Author's Note

Co-written with imcrazytwkr, who made the modifications to the original draft and even wrote and rewrote several scenes. Thank you very much.

Finally I got time to do this. Sorry for the wait.

Sadly i came to the decision and Spike is not going to be included in this...at least not yet. I felt it would be better if he stayed in Ponyville for several reasons. But don't worry I have a story I'm planning to write another story after this one is finished. Also a note I was in a bit of a rut when I was writing this. I didn't know what to write, how to write it, or what character to put in it, I even felt like putting Sunset Shimmer in this as the one who would watch Spike, but I dropped it at the last minute. Eventually I decided to start the chapter the way it is now and the rest is history.

Enough of my jabber. Onward!!

Update 2/24/2020
Did a few edits to this chapter, and fixed a continuity error. I'll update the next one tomorrow.

(TWO)

Friday, February 20th 9:00am, Ponyville station

Twilight Sparkle stood at the platform of the town’s only train station, waiting for her turn to board the train. Her face wore dismal look: she was about to leave her friends to travel to Manehattan per request of Queen Celestia. She looked at the only ponies and one dragon who came to see her off. All of them looked equally sad, not wanting for Twilight to go. After all the things that had happened and all the time they had spent together since the purple unicorn arrived from Canterlot it was hard for them to see her pack up and leave.

“I’m going to miss you, guys,” Twilight said.
“We will miss you too,” said Fluttershy, looking as if she was about to cry so much Ponyville would have a new lake when she calmed down.
“I am, for one, absolutely positive that you will come back soon,” Rarity chimed, trying to sound confident. “Right?”
“Oh, Rarity, you silly, of course she will!” Pinkie bounced in circles around Twilight in her everyday cheerful mood.
“The thing is,” Twilight giggled nervously, “I’m not so sure about that. You see, Celestia didn’t mention how long I will have to stay there and even if I will be able to return at all.”
“I really hope you come back,” Spike said. “It just won’t be the same without you.”
“Shh, it’s okay,” Twilight bent down and hugged Spike, “I know you don’t want to come and I’m not blaming you for that.”

All seven ponies looked down with sour looks. Twilight’s friends were lost and even the usually talkative Rainbow Dash hadn’t dropped a word since the group entered the train station. They saw the de-facto group leader leaving and all of them had a feeling that this was the last time they see Twilight. And even Spike was not accompanying her on that trip. She had already started to feel lonely. That feeling only got worse when she heard the train’s whistle blowing and conductor shouting “All aboard to Canterlot!”

Twilight knew that it was time for her to go. Her friends pulled her in a group hug. None of them had really wanted to break from it, but unfortunately they had to let go of Twilight. Parting with her friends, she turned around and started trotting towards the train. As she was stepping into the car, Twilight felt that something was holding her by her leg. She instinctively turned around only to see a crying Pinkie Pie holding onto her. Her mane was flat and her coat had become several tones darker. That spoke volumes to Twilight. Pinkie was losing hope and that was bad. Twilight really needed to cheer her up, she had to.

“Please, Twilight,” she pleaded, “don’t go! I’ll do anything! I promise! Anything!”
“I’m sorry, Pinkie, I’ll get in touch with all of you when I get there,” Twilight tried to reassure the pink pony, “Pinkie promise.”
“I… I can’t stop you, can I? Sorry. At least I’ve tried,” she said, letting go of Twilight.

When Twilight got in the car, getting an annoyed stare from the conductor, she turned to the window to look at her friends. All of them were waving her, Pinkie looking the most miserable of all. Twilight still could not shake the words about trying to stop her, but brushed them off, remembering not to question Pinkie Pie. Suddenly Rarity stopped waving, pulled off her phone and started frantically typing something. Twilight had almost missed the message thanks to another whistle of the train. “Don’t forget to call Coco - remember the number I sent you a month or so ago. R,” it read, and Twilight made a mental note to herself to look for it when she got to the hotel or at least got some more or less decent internet connection.

The train’s whistle blasted one last time as it began to pull out of the station. Twilight’s friends were shouting something she could not hear so she opened the window and were finally able to hear their goodbyes.

