Choo-Choo
Appleloosa Redeye
By Fuzzyfurvert
The Equestrian Railway System was a modern marvel of magical, mechanical and civil engineering. It was a symbol of the nation, representing everything from commerce to communication, industry to technological advancement and even national unity. The tracks were a physical representation of the ties that bound Equestria together; making the world a smaller, cozier space. The Equestrian Railway System, simply put, brought ponies together.
It said so on the logo.
Trains ran twenty four hours a day, seven days a week without fail and only the occasional derailment. Every settlement that boasted more than a few hundred souls had a train station. No part of Equestria was more than a few days travel and a couple dozen line switch overs from any other part. A pony could travel from the edge of the Crystal Empire in the north, swing by Vanhoover, pass through Canterlot and come to rest in Appeloosa under the shade of the Macintosh Hills in less than a week! As time marched on the number of travelers increased and ponies looked farther and farther afield for business and pleasure. The redeye to Appeloosa, fourteen hours one way, carried ponies that were interested in both.
Ponyville, the previous stop, was three hours ago. Nagitha Harshwhinny sighed and adjusted the pillow in her sleeper bunk into a more relaxed position, so that she could lay back and still watch the gloom stricken desert landscape chug pass. The sleeper car was empty save for her and the road-worn luggage of another pony. The redeye route, running 9 pm to 11 am, didn’t have many passengers this time around. Seasoned travelers already knew ponies tended to collect at the front or back of the train, so if you wanted to be undisturbed, pick a bunk in one of the middle cars. And Mrs. Harshwhinny was nothing if not a seasoned traveler.
Well, Ms. Harshwhinny now, the adobe colored mare reminded herself. She wasn’t bitter about it. They’d seen the warning signs for the last few years that things where well beyond the point of salvaging their relationship. Separation and divorce were the best sanity saving options for the both of them. They never had foals so everything went quick and clean. It was still an adjustment, being single again.
Nagitha was just about to reach for the sleeper bunk’s built-in lantern when the door to the car opened and closed. She paused with one hoof raised as another pony passed by smelling of fresh soap and some sort of berry scented shampoo. The darkness inside the railcar retreated a step when the gas lantern in the adjacent bunk hissed to life and revealed a bright yellow colored mare covered in a large towel.
“Land sakes! I will never get used to the tiny, confinin’ lil’ stalls in the shower car!”
Nagitha raised an eyebrow at the newcomer’s twangy Mustangian accent. Appeloosa was pretty far north to run into a Mustang, and this train was traveling from even farther north. In all her travels as a Games Inspector, Nagitha could only remember ever meeting one above Dodge City. Come to think of it, that Mustang mare had a yellow coat too.
The freshly showered mare shook off her towel and kicked it aside as she leaned into her sleeper bunk and started to root around in her luggage. Nagitha’s eyes widened when she saw the green curly tail and the little brown chicken cutie mark. No! It couldn’t be! She racked her mind for the girl’s name. Her knack for names and details had been one of the reasons she’s landed the job as a Games Inspector.
“Ms. Peachbottom!” Nagitha smiled to herself as she called out the name of a pony she’d briefly met a year ago in the Crystal Empire.
“GAAHH!” The aforenamed Ms. Peachbottom shot into the air, legs flailing. She caught the upper sleeper bunk with her forelegs and hung there while still kicking her back legs. “Ghosts! This train ‘s haunted! Don’t eat me! I don’t taste any good no how!”
Nagitha clicked her tongue and shook her head. “Oh my. I thought you looked familiar and here you are, the same excitable Ms. Peachbottom that convinced me to give the Game hosting honors to the Crystal Empire.”
Ms. Peachbottom stopped wriggling and dropped to the floor. She turned and adjusted her red rimmed glasses as she squinted at Ms. Harshwhinny. “You aren’t a ghost? How do I know you aren’t hauntin’ me?”
Nagitha sighed and leaned out of her bunk to bop the other pony on the nose. “If I were a ghost, I assure you, I would have better things to do than haunt trains or random Mustangs. My ex-husband,” she paused and rolled her eyes, “maybe.”
Ms. Peachbottom laughed and smirked at her bunk neighbor. “I remember you. Mrs. Harshwhinny, right? Well, not Misses any more, hun?”
“Not for about a month now, no. You can call me Nagitha.”
