The Night Train to Manehattan
It was a quiet night on the train. In the morning, I would be in a hotel room, but for now, the quiet train car would do. The bed was hard, the constant movement of the train made sleeping even more difficult. I was to used to sleeping in a nice, still bed. I couldn't take it anymore. I sat up in my bed. Well, correction, I tried to sit up in my bed. The train car suddenly jerked forward, and I ended up with my face on floor. Putting my forelegs under me, I pushed myself up into a sitting position.
Oh! The progress I was making!
All I wanted was to get out of bed and go to my desk. A simple task, made had by the sudden change in the acceleration of the train. At least I was upright, and not on my face now.
Somepony is knocking on the door.
I got up on all four of my hooves and walked to the sliding door to the hallway. Opening it revealed an earth pony mare. You would think that the first thing I noticed about the unfamiliar mare would be, well, that I didn't know her. She didn't have a cab or train uniform on, so she wasn't part of the train staff. She had what looked like a nightgown on. Blue. Not that different in color than my own coat. Her eyes were green and her coat was an interesting shade of grey. All of these were viable 'first things to notice'.
The first thing I noticed, was her mane.
A beautiful gold color, mixed with small hints of orange and red strands. A grand showing of hair. It was mainly straight, save for some small curls at ends. I almost wanted to see if her tail was just as grand as her mane.
"Pardon me, but I heard a loud noise from your room." She stated. Her voice was very soft, yet, very eager. Almost like she was in a hurry. "I'm in the room next-door. I was getting ready for bed when I heard. Is everything alright?"
I was never good at talking to others, even if all I had to say was a single word. "Everything is quite fine. Just fell out of bed when the train had it's sudden burst of acceleration." I stated very flatly.
"You seem familiar. Do I know you?" She asked.
I had no idea how she could possibly know me. I wasn't famous. I wasn't rich. I was nopony. I liked being by myself, working on my small, mismatch of various projects. I lived in Vanhoover by myself in a small apartment. I had a 'not so special' job working at a small diner. I guess she could have seen me there.
"Are you from Vanhoover?" I asked lightly.
"Yes actually. I live there." She stated, almost pridefully.
I had, without knowing, put myself in a corner. I didn't want a conversation with somepony who I probably waited on. This was escalating to ten out of ten on the awkward scale for me. You could have just locked the door. Ignored the knocking. Pretend that no one was there. You did it to the landlord once when you didn't have enough bits to pay for the month. I thought to myself.
"Well, um, it's nice to meet somepony else from the same city." I said hastily.
"Wait. We don't know each others names." She stated flatly.
We had just met, would probably not see each other again, and she wanted to know my name?
"My name is Light Sparks." I said, almost in a whisper.Great job. You couldn't make a name up or something?
"Hello Light Sparks. My name is Golden Peach." She stated, again, almost full of pride. "It's nice to meet you. Maybe we'll see each other again. Maybe even be friends"
I wasn't sure what had surprised me more. The fact that she was so forthcoming with her identity, how stunning I still found her mane, or the fact that she said that she might want to be my friend. Since when did I make friends, especially when all I had to do was open a door.
"Well, um, I guess I should try and get some sleep. I have a busy day tomorrow. Convention stuff and all."
"Oh? You're one of those inventor types for that big technology convention in Manehatten, aren't ya?" She quickly asked in an almost determining tone that I was a little surprised to hear that she had. Having just met her though, I wasn't too surprised that there were things I didn't know. Past her name and where she lived, it was literally nothing.
"Yeah. I'm an inventor, and I have a very busy week ahead of me." I answered, a little resigned.
"Well, I guess I'll let you get to sleep. I need sleep myself. It was nice meeting you, and maybe we'll see each other again. You never know." She stated, again, showing that prideful tone that I had already heard a lot of in her.
"Yeah. Maybe." In all honesty, I really didn't. She just seemed strange, too forthcoming, and . . . . . . . . beautiful. I couldn't help the fact that she was attractive, especially with that mane of hers.
At my reply, she walked back to her room and closed the door. I followed suit and shut my door as well. It was going on Midnight and the only light in my room was coming from the moon outside. I went to the desk in my room and started looking at a few papers. The first Manehattan Technology Convention was written on most of them. I stopped flipping when I came to my own image. The picture that was taken for my ID card was horrible. My white and yellow striped mane was a mess. My left ear was down a little, and my horn looked, oddly, out of place. The suit I was wearing seemed to be my only saving grace. It was clean and nice compared to my ruffled up mane. Next to the horribly taken image was my cutie mark: a small, white lamp with a red tool box next to it. I may be good with tools and always studied electrical magic, but I actually wasn't sure if that is what my cutie mark signified, or if it meant that I was good at fixing light fixtures.
