The Lost World

The Lost World

Chapter 8

By: Bairiko

The train whistle chirped twice as the locomotive pulled out of the station, bound for the Capital and all the sights along the way.

The Zephyr bobbed lazily in the sunlight as Captain Zephyr listened to the train, standing where he was at the base of the gangplank amidship, he observed his latest port of call. Human sailors in white flat caps and white belted blue uniforms carried on their business, some of them stopping to stare at the Equestrian ship and her crew and guards, an action that was returned in kind. Across the water on the other side of the port the massive bulk of the ship under construction dominated the attention of some crew members while the Westmarch, her duties completed, slowly turned about and sailed from the harbour.

"Alright, now what?" Aurora asked as she too watched the crowds from beside the captain.

"Well, now we either head back to Equestria and wait for word from the Princess, or we wait here,"

"No, I meant about the ship," Aurora said as she looked behind her, the jagged edges of the front support still visible even under the canvas tarp tied over it and the two rear support docks naked at the sides of the aftcastle.

Zephyr's eyes widened as he remembered what the Princess had promised to do, leaping off the ship and flying high above her, he watched the retreating column of smoke that marked the train, carrying with it the only ponies who could understand and speak the native language.

When the captain landed once more, he was understandably angry.

"She lied!" he yelled when he landed, "So much for helping out eh princess?"

"Come now Captain," Aurora said, placing her hoof on her captains shoulder, "If anything this just means when she gets back she might be more willing than ever to help out,"

"I don't want to cheat a Princess Aura," He said as he settled down, using the crew nickname for the radiant mare.

"And you wont be, she did promise after all," With that the pegasus mare turned and went back towards the door to the bowels of the ship, "Come on, let's go have a cup of tea, or coffee if you prefer," She amended at Zephyr's less than pleased look.

A few minutes later they were sitting in the Captains quarters, Zephyr behind his desk with Aurora in front, sipping tea and coffee. Aurora had been in this room many times before, everypony had. Captain Zephyr was known for always leaving his door open and inviting crew in to just talk. None the less she took the opportunity to look around once more.

A cot against the far wall served as the captains bed, though because it was slightly larger than most cots on board it had been used by Princess Celestia for the last week. Portraits of ships at sea and in the air hung on the wall behind it while more personal photos sat on the desk, depicting a young colt Zephyr on the deck of a ship, grinning like mad wearing an over-sized pearl white cap while an amused navy blue stallion stood to the side. The picture window behind him framed a violin case in the light of the sun while various nick-knacks and mementos from all the travels the ship had sat on shelves, ranging from a toy top from the Minotaur Republics to a sword from the Gryphon Kingdoms.

The desk itself was an antique mahogany masterpiece left over from the Zephyr's previous captain, the stallion pictured and Captain Zephyr's father. The blue stallion seated behind the desk however looked none too pleased at their current situation.

"Well," Aurora said, "At least you can tell your old man that you almost sank his ship while one of the Princesses was on board, while on your way to a lost land populated by hostile, mythical natives that have been isolated since the time of Discord. Oh and the Elements of Harmony were on board, and Daring Do. Who else can say that?"

Zephyr glanced up and quirked an eyebrow.

"Okay, so maybe I could have phrased that better but you know what I meant,"

"Ha, yeah I do, but oh well, we'll talk to her when they get back from whatever they're doing," Right when he finished talking a wisp of golden smoke whisked into the room and materialized into a scroll in front of them, dropping onto the desk.

"Or not,"

Two sharp whistles rang out as the train departed from the port side station, away from the ocean and the Zephyr and into the heart of the Lost Continent. Twilight was standing in the doorway glancing around when Celestia asked her if something was the matter.

"Princess? Aren't there going to be other passengers?" She asked.

"Not on this train Twilight," Celestia said, "This train is reserved just for us,"

Twilight nodded as she recalled looking over the train. It had five cars, plus the engine at the front, the coal carrier behind it and the caboose at the back. She quickly picked up her luggage and followed the princess into the front most car. Besides the startling similarities between this train car and Equestria trains, Twilight could still notice the subtle differences.

As she walked down the hallway she noticed the car was compartmentalized instead of one big open room. The front half that she had stepped into serving as a sort of sitting room with a bank of individual rooms taking up the rear half. Twilight took note that there were only four of these rooms on this car.

