Prologue - Train to Appleloosa
Zephyr Wings flew as fast as she could though the streets of the small village, dodging ponies left and right. She was late, her train was leaving soon.She knew she shouldn’t have gotten off to get some lunch during the stopover in… whatever this town was called.
The dull green pegasus was a member of the Ponyville police department; she had gotten a temporary reassignment to Appleloosa to help the local sheriff’s office with some records issues, nothing that hard.
When the train first pulled into the station, an hour stop off to pick up some more passengers, she thought she could go and get a small lunch or snack at one of the shops. She didn’t expect to take that long, but she got distracted and now had to rush to catch her train, else she'd be stuck at the platform waiting for the next one.
After some hectic flying and dogging she finally reached the station, where the train just about to leave. Luckily she got back on without a hitch. Wiping her red mane out of her face she allowed herself a sigh of relief. Now all she had to do was take a seat and wait to arrive in Appleloosa. The train lurched forward as it started to move down the tracks. The steady click of the wheels on the track becoming more frequent as the train gained speed.
The passengers were beginning to settle down for a long trip out to the desert town of Appleloosa. There weren’t that many passengers on this trip, only a dozen or so, a nopony of any importance. In one particular train car Zephyr had entered there were only five other passengers, four of which were sitting together in a single group, the last was sitting on the opposite end of the car, alone.
The lone mare was a strange sight. At first glance Zephyr mistook her for having a grey coat, but looking closer she realized that her entire body was covered from head to hoof in grey wrappings, concealing every last inch of her body. The mare also wore a beat-up hat a few sizes too big and an old duster that had obviously been altered to fit better. She also was wearing a pair of old tinted flight goggles and a bandana that covered her nose and mouth. In all, her entire body was covered allowing not a single bit of her actual body to show though.
She brushed her mane out of her face again and trotted towards the mare. ‘Why sit alone when you can sit with interesting company’ she thought to herself. The mysterious covered mare was garnering some interest in the police officer’s mind, since it was somewhat strange for a pony to cover themselves fully like that.
She stopped right next to the mare’s seat, though the covered mare didn’t bother to turn her head from the window.
“Is this seat taken?” Zephyr asked with a pleasant voice. The strange mare turned to look at her. It was impossible to read her emotions through all those coverings on her face.
“…no it isn’t.” she responded, annoyance evident in her voice at having being bothered.
“Cool” the Zephyr replied before sitting down, giving a sigh of relief at finally being off her hooves. “So what’s you name?”
At this question the covered mare tilted her head. Zephyr could only guess that she had gone into deep thought about something.
“It’s Stranger…” the mare said after a few seconds, turning her head to face the pegasus. “My name is Stranger.”
“That’s an odd name…” Zephyr replied before face quickly changed into an expression of thought. “You sound familiar, have we met before?”
Stranger, as Zephyr now knew her, suddenly went completely tense quickly turning her head to the window. Even having her face covered one could easily guess what her currently emotional state. Her entire body quivered in fear or maybe it was panic.
“Sorry, am I bothering you?” the Zephyr asked after noticing Stranger’s body tense up suddenly at the question. She wondered to herself why a simple question like that had upset the mare so.
“Yes” she answered back, her voice tense with worry and fear. “You’re bothering me an-“
“Ok, I’ve definitely heard your voice before.” Zephyr blurted out, cutting off Stranger mid sentence. As a police officer in Ponyville, Zephyr had talked or at least overheard every pony in town before, and she KNEW this “Stranger’s” voice. Though for the life of her she couldn’t fully place it. The vagueness of familiarity hinted at the memory bugging her to no end.
“NO!” Stranger suddenly yelled at Zephyr, “NO YOU HAVEN’T!”
The silence in the train car was defining after the outburst. All eyes were on Stranger. When she calmed down enough to notice she quickly turned away and looked out her window again, hoping that everypony would just go back to leaving her alone.
To say the Zephyr was stunned would be an understatement. She didn’t expect the mare to just explode at her like that. It became quiet clear after that that she should leave her alone right now. She didn’t want to upset her any further right now.
“I... I think I’ll just leave you to your business then... Miss.” she said before slowing stepping away, eyeing Stranger all the while before slipping out of the car and into the next one. She stood at the door, looking back at the mare named Stranger for a few more moments before heading to another empty seat.
As she walked to an empty seat her police mind went to work. The mare was hiding something... she’d heard her voice before, that was certain. Was she a criminal? Or something else? Zephyr knew that the next and last stop for the train was Appleloosa, the end of the line. One’s thing for sure: when she had time, she was going to have to keep an eye on this ‘Stranger.’
Zephyr sat and looked out her window in quiet watching the grasslands slowly turn to desert, the sun slowly being replaced by the moon. Soon sleep took her and she thought of the mare named Stranger’s voice, her memories of a voice so very similar laughing happily floated in the back of her mind.
Author's Note
This chapter went throe four different versions, all different in someway. In my short life of writing fan-fiction, this starting chapter for this story has taken the longest thus far.
Edited and proofread by RoboKitty