed to do it, talk about the train as if she was alive. She found it romantic in a way, making the Spirit herself part of the team. “How... about... you?” she asked panted to Heavy, she was finding it difficult to catch her breath, it was so hot, the furnace itself looked cooler than the room.
“Well I’ve always loved trains, great powerful, beautiful things,” mumbled Heavy looking down. “You could see the trains go by from my house, I spent hours watching them go back and forth off to exciting places, I told myself that one day I’d drive one of them. I’ve not quite got there yet but I will one day.”
“We all got to pay our dues lad, but one day, you’ll get your turn,” said Steep. “How about you lass? Why you working here?”
Lyra tried to speak but she couldn’t seem to get the words out, straining herself she lifted another load of coal and dragged her body across the room. For some reason the room seemed to be getting dark despite the fire, it wasn’t that late was it? She leaned forwards to empty the shovel and she just seemed to keep going moving forwards towards the fire. She should probably stop, she thought, but she couldn’t quite remember how, it was probably something to do with those things sticking out of her body, legs she thought they were called but she couldn’t remember how to use them.
The last thing she saw before it all went black was Heavy rushing over towards her.
“Lyra! Lyra!” someone was yelling her name, they sounded very worried.
“Bon Bon?” she asked hopefully, trying to open her eyes, she felt dizzy.
“Are you alright?” asked Heavy, Lyra peered at both of him for a moment before the image resolved itself, he looked worried.
“What happened? Where?” She asked.
“You gave us a scare, lass,” said Stopping. “You fainted. Pushing yourself too hard.”
“I’m fine,” said Lyra trying to get up, her legs didn’t seem to want to work. “I need to help Heavy, we have to get to Canterlot!”
“Heavy will be fine on his own for a while, you built up a good fire and the next few hours are mostly downhill.”
Heavy nodded. “Cool off up front, rest, get something to drink, maybe we’ll send back for some left over breakfast. You can help again when you’re feeling better.”
“No I’m fine I... Whoops!” cried Lyra as she tried to get to her hooves again, they seemed to slide away underneath her and she would have fallen if Heavy hadn’t gotten in the way.
“Well maybe a few minutes,” she admitted letting herself be lead to the cooler environment of the drivers cabin. She felt so useless right now.
It seemed to Bluenote that that bell never stopped ringing, she’d only just gotten back to her station when it was going again. She and Spitshine had split up to be able to deal with all the requests although she thought the old stallion still didn’t trust her. She glanced up at the board, first class again she grumbled to herself, why did they have to be so picky?
She almost galloped down the corridor and yanked the carriage door open. “Speedy delivery service, how can I be of assistance?” she quipped.
“Hum,” said the white stallion sitting at a desk, for some reason the cushion he was sitting on was shaped like a duck. “Oh, could you get me another bottle of ink please, this one is almost empty and I have some rather important correspondence to finish.”
“Right away sir!” said Bluenote as she left the room. In her short career as a conductor she’d found out that a surprising amount of junk was hidden around the train, ink shouldn’t be that hard to find. In fact it was in the first place she found, about half a bottle, it looked a little old and partially dried up, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. As she was closing the door she noticed a second unopened bottle at the very back of the cupboard, she’d have to empty almost everything out of it to get to it. She considered for a moment then she heard the call bell ring again and she slammed the cupboard shut, no time now. She rushed back to the white ponies room and presented the ink to him.
“Oh is this all,” he asked.
Bluenote sighed. “I’m afraid that’s all we have at the moment, although if we happen to find a squid on board I’ll be happy to milk it myself.” Where did they get ink from anyway? she mused.
“Oh, um, no, I’ll just have to make do, I suppose.”
Bluenote spent the next hour rushing up and down the train trying to keep the peace with the various customers. She’d had a go at fixing one of the bunks in a cabin, passed on requests for various snacks, listened to one old biddy go one about her cats for half an hour and offered to get the cleaners to tidy on particularly messy room.
Feeling exhausted she slumped down in the staff room for a few minutes to let herself recover. She supposed the job wasn’t that bad but she certainly wouldn’t want to do it full time, still she’d be back home in Ponyville within twenty-four hours now, that thought made her perk up. However, her good cheer quickly evaporated when Spitshine entered his face like thunder.
“You!” he bellowed, “What have you been doing?!”
“What you asked me to, helping the passengers,” she managed to stutter a sinking feeling in her stomach. “I helped fix a bunk...” she began.
“Fix it! You did a half assed job of it, the thing broke an hour later, somepony could have been hurt!”
“I’m sorry I’m not a carpenter, I did what I could in the time.”
“You should make time! I’ve had complaints, it’s taking forever for food to get to the passengers.” He glared at her.
“I’ve been passing on the orders whenever I pass the kitchen, I keep getting called away to other matters.”
“You should deliver the orders as quickly as you can and then move on to the next request, and what about the cleaning in cabin eight? When’s that going to get done?”
“I... I was just getting a bit of a rest, I was going to pass on the request as soon as I saw a cleaner.”
“Rest! You can rest when you’re dead,” he roared, “Do it now! Wait, you obviously can’t be trusted, I’ll do it myself, you take these orders to the kitchen,” he shoved a pile of papers into it hooves. “And do it straight away, no dawdling, if you don’t buck up your idea’s I’ll have you thrown off the train at the next stop!”
He stomped off leaving Bluenote feeling shell shocked.
Vinyl wiped sweat from her brow, the kitchen was boiling. Around her a dozen bowls, plates and other implements were orbiting as she tried to keep up with the demand. She was good, but even her magic couldn’t deal with all of this at once.
“Caesar salad,” called one of the servers. Vinyl grabbed the item from the cupboard and levitated it over.
“Side order of roasted chestnuts for table ten, they also want more gravy.”
Vinyl grabbed the gravy pot in a hoof, it seemed awfully light, she checked it, empty. She’d have to cook some more from the granules. She glanced around, all the hobs were in use. “They’ll have to wait.”
“It’s that Duke, he won’t like that.”
“Look, tell him fifteen minutes.”
“His meal will be cold by them.”
Vinyl glared at the sauces on the burner, none of them were finished and removing them would mean she’d have to start again. Then her eye fell on the live flame, that would do it. “Tell him two minutes, then.” She quickly poured out some water and added the granules before stirring with a spoon and putting it in the live flame and activated the device stretching the flame as large as she could and positioning it under the bowl.”
“Hey Vinyl,” called Bluenote sticking her head around the door. “How’s it going?”
“Could be better, could be worse,” said Vinyl, pouring a creamy sauce over two meals and levitating them out to a server. “You?”
“Could be a lot better, I can’t seem to do anything right, what do these ponies want? Blood?”
“Well it’s not on the menu tonight.” She peered at the live flame, the gravy was starting to bubble.
“You’re not using that thing are you?” asked Bluenote her eyes widening. “Those things are unstable, plus they leach all the flavour out of a meal.”
