Married to Her Job, Single in Her Heart

by Revenant Wings

Chapter 18 - Memories, part I

18.

It was Redheart’s fourth year at the Academy in nearby Trotsworth. It was nice having a decent-sized city so close to Ponyville, the mare thought to herself as she boarded a train at the local station, as she could always head home for the weekends and students rode for next to nothing. She was off to see her family again, tell them she had moved in and was acclimating fine to a new school year.

The white mare sighed and replayed the conversation over and over in her mind that she would have with her parents when she got home. Hi, mom. Hi, dad. I got myself moved into my dorm for this year. No, I don’t know anyone there this year. No, I haven’t seen that one stallion since high school. Yes, I broke up with that mare, but not because you disagreed with me on her. She was nice but we had an argument and I haven’t seen her since the beginning of summer.

There was a tapping on the seat next to her. Redheart was startled out of her reverie and looked over to see a young earth pony stallion with a caramel-covered coat and a parted mane looking at her and tapping the empty seat. “Excuse me,” he said politely. “Do you mind if I sit here? I can’t find another seat.”

Redheart looked around to find the car was indeed full with the usual college traffic headed home for the weekend. She shrugged her shoulders. “I suppose. I’m not saving it for anyone.”

The stallion nodded. “Thanks,” he said, placing his luggage into the top compartment and sitting down in the seat next to Redheart.

Redheart put her long pink mane in a bun pulled out a book from her bag and placed it on the table attached to the seat in front of her. The stallion sat nervously and looked around for a while before pulling out a book of his own and mimicking Redheart’s actions. Redheart looked over to his book to find it was a textbook on business management from the Academy before looking back to her own book.

A few minutes later, there was a poking at her shoulder. Redheart looked over to see the stallion looking at her expectantly. “Do you know if they serve lunch on this train? I’ve never taken this one before.”

Redheart nodded. “It’s served at eleven-thirty, choice of sandwich, side, drink, and dessert. We get into Ponyville station at two.”

“Thanks. Are you getting off at Ponyville?”

“Yes, I am. Why?”

“I didn’t know if you’d be getting off at the next station and I’d have to move out of the way.”

Redheart shook her head. “This train doesn’t get stop at Whitewater Ridge.”

“Oh…”

The stallion returned to his book, pulling out a piece of paper and a wooden pencil and started taking notes, becoming near oblivious to Redheart. Redheart was perfectly fine with this and returned to her own book, reading silently to herself as the train passed over green fields and started making a wide curve around a large town before going over a bridge and into a forest.

After they entered the forest, the bell for lunch sounded on the train. A stewardess went around and gathered orders for the car before leaving. A few minutes later, the stewardess had come back with a pushcart filled with trays and another followed her with multiple drink cups. The first set down two trays in front of Redheart and the stallion, while the next followed up with a drink for each.

The two ate lunch; Redheart was halfway through her sandwich before she realized the stallion had been staring at her for the past few minutes. She set down her sandwich and turned to face him. “Is there something you need?”

“You look familiar,” the stallion said. “Are you in my business mathematics class? Nine to ten fifteen am in the math building room 219?”

Now that he mentioned it, the stallion did look familiar to Redheart. “Mondays and Wednesdays?”

“Yeah. You’re the mare who sits in the back of the class.”

“Well, the front seats are always taken,” Redheart said, turning back to her sandwich.

The stallion nodded. “What’s your name?”

“Redheart,” Redheart replied.

The stallion smiled. “What’s your cutie mark?”

Redheart chewed a bite of her sandwich. “A red cross with hearts in each corner. I’m currently studying to become a nurse. What about you? What’s your name?”

“I’m Caramel,” the stallion said. “I’m there studying general business management.”

Redheart nodded. “And what do you plan to do with business management?”

“I wanted to open up and run a music store,” Caramel said. “Not like a place that sells instruments, but a place that sells records and CDs. I had the idea of maybe having a little area that has a stage where bands could play and then promote their music afterwards.”

