Those Thirty Days

  Keen and Lodestone eventually entered the plains, three Stymphalian hatchlings wadling behind them, happily munching on some desert mice they had found. Keen and Lodestone had been able to get them down from the tree using a tree bark platform that Lodestone lifted up and brought down, each time bringing one of the fluffy little guys down onto a small raft Keen had made from sticks and reeds.

  Though there were multiple things Keen could've been thinking about, the recording Lodestone and her had listened to was at the forefront. The researchers had treated his leg, the obvious problem and the easiest one to fix, but had let the true problem continue to fester and corrupt the poor pony from the inside out. He was suffering psychologically, a fact so obvious that Keen, only having the recording, could tell it. He had willingly cut himself to get at his own blood to use as paint, which he then used to make a picture of a pony on the wall, and what more, the ponies had completely foregone sanitation and had allowed the blood painting to remain. Keen hated these ponies. No, she didn't hate these ponies, the level of emotion she felt towards them was vastly different from anger, from hatred. A feeling that surpassed mere expression through words, but she couldn't let that consume her just yet. She had things that needed doing.

  "I figure that we might be able to take the express train when we arrive." Lodestone said, breaking Keen from her thoughts. "It will cost more, but it will be better for getting there in any amount of decent time. Normal train might take about three to four days to make it back to Fillydelphia, while as express will have us there by tomorrow." He reasoned, obtaining a nod from the half listening Keen. "We could also order a purple manticore amulet while on board." He mused.

  "Yeah, sure..." Keen muttered as she continued walking, enveloped in her own type of train, though it made her no quicker traveling.

  "You aren't listening." Lodestone chuckled. Keen finally broke from her thoughts, looking at him curiously. "Look, one thing we need to know is how many bits we have so we can tell if we can go express or if we'll go standard fare. I got about a hundred twenty bits in my pack which can cover an express ticket with some change, or almost two standard rides, but then we don't know how much it might cost us to take our little bird friends with us. How much you got?"

  "Let me check, I don't know if the F.R.I. took a donation from my belongings or not." She stated as she came to a halt, setting her bags down, as the Stymphalians grouping around her. Opening the bags and checking the usual stop for bits, she was happy to find there was SOMETHING still inside of it. Taking the small pouch out, she loosened the strap and began counting the coins inside. "I got... oh my, a lot less than I imagined." Counting them again, she came to the startling conclusion that her recent eating habits had broken her bank quite thoroughly. "Forty-six bits." Lodestone sighed as he readjusted his plans for their rail mounted travel.

  "Well, we can get two standards in a private car or one express ride and a standard fare, though, once again, we don't know about the Stymphalians, or if they are even allowed into trains. I vote we buy the express and the standard fare so that you can get back home in time to do something about the F.R.I. before they can do more cover up than what they already have."

  "But you have as much right to taking the express rial as  do, why don't you go instead?" Keen asked the peculiar stallion. "You've already done a great deal, why not just take this little back?" She continued as she placed her coin pouch bag in her bag before placing the bags back on her back.

  "To correct you, in this case, you have far more right to go on the express since you have been after the F.R.I. for a bit longer than I have, and the fact you have a client who told you to get on their case. You know things about these ponies I don't, and so you really are the better suited to get there first." He explained. "Now the majority of this cost is coming out of my pocket, so I'm telling you that I want you to take express." Keen gave him a look that screamed 'Are you sure you want to play that card', but the stallion powered through it. "I know this isn't much, but where I'm from, to refuse the gift is to refuse the giver, a veritable insult to the pony who offers you something, so if you can't accept my gift for the sake of it being a gift, accept it in compliance with my home's customs." Keen stared the pony down for a bit, but eventually released a sigh as she walked passed him.

  "Fine, I'll comply with your tradition or whatever it is, but just know that otherwise I would force you to take express as a pseudogift in return for all the help you have already given me in pursuit of this goal." She muttered as he pressed on, Lodestone bringing up the rear with a smile on his face, not so much in triumph, but more in satisfied relief.

  "It isn't the best food they've, who ever they are, have given me, but it is still better than starving in this box." Risk commented. "There's already so much pain in this room; I don't think starvation should even be a possibility for whoever is doing this to inflict on the victim of every other harm they have inflicted to this far." Brushstroke nodded solemnly in response.

  "This place could use some decorations..." She mused, looking around at the white. Over the past few hours that Risk had spent with this mare had slowly allowed his eyes to tolerate the white of the room, to the point that he only squinted because of the light that reflected from it. Come to think of it, it was strange that there was light in this room at all since, for what he could see, there were no candles, or even one of those new ,fancy, light bulbs. Risk figured it was either the cushions enchanted with luminosity, or a spell that simply made light appear in the air without a general source. "Maybe we could request some drapery to be used over the corners, and maybe a throw rug." She offered hopefully. Risk shook his head sadly, an emotion caused more because of disappointing the lovely mare than because he knew it wouldn't work.

  "If they had our comfort in mind, they wouldn't have locked us up in here in the first place. Besides, to which department of the white box would you file your request forum for new decorations? The left or right walls? Or maybe the ministry of ground based affairs?" He jokes, causing the lovely mare to giggle, a sound that made the hurt stallion feel all the better. His isolation for all those days, now finally broken by the most lovely company of all; he couldn't be happier in his current situation, that was, unless the ones behind this would provide some drapery and maybe a throw rug.

  The capitol of Saddle Arabia was a bustling coastal city, a massive port opening up into the bay where ships, both massive and small, unloaded and loaded various goods in a constant stream of motion. The ponies and Saddle Arabians, along with a minority comprised of every other race of creature, seemed to move in an ever well maintained clockwork, weaving through and threading gaps that seemed improbable, or in the very least, impractical. Keen, Lodestone, and the Stymphalians strode up to the train station, which was as equally busy as the port further down the coastal valley, though now there were only three tracks available, with only one train truly sticking out from the rest, namely for its more streamline design, and the fact that there were no ponies witched to it, or any visible means through which an engines exhaust would escape, due in part to the new design that ran on arcane energies, a rather new, and highly expensive, method of producing power. As they entered, several of the ponies and Saddle Arabians around gave them concerned, curious, and any other type of readable emotion out there, more than likely in reference to their bird followers.

  "Alright, I'll just go over and buy the tickets real quick. Just head on over to the platform that is boarding the express." Lodestone instructed before trotting off to the ticket booth, waiting in line behind three others. Keen found her way over to her desired platform, and sat down, admiring the architecture of the building as the Stymphalians plopped down on the floor before her, quickly falling to sleep. It had an interesting blend of eastern and western elements, which gave it a feel that fitted it with neither side, causing it to stand out from the rest of the city with its brick face with limestone accents. Mosaics of broken tiles made into marvelous portraits of the royals of Saddle Arabia meeting with Celestia and Luna at different times, with the Arabian monarchs changing in each, while the blue and white alicorns remained the ever same, though ten of the portraits contained only Celestia, most likely during the time of the lunar princesses exile, a suspicion confirmed when the first repeat portrait appeared, with slightly older Arabian monarchs and the distinct presence of Luna. Whoever had made these had taken obvious care to portray the ponies in both the most faithful, and yet, most artistically pleasing way possible.

Keen was broken from her thoughts when Lodestone trotted up to her, giving her her boarding pass before moving to his own platform, taking two of the Stymphalians with him. The platform led up to the train where earth ponies were strapped to harnesses that connected them to the train, the lowest priced ride, Keen observed. She almost stood up and ran over to Lodestone, telling him to switch trains, not wanting the stallion that had showed her so much kindness to that point go through a hardship for her benefit, but as she did, the stallion and the two avian menaces climbed onto the train just as the ponies began to strain against their harnesses, attempting to overcome the trains massive inertia. Realizing it was too late to switch around, Keen sat back down, deciding to observe the train station a bit more as she waited for her train to be ready to board.