Twilight was the first to leave Prance Central Station, and the first to enter the subway system. She hadn’t told any of the other ponies, but the subway system was something she had wanted to see for a while. Not because of the trains themselves, or the tunnel system, but just the way the whole thing worked. Millions of ponies used the subway every day on their way to work, on their way to play, on their way back, and all of it ran smoothly and efficiently. It was really a modern marvel. She felt the same way about the skyscrapers. She’d probably hoof it on the way to the hotel, just so she could admire the architecture. She hoped for anything that was intellectually stimulating enough to distract her from her own body.

The doors slid open, the crowd jostled onto the train, and they were all packed in like sardines. Twilight couldn’t find a seat. At the next stop, more ponies got on and she ended up getting pushed backwards into a pole. The train set off for the next stop, bouncing and rattling down the rails. Twilight’s face turned a deep scarlet. She looked around, worried, but nobody seemed to notice. They all had their faces buried in their newspapers, or were looking up at the advertisements above the windows, or were just sort of staring vacantly at nothing. Nobody was looking. Nobody seemed to care that a stiff metal rod was sticking up between her cheeks. Maybe it wasn’t that big of a deal. Rutting season hadn’t come to Manehattan yet...maybe nobody knew Twilight’s problem.

The train stopped again. More ponies got off than got on. There was a little more space. Still, nobody paid any attention to her. That was a sort of crowd psychology common in big cities. She had read all about it in her books. There were so many ponies that nobody paid attention to any of them. Twilight stayed pressed up against the pole. The next leg of the route wasn’t as bouncy or bumpy as the first. When she was sure that nobody was watching, she occasionally bounced on her own hind hooves.

At the next stop, the train nearly cleared of all its passengers. There was an obese, elderly pony sitting on the bench with two grocery bags to either side of her, a stallion in a business suit leaning up against a seat back, his face buried in a magazine, and Twilight rubbing herself off on a pole. She tried to time it for when the lights would flicker, and the car would grow dim for a second or two. Both of the other ponies knew what she doing, actually, but they didn’t want to establish eye contact. She was just another weirdo, and they saw those every day in Manehattan.

Twilight got off the train at the next stop. She was flustered, but still determined to keep control over herself. She trotted up the steps and emerged from the underground on fifth avenue. It was only a couple of blocks down until 42nd street.

There it was. Her heart skipped a beat. She hadn’t told her friends about this either. Her friends had all wanted to come to Manehattan to find physical relief. She was okay with that. She didn’t hold it against them. She, on the other hand, had loftier goals. She had the willpower to put her lust aside for more intellectual pursuits.

It stretched out before her like some ancient temple. To her, it was almost like a temple, a religious experience; she felt full of grace. Twilight went rushing up the marble stairs, past those two glorious, giant statues of manticores that she remembered from all the pictures and films, and entered through the doors of the Manehattan Public Library.

Twilight was overjoyed as she strolled through the lobby. She kept looking up at the vaulted ceilings and mosaics and beautiful murals depicting famous moments in history or advancements in science. She spun around in place a few times, trying to take it all in. She carefully walked through the card catalogue section. It was an enormous room filled with enormous racks of drawers and ponies sifting through them one at a time. Some day, she knew, the whole card system would be antiquated in favor of something more efficient, but there would always be a place in her heart for it. She could fit her whole library between just two racks of these drawers. Libraries were supposed to be quiet, yet here her iron hooves clanged on the marble floor and no one seemed to mind. She wanted to take her camera out of her saddlebag for a quick picture, but she thought that would make her look like a tourist.

Soon after that, she was in amongst the books. “This is my natural habitat”, she told herself. It was a non-fiction section. She wasn’t sure which - she hadn’t been paying any attention to the signs and she didn’t care. The shelves towered way over her head. It reminded her of the library back at Canterlot. The books were bound in nondescript covers of blues and greens and browns. She didn’t really care what was in them; she was just happy to be surrounded by so much of the world’s condensed knowledge. She started getting ‘excited’ again, as she put it. If she were the last mare on earth, this is exactly where she’d come and spend eternity reading. Twilight turned down row after row, each looking exactly like the other. She had no idea where to start.

Twilight turned another corner and almost bumped into another pony. She jumped an inch or two into the air.

“Oh, I’m sorry, are you okay?” he asked in a voice that was loud enough to be heard but didn’t carry on past the both of them.

“Oh, excuse me,” Twilight blushed. “You startled me. I guess I got carried away.”

“Carried away?” he asked with a smile. Twilight looked him up and down. He was pretty cute. He was purple, just like she was. He had a horn, just like she did. He even had the same darker shade of mane.

“The books,” Twilight said. “All these books. I guess I got a little overwhelmed. I’m a real bibliophile, you see.”

“No kidding? Me too!” he told her. “Well, can I help you find anything?”

“Oh, no thank you. I’m just sort of browsing for the moment.”

“Are you sure? I’m a librarian. My name’s Dusk. I can help you find anything you need.”

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