Author's Note

Hello there and welcome back again to yet another new chapter of Springtime of Youth, the one story out of many of my craft to go above and beyond the oneshots I've given you since the inception; suffice to say, the past chapters from before were by far a strong note for you all yet on the bright side, we're nearing the end of it completely.

Aside from disclaimers and thanks, I have a little confession to make: seeing that you've noticed a new character joining into the story recently, you'd be right for expressing surprise that she's now appearing since the whole canonicity debacle of the comics; of course, this makes the whole thing interesting anyway since this story represents an alternate timeline altogether.

Speaking of new characters, I have brought forth a special guest you all know and love, or hate depending on your stance as is; in addition, I also happen to include a musical reference in the story so as to help me end it in favor of moving on to better things: for what it's worth, I hope you'll enjoy it and the conversation between the two at large so to speak of.

Mobile

There was another lone city currently bathed in an elegant afterglow thanks to the eternal golden sun taking residence above them in the heavens with the cottony clouds traveling about in its wake. In them, the big bright blue skies had contained a variety of lifeforms flying across the way over the rhythm emotion of the surface’s hustle and bustle flowing about without even so much as a care. There were towering behemoths ruling and governing their very own landscape for although that they were divided, these constructs nevertheless shared the same power wielded over this very place. Aside from a variety of wagons running about the asphalt with sights and sounds contributing to its atmosphere, there were also some ships of some various sizes surfing across the dyed deep blue. What had made it stand out the most were the massive flocks of ibises and seagulls that could run so far to and fro but couldn’t get away with even the largest of wingspans as they’d cawed about. On the other side of the vast and magnificent waters where the many ships had sailed in and out of there were an abundance of sand and fog sprawled about throughout the massively beautiful earth. Most importantly, the very denizens themselves were abundantly commonplace, all coming and going inside the city by any and all means necessary as they pleased in sheer density whatsoever as is.

The woodwind sounds of whistling had cut on through the briskly scarce air whilst currently followed by the constant percussion of steel parts in rapid succession. Within the cold distance, an enharmonic orchestra had came in the form of a slender and shiny locomotive presently undergoing the tender processes of deceleration. Slowly and steadily, the synchronicity of music came to a gentle end when the grinding of metal was followed by the whooshing of smoke clouds nearby the platform. Instantaneously, the doors slid open to unleash many passengers now taking their own spot onto the same surface, wasting no time whatsoever to exit the contraption.

“Attention all passengers, we’ll be departing to Manehattan in the next half–hour: if this happens to be your destination, then we ask you to check your belongings and hope you have a nice day; either way, thank you for choosing Friendship Express, Equestria’s finest in rail transit…” a voice announced itself from the machine in question, lacking a corporeal form of its own no less.

Out of many exiting the locomotive at this moment in time, a pale lanky woman stepped out from the contraption without any hesitation. Her cyan tresses fluttered about in the wind as they’d ran down past her waistline, matching the eyeshadow overlaying about the open lids. Geodes of amethyst were found to be hidden underneath the pale woman’s sunglasses, surveying the area she found herself in almost instantly. In any case, her attire presently consisted of a scarlet blouse, jet–black pants, and brown boots; in addition, a transparent skirt was also found. Slung abaft the pale woman’s body was a medium gray backpack: despite bulging about, no signs of struggle were found upon its owner.

It didn’t take much for her to look around and make note of the people, speaking quietly so as to avoid standing out altogether, “it’s amazing that’s after all these years, Equestria’s still going on strong, if not more so than ever: I’d thought all this fighting in and out of the country would tear it apart as is, but it seems we were all wrong; still, it seems as if nothing else has changed at all.”

“Look, mummy…” a youthful voice escaped into the pale woman’s ears almost instantaneously, more open by comparison, “there’s an airplane in the sky…”

“And so there is: I don’t think I’d ever seen these in my life, outside of my big sister’s report no less; father seems to hate them more than the Equestrians themselves, not a big surprise to me…” she said just as quietly as she’d done before, turning her purple eyes upward in a diagonal path to discover the titular machine a secondary observer had noticed immediately.

It didn’t take long for the pale woman to find herself within range of some new sounds a minute after she’d began to walk away: a series of strings being plucked in a stable pattern as they were from both guitars, followed by an occasional drumbeat no less; they’d originated from a quartet of men standing upon a nearby corner, more rough around the edge compared to the likes of her. As far as she could see them currently, every single one of the members had possessed their very commonalities pronounced as is: bright integuments, brown hair with matching eyes, and round faces were all up on display thanks to the sunlight high above; in her mind, their uniformity was enough to make assumptions regarding their relationship to each other in some form or fashion. Nevertheless, this was enough for the pale woman to stop at that, especially considering there were others with similar color combinations regarding skin, tresses, and eyes alone so to speak; after all, no one paid any mind to her own place in the world or her presence as is since everyone else was far too busy with their lives to care in the slightest, something in which put her at ease.

