December 14

Me and Aquamarine both woke up before the sun came up, and Cayenne was curled up with us so we didn't want to get out of bed right away and leave her alone. Then we realized that we were being kind of foalish, 'cause we might be stuck in bed until noon if we didn't want to leave her by herself, at least for a little bit. And maybe if there wasn't anypony sleeping with her she'd get up a little bit sooner.

We didn't get out of bed right away, though; we looked through the windows and tried to guess where we were but you couldn't really see enough to be sure.

Aquamarine thought that we were probably in Tennessee, and she said that meant that we'd probably slept through Kentucky and we couldn't decide if it counted as being someplace if you were asleep when you went there.

It wasn't snowy on the ground, so I guess we'd gotten past where the snow was. The sky was gloomy and overcast and it looked like it might rain, but I couldn't tell for sure because the air inside the train car was changed from when it was outside and that made it hard for me to guess.

We were still sitting in bed and thinking about getting up when the conductor announced that we were going to stop in Memphis soon and that there would be twenty minutes on the platform and since neither of us were too prideful we thought we'd just go out on the platform and stretch out our legs before we took our shower.

So we got up and went to the bathroom which was on the other end of the car, and then we waited near the door as the train slowed down and went through Memphis. Aquamarine said that she thought that Elvis was from Memphis, and he had been a famous singer.

We crossed over a bridge and then all of a sudden we were in the middle of kind of run-down factories, and we saw one that had big stacks of wood and another place that had big piles of rusty metal, and then we got past them and were right alongside the river for a little bit, and over on the other side we could see lots of houses all crowded together.

We went under a bunch of car bridges over the tracks, and then all of a sudden it opened up on the west side of the train and we could see a big wide river that was the Mississippi. But before we could get too much of a look at it, the train turned inland, and that was disappointing.

It stopped not too long after that, and we waited until everyone who was detraining had gotten off and then we got out on the platform and trotted around a little bit, making sure to stay out of people's way. And I flew up some, just to stretch out my wings. I couldn't go too high because there was a canopy which went over the platform so people wouldn't get wet if it rained.

And I could feel the sky and it didn't feel like there was going to be any rain at all.

I got to the end of the platform, and since I was clear of the shed, I flew up high enough that I could see the Mississippi River, and then went back down to the platform so Aquamarine wouldn't be lonely. And then the two of us trotted around a little bit more then got back on the train a little bit earlier than we had to, 'cause we didn't want it to leave without us.

Right after we left the station, there was a railroad crossing and there was a train waiting for us, and it was kind of scary to be looking right out the window at its headlight, 'cause it wasn't that far away. And then we went past a lot of houses and a really big railroad yard and we kept looking but we didn't see the Mississippi again, which was too bad. I liked when the train went alongside it, but I didn't think it was going to again.

So me and Aquamarine got our shampoos and conditioners and went down to the other end of the train car where the bathroom was and I guess it was still too early for most people except the ones who had to get on or off the train, 'cause there wasn't anybody else up so we got to go right in.

I don't know how much hot water train cars have and we didn't want to use it all up, plus it was a bit tricky sometimes to not get knocked over with the train bumping around—they had railings that people could hold but those didn't work very well for us—so we didn't spend a whole lot of time in the shower, and after we'd rinsed off and shaken ourselves dry, we went back to our room to finish drying off and to groom each other.

Cayenne was still asleep, and so after we'd dried each other off we took the other bed and groomed. I had to preen my own wings, 'cause Aquamarine didn't know how, and she felt bad about it.

Me and her were both starting to get a little bit hungry, but we didn't want to leave Cayenne behind and we didn't think that they would deliver food right to our room like they did in hotels. We probably could have gotten one of our helpers to bring food to us but that was extra work for them and it wasn't their fault that Cayenne was being lazy. So we decided that she'd slept long enough and Aquamarine pushed the button to get the attendant, 'cause he'd bring us coffee, and we could tempt her with that.