“So long, sugarcube! Take care!” shouted Applejack.
“Come back soon!” Spike and Fluttershy chimed in unison, though Spike’s voice was a lot more obvious than Fluttershy’s.
“Have a good time, Twilight!” Rarity called out.
“Make some cool new friends in Manehattan!” Rainbow shooter, opening her mouth for the first time since they entered the train station.
“Have fun, but be careful,” Pinkie said, trying to seem as cheerful as always, but the sad notes in her voice betrayed her.
“Don’t worry about me, girls and have fun yourselves!” Twilight shouted in reply.

As soon as her friends vanished from the view, she slumped on a bench and started crying. Twilight was not good at parting with others and it really hurt her. When she finally calmed down, Twilight sat straight in the chair and pulled out a book she took with her, ‘Future of Equestria’ by Starswirl the Bearded, and started reading. It was the best way for her to dull the emotional pain, a method she had already mastered over the years. It only took the train less than an hour to get to Canterlot central station. There she had to transfer to the express to Manehattan.

The train she saw was different from what she had expected. Instead of classic locomotive with a chain of cars she was greeted by a sleek streamlined caterpillar with almost invisible connections between the cars. “It’s as if I’m travelling to the future,” Twilight thought to herself, entering the train car.

1:23 pm, Manehattan Outskirts

The train was heading from Canterlot to Manehattan. It was heavily snowing outside and the only things that could be distinguished among layers and layers of snow were the houses sprinkled here and there. Twilight Sparkle was reading one of her favorite books while relaxing in the train car’s chair. She was the only one in the car, probably because it was a morning train on Friday. It was the only thing she could do to take her mind off the idea of leaving her friends behind. It was impossible to have a chat with anypony save for conductors who for some reason were not very talkative.

The entire situation still seemed surreal to the lavender unicorn. When she had received a letter from Queen Celestia telling her to try to extend her magic of friendship studies to other ponies and not only to her close friends the week before, she could not even think that she would have to travel to Manehattan where she had not stayed for long ever before. “Why would Celestia even want me to do this in the first place?” was the thought that Twilight could not banish from her head even when she had already passed a point of no return.

She had never liked the idea of leaving her friends behind and at that moment, but there she was, all alone – even Spike decided to stay behind, not wanting to leave Rarity’s side. Rarity and her little sister Sweetie Belle agreed to watch over him while she was away, but it still bothered Twilight that her number one assistant betrayed her for a time he could spend with his crush. “Maybe it’s just hormones and he will come to join me later on?” she could not stop wondering.

Tired of not being able to properly focus on her book, Twilight sighed and put the book she was reading down and look at the passing landscape. Rare country houses started to fade away, giving way to a more urban view: snow covered fields and trees were replaced with bigger buildings, and houses and roads became filled with cars waiting for their turn to enter the city borders. Right at the time when the train crossed the Manehattan borders, P.A. System has announced with its emotionless electronic voice:

“Attention, passengers! We are entering Manehattan borders. Internet connection over WiFi will start working shortly. Thank you for choosing Equestrian Line.”

Twilight decided to pull out her laptop and check the news she may have missed. Upon opening the browser she was greeted with login page asking for identification software installation to which unicorn reluctantly agreed. Just when the installation finished, introductory page shown up, describing various aspects of Smart City program in general and ctOS application in relation to that program. “Wow, I sure did underestimate power of technical progress,” Twilight thought to herself, being not as acquainted with technology as she was with magic. “So efficient yet so simple, and even easy to control.”

Being absorber in her own thoughts, she hadn’t even noticed as the train passed the suburbs where most of the city residents lived and headed to the direction of Bricklyn bridge and only light reflected by the tallest of the skyscrapers brought her back to reality. Five minutes later the train started riding over the said bridge to Manehattan Island. Twilight kept her sights out of the windows between the blue waters and steel and glass buildings that sparkled in the early afternoon sun. It mesmerized her even more than on her previous trip there. Just as Twilight thought about that, all of this beauty vanished as the train went into the tunnel leading under the island. “Attention, passengers! The train will shortly arrive at the Manehattan Central Station. Please, gather all your belongings in advance and prepare for arrival,” the P.A. system announced. Twilight shut her laptop down and put it in her saddlebags. She was ready, but she was still very nervous about her new life, about the future that would follow right after she steps off of the train to the platform.

