Chapter Twenty-Eight – Rainbow Dash

The glass doors to the train station were locked. Of course they would be. An army of shape-shifting bug beasts invades the entire Crystal Empire, and Dash had assumed the doors to the station would be unlocked.

She grabbed the nearest piece of debris she could find and threw it through the door. The glass gave a satisfying shatter, and she stepped inside with Fluttershy and Pinkie not far behind.

There was a mint-green crystal mare hiding behind the ticket counter. Undoubtly startled by the break-in, she screamed, "Oh sweet Celestia! Don't hurt me please! Y-you can have anything you want just don't hurt me!"

"Relax." Rainbow Dash said. "We're not changelings." The crystal pony gave a dubious look. Then Pinkie Pie bounded up to the counter.

"Can I please have seven tickets to Canterlot?" She happily asked the terrified green pony.

"W-what?" The middle-aged mare asked, confused and fearful now.

Fluttershy meekly walked up to the counter. "We… um… need seven train tickets to get to Canterlot. If it isn't too much trouble." She clarified.

"Aw great. What else did y'all break coming in 'ere?" A southern accent accused. Turning to face Applejack – who was doing her best to avoid all of the broken glass – Rainbow smiled. Then she had a horrifying thought.

"Applejack, it's great to see you! We're just about to get the tickets to go to—"

Dash held up a hoof to stop Pinkie Pie's excited talking.

"What's the matter, Dash?" Applejack asked.

"I need to be sure you're really AJ, and not some changeling imposter." Dash said, her eyes narrowed. "What city did I grow up in?"

"Cloudsdale." The orange farmer said with no hesitation. Dash smiled, knowing for sure this was the Applejack. Then she noticed the purple mare on AJ's back.

"What happened to Twilight?" She asked urgently. Upon hearing this, Fluttershy and Pinkie ran up to them, concerned.

"She's just tired is all." Applejack said before anypony else could voice their worries. While Fluttershy and Pinkie breathed sighs of reliefs, Dash helped Applejack move Twilight and set her on the ground.

"Will she be able to get herself on the train?" Rainbow asked AJ. Suddenly Twilight groaned and her eyelids fluttered open.

"I reckon so." The orange farmer said.

"Thank goodness." Fluttershy whispered. Twilight groggily sat up.

"W-where am I?" She muttered.

"Your at the train station, silly. Where else would you be?" Pinkie told her. The lavender mare looked around.

"Where's Rarity and Frostburn?" She asked.

"I don't know." Dash glumly answered. She helped Twilight get up and steady herself. "Will you be okay?" The cyan pegasus asked her friend.

"Yeah. I probably shouldn't use magic for a while though. I could pass out again." The lavender unicorn said.

"Ah'll keep a lookout fer Rarity and Frost. Ya'll go see about gettin' us on a train." Applejack said. While Fluttershy helped to keep Twilight standing, Rainbow and Pinkie trotted back over to the green crystal mare. The train station clerk at this point looked like she was going to freak out and run away at even the slightest noise, so Rainbow thought it was best to stay calm.

Pinkie did not share that thought.

"Do you have the tickets ready?" She blatantly asked.

"Uh… no." Was the response.

"Why not?" Dash asked, a little too angrily.

"T-the trains aren't currently running." The crystal mare said, shaking.

"What do you mean?" Dash asked, feeling her pulse quicken. Without the train, they would be stuck at the blood bath that was once called the Crystal Empire.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but the conductor sort of… ran away screaming." The green mare said.

"Great." Rainbow muttered. "Now what are we supposed to…"

"They're commin'!" Applejack shouted from the door.

Rainbow turned, knowing immediately what her friend was talking about. Outside, she saw Frostburn and Rarity hoofing it to the train station door.

"Hey, they brought company!" Pinkie exclaimed. Dash looked and saw that Pinkie was right. Their friends were being pursued by two changelings. The cyan pegasus flew towards the broken door. Frostburn led Rarity inside at the same time Rainbow reached it. The first changeling tried to break in, but Dash uppercutted it. The beast was knocked away, but the second one came up too fast for Dash.

Luckily, Frostburn had the sense to kick it with both his hind legs. The changeling was out cold before it hit the floor. Dash smiled at Frostburn, thankful for the help. She noticed he was blushing. So was Rarity. Then the rainbow-maned pegasus saw the two were holding hoofs. Dash's blood boiled.

Before she could put words to her anger, Applejack spoke. "Now that we're all here, we need to commandeer a train ta Canterlot." The orange farmer, along with everypony else, went back to the station clerk. The crystal mare was panicking now, having seen changelings try to break in.

"Ma'am, we need ta get ta Canterlot." AJ said to her.

The green mare, on the verge of hyperventilating, said "B-but there isn't anypony to conduct the train."

