Beep. Beep. Beep.
Flash Sentry woke up with a jolt and banged his head on the ceiling just above his bed.
He hissed in pain as he landed back on the mattress and covered his sore head with both wings while fighting back the urge to scream obscenities.
“Up and at’em, Big Wig,” a brash voice called out from behind the entrance to the train compartment, “We got a busy day of doing nothing to get to.”
Flash grumbled under his breath about annoying, loud unicorns and slammed a hoof down on his alarm clock by the window sill.
Being careful to not fall out of bed, Flash flipped himself over to get his hooves underneath him. He arched his back until he felt it pop, cracked his neck left and right then flopped back down onto his bed with a sigh of relief.
More banging at the door from the aforementioned annoying unicorn alerted him to the apparent urgency of the morning.
With a grunt, Flash attempted to leave his bed and nearly took a tumble to the floor when his hooves decided to be uncooperative.
After ensuring his balance had been righted, he noted the time on his alarm clock, weighed the possibility of food and decided that it would have to wait that morning despite the protests from his stomach.
Flash trotted to a cramped en suite bathroom he only barely fit in and stared at himself in the mirror just above the sink.
A bulky pegasus stared back with blue eyes and heavy bags underneath them. His mane was a mess of blue strands that went in every direction, and his light orange fur hadn’t fared better. He made a note to himself that a regular gym routine was in order when they got back to the Crystal Empire since he noticed that his ‘toned stomach’ was starting to edge towards a gut. A razor was also due before stubble became a beard.
If he was honest, he had been expecting worse.
“Hey, Big Wig.” He heard from the door among several hard knocks against the wood. “Hurry your fat flanks. We got stuff to do.”
Flash groaned in irritation. He covered his mouth with his wing, exhaled and took a whiff. Smelled terribly, but would have to suffice for now.
He opened the bathroom cabinet under the sink and grabbed his stash of mane gel.
He squeezed out a hefty dollop of gel on both hooves and, with one smooth movement, slicked his mane back into a long wave leaving behind a shine from the overabundance of product.
Flash examined his hoofwork. It was sloppy, but it was the best he was going to manage.
He trotted back to the room he shared with his guard partner to the sound of more banging and an exasperated sigh that managed to get through the door.
The train compartment was panelled with a red wood Flash couldn’t name. Two beds were embedded into the wall opposite the bathroom which left only a narrow walkway from the door to the window.
He admired the rolling countryside passing by through the glass before he refocused his attention on the wardrobe beside it.
Flash walked to the front of the wardrobe pressing his backside up against his bed. There were two doors. He opened the left to reveal his duffel bag on the bottom shelf filled with several necessities and his armour resting on a shelf above it.
He proceeded to strap himself into his armour, he had to suck it in to get the straps to their usual girth, and finally made his way to the door.
He undid the latch and slid it open.
On the other side was a slim unicorn mare with dark yellow fur, a chestnut brown mane styled into a faux hawk and golden yellow eyes. The mare’s Cutie Mark was covered by her armour, but Flash already knew it was three triangles stacked on top of each other.
The unicorn rapped Flash on the snout. “Oh, look, Big Wig has finally decided to join us for the day.”
Flash scowled and rubbed his nose with a wing tip. “Okay, seriously, Point Guard, do you have to keep using that nickname? You know I hate it.”
“Yes, or at least until it stops being funny.” Point Guard gave a taunting smirk. “Now, go check in with Next Track for our arrival time and meet me in the caboose for some inventory.” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.
“Yeah, fine, Point.” Flash scowled. “Just make sure you actually do your job this time.”
Point Guard guffawed, “Oh lighten up, Big Wig. It Isn’t a big deal.”
“Point, that’s the kind of attitude that makes a guard sloppy.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Point rolled her eyes. “See you later.”
With a flippant wave of a hoof, Point Guard turned away from him and began her trot to the back of the train.
Flash, ready to get on with his duties for the day, walked in the opposite direction of where Point Guard had gone and towards the engine room. The train conductor Next Track would presumably be running the train, though it would be possible that he was resting in the room designated to him.
Hopefully, it wasn’t the latter as Flash didn’t remember where that room was located.
As he walked along the wood panelled corridor towards the engine room he began to hear the rumble of the train becoming louder and more clear with every step.
A constant chugging sound in the background that denoted the forward momentum of the vehicle.
It made him uncomfortable.
He arrived at a metal door and opened it to his least favourite room.
