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Poyezdka na poyezde

Starlight Glimmer sat alone on a railcar seat. Here she listened to the clicky clack of the railroad tracks as the train she rode, travelled along the mainline to the Crystal Empire. She had been looking out the window at the passing forested landscape, not saying a word as she watched the countryside swiftly pass her by, with her mind deep in thought. Of course this was her choice, she had sat alone in this moderately crowded rail carriage on purpose, to keep her thoughts to herself as she traveled. This wasn’t like her normally, she had always liked travelling with friends and would jump at the opportunity to do so but, on this occasion she decided to go alone. There was no legitimate reason for her doing this of course, she wasn’t on a secret mission or something as dire as that. She could have even taken assistant headmaster Sunburst with her given the circumstances of the trip, but then who would run the school of friendship in their stead?

‘Certainly not Trixie,’ she thought, ‘the place would have been reduced to a complete wreck by the time they returned. This is something I cannot afford, even if Trixie has matured over these past couple decades.’ She smiled remembering all the good times they had spent together, and how insufferable she was when they first met. Luckily they had gotten past that together as friends.

So, Starlight decided with her best judgement in mind, to leave her fully capable partner in charge of things while she was in the Crystal Empire. She was heading to the empire of frozen north, to visit Princess Flurry Heart and personally overview the new land development for the empire's very own friendship school. Normally this responsibility would have been given to Princess Twilight Sparkle, as she was the one who elected to make the school of friendship in Ponyville those many full moons ago. Unfortunately, as she usually wass, she’d been overly busy those past couple weeks, and needed Starlight to cover for her knowing she could handle it. Of course, Starlight knew the princess could count on her, so she sprung into orderly action, and caught the next train north as fast as she could, barely leaving enough time for her to pack her bags. Luckily Sunburst helped her with that. Such a nice stallion.

Plus, it had been a while since Starlight had time to visit the Crystal Empire and see Flurry Heart. After Flurry Heart had taken over the royal burden of ruling the empire from her mother, she hadn't any time to come down and visit her friends, Starlight being one of them. Of course not for lack of trying. Things just happen to find a way of messing with a princesses free time, in one way or another. Starlight learned this from Twilight. Of course her ascension to the throne was only two, maybe three years ago, and since she took over the empire, there haven’t been many things to report. In fact, their choice to open a friendship school was actually one of Flurry Hearts first decrees as princess of the realm. This was so that ponies didn’t have to travel all the way to ponyville from the north to garner an education at the esteemed academy. Now they could just go to the local campus they intended to erect, and get their education there. This would save time, energy, and in the long term, hundreds of thousands of tax payer bits.

In fact it was such a good idea, what when Flurry first announced it when she took over the throne, it was met with grand jubilation from the crystal ponies, and ponies and creatures abroad. It was even said that if outsiders, not native to the Crystal Empire, wanted to attend the school and brave the perilous journey through the frozen north, they would be rewarded with a scholarship for going that extra mile to want to study friendship at a royal equestrian sponsored school. This fact alone would definitely draw creatures in from all over the world to the Crystal Empire, something that excited Flurry Heart, and Starlight both! This school's campus was supposed to be twice the size of the campus in ponyville, for no other purpose than to drive up interest in the locals, and potential students from across the globe.

Starlight smiled in her seat as she looked away from the window to the other ponies in the rail carriage. A great number of them were younger than her, of course she had been getting up there in age. She watched how they talked, laughed, and smiled away with one another. Starlight saw herself and her friends in these strangers, their mannerisms, and the way they talked reminded her of simpler times. She could only imagine how many of these young bright minds would influence the next generation of friendship seekers. How they would bring forth a new dawn of intellectuals and leaders in the field of making friends. Of course, she could only guess how many of the ponies here were actually interested in enrolling, but she hoped that there were many among her.

During her time as head mistress she had seen many classes trot through her and Sunbursts halls over the years, many different faces and personalities that she had come to know quite well held a special place in her heart. In fact there were too many to count, every new year brought more ponies and creatures to their hallowed classrooms, and every year she would see ponies graduate and head on to greener pastures. It was a bittersweet cycle, but she knew she was making the world a better place. Even if it meant, her social life took a bit of a dive in the process.

While it was a good feeling knowing that what she and her partner were doing was the right thing, it was even a greater feeling knowing that the same sort of enlightenment was coming to the Crystal Empire within the next couple years after the school was finally finished. Of course there was still much work to be done. Land still needed to be chartered, resources needed to be gathered, and funds needed to be secured. The project had really only really begun these past couple months, and progress was slow.

‘Politics will be politics,’ Starlight thought as she scowled at the back of the rail bench in front of her, before sighing in annoyance, ‘hopefully when I arrive I’ll be able to get things settled much faster and easier, with the help of Flurry Heart of course. There’s only so much I can do, afterall I don’t know these ponies, but I’m sure I can manage the best I can with the cards Flury has been dealt. I’ve had to deal with worse in the past after all. This’ll be a cake walk!’

Starlight was confident in her abilities, or at least she thought she was, and why shouldn’t she? She had been successfully running the School of Friendship for just about twenty years, if anypony could help Princess Flurry Heart it was her.

Though she really wished Sunburst could have joined her on this journey, at least then she would have been able to talk to somepony instead of sitting here with her thoughts, completely alone. Then again, was that necessarily a bad thing? Ponyville being home to the only friendship school ment that free time was a thing of the past. Sometimes a pony needs a break from everypony else. Sometimes it’s healthy for a pony to get out and see new things once and a while, without surrounding themselves with friends.

While she had wished she had been able to bring Sunburst along, she also believed this alone time was good for her.

‘I mean, when's the next time I’ll be able to go on a trip like this?’ Starlight pondered to herself, a hoof rubbing her chin, ‘I’m always so busy at the school, and after that I have other social obligations I need to fill. So maybe, this is just what I need. I don’t necessarily want to call it a vacation but, yeah I kinda do. While I wish Sunburst could have come I also sorta don't, for me of course not because of him. He’s such an amazing stallion, taking on the workload the way he did. Much like Trixie, he too has matured quite well these past two decades. Of course I’ll always remember him as that cute loveable dork I knew as a filly. I’ll be sure I grab him something while I’m up here, a souvenir perhaps! Maybe a snow globe? Nah that’s too cheesy… A scarf maybe! No no… that’s even more cheesy. Oh! How about a-,’

Starlights thoughts were cut off quickly when a conductor pony pushed open the door to the carriage with his hoof, and loudly announced to the passengers:

“Next stop! Grand Crystal Station! All departing for Grand Crystal Station, be sure to take your personal belongings with you! I repeat, next stop is Grand Crystal Station!” Starlight smiled with excitement as she looked out the window again, they had arrived earlier than expected.

In the rapidly approaching distance were the gleaming city lights of the Crystal Empire. She watched the north lights dance across the midnight sky as the buildings themselves shone galiantly beneath the starry sky. The city looked as if it was glowing with a golden hue, like golden bits would shine in a pirates treasure chest. Only a few times in her past had Starlight visited the Crystal Empire, most of those times were spent keeping the empire itself from being taken by the evil powers that be. But even then, through all the madness, darkness and stress, she never forgot how absolutely beautiful the city was, whether it was in the daytime, or the night.

Turning away from the window she used her levitation magic to pull over her saddle bags. She quickly opened their flaps to check the contents of the bags. She looked over the books, scrolls, and feather pens that she had brought with her, before she quickly reorganized them just to make sure everything was indeed there. She knew she was prepared without a shadow of a doubt. While she wasn’t meant to see the ponies that were involved with the construction project until tomorrow, she was so confident in fact that she could face them right here, right now, and still deliver a slam dunk of a grand argument for continuing the construction, to get the school built ahead of schedule.

“I can't wait to Flurry Heart.” Starlight whispered to herself giddily, as she stood up from her seat.