Either way, there were some significant differences between the four in particular, all of which people like her took note of, which had already separated themselves from each other instantly. For starters, one of them was hirsute, all dressed in black from head to toe with but a similar yet larger pair of sunglasses as some strands of silver were found at the sides of his beard no less. Standing by his sides were a pair of guitarists: one was shorter but had longer tresses and a blue jacket over the black ensemble; the other was most tall, wearing a soft cap and a longest braid. Far left was a drummer with less locks and silver within them sitting in a chair; like one of the other musicians, his attire had more color too: a long pair of pants in a camouflage assortment.

The shortest guitarist strummed about and vocalized freely as his reclining counterpart tapped onto the flat surface, “oooooooooooooooh, Acoustic Hearthswarming… oooooooooooooh, with electric guitars…”

“Fixtures on the side, are they real?” the man in black asked, finally joining into the conversation as it’d caught the pale woman off–guard immediately no less, “let me go talk to one…”

“Nothing is real here except you…” the blue jacketed peer said absentmindedly so to speak of, apathetic to the stares of their passing audience.

In any case, the man in black had taken a deep breath and soothed about either way nevertheless, “it’s a real treat guys, it’s a real treat… goodbye, blue sky… goodbye, blue sky, goodbye blue sky, goodbye… unless the environment changes, unless we’re able to assist the rejuvenation of mother nature, as its guardians in the next couple years, I guarantee you, your children will not see the day, of your white hairs. Goodbye, blue sky… goodbye, blue sky… goodbye…”

“Ooh–ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh…” the rest of his peers had cooed liked birds, vocalizing alongside the tunes they were all playing freely no less,

Did–did–did–did you see the frightened ones?
Did–did–did–did you hear the falling bombs?
Did–did–did–did you ever wonder why we had to run
for shelter when the promise of a brave new world
unfurled beneath the clear blue sky?

“This must be one of the songs played by some band from the old world, or so it seems; it’s nothing like the songs I was sung or taught back at my homeland no less: no way my father would dare to let me speak of it lately, even on Equestrian soil so to speak of…” she’d cerebrated about no less, enthralled by their melody eventually thanks to the men in question.

More had surrounded the pale woman but remained focus on the musicians anyway as their leader in black spoken up freely, “ten millennia ago in lands between rivers, a new type of thinking was developed, one that involved totalitarian agriculture and now…”

“Goodbye, blue sky…!” the blue jacketed guitarist crooned alone, focus his fingers upon the steely strings nonetheless, “goodbye, blue sky… goodbye…”

“We fall into sleep as people, as livestock on this planet, we are here to nurture our planet: we are here to help guarding this fucking place, not destroy it for heaven’s sake; I am sick and tired of unequal globalism, I am sick and tired of fascism, I am sick and tired of this type of people…!” the frontman shouted almost uncontrollably, yet staying firmly in place all the same.

Thankfully, their audience remained firm, even her, as they’d crooned about without fear no less:

Did–did–did–did you see the frightened ones?
Did–did–did–did you hear the falling bombs?
The flames are all long gone but the pain lingers on…

“Goodbye, blue sky, unless you open your eyes…” the leader in black had sang before breaking away freely from the very structure to speak to the growing crowd calmly no less, “unless you open your eyes to what in the world is happening; the third world is waiting for you to wake up…”

“Goodbye, blue sky… goodbye, blue sky… goodbye… goodbye!” a small fraction of the rather intrepid audience had currently joined into the fray, some of whom were tossing coins at their feet gently.

Just as the pale woman started to reach into her backpack, one of the other guitarist began to howl playfully, “pull the tapeworm out of your breech… pull the tapeworm out of your breech…!”

“Ngh…!” she’d grunted, storming off in an instant as both feet had prompted her to flee the scene with little warning; however, the trail had stopped cold as another individual was in the way, sending the former onto haunches after landing upon the hard surface, “I’m sorry but you need to watch where you’re going; what are you doing standing here alone, besides all of this?!”

“Having a nice walk, just like you…” another feminine voice escaped into the pale observer’s ears, deeper in tone but still light as a feather.

