Chapters 1. A Last Minute Scramble
All hell broke loose when the doors of the car opened; as hoards of ponies tried to get out, a lot more tried to get in. A similar sight could be seen at the entrance to the terminal. Even worse than the train station were the streets; not only were they filled with ponies, but with snow as well. This city's taxis were known for their speed, but it seems even that had to be limited, much to the impatience of the passengers; word has it there was a collision when one cart slid into another on the intersection where Whinny Street meets Chestnut Avenue. Manehattan sure was an urban mess during the hollidays.
The same kind of craziness continued indoors. Depending on whether they were about to leave or had just arrived, ponies would hustle and bustle to pack and unpack within the confines of their hotel room, condo, guest house, apartment - whatever accommodation they preferred to spend a Hearth's Warming getaway. That rush to unpack has been taken to the extreme in room 129 on floor 3 of the Manefair Hotel, where six mares had been residing - you know the aforementioned "hustling and bustling" will be a doozy when a large group like that needs to get out the door.
"Come on, Fluttershy! Get that packing done!" a yellow, pink-maned pegasus was ordered by a light blue one from mid-air; her noteworthy mane and tail streaked in a darker shade of blue plus the five other colors in a rainbow.
"U - um - okay."
"Why don't you put your smaller items on the outer pockets?"
"Uh - sure."
Fluttershy grabbed her copy of the monthly Equestrian Ponygraphic magazine with her hoof, and began to unzip the external pocket of her suitcase.
"No, no! That's too big to fit. Here - "
The blue pegasus grabbed Fluttershy's zebra-textured toiletry bag with her mouth.
"Er - please - don't grab my bag that way! That's authentic zebra fur you're messing with!"
The impatient pegasus didn't listen, and instead took to doing the same to her other small items.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, another contrasting pair were having a quarrel.
"Just carry the rest of your baggage with that levitation spell you unicorns use, Rarity," an orange earth pony in a cowgirl hat drawled.
"But there's just a little bit of room left on the top!"
"Yea - on the top. We don't got no time to risk havin' some spilling luggage."
"Well, maybe if we proceed with caution - "
"Our train leaves in less than a half hour!"
"Have you even seen the roads, Applejack?"
"You know, this entire time you girls have been arguing, you could have gotten another trolley, instead," a purple pony intervened. This one had both wings and a horn.
"I say we get a bellhop!" said Rarity, excitedly. She began to run out into the hallway. "Oh, rooooooooooom service!"
The other two scowled at Rarity's sudden burst of energy.
Even more unpredictable in her energetic outbursts was the earth pony whose coat was pink, and mane was in a darker shade of the same color. She was encouraged to bounce on the bed, doing mid-air somersaults and belly flops, just as the blue pegasus was now bouncing on Fluttershy's overstuffed suitcase to secure it shut as its owner watched with a worried look on her face.
"Why - can't - this - darn - thing - stay - shut!"
Just as she had finished that sentence, she landed so hard on the case that she slipped on it like a banana peel. Both her and the bag crashed into the walls on opposite sides of the room. The pink pony had to do another belly flop in order to dodge making the crash even worse. When she looked back at the pegasus and noticed she had landed into the wall just as she had landed into the bed, she was rather amused.
"I can belly flop better than you, Dash!"
And then she jumped up and collided into the wall right next to Dash, in the same position as Dash.
"Rainbow Dash! Pinkie Pie! Will you get yourselves together?!"
While the alicorn was asserting herself again, both ponies had come tumbling down to the floor, eyes all criss-crossed and everything. Rainbow Dash was the first to regain her strength, and she used that to help Pinkie Pie back up. Both rejoined the rest of the group plus an overloaded bellhop at the door to the hotel room.
"Alright," said the purple alicorn, "does everypony have everything they need?"
"Yes, Twilight," said Fluttershy begrudgingly, accompanied with a dirty look towards Rainbow.
The rest all nodded.
"Let's move on out, then!"
And so, they began the tedious trek to the exit. The six female ponies walking at an anxious jog ahead of the bellhop stallion; he could barely even muster a crawl with all the baggage carried on his back that belonged to Rarity, who was right about being cautionary. It was like seeing Applejack's brother carry a large cake made for the National Dessert Competition from Sugarcube Corner to the Friendship Express, which also required the help of these six mares. But Rarity did not feel the same anxiety the owners of Sugarcube Corner felt during that...also tedious process. She would make occasional glances behind her to see how all that baggage was holding up, but had no care for the stallion doing all the work.
"Now be sure to pick up the pace, darling...But can you do so without wobbling like that?...Excellent. See ya downstairs!"
