“Well, I’m off to Fluttershy’s cottage!” Twilight Sparkle called out cheerily to Spike as she moved toward the door of the library. “Find me if you need anything, but you have the day to yourself. And I may or may not have left some ruby ice cream in the kitchen for you!”

Her horn flaring, Twilight attempted to throw the front door open. Instead, it slammed to a halt barely halfway open and a cry of annoyance could be heard.

“I’m so sorry!” Twilight gasped, sticking her head around the half-open door. “Who did- oh my Celestia...”

Looking out her front door, the ponies were so thick around the Library that Twilight couldn’t see more than a few paces away. The pony she hit, a mint green unicorn with a musical instrument of some sort on her flank, rubbed her head and looked at Twilight through one squinted eye. “Watch where you’re swinging that thing, it’s heavy!”

“I’m so sorry!” Twilight repeated, squeezing herself outside. “But… what is everypony doing out here so early in the morning?”

“We’re checking out the rubble that used to be the home of those two musicians,” the mint green pony told her excitedly. “Nopony knows what happened, nopony even heard anything last night, but we trot out this morning and POOF! rubble!”

Twilight grimaced, an acrid burning smell hitting her nostrils. “Did something inside burn to make the horrendous smell as well?”

“No clue,” the unicorn bounced. “Name’s Lyra, by the way. You’ve got wings, would flap your way over there and tell me what’s going on? I can’t get through this crowd!”

Twilight sighed, looking at her wings. “Alright Lyra, I suppose that’s the least I can do for knocking my door into you. Wait here, okay?”

As Twilight flapped her wings and rose unsteadily into the air, Lyra beamed her happiness and turned back to the same direction everypony else was focused.

Moving up into the air, Twilight gasped at the devastation she beheld. Flying towards the rubble, she could clearly see that nothing remained of what used to be a brightly painted house. A few bricks here and there, a single charred piece of what seemed to be a sofa, and a single record sticking out of the black ash was all that remained of the once happy little home.

She spied several Royal Guards standing before the crowd that were forming a barrier to keep everypony about fifteen feet from the scene. Twilight’s eyebrows furrowed, and she glided her way down to the ground to interrogate them.

“Excuse me, but what are the Royal Guard doing here?” Twilight asked as she touched down a little heavier than she would have liked.

"Princess!" the guard snapped to attention. "We were not told you would be visiting the crime scene as well!"

"What are you talking about? What crime?" Twilight asked exasperatedly. "This just looks like a house fire to me."

"I... I believe Princess Luna would be more qualified to answer your questions," the guard replied nervously. "She doesn't wish to divulge her opinions on the scene to the Royal Guardsponies."

Twilight cocked her head, bewildered. "Princess Luna is here?"

"That I am, Twilight Sparkle," replied a soft voice behind her. Turning, Twilight found an uncharacteristically disturbed Luna chewing on her lip while she trotted up and glanced around nervously.

"Princess, what's going on? Why is this a ‘crime scene?’" Twilight asked as her newly-fellow royalty approached. "What has you so uncomfortable?"

"I... cannot explain. Not here. But if you will follow me, I can show you." Luna turned away with a concerned look on her face, lost deep in thought as she moved her way around the piles of ash and dust.

“Princess Luna?” Twilight asked, eying the piles wearily as she followed. “What is so important that you can’t speak in front of the Guardsponies?” Then she stopped, her eyes widening. “As a matter of fact, why do you have the Guardsponies here instead of your personal Batpony guard?”

“They are… otherwise occupied on an assignment,” Luna sighed, rounding one fairly large pile of ash that seemed darker than the rest and stopping.

Twilight began to respond, but was left slack jawed when she followed the other Princesses’s gaze. A single hoof extended from beneath the pile of cinders.

“Princess…” Twilight began to back away unconsciously, starting to breathe faster and faster.

“This is why it is a crime scene,” Luna sighed tiredly. “If you look around the hoof, there are scratches. The poor soul was trapped…” Glancing back, Luna’s eyes hardened. “Come here Twilight Sparkle, it is imperative that you understand what is going on. As a Princess, you are being called to higher responsibility.”

Twilight looked around, realizing she had backed several feet from the charred hoof. Swallowing, she moved forward until she stood next to her peer. “What… what is going on?” Twilight asked. Her voice cracked on the last syllable, and she swallowed several more times to try to revitalize her ash-dried throat.

