You are stunned, you were expecting a grotesquely disfigured monster to be around the corner, but instead, you find a small timid mare cowering in fear in front of you. Your speechless how in all of the carnage and violence you had to endure all day this would be what ends your day off.
“Hey,” you whisper, “follow me it’ll be safer.” The mare still cowers in fear head buried in hooves.
“Look I’m not one of them,” you whisper, then she peaks her eye out and then sits up. You admire the beauty that sits in front of you. You see a beautiful light blue unicorn with a pink and ruby mane with gorgeous light blue eyes and has a plum coloured suit on. She has a look of complete sadness in her face. She clearly has had an even rougher time dealing with this than you. You gesture for her to follow you so she nods in response. You maneuver her toward the eternal darkness ahead.
You stop and look down into a vent below and see a room that has yet to be rampaged and full of guts so you carefully loosen the iron grate and place it silently on the floor. You signal for the mare to follow you in but she gives you a fearful and yet almost adorable look in response. You hop in and look up to see her looking down scanning the room for any dangers below. She quietly follows you in and instantaneously puts the grate over the vent.
“We should be safe in here,” you tell her, but just for good measure the mare put a shelf in front of the door and tries to make a timid smile. You look outside and see the moon in the beautiful night sky. You yawn and realize it's been hours since you last slept so you make a bed out of old towels you found in the corner, but when you crossed the room to get another towel you turn around and find her fast asleep in your makeshift bed. You smile and silently trot over to her and tuck her in with the towel you picked up and for a split second, you could see a slight smile on her face. You turn around and empty out an old plastic storage bin, fill it with newspapers and finally fall fast asleep.
You wake up and see only darkness so you swing your hooves around until you feel a lantern. You flip it on and quickly panic, you are in the same car you were originally housed in. You look outside and see the train still moving, outside you see a few assorted trees and the rocky face of a mountain. You look around your room where it's still dull as ever. The salad and sandwich you had before still sit where they had been prior to you dozing off. You poke open the doors your room and see everypony is still normal and not a group of horrifying nightmares that will haunt you for eternity. You silently close the door behind you so you can wander silently wander the train alone and reflect on your life.
You quietly pass through the dining car where relatively nothing is going on. The lights are out and everything is neatly put away. You decide to sit in a corner in the lonesome car and bury your head in your hooves. You sit there staring out into the eerie tranquillity of the wilderness at night. You look out there and remember a simpler time like when you were a young foal and could go out and play at night without a care in the world. Now you fear the world at night you've seen everything from murders, to suicides, and even somepony getting mauled by a Timberwolf at one point. Being an Equestrian CSI agent has taken a serious toll on you since you have started working for them. Your cutie mark cursed you to be this way. Since you were a young foal you knew the day where you would start would be tough but out the gate your first investigation was brutal. You investigated a case of ponynaping not to difficult but when you found the victim you would never feel the same again. Right in front of you was a mare who looked only to be freshly moved out and ready to explore the world by herself was beaten horribly with a nightstick breaking her hind legs and nose. Then it looked like she was raped and had her throat slit. The images still haunt you to this day.
You get up and wander to the back of the train and sit in the open area in the back. The cool air from the valley helps you unwind. You enjoy the fresh air and are ready to watch the sunrise. You watch Princess Celestia's sun rise up from behind the mountain and you smile. It's been a while since you had a chance to kick back and enjoy the simple things in life.
Author's Note
This is my first published fic yet the first I've completed and submitted so expect my quality to go up over time.
Prologue
You lay on the seat and sulk around in sadness. Another vile and disturbing day at work haunts the back of your mind. The sight of blood and gore creeps in and around your mind wreaking havoc all around. You hear the train approaching the station in Canterlot and a wave relief sweeps over you as you think
‘I finally get to go home’. You grab your bag and walk up to the train and climb in. You stumble around to your sleeper car and lay the suitcase on your bed. A pony walks into the car behind you and asks you to present your ticket. You hand it over and the colt inspects it for a good few seconds then hands it back.
“Have a nice trip Anonymous,” he says before closing the door behind himself. You dread these train rides because they are long and boring not to mention your fear of heights and riding along the mountain that Canterlot is built upon always makes you queasy. You lay down and shut the blinds in your car so you don’t have to see the cliff's edge as your train begins its descent down the mountain. As you lay there that same familiar wave of fear sweeps over you as the train makes its way down the winding track. All you can do now is hope everything goes as normal.
After 30 minutes of terror going down the mountain, you hear the speaker on the train say
“We are now a straight shot to Baltimare we should be there in 38 hours”. You moan at the prospect of going any longer on this train. A few hours go by before you decide to get up and trot around, so you walk over to the meal car. You sit down and a waitress pony comes over and takes your order. You order a salad and some water, then as quick as she showed up she was off again. You sit for another few minutes and finally your food is placed on top of your table. You pull out your wallet and you finally pay the mare then you just sit there. You can't eat, all you have is flashbacks from work creeping in of disembowelled ponies, ponies who have been stabbed in various places, and some to vividly disturbing to describe. You take your food back to your car and lie there in absolute horror. You can’t take another day of analyzing how ponies died. When you get back to Baltimare you decide to quit your job as a crime scene investigator. You decide to sleep off the rest of your trip, and hopefully, things go better when you get home.