Dark wood paneling was the main decoration, intricately carved and detailed with stylized patterns along the walls, inlaid with gold, with a red carpet running under hoof. Lighting was provided by a series of crystals, suspended in brass casings along the walls at even intervals which glowed constantly, never too bright in the sunlight, but bright enough in the shade and darkness of the cabins.

"Uh, Princess?" She said, "There's only four rooms,"

"So there are," The Princess said as she glanced at the doors. She looked back and smile, "I'm sure there would not be a problem if you were to 'bunk up' with a friend is there?" Though her smile was calm, her eyes sparkled with mischief, which quickly changed. "I believe I will take the room on the far end, I'll leave you girls to come up with sleeping arrangements, I believe I have a letter to write," With that the Princess stepped into her claimed room and shut the door.

Twilight glanced around the room at the other five mares who were in this car, the others having gone off to the other cars. "Alright then, who wants to sleep where?"

Rainbow Dash looked a bit nervous. I wonder if there's something wrong with her? Twilight thought worriedly. She's been acting so strange this whole trip, what is she nervous about?

Rainbow was just about to say something, when Pinkie Pie cut her off. "Ooo ooo I know! Twilight and Rarity should totally share a room, and Flutters and Dashie too! That means me and AJ are together," She rambled, "That way all the unicorns and pegasuses and earth ponies are with each other, wouldn't that be fun?"

Before anypony could protest the mad pink mare had shoved each of their luggage into their new rooms, threw her hoof over Applejacks neck and, despite the farmers objections, dragged her into the middle room and slammed the door.

"...Okay?" Twilight said. "Well, I guess that solves the sleeping arrangements, unless anypony has any objections?"

There were none. And so the remaining mares settled into the sitting room at the front of the car, forgoing the human chairs in favour of pillows taken from their rooms, chatting away about anything that came to mind, ignoring the sounds of a miniaturized party coming from the middle room.

"So tell me Twilight," Rarity said about an hour later, "What do you think of our little expedition so far?"

Twilight glanced around the train a bit, taking in the foreign, yet familiar designs before she responded. "I'm not actually sure Rarity. I mean yeah, this is probably the greatest discovery in the history of Equestria since the Elements of Harmony, but you saw that 'airplane' and the ship. They're very advanced, but so far all the advancements we've seen are in military equipment. Not even the Gryphons military is this advanced," She sighed. "Don't get me wrong, this is amazing, but also kind of worrying,"

"I know what you mean darling, I mean did you see those uniforms?" Rarity shuddered, "The only decorations were stylized buttons and that badge on that ones cap. Even our own guards are better dressed than that,"

"Perhaps they prefer functionality over appearance?" Twilight offered.

"Either way, ya gotta admit those planes were pretty cool," Rainbow joined in, "Although they were kinda slow,"

"M-maybe they were just keeping pace with us?" Fluttershy said, "That one with the manticore paint flew off rather fast,"

Rainbows eyes glittered and a grin grew on her face, but before she could say anything Rarity cut her off. "I don't think they would be willing to let you race one of their planes Rainbow, especially if they are military in nature,"

"What made you think I wanted to race one?" Rainbow challenged, but flat stares from everypony present, including Fluttershy made her blush, "Yeah yeah okay, so maybe I did, still couldn't hurt to ask right?"

"No, it wouldn't, but I wouldn't hold your breath though Rainbow," Twilight said.

A few more minutes passed in comfortable silence before the door to Applejack's and Pinkies room burst open, a cloud of confetti pouring out before a dazed and confused Applejack. She stumbled her way over to the table and plopped down between Twilight and Rarity before letting her head hit the table with a dull *thump.*

"Now why did y'all just leave me in there?" she asked, not raising her head.

"Because they knew it was a 'New Roommate Party' just for us silly!" Pinkie said as she materialized right beside AJ, startling everypony.

Twilight excused herself shortly after as the conversation turned to Pinkie offering to throw similar parties for each of them, and everypony else trying to talk her out of it.

She sat by the window nearby, gazing out it at the scenery below. The terrain had been almost completely mountainous as soon as they left the waterfront, but now the train was approaching the far end of the mountains and Twilight was patiently waiting to see the landscape beyond. She wasn't disappointed by what she saw when they did.