When the train came to a halt at one of the many underground platforms, everypony left. Twilight walked out of her car towards the lower concourse. She passed by various shops and restaurants before making her way up the stairs to the main floor. It was the same as described in some of the books she had read about Manehattan, but something still seemed off. “Cameras!”, she thought in recognition of what was in fact wrong with the picture she was now seeing, “I don’t remember them being mentioned anywhere.” She sighed, “Right, ctOS uses cameras for activity monitoring. How could I forget about that already?”

Remembering that she had to be in hotel before 2pm to check in without any problems, Twilight hastily made her way outside through the crowd of ponies either leaving the city or just arriving. “Manehattan sure is busy in the afternoon,” she thought. Not having much time to get to the hotel, she opted for a taxi. On a parking lot there were only two chariots and no queues. Twilight cringed at memory of her previous experience with Manehattan’s taxi and were glad that this time everything seemed to be more than pleasant.

Ride to Mane Fair Hotel was short and uneventful: cabbie skillfully navigated through the city and avoided the traffic jams glancing at his smartphone from time to time. Twilight asked him about it and he answered that thanks to ctOS everything is easier now because all the traffic information are publicly available and up-to-date. When the car arrived at the hotel, she paid with a card and entered the building.

Twilight giggled at the memory of Rarity having one of her trademark emotional breakdowns due to what happened between her and Suri Polomare and how she later picked herself up and made a new line of clothing. “Speaking of Suri and Rarity, I should probably call Coco,” Twilight reminded herself, “at least I have a familiar face in this city whom I can probably ask for help.”

1:37pm, Vinyl’s apartment

Vinyl woke up in her bed, her head throbbing violently. “That nightmare,” she thought, “it will never let me go, will it?” The light shone brightly through the open louvers made her eyes felt on fire and sound of the phone she hadn’t understood up until that moment ringing. All of this made her feel as if her poor head will explode then and there. Vinyl slowly dragged her hoof over the bedside table and shut the phone. “Urgh, I need my shades!” she proclaimed. Vinyl pushed her body to her wobbling legs that felt as if they were about to snap and started looking for her shades, doing it slowly so as not to make her headache even worse. Losing hope in finding her glasses in the bedroom, she made her way to the bathroom, thinking that maybe some painkillers would to help dull the pain. When she entered the room, Vinyl did not even bother to turn up the light: her light hypersensitivity made it seem as if the room was perfectly illuminated. Opening the mirror cabinet, she reasonably judged that trying using her horn to fetch the medicine will not help her head and opted for doing it the earth pony way. The pills worked fast and the prospect of being awake started to seem a little bit more bearable to the mare. “I still need to find this Luna damned glasses,” she thought. “Maybe the living room.”

Passing by the cabinet, Vinyl noticed a flashing mail indicator on her PC, but continued to trot, looking for her shades. Not even finding them in the living room, she moved to the kitchen and there they were, laying on the table near the coffee machine. “Here you are, my dear ones,” she said, kissing her sunglasses and pulling them on her eyes. The world just became much better and a lot less bright. She could finally keep her eyes open without feeling the power of thousand suns trying to burn her ruby eyes. Vinyl's phone started ringing again and this time she decided to answer it. She did not make it in time, though. She took the phone and looked the list of the last unanswered calls. The number she saw seemed unfamiliar, but she still opted to call it back.