Not wanting to look at anymore papers, I decided that it was best that I try and get some sleep. Even with the train moving around, I had to try. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day after all.
7 AM. Time to get up. The schedule for the train stated that we wouldn't arrive until 8:30, but I wanted to do some final, last minute paperwork. I was still a little distracted by what happened the night before with the strange mare, Golden Peach. I did my best to not let it get in the way of my focus. I may only have had some small final setup orders to sign and some files to organize, but I still needed to focus on them and nothing else right now.
I couldn't take it.
After about five minutes of just sitting at the desk in my room, using my magic to write things down with a quill and ink, I started to loose it. there was just something about last night that was just too off. Golden Peach seemed nice, but there was something about how she acted that made me a little paranoid. She was just to forthcoming in her demeanor.
I had to forget about her. I had to focus on my work in the week to come. Today was the last day of setup for the convention. The convention hall wasn't really used as often either. The last time it was used was about three months ago for a book franchise, as I recall. Daring something, I was never into fiction. My life revolved around numbers and facts. I was always trying to figure out how I could get something to work, find the answer to problems centered around science and mathematics, or simply, figure out how to earn enough money for the various things that I do in my life. I had spent almost six months just to raise enough money to even be able to come to this convention in the first place! let alone get my own stall, VIP ID, and hotel room! I really wanted this week to be the gate way to a better future for me. I no longer wanted to work at a diner as a waiter. I wanted to make new devices to make ponies lives better. I wanted to . . . . .
Knocking on the door again.
I really didn't want this to be Golden again. As far as I was concerned, I didn't want it to be anypony. I just wanted to keep having my internal rant. Of course, it would be rude to ignore the knocking. You never thought that with the landlord. Ignoring that thought, I got up and went to the door.
I was relived to see that it was just a caterer with her cart of food.
"Excuse me, sir, but would you care for some breakfast?" She asked gingerly. Her voice was very sweet, and had a slight accent that I didn't recognize.
She had many things on her cart. I really wasn't hungry, but I thought that I should at least eat something. Eying a simple apple, I looked to her and stated, "How much for an apple?"
"Two bits." She answered.
I looked over at my suit that had most of my money that I brought with me on my trip in the pockets, and used my magic to pull out a couple bits. Putting the bits on the outstretched hoof of the caterer, I enveloped an apple in my magic and placed it on the desk in my room. I then turned back to her standing in the hall. "Um, do you know how much longer until we arrive in Manehatten?"
"The train is actually making exceptional time. I actually think that we may be about a half-hour early." She answered.
I was ecstatic. I wanted off this train as soon as possible, and the time for it had almost come. I did my utmost best to hide my enthusiasm from the caterer still waiting outside of my room. I simply said "Thank you," and shut my door after she started down the hall again. I then went to my desk and looked at more papers. Then, a new question started to niggle at my mind. "Oh great. I'm going to have to carry all my bags to the hotel. I hope I can get a cab relatively easy." I thought out load.
After the train arrived at the station, I had waited for nearly an hour before I was able to acquire a cab. The stallion pulling the coach seemed a little appalled by all of my bags, but didn't complain. I was glad for that. He almost scared me. He was tall. I had a relatively small frame to begin with, but he was big compared to anypony in my mind.
Arriving at the hotel was a welcoming as well. As well as me, another unicorn service colt was needed to carry all of my bags to my room on the forth floor. Thank Celestia for the invention of the elevator many years back. Without it, the two of us would've taken forever to get up the stairs.
It also took almost an hour just to settle into my room, and unpack my many things, most of which were various tools, half completed projects, and the few suits that I brought with me to wear over the week. I was also happy to find a desk in my room, and almost immediately put my few folders and portfolio on it.
Other than the desk in my room, there was a bed, a small closet, a door which led to the bathroom, a small sofa, and a rectangular table with a vase of flowers on it. The walls were white as well as the ceiling. Over the sofa was an abstract painting that I had no idea on how was considered art. There were two windows in the room: one near the bed, and the other near the sofa. In one of the corners of the room was a small kitchenette with a stove, sink, fridge, and a few cabinets and draws. The room reminded me of my home apartment, only a little smaller.
Looking at a clock that hung on the wall near the door, I realized that it was going on noon. I needed to be down stairs in the convention hall setting up my stall. I quickly went to the desk and looked for my ID card. Finding it, I quickly put on one of my suits, black, with a white under shirt and a red tie, and pined the ID card to the collar. I walked to my door, opened it with my magic, locked it, and closed it behind me when I was out in the hall. I then started making my way to the elevator. Now all I needed was for the rest of today, as well as the next week, to go according to plan.