“Then you can call me Chickadee, hun!” Chickadee Peachbottom grinned and stat back into her bunk and then scooped up her towel. “Been a while since we sat a spell and chatted at that spa up north. What finds you on the Redeye?”
Nagitha leaned back into her bunk, letting her head rest on the pillow. “I’m on vacation myself. I felt the need to see someplace other than Neigh York for a little while.”
Chickadee nodded and took a seat on the edge of her own bank and started to towel off. “Don’t mind me much, hun. I hate goin’ to bed with a wet coat. These enclosed spaces are tough enough on my nerves without that too!”
“Oh yes, you are claustrophobic, aren’t you? I remember that you mentioned it at the spa.” Nagitha turned and regarded Chickadee. “How do you deal with that on a tra--!”
Chickadee looked up from drying off the hind leg she had propped up on the edge of her sleeper bunk. She raised an eyebrow at Nagitha before following her stare to where it focused, low on Chickadee’s barrel. She realized she was flashing Nagitha and quickly closed her legs and threw the towel over her lap.
“Sorry about that! Where are my manners?” Chickadee laughed nervously. “I guess you can’t well take the country outta a country girl, now can you, hun? You’d think I’d have learned my lesson by now, what with all the travelin’ I do!”
The blonde mare blinked a few times and looked up into Ms. Peachbottom’s green eyes. “You’re a stallion?” Nagitha gestured vaguely at Chikadee’s covered lap.
Chickadee stared blankly at Nagitha for a moment before bursting into laughter. “Land sakes, no! I’m a Celestia-fearin’ mare just as much as you, hun! I just have a little something extra.” Chickadee gently removed her glasses before wiping an arm across her eyes. “I’m real sorry about flashin’ you Nagitha. I forget sometimes, you know? Not everypony is a wild Mustang, now are they?”
“But,” Nagitha forced her eyes back up as she felt them being pulled down, “I saw… er, your piece! I was a married mare for over ten years! I know a stallionhood when I see one.”
Nagitha Harshwhinny shook her head. She recalled hearing some odd things about Mustangs in her travels around Equestria and beyond. They still clung to the oldest ways of pony lifestyles, keeping the traditions of ancient nomadic pony herds alive in the modern world. They followed the winds on the Mustangia plains as a group and grazed for the majority of their food. They maintained few buildings with any sort of permanence, favoring tents and lean-tos. Even the most country of country folk considered them quaintly archaic. Canterlot and Manehattan ponies considered them practically aliens or caveponies. Outside of the Mustangs’ cultural eccentricities, they were as normal as any other Earth Pony.
However, Nagitha couldn’t help but think she had heard rumors of Mustangs that couldn’t just be hoofwaved away. Depending on how far the rumor mill was from Mustangia, the weirder and more outlandish their natural abilities grew. They were supposed to be super fast and have freakish endurance beyond normal Earth Ponies. They ran in complete silence. They could turn invisible in tall grass. They knew more about natural medicines and magic than zebras. Once, long ago in an upscale Neigh York boutique, she heard that all Mustangs were female. She never believed any of it. Now she wasn’t so sure.
“Well of course you do, hun! I wasn’t implyin’ nothin’!” Chickadee chuckled. “Sometimes a Mustang mare is… eh, a bit more, I guess? I’ve only ever met a few others like me. I bet there are plenty of tall tales ‘bout us out there. In the herd, you hear ‘em talkin’ every now and then about fillies like me. They think we’re all in heat constantly! Can you imagine hun?”
“So,” Nagitha arched an eyebrow, “it’s like a mutation of some sort? I’d heard rumors about Mustangs, but I always dismissed them before.”
Chickadee smiled and nodded. “Yeah, it’s a family thing. I think. Gets passed from mother to foal. Sometimes it pops up a lot, then other times it almost goes away for a few generations.” She grunted and swung her legs up into her sleeper bunk and started toweling off again.
“Don’t you worry about ponies finding out about it?” Nagitha scratched her chin and rested her head on her hoof. “I think I’d be too self-conscious about it to go out in public.”
“Pashaw hun! Ain’t no thing to be ashamed of. If I let things like that hold me back, I’d never made it out of the plains. It don’t come up very often of course. That helps.” Chickadee finished toweling off her body and started on her forelegs. “I learned long ago to just go for my dreams. And I dream of seeing every little bit of Equestria before I gallop off into the sunset. It bothered me when I was younger, but no I don’t have the patience for that none.”
