Weird Citizen
October 19, 2024 at 2:19 PM
The old train stopped by the abandoned station with a loud creak and hissing. Following the cloud of steam and engine driver's exhausted exclamation "Ponyville Station! Terminus!" five young people come out onto the platform: four girls and one guy. A girl with light vermilion skin, purple hair braided, and golden translucent wings on her back excitedly looked around the station, adjusting the hem of her jumper. She clutched a slightly sloppy-looking diary with pieces of paper sticking out of it to her chest.
"Are you sure this is the right place, Sunny?" scepticaly asked her the guy in sherif uniform.
"One hundred percent sure, Hitch" Sunny said with confidence, "The town my dad mentioned."
"But there is no town here."
"We cannot see in from here. We just need to come closer..."
"I'll get there first!" mulberry skinned girl with blue hair rushed forward so fast that her dress with fur trim could not keep up with her and fluttered in the wind.
"We'll se about that!" whight skinned girl in black sports top and shorts ran after her. And another girl followed them calmly, the one with pink skin and purple hair, dressed in crimson dress with pale pink boa, taking selfies with train station on the background every five minutes.
"Girls! For Faust's sake..," Hitch mumbled, tired, "Why can't they ever wait for us?"
''Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
Sunny and Hotch followed their friends. Behind them they could hear the train leaving, and in front they could hear the camera clicking on Pip's phone.
"This place is amazing, Sunny! Though I don't understsnd why did we go by this old-fashioned engine when it would be faster to go by Acela or something?"
"Acela doesn't go there, Pipp. Since the ancient times when our people once were sepparated no trains ever go to this place. This engine we got here by is the last of the kind."
"Nice story," Hitch interrupted her, "But I still can't see any town here. What if Mr. Starshine was wrong?"
"The town's just a little too far, thst's why we can't see it. Let's come closer and investigate!"
And Sunny ran forward, ignoring Hitch's attempts to stop her. The girl stopped after a minute of running, looking amazed. All her friends - Izzy was the first - approached her in confusion, but as soon as they caught up with her they saw the town appearing right before their eyes. Of course, it was smaller in size than the Zephyr Hights and Maretime Bay, but it was beautiful in its own way. Five steps from the friends, a very old sign was stuck into the ground. The inscription on it read:
Ponyville
If you somehow see this city and are not thrown back, then you are here with good intentions. You can stay here as long as you like, provided that local harmony is not disturbed.
Hitch read the sign carefuly and narrowed his eyes in suspition. "Something tells me things are dirty in this town." "Don't be a partypooper, Hitch," Sunny lightly hit his shoulder, " You're not at your work, relax!" The guy sighed, walking after his girls to the town center. In the center, next to the old city hall, there was a large fountain with a pink stone statue depicting a man on a rearing horse with his hand raised up. The heroes stopped near it, and the girl with the braid opened her diary. The streets around were suspiciously empty. "Alright, we're in the center. Right here is city hall, okay... If we go here there will be park. Here's a boutique and there must be a bakery." "Boutique?" Pipp asked lively, at last looking away from her phone. "And a bakery!" Izzy exclaimed, excited. "Yep. Maybe we can ask remained locals about the most interest-... girls?" "They flew off already," Zipp chuckled, "I'll look after them, you qnd Hitch can take a walk to the park." "But we..," Zipp managed to catch up to her little sister, following her to the mentioned boutique before Sunny could finish her sentence, "Aand they're gone..." "It's all too weird, Sunny. There're not a soul around! This town is empty." "This town is pretty old. Dad told me stories about how centuries ago almost everyone abandoned this place for some reason... But what if we can find something interesting here?" The guy said nothing in response, just nodded. As her first and best friend it was Hitch's duty to support Sunny's ideas and dreams. Even though he craved for new adventures with excitement too, his friend's safety was his main priority. Anyway, these two were on their way to the Everfree Forest National Park. And soon they stepped onto a path paved with white bricks in the alley. "Incredible! It looks quite clean and new for an abandoned town." "Maybe even too clean and new. Sunny, don't you think