The Lost World

The Lost World

By: Bairiko

Chapter 10

With wind whistling loudly in her ears, Rainbow Dash soared. High above the clouds of Equestria she flew, the sun glinting off her flight goggles as the great blue ocean of the sky stretched on all around her. Her pink eyes scanned all around her, spotting what she was looking for. A lone cloud, tinged purple, marked where she had to go. The pegasus tilted her wings slightly and glided in the clouds direction.

Far below her a large gathering of ponies watched her intently, scrutinizing her every move and wondering just what she was going to do. She needed to deliver for her audience, after all they had paid good bits to come out and see the newest potential Wonderbolt perform. It didn't help that seated off to the side was a panel of veteran Wonderbolt judges. They too would be watching her, judging her, evaluating her, and the pressure was intense.

Rainbow loved every minute of it.

Behind her she knew her fellow trainees were waiting their turns. Rolling easily to her left the cyan pegasus let her wings angle downwards, turning her forward flight into a shallow, then steep dive. Speeding blindly towards the ground Rainbow was fast approaching Rainboom speeds, but it wasn't time for that just yet she reminded herself. Slowing herself slightly, Rainbow Dash waited just long enough before beginning her routine.

The Buccaneer Blaze, the Fantastic Filly Flash, tight loops and dizzying spins, Rainbow Dash threw every trick in her arsenal at the assembled ponies. Everything was going perfectly for her, so she allowed herself one quick glance to gauge the reactions she was getting.

The crowds were going wild, colts and fillies cheering loudly as their parents let them stand on their backs. Rainbow briefly wondered where they got wigs like her mane from, but dismissed the thoughts.

Nearby her friends were just as ecstatic, if not more so. Pinkie Pie looked absolutely mad with excitement, Fluttershy was jumping and cheering. Rarity and Applejack were both waving a massive banner with her name and picture on it. But Twilight was nowhere to be seen. Rainbows smile drooped slightly, but she didn't let that get to her, after all she had a crowd to amaze!

The judges weren't fairing much better. Spitfire, in her academy garb, was staring slack-jawed and wide-eyed at the aerial display, her shades having fallen from her face. Soarin' was jumping around much like one of the audience ponies with Fleetfoot while Rapidfire was emulating Spitfire.

Her high confidence boosted, Rainbow plowed through the rest of her routine before rocketing back up and perching temporarily on the purple cloud. Smiling brightly she took a minute to catch her breath, before leaping from the edge and dropping once more.

This time, she didn't bother slow down.

A ring of light, every colour of the rainbow expanded from around her as she broke the sound barrier, the Sonic Rainboom enraptured her audience even further. Using her rainbow trail, Rainbow Dash capped off her performance with one final tribute to her friends, drawing in the sky a diamond, butterfly, balloon, apple and finally, a six pointed star.

When she finished, she cast one more glance towards the judges. They each held a solid 10 in the air above their heads. Setting herself down on the field, Rainbow Dash finally took notice of the roar of the crowd and the frantic applause.

Then she saw her. Twilight herself was walking towards her, laughing and smiling brightly. When she reached the cyan pegasus she threw her arms around her neck, hugging her tight. Best. Day. Ever! Rainbow thought before Twilight pulled back, staring her in the eyes. Her mouth opened slightly as she leaned forward.

"Rainbow Dash," She whispered, "WAKE UP!"

"Wake up wake up wake up!" Twilight yelled, bucking the door open and peeking her head into the cabin. Poor Fluttershy launched herself from her cot up into the luggage racks above, leaving only her quivering pink tail as any indication of where she was. Rainbow bolted right out of bed and stood at attention before her tired mind woke up enough to realize what was happening.

By that time Twilight had already been and gone, her shouts intermingling with the clatter of her bucking another cabin door open, followed by the sounds of Applejack and Pinkie Pie being roused awake. Rainbow Dash stepped out of her room and looked around before her eyes fell on Twilight once more.

