If a Pony Catch a Pony

Almost as soon as the train took off, the swaying motion and the rhythm of the wheels put me right to sleep. I didn't wake up until we pulled into the Neighagra Falls station. The falls were a big tourist site with no night life to speak of, so almost nopony was boarding the train there at that time of night. The only pony that stood out at all was this one older mare. She was wearing a short coat, so I could see that her cutie mark was three orange wedges. That would normally have made me think that she was a farmer or something, since she was an Earth pony. But her coat and jewelry looked really expensive, and she was wearing her orange mane in an up-do style that was still popular among Manehattenite ladies of a certain age, and no pony else. I'm not saying that to be mean--she was actually quite attractive, even if she was old enough to be my mother.

She ended up taking the seat across the aisle from mine, even though there was hardly anypony else in the car. She looked tired, which wasn't surprising at that time of night, but also kind of frazzled, like she had had kind of a rough day. When an attendant came by with a drink cart before we took off again, we both ordered bottles of water. Her accent was definitely Manehatten, very upper-class. After sleeping a little, I was feeling quite a bit better, so I decided I'd try to strike up a conversation.

"Headed back to Manehatten?" I asked her as we were opening our bottles. I doubted my family was as well off as hers, but my accent was close enough I figured she'd recognize it and not assume I had some ulterior motive in talking to her.

"Not nearly fast enough," she said, smiling a little.

"I guess the falls haven't changed since I was there last," I said.

"No, they're still strictly a tourist trap. But, my relatives from Ponyville were visiting, and they all wanted to see the falls before they left. I hadn't seen my neice Applejack in years, so we sort of lost track of time. Of course all the wildly overpriced drinks at the restaurant didn't help with that." She shot me a knowing little smile, and I immediately started to like her.

"I suppose I should introduce myself," she said, offering a hoof. "I'm Clementine Orange."

"Octavia," I said.

"So, what brings you out here so late, Octavia?"

For a minute, I thought about lying to her, but I wasn't quite in the mood to cook up some wild story right then.

"I'm just on my way home from school for Hearth's Warming break. I'm a student at Canterlot College."

"Oh, I adore Canterlot. My husband is always too occupied with running his business for us to visit again, though. I assume it hasn't changed much."

"Not in the two years I've been there," I said.

She laughed. "No, I would suspect not. It's such a traditional place. I could never live there, but I'm glad it exists. So, what are you studying?"

"Music," I said. "I play cello."

"And do you plan on staying in Canterlot once you're finished with school?"

"I'm not sure," I said. "Really, I'd rather go back to Manehatten, but I guess the Canterlot Philharmonic is really what you're supposed to aspire to as a classical musician. Really, though, I sort of like the idea of playing in smaller groups. I've always enjoyed playing in quartets the most, to be honest."

"Well, that sounds perfectly valid to me--not that I'm any kind of authority on music, mind you. Say, one of my friends has a son attending Canterlot College. They're unicorns, so I assume he's studying magic, but maybe you know him. His name is Sky Dream."

Sky Dream. She was right--I had heard the name, but I didn't know him well at all. I did know his reputation, though. According to Amethyst and her friends in the magic program, he was mediocre at best at magic, but he was the best at charming his teachers. Of course I wasn't about to tell Mrs. Orange that, since I was enjoying talking to her. All of a sudden, I felt like lying a little after all.

"Oh, Sky Dream," I said, trying to sound very thoughtful. "Yes, I have heard of him, though like you said, I don't know him very well. My roommate, Amethyst Star--she's a unicorn, too--talked a lot about him. Honestly, I think she had a little bit of a crush."

Mrs. Orange kind of snickered at that, and it gave me the impression that she knew what a fake Sky Dream was. It almost made me feel bad about bringing Amethyst into it. Almost.

"I'll have to tell Star about that," she said, more to herself than me.

After that, we mostly just talked about living in Manehatten, and how it was different from Canterlot. The trip from the falls back to Manehatten wasn't that long anyway, but talking to her, it felt really short. I kind of expected that my stop would be before hers, since the really wealthy ponies generally live farther uptown. It was, and I was a little sad, because I had half concocted an idea that I was going to invite her to get a drink somewhere if we got off at the same stop. I'm not really sure if I was just happy to talk to somepony who reminded me of home, or if I was kind of falling for her a little. Maybe I was just too tired to think straight. Probably a combination of all three. It didn't matter, though, because my stop was before hers, so I just said goodbye and got off the train by myself. It felt a little lonely, because it was almost midnight, and the station was completely deserted except for the ponies who worked there. Still, it was probably better that I be alone than end up making a fool of myself. I can be quite an idiot when I drink, so there's no telling what stupid thing I would have done if I had gone drinking with Mrs. Orange. Sometimes I wish I could be completely celibate, to be honest.