“Yo yo yo PVL-four-two-oh, one-to-the-three-to-the-three-to-the-seven. Blow that shit and fly to the heaven! Pink’s not in da house! Wait for tone!” the answering machine replied in a familiar voice.
“Pinks,” Vinyl exhaled right before the signal to leave the message did not happen and cheerful high-pitched voice started babbling instead.
“Hi, Vinyl, OHMYGOSH, I thought I won’t reach you! So good you answered!” Pinkie exploded.
“Pinks, please, can you speak a little bit slower? My head is spinning already,” Vinyl asked.
“Sure thing, Vi!” the volume and speed of the voice dropped noticeably.
“Thanks, now what did you want and what’s with this strange new number?” she asked Pinkie.
“Well, to answer your first question, Twilight will soon arrive to Manehattan soon and I’d be very pleased if you could show her around,” Pinkie answered in a way too formal tone. For Vinyl it seemed as if Pinkie had put on a top-hat and a monocle and started smoking a pipe.
“And the second?” she pushed.
“Oh, that’s an easy question,” Vinyl imagined Pinkie throwing her monocle and top-hat away and returning to her regular random self, “420 is now Ponyville’s city code and 1337 is the local phone number after the change of phone number generation system.”
“ctOS?” the white mare asked.
“Yup, version 2.0,” answered Pinkie. That answer made Vinyl sigh and sit on her bed.
“So, Twilight?” she asked.
“Yeeeeah, you know, Twilight Sparkle, Queen Celestia’s student, Shining Armor’s younger sister and sister-in-law of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,” Pinkie replied.
“That was not what I asked, but never mind. Answer me one last question, please. Why me?” Vinyl was ready to surrender to Pinkie without even fighting.
“Well, you’re the only pony I know from Manehattan and you were so great at the Party at the wedding so…” she paused.
“Okay, I understand. I’ll ask somepony,” Vinyl reluctantly agreed to help.
“Thanks, Vi, pizza on me!” Pinkie exclaimed right before hanging up.
“And don’t call me Vi, Pinks, nopony is allowed to do that,” Vinyl said mostly to herself as the phone started beeping.

Right as she said that, there was a ring on the door. Vinyl swiftly moved to her cabinet and woke her computer up, opening a camera control application at the same time. “Look at the camera and press your phone to the black panel,” she said in the microphone, activating NFC reader and starting cracked Profiler. The pony in the camera did as he was told and soon the profile data had appeared on the screen. “Swift Step,” she muttered. “Occupation: courier. Criminal record: minor speeding and vandalism. Nothing strange,” Vinyl decided to open the door, but still took the gun with permanently attached silencer from the drawer just in case. She opened the door and courier said “Prepaid big hawaiian pizza with triple hay bacon for miss Vinyl Scratch.” He smiled nervously. Vinyl took the pizza and close the door without saying anything. When the automatic locks clicked, she thought “And here’s the pizza.”

Vinyl went to the living room and dropped the pizza box on the coffee table. Remembering that she still had an unread message, she moved to the cabinet and clicked the mail program icon. The text of the new message was garbage, that is, until Vinyl started GPA program and decrypted the message with her private key. The message now contained the list of new login-password combinations for ctOS access. “I wish we had constant access to this. What we have now is just not enough,” she sighed and shut her computer down. Vinyl went to the kitchen to grab a couple of cans of her favorite beer and then returned to the living room. She sank into the sofa and took a slice of freshly baked pizza. Hawaiian pizza always was her personal favorite and nopony could stop her from enjoying it. When Vinyl had already consumed ⅓ of the pizza and drank all of her beer, she decided it was time to deal with Pinkie’s problem. Namely, with Twilight. She unlocked her phone and started calling. “Hi, Cocs, you free for the end of the week?”

3:38pm, Mane Fair Hotel

The clerk had finished checking Twilight in and gave her the key for room number 602. A quick elevator ride later she was on the sixth floor right outside her room. The room was not as grand as the one she resided in with her friends during her previous Manehattan trip, but was still clean and cozy. The air also carried a barely noticeable smell of lemon and mint which immensely pleased the unicorn. “A smell of a new beginning,” she thought, smiling.

Twilight did not waste any time and started unpacking as soon as she closed the door and dropped her saddlebags. When she finished putting away her books and clothes and locked all of her more valuable possessions in the safe, she thought it would be a good time to call Coco. Twilight pulled the last thing left in her saddlebags, her laptop, out and started looking for Coco’s number in her mail. Just when she started calling, she heard the phone ringing outside. Curious as to where specifically the sound came from, Twilight opened the door only to see Coco Pommel rummaging through her saddlebags in search of her phone.