It was cramped, a feeling Flash had about the entirety of the train, but was the worst in the front engine room where space was fought over by pipes and machines that he couldn’t discern the purpose of.
The front of the room was dominated by a massive coal run engine. It was cylindrical in shape, forged from dark grey metal dyed black with coal dust and was lit bright orange by a roaring fire fed by several coal bins on either side of the room.
Standing in front of an amalgamation of pulleys and levers near the furnace was a dark brown earth pony stallion dressed in a striped suit that covered most of his body and a matching wide brimmed flat top hat; All of which were stained with black soot. He had a combed black mane, and a Cutie Mark of a set of train tracks leading towards a half sun.
Flash saw his ears twitch and, after fiddling with several dials on the contraption, he turned towards Flash with bright silver eyes.
“Good morning, Guard Sentry,” Next Track greeted warmly, “I take it your partner is not with you this morning?”
“No, she went ahead to the cargo compartment to start inventory counting,” Flash replied curtly, “When are we arriving in the Crystal Empire?”
“To the point, I see,” Next Track said, ”No time for pleasantries then?”
“Just an update.” Flash paused. “Please.”
Next gave a bemused smile. “Soon. We’ll have arrived once we clear the Crystal Tunnel.”
Flash gave a short nod in confirmation. “Anything suspicious to report?”
“Besides a disgruntled pegasus?” Next Track laughed as Flash glared in response. “No, I don’t. The trip has been largely uneventful.”
“Thank you for the update,” Flash said, “I will be taking my leave.”
Without any additional preamble, Flash turned around and trotted out of the room taking care to avoid slamming into any pipes on his way out.
Next Track simply shook his head in response.
Flash trotted into the next train car after having made a pit stop to the room. He had a hunch that Point Guard had “forgotten” to grab the cargo manifest from their room before heading to the back of the train.
He found the clipboard sitting on the bottom of Point Guard’s shelf of the shared wardrobe, which means Point had gone ahead to the back of the train without him so she could sit and do nothing.
Again.
Which meant he would get saddled with doing all of the work as she “supervised”.
Again.
Flash growled as he slammed the lounge car door behind him.
He surveyed the compartment. It had yellow coin themed wallpaper with wooden baseboard and matching flooring. Along the right side of the room was a long bar with a selection of various bottles of alcohol arranged on built in wooden shelves. On the left side of the car were several tables bolted to the floor with cushions to sit on arranged around them.
Staring out the windows while sipping a glass of what appeared to be brandy was an older mare with pale purple fur, and a dark purple mane tied into a loose bun.
It was early in the day for drinking, but Flash wouldn’t judge someone else on their bad habits. Glancing down he noticed the mare’s Cutie Mark: a violin with an overlapping magnolia flower.
Flash felt something cold grip his insides as he stared at her mark. Her mark denoted that her talent was most likely linked to music.
Specifically playing an instrument.
On second consideration, Flash agreed with the mare. It was in fact an excellent time to drink.
He assumed that the mare had grabbed the bottle off the nearby shelf and just placed it back behind the counter.
Flash raised himself on his back legs and planted his front hooves on the wooden counter. He leaned forward and looked along the surface hidden from view behind the counter wall for the theoretical opened bottle of brandy.
He found it tucked neatly near one of the beer taps.
Flash grabbed the bottle, a clean shot glass, and poured himself a shot.
He took a full swig and grimaced at the sickeningly sweet flavour. It was overbearing and not even close to his usual preference.
He poured himself a second shot.
After swigging down his second, and a third directly from the bottle, he placed the items back where he found them and continued his trot towards the back of the train.
As he opened the door leading onwards, he noticed the compartment become darker signifying that the train had most likely entered the crystal tunnel Next Track had mentioned.
Flash didn’t bother to look as he continued on his way.
Flash swung open another passenger car door. He was sweating from the long trek in full armour and breathing raggedly. He wasn’t sure it was from being out of shape or from the alcohol.
His confidence demanded blame be assigned to the second option.
His ears twitched as he caught onto a strange sound coming up on his left as he trotted down the corridor.
After a short period of walking, he came upon an open passenger compartment.
The passenger cars were similar to the Guard’s car, except with only one bed instead of two as well as significantly nicer bedding.
He found the source of the noise in the form of a pink coated stallion with a messy dark red mane and Cutie Mark of a letter stamped with a heart sprawled out on the floor surrounded by pink envelopes.
