The Griffin And The Snowstorm

Cold...that's all he felt as the icy winds whipped over him and flakes of snow pelted down on him. It had been only a few moments since that horrifying sound of metal screeching was followed by The Friendship Express tipping over and cars detaching as they flew around crushing trees and silencing the unfortunate passengers who suffered their timeless ends.

What was he doing before that? As he struggled to get on his feet, muscles aching as the joints and ligaments holding them together only wanted to remain motionless and let the cold freeze them up his memory slowly came back to him. His name...it's Louis...Louis krelborn. Yeah and he was working as Filthy Rich's tax lawyer filing some end of year deductions and other issues that seemed...so insignificant now. What with the snow pelting down on him so cold even his parka seemed inefficient in keeping warm.

Louis shivered as he tripped on something and felt a stinging pain as he landed face first on something hard and...metal. It was the rail for the train. Louis groaned as he felt something rattle around in his mouth, then he spat two then four of his teeth into his hand. Great, just what he needed. On top of who knows what could have happened to him from being flung from a train wreck, he was missing teeth without a dentist for miles.

He looked up and saw somthing in the distance along the train rails, it couldn't be...where some cars still standing upright? If they were that meant...shelter. It was as if a new energy had surged within him, Louis pushed his glasses up onto his face and took off running toward the towering dark shape careful of the wooden ties that he stepped over as he followed the rail back. The snow failing harder now, the icy winds were like blades and felt coarse on his skin, his hat and scarf had been lost in the crash, his one hand was exposed to the elements and getting numb.

At long last he reached it, the blue and red tpainted metal of the dining car, Louis looked trying to see which, if any of the other rail cars where attached. In the haze of the storm he could see the baggage car; a few first class cabin cars, and the caboose or the engine's office car. Louis reached up and banged his hands on the door as hard as he could hoping someone inside would open up and help him inside.

It was too much...with a few final raps on the metal...he groaned in weakness and fell on his back, before his vision faded he saw a pony like shape above him, wings spreading out, and a horn glowing.

"I think he's dead Twilight." Louis heard a voice saying, though it sounded like it was a million miles away. He could only see blackness but he could hear voices and shuffling as they moved around. Slowly everything came into focus.

"No Rainbow, he's still breathing...but I think he's the only other survivor....my Celestia...everypony else...dead." he recognized the other voice...it had been only a few hours ago when this mare had been wishing the city of Canterlot a merry Hearth's Warming though that day was still a few weeks away. When his vision returned, Louis knew just who it was. It was Princess Twilight Sparkle herself, standing over him, her horn glowing as she tended his wounds.

"Hello Princess Twilight." Louis said as his tongue felt at his mouth where the teeth had previously fallen out, thankfully Twilight had fixed them. Twilight blushed hard hearing that, she still wasnt used to hearing that. Louis looked around to find himself sitting on a couch in the dining car, a fire crackling away in the fireplace, the lights where on thanks to the cars having emergency backup batteries in case they got separated from the locomotive.

There where three others in the car with them; Gilda, a Griffin on her way back to Griffinstone, which was having its best Hearth's Warming in years since the city discovered the scones that made them realize pride again. And Twilight's friend Rainbow Dash, both of who had "salvaged" a bottle of hard Sweet Apple Acres cider and where downing shots of it like water. Twilight rolled her eyes at this as she watched her friends get more and more plastered.

To Louis, the fine guilded gold and silver of the dining car's lamps; floor molding, and the eastern influenced chairs and couches had seemed like a little slice of paradise on the ride before the crash, now it felt like it was the only bit of civilization in the midst of a tragic loss.

"Twilight? Are you girls the only ones still alive?" Louis said sitting up to look around; as he spoke, Twilight began stoking the fire to keep it going as Rainbow got comfy on the couch will Gilda fiddled with a radio.

"I'm...sorry but we found nopony else...oh Celestia I checked every body I could find...all dead. Some of them....I can hope they died instantly." Twilight said burying her hands in her face, and she began to cry. The Princess Of Friendship herself,a symbol of unity and togetherness especially in the face of adversity and she was sobbing at the thought of all the dead piled up and strewn around outside in the aftermath of the crash.

He couldn't stand to see her like this, Louis got up in spite of the lingering pain, and gently placed a hand on Twilight's wing, he stroked the soft purple plumage of her wings as they both looked out the window. The snow came down harder and harder; wind rattled the glass in the panes of the windows as the storm raged on. "We'll make it Twilght, we just have to stay together and stay strong."

"The train company will send a crew to inspect what happened in about three days....we'd better get comfortable." Was all she could say.