“Hey, these things are great, you can make a meal in minutes rather than hours, what’s not to like?” said Vinyl. Suddenly there was a loud crackling sound and the door to the live flame exploded outwards in a burst of smoke and hot liquid. Reacting quickly Vinyl threw herself aside only to knock the saucepans off the grill, flames shot into the air.
“Fire!” yelled Bluenote.
“No wait, I got this,” cried Vinyl as she began to cast a fire suppression spell but it was too late, Bluenote’s hoof lashed out and caught on the emergency cord.
Lyra paced back and forth for a bit trying to stop her legs from shaking. “I’m fine now,” she told Steep.
“I think you need a bit more rest, we don’t want you collapsing again, if Heavy hadn’t caught you things could have been nasty.”
“No really, I’m good, Heavy will need a hoof!” Back in the engine room the large stallion was methodically filling both boilers but she could tell it was taking a toll from him.
“Give it another half hour, then you can give it a go, Stopping can give you a hoof.”
Lyra was just going to argue when she heard a loud clanging from somewhere overhead.
Steep looked up puzzled for a moment. “Emergency cord?” he muttered. “Emergency stop! Everypony brace!” he yelled.
Puzzled Lyra wrapped her forelegs around a piece of machinery. Steep looked over to Stopping who nodded. “Venting!” he cried before grabbing a large wheel and spinning it, the air around the train turned white as a full tank of steam was vented from the boiler stopping the motive power of the train almost instantly.
“Braking!” cried Stopping leaning against the brake lever starting to gently bleed off the vehicles momentum. There was a squeal as the brakes engaged and Lyra was almost thrown off her hooves by the jerk. Then slowly bit by bit the train started to slow and after several minutes finally came to a complete stop.
“Whatever was that about?” asked Steep busying himself with various gages and controls. “Heavy! Get back there and find out what’s going on, it better not be some joker or there be Tartarus to pay.”
The large stallion nodded and taking off the shovel headed into the body of the train.
“Will it take long to get going again?” asked Lyra.
“Depends what’s wrong,” said Steep. “But regardless it takes time to build up a head of steam and there’s a whole book full of checks before we can get moving again, an hour at least maybe two, plus we’re low on water and the next stop’s not for a while, we’re have to go careful. I don’t think a lot of the folks back there will be getting home for Heartwarming.”
“I am sorry but due to an... accident in the kitchen lunch has been cancelled for the trip. However, we still have a good selection of snacks on our trolley service and you will be refunded the cost of the meal. And do not worry, we will be serving dinner as normal. I apologize for any inconvenience,” said Spitshine through gritted teeth to yet another group of passengers. Making angry mumbling sounds the hungry ponies shuffled away.
“Well!” he cried once the passengers had left. “What do you two foals have to say for yourselves?”
“Um, in my defence there was actually a fire,” muttered Bluenote.
“Only a small one,” said Vinyl.
Spitshine looked like he was ready to explode. “How can you be so glib? This kitchen is a state! Passengers left hungry! And worse now we’re almost an hour behind schedule!” He checked his watch again.
“Oh come on, nopony was hurt, a bit of a delay won’t kill anypony. There are more important things than your time table.”
“This isn’t about the timetable,” snarled Spitshine. “This is about ponies missing connections, being stranded over the holidays, not getting to see their families! Did you think of that!”
Vinyl staggered back at the stallion’s angry outburst and Bluenote paled. “I’m... I’m sorry I didn’t think of that.”
“Ay, well maybe you should,” muttered Spitshine. “These ponies put their welfare in our hooves. We need to do our very best for all of them. Now maybe you don’t have family waiting for you but our passengers do.”
“I’ve got family,” said Vinyl.
“Well aren’t you the lucky one!”
“Mum’s waiting for me, Dad’s working again though,” said Bluenote quietly.
Spitshine stopped and his face softened for a moment. “I’m sorry... I’m sure he...” then he scowled again. “Look just clean up this mess, both of you,” he pointed to Bluenote. “I’ll expect you back on duty in an hour.” He turned and stormed off.
“Well I guess we better get started,” said Vinyl.
“Yeah, I guess so,” said Bluenote thoughtfully watching the old stallion go.
“Sorry, but I’ve got to get back to work,” said Bluenote looking around the half cleaned kitchen.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got this,” confirmed Vinyl her levitating rag wiping at a particularly sooty part of the kitchen. “Just make sure you don’t pull the emergency cord again on your way out.”
“Look I said I was sorry!” muttered Bluenote getting up from the freshly scrubbed floor and straightening her uniform.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean it.”
“Yeah, I know but I don’t know how much longer I can put up with Spitshine, he’s so demanding, he’s getting me stressed.” She wrung her hooves.
“Chill,” said Vinyl, “We only have to put up with him for another day, then we’re home.”
“I suppose you’re right and it’s not entirely his fault, I’ve messed things up, I’m just not used to this sort of thing.”
“Hey don’t worry, you’re good at getting ponies to relax.”
“Yeah, mostly foals!”
“Well adults are just big foals you know.”
“Well some of us anyway,” she grinned, yes, that sounded right, she might be able to deal with this after all. “Thanks Vinyl.”
“No problem, now off you go, I’ve got cleaning to finish.”
Panting slightly Vinyl wrung out a dirty rag in the sink, that was the last of it she thought. Around her the kitchen was, well if not shining at least clean enough to cook in, the soot from the fire had been washed away and the cutlery cleaned and stored. Unfortunately not all of the damage could be easily fixed, one of the gas burners was out of commission, a few saucepans and some ingredients had been lost as well. As for the living flame itself, Vinyl doubted it would ever work again and she wondered if the train company might let her take its remains home with her? More likely they would charge her for it, how much did it cost anyway?
She was shaken out of her revelry by the food for the dinner being brought on board, she thanked the ponies carrying it and quickly busied herself looking through the menu and recipes. Maybe it was because tomorrow was Hearth’s Warming eve but it seemed like the food was getting more complicated. It sounded very tasty but she had to make it all, and in, she checked, less than an hour.
Fine, half stocked kitchen, damaged equipment, a dozen recipes to work on including two she’d never heard of before, piece of cake. She checked the menu, yes cake was on it.
The rest of the afternoon went a little better for Bluenote, she was just as busy but she managed to keep the various disasters under control. There were a lot of hungry ponies around she tailed the food cart and helped entertain the guests juggling a few of the rolls before catching them in her mouth, or that was the plan anyway, she got hit on the muzzle a few times instead, but at least it cheered up the passengers.
She found the corridors increasingly blocked with bored foals as the excitement of being on a train started to wear off to be replaced by the monotony of life on the rails. She and the train’s small collection of toys and games got a good workout trying to keep up with them, at least the different foals could entertain each other.
Then she spent a rather painful half hour clambering through a store cupboard trying to get out a chair of a particular height for a passenger who insisted that her’s was just a little too short. Followed by a further hour trying to coax out the pet cat of another passenger who had crept into the cupboard while she wasn’t looking.
