“That boy, always waiting until the last minute to do everything!” Your mother’s telltale tone of annoyance could be heard over the myriad of tones and sounds perforating the train station as you trotted towards the platform at a brisk, yet comfortable, pace. “We’ll miss the ride if he doesn’t show up soon.”
You round the corner, heading towards the wooden platform’s entrance. You scan the crowd standing around, ears perked as you listen for your companions’ voices. Eventually you spot them a few feet down the way. You smile as you see them, pushing your mother’s chastising aside, filing her assertion under blatant exaggeration. You aren’t a procrastinator, you just enjoy being punctual, no point in doing something before it actually needs to be done. Besides, this is important, and you hadn’t really had an opportunity to do it beforehoof, for multiple reasons.
Rarity is the first to take notice of your approach, heaving a relieved sigh while trotting towards you. The pair of you share a nuzzle, both of your anxieties calmed by the presence of the other. Both of you were nervous about this little trip, Rarity was finally going to learn about your past, and you were finally going to tell it to her.
“There you are, darling.” Rarity breathes, relieved. “I was worried you’d miss the train. Did you take care of, whatever it was you needed?”
You nod, somewhat surprised to see that Rarity didn’t inquire towards your little errand. You’d made the promise to avoid telling her secrets, but this would be… a little difficult to explain. Not like it’s that big of a deal, you had permission, after all, but still. It’d complicate things, and right now you’d rather avoid any and all undue complication.
A shrill high pitched whistle splits the otherwise serene air of the Ponyville train station. The noise startles you, making you jump. This little reaction gets a slight rise out of your traveling companions, who all share a little giggle or side-smile at your expense. You manage to avoid looking that depressed about it, but there’s no fighting away the thick red coloration of your cheeks.
“I think that’s our train…” Your father mumbles, craning his neck over the platform and to the right, staring at the oncoming beast of machinery and smoke. “Right on time too, how about that? Trains in Manehattan rarely are, let me tell ya, it’s a real pain the flank trying to make it to a business meeting halfway across town when your train’s fifteen minutes late.” He turns, smiling at Rarity. “If you ever do business there, remember to take the train leaving before the one you actually need to go on. You might be a half an hour early, but it’s a lot better than being half an hour late.”
Rarity giggles a bit in response to your father’s, actually not half bad, advice. “Duly noted.” She responds, voice raising over the sounds of the rapidly approaching train.
You take a moment to look over your belongings, smiling happily to yourself as you fumble through Rarity’s wonderful saddlebags. You still can’t believe just how well made they are, the thick faux leather bags even feel good to wear. Not in a purely romantic sense either, of course, it felt good to wear them because you were, in a way, supporting the mare you loved by doing so, but from a purely subjective standpoint they’re… they’re…
Well… to put it bluntly, they’re snug as fuck.
The straps align themselves around your body in such a way that you barely notice them, you even catch yourself double checking to make sure they’re secure every now and then because you can’t feel them to know for certain. And the bags themselves are made with the softest form of leather substitute you’ve ever had the fortune of feeling. Regular saddlebags were a bit bulkier and could cause irritation if worn for too long, but not these ones. There are very few things you’re particularly good at, but years of running errands and hauling stuff around for your father and his associates means that you can tell a good pair of saddlebags from a pair of bad ones, and these are a pretty damn good pair, no, that was an injustice, they are the best damn pair of saddlebags you’ve ever worn.
How on Equestria is Rarity not famous yet? You still can’t really fathom why.
Your ears twitch as the train comes screeching to a halt next to the thick wooden platform you’re standing upon, heavy metal wheels scraping against the rusted train tracks below, kicking up a shower of sparks and pouring forth thick grey plumes of smoke. You cough in response as you inhale some of the dirty metallic odor, standing a bit too close to the source of the smoke, it stings your eyes and tickles your throat, making the former water and the latter constrict.
You feel a slight tingle at the base of your tail and a spike of pain in your rear end as you’re pulled back a few steps in an extremely violent manner. You peer over your shoulder see Rarity’s horn alight and concerned amusement on her face as she magically tugs on your rear end.
“Please don’t fall onto the tracks…” She playfully warns. “We’ve had enough accidents for one week, don’t you think?”
You nod, smirking as you give your head a single heavy shake, forcing the cough in your throat away. “Right… gonna take more than a hospital visit to fix getting run over by a train.”
