Trottingham was a rather nice little town at the border with human lands. It had beautiful scenery – hills going up and down everywhere you looked, a small forest filled with almost any critter you could imagine and looked-after gardens filled with various flowers and small decorative trees that looked like they solely existed to be there. Most of the houses were small, cosy one floor cottages accommodated to be suitable for both humans and ponies. There was something about them that made them appealing and nice to look at – whether it was the well-kept gardens, the beautiful ornaments painted on the houses or the fact that despite being near the human border the houses kept their authenticity.

That being said, the ponies’ lives changed a lot since humans moved into nearby areas and Trottingham itself. It was a peaceful agreement, but inevitably being exposed to something changes both ponies and a humans. The same happened here – humans accepted pony culture and ways of life, such as being out in the open more, not eating meat and having lots of social events like gathering in the town hall on Sundays to have a party for no reason; meanwhile the ponies started to live more like humans – they used computers for storing all sorts of data, used machines to plough the fields and some started to lock their doors at nights. Even though ponies and humans got along good, the conflict between them could still be seen – everybody in this town was always cursing at somebody or something, commenting how a job was done badly or how a machine could be built better, but no one and no pony was willing to do anything to change anything about that and so everyone continued to live in Trottingham the way they always have.

Amongst all the morning chatter, sellers’ shouts and organized chaos walked a man. Despite a recent haircut, he had long bleak orange hair, wore jeans and a coat so long it was almost dragging along the cement underneath his pointy shoes. He would have been very noticeable had it not been for his backpack – it somehow nullified all of his extreme looks and features. There was nothing special about that backpack – it was just an ordinary schoolboy’s backpack to house some books, a pencil case and a computer, but anybody who knew Alexander – that was the guy’s name - deeply suspected that he carried something else in there. They were right; they just never had a chance to figure what was inside the mysterious backpack.

This man’s destiny had already started to change when he set out on this mission, but it was about to change more than he ever imagined the world could force it to. As he was walking towards the train station, he was wondering if he should proceed as he planned. He knew his plan perfectly, but he questioned if he should really risk such high stakes depending on his life. He was also sure about his life and what he wanted to do with it, he just doubted if he wanted to change the course of humanity’s course of… Alexander didn’t find the word to describe what he would be changing. Was it destiny? Survival? Evolution? No matter whichever word he thought of, he knew one thing – it was very big and important to humanity. As he pondered his decision, Alexander reached the train entrance/

“Excuse me, sir, but only grown-ups or minors led by adults can travel by train.”

“Of course, - thought Alexander. – The new regulations.” He held up his passport and his ticket for the conductor pony.

“Sorry sir, and have a nice trip.”

Alexander nodded and moved to his cabin. He was used to be held up because a lot of people and every pony though he was a child. He was rather short and childish looking, but that was to blame on the genetic disease he had inherited from his mother. Nobody else, including his mother, show the symptoms – that is, being short and having child-like face features – and he couldn’t care less at this age.
Inside his cabin, Alexander set his backpack alongside himself fell into his soft armchair deciding that if he came this far, there’s no point in turning back and that everything is going to happen if it’s meant to. He ordered a premium cabin because he just could with the money he had saved up. In his opinion, he deserved it after all the speeches and job he did. He relaxed and slowly drifted into his dreams. That was the last good rest he would get in a long time coming.

Author's Note

A short chapter! As time goes on, I hope I learn to write longer ones :)