As the train rounded one last corner, a wide expanse of flat lands spread out before her, golden stalks of grass waving in the breeze sparsely broken up here and there with massively tall trees. A river flowed in the distance, creating the illusion of a band of silver running through a golden plate studded with emerald trees. A small village sat nestled at one spot where the river bent into a U shape, three bridges just barely visible crossing it, though the rest of the village was not very visible at this distance.

Twilight glanced towards the front of the train, trying to follow where the tracks went to see if they would be going into this flat plains area, but the tracks seemed to hug the mountain exclusively. She smiled none the less, content to sit and watch the scenery. The train hugged the mountain for hours, and while the scenery changed from plains to forests eventually Twilight grew bored, so she instead went to her new room with Rarity at the farthest point from Princess Celestia's room to settle herself in for the night.

Princess Celestia hasn't stepped out of her room all day, She thought as she lay in her bed, brushing up on some Terran after the groups nightly learning session. Her door creaked open, a small sliver of light slipping in followed shortly by a pristine white unicorn.

"Darling, you just missed some of the guards bring in dinner, but I managed to save a bit for you," Rarity said as she levitated a platter of salad and a sandwich onto Twilight's nightstand. "I swear, I have never seen two ponies pack away that amount of food as Applejack and Rainbow Dash did," She chuckled slightly.

Twilight thanked her fellow unicorn as she bit into her sandwich, watching as Rarity went through the long process of getting ready for bed. She had finished shortly after Twilight had finished her meal and climbed into her own bed.

"So, are you excited?" She asked.

"About what?"

"We're arriving at the capital tomorrow, and it is about time as well," Rarity said, "We've been 'on the road' as it were for over a week now,"

Twilight chuckled. "Yeah, I guess it has taken us a bit to get here, and I can't wait until we get there,"

"Yes, well if I am to look my best for meeting with this 'Emperor' I should get some sleep, good night Twilight dear!" Rarity said as she pulled her face mask down and curled up under her blankets.

Twilight stared at her oddly for a few seconds before shrugging her shoulders and laying down herself. Thoughts plagued her mind however as she laid there, and a few minutes passed by. Right when she was finally about to fall asleep, Rarity announced her success with a startlingly loud, and completely unladylike snore. This is gonna be a long night...

Meanwhile, in the room closest to Celestia's room, Rainbow Dash lay on her back gazing at the ceiling. Fluttershy noticed this and quietly asked, "Are you okay Rainbow?" When the rainbow mare didn't respond, she tried again a bit louder.

"Huh? Oh, hey Fluttershy, 'sup?" She said.

"I asked if anything was wrong, you've been staring at the ceiling for a long time,"

Maybe that Iron Will thing did help her, she's being a lot more forward, Rainbow thought. Should I lie to her? One look at Fluttershys teal eyes however convinced her that that would be a bad idea. "...Yeah, I guess,"

"You want to talk about it?" Fluttershy asked. When Rainbow kept silent Fluttershy took a wild guess, "It's Twilight isn't it?

When Rainbow flinched, Fluttershy knew she had guessed right. "It's just, I was meaning to tell her on the way over here," Rainbow admitted, "I mean it could have been like 'Hey Twilight! I really like you, wanna go catch dinner at a restaurant in a brand new continent, because how memorable would that be?'" Rainbow mimed the motions with her hooves while keeping her voice low. She then slouched down against her pillow, facing the wall, "Yeah, like that'd ever happen,"

"What do you mean?" Fluttershy asked when, after a few seconds, Rainbow didn't continue.

"Exactly that," Was her only response. A couple of minutes passed, and Fluttershy's courage didn't last long enough to look deeper into it so she let the matter drop. She was just curling up to sleep when Rainbow's soft, scratchy voice wafted over to her ears, "I'll probably just tell her when we all get home. No point in getting both of us all worked up during all this,"

Silence once more descended in the room, as both ponies came to a silent, mutual agreement to let this matter go for now. What neither pony knew however, is that alicorns have very sensitive hearing, and that one certain alicorn was none too pleased with this turn of events.

Two sharp whistles rang out as the train departed from the port side station. In the car directly behind the first, the rest of the expedition members were just settling in and coming up with their own sleeping arrangements. Spitfire and Shining Armour were sitting peacefully at the table, Vinyl and Octavia were talking near the bank of rooms, and Lyra and Daring were staring out the window at the passing countryside.

A small sigh was heard, Spitfire glanced over at her newest roommate and said, "You know Captain Armour, you've been pretty quiet this whole trip. Something wrong?"

