A train ride is a different experience for everyone. One might like the tranquil countryside speeding by the windows while another may feel nauseous from all the shaking and bouncing throughout the ride, as if the train was a Pegasus-pulled carriage meeting turbulence the whole time.

Those ponies were always jealous of the ones who managed to sleep through it all.

Currently, a single rainbow maned Pegasus was one of those sleeping ponies, along with her brother.

The only thing different about this train ride was that the brother was a dragon. And it was snoring smoke.

Luckily, for the two terrified ponies that were forced to sit opposite of the two siblings, the train conductor was smart enough to open the window right next to the snoring dragon. Under normal circumstances, that would be a safety violation, but the small opening from the window at least provided enough of a filter to get out most of the smoke that would have otherwise filled the car.

Celestia only knows how the train company would love to have a, “death by suffocation in car,” on their list of accidents.

The two ponies sitting across from the siblings, were identical, right down to their eyes. Both had brown coats with blonde scraggly manes, and both had deep blue eyes. The only difference was that one of the ponies wore a simple pair of reading glasses.

Suddenly, the car lurched, and the dragon smacked his head against the barely opened window with a loud thud. He woke up with a hiss, clutching his head in pain.

“Ow, ow, ow…” he mumbled. Talk about a rude awakening.

“Ngeh…” Rainbow mumbled as she woke up to Spike’s pained shuffling.

“Yeargh, can’t this thing go any smoother?” Spike complained.

“Oh stars, you talk,” the pony with the glasses stated in a terrified manner.

“Meh, wha?” Rainbow heard a voice, and she wasn’t sure if it was her, or her brother speaking.

“Er, yeah, I talk. What, you never seen a dragon before?” Spike asked the two ponies.

“Not particularly in close quarters such as the current situation unfolding.”

“…huh?”

“What he means is,” the pony without the glasses said, holding a hoof out, “we have never seen a dragon specimen, like you, up close. At least not a dragon your size, anyway.”

“Oh, well then…” Spike was at a loss for what to say. “Thanks?...”

“It truly is a remarkable event in the present. Us, among all the trains, cars, and seats, and we get to view a reptile of fire and might, and beast of muscle, right in front of our very own disbelieving eyes…” the pony with the glasses sighed in bliss, staring with a bit of a lustful gaze at the aforementioned dragon.

Spike shivered. “Is he… is he always like... that?”

The train rumbled again, “You have to excuse my brother. We’re scientists, you see. Graduates of Celestia’s school of gifted children and Celestia’s school of gifted scholars. We’ve been around Equestria for the past year and have seen many sights. It’s our job to document them all, even if it means putting our lives at risk,” the brother without the glasses explained. “My name is Moody Eye, and my brother here, is Broken Eye.”

“Moody Eye?” Rainbow finally decided to join the conversation, “What kind of stupid parent would name their kid that?”

“Like a vacuum, our parents’ skulls were. Nopony would they listen to, and to none they would follow except their own ideas, which spawned from the heart, but given no thought to function,” Broken Eye spoke. Both Rainbow and Spike looked back at Moody with confused expressions.

“Our parents tried their best, but they were very stubborn and they were not very intelligent. I’m not that moody, and Broken isn’t that, well, broken. His mind thinks differently, but on a very advanced level, according to some professors at our school. Fast thinking is basically what he’s good at. I’m just good at writing really, really fast,” Moody explained, closing his eyes as he continued his lecture, “We’re on this train to Ponyville, to scout out a library we heard they have there. Apparently, the library is literally carved out of a big tree. Our head supervisor and her assistant wants to see if it’s possible for us to live at the library, not only for the books there, but for the close and convenient study of the nearby Everfree forest. Furthermore, we will be interviewing local townsfolk for their ideas and experiences with the forest, which we will then analyze and…”

Moody felt a slight jab at his ribs, and looked towards Broken, who was pointing at the again sleeping duo in front of them. He huffed and pouted, “Why do us scholars never get credit? So much for an interesting dragon…”

“Whoa, you smell that?” Spike asked Rainbow as they left the station. Being the stronger one (much to Rainbow Dash’s secret chagrin), the rainbow necked dragon carried both his luggage, and Dash’s. While he walked on the ground, away from the station, Rainbow chose to hover beside him. Partly to stretch her wings, as she felt a bit cramped from the car, and partly because hovering was an instinctual habit for her.

“What, the apples? Yeah, we did pass by an apple farm, remember? Ponyville was made after an apple farm family bought all the land. Apples are probably what the town sells to Equestria.”

“Not just that though…” Spike physically sniffed the air, almost inhaling his entire breath through his nose in one second. “Rocks. Rocks that are filled with gems. I think there might be a quarry nearby!”

“Nuh uh, mister,” Rainbow said, hovering in front of Spike’s path, “You know what mom said. Don’t burn yourself out with all the gems and eat your heart out. You know gems are fattening for you!”

“Yeah, but c’mon,” he whined, “It’s been ages since I’ve had a good gem. All that training P.E. put me through, and then the coaches kept me on constant check for the hoofball team…”

Rainbow huffed, partly because she didn’t want a whiny Spike, and partly because she was reminded that the coaches picked Spike over her. “Oh, pony up! Maybe once we get jobs and figure out our bills, you can set up a plan or something to figure out how many gems you can eat in a day. Now c’mon,” Rainbow turned around and hovered away from Spike, “We need to find the mayor so we can get the deed to that house I liked.”

“DRAAAAAGON!” the duo heard somepony yell. They turned to see an earth pony mare, cradling her foal as they sped away, “EVERYPONY RUN!”

In no time flat, the bustling town street which the Rainbow siblings were walking in, was suddenly deserted, as ponies quickly boarded up their windows in all the buildings. Crickets chirped as Rainbow Dash and Spike stood alone on the stone path.

“…Well then,” Spike broke the silence. “I guess that means we can’t ask for directions…”

“I don’t think we’re welcome here either…” Rainbow sarcastically huffed, the chains on her hooves rattling as she crossed her forelegs together in anger.

After the immediate yelling of ‘dragon’ in Ponyville, the local police force subdued a very surprised, and shocked Rainbow duo, using tranquilizer spells. They were then locked up in the local police station, and their luggage was taken to who knows where.

Spike, for his part, was laying down on his prison cot. Along with the luggage, the police also took his Rainbow necklace. He was not very happy with that. At all.

“Stupid ponies…” he mumbled. “Why do they always have to assume…”

“Rainbow Dash!” they heard somepony yell. Both the mare and her brother turned to see a distraught earth pony mare with a faded brown coat and an old silvery grey mane come down the steps of the entrance to the jail, with another officer pony behind her.

“Go noble,” Spike suddenly said as he stood up. Rainbow looked back at him with a critical eye before standing up in what other ponies would call a regal posture. Her brother stood next to her, making sure to accentuate his back so he could go to his full height, a head taller than Rainbow. Masking their faces of any emotion, they were a peak example of high-born, noble class pegasi.

Or, pegasi and dragon. Spike felt a bit naked without his necklace.

“What is it that you want?” Rainbow asked, in an accent that sounded as if she should be above all this common peasantry, and was clearly peeved that she wasn’t.

“I just want to say first of all that I am so sorry for the misunderstanding, Madame Rainbow Dash and Sir Rainbow Spike of the Rainbow family. I had arranged for an escort to first show you around town before we show you the cloud house where you had wished to stay, heh heh. But, well, unfortunately, due to some circumstances involving the captain being a bit overworked last night, and oversleeping in the morning, you had to arrive in town without anypony greeting you, and the townsfolk weren’t aware of Spike and the police heard screaming and they acted out of instinct and- oh please, please don’t leave us, and tell others about it!” the mare said exasperated, begging on her knees near the end.

The Rainbow duo finally recalled from pictures of the house that in the town they were staying in, the local leader was Mayor Mare. Spike spoke up, “Mayor, we are most displeased at the lack of performance and quality that we expected from a quaint, and small town such as yours. You must know that attacking members of the noble class, unwarranted, can result in severe penalties,” he noticed both the mayor and the officer pony cringe in horror, “and taking their belongings and searching them without a warrant can result in even more severe penalties.”

Spike saw the officer visibly gulp, and turned his head towards him. “So I suppose there better not be a single piece of linen out of place on our, and I must emphasize, very expensive and very important baggage.”

Immediately, the officer ran up the steps, and the three in the prison could hear yelling and cacophony from upstairs. Soon, the officer came back down with a worried smile, the luggage in between his teeth. “Shee? Noh ah air er eh!” the officer said, trying to appease the noble Rainbows.

“Please do not bite our bags,” Rainbow Dash ordered. The officer, on instinct, let his mouth open, dropping the bags unceremoniously onto the ground. Realizing his mistake, the officer picked them up with his hooves. He slipped as he held them, dropping them onto the ground again. Finally, he held one in each hoof as he sat down to keep his balance, forcibly trying to smile despite his embarrassment and fear of the Rainbows’ wrath.

Spike and Rainbow tried very hard to not bust out in laughter.

“W-ha!-ell, ahem,” Spike’s struggle with laughter made his voice crack for a moment, “well, it seems everything is in order. I only have one complaint.”

Both the mayor and the officer’s eyes grew wide in fear.

“…I was wearing a Rainbow flame brooch necklace. It was a gift from my sister here. I am sure you took it away from me for a good reason?”

The officer laughed nervously, “Uh, of course! It was just, uh… it was just dirty! I’ll be right back!” The officer zoomed up the steps again, and with some very loud shuffling and some random screaming in the background, the officer came back down again with the necklace, holding it in one hoof as he tried to make sure it didn’t fall, while also coming as quickly to Spike on three legs.

“Here you go!” the officer gave the necklace to Spike, who immediately put it on. Spike felt less naked than before.

“Now, if you don’t mind,” Rainbow spoke up, “We would like to be free from this establishment, and simply wish that we can just be told where to go, to get to our new home.”

“Of course! Just follow me!” the mayor smiled, albeit with a little bit of nervousness, and walked up the steps.

The Rainbows raised their eyebrows in disappointed confusion, as the officer’s eyes grew wide in fear that the mayor left without them.

“Again, I just wish to apologize for the very much inappropriate lack of behavior and hospitality on my part for simply leaving you there in jail without unlocking the door, and again I apologize for the unkempt state the police offices were, and again I apologize…”

“We get it! er…” Spike interrupted. “We simply wish to be undisturbed for the rest of the day.”

After a brief and hectic exit from the police building, where Spike and Rainbow saw the offices in utter disarray as everypony realized that they apprehended a couple of nobles, the duo were personally escorted by Mayor Mare to a spot a little out of the main town center, where they were brought to the cloud lot, a space of houses that belonged to the pegasi of Ponyville. While their house wasn’t the most expensive, it was certainly one of the biggest in Ponyville, a cloud mansion fit for a king.

Or for a blue Pegasus, and her dragon brother.

“Oh, um, yes, ha ha… I will be, um, taking my leave now. Have a good day, your graces, and enjoy your stay in our humble Ponyville!” The mayor turned around and, at a pace faster than politely allowed, trotted away from the duo. Seeing her walk off, Spike grabbed their bags before launching himself in the air, Rainbow following behind him. Once they were on top of the cloud, Spike unlocked the door (“we need to get a different door. It looks like a griffon lived here before, if the doorknob is round instead of a press and pull lever.” he thought), and the two of them entered with the poise and gait that nobles such as themselves ought to arrive in any chamber.

Once inside, Spike laid down the bags and turned towards Rainbow Dash, “Well, madame Dash, while the welcoming committee was less satisfactory than we hoped, it seems we may enjoy ourselves in this quaint community.”

The Rainbow siblings stared at each other, before finally falling to the cold cloudwood floors laughing, “Oh man!” Rainbow exclaimed between breaths, “When that guy just dropped the bags and immediately realized what he did, his eyes grew so wide you could have used them as dinner plates!”

“Hah! And did you see the offices!? Like a hurricane just ran right through!” Spike laughed even more, “Oh man, I’m gonna love this place.”

“Right?” Rainbow flipped over onto her stomach, looking over Spike’s head on the ground. “What did I tell ya? A town on the ground might be cool, and here we are seeing how crazy this place is!”

The siblings took a moment to compose themselves, Rainbow lying down on her back again with her head staring to the ceiling, opposite to Spike.

After a couple minutes of relaxed silence, Spike spoke up, “When are the movers gonna get here with the rest of our stuff?”

“Like, about a day after we come in, they said. Hope mom doesn’t make them not take anything, because she wants our stuff to stay there to remind her of, well, us.”

“Nah, I don’t think she’ll do that. We were specific with the movers about what to take, and we did warn them mom and dad might try to say we don’t need whatever. I think they’ll be tough enough.

“Look, ma’am, we have it right here in the list that she needs this exact bag that was labeled, ‘foal-hood magazines’.”

“Not the Wonderbolt posters! Dashie, WHYYYYYYYYY?!”

“Yeah, I guess they’ll pull through somehow,” Rainbow Dash agreed. “Spike, do you think that was too much?”

“Too much what?” he asked.

“The whole, ‘we are high born citizens rah rah we’re uptight’ shtick. You know that’s just not us. Even though we are Rainbows, it doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun, right?”

“Eh,” Spike shrugged on the floor, “I’m sure that sooner or later the ponies here will realize that we’re just ponies like them who like to have fun.”

“Pony and dragon that likes to have fun,” Rainbow corrected in a mocking tone.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Spike smiled as he tried to wave off the correction. The two sighed in content as they stared at the ceiling, bare of anything except the white color which the house was painted with.

“Ponyville, Ponyville…” Rainbow suddenly spoke up. “You know, it dogged me at the train, and it’s dogging me here. Where is it that I heard that name?”

“I dunno,” Spike shrugged again, “Maybe we know someone who lives here?”

“Thunderlane lives here, I know that. Probably can go visit him later and see if he can hook me up with a job with the local weather service. He owes me for setting him up with Blossom that one year. I wonder if they’re still dating?... But no, that’s not it. Maybe it’s someone who wasn’t at flight school?”

“Who do we know or remember, that didn’t go to flight school?” Spike inquired.

“I dunno… we didn’t hang out with a lot of kids before flight school. We only hanged out with Gilda and…”

It suddenly clicked. The letters that the Rainbows sometimes got from an old good friend of theirs that was, at the time, working on an apprenticeship on taking care of animals from an old mare in Ponyville.

“Fluttershy! I think she’s supposed to live here!” Rainbow sat up. Spike sat up too, eager to know what Rainbow was planning. “We have to go see her. I remember she said in one of her letters that she lived in a cottage near the Everfree. Let’s fly and see if we can find the cottage!”

While Rainbow was excited to go meet Fluttershy again, Spike initially sat back. He looked around the room for a moment, trying to see if anything would spark his mind on what important things they needed to do.

“…Meh, we’ve got nothing better to do. Let’s go!”

After a brief search, the duo found a lone house on the outskirts of Ponyville that was near the Everfree forest. A quick check around confirmed that house as the only building that could match the cottage Fluttershy wrote about. Settling down from their flight, Spike decided he wanted to knock on the door to surprise their old pal.

“One moment!” he heard a melodious voice ring. Spike wondered, was that Fluttershy?

“You have to forgive me, Sir or madam, I don’t think I can see any more pets todaaaaaaaaaay…” Fluttershy had certainly grown since the last time Spike saw her. Her pink hair was now much, much longer than he thought could be possible, and the pegasus that used to be bullied at school for being weak certainly looked a bit stronger, with both her forelegs and the thighs in her hind legs having bigger muscles than the demure little filly that Spike knew.

“Hiya, Fluttershy! Me and Rainbow were just around the neighborhood, and were hoping we could stop by for a quick chat and catch up on-”

Spike never finished his sentence as a speeding yellow and pink bullet tackled him to the ground in a hug.

Author's Notes:

I'm back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEaZkcwRDnE

So uh, yeah. Pretty shitty, sure. Went through more rewrites and scraps than Duke Nukem Forever.

At least we can get to seeing the Mane 6 soon.