Author's Note
This is my first story, please be gentle!
Train Ride
The mare looked around her slowly. The train car was filled with ponies headed to New Mareleans. She wondered how many of them were like her. Her name was Morning Glory, and she was a bounty hunter. She had made a name for herself up north hunting beasts of all kinds, and now she was headed south. She’d heard that there was trouble in New Mareleans, and where there was trouble, there was money to be made. Apparently, “monsters” of some kind had made themselves quite comfortable in a town uncomfortably close, and the citizens were offering quite a sum to anypony who could get rid of them. Glory had heard stories of these “monsters” and wasn’t certain they were anything more than hysteria, but if they were true then this would be one heck of a challenge.
“Tickets Please!” shouted a stallion. Glory searched her saddlebags and retrieved the item in question. She’d had to fight somepony over it. It had ended with her nursing a sprained wing, but the poor fool she’d fought hadn’t been as lucky. She’d ducked onto the train just as the guard ponies found the body. It hadn’t been the first time she’d killed a pony, there had been several times when she’d been forced to kill over a bounty. Ponies could be remarkably greedy at times, she thought. The train shook as it set off, shaking her from her reverie. She shuffled in her stolen seat and got comfortable. It was a long way to New Mareleans.
“And where do you think you’re going, young filly?” Her mother’s shrill Baltimare accented voice cried out.
“Away, mother. There’s work in New Mareleans, and you’ve been trying to get me out of this town for some time now. And I’m not a filly anymore, I’m twenty-four for Celestia’s sake!” Glory yelled back, her own Baltimare accent creeping in.
“No daughter of mine will be going anywhere near New Mareleans. Nothing good happens there, and nothing good can come of whatever ‘work’ you’ve managed to find there.” The older mare shouted back, but Glory had already turned away. Heading for the door, she grabbed her saddlebags off the table by the door and went to open it.
“If you leave, you’ll never be welcome back so long as I live.” Her mother threated.
“Good.” Was all Glory said as she opened the door and headed out into the early morning light.
The train’s whistle woke her with a start. They’d stopped at a station she didn’t recognize. More ponies headed to New Mareleans. How many would survive once they got there? How many graves would be dug at the end of this? She pushed the thoughts aside as the passengers boarded. Mostly young stallions, she noted. Not terribly surprising. Probably fools looking to “prove themselves.” There was an older stallion, though. An earth pony with a gold coat and a pitch-black mane. He sat in the seat next to her and sat his bag on the floor.
A bell rang four times, and the whistle blew again. The train rumbled away once more, and no more delays. Last stop, New Mareleans, she thought. Take a good look around, it’s the last time you will.
The stallion had introduced himself as Black Gold, a miner’s son. He was needing work like her and thought the bounties in New Mareleans seemed a good option. His mother had been put out of work, and with his father dead and him the oldest, it fell to him to support the family. The two spoke for some time, before they decided to get some rest.
"What is it now?" An Appleloosian voice said harshly.
"I swear I heard something. And the darn thing's already dead. I know a gunshot when I see one. There's somepony else creeping around here." An equally backwoods accent called back.
"Well then go find them and put them down. I ain't sharing this bounty with nopony else."
The second voice's owner, a mare, began to walk to where Glory was hiding. Looking around the small cave, there weren't many places to hide. She'd briefly considered offering to share the bounty with them, but they had made it clear that was definitely off the table. The mare began to close in on Glory's hiding spot. Click, Click, Click. The revolver announced its readiness to her.
"Huh?" was all the mare got out before Glory leapt from her hiding spot and shot her dead. Her partner heard the gunshot and fumbled with his shotgun. Glory pulled the revolver's hammer back once more and aimed at the stallion. Just as he began to raise his weapon, Glory pulled the trigger.
They woke not long later. They were close now, New Mareleans was in sight. Black Gold had said it was the afternoon, but it may as well have been dusk. A dark cloud hung low over New Mareleans, choking Celestia’s sun and plunging the city into an eternal twilight. The city had its share of pollution, but this shouldn’t have been possible. The two looked on in confusion, theirs matched by the voices of others in the train car. As the train slowed to a halt and the passengers disembarked, Morning Glory and Black Gold struck a deal, they would stick together and split the bounty. Whatever was happening here was more than any one pony could handle, however skilled they may be. They trotted through the town together, and eventually found an elderly stallion giving a speech to a small crowd. They noticed some of the ponies from their train and heard the stallion talking about the bayou to the south. He spoke of monsters, and nightmarish beasts that would frighten even the Princesses. Glory wondered why they hadn’t intervened. Perhaps they didn’t take it seriously. Whatever their reasoning, it was lost on the two as they followed the crowd marching south. Glory looked up to the sky. The grey swirling clouds that blanketed the city taunted her. She thought for a moment that this was a fool’s errand. Only death awaited her in the Bayou, perhaps it would be wise to go back north. Go back to her job hunting beasts. She was given pause, however, by the memory of the stallion whose ticket she’d “borrowed.” The guards would likely be looking for her. If she went back now, they’d hang her for sure. With death to her front and back, she steeled her resolve and kept marching forward, into the Bayou.