Finally she returned to the staff room looking for a moment peace. Slumping forward onto the table she closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. Then her ears pricked up, she heard music, a trumpet from nearby. Opening her eyes again she looked around, it seemed to be coming from Spitshine’s office, it was quite good, something on the blues side of jazz. She got up and gently pushed the door open.
There sat the conductor with the instrument to his mouth, eyes closed as he concentrated on his performance. The two of them stood there for a few minutes as he finished the piece, then his eyes snapped open and he glared at Bluenote. “Don’t you have anything else to do?” he growled.
“Not at the moment,” she replied. “You’re good.”
“Thank you,” he said grudgingly. “It’s my act for the first class passengers tonight.”
“I play tuba myself, I didn’t bring it with me though, it’s a bit big.”
“That it is.”
“I sometimes wonder if it just needs me to move it from place to place and provide the wind,” she grinned.
Spitshine didn’t seem impressed. “Well you better come up with something for standard class,” he checked his watch, “You’ve got one hour forty two minutes.”
She remembered what Lyra had told her, she better think quickly, she tried to wrack her brain, what could she do to entertain the passengers... Then it struck her. “Stay here for a moment, I’ve got an idea?” she rushed out of the staff room and down the corridor. She stopped outside of Medley’s family’s cabin and knocked on the door, it was opened by Rockall.
“Excuse me,” she said with a grin, “Do you mind if I borrow your children? I promise to return them more or less intact!”
Steep and Stopping had run through the checks as quickly as they could once they had found that the emergency was under control. Lyra had been worried about a fire in the kitchen but she was sure that Vinyl would have it dealt with quickly, small fires were not unusual around her. Once steam pressure had been built up enough the machine slowly and painfully started off again kept at a low speed due to lack of water. It seemed to take forever to reach the next stop where they could take on water. Lyra nervously chewed on her hoof watching the scenery pass by, would this delay mean they would miss their connection at Canterlot? Or not even reach the city? Would she let down both Medley and Vinyl and even her own and Bluenote’s parents.
Once the water tanks were filled again the train started to move off again and pick up speed. Given her long rest Lyra was allowed to start feeding the engines again although she noticed Heavy keeping an eye on her. Her limbs still felt heavy and she relied increasingly on her magic to strengthen herself but she couldn’t sit around doing nothing.
“How far behind schedule are we?” she shouted through to Steep.
“A bit over two and a half hours,” he called back.
“Can we make that up overnight?”
“Not a chance, even if we ran flat out we’d still be an hour behind, maybe more.”
“But you said that the Spirit was fast, surely we’re not pushing her?” she glanced outside, the trees were zipping past but this couldn’t be as fast as it could go.
“She’s fast but we’re pulling a lot of weight.”
“But she could do it? She’s a strong mare, right? She can do anything she puts her mind to. Run through a meadow in the rain with the pink and blue streamers of her mane flowing behind her. Make the sweetest sweets. Get her passengers home on time! She can do anything!” she stared into the distance her eye glazed.
“Um, are you talking about Spirit?” asked Heavy looking confused.
“Well, more or less,” admitted Lyra lifting another load of coal and rushing over to load it into the boiler again.
“Lass, slow down, you’ll hurt yourself again,” said Stopping. “It’s not worth it just to meet a schedule.”
“This isn’t about a schedule!” gasped Lyra blinking back the spots in front of her eyes as she worked like a mare possessed. “This is about our passengers, this is about getting them to their loved ones on time. This is about Hearth’s Warming!”
Heavy looked at her for a moment then nodded and began to load more and more coal into the furnace. “We can do this Mr Gradient, the Spirit can do this, if you let her.”
“You two are crazy, you’re going to hurt yourselves!” said Steep.
“One of my friends, Medley, she’s one of the strongest mares I’ve ever known, she’ll go to the ends of the world to help her customers, she never gives up. And neither will we, we will get these ponies home on time. Maybe we won’t make it, but they can’t say we didn’t try, and they can’t say it wasn’t because Spirit wasn’t the greatest train in existence!” She staggered as she lifted another shovel of coal and to her surprise found Stopping standing next to her.
“You’ve got heart kid, but I don’t think you’re quite built for this. Let me help, it’s been a while but I think I remember how this goes. I used to be the best firestallion on the line you know.” He gently lifted the shovel off her and put it over his own head quickly adjusting the straps. Flexing his neck he started to move the coal.
“You’re all crazy!” said Steep. “And I guess it’s contagious. Lyra get up here.” Staggering slightly she made her way up into the controls. “Ok, we’ve got a good two hundred miles until the next stop, more or less straight and flat, just the place for Spirit to show us what she can really do! Now, hold this and push it forwards,” he indicated a large lever, “And shout out if that gets into the red.” He pointed to a gage.
“What are you doing?” asked Lyra taking the controls.
“Showing Stopping that he’s wrong, he wasn’t the best firestallion, I was,” he stepped back into the engine and took up the spare shovel before attacking the coal with vigour.
Lyra leaned forwards onto the controls and Spirit shot forwards like an arrow from a bow, flashing onwards at an ever increasing rate.
“Three salads!” called one server.
“One lasagne, one stew with no carrots, and two basil gnudi.”
“Three chocolate sponges and a Hearth's Warming cake for table twenty.”
“Table two says if they don’t get their food in the next five minutes they’ll sue!”
“A soup, a pate and a cheese starter.”
The kitchen was in chaos, with lunch being cancelled everypony on the train seemed to want to eat at once, fearful they would miss out again. The dining carriage was packed to bursting and some passengers were even ordering food to their rooms. At least twenty separate objects were levitating around the room at any one moment powered by Vinyl’s increasingly aching horn.
At the centre of it all Vinyl was desperately trying to keep her cool exterior, inside she was close to cracking up. She was having enough difficulty just remembering the orders let alone serving them up. She had more sauces and extras that needed to be cooked than she had cooking space. It was just too much for one pony, the servers had offered to help but the kitchen was just too small for more than one pony, they would just get in each other’s way.
She was still recovering from yesterday’s exertions but even at full strength she’d have difficulty keeping this may plates in the air at once, literally. She lost concentration for a moment and two half completed meals collided spilling their contents, she swore, now she’d have to start them again.
At this rate Spitshine would throw her off the train and she’d miss Hearth’s Warming despite all the effort she’d put into it, at least Medley’s family would make it home. Around her the plates trembled dangerously. She concentrated again and they stabilized for the moment but it was like a storm of crockery, sooner or later she’d loose control.
Like a storm...
She remembered being caught by a sudden downpour from the Everfree and taking shelter in Medley’s store. The blue pegasus has been sitting in the window humming and nodding to herself as she looked out at the storm. Vinyl had asked what she was doing and Medley had said she was singing the storm. To Vinyl it had just seemed like chaos but to Medley there had been an order, the two of them had spent the afternoon working on a composition based on the storm and it’s changing patterns, she’d never quite seen them herself but they’d been there, Medley had been sure.