“Hi, Coco”, Twilight said, cancelling the call, “was just about to call you. What are you doing here?”
“Hi, Twilight,” Coco blushed and closed her saddlebags, “I just got a call from Vinyl who got a call from Pinkie Pie…”
“Pinkie Pie. Don’t say anything,” said Twilight, “come in, I wanted to talk to you anyway.”
Coco went in and Twilight closed the door behind her. They sat at the table beside one of the windows and resumed their talk.
“Great to see you, Twilight. And sorry for that. I’d never had thought it would be so embarrassing,” Coco said, trying to hide her blush with her forehoof.
“Don’t mention it. It’s not that you did anything defensive,” Twilight rolled her eyes.
“So,” Coco finally managed to look straight at her companion, “how have you been? I heard many things have happened.”
“Actually,” Twilight contemplated on that and frowned, “I think I feel good. I just wish my friends were here.”
“Well, I may not be as good a friend as Rarity or Pinkie Pie, but I will be there to help,” Coco smiled reassuringly, “just call or text me. Anytime.”
“Thanks. I think I needed that,” Twilight sighed.

They talked about many things. Coco told Twilight that she had recently started her own fashion company and apparently it started to be appreciated by some of high society members. Their talk was however interrupted by the sound of Twilight’s stomach rumbling.

“Sorry,” she said, “I haven’t ate anything since early morning and apparently forgot to have lunch.”
“Look,” Coco looked at her phone and replied, “It’s 3:40 now so what do you say we hit some burger joint?”
“But don’t you have anything to do?” Twilight asked, ”I honestly hope you didn’t need to be anywhere now.”
“I’m cool. I’ve finished all the orders already so I’m free,” Coco replied, “at least, till monday.”
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Twilight had finally remembered, “I wanted to ask you to show me the city!”
“Sure, after we have something to eat,” Coco contemplated, looking Twilight over several times, “and get you some clothes. Weather here is awful, especially spring.”
“Well, thanks, I think?” Twilight replied, unsure if the response was right.
“Don’t worry, everything’s on me since I came here without any warning,” Coco stated, “I have to go to shop really quick. Will be back in 40 minutes. You okay with that?”
“Yeah, sure,” Twilight agreed.

Both ponies stood up from their respective seats and moved towards the door. Twilight closed the door after Coco and moved to the desk beside the other window. She opened her laptop once again, launched Hexchat and logged in to local Ponyville with using her regular nick ‘starswirl_the_bearded’.

The channel she joined immediately exploded in greetings from its residents, namely five specific ponies and one dragon. They were all excited to be able to speak to her so soon despite the fact that she was gone for barely half of a day. Twilight had also visibly relaxed. She felt relieved to see the familiar nicknames of her friends: Pinkie “p4rt1p0n3” Pie, Rainbow “teh-wonderbolt” Dash, self-explanatory “applejack”, “AngelicBunny” Fluttershy, “Duchess” Rarity and Spike, the “DragonKnight”.

[15:45:09] Hey, Twilight~~ How’r u? Miss u already. When u come back?
[15:45:16] Pinks, chill. So, how’s it goin?
[15:45:21] Everything’s alright, I guess.
[15:46:01] You guess, Twi? You sure I don’t need to go pick you up? I’ll be there faster than you say “Starswirl the Bearded”!
[15:46:33] It’s fine, Rainbow. I’ll deal with it.
[15:46:58] If you say so.
[15:47:05] teh-wonderbolt shrugs
[15:47:31] Spike, how you’ve been doing?
[15:49:01] Pffff, Twi, who do you think I am? I’m perfectly fine!

These words make Twilight uneasy. They sounded fake. Her suspicions were confirmed when Rarity queued her.

[15:50:33] Twilight, I know that it may not be my right to say that, but Spike is really missing you despite what he wrote earlier.
[15:51:20] I understand, Rarity, thank you.
[15:51:37] Now that you’ve mentioned it, don’t you think that Pinkie’s too quiet today? She’s usually a lot more enthusiastic.
[15:52:03] I think she took it the worst, actualy. She’s basically like a ghost of her previous self.
[15:52:12] Her mane is flat and she always mutters that she let you down. I think you should try asking her about it for all it’s worth.
[15:53:00] Thanks, Rarity. I think I should return to channel before others start to miss me again ;)

True to her word, Twilight returned to the group channel.