So he brought three cups and we set them on the little table then woke Cayenne up and she was pretty grouchy until she'd had her coffee. Then she went galloping off to the bathroom, and when she came back she only stuck her head in the room so that she could get her shower things.

Me and Aquamarine thought that we should probably keep her company, even though we didn't need another shower, so we went down the hall and knocked on the door until she opened it up and let us in. It wasn't quite as social, 'cause there was the door between us, but we could talk and got to hear her swear a couple of times as the train's movement caught her off-guard.

When she was done the three of us went back to our room and we both helped her groom although she didn't need a whole lot of help 'cause she was a unicorn and they don't have any trouble brushing anywhere which is kind of unfair.

Once she was ready, we went upstairs and walked forward to the dining car and we got a table right away since it was still pretty early for humans. Also me and Aquamarine had kind of forgotten that we were in a different timezone, so it was an hour earlier than we thought it was.

They had a smaller menu than the other trains did, so we got an omelet and a breakfast blintz and a continental breakfast and shared it between us, and we ordered our omelet without cheese, too, so that Cayenne would like it better.

Outside was lots of flat fields and Aquamarine said that it looked like we were on floodplain, which was really fertile but also was sometimes underwater in the spring. That was what kept the soil good, though, so you just made sure to build things on top of little hills so that they wouldn't get wet.

It was mostly pretty open land, and we didn't see a whole lot of houses except when we passed through little towns. I tried to get a look and see if any of them had signs that I could read, but we went by so quick that I usually didn't get a chance to see.

We were just finishing up our breakfast when the conductor announced that we were going to stop in Greenwood Mississippi, and it was slowing down for the station when our helpers came in.

Cayenne wanted to know if we were close to New Orleans yet and Mister Barrow said that we had a ways to go. He said that the train wouldn't get there for another six or seven hours and we should enjoy the scenery. And he said that the further south we got, the greener it would get, which made Aquamarine happy. I guess when you're an earth pony, winter is kind of depressing, even though there's lots of fun things to do like snowboarding that you can't do in the summer.

We decided that we were gonna go to the Viewliner so that we could look at the scenery, and so we told our helpers and the three of us found some seats and it was pretty flat and mostly fields after Greenwood, and it got a little bit boring after a while.

There was a road that went right alongside the tracks for a while and it was fun to look at the cars. I saw a bunch of pickup trucks that looked a lot like Winston. Some of the trucks were very colorful because their doors and hoods weren't the same color as the rest of the truck, and I saw one that had a wooden deck for a back.

We went past a rail switching yard and an electricity switching yard on our way into Yazoo City, and when the train stopped at the station it was the worst one that I'd ever seen. I hope that there was a real one nearby that they were just fixing, because all that there was for a train station was a platform and a square pavilion.

After we left Yazoo City, we were between two roads for a while and that was fun 'cause we could look out either side at the cars and trucks that we were passing, and after a while, our helpers came to the car, and Mister Barrow and Miss Parker sat with us, while Mister Salvatore and Miss Cherilyn went back to their rooms.

There wasn't a whole lot that was interesting to see until we got to Jackson City, and then after that it got flat and kind of boring again. It was greener, though, which was nice. And we weren't supposed to get off the train there 'cause the train didn't stop for too long, but we did go downstairs so that when the conductor opened the door we could breathe some outside air at least.

We went back to the dining car and ate lunch after the train passed through Hazelhurst, which was a kind of run-down looking town. One building near the tracks had been painted bright blue to make it look better, but it was kinda out of place.

The lunch menu was disappointing; they only had a vegetarian sandwich and nothing with fish, so all of us had the same thing. Cayenne liked the potato chips so we gave her ours, although that turned out to be too many for her to eat. And we each had a beer, too—Cayenne got a Heineken 'cause she liked that, and me and Aquamarine both had a Sam Adams Lager. And we wanted to get dessert, but they didn't have any on the train 'cause it was going to stop before dinnertime.

So after we were done eating we went back to our room and relaxed a little bit. Cayenne opened up her folding computer and I got her to show some pictures of me flying and riding a snowboard, and they both liked that. And Cayenne showed us the artificial mount that was modeled after her and she was kind of disappointed that I'd already seen it until I told her that Aric had said that he might get one and she thought that was pretty exciting. She wasn't sure how many of them had been sold yet because they wouldn't tell her but she'd heard that they were popular which made her really proud.

She had one of her own but she hadn't brought it. She said if we didn't get a chance to look at it when we were back in Chicago, we could when we were on our way back to Equestria, 'cause she was going to take it home with her.

Louisiana looked almost like Mississippi at first, but then when we got further south it was a lot wetter and swampier. Some of the houses that we saw were supported on stilts, because they were in bayous which were a lot like swamps. And that was land that I liked, 'cause I was sure that there were lots of tasty fish in all the water, and there were also lots of grasses growing that looked really good to eat, and so we decided to go back to the Viewliner so we could see it better, and Mister Barrow was still there so we took the seats next to him.

We went by some docks and there was a boat gas station that was high up on stilts although the docks were much lower, so I guess that they had big tides on the lake. And then we went out on a causeway, and right next to us was a road that sat pretty high up, and there were rows of pilings where there had been a bridge before next to it, and also some that were next to us which were in a lot better condition.

Then we went alongside a big lake which I thought might be the ocean but Mister Barrow said was Lake Pontchartrain, and there was a elevated road that ran alongside the shore, and also electricity towers that ran over it, 'cause it was pretty shallow most places and so people had thought that that was the best place to build them.

We followed the shoreline for a while, and then when we started getting inland, he told us that we should get back to our room and pack up, because we were almost in New Orleans. And then while we were walking back to our room, I remembered that Christine lived in New Orleans and if I'd been smarter I would have told her that we were coming there, 'cause maybe she'd want to see me for a little bit.

I didn't have too much to pack, so I sent her a telephone telegram, and before we got off the train she'd sent one back and said that she couldn't meet us at the station but she could meet us later for dinner and if we had time we could take a little tour of town with her, so I found out where we were going to eat and sent her a telegram back.

New Orleans was as far as we could go on the train, because Mister Barrow said that the train route from New Orleans to Orlando had been knocked down by a hurricane and it hadn't been properly fixed yet, so we were going to have to take a special bus the rest of the way. But the good part about it was that that gave us time to look around instead of having to stay at the train station waiting for the next train.

The bus was what was called an executive coach, which meant that it was smaller than a proper bus and bigger than a van like Econoline. But it had nicer seats in it and there was also a big flat television on the front that you could watch movies on if you wanted to. I thought that maybe this was the kind of bus that the tornado team had gotten to ride on when they came to Texas.

It was a little big for just the three of us and our helpers—about twenty people could have fit on it—but that did give us room to sleep, 'cause it had couches on one side and more normal seats on the other. And it even had a faucet in the back that was filled with coffee.

Mister Salvatore said that we should go to the French Quarter because that was the most popular place in New Orleans but me and Aquamarine both wanted to look at the lake first—I wanted to fly over it some and she was really curious about the plants on the shore that weren't like anything in Michigan or Equestria, and Cayenne didn't mind coming along as long as she didn't have to get her hooves muddy.

So we drove through the city until we got to the very end of the road, and the bus had to stop on a driveway that went off of it. It went up to an embankment which Mister Salvatore said was a levee and that kept the water out when there were storms.

And the one side was all swampy and wet and the lake was on the other side so I put on my flight gear and my watch told me what the frequency for the New Orleans airplane directors were, so I called them and said that I was gonna be flying, then I had to ask Mister Salvatore where we were exactly so that they would know. He wasn't sure, but his portable telephone knew, and I told them what he told me.

They said I could fly if I stayed low and over the lake and the tip of land that we were on and didn't fly over the city so I told them that I would and I took off. And they also warned me that there was a little airport just west of me so I had to be careful of little airplanes, 'cause some of them might not have radios.

Aquamarine was going down the embankment when I took off, and I just heard Mister Barrow telling her that she had to be careful of alligators and snakes.

There was a railroad track that went on the wrong side of the levee, and I think it was the track that our train was supposed to have taken. It looked like it had been fixed to me but maybe it was broken further along. It went right over the mouth of the lake, next to a road bridge, and it had a big section that was lifted up so that boats could get through.

I saw a boat going along the shore that had a man and a woman in it and I waved at them as I flew over and they waved back.

I wasn't really sure where fish liked to live in the lake; it might not be the same as it was in Equestria. But the local birds knew, so I flew over to where there was a big flock of pelicans so I could get an idea what they were eating. They mostly liked smaller fish that they could scoop up in their beaks but they'd eat bigger ones if they could find them.

I didn't want to get too close 'cause they might get mad at me, and there were a lot of them, so once they started acting a bit agitated I went a little bit further away and then I landed in the water and looked around to see what was there.

There were a bunch of little minnow-sized fish swimming around and those were pretty dumb. It took me a couple of tries to get one, and when I did he hadn't really been worth the effort, so I took off and flew all the way to shore and scraped in the mud there, hoping I could maybe find some sand crabs but the ground was too thick for them.

I did see a water snake that was as big around as a rope, so I stayed away from him.

Then once I was done exploring I flew back up and over the railroad tracks and levee until I found everyone again, and I circled over Aquamarine who was a few hundred feet in the marsh, examining all the plants.

I didn't really want to land in a swamp, so I just circled overhead, enjoying the freedom and also keeping an eye out for predators. And it was a good thing that I did, 'cause there was one who was in the marsh not too far from her and I shouted out a warning which gave her enough time to gallop to safety before the alligator started thinking that she'd make a good dinner. And I saw Cayenne come trotting up to the edge of the levee with her horn lit, and I bet if she could see him she could have made him go away.

Mister Barrow thought that was a little bit too close for his liking and said that maybe we should get back in the coach and visit somewhere safer but Aquamarine convinced him to let her spend another ten minutes here and then we'd go somewhere else.

He told her to stay where he could see her and he came down the levee until he was almost in the water, and he took out his gun and held it against his side, just pointing down at the ground, but it was there if he needed it.

It was probably closer to twenty minutes before she was done looking around, but she came back up and I looked for alligators before she waded across a stream that was just past the base of the levee. And so me and her and Mister Barrow all wound up tracking some mud into the bus, and she had to go through her bag to get a towel to sit on so that she wouldn't ruin the seat before the mud dried out and we could brush it off.

So then we took the bus to the French Quarter, and we stopped at Jefferson Park first which is almost on the Mississippi River. And there were a bunch of horse-drawn carriages there and we all wanted to ride in that. Mister Salvatore said that there were trolleys, too, but we all wanted to be behind the horses and so he grumbled a little bit and gave Mister Barrow twenty dollars for some reason and then we all got on board.

All the houses were really pretty, and there were apartment buildings that had balconies on the upper floors that wrapped all the way around, and they had lacy iron railings instead of the fat wooden ones that my apartments had had. And a lot of them had posts that went all the way down to the ground to hold the balconies up, 'cause they were so big. And during Mardi Gras that was where women would crowd and show off their breasts to get necklaces of beads.

They had lots of signs that were painted on tile, and a lot of them were pretty worn out but they were historical so they were keeping them. And most of the buildings were really fancy and there were people everywhere and I was glad that we were up here in our carriage where we could see over them and were by ourselves.

People stood on the street corners and played musical instruments for anyone who wanted to listen, and if you liked them you could give them some money, and there was just a whole lot to see and the driver kept telling us the history of everything. I think I could have stayed here for a week and still not known it all.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant called The New Orleans Creole Cookery, and we met Christine there. She said that everything was really good, and I saw that they had alligator on the menu and Mister Barrow said that he was going to have that to get back at the alligator who had wanted to eat Aquamarine. She didn't think that was funny.

There was so much to choose from, and I didn't know what half of it was, but almost all of it sounded really good. I was kinda wishing that I'd decided to go to a place on the ocean instead of Kalamazoo, just for the food.

I got shrimp and catfish and Aquamarine got a salad and hushpuppies and Cayenne had the corn maque choux and jambalaya and we shared a little bit so we could try more things. Aquamarine had a shrimp and said that it was kind of weird and chewy, but she liked it. Neither of them wanted to try my catfish but I did trade a little piece of it for half of one of Miss Parker's oysters, and Christine let me have a bit of her calamari.

And even though were were pretty full, Christine insisted that we had to have dessert, too, and so we all got something different so that we could share, so I got to try Key Lime pie and bread pudding and bourbon pecan pie and banana foster cheesecake, and they were all really good.

Christine took us around town, too, and this time we did ride on a streetcar which was fun. It made a big loop around town and we got to see some places and buildings that we hadn't gotten to see before, and Christine knew all about them. She even pointed out the building where she'd lived one summer with a bunch of other people—she said it was really expensive but it had been worth it.

Then she said that before we left we had to stop at Marie Laveau’s House of Voodoo, just because we had Cayenne with us. She really wanted to see the reaction of the shopkeepers.

The streetcar didn't go there, so we had to walk but it wasn't that far, and Christine told Cayenne to do some mystical unicorn stuff when she got in there. And Cayenne rolled her eyes, but when we got in there we looked around for a little bit and they had all sorts of weird things and none of it looked all that special except for their voodoo dolls. Those were kind of creepy, and I didn't like them very much at all. They were made out of moss and Aquamarine looked at them really closely to see if she could figure out what kind of moss it was.

Cayenne asked if they had any that were shaped like a pony instead of a human and if they would work back in Equestria, and the woman at the counter got a little nervous and then said that they were just a novelty and didn't really work at all and there weren't any shaped like ponies for sale, and she kept looking at all of us like she was trying to figure out what was going on. But then she relaxed a little when Cayenne found a bottle of Love Potion Number 9, and she said that that was very good and she would like it.

They had palm readings, too, but we couldn't do that. Christine could, though, so she got her palm read and we all watched and that was really interesting. The woman who did it seemed very wise, and she didn't get too distracted with all of us there asking questions. I thought she could have been a little more specific about what Christine's palm was telling her, though.

Then we said our goodbyes to Christine and we went down and sat on the riverbank for a little while, watching the barges and tugboats and even a paddlewheeler go by on the river, and that was a nice way to relax. It was really pretty at night, too, 'cause of all the lights on the boats and also all the buildings had Christmas decorations, which seemed a little bit out of place since it was so warm. But they were still pretty.

Then we went and got back on our bus, and since the moon was out, Mister Barrow said that we should go across the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway because it was like being on a boat. He said that it was longer than the Lucin Cutoff in the Great Salt Lake, which was for trains and not cars.

And it was a really pretty view from it, and it seemed like we were over the water forever. If it hadn't been for being able to see lights on the other side, I might have thought that it really did go on forever. It was amazing to think how someone had been able to build all this, and Mister Barrow said that it hadn't taken that long, because they had built a factory on the shore and all the pieces were the same, and there were even some extra spare pieces in case the bridge got broken.

When we finally got to the other side and turned on the highway, us ponies settled down on the couch. Miss Parker gave us a blanket, and she said that if we needed to use the bathroom or anything the bus driver would stop, 'cause there wasn't a bathroom on the bus, and he could also stop if we wanted to stretch our legs. So we thanked her and we curled up on the couch and Cayenne lifted the blanket over us and it didn't take me too long to fall asleep.

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