"Can't you do it?" Pinkie asked. The bluntness of the question made the mare calm down some.

"I'd like to, but I'm just a clerk. It's against protocol for me to just assume that job–"

"Well guess what." Frostburn said. "You've been promoted."

-\-

Ashen Clover, the former clerk at the Crystal Empire train station, giddily said the words she had dreamed of saying since she was a foal. "All aboard!"

The Mane Six and Frostburn all hopped on the train as the whistle blared and the wheels began to spin. Dash was grateful to be leaving the Empire, but also grateful that Frostburn and Rarity had stopped holding hoofs. She hoped that it was a heat of the moment, escaping-from-changelings type of hoof holding.

They had all packed into the train car right behind the engine, Twilight the only one sitting down. Or lying down, rather than sitting. The purple unicorn must have really over expended herself in the past few hours with the cloaking spell. As for everypony else, they were all too anxious to sit.

"How long will it take to get to Canterlot?" Fluttershy asked.

"I don't know, darling." Rarity responded. "The airship took hours, but it's not as fast as a train."

"An hour and a half. Maybe two." Twilight wearily said from her seat.

Suddenly, Dash heard a light thumping sound a few cars down. Applejack's ear twitched. She heard it too.

"What was that?" She asked.

"Maybe a visitor?" Pinkie suggested. The thumping sound was heard again, and again.

"Not one visitor." Dash said.

"Probably changelings, and Ah don't think they're friendly." AJ said. She moved toward the door at the end of the train car. "Ah'm goin' ta go check it out."

"I'll come with you." Dash volunteered

"Me too." Frostburn said, surprising everypony. Rarity looked like she wanted to protest, but held her tongue. AJ nodded, accepting their offers. She opened the train car door and they made their way into the next one.

Nopony was in it. They heard the thumping noise again.

"Whoever they are," Frostburn said. "I think they're on the caboose."

"Great." AJ said. They all knew the caboose was another five or six train cars down.

"I fly ahead and see." Dash said, opening her wings. "Meet you guys there." Before Frostburn or Applejack could say anything, the cyan pegasus was zooming through the train car, a rainbow trail behind her.

She broke through the door into the next car within the second, and repeated the process each time, finding no changelings in the carts ahead of her. Finally, Dash came to the last car. She was surprised to find it just as empty as the last ones.

"What the hay?" She asked the emptiness. The cyan pegasus was confused for a moment, then she heard another thumping noise. The realization kicked in that the changelings were on the roof of the train.

Rainbow crossed to the nearest window and yanked it open. She poked her head out, the wind whipping her hair across her field of vision. Brushing it aside, Dash caught a glimpse of several changelings on the roof of the train. In the distance, more of those monsters were flying closer and closer to the train. The locomotive was fast, but apparently not fast enough to keep ahead of all of the changelings. There seemed to be at least two dozen, maybe more.

"Rainbow, what's going on?" A voice asked her. Bringing her head in, Dash saw Frostburn and AJ had caught up with her.

"They're on the roof." She said grimly. Frostburn's expression changed to worry.

"What're they doin' up there?" Applejack asks.

"I don't–" Dash began. She was interrupted when a grey hoof smashed through a nearby window, sending glass everywhere. Dash backed away from the side as a changeling let itself inside.

It hissed at them, but that was all it could managed before a powerful kick from AJ sent it right back out the window. The orange mare turned around, revealing the glass had cut her cheek and front legs.

"Y'all okay?" she asked. Dash and Frostburn nodded. Another window, towards the end of the car, was shattered open.

"Great, they're just going to keep coming." Rainbow said. Then she got an idea. "I'm going to go outside." She said.

"What?!" Frostburn said, punching the newest changeling in the face. It fell to the floor, unconscious.

"Don't worry." Dash said, though she was glad Frostburn cared. "I'll be fine. We just can't let them get beyond this train car."

"I still don't think—" Frostburn started to say. He was cut off when two more changelings lept into the train. One had to punch its way through, but the other had found the window Rainbow Dash had left open. The cyan pegasus grabbed both and slammed their heads together. They slumped onto the floor, out cold.

Rainbow then climbed out the window, and jumped. Using her wings to propel her up to the roof of the train, Dash saw that already more changelings were starting to land on top. She realized she should have thought of something else, but it was too late for that now.

Screeching, a changeling lunged at her. She sidestepped it and kicked it clean off the train. It tumbled when it hit the ground.

Already Dash noticed one heading in through the window. It wasn't the worst thing though. If she could handle most of the ones up here, than AJ and Frost would be able to take down whoever snuck by her.

Another couple of shape shifters landed in front of her, both snarling.

"Alright you pathetic, little bugs." She said. "Bring it on." Next Chapter: The Ninth Circle of Hell Estimated time remaining: 32 Minutes