Author's Note: The next few chapters are pretty short and silly compared to the rest of the fic. When I first wrote it out, after I wrote the first half over the course of a week, I spent several hours on a marathon finishing the second half. Sorry if it feels rushed!
Chapter Seven: The Motivational Speech Car
Throughout her journey on the train so far, Brooke had gone through a lot of strange, self-reflective trials. But this next car would cause her most self-reflective adventure yet. No, it wasn't the Chrome Car. It was… the Motivational Speech Car. Brooke didn't realize it until she was greeted in the car, which looked like a school auditorium, by a talking bull, who told her to give an improvised motivational speech. But here she couldn't help but break down crying. It took a little while before she could start speaking. When she did, no one could believe the words that were coming out of her mouth.
"Listen, when I got on this train, I didn't even know why I got on. I felt like I was trapped, like I had nowhere to go. But then, I started to feel all these emotions that I hadn't felt in quite some time. Feelings like… friendship." She turned to look at Zac and Oliver, then turned back toward the audience. "Kindness. Acceptance. Loyalty. And it feels really weird. Like, why does this train even make me feel these feelings. Why does this train exist? Why am I here?" She quickly realized that she still hadn't found the answer to that original question she had since she boarded the train. "I'm not even sure anyone else will understand that I was on this train, or that I had all these strange experiences. Solving mazes with blindfolds, having dance parties with monsters, doing surgery on a frog. These experiences are simply unusual, and I don't know who else will understand them".
Zac interjected. "We will. And although we will all probably go our own separate ways once this adventure is over, we will all share these memories of it together."
Oliver couldn't help but add, "That's what really matters in the end, all the memories you make with the friends you make on the train. At least, that's what Atticus, the king of Corginia told me. The reason why I went on this trip was because of the tales Atticus told me about a passenger he met named Tulip. He described Tulip as someone else curious about the train, someone who didn't know why she was there. Someone kind of like you. But she was also reluctant to make new friends on the train. She obviously met Atticus, a kind and noble king, but she also met One-One, a robot who simultaneously felt everything. Like, he literally had two sides to his personality. One was always happy, one was always sad, but together, they felt everything. And One-One also knew everything. He knew everything about the train.
Everyone in the audience was speechless.
After a little while, Zac simply said "I didn't know you could be so insightful, Oliver."
"I just really like the stories Atticus tells me" said Oliver.
"Wait", said Brooke, "if this 'One-One' guy knows everything about the train, could he help me get my last push, too?"
"Maybe…" said Oliver.
"Well, maybe One-One is exactly what we need, than" said Zac.
"So, I guess that's the moral of story then" said Brooke. "If you have friends, and motivation I guess, than you can do everything".
And then everyone stood up and clapped.
As the gang left the car, Brooke was simply amazed that the audience liked that speech.
"That was the worst presentation I've given, and these people still liked it?" asked Brooke.
"Eh, I've given far worse speeches" said Zac.
"But now I just have another question. Where can we find One-One?"