[15:53:11] Hi again, girls, did I miss something?
[15:53:21] Nah, chill. We were just idling.
[15:53:25] >In 10 seconds flat!
[15:53:53] You actually did this =__=”
[15:54:20] So, let’s switch to the more pressing topic on hoof, namely, Twilight.
[15:54:33] Did you speak to Coco already?
[15:54:40] That’s an interesting story. She stopped by and left only ~ 14.5 minutes ago.
[15:54:51] But I didn’t even have a chance to call here. Figures, Pinkie called her through some other pony.
[15:54:52] Yes I did! I had to make sure you have at least somepony there since, well, I can’t be with you and all…
[15:55:03] Pinkie, I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself, but thanks for that anyways.
[15:55:36] Pinkamena Diana Pie at your service, ma'am.
[15:55:55] Pinkie, you’re so random.
[15:56:09] So, Twi, what are you going to do now?
[15:56:22] Well, at 4:20 Coco will come back then we’re going to have dinner.
[15:57:01] I’m not quite sure what will happen after that, but she promised to show me the city.

Twilight avoided topic of clothes on purpose so as not to offend Rarity in any way just in case.

[15:57:15] Well, that’s good to hear, sugarcube. You may want to try that ‘nightclub’ thing uncle orange was telling me not to even mention till I could take care of myself.
[15:57:38] Thanks for the info, AJ.
[15:57:49] Sure thing, pardner.
[15:58:04] Yeah, that should be great! Wild music! Flashing lights! And you will totally have LOTS OF FUN!
[15:58:06] but please, twilight, be careful
[15:58:22] Right, Pinkie, Pinkie Promise. Cross my heart and hope to fly.
[15:58:23] thanks
[15:58:58] I don’t think that would be that good of an idea and I heard that lots of bad things happen at those places
[15:59:01] If you don’t mind me meddling, that is…
[15:59:10] I agree with Pinkie - she knows what she’s talking about, especially if it concerns any kind of partying.
[15:59:20] I’m with the girls on it - you really have to relax - you seemed very tense today.
[15:59:32] Ok, ok, guys, I give up. I’ll give it a try.
[15:59:50] Gosh, look at the time! Coco will be back in only 20 minutes! Sorry, promise to write later.
[15:59:53] starswirl\_the\_bearded has quit (Quit: Leaving)

Twilight quit the chat and closed the client. Leaving her laptop on with opened audio player, she went to the bathroom and stepped into the shower. The warm water that started flowing from the shower’s head accompanied by a calm ambient melody helped to easy Twilight’s nerves. Despite not showing it, she still felt sad and lonely without her friends by her side. After staying idly for roughly ten minutes, Twilight quickly washed and casted a drying spell on herself. She walked to the wardrobe and started picking what to wear that evening. Since the weather outside was not too cold and Coco had promised they would get Twilight some new clothes, she opted for some casual wear. She put on a black, long sleeved shirt, blue jeans, a purple jacket, and a pink scarf. Just as she finished putting it on, Twilight heard a knock at the door of her hotel room. Shutting her laptop, she opened the door and quite logically found Coco on the other side. She was wearing a white coat, blue stretch pants, and a red shirt with a blue hat on her head.

“Hi, Twilight! I’m not late, am I?” Coco asked.
“I think you’re actually a couple of minutes early,” Twilight answered, pleased with the pony’s punctuality. “I was just figuring what to wear.”
“I think what you chose is cute,” Coco teased. “So, ready to roll?”
“Yeah, let’s go,” Twilight replied, taking her phone before stepping out of the room and closing it.
“That thing is your phone?” Coco mused aloud.
“Yeah, what’s wrong with it?” Twilight answered, not too keen on continuing the topic.
“Well, it’s a bit old if I were to say but as long as you like it, I think it’s ok. Well, let’s roll then!” Coco said and they finally departed unaware of what were going to happen that night.