Or, more appropriately her purple backside as she stuck her head into Celestia's room. Rainbow blushed slightly when she realized where her eyes had inadvertently gone as she tried to hear what Twilight was saying to the Princess. Twilight pulled her head out of the doorway and glanced at her assembling friends, shooing towards the front sitting room. She then turned towards the door separating the two train cars and stepped through, no doubt going to retrieve her brother and the others.

"So how'd y'all sleep last night?" Applejack asked, sitting down with a mug of coffee in her hooves.

"Like a rock!" Pinkie exclaimed, helping herself to a bowl of porridge heaped down with brown sugar. She took her bowl over to the table and sat close beside Applejack, who looked like she was about to fall asleep again at any moment.

"Could have been a lot worse," Rainbow remarked, "It'd been better if it was a cloud though,"

Rarity mumbled something about 'too much jostling' as she fiddled with her mane. She had in front of her a bagel and a cup of tea, spreading some jam on one, floating a honey covered one to Fluttershy.

A few minutes later the train came to a full stop, leaving Rainbow, the rest of the girls, the newly retrieved second group and Princess Celestia to stand before the doorway. Glances through the trains windows had shown they were in an enclosed train station, with one window staring at a wall directly beside them and the other looking out over the abandoned station.

"Well my little ponies," Princess Celestia turned to her subjects and smiled, and with a flash of golden magic the door was open. "Welcome to Kings Reach, capital city of the Empire of Greater Terra," She stepped through the doorway.

"Well, this is it huh?" Rainbow Dash muttered before grinning, "You all ready for the history books?" The cyan pegasus winked and followed the princess through, followed shortly by the rest of her friends.

The station was enormous.

When the group of ponies had first stepped off the train they quickly realized they were the only travelers at a platform. The Princess lead them down a wide hallway, her golden shoes clacking in the bright illumination of the crystal light fixtures. Signs in Terran directed the twenty something equines towards the main hall of the station where their breath was taken away.

With the roof of the station easily being three stories off the ground, the giant circular chamber was just as beautiful as it was empty. Rarity didn't even try to hide the fact she was ogling the intricate golden carvings in some ornamental pillars or the murals and mosaics tastefully placed throughout the station. It seemed that each of the seven other platform hallways had a different theme to its decoration, ranging from beautiful forest scenery at the western-most platform to depictions of the beach and oceans directly behind the ponies, using the coloured lights from stained glass windows up high to accent themselves.

"Whoa Nelly," Applejack sighed, "These humans sure don't hold anything back do they?"

"Yeah, themselves,"

"What do you mean Rainbow?" Twilight turned to who had spoken. The cerulean mare hovered between Applejack and herself.

"Hasn't anypony else noticed that, besides those soldiers and a hoof full of ones at the docks, we haven't seen a single human?" Rainbow Dash twirled around indicating the abandoned station. "It's really weirding me out here,"

"Ya know, she has a point" Shining Armour walked up behind his little sister, "I didn't even see anypony in the train engine,"

"Yeah, where is everyone?" Pinkie suddenly looked a lot more suspicious.

Quiet fell across the station at that, everypony glancing around at the doorways. For minutes the ponies waited in the station, eventually wandering off to examine the building while Princess Celestia watched.

This is it. Beyond those doors lies the Sun Herself, and I'm going to meet her.

Approaching the entrance of the Grand Hub Terminal from down one of the main roadways of Kings Reach, Captain Ian Frost took note of the city guards manning roadblocks, keeping curious civilians from approaching the station. The station itself was unoccupied at the moment and all trains scheduled to run too and from the capital had been postponed.

The station was the central hub of the empire, with lines running to and from every province capital on the continent and numerous smaller branches to smaller towns and cities. It was from one of these southern coastal towns that the Goddess of the Sun herself arrived in. By the gods, I'm actually going to meet her.

Taking a moment a moment to ponder this, Ian looked himself over. At almost forty five years old some considered the tall barrel chested man too old for field work in the Imperial Guards, though through years of hard work he consistently proved them wrong. Adjusting to the lack of the familiar weight of his rifle and straightening his white uniform, he turned to the five other members of the Imperial Guard unit sent to retrieve the 'Princess' and her entourage.

