Project Starburst

Angel Grace watched the countryside pass them by. A few minutes after they had gotten the letter from Twilight Sparkle, the train had gotten underway; they'd only had to wait to take on a few more ponies on their way to a meeting of their own in Ponyville. Briefly, she considered looking over the files again, but even she had to admit she'd read them enough that they were practically burned into her head.

Instead, she looked out around the car. Golden Luck was looking out the window as well, playing with her pendant, Greyhoof had stuck his nose in a book, Cloud Prism was laying across three seats, snoring, and Spiral Dream was...writing? Angel got up, going over to her.

"What are you working on?" she asked, curious, and Spiral looked up.

"Oh, just a few notes about what happened back in town. I'm hoping that I'll be able to use what I learned to help other ponies." she smiled, looking back down at her notes. "As you may have noticed, not everyone with hypnotism uses it for good. I'd like to use mine to help repair some of that damage."

Angel Grace nodded. "That's very kind of you to do. You certainly seem to have a good start on it."

"Thanks. We still need to have that hypnosis session, don't we? If you like, we can go-"

Spiral Dream was interrupted by the car lurching; looking out the window, it was clear that the train was rapidly decelerating. The sudden change roused the others, as well, who came to the window.

"I wonder what's going on." Cloud yawned, as the view came to a shuddering halt.

Greyhoof headed towards the exit. "As official representatives of Twilight Sparkle, we should probably check this out. In any case, we need to get moving again as soon as possible."

Golden Luck waved a hoof. "You four can go check it out. I'll stay in here...to do...crowd control." she nodded to herself, pleased, before looking back out the window pensively.

"I'll stay here as well. Just in case." Spiral Dream added, her eyes on Golden Luck.

"Well...okay then..." Cloud Prism said, glancing between the two. "Come on, Angel. Let's go see what's going on."

Angel Grace nodded, and the two of them joined Greyhoof headed towards the front of the train. Once they reached the car by the engine, they found a small crowd had gathered by an open door."

"Please, everyone!" a conductor was trying to calm the crowd. "We can assure you, we'll be moving again as soon as we can! The Engineer is trying to clear the tracks now!"

"Clear the tracks? Did we run over something? Or somepony?!" a panicked voice came from the crowd, and the conductor shook his head quickly.

"No, no, nothing like that! Please, return to your seats!"

Greyhoof sighed, pushing through the crowd with Cloud Prism and Angel Grace. "Excuse me. I'm Greyhoof, and I work for Princess Twilight Sparkle. These are my associates. Perhaps we could be of some assistance?"

The conductor looked relieved by their arrival. "Yes, please, thank you! The engineers are down by the front of the train." he stepped aside to let them pass. "We don't understand how it could have happened..."

Once the three of them had exited the train and gone around to the front, it was clear what the source of the confusion was: thick vines had grown over and around the track for several hundred feet. Here and there, thick buds dotted the vines, and a closer examination would indicate they originated from the nearby forest. There was no way such thick vegetation could have formed since the last time a train passed over these tracks.

Nearby, several ponies were chopping at the vines with tools and using fire magic to try and burn them away, but it seemed like they weren't having much luck. Greyhoof and the others came over to join them, examining the vines.

"Have you sent anyone into the forest to look for a source?" Angel asked, peering down the vines.

The lead engineer shrugged. "We just got out here ourselves. We were hoping we could clear the obstruction quickly, but it seems like that isn't going to be the case. Can you three help?"

Looking between themselves, the three ponies nodded; Cloud Prism pulled out a knife of his own as Greyhoof joined the other unicorns casting fire spells. Angel, however, was tapping the vines and following their path from the forest.

"Something isn't right here." she murmured, "It's too thick. Too perfectly placed. Too rapid. Guys, I don't think this is na-ah!"

Her sentence was cut off by a sudden cry that attracted the attention of the others. One of the vines had whipped around and scooped up Angel Grace. Cloud Prism was the first to rush to her aid, but the rest of the ponies were close behind...only to be grabbed by the suddenly waving mass of plant matter.

A few spells found their way out from the captive unicorns, but the buds on the vines had bloomed out to dark blue flowers that filled the air with a strange pollen. Soon enough, all of the ponies were still as the vines dragged them deeper into the forest.