She just needed to find a pattern, a beat she could organise the work by. She closed her eyes and all movement in the carriage ceased for a moment. Come on, she told herself, she was DJ-Pon3 Queen of the Wubs, she could drop a beat anywhere.
There! There it was, the gentle click-clack of the train as it moved, regular as a heartbeat, something she could base her work around.
Around the kitchen the dishes started to move again, no longer were they discorded now they flew around in perfect interlacing lockstep. Each dish followed its own path but never intersected with any other. Open cupboard, click-clack, click-clack, move to stove, click-clack, add sauce, click-clack, click-clack, return to cupboard, click-clack, change saucepans, click-clack, click-clack, click-clack, add second sauce, click-clack, pass to server.
Slowly a wide smile grew over the DJ’s face and her head started to bob, humming to herself she started to trot back and forth up and down the cabin. It was said by the servers that it was as if she was dancing to some unknown beat.
“Hey guys!” cried Bluenote. The viewing carriage was packed, not just with the standard class passengers but also with the first class customers who didn’t look at all happy to have to be jostled by the hoi polloi. “I know there’s normally two sets of entertainment for the different classes but well Hearth’s Warming is all about ponies of different types coming together so I thought I’d mix things up.” The various groups in the carriage started to look around at each other. “Rather than just us staff putting on a show for you I thought it might be an idea to let you guys show each other what you can do, a sort of audience participation night.” There was a rumble through the crowd and everypony started to look away. “No one want’s to volunteer to go first? I guessed it might be like this so I’d like to welcome my first act to the stage, everypony stomp really hard for the foals of the Spirit of Friendship!”
Bluenote began to stamp on the ground as about two dozen foals of various tribes were herded onto the stage by Spitshine and began to set up a homemade orchestra, one of the larger colts had a broom with some strings tied to it to act as a double base, a filly proudly carried a washboard she’s found somewhere and ran her hoof up and down it. Others used tins and pots to make drums. One or two carried real instruments, possibly early hearth’s Warming presents. Spitshine carried his trumpet and Bluenote produced a harmonica from somewhere.
Around her the foals parents, rich or poor started to stamp their approval of their offspring followed by the rest of the crowd.
“Ok, folks, given where we are and the time of year I thought we’d start with something a little topical.” Bluenote nodded to the band and lead by Spitshine they started toplay with rather more passion than skill.
Hi there, Bluie, whatcha say? Cried all the foals together, more or less in rhythm.
Pardon me foal, is that the Appleloosa Choo Choo?
You leave the Pennsylmaneia station 'bout a quarter to four
Look at the Hearth warming party at the station
The music died down and there was silence for a moment as dozens of scared little eyes looked out at the audience, then the cheering started. Proud parents rushed forwards to congratulate their offspring and even strangers showed their appreciation.
Unnoticed in the hubbub Bluenote wiped her brow, she was glad that had worked.
Once the first act had finished more and more ponies volunteered to demonstrate talents, singing, dancing, surprisingly Duke Fancypants proved to be something of an amateur magician, just bad enough at it to make it seem a joke while still entertaining the crowd. Rockall got up and told several bawdy tales which had half the crowd rolling in the aisles while the other half hurried to cover their foal’s ears.
Where the room had started divided by class and riches, the night ended with a group rendition of the ancient Hearth’s Warming carol
The fire of friendship lives in our hearts
Once the crowd has dispersed back to their cabins, and in one or two cases each other’s cabins, Bluenote stayed behind to tidy up, she could have left it to the cleaners but she thought she deserved to do her bit.
“Glad to see you decided to actually put your heart into your job,” growled Spitshine as he entered the carriage. “But don’t think this makes up for your screw ups earlier!”
“I’ve got a friend like you, grouchy, grumpy, prickly,” Spitshine scowled but didn’t say anything. “But she’s like that because she’s a perfectionist, she wants the best for all her customers, the same way you do and she doesn’t quite understand normal ponies like me who think that good enough is well, good enough.” She grinned. “But she’s been acting extra grumpy recently because she thought she wouldn’t get to spend the holiday with her family. So where’s your family?”
The old stallion stared for the moment then staggered back into a chair his head slumped. “I don’t have one,” he said.
“Everypony has somepony.”
“Not me, not any more, I just sort of drifted away from my kids, I was always on the rail, too much time away from home. After the missus died there was nothing to keep us together anymore, I haven’t seen them in years, they probably don’t even think of me, better off without me.”
“Don’t say that!” cried Bluenote with surprising force. “My dad, well he’s busy a lot, always touring or practicing but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love me and I don’t love him. I just means the time we do spend together is that much more precious. Where do they live?”
“Well my youngest, last I heard she was in Canterlot, an artist she is.” He reached into a jacket pocket and opened his pocket watch, on the inside of the case was a portrait of four ponies, one a younger version of Spitshine, a yellow coated mare of his age by his side and two younger mares in front of them. “She made this,” he said glowing with pride, “I always keep it close.”
“Why not go to see her once we arrive? She probably misses you.”
The old stallion looked up from the picture. “But what will I tell her after all this time?” he asked, sounding a little scared.
“Merry Hearth's Warming would probably be a good start,” Bluenote rested a hoof on his. “You might find you’ve got more to say than you think. At least think about it.” She turned and started to walk towards the cabin door.
“Bluenote,” he called from behind, she turned. “I you put some effort into your work you might actually make a half decent conductor you know.”
She grinned. “Thank you, I hope you don’t take it the wrong way but I don’t think this is the career for me, far too stressful.”
“Well it’s not for everypony, but I think you could make it if you wanted.”
“You seem surprisingly conscious,” said Vinyl suspiciously glaring at Lyra as she entered the staff cabin. “A day shovelling coal had me totally wiped, you just look, well, just a little bit exhausted.”
The mint mare wiggled around in her bunk to face the DJ. “I guess I’m just tougher than you Vinyl, it’s all the healthy sweets I eat, made with love from the best mare in Equestria.” She yawned. “Plus I might have spent a few hours just driving the train rather than shovelling coal.” She said a little bashfully. “I sort of wore myself out early.”
“Yeah,” said Vinyl slumping into her own bed. “You’ve got to pace yourself.”
“Well it might have been easier if somepony hadn’t started a fire.”
“It was only a little one, Bluenote just over reacted,” said Vinyl defensively.
“Don’t worry about it, the boys made up the time, we’re even ahead a bit now, you should have seen them, real troopers.”
Vinyl raised an eyebrow behind her shades. “Does Bon Bon have some competition in your heart or something?”
“Never!” gasped Lyra in horror. “Although I think Heavy might have intentions towards you.”
Vinyl grinned. “Him and every other red blooded stallion in Equestria, not to mention mares of all blood colours, some of us have just got it.”
The door opened and Bluenote trotted in humming to herself.