Rarity’s bemused expression morphs into a slightly more serious one as gives your tail another, even more vicious yank. Slight jolts of pain rocketing up and down your rump in response to the violent tug.
“Ow! Alright, sorry, no more jokes about my injuries. I get it.” You promise, rubbing at your now sore flank with a hoof.
Rarity purses her lips for a moment, before giggling and grabbing her things, levitating her numerous pieces of luggage all at once. Two suitcases and three hoofbags full of cosmetics, shampoos, and clothing. You’d told her to pack light, since you didn’t expect to be in Manehattan for very long, apparently this is her definition of ‘packing light’. Excessive luggage packing runs in the family, it seems.
You flinch and lay your ears back against your head as the hulking metal machine pulls to a dead stop in front of the station. The ear-splitting scraping noise of the train’s brakes scratching against the rusted metal of the tracks filled the air, only to be joined by the howling whistle. You still don’t understand why trains need to be so loud, it’s only several hundred tons of metal machinery…
A loud resounding bang resonates throughout the small station as the passenger car’s door opens up, a pudgy silver mare steps out, unicorn horn fizzling out as the luggage compartment nearby slides open. A few ponies nearby slide their luggage underneath, Rarity quickly does the same, apologizing profusely to a few other disgruntled riders who have to wait for her to place her exorbitant amount of baggage into the less than spacious compartment. You giggle as she struggles with the task, adjusting the saddlebags on your back, glad that you’d decided to pack light. Not like you really have much of a choice, after all, pretty much everything you’d owned previously disappeared in a giant ball of fire a couple months ago. Like that coffee table! Man… you miss that coffee table.
Eventually Rarity manages to get her supplies all packed up, minus the small sky blue carry on she’d packed for the trip itself, since it was going to take about a day to get to Manehattan.
“Sorry about that everypony!” She says to the small pack of disgruntled ponies who’d gathered around her, all equally upset at her for taking up their valuable time. “It’s like I always say, a lady must bring along all her necessities!” Rarity’s face turns upwards into a wide grin, doing what she can to alleviate some of the tension practically radiating off of the ponies around her, though it doesn’t seem to help much, several angry eyes staring her down, wordlessly telling her to beat it. She, wisely, does so. Shuffling off to stand next to you, worry written on her expression.
You chuckle as the crowd goes about it’s business. You peck Rarity on the cheek, she lets out a cute little squeak in response to your affectionate kiss, and blushes profusely in embarrasment.
“Gonna pack a little lighter next time?” You inquire playfully.
Rarity’s only response is a muffled, “Perhaps…”
“ALL ABOARD!” The conductor’s voice rings out, overpowering the incessant commotion of the ponies bustling about the small station. You reach into your saddlebag’s front pocket and secure your lips around the small blue ticket within, Rarity does the same, as does your mother and father.
The four of you approach the mare, who smiles and reaches into her uniform’s inner pocket. She retrieves a small square pair of spectacles and dons them, holding out her hoof to collect your tickets. Your father, ever the practical one, had opted to keep all of your tickets in his bag’s zip up pocket. The mare takes a moment to look over each ticket, verifying their legitimacy, it doesn’t take her long.
“Thank you very much sirs and madams.” She unzips a small fanny pack hooked to her waist and places the tickets within. “Your first class rooms are in the car right behind this one. Thank you for choosing Fleethoof Express, please enjoy your ride.”
Your father thanks the mare as she steps aside, letting you and your family pass. You step aside, giving your hoof a wide sweeping motion as Rarity walks by, shooting you a bemused glare in response to your overzealous display.
“Ladies first!” Your playful declaration earns you an amused smile from the mare, who promptly marches forth, you follow behind, admiring the interior of the train as you made your way towards the back.
The car itself smelt faintly of fresh leather, the car was made up of two rows of spacious velvet seats, the likes of which were colored a dark red, with yellow patchwork diamonds sewed into the seams for simple decoration. Each seat was accompanied by a pair of sliding windows to the right or left respectively. The windows were open at the moment, letting cool, refreshing, air blow through the otherwise stuffy interior of the train. You sigh in relief as the soothing wind brushes across your heated body, it wasn’t too hot today, not like it had been the last couple weeks, but the summer heat is still somewhat of a nuisance, and you’re glad for the relief.