Nagitha smiled and snorted. “You want to see all of Equestria? I’ve seen most of it and it’s not much worth writing home about. Once you’ve seen a sleepy little town like Ponyville or a big city like Manehattan, you’ve seen them all. ‘Local color’ is overrated, Chickadee.”
“You ever seen a pony like me before, hun?” Chickadee smirked as Nagitha shook her head. “Then not all things are like everything else. There are wonders out there, sometimes right under your nose. You gotta sniff ‘em out and chase ‘em down! That’s what my pa always said.”
Nagitha sighed and chuckled quietly. “In the two times we’ve met now you have managed to make me re-think my assumptions, Chickadee. Once again you are giving my cultivated jaded cynicism a run for its money.”
“You are welcomed.” Chickadee finished drying herself and put her glasses back on before arranging herself comfortably into her bunk. “Before I forget; where’s your next port o’ call? Out on Games Inspector business again?”
“Blessed Celestia no!” Nagitha sighed. “Like I said, I’m on vacation. I needed time away from work and home for a little while. So now here I am on my way to Appleloosa for a few weeks. What about you?”
“I’m on my way to Appleloosa too! Got family out that way.” Chichadee smirked and propped her cheek against her hoof, mimicking her neighbor. “Maybe later we can hit a saloon and bad mouth all the stallions what did us wrong? Wouldn’t that be fun?”
“You’ve been wronged by a stallion before? Wouldn’t happen to have been a tan unicorn with wandering eyes and a taste for young pegasus flank?” Nagitha rolled her eyes. “Goddess, I hope the saloons serve something half decent. A lifetime of martinis builds up quite the tolerance.”
“I hear that in Appleloosa, if a fish can swim in it, they don’t drink it.” Chickadee chuckled. “I’d be interested in just how much of a tolerance you got, hun. I haven’t been drunk under the table since I left home! And that was by the same stallion that did me wrong. I’m not saying it was size envy, but…” Chickadee shrugged. “You know, hun, you’ve been pretty relaxed about my condition. I’m a might impressed really. I used to get stares when folks found out, even back in Mustangia.”
Nagitha waved her hoof dismissively. “I’ve been all over, remember? I’ve met all manner of strange ponies and creatures. A mare with extra parts ranks up there, to be certain, but it is far from the weirdest or most distracting thing I’ve run across.” She grinned and rested her hooves behind her head on the pillow. “I once went to a dragon city that was completely underground. I was there to check the area out for potential hosting of the Games. The official I met with was an old drake that kept roaring at the end of every sentence. I thought it was a local thing until I noticed that none of the other dragons did it. I found out, after I’d left, that it was a dragon mating call!”
“What?! Really? Was he cat-callin’ you while on official business?” Chickadee giggled like a filly half her age.
“I never found out, honestly. But, truth be told, I like to believe that he was. I think I’d be flattered and scared out of my whits!”
Chickadee laughed hard, imagining a huge dragon making sappy eyes at Ms. Harshwhinny. Nagitha joined her in laughter a moment later and continued until both mares were out of breath. As she worked at getting her breathing under control, Chickadee could feel the rhythm of the train starting to rock her steadily to sleep. The silence between them stretched and the landscape rolled pass in the darkness, the odd jumble of boulders or crop of cacti silhouetting against the horizon. She could see Nagitha watching the barren badlands with half-lidded eyes.
“I just want to say thanks, hun.”
Nagitha turned her head toward Chickadee. “What?”
“Thanks for not flippin’ out about my bit and pieces. It means a lot to me to be treated like any other pony.”
Nagitha looked at Chickadee and smiled tiredly. “Chickadee, you aren’t just any other pony, regardless of what Celestia blessed you with between your legs. You are a fresh breeze in my stuffy old stable of a life.”
“Well shucks, Nagitha, now you’ve got this ol’ gal blushing!” Chickadee smiled as she felt her cheeks flush.
“I am just divorced and on vacation for the first time in a decade. I can think of no better way to start off the rest of my life then with a friend at a bar in a town I’ve never been to.” Nagitha grinned and held out a hoof across the aisle. “Be my gossipy drinking buddy?”
Chickadee giggled and reached out, giving Nagitha’s hoof a bump. “Gossipy drinkin’ buddies it is, hun. And here’s to getting drunk and starting the rest of our lives!”