“Do you work at a music store already?”

“No. I just work part-time at a bookstore in Trotsworth in the evenings.” Caramel was silent for a moment before leaning over to Redheart and whispering. “Better entry pay than the music store was.”

“Ah.”

“What about you? I know you’re studying to become a nurse, but what are you going to do from there?”

“I thought about continuing on and becoming a doctor next year, but the tuition prices for the right schools are through the roof. I figured settle back in Ponyville and try and become a nurse at the hospital there.”

“Cool. Do you have a job?”

“I’m doing an internship in Trotsworth at the moment. It’s my last year at the Academy and they require a year of internship before graduation. It’s hard work and late hours, but I like it.”

“You look the type that would like that sort of thing. Neat, clean, organized. I’ve never seen someone organize their folders as much as you did.”

Redheart found herself smiling.

Lunch finished soon afterwards and the stewardesses came around to pick up the trays with empty plates and trash. The tables were cleared and an announcement came that they would be arriving to Ponyville fifteen minutes early since weather had cleared up from earlier that afternoon.

Redheart and Caramel continued talking after lunch. They ended up sharing a lot of interests, like favoring Octavia’s cello over Vinyl’s dubstep but liking it even more when the two were combined; their favorite food was the order of hay bacon strips at a certain Ponyville restaurant that served them with its own honey mustard sauce; both their parents had some old Canterlot money in their background which allowed them to go to school in Trotsworth.

Even more intriguing than the fact that they shared a lot of interests was the fact that Redheart found herself laughing a lot with Caramel. To Redheart he was absolutely hilarious, from the way he would tell jokes so animatedly with his hooves waving around and gesturing to the simple fact of what happened – half him being embarrassed at what his friends put him through, half his attempts at getting back at them. After one story in particular, Redheart found herself out of breath.

Just like when the announcement said they wound, the train arrived into Ponyville fifteen minutes early. Surprisingly, Redheart found the trip being fifteen minutes too short as a result until she remembered Caramel was getting off at Ponyville station as well.

“Well,” Caramel said. “We’re here.”

“Yeah,” Redheart said. “Back home.”

As the train slowly eased into Ponyville station, Caramel got up and pulled his bag down from the compartment with Redheart following suit. The conductor checked their tickets and they walked down to the end of the train and out the door into the clear Ponyville sunshine. Redheart was glad to be back home; Trotsworth seemed so crowded and big to her sometimes. She began to walk down the platform when a voice stopped her.

“Redheart!”

Redheart turned around. There was Caramel trailing after her. She stopped outside the entry of the station and allowed the stallion to catch up.

“Huh? What is it?” Redheart asked. “Did I forget something on the train?”

“No.” Redheart noticed that Caramel’s face was flushed red. “I was… I was wondering if you wanted to meet up tomorrow afternoon at that restaurant we were talking about on the train.”

Redheart was confused… yet interested. “What about?”

Caramel shrugged. “I just… wanted to talk with you a little more. You seem nice and fun and I liked talking with you.”

Redheart found a smile starting to form on her face. “Alright. What time?”

Caramel’s face went redder and his eyes went wide with barely-restrained eagerness. “Maybe around twelve-thirty?”

Redheart nodded. “Twelve-thirty it is. I’ll meet you there.”

“Alright.” Caramel seemed like he was close to laughing. “Thank you so much. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Redheart waved to Caramel as he started walking down the street. She headed off herself in the opposite direction. This time, a new conversation was playing in her head. Hi, mom. Hi, dad. You’ll never guess what happened to me on the train ride home from Trotsworth. Oh, even better: I’ll be heading out around lunch tomorrow to meet with this stallion from the Academy…

Comments

[Lord Legion]

A flashback I suppose. From when they first met. I take it this was to give the reader insight as to how the two met. Will there be a flashback of when he cheated on her the first time?