“Evening!” called Vinyl. “You certainly seem happier than you were earlier.”
“I have had a very good time,” she announced. “It was fun!”
“How’d you ever get away from Mr time obsessed?”
“Spitshine? He’s not as bad as you’d think, just a bit grumpy, hopefully a good Heartwarming will sort him out.” She slouched over her bed. “How’d the cooking go?”
“Not bad once I’d sorted things out, I don’t think I’ll make a habit of it though. Still it might make a decent set some day.”
Bluenote frowned at that, then shrugged before covering herself with the blankets.
“Well you’ve still got to get up early for breakfast.”
Vinyl growled. “I’d forgotten that!”
“Don’t worry we’ll be in Canterlot by noon.”
“Then home a few hours later,” added Lyra. “I can’t wait to see the look on Medley’s face when she sees her family.”
The other two element bearers nodded.
“Yes girls,” said Vinyl. “We’ve done good this time.”
“It looked bad,” said Lyra, “But we persevered and now we’re on the home stretch, nothing can go wrong now!” She ducked as one of Bluenote’s pillows flew past her head.
“Don’t say that! Now you’ll jinx it!”
Author's Note
As always comments are appreciated.
Medley Hearth's Warming Everypony
Medley grumbled to herself as she stomped home on Hearth's Warming eve. How dare Dash be so infuriatingly cheerful! Why don’t you get on home Medley ? I can practically do the whole melt by myself tonight . Pure arrogance! She snarled in frustration at a nearby snow pony, which didn’t seem very impressed. She had been hoping she could help with the whole Hearth's Warming eve night shift, every weather pony knew it was the most important of the year even if it meant you had to be away from your family. It was vital that all the snow be cleared before the sun rose on Hearth's Warming day to show the foals that once again love and friendship had chased away the windigo for another year.
She sighed, she knew it wasn’t really the weather manager’s fault and she actually meant well, but Medley had hoped to use the work to keep her out of her cold and lonely house for the evening. Maybe it would have tired her out enough so she’d sleep through much of the holiday and it would just be over quicker. Still Dash didn’t need to rub it in so much, dropping hints that she had a warm and comfortable very special somepony to defrost with after her nights work and a foal to spend the day with. She guessed that Dash’s ‘secret’ on / off relationship with Ditzy was in its on mode at the moment.
Sighing again she shook herself as her gloomy house came into view. She shouldn’t be acting like this, it was entirely her own fault she wasn’t spending the day with her family. She had to stop acting like such a dragon. It had been several days since she’d see most of her friends, she guessed they were hiding from her wrath and she couldn’t blame them. She was a bad, bad pony. She guessed she should make some plans for the evening and tomorrow, something to eat up the time. Maybe watching tomorrows school pageant would make her feel better, she wondered if Double and Trouble were taking part in their own play. Another wave of depression washed over her, she wouldn’t get to see them even if they were. It was such a cold, black holiday this year.
She finally slouched up to her door and pushed it open. To her surprise she was struck by two rapidly moving blue projectiles which knocked her back into the snowy street.
“Surprise!” came a loud cry from within the shop.
“Happy Hearth's Warming cuz!” yelled the projectiles straight into her ears. Medley looked around in confusion for a moment then she blinked and recognised the happy smiling faces of Trouble and Double.
“Boys what... what are you doing here?” she gasped as they wrapped their little clawed legs around her in a hug which she quickly returned.
“They came with us,” explained her father as he, her mother and uncle Rockall trotted out of the shop, which she noticed was packed with local ponies, she recognised members of her fellow element bearer’s families among them, what were they all doing here?
“Oh, how are you dear?” asked Trotsy joining her nephews in hugging her daughter. “Have you been eating properly, you look a little thin.”
“Mom, what.. how?” Was she dreaming? If so she didn’t want to wake up. She had so many questions, but didn’t want to waste her time giving them breath.
“Me too,” said Rockall striding forwards and lifting his niece from the ground. “It’s good to see you again.”
“Thanks.”
“A nice place you’ve got here lass,” said Dogger from the doorway of the shop. “I’m right proud of you,” he said a little bashfully.
Medley slowly approached her father, she knew he wasn’t big on emotional scenes. “It’s good to see you dad, I thought... I thought I wouldn’t be able to see you this year.”
“Me too lass, and it hurt, I...” he fidgeted for a moment, “I missed you lass,” he leaned forwards and gave her a rather awkward hug. She found her eyes starting to mist at the physical contact.
“I missed you all so much,” she said looking around at her family. “But how did you get here?”
“It was your friends, they told us about your ‘problems’ they made sure we got here in time. Our train just got in a few hours ago,” said Trotsy.
“My friends?” She looked into the stop, Bluenote, Vinyl and Lyra stepped forwards. “How did you know? I didn’t tell you.”
“Fluttershy figured it out,” explained Vinyl pointing to the yellow vet standing quietly off to one side with her parents.
“Oh, it... it was nothing,” said Fluttershy demurely.
“And we couldn’t let you have a bad Hearth's Warming,” continued Vinyl, “It’s the time of year to spend with your family,” she gestured to a few of her brothers standing around with the crowd. “You should have told us.”
“It was my own business...” began Medley angrily. Then she relaxed and said, “You’re right, I should have, I’m... I’m sorry I’ve been acting like a dragon with a sore head these last few days, do you forgive me?”
“Of course we do,” said Bluenote.
“We would face a thousand perils, fight the greatest of monsters,” said Lyra, “Because you are our friend, and you would do the same for us. A few day’s working on a train was nothing.”
“Working on a train?”
“Yeah, it was full so we had to give a helping hoof for a few days, it was... an experience,” said Vinyl. “Something to add to our resumes I guess. Oh yeah, Alder,” she turned to an older white stallion. “I got to drive a train! Can you believe it?” The stallion frowned then grinned.
“You did all that for me!” asked Medley in astonishment, feeling overwhelmed.
“Of course, you wouldn’t do less for us, would you?” said Bluenote.
“I... I suppose not.”
“You might be a little... prickly sometimes but you always come through for your friends, it’s why you’ve got so many,” she gestured at the mob of ponies filling her shop.
Medley had only just noticed but somepony had transformed her shop while she had been away for the afternoon, Hearth's Warming decorations had been placed everywhere and tables of snacks had been laid out between the isles of instruments. “Where did this all come from?” she asked in surprise.
“Pinkie I think.”
“Yep,” said the pink party pony hopping into view. “My nose got all itchy and my tummy went rummbly, rummbly which means somepony needed a Hearth's Warming party stat! That’s why I had to go visit your folks with your friends.”
“Pinkie,” said Bluenote in confusion. “You didn’t come with us to Manechester.”
“Didn’t I?” said Pinkie leaning forwards looking mysterious.
“No, I really don’t think you did.”
“Oh you’re right, I didn’t. Sorry I got mixed up,” said Pinkie before bouncing off.
