Red looked at the train just up the hill from her. Luna's spell had put her past the station, just out of sight of he town. No reason to chance getting spotted. She lifted up her luggage, checked on the cat, and made her way up the hill.
It was easy to spot the car they picked for her, it was the decorative one near the back, and it had a balcony around it, on which guards were stationed, keeping a vigilant lookout. Assuming there were just as many on the other side as there were on this one, she had about six guards to watch over her passage to the nearby town of Ponyville. More than enough.
One of them noticed her approach, but remained silent as she climbed up the ladder, and made her way through the door, holding it open for the small cat to follow her. Sitting down on a cushioned bench, she took stock of the small room. She had been on plant of trains, but this was by far the most pleasant and clean experience she had the luxury of having. Every seat had plush purple cushions, the paneling was expensive, and there was a fully stocked bar. Hey, if there was alcohol here, she wasn't going to complain. Alas, it would have to wait, she had much to do in the next seventy-two hours, and she had to keep her wits about her if she was going to accomplish as much as she needed to.
Red looked over to the cat. "Do you have a name?"
The cat meowed at her, inclining it's head to the side.
"Is that a no? Do you want me to give you a name?"
The cat squinted at her, shaking it's head.
"No? But what should I call you? You need a name."
The cat shook it's head, and turned around, walking away indifferently.
"What about your gender? Are you a boy or a girl cat?" Red inquired, confused at the cat's behavior.
At this the cat hissed angrily, continuing to walk away. Red peered down, trying to get an angle to check herself.
The cat turned around and saw what Red was doing, and hissed louder.
"Okay, sorry! I was just-"
The cat hissed again.
"Fine. I will just continue to call you cat."
The cat walked away, meowing to itself.
And so, Red was left alone to ponder the cat's strange aversion to titles. Realizing what she was doing, Red turned her thoughts to important matters. No getting distracted. She looked down at the slip of paper with the address of her safe house written on it. from what the princesses told her, it would be just outside of town, like all of the houses she would be using for the foreseeable future. She went down the mental list of things she would need to do before tomorrow night. There were posts to establish, routes to plan, caches to set up. She had no idea what she would be facing in this town. It wasn't large by any stretch of the imagination, but that would mean either there were only a couple wolves, or the town could be nearly populated by them entirely. Red was not looking forward to this.
Before she knew it, the train was slowing down. Preparing to leave, she gathered up her things, before looking at the bar. She couldn't drink right now, but the thought that there was so much alcohol just siting there, free, for her to take...
Yeah, she took a bottle. Or two. No one could prove anything.
After the train stopped, Red walked over to the window and watched the few passengers depart the train. as they slowly walked out of sight, one of the guards knocked on her door. Taking that as her cue to leave, she opened the door, nodded her head to the guards, and let off the train, immediately taking to the shadows.
After about twenty minutes of brisk walking, she arrived at her safe house. It was small, quiet, and out of the way. Exactly what it should be. Thankfully, it was still dark out when she finished putting her things away, and the cat seemed content to just lounge on the sofa in the living room. Doing a bit of calculating in her head lead her to the conclusion that it was just after four in the morning. She still had a couple hours before ponies started waking up and preparing for the day, and she had no time to waste. Taking out a map of the town from one of her bags, she walked back into town.
She climbed the tallest building in this half of the town, Carousal Boutique. According to one of the many pieces of paper the princesses had sent with her, one of the elements lived here. It was a perfect place to start tomorrow night's "cleansing." From here, she would be able to locate most werewolves that went on the prowl tomorrow, and be able to deal with them quickly. Setting one of her packs of silver bolts in a cranny at the top of the building, she studied her map while having the real town in front of her to compare and help her commit it to memory.
After she felt she would be able to navigate the town without difficulty, Red put the map away, and sat down, closing her eyes. Projecting her thoughts out, she tried to get a feel for how many creatures were in this town. After half an hour of concentration, she finally called it quits, not finding a single one. In fact, thinking back on it, she hadn't sensed any supernatural presences outside of her cat since her arrival. That is not something that could be dismissed.
Even if there were no werewolves in Canterlot, what about vampires? Witches? Or the whole slew of other monsters, malicious or otherwise, that populated any city? And if there were none, and only werewolves had found there way to this world, then where were they? Was the princess lying to her? That didn't seem likely. Thinking about it a while longer, her perch wasn't the most central location, maybe they were on the other side of town? Werewolves didn't congregate though. Maybe there were only one or two? Or none in this town at all?
Did the elements have something to do with it? Red realized she would get no answers tonight, so she packed up her things and made her way back to her house. If she couldn't pick up any traces of the supernatural from there, there was no point setting up anything further. There were simply not enough targets to warrant it. Even though she wouldn't be able to locate a werewolf until they transformed, she should have... no. Enough of this. Red decided to just count her blessings and move on.
After sleeping through the morning, Red dressed in her combat attire once again. The black leather clothing sliding on with ease born of practice, the red hood and crimson cloak sliding into place as though they were always meant to. She wouldn't gear up yet, sunset was still hours away, and she was hungry.
Rummaging through the kitchen, Red found plenty of vegetables, a variety of fruit, a few grains, prepared and not. "Ponies, right."
She found no proteins, but she did find a note asking about her dietary habits. Writing on the attached piece of blank paper with the nearby provided quill, she thought about it for a minute before answering honestly. Not like she could care them any more, honestly. Setting the paper where she found it, assuming the guard who put it there would come back for it, she selected a few apples and several heads of broccoli, along with a muffin. Not that it mattered much.
Contemplating the recent note situation and how she had papers with all the information she needed while she ate, Red came to a startling conclusion. The princesses had incredible foresight. Convenient.
There is a pony who lives in town that would tell you that time flows differently than you think. That sometimes, people experience things at a different rate, or in a slightly different order. There is another pony in town who would tell you that narrative causality in certain published literatures is very important, and foreshadowing with "flash forwards" to an unspecified time and location could lead to a better storytelling experience. But what does that matter?
A fog lifted away from the clock, and time flowed correctly once more.
Applebloom was feeling great, she was just finishing up a long day of crusading wither her best friends, and yet, even though they were on their way to Rarity's place, she felt no more tired than when she started. The same could not be said for her friends though. They were worn out, and the long walk across town was leaving them exhausted, with Sweetie not being used to walking long distances, and Scootaloo not being able to use her scooter. Which was broken. For the third time. This month.
But a promise was a promise, and Applebloom decided that she was going to remain indoors tonight, her mild insomnia worried her friends, especially when she went wandering around outside on her own while everypony was asleep. That was fine though, she had a few books she wanted read anyway. She was tired of not being able to keep up with Sweetie's train of thought, and wanted to pick up a book or two in her free time. When her friends heard of this, they gave her looks that told her that wandering around town was more normal than her reading for fun. Well, she would show them that she was definitely NOT stupid.
"So Sweetie, do you think I should read Agriculture 101 first, or start with Apples to Apples?"
Sweetie Belle's sigh could be heard as their voices faded into the distance.
"... and because of the strikes from the Zebra farmers to the south, coffee has become increasingly..."
Fluttershy was regretting her question.