Shining Armour perked up from the book he was reading and glanced over. "Huh? Yeah everything's fine I guess. And you know you don't have to call me 'Captain' anymore right? I retired a year ago,"

The golden pegasus chuckled. "Whatever you say Captain," Spitfire sat up straighter in the uncomfortable human chair as she looked over at the stallion. "But no, seriously, anything wrong?"

"Just worried is all,"

"Mind if I ask why?"

"It's just... I don't know a bunch of things I guess. I mean where are we exactly?" The stallion gestured at the train around them. "We're on a train. A train in some country nopony has ever heard of before, and basically on the other side of the world from Equestria. Right now my wife should be hosting the reception for the marriage of a Crystal Noblepony friend of ours while I'm all the way out here doing who knows what for whoever," He sighed as he looked around for a cup of coffee, "Princess Celestia could have explained all this a bit better,"

"That's not just it is it?" Spitfire said as she slid a cup of tea to the white stallion.

Nodding in thanks, the stallion took a small sip before replying,"...No. But I'm not really sure what it is myself. I don't really want to say much until I'm sure myself,"

"That's alright Captain, if you ever want to talk I'm right here," Spitfire said as she finally got fed up with the chair, kicked it away and sat on the carpet.

Shining Armour just watched the fiery pegasus for a few moments before adding, "What, nothing wrong for you?

"Hmm, besides those chairs? None that I can think of," Spitfire said as she glared at the wooden chair, with its seat and arm rests clearly not meant for pony use. "The only thing I gotta worry about is if Soarin's actually ready to be in command of both the team and the academy. If he isn't then the coach is likely to find somepony else who is until I get back,"

Meanwhile Vinyl was talking to Octavia. Well, kinda.

"Honestly Vinyl, why would you even want to 'spruce up' a train car we'll only be in for one day?" The pale grey mare asked, regarding the small pile of posters sticking out of the DJ's saddlebag.

"Because you didn't let me on the boat ride over here," Vinyl responded easily, "Now out of the way Octy, these posters ain't gonna hang themselves!" Vinyl then dodged around Octavia easily enough before slipping into the left hoof room of the train. Years of partying giving her a strange and subtle grace when it came to moving around ponies. Almost as soon as the door closed, the tell tale build up of one of the DJ's signature songs filtered through the passage.

"Vinyl..." Octavia growled as she followed the white mare into the room.

"Those two bicker and fight just like an old married couple," Daring remarked.

"Not really," Lyra said from beside her, her ears perking up a bit, "Although it wouldn't surprise me really,"

"What do you mean, you think those two could actually get together?" Daring asked.

"Why not? Sometimes opposites attract, just look at me and Bonny," A loud smash was heard from the middle room and the music cut out sharply, "Although... I'm not really sure with those two,"

The door opened up and a smirking Octavia trotted out, leaving a grumbling Scratch to pick up the pieces of some unidentified machine and try to piece them back together. Octavia joined Spitfire and Shining Armour at the table and helped herself to some tea, so Daring turned back to the window leaving Lyra to begin her lyre practice. Soon the car was filled with a gentle melody, which suited the view from the window perfectly.

Nighttime arrived hours later and the situation hadn't changed very much. Vinyl had rejoined the group some time ago after barely managing to repair her device, and sat glaring across the table at the grey earth pony. Lyra had finished her practice but had kept on playing anyways, occasionally taking a request or two while Daring had stayed near the window, taking a small amount of notes in a small notepad tucked in one of the pockets of her shirt. Shining noticed this and asked what it was.

"The next book in the series isn't going to write itself," The explorer said with a grin, "But it does need some materials beforehoof,"

"Hey, does that mean we're all going to be in your next book?" Vinyl asked excitedly.

"That depends on you,"

"Awesome!"

And so the train rumbled on, into the night. The next morning, Twilight awoke early and glanced around tiredly. Rarity had thankfully stopped snoring at some point during the night and now rested peacefully with her mask over her eyes. Jeez, she never did that during any of the slumber parties,

Twilight stepped out of her cabin and had just sat down at the table with a bowl of oatmeal when she felt something off. Or rather, what she didn't feel. The rays of light from the early morning sun were casting solid, unmovable shadows, and the train no longer felt like it was rumbling along merrily.

Instead, it felt like they were slowing down.

With a gasp, Twilight realized they had arrived.