"Wouldn't it be easier if we all took one elevator?" questioned Applejack.
"No, that would risk having a bit of a spill."
Applejack scowled at her as the elevator doors closed.
As much as Rarity had seemed indifferent to their slow pace, she bursted across the lobby, from where she and her friends had been waiting at the entrance, when the bellhop emerged from the second elevator and began to use magic to unload his back, several bags at a time.
"Twilight! Come over here and help me!"
She obeyed, and the two horned ponies would levitate the bags to the last of three taxi wagons, while the other ponies loaded the first two. The last of Rarity's many suitcases would finally be taken care of when the bellhop made it through the exit door. At long last, they were ready to depart - except for one more thing: Rarity used her magical aura to lift a long, pointed, green jewel from the depths of her purple curled mane into the bellhop's pocket.
"Here's a tip. Use it wisely."
Then, she hurled herself into the second wagon next to Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, before they all set off into the overcrowded hellhole of the city streets.
Author's Note
I have always had a fascination with trains, particularly high-end American ones that carry passengers; and, ever since two years ago, my passion has expanded to that of ponies, as well. While those passions do meet many times with the frequent presence of the Friendship Express, I've never taken aliking to the Equestrian trains - bleh, tank engines. My interest in trains, as I said, has been pointed at the luxurious streamliners that existed before Amtrak. Trains such as the Super Chief , 20th Century Limited , and most notably in my mind, the one you will see in the following video:
That train has always been a favorite of mine, and this passion project answers my question as to what happens when the cast of my favorite TV show ride it.
So, after weeks of pondering what will go on in the story, while I haven't got it all planned out, I at least have enough to give it the very first chapter. It's not much, but what do you expect? It's the first chapter! Personally, I almost never get that invested in a book until I'm a few chapters in. Which can only be natural; the further you read a book, the further into its universe you go into. And that's what I want you, the audience, to go into: Equestria. In this chapter, you'll be in a hotel; in the next, you'll be travelling through the kingdom on a train.
While I know you bronies are all familiar with the world of Equestria, it doesn't hurt to approach this story as if the reader is not a brony. Which is why I felt the need to dedicate this chapter to introducing the characters, and giving you a glimpse of their personalities. It's basically a story within itself: the mane six are in a hurry to catch a train, but they need to get ready to leave before they can. Each chapter within Flight of the Broadway story will follow this pattern of having a conflict, and a resolution; it's how the characters react to what goes on that brings out their individual personalities. And if I can capture that accurately, then I can keep this execution of my bizarre idea for a fanfiction in tone with the actual show.
2. Aboard the Friendship Express
Through wet grasslands, the frequency of the snowfall put quite a burden on the small tank engine leading the trip back to Ponyville. What put it at even more of a snail's pace were the mountains, but after coming out of Conformation Tunnel the train's slow speed made the most scenic part of the journey even more enjoyable. Filling the windows was a view of a fjord that gave way to the skyscraping peaks.
It got old pretty fast, which was quite a shame considering the air of relief that had swept through the group when they barely made this train; would’ve been nice to enjoy the ride on it as a payoff. Not an hour into the journey, and Pinkie Pie is now repeatedly asking, “Are we there yet?” which only increased the returning impatience of the five others, let alone everypony else in the train car.
“Um - pardon, ma’am?” a suited earth stallion from behind tapped Twilight Sparkle, who was sitting next to the noisy mare, on the shoulder. “Can you tell your friend to pipe down, please?”
“Ahem...PINKIE PIE, WERE NOT EVEN HALFWAY THERE!”
Aside from making everypony who was giving Pinkie the “evil eye” jump, Twilight’s yell had caused the pink pony to freeze, eyes wide and mouth gaping...then, she made a sound even worse in response. A sound similar but even worse than the one she made when she couldn’t handle babysitting her landowners’ children.
“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-”
Everyone got startled; especially Fluttershy who had jumped so high she hit the ceiling and landed right back in her seat, but now had a mountainous bump atop her head that was being orbited by tweeting dizzy birds.
“-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
An utter silence filled the car, ponies still gawking and everything. Just when it seemed she had burst her vocal chords with that awful noise, Pinkie buried her face in Twilight’s lap and continued the crying - fortunately, it was now muffled.
The scene began to die down, and so the passengers’ attention shifted away from it and back to the windows, which now displayed a bird’s-eye view of a thick forest. The Express was crawling along another cliff over which this view could be seen.