we should find our girls?" "They'll be fine, Hitch. You need a distraction from these negative thoughts. How about a game of tag?" "A game of what?" Sunny bumped his chest with her palm before Hitch could finish, and ran to the nearest bushes, getting off the path. "Catch me if you can!" "Sunny, wait!" Sherif rushed after her. The girl ran further, giggling and soon getting from the park to the forest. Giggling and listening to her friend's atempts to call for her, she hid behind a small tree. Then she suddenly noticed a thin path in the grass. It led to somewhere into the woods. Of course, Sunny's curiousity pushed her to gow down that path. After a two minutes walk she was a huge tree in front, which was surrounded by a small fence. Before it stood a tall unknown man, his back facing Sunny. He wore a strange looking brown tailcoat, red trousers and different colored boots. On his standing-on-end-dark-haired head were two long asymethrical horns. His armes were crossed on his chest, on his right shoulder sat a small yellow rug doll with pink hair, just a bit bigger than a palm. Sunny looked at him in surprise and pressed her wings tight to her back, just in case he gets scared. "Sir?" She began to speak, coming a little closer, "Are you alright?" "None of your bucking business," slightly husky voice answered, sounding pretty rude. The man was obviously not in a mood for chatting. "I'm sorry. I was just passing by and.." "How did you even get here?" the voice continued with the same tone, "You know, nevermind. You are not from here. This town is dead. Like all of it's natives." "D-Dead? Please, tell me it's not..." "Get lost. I have nothing to do to you. Humans," he mumbled, "Only good at betraying and fighting." "But sir, I'm just..." "Leave. Me. Alone." Sunny went silent. She saw that the man was upset, but about what exactly? Glancing at the tree, the girl noticed something a bit scary and sad: under a small canopy directly opposite the trunk there was a photograph of a sweet, young woman; to her right was a photograph of a gloomy, not so young man with a barely legible signature “A. von Chaos”; to the left of them there was a full-fledged tombstone with the image of three fluttering butterflies. "Three butterflies?" Sunny thought to herself, "I will recognize this symbol anywhere. Could it be..?" After an awkward pause girl put herself together and said quietly: "My dad used to tell me stories about her." The man shuddered, slightly lifting his head. The girl's words reached him but he didn't turn his face to her yet. "He used to tell me stories about them all. About her friends. And about the magic of friendship they guarded. I've heard everything about them and... the one who rests under that tree... Is that true she was the most kind person ever existed in Equestria?" For a few seconds there was silence. Suddenly, scaring Sunny a little, the man responded: "No. She was not," but then added after two seconds, "She still is the most kind girl in these lands. In the whole world..." The man lowered his head. Sunny noticed that the rag doll on his shoulder moved, turned her button-eyed little face to him, and even extended her tiny arms to pet him gently. Starscout stepped back from unexpectedness of such view. "She was and still is the most tender ans loving person... I miss the time I used to cuddle her fragile, tender body. She went through a lot because of me but she still warms my heart with her love..." Sunny quietly looked at him for a while. After that she looked away. "Yeah... I know how you feel, sir." "I don't know who you are. Yet I'm sorry you're here, remembering your father with such love and grief. I wish I felt the same about mine his last day." The man finaly turned his head to sunny, but just his head. Exhausted gray face with white goatie, thick messy eyebrows, dark circles under his eyes red as sunsed, looked at the girl. "You have to go. Your friend must be worrying about you." "...take care, sir," Sunny slowly walked away. Stranger could only sigh, watching her go. The girl turned back every few steps as she walked down the path until the man and the tree were gone from her sight. "There you are!" Someone exclaimed suddenly, grabbing her shoulders and making her wings spread accidentaly. It turned out to be exhausted Hitch. "Ah! H-Hitch, don't scare me like that." "I've searched tge entire park, looking for you! I was worried!" "I was gone for five minutes..." "Doesn't matter. We need to go back to that fountain and find girls. No games, okay?'' Sunny was silent at first, looking at the path behind her. "Okay..," she said. Yet she thought to herself: "Who was that poor man? How can I help him?"
