The rumbling lull of the train beneath my hooves makes me feel sick with the motion, and staring out at the rolling slopes of the country isn't helping much. I force my eyes shut, wincing slightly at the stretching I feel in my stomach. Even if I can't see them, I can feel them, the tethers of five months, pulling tight, fraying, some of the weaker knots already starting to snap. Biting down hard on my lip, I force my eyes open, force myself to face my ghostly reflection in the glass of the train window.
I have to blink a few times as the sun glints through the glass and reflects off my armor, flashing in my eyes. Shaking my head slightly I float the helmet off and setting it on the seat, the enchantment melting away almost instantly. The white coat burns a citrus-y orange, and the blue of my mane tints green. Only my eyes remain the same; it's the one feature the enchanted armor doesn't change. I pause, surprised to see a bit of green-blue stubble on my chin that wasn't there before.
Even with the distraction of the hair growing on my chin, my mind is still pulled back to the fraying on my stomach. It's just nerves. Nothing else. Why am I so nervous? It's only been five months-how much could have changed?
But I guess I know better than anyone how much time can change someone.
It's been a long time since I've seen Snips; last I heard he was petitioning for equal earth pony right. That was more than three months ago, and I haven't spoken to him in person for longer. It's hard to say if my father will be proud. He sent me off to turn me into a respectable stallion and I'd dare say I'm a good bit father down that track than I was. Still, he'll find someway to be disappointed in me.
I wonder how Diamond Tiara is.
"Are you a soldier?" asks a pale blue mare as she takes the empty seat next to me, golden eyes flashing like a cat's. "Or maybe an actor?" she asks, cat eyes traveling down to the firm muscles tensed in my neck, just above my armor.
"A member of the guard, yes," I respond politely as I sit, levitating my helmet onto an overheard storage rack. "I was recently promoted from private to a full member, and am receiving a month's leave to visit my home tone as a reward."
She moves slightly closer, her yellow-green eyes wide in feigned innocence. "Well I certainly feel better knowing there will be someone making sure there's no more disappearances in Ponyville."
"What?" I try to push to my hooves but my head bangs the overhead rack, chipping the tip of my horn. Biting back a swear I put a hoof to my aching head as I slowly sit back down. "What do you mean by disappearances?" I say, tone clipped by shock.
Her lashes lower ever so slightly over her emerald eyes. "You mean you haven't heard?" she glances around the train care, hesitancy darkening her soft rounded features. "This isn't exactly a tea time conversation topic," she tells me. "Maybe we should head into a less crowded train car?"
I look down at her, rolling my tongue around in my mouth. "Alright then. Lead the way," I say, pushing to my hooves, still trying to absorb her news about the so-called disappearances. "What did you say your name was?"
The lake-eyed beauty leads me down the rows of benches to the back, pausing as she opened the door into the next car. Her eyes flickered as she thought, then after another pause, she spoke. "Mm, Sunny-just Sunny, actually. And you?"
I hold the door open as she steps into the less lit empty dining car, leaning up against it. "Snails," I respond simply, following after. The door swings tightly shut behind me.
She raises a delicately arched eyebrow, stepping slightly closer. "Snails? That's quite the name for a knight. Hard shelled on the outside, soft on the inside," she murmurs, her voice dropping half an octave.
"Sunny, I need you to tell me about the disappearances. What's been happening in Ponyville? Who's gone missing?" I ask, trying to hold back the urgency tightening my words.
We stand so close now another pony couldn't fit between us. She stares up at me with her pale lavender eyes, ripples of feeling going through them. She bends her head slowly, breaking the gaze we shared, bringing her head close to the side of my neck. "Oh yes, terrible things," she whispered, the movement of her lips brushing softly against my neck. Every hair on my body begins to raise, and my eyelids droop as a thick feeling pushes through my veins. Her mouth is intimately brushing the fur of my neck now as her eyes slight shut as she whisper with a growing smile. "Terrible, terrible things."
I'm caught by surprise when Sunny swing her hoof at my head. I recoil in pain as the taste of metal blood fills my mouth, burning salty and thick. Five months ago, a hit like that would have knocked me out cold.
The sudden inexplicable sexual tension breaks, leaving me wondering why I'd let her brush me up like that. I've never let anyone treat me that way. Distracted by my shock, I barely manage to dodge her next attack as she swears rapidly, realizing she didn't knock me out.
The pale blue earth pony turns away, and kicks back, knocking out a window with her legs. She glances over her shoulder at me with a hungry look; not one craving passion or romance, true hunger. Making a guttural snarl, she suddenly hurls herself out of the moving train. Swearing, I run out to the opening, but Sunny, or whatever she-it? was, is gone. I can't even see her on the ground the train is leaving us behind, as if she jumped out and then simply stopped existing.
"Hey genius," I mutter to myself under my breath, turning back to the door into the other train car. "Maybe, just maybe, you aren't impossibly attractive and you were about to be the next pony to disappear, huh?" Great, I'm just as dumb as when I was a kid.
Author's Note
The first chapter of the book! I'm thinking of doing the next one from either Diamond Tiara's or Dinky Doo's perspective, what do you guys think?
