Fuzzy Fluffy Fables

by Fuzzyfurvert

43. Appleloosa Redeye Incomplete Chapter 2

Author's Note:

Way back when, I was thinking of writing a follow-up chapter to one of my lesser known stories: Appleloosa RedEye. Obviously, it never materialized.

tl;dr: Ms. Harshwhinny and Chickadee Peachbottom meet again on the late night train to Appleloosa and strike up a conversation, revealing that Ms. Harshwhinny is recently divorced and that Ms. Peachbottom packing some extra equipment.

While the fic is rated Mature, it probably should be Teen since there is nothing explicit in it.

The locomotive boiler engine at the front of the Appleloosa Redeye train hissed steam as the engineer fed more coal into the fire. It sat idle as Celestia’s sun eased into its second hour of heating the surrounding Equestrian desert. Soon it would be moving again, heading further south into the Macintosh Hills and then into the badlands beyond where it would reach the end of the line at the northernmost tip of the Mustangia Plains. The trailing cars behind the engine rattled in the early morning sunlight as cargo and ponies were loaded and unloaded in a rush.

The Appleloosa train depot wasn’t very large but it had more bustle than stations twice its size. Nagitha ‘Lovingcup’ Harshwhiny yawned as she reared up on her hind legs and stretched until her spine popped. Next to her, Chickadee Peachbottom slowly kicked out the kinks in her legs and blinked the sleep out of her eyes. The loading platform swarmed with ponies in wide brimmed hats moving crates and packages around the small group of sleepy passengers. The few other passenger ponies moved in small groups to the single opposite platform and found places to sit and wait for the next train to Dodge Junction, leaving Nagitha and Chickadee alone to regard Appleloosa in the distance.

“Welp.” Chickadee blinked slowly. “We’re here, hun.”

Nagitha ran a hoof through her mane and grunted.

Appleloosa sat in a dusty hollow between a couple of low red hills, probably about a half hour’s leisurely trot away from the station where the ground was level. The buildings sprawled outward from a main thoroughfare with only a few standing taller than a single story. The town hall loomed over the city with a gilded clock tower at the far end of the little valley, the time visible all the way out to the train station.

Chickadee turned and reached a hoof out for her faded floral print luggage. She grabbed air and stumbled for a moment, blinking in surprise at the empty space where her bag had sat just moments ago.

“Where’s my bag done got off too?”

Nagitha turned towards Ms. Peachbottom with a raised eyebrow. “What?” She looked behind herself and gasped at the luggage-free space. Nagitha reared up on her hind legs and shielded her eyes with her hoof as she scanned the platform from end to end.

“I don’t see either of our bags.”

“You think somepony mistook ‘em for bags going back on to the train?” Chickadee spun around, the last bit of sleep in her chased off by the shock of losing her bags. “There were right here, hun!”

“I know!” Nagitha dropped back to all fours and grimaced. “Nopony would be dumb enough to take our bags and put them back on the train. We were standing right here and they had tags on them too.”

“Then where are they, hun? All my spare shirts were in there! My sunglasses too!”

“Mine had all my bits in it.” Nagitha growled under her breath at the inconvenience and turned toward the station house. “C’mon Chickadee, lets see if this backwater has a lost and found.”

The station house did indeed have a lost and found. It held a few stray wide-brim hats and a single ukulele with no strings and a broken neck. Besides the lost and found the station house held a ticket counter, a few benches for travelers, bathrooms and a closet-sized office with a dinky sign over the door whose faded lettering proclaimed ‘Deputy on Shift.’