It was a quiet night on the train. In the morning, I would be in a hotel room, but for now, the quiet train car would do. The bed was hard, the constant movement of the train made sleeping even more difficult. I was to used to sleeping in a nice, still bed. I couldn't take it anymore. I sat up in my bed. Well, correction, I tried to sit up in my bed. The train car suddenly jerked forward, and I ended up with my face on floor. Putting my forelegs under me, I pushed myself up into a sitting position.
Oh! The progress I was making!
All I wanted was to get out of bed and go to my desk. A simple task, made had by the sudden change in the acceleration of the train. At least I was upright, and not on my face now.
Somepony is knocking on the door.
I got up on all four of my hooves and walked to the sliding door to the hallway. Opening it revealed an earth pony mare. You would think that the first thing I noticed about the unfamiliar mare would be, well, that I didn't know her. She didn't have a cab or train uniform on, so she wasn't part of the train staff. She had what looked like a nightgown on. Blue. Not that different in color than my own coat. Her eyes were green and her coat was an interesting shade of grey. All of these were viable 'first things to notice'.
The first thing I noticed, was her mane.
A beautiful gold color, mixed with small hints of orange and red strands. A grand showing of hair. It was mainly straight, save for some small curls at ends. I almost wanted to see if her tail was just as grand as her mane.
"Pardon me, but I heard a loud noise from your room." She stated. Her voice was very soft, yet, very eager. Almost like she was in a hurry. "I'm in the room next-door. I was getting ready for bed when I heard. Is everything alright?"
I was never good at talking to others, even if all I had to say was a single word. "Everything is quite fine. Just fell out of bed when the train had it's sudden burst of acceleration." I stated very flatly.
"You seem familiar. Do I know you?" She asked.
I had no idea how she could possibly know me. I wasn't famous. I wasn't rich. I was nopony. I liked being by myself, working on my small, mismatch of various projects. I lived in Vanhoover by myself in a small apartment. I had a 'not so special' job working at a small diner. I guess she could have seen me there.
"Are you from Vanhoover?" I asked lightly.
"Yes actually. I live there." She stated, almost pridefully.
I had, without knowing, put myself in a corner. I didn't want a conversation with somepony who I probably waited on. This was escalating to ten out of ten on the awkward scale for me. You could have just locked the door. Ignored the knocking. Pretend that no one was there. You did it to the landlord once when you didn't have enough bits to pay for the month. I thought to myself.
"Well, um, it's nice to meet somepony else from the same city." I said hastily.
"Wait. We don't know each others names." She stated flatly.
We had just met, would probably not see each other again, and she wanted to know my name?
"My name is Light Sparks." I said, almost in a whisper.Great job. You couldn't make a name up or something?
"Hello Light Sparks. My name is Golden Peach." She stated, again, almost full of pride. "It's nice to meet you. Maybe we'll see each other again. Maybe even be friends"
I wasn't sure what had surprised me more. The fact that she was so forthcoming with her identity, how stunning I still found her mane, or the fact that she said that she might want to be my friend. Since when did I make friends, especially when all I had to do was open a door.
"Well, um, I guess I should try and get some sleep. I have a busy day tomorrow. Convention stuff and all."
"Oh? You're one of those inventor types for that big technology convention in Manehatten, aren't ya?" She quickly asked in an almost determining tone that I was a little surprised to hear that she had. Having just met her though, I wasn't too surprised that there were things I didn't know. Past her name and where she lived, it was literally nothing.
"Yeah. I'm an inventor, and I have a very busy week ahead of me." I answered, a little resigned.
"Well, I guess I'll let you get to sleep. I need sleep myself. It was nice meeting you, and maybe we'll see each other again. You never know." She stated, again, showing that prideful tone that I had already heard a lot of in her.
"Yeah. Maybe." In all honesty, I really didn't. She just seemed strange, too forthcoming, and . . . . . . . . beautiful. I couldn't help the fact that she was attractive, especially with that mane of hers.
At my reply, she walked back to her room and closed the door. I followed suit and shut my door as well. It was going on Midnight and the only light in my room was coming from the moon outside. I went to the desk in my room and started looking at a few papers. The first Manehattan Technology Convention was written on most of them. I stopped flipping when I came to my own image. The picture that was taken for my ID card was horrible. My white and yellow striped mane was a mess. My left ear was down a little, and my horn looked, oddly, out of place. The suit I was wearing seemed to be my only saving grace. It was clean and nice compared to my ruffled up mane. Next to the horribly taken image was my cutie mark: a small, white lamp with a red tool box next to it. I may be good with tools and always studied electrical magic, but I actually wasn't sure if that is what my cutie mark signified, or if it meant that I was good at fixing light fixtures.
Not wanting to look at anymore papers, I decided that it was best that I try and get some sleep. Even with the train moving around, I had to try. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day after all.