Eventually you, your parents, and Rarity, all make it into the next car. This time, rather than two rows of seats, there’s two rows of small boxed in rooms. Sleeper cars, you realize. Your father hadn’t mentioned booking these, at least, not when you were around. But it makes sense, the train ride from Ponyville to Manehattan is a long one, it took you a good day and a half to make it here when you’d left originally.
“Welp, here we are.” Your father declares, his horn shimmering as he slides open the wooden door leading to the second room on the right aisle. He turns to you with a smirk. “Your mother and I figured you and Rarity would like to have a room to yourselves. What with how frisky you yungin’s are these days.”
You feel your cheeks redden somewhat at the jibe. “Okay then, which room’s ours?”
“That one, right next to ours.” He states, pointing his head towards the door you happen to be standing next to. “Holler if you need anything.”
With that, your father and mother disappear into their rooms, the door sliding shut behind them. You turn to Rarity, smiling at her. You reach over with a hoof and tug on the door and yank it open.
“Ladies first.” You say, stepping aside to let her in. The unicorn smirks and gives her head a flick, flirtatiously batting her eyes at you as she waltzed her way into the room.
You feel your chest flutter a little as a result to her sultry look. Well, maybe your father had a point… you can’t honestly say you wouldn’t mind getting a bit… ‘frisky’, if the opportunity presents itself.
Wasting no time you quickly follow the unicorn into your shared room. Stopping only long enough to set your saddlebag down near the door, and taking a moment to glance about the room.
Your eyes widen somewhat as you do. Well, looks like your father has spared no expense. The room is positively lavish. A large queen sized bed butts up against the far side of the room, adorned with fresh white blankets, elaborately decorated with red and gold embroidery, and accompanied by two sets of the most comfortable looking pillows you’ve ever laid eyes on. Next to the bed, on both sides, rests two sets of metal nightstands, the likes of which had been bolted into the smooth white carpet below to keep them from falling over when the train gets rolling. Paintings hang from the walls as decoration, the one right about the bed depicts a scenic view of a beach, with a sun setting in the background, painting the sky a blazing hot orange and the sea an alluring blood red, another, right next to the door, is a classic fruit bowl, set to a nice green backdrop. They’re very well made, and pleasing to the eye. The walls are painted a soothing creamy white, relaxing in their simplicity.
“My, this is positively delightful!” You hear Rarity exclaim as she too admires the room. “I’ve taken my fair share of train rides, but I had no idea the sleeper cars were so well furnished.” The mare turns to you, a playful expression playing on her face. “You’ve spoiled me darling, I’ll never be able to ride coach again.”
You smirk at her, walking over towards the comfy looking bed in the center of the room. You press a hoof down onto the mattress, humming quietly to yourself as it sinks pleasantly into the delicate cushions below.
“Well, hopefully you won’t have to. After all, a talented fashionista like you? Only a matter of time till you hit the big leagues.” You chuckle a little. “But, nice room or not, it’s still gonna be a bit of a ride. Shame I didn’t bring anything to pass the time…” You’d intended to nab the next Daring Do novel while you were at the library today, but, as Twilight had unfortunately informed you, Rainbow had rented the entire series for a ‘Daring Do Binge Night’, or something.
You feel a shiver dance up and down your spine as a familiar pair of hooves slowly worm themselves around your body, and you feel an involuntary blush rush to your cheeks as Rarity’s hot breath dances against your ear. Teasing you with it’s hot, tantalizing, touch.
“Now darling…” Rarity coos, and you can practically feel the smile on her lips as she snuggles against you. “You’re nothing if not resourceful… sure there isn’t some way we might be able to… make this ride a bit more… enjoyable?”
You groan as she plants a few delicate kisses against your cheeks. Excited jolts dancing across your body in response to the inevitable passion to come.
“I’m sure I can think of something…” You moan, pulling away from her loving attention, just long enough to shoot her a loving smirk. “Why don’t you get on the bed? I might just have something in mind…”
The unicorn smiles at your suggestion, and quickly obeys. She slowly clambers onto the bed, springs squeaking as she slowly turns around, sinking into the plushness of the comforter with a sigh. She bites her lower lip in excitement, and gently motions with a flick of her hoof for you to join her.
Your parents spent the next three hours wondering what that incessant banging noise was in the bunk next door.