On the furthest left stood the towering form of Corporal Mathias Stonehouse, the squads machine gunner. The somber, blue eyed giant from the northern province of Aurora stood a full head over the six foot captain. Beside him was his assistant Private George MacDonelle, the young brown haired Heartlander was almost power walking to keep pace with his companion. Besides an added satchel, he was clothed similarly to the others.

Beside the two was Mathias' opposite in both build and purpose. Corporal Nickola Greymoor, the lone woman of the group, was a native of Greatwood Province, and her skills with her scoped rifle were something to be feared. She walked along the road like a jungle cat at rest, her pretty features marred only by the bored look in her brown eyes.

The squad's two other riflemen walked nearby. The twins, named Micheal and Robert Motierre, were identical in almost every way, from the jaunty angle of their helmets to their neatly trimmed mustaches. Indeed the only distinguishing factor was Roberts grey eyes compared to Micheal's emerald ones.

The squad was observing their surroundings as well, watching the eyes and hands of civilians at the roadblocks who in turn watched them in awe. Their faces never showed any emotion, but he knew they were thinking much the same thing he was. Each man was dressed in a similar uniform to his own, though with a soldiers helmet and a steel breast plate each, stamped with their name, rank and unit. They carried their rifles with the well practiced easy of an experienced soldier, though Mathias was carrying his weapon at an angle so the pan magazine on top was in a comfortable position.

Arriving at the gateway Ian returned the salute the guard gave him and slipped through the door. The white uniform of an Imperial officer and silver breastplates of the Guards garnered respect from civilian and soldier alike who knew what their presence meant. This wasn't just any crime or other inconvenience, this was something important.

Octavia's ears quirked, She was examining a batch of leaflets near the door, trying to make heads or tails of the illegible writing when the sound of a door opening and closing drew her attention. "Did anypony hear that?"

"Hear what?" Twilight looked up from a small transit map she had found behind a desk.

"It sounded like a door opening--" As soon as she said that, the main doorway beside her creaked open. Octavia yelped and backpedaled towards the centre of the room.

In through the door walked half a dozen humans, dressed similarly to the soldiers who greeted them on board the Zephyr though with the addition of a silver breastplate. They watched the ponies as they gathered near the Princess, before the officer in a white uniform stepped forward.

"You are Princess Solestia, yes?" His heavily accented voice surprised most ponies present, though the Princess smiled and stepped forward.

"I am, though I prefer Celestia," She turned and beckoned towards the group of equines behind her, "And these are my companions Mr..."

"Pardon me your Majesty," The soldier spoke in a tone of voice that reminded Twilight of a bored professor delivering a lecture, "I am Ian Frost, Captain of the 2nd Imperial Guard," He and his men then bowed before the Princess and her companions, an impressive thing considering the size of one of them. "My men and I have been asked by the Emperor to escort you and your entourage to the palace,"

"Very well, please lead the way," With that, Celestia turned to her little ponies and gave them a calm smile, before following the Captain.

Approaching the doorway at the end, Captain Frost knocked then spoke through the gap before the door opened fully. Stepping out into the open, Twilight was presented with her first view of Kings Reach.

What immediately surprised her was just how similar it was to Manehatten. Wide cobblestone roads ran between red brick buildings, Wooden signs hanging over sidewalks denoted the business with a stylized picture, while glass windows displayed the goods and services offered within. Each street was blocked by guards and almost immediately a gasp went up among the crowds of Terrans who had gathered to see what was going on.

"This answer yer question Rainbow?"

Trotting after the captain, another group of humans arrived to form a circle around the ponies with the captain and princess in the lead. Twilight blushed under the stares of the humans, who were whispering among themselves and the guards at the roadblocks. Some even appeared to be praying.

The guards led the ponies down the road, marching at an even pace to let the ponies trot comfortably. Twilight was whipping her head back and forth, taking in as much of the scenery as she could, noting everything on a small piece of parchment that floated by her head. She could hardly wait! One quick look at her friends faces, and even the faces of the other in her group, showed much the same feelings.

After a week of traveling they were finally at their destination. And everypony couldn't wait to see what happened next.