Medley and Bluenote watched as she left. “That pony is so strange,” said Bluenote.
“She throws a good party though doesn’t she?” said Medley.
Something suddenly struck Medley. “The presents I sent my family! Did they arrive before you left?”
“I don’t know,” said Bluenote looking around, Medley’s family hadn’t mentioned anything about presents, although she had seen they brought a bag of their own gifts to Bluenote.
“Oh, well there might have been a bit of a mix up at the post office,” said Ditzy floating over between the various parting ponies, “They missed the mail train and ended up over there,” she pointed to the Hearth's Warming tree. “I just don’t know what went wrong!” said the grey mare with a grin.
“Thanks Ditzy,” said Medley with relief in her voice.
“Don't mention it.”
“Hey, everypony,” cried Lyra hopping into a table and holding her lyre aloft. “How about a sing song?”
A generally positive cry made its way around the room and ponies of all tribes started to gather around her impromptu stage.
“Good! Now many of your might know thisone , it’s traditional, about how so many years ago a few tired and scared ponies found themselves trapped together in a cave, but to their surprise them found themselves becoming something greater, becoming friends, and those few ponies created something amazing, they created Equestria!” She began to pluck the strings of her instrument, the element of Kindness itself.
The deep snows came
They did a dance
Medley glanced around groups of ponies were singing along with the old carol, her mother and father were standing arm in arm swaying along. She glanced around and saw Rockall holding Double and Trouble who were trying to follow the music on a kazoo and a tambourine. They looked too cute for her to get annoyed by them pilfering her stock, she guessed she’d wrap them up tonight and add them to the twins other presents.
To the fires
They did a dance
Those were days
They did a dance
Lyra lowered her lyre, it was glowing seemingly under its own power and she glanced over at her audience. They were blanketed by the love of their friends and family and all smiling, although the weather outside was cold, in here their joy kept them warm. This must have been what it was like for Equestria’s founders all those years ago, she thought.
“Merry Hearth's Warming Everypony,” she called.
Holding her own faintly glowing cello Octavia suddenly felt a vast inpouring of love, it was as if even although they were separated by hundreds of miles she could feel all her friends like they were right there next to her. She knew it was silly but she couldn’t help but try to send them her own feelings. She smiled, maybe friendship really was magic and they would know how she felt. She gently lowered her instrument and packing it away before turning towards the door to the dining room where her family sat waiting for her arrival.
It was going to be a very happy Hearth's Warming, of that she was sure.
Author's Note
If everything works right then this should be appearing on Christmas Day, so happy Christmas everybody.
As always comments are appreciated.
Medley Hearth's Warming Everypony
Lonely this Hearth's Warming
Medley held open the door to her shop as her latest customer struggled through it, encumbered by the awkward shape of the cello on his back. It looked like Octavia would have a little competition soon, since the princess’s student had moved into town several residents had decided to take up the instrument. The musical mare was a good advert for its capabilities, although most would never reach her level of skill. “Have a happy Hearth's Warming!” called Medley as the stallion staggered away.
Truth be told Hearth's Warming was still over a fortnight away, but the shopping season was in full swing and business was booming as ponies brought instruments and supplies for friends and family. Goods were almost flying off the shelves. Closing the door Medley settled down behind the counter with the glow of a job well done.
She glanced out the window at the simple sun dial sitting in her garden. She noted the speckling of snow on the grass, Dash and the rest of the weather patrol had been warming up for the deeper snowfall due over the next few weeks. Drawing her attention back to the time piece she saw that the shadow on the dial was short and pointing away from her, lunch time.
Glancing around her festively decorated shop Medley saw it was currently empty of customers, so she flew back to the door. Sticking her head outside she looked up and down the street, to make sure there were no potential customers nearby, before flipping the sign over to indicate she was closed for the moment.
The blue mare quickly flew up the stairs to her living quarters and returned a few minutes later burdened by a large book, and a smaller sandwich. She opened the former and started to chew on the latter. It was a little stale, she had bought the bread cheap from the bakery at closing time yesterday, but she liked the texture anyway. Opening her ledger she made a few alterations. Her latest customer, like many others, had purchased on credit, it was a common practise in Ponyville, few of the locals carried large amounts of bits around and as everypony knew everypony else it was easier to use IOUs and settle things up come the end of the month. The process had really annoyed her when she first moved to the town, she had been raised to neither a borrower nor a lender be, but she had gotten used to it over time.
Checking through the accounts she noted her income and her expenditures. The former were much higher than the latter, even after making sure she had six months’ rent in the bank to deal with any emergencies she had extra money to spend. She had already arranged for the creaky floorboards she had patched a few months ago to be replaced, it might seem like a waste but it was better to be safe now than sorry later, plus she could probably find a use for the old timber. She had arranged to have the roof redone as well, she’d noticed a few worn patches when she had flown home last week. She ticked off the cost of the supplies she would need to renew her stock and the orders for the instruments she couldn’t make herself. The device she’d confiscated from the Flim Flam brothers was still in the basement, she’d done some test runs and given the right raw materials it could make a number instruments of acceptable quality. She was a little loath to use the machine, Vinyl still hadn’t worked out exactly how it worked, and she couldn’t help but think it lacked the personal touch, despite the possible savings she could make by using it.
Her business requirements met she went over her personal expenditures, as with the rent she had enough to pay her taxes, food and bills for the next few months at least, no unforeseen disaster was going to ruin her! Even on top of that she had enough left for presents for all of her friends and family, particularly as she was going to hoof make most of them. It really was going to be a joyous holiday season this year. Only one major expense left to go.
She checked the sun dial again, yes she would have time to run her errand and reopen on schedule. Throwing on her much-patched scarf she left the shop, and after locking the door behind her, took off. In a few seconds she was soaring high above the town and looking down at its ground locked inhabitants as they went about their business. She noticed Lyra sitting on a bench in the park and waved, although she doubted the mint mare saw her.
In only a few minutes her objective was in sight, the train station. Medley wasn’t a native of Ponyville having moved to the small town a few years ago. She had been born and bred in the province of Lancantershire in the north west of Equestria. She had lived her early life in a suburb of the city of Manechester. Her home was far enough away that she could not afford the time or money needed to travel there as often as she would have liked to, but she always made sure she could visit her family for Hearth's Warming. Even so she made sure the tickets were the cheapest possible, which meant purchasing them well in advance and taking a somewhat circular route. It often took three days to get home. To be honest that was part of the enjoyment, it was the only holiday she normally allowed herself and she quite liked the chance to see other parts of Equestria, however briefly.
Touching down outside the station office she opened the door and trotted in. It was empty apart from Smokey Sam the station master, who sat, lightly dozing, behind the desk. Good, she wouldn’t have to queue. “Afternoon Sam,” said Medley cheerfully.
The brown coated, black maned earth pony stallion opposite her jerked upright and blinked. “Eh? Oh good afternoon Miss. What can I do for you?” he gestured with his front left leg, his front right had been lost in a train accident years ago now, he had used to drive a train, now he ran the office.