He was giggling foalishly as he read through an open letter with his dopey pink eyes. The letter was a darker pink than the envelope it had come in and appeared to be written with white ink.
Flash rolled his eyes and contained his snort of derision at the goofy pony and continued past the open car to his destination: the luggage car door.
He slammed the door open and stomped into the room.
Inside was the storage compartment for the passengers’ luggage. It was panelled with wood from floor to ceiling. The majority of space within the room was filled with stacked suitcases piled high on wooden platforms and tied together with buckled straps.
Flash fought back the irritated sigh at how much work it was going to be to unload all of the luggage when they arrived at the Crystal Empire.
He was really starting to hate Shining Armour’s ‘Civilian Assistance Program’ initiative. He understood Shining Armour’s wish to have the Guard be more accessible to the citizenry, but he was part of the Crystal Guard, previously Royal, and wasn’t meant to be a basic labourer aboard a train.
“‘Bout time you got here, Big Wig.”
Flash turned to the sound of Point Guard’s voice to see her hunched upside down on the floor looking through a magazine she had most likely snatched from one of the earlier lounge cars.
He threw the manifest at her.
“Hey,” Point Guard yelped as she dropped the magazine and covered herself with her hooves to block the clipboard, “What was that for?”
“Seriously, Point,” Flash yelled, “You forgot the shipping manifest, again.” He looked down at the dropped magazine. “Are you kidding me? You’re looking through a Playmare magazine while on shift?”
Point Guard scoffed as she moved into a standing position, “Oh, please, Big Wig. That’s hardly the worst thing either of us have done ‘on shift’.”
“Yeah, when we were new recruits. That kind of behaviour doesn’t fly for veteran guards of more than a year let alone ten.” Flash snorted angrily. “And Point Guard, for the love of Celestia, stop calling me Big Wig.”
“Or what, Big Wig?” She punched his shoulder lightly with a hoof. “You’ll tell Captain Armour?”
“If you keep messing around and not doing your job.” Flash maneuvered himself to be inches from Point’s face. “I will.”
Point Guard growled, “Oh, wow. Aren’t you so high and mighty. You’ve become a real nark since you started dating that mare. Oh, wait, sorry. I guess I mean stopped since she dumped you.”
“This isn’t about being a ‘nark’, Point,” Flash retorted, “We’re veterans in the Guard and we should be acting like it. Also, I don’t exactly appreciate you bringing her into this.”
Point Guard laughed, “You didn’t used to care about that before. You didn’t used to care about anything. Remember when we got into trouble all over Canterlot? When we had fun?” Point rolled her eyes. “You’re such a bore now.”
“Point, that’s what stopped us from going anywhere in the Guard.” Point laughed again. “There’s a time when you need to grow up and get your act together.”
“Get my act together?” She laughed harder. “Have you looked at yourself recently, Big Wig? Trying to live up to my nickname, huh?”
“Low blow, Point.”
She snorted derisively. “Look, Flash. We both know why you want to clean up so bad,” She leaned in close to his ear and whispered, “You’re just hoping your ex will take you back.”
“No, I’m not, Point,” Flash replied, “She broke up with me. It’s over. We're over and she made it clear there wasn’t going to be a second chance.”
“Oh please, Big Wig. There shouldn’t even have been a first.”
Flash tensed. “Excuse me?”
“She’s smart. The smartest in a generation. You’re dumb. Possibly the dumbest in this generation considering you thought you had even had a chance with her,” Point Guard said in a mocking voice.
“Point, that’s out of line!” Flash roared.
Point laughed in his face. “Out of line? What’s out of line is that you thought you had a chance with the Captain’s sister and shows how dense you were to think it would have worked out.”
“I’m not stupid, Point! I just-”
“Dated above your level?” Point sneered. “Seriously, Big Wig. You dated a mare that made you look like a total loser. Maybe try and date-”
Flash punched her in the jaw with his left hoof.
Point Guard fell backwards onto her back. She had a red welt on her lower jaw and a stunned look on her face.
He breathed heavily. He felt dizzy from how angry he was. Despite how much he sweated, he felt cold well up in his gut as he processed what he had done.
“I,” He choked out, “I didn’t mean it.”
Point Guard glared at him. “Don’t tell lies, Flash.”
Flash heard a loud screech come from his left. Both Guards, startled, turned to the noise in time to hear a loud pop sound and to see the wall of the train compartment move upwards along with the rest of it.
The straps tying the piled suitcases snapped and the luggage fell toward them.
Flash blacked out.