Rainbow Dash turned to her seat partner, Rarity. “You know, A.K. Yearling - hem-hem - Daring Do once ventured into that forest in Razor of Dreams . You can tell because it’s the only one near” - she pointed at a large peak across it - “Foal Mountain. Apparently, there’s some sort of haunted ghost town deep in there.”
“I can’t possibly imagine anypony wanting to go into that sickening swamp! So much mushy soil and wetness from the dew!”
“She didn’t want to; she had to so she could obtain the Bronze Key that would unlock the Rhodium Gate where she can access the Ruby Key to get through the Platinum Gate where she would finally...”
Rainbow caught onto Rarity’s disinterest, realizing the germaphobe she was dealing with.
“You know what? You’re no fun. I try to have a friendly conversation with you and all you can care about is the potential dirtiness that can occur.”
“Well maybe so, but I don’t ramble in the face of somepony’s clear distaste.”
And then, she stuck her nose in the air accompanied by a light “hmmph.”
“Celestia, what a high-society wannabe.”
“I heard that, Ms. Dash. And I shall inform you that I am well on my way to achieving sugar mare status!”
“And what are you gonna do with that outstanding allowance of yours? A dildo to fuck yourself with?”
“Oh, po-lease! The more I add to my collection, the more Sweetie Belle has a chance of busting my...naughtiness.” She gave a slight chuckle. “Sweetie always finds a way to get to my stuff. Time will only tell 'til she reaches the confidential.”
Rainbow smirked. “Bad Dragon’s the way to go, isn’t it?”
“Oh, yes! Makes me want to sleep with the little guy to - you know - see what he’s got.” She ended that sentence with a wink.
“You mean...Spike?”
“Of course, dear.”
Taken aback, the frown that was on the pegasus’ face grew to a display of pure discomfort.
“No need to worry. I got him seduced ages ago! It truly was love at first sight!”
“Um...”
Her voice trailed off just like the smoke that had been billowing out of the locomotive's stack did; the Friendship Express was gradually slowing, and has reached a dead stop.
Applejack looked out the window to see what's up; she caught a glimpse of the engineer speaking to the conductor from the window in the cab.
"Darn engine's smokin' in places it shouldn't be."
Her comment persuaded other passengers to look out the window, including Rainbow Dash. "And I thought this trip couldn't get any more gruesome; I was wrong."
"You know, I think we all need a quick break," said Twilight Sparkle, who had her hoof being suckled by the sleeping pink pony.
Now Twilight was the one getting dirty looks from everypony who had turned their heads in her direction to see what she had to say, to which she gave an awkward smile and blushed in response.
"And what are you suggesting, Twi?" said Applejack.
"Let's just go outside and get some fresh air. Maybe go for a walk."
Applejack raised a brow. "And what if this train leaves while we're on that walk?"
"Just a suggestion, heh - heh."
"I have no problem with a walk," Fluttershy interjected. "We might meet some cute animals during it. I read that there are quite a few bighorn sheep up here in the mountains."
"Attention, passengers," said the conductor through the door. He entered the passenger compartment and continued as he walked through it. "First, I want to apologize for the interruption in our journey. It has been brought to my attention that - to put it simply - the mountainous terrain put quite a strain on our little engine, resulting in a breakdown. We here aboard the Friendship Express ask that you remain patient as we further try to identify the problem so we can fix it. Thank you." He then left the carriage to repeat the same, scripted-sounding dialogue.
"Perhaps going outside isn't a bad idea," said Applejack.
"Fine, you five can go. But I opt to stay in here to prevent the snow from getting my hooves wet. I just got them hooficured, you know," Rarity said.
"Germaphooooooooobe !"
"Shut it, Rainbow Dash!"
Her yell had awoken Pinkie just in time.
"Wha?"
"We're going outside to unwind, if you wanna join us," Twilight said as she helped the sleepy pony off her lap.
"This sure is a weird place for a train station to be at."
"We've broken down, actually."
The others were already heading out; Twilight followed them, with Pinkie right behind.
It had stopped snowing, and the sun was peaking through the clouds. The day began to become warmer and brighter; as did the spirits of the ponies who had just disbanded, sitting in a row next to the train. Not only had their mode of transportation stopped, but so did their problems. For the first time in this entire day, there was no more of an urge to be someplace at a certain time; nor were there any more complaints or arguments. Just the relaxing silence that was only filled by the hypnotic chirping of birds and this lush, beautiful view of a vast forest ahead of an enormous mountain.
But all of that would be ruined by a sudden red flash that emerged from the trees, flew into the sky, and finally exploded with an earsplitting "BOOM!" to form the letters "SOS."
