We all walked through the streets of Marelin towards the train station, we had seen the sights of the city and were now ready to move onto the crystal empire, which would take a heck of a lot longer than a couple of days, we entered the station building, which was relatively modern looking compared to other places, Autumn walked up to the ticket office and returned shortly with four 1st class tickets on a sleeper train to the Crystal Empire, we made our way to the train, I was surprised to see that Gearsley had already designed and build an A4, we boarded the train and found our room, it was a similar level of comfort to the train that me and Autumn used to get to Trottingham, only we didn’t have a carriage to ourselves.

“I think I can get used to living like a posh sod” Vinyl said as she jumped onto a bed “certainly beats sleeping on benches”

“I’ll agree with you on that one” Minion said, choosing a bed next to hers, those two had become rather good friends in the past few weeks.

“What if I told you two that me and Autumn got an entire carriage to ourselves when we were travelling to Trottingham” I said, lying on my bed and stroking Scar, who was laid next to me.

“You lucky bastards” Minion said “How did you manage to afford something like that?”

“We didn’t” Autumn said, smirking “Princess Celestia just passed us the tickets and said ‘here you go’”

“I’ll say it again, you lucky bastards” Minion said, the train jolted into motion “she still scares the shit out of me though”

“Only because you saw her when she got woken up at night” I replied “she’s usually unbelievably kind”

“I’ll believe that when I see it” he said, he then started smirking “so, did you and Autumn fuck on the train” I went as red as my armour with embarrassment and Autumns wings shot out with a poof.

“What the Fuck” both Minion and I said, looking at Autumn, who looked ready to die from embarrassment, Vinyl burst out laughing.

“Ha, wing boner” she said, pointing at Autumn, who face-planted the bed.

“What?” I asked.

“It means she’s into you” Vinyl said with a shrug, Minion burst out laughing.

“No I’m not” Autumn mumbled through the mattress, chucking a pillow in Vinyl’s general direction, it missed Vinyl and hit the window.

“Vuur Koning just told me he wants to make love to you” Minion said, Autumns wings shot back out, and she threw the duvet over her

“I’m surrounded by immature children” I muttered, before standing up and walking out of the room.

I stood at the veranda of the rear carriage, trying to clear my head, and what my brother said wasn’t helping.

“He really needs to learn to keep his mouth shut sometimes” I muttered, I heard the door open, I looked over my shoulder to see Autumn step outside.

“I thought I would find you here” she said, rearing up and resting her hooves on the railing, she sighed before resting her snout on top of her hooves

“Come here to escape from the two hyenas?” I asked, she nodded slightly, we stood there in silence, enjoying the view, after a few minutes I broke the silence “Autumn?”

“Hmm?” she responded, raising her head and looking at me.

“Is what Vinyl said true?” I asked, her ears drooped and she nodded meekly.

“Yes” she whispered.

“So you really…?” I went to say but she cut me off

“Yes, I have feelings for you” she said, she rested her head on her fore-legs, I noticed tears starting to form in her eyes.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” I asked her, she sighed.

“You probably think I’m weird now and won’t want to be my friend” she said, tears started to stream own her face

“Don’t you ever think like that” I said, pulling her into a hug “I would never stop being you friend just because of something like this” I released her from my embrace and she looked into my eyes, I had never really noticed how striking her eyes were until now.

“I’ll let you in on a secret” I said to her.

“What?” she asked

“My brother may tease us about this sort of thing” I said “but he has been through hell when it comes to relationships, and that’s left me scared to give it a try”

“Really!?” she asked.

“I won’t tell you what he went through” I said “that’s his story to tell, and his alone, but, if you really are interested in me”

“Yes?” she asked, a hopeful expression on her face.

“Then I’m willing to give it a try” I said, she threw her fore-legs around me and rested her head on my shoulder

“Thank you” she whispered into my ear, she released me from her embrace and turned to lean against the railing, I put my arm across her shoulders and pulled her close, she responded by leaning into me, we didn’t say anything, for we felt content enough to just enjoy each-others company and watch the sunset, we eventually returned to the cabin to fine Vinyl and Minion absent.

“They’ve probably gone to dinner” Autumn said “Shall we?” I nodded and we walked towards the Dining car, where we found Vinyl and Minion talking, when they saw us Vinyl begrudgingly hoofed over a couple of bits to Minion, who looked rather smug.

“What was that about?” I asked them as I sat down.

“Oh, nothing” Minion said, an innocent look on his face.

“You were betting other us two getting together weren’t you?” Autumn deadpanned.

“Fucking damn it” he muttered, he then looked her dead in the eyes “but seriously, Autumn, a word of advice, he’s never been in a relationship before, so if you hurt my younger brother in anyway, I will kill you, and don’t think I won’t, I make promises, not threats” he the raised his whisky glass to her before downing it, Autumn went pale, she turned to me.

“Did I ever tell you he scares me?” she asked, the colour starting to return to her face

“Yes, several times” I said, sipping on my glass of cider, the waiter eventually served our food.

“So” Minion said “just think, you’re both going to be stuck in the same carriage for a couple days, but you won’t be able to do anything because we’re in the same room”

“You are evil, you know that” I said, he nodded “But seriously, Autumn and I are taking this slow, so we probably wouldn’t have anyway”

“sure you would” he said, but his tone said otherwise, for the rest of the meal we mostly ate in silence, we were just getting up to retire to the room when we heard a loud roar and the train shook violently, Autumn quickly looked out of the window before bolting in the direction of our room, the rest of us ran after her, not bothering to look out the window, we ran into the cabin to find Autumn just putting the last few pieces of armour on.

“What’s out there?” Minion asked, Autumn just looked at him and said.

“Dragon” before she opened the window and jumped out, a spell rifle held in her mouth

you may now exchange any bets you placed

but seriously, this won't be affecting the main story that much