Luna’s horn flared, and with a sickly cracking noise moved the hoof slightly. Twilight gagged at the sound as her breakfast threatened to taint the already pitiful sight, but she managed to swallow it back down. Biting her lower lip, she squinted her eyes. “Those scratches… wait a minute…”

“Red,” Luna read in a voice that spoke of a thousand regrets. “It says ‘red’.”

The three letters were etched into the floorboard with force, and a single dried smear of blood seemed to underline the final communication of the poor trapped pony.

“Ow ow ow,” Octavia hissed as she sat down on the bench at the Canterlot Train Station. It was well past sunset, and all the sensible ponies were already at home. As such the Canterlot Train Station was practically deserted, its cold blue magical lights seeming beacons in the dark and deserted streets that stretched away into oblivion.

“You’re fine, it’s alright,” Vinyl Scratch grunted, helping her friend sit down. “It’s not broken… I think.”

“YOU think? That’s a new one!” Octavia mocked tiredly. In a terrible impression of her friend, she continued, “C’mon Tavi, abandoned places are as creepy as it gets! C’mon Tavi, the door opening on its own is wicked cool dude! C’mon Tavi, I fell down this hole into a pit of Tartarus and all you need to do is come down here to get me! Feh.”

Vinyl Scratch’s ears laid back to her head as she winced. “Well… yeah… but…”

“No buts,” Octavia raised a hoof. “I get to be angry with you for a week. That’s the deal with this situation right now. You dragged me here, you fell through the floor, and you are the one who had to be saved from the only-sometimes-invisible demon thingy that supposedly once possesed an incredibly powerful Alicorn princess.”

“So that’s a week?” Vinyl cocked her head. “What would it take to get to a month?”

“You don’t want to know,” Octavia glared. “Go see when the next train is, Vinyl. I need to know how long it will be before I can fall into my bed and sleep that 'Nightmare' away.”

“Gotcha,” Vinyl agreed, turning and trotting off toward the ticket counter.

Octavia, nodded to herself while settling against the backrest of the bench. “Darn right ‘gotcha’. Gonna hold this over your head for a loooong time Ms. Scratch.” She yawned, closing her eyes for a moment. “A looong time…. looong time...”

A sharp hoof in the side shocked Octavia’s eyes back open, and she sat up immediately.

“... looong time,” Vinyl Scratch was saying.

“What’s that?” Octavia asked. “It’s only been a few moments, what are you talking about?”

“You were out for a long time, about half an hour,” Vinyl Scratch half smiled. “I stood at the counter waiting for somepony to help me, but nopony came. Finally I came back over here and, tadaa. Here we are.” She spoke with a much more timid tone and less inflection, which Octavia hadn’t seen before except when she knew she had screwed up terribly.

Rubbing her head, Octavia scowled. “I could have sworn they were there when we came in… Fine, let’s go see if we can find somepony. And relax, Vinyl. I know you didn’t mean for anything like that to happen.”

Vinyl Scratch smiled a bit wider, and her step had a lightness to it as she guided Octavia to the ticket counter. “See? Nopony.”

“Hello?” Octavia called out, knocking on the counter loudly with her hoof. “Anypony home?”

Silence greeted her, and as she listened Octavia realized she heard absolutely nothing but the sound of the wind. A quick glance in any direction confirmed that there was nopony within sight. “That’s odd, I remember downtown Canterlot being more lively,’ Octavia muttered to herself.

“Me too, but I guess it’s just gettin’ kinda cold in the big city,” Vinyl Scratch brushed off the observation. “I’m more worried about the stupid ticket counter attendants who aren’t doing their job!”

Octavia heaved herself up to rest a foreleg on the counter, looking into the small booth and spotting a clipboard. “Tuesday at 8 p.m.,” she read off. “What time is it now?”

“Ten till,” Vinyl Scratch read off the large clock across the station.

“In that case, let’s just go back and wait it out,” Octavia sighed. “Back to the bench!”

Clopping over to her still-warm spot, Octavia settled in again while Vinyl Scratch stood next to her. “Plenty of room,” Octavia yawned loudly. “You don’t have to stand.”

“I’m comfortable here,” Vinyl Scratch eyed the bench. “I guess after being trapped under that rubble I want to feel as free as possible, y’know?”