"That was AWESOME!"
"Uh - Pinkie? We're raht here next t'ya."
"That's a brilliant observation, Applej - "
BOOM!
Both earth ponies looked back up into the sky to see that another, yellow signal appeared, displaying the same letters; then, it dissolved like the first one after a few seconds.
Pinkie Pie's pupils were literally in the shape of stars and her mouth a gaping smile. "Encore! Encore! "
"I don't think this is a show. Maybe we can help," Twilight suggested.
Applejack countered, "But we'll miss this - "
"Yes, I know. But - "
Another "BOOM!" and Pinkie Pie got her encore; this time it showed in green.
"But it could be a call. You know what the letters stand for, right?"
"'Support our show'?" guessed Pinkie.
"It stands for 'save our ship.' I don't know what's down there with it being so heavily dense with trees, so there is a chance that a river with a troubled boat on it is in there."
"But that could get us in trouble!" Rainbow Dash said, pointing to the train.
"Well, fortunately for us, the river leads to Ponyville."
"The river?"
"There's no the river, but if there is a river, then we have a chance if this signal really is true. All major bodies of water in Equestria are connected in one way or another, according to the Cutie Map."
"We will also need to save the ship if we've got a chance," Fluttershy cut in.
"Well, what are we waiting for, then!?" exclaimed Pinkie as she walked over to the side of the cliff.
"Uh - Pinkie?" Applejack repeated.
"See you at the bottom!"
"Pinkie, what are you - ?" said Twilight.
"Geronimo...!"
Rainbow Dash crossed her arms, scowling as Pinkie's voiced trailed off. "That pink pony is so random."
"And dangerous!" said Fluttershy, walking over to the edge of the cliff to look down.
"Eh, I wouldn't worry about it; how many times has she defied the laws of phys - "
"OUCH!"
The scream had sent more than a few birds flying off, and concern in the aloof pegasus; causing her to respond with a gasp. She then ran off the cliff as if it were a runway, and took flight. "I'm comin' for ya, Pinkie!"
Fluttershy looked back to the others when walking towards the edge. "Well then, only one thing left to do." She did the same thing as Rainbow, only she flew in circles as she went down; opposed to the other pegasus' straight-down approach.
"What about us non-flyin' pones?" Applejack said.
"Get Rarity; I have an idea."
"Now, now; there's no need for that," said the heavily accented voice of the unicorn they had just mentioned. "I saw you were hurling yourselves over the edge of that cliff, and of course it got my curiosity flowing. Flowing enough for me to...well..." She looked down at her hooves, now covered in dirt-mixed snow.
"I'll explain when we get down there."
"Ugh! You mean you want us to go into the depths of that abyss! My hooves aren't getting any dirtier, you know!"
"I said I'll explain later . So if you could stand right here" - she pointed to an area right next to the "abyss" - "that would be great."
Rarity obeyed, but the scrunch on her face showed that she did so only grudgingly.
"I'll have you know that I paid good money for that hooficure I stated as my reasoning for - WOAHOHOHOHOHO!"
She had just been lifted off the ground and over the edge by Twilight's magical aura.
"This'll only take a minute, and I'll be sure to do it slowly."
So down and down, Rarity went; growing reluctant as the treetops grew larger. She held her breath when she got close, almost like she was going underwater. This may not be the ocean, but it sure was an entirely different world down here like it; and this world was much worse than she expected. Already, she was getting leaves in her mane from when she plunged through the branches. It got even worse; now that she was out of Twilight's vision, it made it harder for the alicorn above to focus on the pony she was levitating. So, her aura began to spin out of control.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Rarity screamed after it vanished way sooner than it should have.
She crash-landed into a sickly green pool of water.
"Turns out you were right about this place being a swamp after all, Rarity," a smug voice said from above.
"I said shut it , Rainbow Dash!"
"She's over here, girls!"
Fluttershy and Pinkie ran over to help their friend out of the water. Once she was, Rarity purposefully shook her mane off onto Rainbow Dash.
"Heyyyy!" the mare responded, but then immediately giggled right after when Rarity began to be soaked in another yellow fluid from above. But when she looked up to see who it was coming from, that giggle was stifled.
A terrified Applejack had just finished urinating, and was about to be finished being lowered by the flying alicorn right next to her as well.
"Applejack! Did you just...?!"
The newly-landed earth pony just gave an awkward smile; her freckled cheeks blushing on each side of it.
"Why you...you disgusting, repellent, nasty, distasteful, stomach-turning, loathsome, appalling, oversized foal! EEYICK!"
