Fragment: Minuette Takes the Train
Admiral Biscuit

Minuette stood on the platform of the Ponyville train station, watching with interest as a pair of mares unloaded boxes from the train into a waiting wagon. She'd gotten used to the usual travelers she saw on her usual commuting days, but since she was traveling a day late, everything had changed.

She was sure that they were regular visitors to Ponyville—in her experience, most tourists invariably started looking around and taking in the sights as soon as they'd detrained, but these two mares showed very little interest in the town, and were more concerned with ensuring that the boxes all made it into their wagon in good order.

Finally, the gray mare, who was already wearing a breastcollar harness, backed up between the shafts on the wagon, and the pink mare fastened them through the tugs on her bellyband.

She could have kept watching, but she saw the firepony swinging the water spout away from the locomotive, which meant that the train was almost ready to go.

Minuette hopped aboard the first coach. She liked sitting as near to the locomotive as she could, because that let her hear it working, and sometimes when she was bored she pretended that she was driving it.

A quick glance around the coach confirmed what she already knew: nopony that she knew was aboard. So she took an available bench on the right side of the train, and she slid into it far enough to pull her window down so she'd get a little bit of a breeze when the train started moving. With that task accomplished, she stretched out along the bench.

It had been pure luck that she'd had her camera with her, and she felt her saddlebags one more time just to make sure that it was still in there. Her mind was still replaying the meeting from the evening before. The excitement of meeting Dale and Kate hadn't worn off yet—in fact, she'd had trouble sleeping—and now she thought that there was a good chance that she might meet the Princess when she got back to Canterlot.

She unconsciously shifted her weight as the train rolled back then jerked forward, and her ears turned towards the locomotive as it began working. The station moved out of her view, and before too long the cluster of buildings outside her window was replaced with small orchards and a broad field of heather.

Her only regret was that she'd never gotten a chance to take some pictures of the inside of Dale's mouth. She'd wanted to, but every time she'd tried that before the picture hadn't come out right, and she didn't know why. When she was in dental school, she had seen some pictures of pony mouths, and those had turned out. Maybe her camera wasn't good enough, or maybe there was something she didn't know about taking pictures, but it seemed to her that if she could see it, her camera ought to be able to see it, as well.