Based on what was seen, one could’ve mistaken them as sisters by virtue of their eyes and skin; however, the differences between them both were far too great to entertain that possibility as is. For starters, the other pedestrian had possessed some predominately purple hair with aquamarine highlights, much of which matched the wearer’s eyes as far as the primordial was concerned. Secondment, although the latter’s integuments were also bright, they were tickled pink already, bearing a healthy shading more fitting of freshly bloomed carnations on a warm spring morning. The highlighted pedestrian wore a more uniform attire compared to the first as far as the latter could see: a fuchsia blouse, a turquoise undershirt, an orchid skirt, and a pair of jet–black shoes.

Also, the rosy woman happened to have a bag in her possession, except it was lighter and more colorful with the starry sapphires befitting of another dimension where worldly rubies coexist.

It didn’t take much for the pale correspondent to speak out to the uniformly individual at once, “are you one of the locals by the way, ma’am…?”

“Not at all: to be honest, this isn’t my own hometown either; even I myself can tell you’re not from Fillydelphia either no less…” the highlighted pedestrian answered instantly, struggling to stand back up on both feet as far as her pale observer was concerned, “the name’s Starlight Glimmer by the way; who are you…?”

“I’m Swift Foot and you’re right, I was just traveling along too; I actually come from Filika…” the primordial eyewitness introduced herself.

As the pale woman help her rosy counterpart along, the latter spoken up at once, “Filika, I haven’t heard of that name at all so to speak of: where is it at, somewhere in the Old World perhaps…?”

“Not quite, I believe: although it takes a lot of influence from there, it’s actually nearby Equestria up in the northeastern seaboard…” Swift Foot had replied as Starlight was currently upright again, both noticing the differences height between themselves at once, “it’s actually like a throwback from the old millennium societies of yore for the lack of a better term so to speak of.”

“Interesting, so what brings you here of all places; this city can get really cold at times, especially around the holidays: any relatives perhaps living nearby…?” the highlighted traveler had asked her paler correspondent almost rather immediately so to speak of as they’d began to walk together.

Sure enough, Swift Foot had answered Starlight all the same no less, “not quite, I’ve been traveling alone on vacation; to be honest, I’d taken residence in Ponyville a few years ago but I’ve been rethinking my options as to how I can still afford to have a roof over my head and save some bits: apparently, it seems the prices for apartments have been going down recently…”

“I wouldn’t put my money on them anyway: even before the war, I’ve been noticing some problems anyway with residency…” the highlighted pedestrian said to her paler counterpart while they were walking away from the others, hearing a wheeze of steam, “thankfully, it’s not as bad as the others but cost–effectiveness isn’t the only factor I tend to worry about here…”

“Really, what do you mean by that…?” Swift Foot asked softly as the locomotive had begun to run off.

Starlight wasted no time in giving out an answer, “history to be honest: apparently, according to some old rumors, this used to be one of the ancient cities dating back to Equestria’s founding; as a matter of fact, they’d said it was the site of some otherworldly phenomenon from a millennium ago but it’s not what I’d been interested in. I’ve been noticing a lot of disparities between two kinds of people: the natives whose histories have been dated back to its city’s inception and people cordoned off in the Dragon Town district; apparently, even in modern times, there’s still some animosity between them but do I blame them? Of course not, if I happened to be nearby someone or something capable of turning something to ash with my breath, then I’d be planning on finding a way to defend myself from these kinds of individuals altogether; still, seeing them living in such conditions is kind of sad, especially since they’re not like the rest of the whole city, much less the country, you know. In any case, just be aware they do tend be keeping to themselves anyway, especially in regards to some cases of any kinds of fire related incidents here and there; of course, that’s not to say the natives are capable of causing them for one reason or another, even before the war to be honest. Now that I think about, I know a place where we can get some fine dining around here: I’ve been getting some exercise by myself but bumping into you has reminded me of my neighbors back in the village so I figure the least I can do is treat you to some food; how’s cheesesteak and apple pie sound to you…?”

“Cheesesteak… I don’t know; I’ve been having a hard time keeping up with my regiment lately so I don’t feel right cheating…” the pale traveler responded as she’d looked away from her highlighted correspondent briefly, looking around for a brief while, “will they have any vegetable substitutes in lieu of meat or fish if it’s possible, forgive me for saying…?”

“Of course: the only ones I’m aware who eat any meat and/or fish around these parts, besides from Dragon Town, are probably from Griffonstone; failing that, the grapefruit smoothies are a lifesaver when it comes to apple pies…” Starlight had beamed about, spreading the joy onto Swift Foot with mild success no less in any case.

It didn’t take much for the pale woman to sigh, “why not…? It’s been a long week anyway: nothing’s been happening so I needed an adventure here; not like I have anything to lose no less…”

Needless to say, the particular pedestrian pair were still free to roam around the big city, like everybody else here and there.