Rarity took off to find cleaner waters so she can wash off. And within seconds into her run, had already found a strange-looking river; it was pretty hard to miss from the mist and glow it was emitting that was the main light source down here in the darkness. Still rather greenish it is, but this being a lighter, more polished shade. It glittered, too; and to Rarity, all that glitters must be clean. Without any question, she dunked her head into it.
"So this is the river the boat must be on," said Twilight, leading the others to where Rarity was. "Hmm...it better not have already sank."
Pinkie pointed up the river. "Way ahead of ya, Twi!"
Belching smoke and paddling its way through the bluish-green liquid, a steamboat was coming towards them.
"Oh, it doesn't look like it's in trouble," Fluttershy observed.
"Why don't you go fly over there to see?" said Twilight.
"How about all of us winged ponies do so?" Rainbow Dash chimed in. She was once again the first to take off into flight, landed on the upper deck, and kicked open a door that led to the bridge. She walked in, and began to feel uneasy.
"Hello?"
"It doesn't seem like anypony's in here," Twilight said; Fluttershy landing right behind her.
"Let's not give our hopes up, yet."
Rainbow was looking through a side door she had just opened; Fluttershy and Twilight walked over to see she found a U-shaped staircase, with a lit chandelier hanging over the 180-degree turn halfway down.
Once at the bottom, they opened another door leading into the wheelhouse. Like the bridge, it was not heavily decorated, but seemed to have been used; it had a light on in the middle of the ceiling, and a full bookshelf that included such classics like Bridle Buck's Boat Chants and -
"Daring Do and the Riddle of the Sphinx !?" said Rainbow.
"Here we go, again..." sighed Fluttershy.
"Oh my gosh, it is! I've been looking for a copy of this forever ! I mean, I've read every other published book in the series! And whaddaya know? I find it in a mysteriously deserted boat in a mysteriously dark forest in a mysteriously sparkling river! Can I pleeeeeeeeeeeeease keep it, Twilight?"
"The short answer: No."
"Okay, what about the long answer?!"
"Well, as you said, it's deserted; we don't know who was on board or who we could be stealing from."
Rainbow frowned as Twilight lead Fluttershy to the next door. "Yes, I said stealing . Now, come on. We've already wasted enough time on this empty boat. Why would somepony do that, anyways? Just let their own boat go down a river."
"How would you know they did that?" asked Fluttershy as they went outside.
"Yeah," said Rainbow Dash, "maybe they lost it, so they sent out those rockets to have somepony 'save' it."
"Save it from what?"
"I don't know. Maybe a waterfall or something."
"Well," Twilight began, "what we do know is someone was on it at some point." She pointed at one of two caged furnaces, each feeding a smokestack. "The boilers are lit."
"Okay, here's my scenario: So there they were, a band of pirates sailing the seven rivers - "
"Pirates don't use riverboats. In fact, they aren't in rivers at all; they would be found in an ocean."
"Will you let me finish my story?"
"No, I don't care. Don't make us spare more time to go to waste, Rainbow."
Rainbow frowned again, crossing her arms in mid-flight as they made their way across the right side of the boat next to its wheelhouse. There, they would find Pinkie pie running alongside the river. She was leading Rarity who kept looking back at Applejack; likely trying to keep herself at a distance from the earth pony that was still blushing.
"Seems like you girls did a great job at saving that ship. Bravo!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, stopping to clap her hooves.
"That's because it was never in danger in the first place," said Fluttershy.
"Nopony is aboard," said Rainbow Dash.
"What do you mean?" asked Pinkie, continuing to keep up the pace.
"What do you mean, Pinkie?" Twilight said.
"Go look on the front of the boat, silly!"
Sure enough when they got there, a dark figure stood at the bow; back turned to expose a pair of wings. However, these were not the usual feathery ones of Fluttershy, Twilight, Rainbow, and virtually every other winged pony in Equestria. They were more like the wings of a bat they had seen on a pony only one other time. Fluttershy shuttered as she took note of this; shocked and intimidated to see that they might be an actual breed of ponies, rather than the product of a failed spell.
The pony turned her head, but she did so without having to move her body at all; revealing slitted pupils in her eyes - enough for them to see that she was indeed a bat pony, and likely the captain of this ship.
She turned the rest of her body around, evoking fear into the other two trespassers, in addition to Fluttershy. This fear only increased when she opened her mouth, showing her razor-sharp fangs...Was she doing this so she can use them? It is self-explanatory why sucking their blood is a possibility, but they had never seen one speak; only hisses from "Flutterbat."
Although, this one did.