“I’d like an early saver ticket to Manechester please,” she took a deep breath. “Leaving here first thing in two weeks time on Tuesday to Canterlot, then on to the overnight train to Trottingham, then the midday train to Hoofington, overnight again to Oaton, leaving for Los Pegasus two hours later, then the first train to Fillydelphia the next day, followed by the switch at Coltchester and on to Trottingham and finally the Manechester flyer an hour later. That should get me home just before midnight on the day before Hearth's Warming’s eve and back again by the same route five days later.” She ginned to herself, she quite liked working out her route so that it was as cheap as possible, it was sort of a puzzle. She threw down a medium sized bag of bits she’d counted out twice before leaving home. “That should cover it.”
Smokey sighed and took a train time table in his mouth unfolding it with some difficulty before starting to trace the route. “Well for a start you’re too late for the early saver.”
“What do you mean?” Medley frowned. “It’s available on any journey booked at least two weeks before travel.”
“Sorry, they changed it to four weeks last month, you know the company likes to keep changing the fiddly bits around. Plus the Fillydelphia flyer doesn’t stop at Coltchester anymore and the Oaton train leaves later now, you wouldn’t make your connection.”
“No that can’t be right! I checked it all!” she gasped, her heart dropping.
“There was a big reshuffle at the beginning of the month, a lot of the routes have been shifted about, we only got the full timetables last week. But,” he said cheerfully, “There’s a new train straight from Canterlot to Manechester started last month, real swanky coaches they say, makes the whole trip in less than forty eight hours! In my day it took at least three days, they just keep getting faster.”
“How much?” she asked knowing she wouldn’t like the answer.
She didn’t it was over twice the price she’d budgeted for.
Medley’s head dropped, she couldn’t afford that. There had to be another route she could take, she couldn’t miss seeing her family this year! There just had to be a way! “Give me that!” she said sharply grabbing the time table from Smokey. She traced route after route, different times, different switches, every route was at least twice her planned expense.
She had the money, she had more than enough, but it would dig into her emergency fund. Surely her family were more important than that? She sighed, she knew that many ponies considered her a miser, more interested in money than anything else but it wasn’t just that, her family were po... weren't that rich, but they had always made sure they stood on their own four hooves, they wasted nothing and made do with what they had. It was a matter of pride, of self-respect, if she dug into her savings to visit them could she look them in the eye? Maybe she could put off getting the roof looked at? No, if there was a leak it could cost her ten times as much in the future.
“So are you going to buy a ticket?” asked Smokey jolting Medley out of her revelry, his face softened. “I’m sorry about the changes but there’s nothing I can do about it, I’ll make sure you’re informed of any other changes in future, so this doesn’t happen again.”
“Would it be...” she paused, there was one possible option she could just about tolerate, but it was still hard. “Would it be possible to pay on cr-credit?” She asked.
He shook his head. “I’d love to, I know you’re good for it, but the railway doesn’t allow it, not even if you were Princess Cadence herself I’m afraid.”
“Then, I won’t be travelling this Hearth's Warming!” she said icily before turning briskly and leaving the office slamming the door behind her.
Breathing heavily she glanced around the streets, suddenly each happy pony weighed down with presents seemed like a personal insult. Why should they get to spend the holiday with their families when she could not? Why should they be happy? Had they worked half as hard as she had? With a growl she leapt into the air and with laden wings started the journey across town towards her shop, and her cold and lonely seeming flat above it. Looking down she saw Lyra was now surrounded by a small group of foals listening intently as she played, they seemed so much like her cousins, the ones she wouldn’t see this year, would they even remember her next year? She gave another sigh as her home came into sight and quietly began to sing to herself .
Suddenly this is my town but not my home.
It'll be a lonely Hearth's Warming
She landed gently outside her shop and rested a hoof on the door, seemingly unwilling to open the door.
I remember the days spent with my family
It'll be a lonely Hearth's Warming
I remember last year, when all of us were together
It'll be a lonely Hearth's Warming
Hearth's Warming
“Have a good Hearth's Warming everypony,” she muttered bitterly as she looked at the passing ponies. “Mine won’t be.”
She slouched into her shop trying to hold back a sob at the thought of her lonely Hearth's Warming this year. She slumped against the door trying to compose herself before slipping the sign around again to show she was open and ready to serve, but her heart wasn’t in it.
My little pony... Ah ah ah... (My Little Pony) Friendship sounded so off-key to me. (My Little Pony) But now you're here, and now I see... A loyal backing Honest melodies! Songs to share With loving harmonies! Joyous dance -- Such a lovely feat -- And magic makes the perfect beat! You are my little ponies... Friends make the best music of all!
“I think this may be one of the best Hearth's Warming dinners I’ve ever had,” announced Octavia to her friends. “If a little early,” she admitted.
It was still almost a week until Hearth's Warming day, Octavia had told her friends that sadly she would not be in Ponyville for the holiday itself. It had been quite a hard decision but she had not seen her family for so long now and they wanted her to spend the day with them. Cheneigh was a long way off in the south of Equestria and the journey would take a few days to get there and back. She had been a little worried that some of her friends might have been upset she chose to spend the holiday with family instead of them, but they all seemed to understand. Bluenote had suggested that as they wouldn’t be together for the holidays they held a pre-Hearth's Warming meal just for themselves before she left and had arranged for them to use a function room above one of Ponyville’s restaurants.
It had turned out to be great fun, the restaurant had put on an excellent meal with Bluenote adding a few dishes of her own. The six friends had all swapped presents. Octavia had thought long and hard before getting her friends season tickets for the East Canterlot Modern Concert Hall. The venue was known for the eclectic mix of music it hosted, ranging from her own preferred style to the noise Vinyl produced, she was sure there would be some performances they could all agree to go to together as well as some they would like to attend alone. Then after the meal Lyra had performed a song she had written about their adventures in the Everfree, although Octavia remembered some of the events a little differently to the bard, a few less epic battles, a bit more heart stopping terror. Finally they had sung some Hearth's Warming songs together, it had been very festive.
“So what will the rest of you be doing for Hearth's Warming?” asked Octavia, she fidgeted with the large orange sun glasses Vinyl had gotten her which currently rested on her head. She felt obliged to at least wear them now, even if she doubted they would be used again. The matching short dress made out of some stretchy material which apparently glowed in the dark, would definitely never see life outside of her closet again. The knitted hoof warmers that Fluttershy had presented her with would, however, definitely find use during the colder mornings and evenings.
“Oh you know same old, same old,” said Vinyl leaning back in her chair wearing her present from Fluttershy, a large knitted sweater with ‘DJ-Pon3 Rocks’ picked out on it. “I’ll be off to the family estate,” she said grandly, referring to the lumber camp her extended family called home, “As always, get to see most of the clan, see which of my brothers makes the biggest fool of himself this time.” Despite sounding rather uninterested a wide smile plastered her face.