“Sure, sure,” Octavia nodded with bleary eyes. “In that case will you be alright to take the train tonight?”

“Yeah yeah, the train will be fine,” Vinyl Scratch answered quickly. “Don’t worry about me.”

Octavia furrowed her brows at Vinyl Scratch, but just as she opened her mouth to remark on how odd her friend was acting the train’s whistle pierced the night from the other end of the station.

“Oh, they’re early!” Vinyl Scratch beamed while trotting forward to stand at the edge of the platform.

“Guess so,” Octavia said to herself while looking back towards the ticket counter. Still nopony. With a shrug, she turned and trotted up next to Vinyl Scratch. “I think I’m going to fall asleep on the way back, fair warning.”

“That’s fine, Tavi,” Vinyl Scratch beamed while bumping a hoof against Octavia’s shoulder. “I think you’ve more than earned a relaxing trip home. Besides, we’ve got at least three hours ahead of us.”

“Don’t remind me,” Octavia groaned and hung her head.

The train pulled up in front of them, and they could see five or six ponies making the ride out to the country for the night in the two main cars. Stepping aboard, they were much more interested in the private cabins at the end of the train.

Stepping into the narrow corridors of the back train car, they made way for a concerned looking Conductor. He was an elderly stallion, a faded yellow with a healthy white moustache and wire rim glasses. He bustled past them, moving with more liveliness and stress than his frail frame would appear able to handle.

“Dude needs to calm down or he’ll die of a heart attack,” Vinyl Scratch snickered while Octavia opened an occupied cabin.

Inside was an apparent family of three, a young couple and their foal. He was sprawled out and snoring while his parents were huddled together speaking in low voices. The stallion poked his head up and gave an apologetic smile, nodding towards his young one.

“Sorry,” Octavia mouthed, closing the door again softly before moving on to the next cabin and finding it unoccupied.

Vinyl Scratch moved in after her, flopping to one seat while Octavia eyed the other. “I think I’m going to go see if they have any drinks in the meal car real quick, want anything Vinyl?” Octavia asked.

“Nah, thanks though. I’ll be here,” Vinyl Scratch smiled comfortably.

Octavia nodded, looking out the window briefly to see the bench she had apparently fallen asleep on. Squinting, she realized that Celestia’s sun was emblazoned on it.

She glanced at Vinyl Scratch once more as she turned, wondering at how comfortably she was sprawled out on the plain faux leather seat. Shaking her head at her friend’s antics, she made her way back down the car and into the junction to one of the main cars. The old Conductor was there again, nervously tapping one of his hooves before spotting Octavia.

“You there!” he said in a squeaky voice. “You just boarded, yes? Yes! Of course you did! I never forget a face or the stops they’re associated with! Where are all the attendees for the Station? I can’t seem to find anypony!”

Octavia blinked a few times, the frail stallions sentences a rapid fire that took a few seconds to fully register. “Yeah. Um, I don’t know really? My friend and I couldn’t find anypony either. Excuse me, I’m on my way to the food car.”

The Conductor whined wordlessly before stepping aside and allowing Octavia to pass.

Stepping around him and opening the door to the first of the main cars, Octavia made her way past row after row of empty seats. There was one stallion on her right engrossed in a newspaper, and as she continued she came upon a nice seeming elderly mare who nodded kindly.

The next car was the same story; only with one more pony than the last. A couple of mares who seemed to be traveling together were both asleep, their heads resting against each other while they snored contentedly. A single young stallion was looking out the window wistfully, and only glanced at Octavia to look her up and down before returning to looking out across the station.

Before making her way into the food car, Octavia felt the train lurch to a start and heard the shrill whistle echo across the area. She glanced out of the space between the cars as the train began to move, and as she watched she saw a pony come staggering out from behind the ticket counter towards the train.

“Little late to talk to the Conductor, friend,” Octavia scoffed, turning to open the door to the food car. She never saw the pony fall, nor did she see the blood seeping out of his side where a horn had pierced him.

Author's Note

A little late for Nightmare Night, but I hope everyone can forgive me! Turns out, college is a lot more engrossing than I ever expected.

Shorter than I wanted, and not nearly as story-driven, think of this chapter as a prequel to the good stuff. Let's just say this train ride is going to get a lot more gruesome before it reaches its destination... if it ever DOES reach its destination. :insert evil author face here: