"Oh look, the Diamond Dog Ambassador has arrived. Unfortunately that means my sister and I will need to postpone court until tomorrow" Luna bluffed her way through my unexpected and alien appearance.

Several of the nobles began bitching about how long they had been waiting in line and very swiftly, the throne room was a roar of voices screaming over each other thinking their problems were the most important. The guards tried so hard to get the nobles out, but the daft things just ignored them.

After close to twenty minutes of hearing their hollering, a secret door hidden in the wall slammed open and Starswirl sprinted out of it as massive billows of smoke swirled and curled around those in attendance almost as though it was sentient.

"NOT AGAIN STARSWIRL" shouted the princesses in sync as a massive explosion rocked the castle to it's foundations.
A flash of light later and I was suddenly standing next to a train station with an exhausted Lilly. "I couldn't stand listening to those idiots, and anyways, Starswirl's smoke is mean."

Great. As if it's not bad enough that the world looked like a cartoon, I got teamed with a loony.

I picked Lilly up and threw her over my shoulder and headed up to the train station. She fidgeted like she didn't want to be held, but I wasn't going to let her warp me again!

One of the trains was set to leave to "Grypohina" "in two hundred and nintey seven seconds." Honestly...

It was easy to find the train bound for the gryphon kingdom as it had a pair of wings painted on it. I kicked the door open, plopped Lilly down on the nearest flat surface I saw and proceeded to find something to occupy my time.

I held my hand out and thought "Sword, to me!" After an indeterminate amount of time, I heard a soft voice.

"If you ask nicely, i'm sure that she would help you." I realized how stupid I must have looked holding my hand out, but i did as she suggested. Lo and behold, sunlight shimmered across my hand before coalescing into Dawnbreaker. I nodded my head towards Lilly in a somewhat grudging sign of thanks before playing with Dawnbreaker. Lilly disappeared almost instantly after that leaving me with my own thoughts, not something I particularly enjoyed.

"VEGA, play some music."

After several several seconds of calm music, oddly reminiscent of a lost era, all hell broke loose before a guttural voice growled: ♪RIP AND TEAR♪ This train ride wouldn't be so bad after all.

~~~

Several hours of incredible boredom coupled with a discovery of several somewhat massive stacks of canvas and long braided steel wire lead to the creation of a crude parachute and harness. Lilly had stumbled upon me making rough measurements and had the misfortune of asking if she could help.

It took very little time to retrofit the harness for an equine, and even less to coax her to follow me to the back door of the train.

I promptly tied the steel wire to my wrist, tucked Lilly and the parachute under one arm and climbed the ladder right next to the door. I sat on the roof of the train, hooked my feet through the ladder, set Lilly down and then threw the parachute into the air.

I closed my eyes and began counting. About 15 seconds after I started counting, I heard a scream followed by a whoosh and a sharp yank on my wrist that nearly tore my arm out of the socket.

My eyes followed the cable up to my new favorite kite as she flew through the air, no doubt, absolutely terrified.

~~~

Several hours later, we were approaching a train station so I reeled in my kite. As soon as she touched to iron, she curled into a shivering ball of fur. I scooped her up and headed to the front of the train where a few griffons were pushing in to search the train, possibly for contraband, stowaways or maybe even armor clad humans...

Author's Note

A wild update appears...

sorry that this update took so long for so little. there was almost no way for me to make travel seem entertaining, but i wanted to write a travel chapter. next chapter will be much more fun.