“Oh, well my parents are coming to me this year,” said Fluttershy. “We’ll spend the holiday morning delivering presents to the orphanage over in Stableton, then we’ll have a nice meal with all the foals and after I’ll ask my birds to put on a performance for them.” She glanced over at the wooden perch that Medley had made for her birds to sit on. “I’m sure we’re all have a lovely time.”
“I’ll be spending the holiday with my family,” said Lyra chewing on another of the cupcakes Bluenote had made for her. “I’ll have to get up early to make sure the hamper of goodies is on Bon Bon’s doorstep when she gets up, but apart from that my day’s free. She prodded one of the small magical toys Vinyl had made for her and watched it rush across the table swinging a small sword at an imaginary enemy. “I’ll save you my lady,” she said in a deep voice. “Oh you’re my hero sir knight!” she continued in a squeaky voice holding another of the toys to her face.
“Dad can’t make it again this year, he’s touring,” said Bluenote with a sigh, “But mom’ll be in town so I’ll be cooking for her. The school’s putting on a pageant in the evening so we’ll probably go and see that.” She flicked through the large appointment book and pack of stickers Lyra had gotten her to keep track of her student’s schedules.
“How about you Medley?” asked Octavia turning to the last of her friends present. “What will you be doing for the holiday.”
The teal pegasus looked up from the case of magically enhanced tools Vinyl had given her. “Not much,” she grunted. “Probably just stay in by myself, maybe work on my latest project.”
“If you want you could spent the day with me and mum,” offered Bluenote, “It won’t be any trouble to make another portion.”
“Yeah, or you could come to mum and dad’s with me,” said Lyra. “The more the merrier!”
“No, Hearth's Warming’s a time for family, you wouldn’t want me around to get you down,” replied Medley slumping down in her chair.
“Don’t you normally go home for the holidays anyway?” asked Bluenote. “You normally close up for a fortnight.”
“Well this year is different!” growled Medley her face like thunder. “What’s with the third degree? Can’t I just have a quiet holiday by my-myself for a change!” she glared at her friends. “I’ve got to go, I’ve got a meeting with Dash about covering a shift or two over the holiday, I’m sure some of the other weatherponies would enjoy the time off.” She got to her hooves before looking around the table again a little shamefaced. “Anyway, thanks for all the presents, I really do appreciate them. I hope you all have a good time with your f-families.” She shuffled off towards the exit.
Vinyl watched her go. “What bit her plot?”
“Vinyl!” gasped Octavia, shocked.
“Hey, we were all thinking it.”
“I certainly was not! Although, she had been a little more temperamental than normal for the last week.”
“I know she always goes away for Hearth's Warming. It’s about the only holiday she has,” said Bluenote thoughtfully. “Why not this year?”
“You don’t think something is wrong with her family do you? Illness maybe?”
“Maybe, she’s quite a private pony, I’m not sure if she’d tell us if anything was wrong.”
“That’s terrible!” exclaimed Lyra. “If anypony in her family is sick we will need quest to cure then, gather rare herbs from the farthest corners of Equestria! Find the finest doctors...”
“Um, I think it might be something to do with the railway,” mumbled Fluttershy.
“Why do you think that?” asked Octavia,
“Well, you see I was in her shop last week and I was talking to her about the campaign to keep the smaller stations open, lots of them are being shut you see, they’re not very profitable but they employ so many ponies. Anyway, she had an awful lot of not very nice things to say about the train company,” the pink-maned mare blushed.
“Humm,” Bluenote got up and rummaged around inside her saddle bags before bringing out a hoof full of train timetables. “They have changed a lot of train times recently, it’s really thrown my schedule out.” She ran a hoof over the documents. “Wow, they really have messed up the Lancantershire routes, and look at these prices, criminal!”
“So you think that she can’t afford the fare?” said Octavia.
“Seems likely.”
“So could we not just give her the money? Maybe a loan?”
“Lend Medley money! Are we talking about the same mare?” exclaimed Vinyl. “You’re lucky she accepted our Hearth's Warming presents, she’s very proud of being self-sufficient. She’ll see it as charity.”
“So she’d rather not see her family for Hearth's Warming than accept a gift? Isn’t that taking things too far?” she had not seen her family for quite some time now and she did miss them terribly. Viola was supposed to be introducing her new marefriend to her family during Hearth's Warming dinner, which would have been a more important event if her sister wasn’t so fickle with affairs of the heart, this was her sixth paramour this year that Octavia was aware of. “And there is nothing we can do?”
“Doesn’t look like it.”
“No!” cried Lyra leaping into the table and slamming a hoof down. “This shall not be! What type of friends would we be if we did not make sure she had the best Hearth's Warming ever! If she will not go to her family, then we will bring her family to her!”
“You think that we should send her family the money to come here?” said Octavia looking up at her friend. It seemed to make sense.
Lyra seemed to deflate a little. “Actually I was thinking of questing to get them in person and bring them back, but that might work as well.”
“Does anypony know their address?” asked Bluenote.
“I know they live in Lancantershire,” said Octavia.
“I think they live near, Manechester,” added Fluttershy. “She donated to preserve some of the historic buildings there.”
“I think she mentioned a road called Jangle lane to me once, she used to play there, but I don’t know if her family actually live there or not,” said Bluenote. “It’s not enough to post anything.”
“Then the quest is back on!” announced Lyra striking a pose on the table. “We will need to trek across the wilds of Equestria, ford wild rivers, drive off dangerous animals, suffer untold hardships to track down Medley’s family!”
“Or... We could take the train to Manechester and start looking there,” said Bluenote. “I’ve got a lot of train miles saved up from tutoring in the local towns and villages, I can get us cheap tickets as long as I go with you. Most of my kids won’t be taking any more lessons until after the holidays now so I’ve got the time.”
“I am afraid I will not be able to join you,” said Octavia. “I have to see my own family, but I will pay whatever I can for your own tickets and those of Medley’s family.”
“Yeah don’t sweat it Octy, I’m sure the rest of us can do it,” said Vinyl. “My schedule’s clear, for some reason ponies don’t seem to think wubs are festive.” She shrugged.
“Err, I’m afraid I can’t take the time off from my patients,” said Fluttershy, “There’s been a wave of bunny flu recently, poor Angel has been laid up for weeks, and so many others are feeling poorly.”
“Have no fear Fluttershy, I am sure the three of us will complete this quest!” cried Lyra. “Or die trying!”
Author's Note
Merry Christmas Everybody.
I'm trying something a little unusual for me with this festive story, I will be releasing a chapter a day from now until Christmas Day, hopefully. I won't be at home from more of that time so it will depend on me getting internet access each day, but we'll see how that works out.
Thanks to Grass and Clouds 2 and Mooncalf for their pre-reading and suggestions on this story.
Apologies for any spelling, grammar, readability issued I wrote this to late to get it properly edited.
As always comments are appreciated.