Author's Note

Things are taking quite some time to get finished, but I promise to put effort into completing this story before going back to my main one!

Love ya guys for sticking with me thus far

Chapter 2 - The Ride Never Ends

Luna’s chariot lurched to a hard stop, and Twilight stumbled out of it shakily. “Princess Luna, I… I don’t know if I can handle any more sights like this. Not after that train load of ponies.” She sobbed at the last word, her mind filled with the horrifying images beheld at the Ponyville Train Station just an hour earlier. “Please don’t make me look at any more.”

Luna stepped calmly yet heavily out of her chariot, seemingly weighed down with more grief than one can put into words. “That was indeed tragic, Twilight Sparkle. But as Princesses, we have to deal with this threat, and that means learning of its patterns first.”

Twilight shook her head as Luna moved past her, through blockades the Canterlot Police had set up to keep interested bystanders from entering the Canterlot Train Station. This late in the afternoon most of the interested populace had wandered off, but the reporters that remained hassled the two royal ponies more than the Ponyville crowd.

“Princess Sparkle, do you have anything to say about the tragic loss of life here in Canterlot?”

“Princess Luna, what has the official body count risen to by now?!”

“Princess Twilight, will the Elements of Harmony be called in to deal with the serial killer!”

Twilight trembled as they passed out of earshot, and Luna put a wing over her back. “It will be alright, Twilight Sparkle. If my hunch is correct, we only have one more location to visit after this one.”

Twilight swallowed as they rounded a corner, and she saw several bodies covered in tarps in a back office. Blood was splattered everywhere, from the walls to the ceiling, and it looked like there were bloody hoofprints leading out onto the platform ahead.

“I hope so, Princess,” she teared up. “Because this horror needs to come to an end."

Happily sipping on some warm tea, Octavia made her way out of the food car after waving to the overdramatic and fluffy little chef who had helped her by brewing a special cup of certain remedies meant to help with bone weariness.

“Thanks Amber Spice, I can feel it working already! And I'm sure someone will want your doughnuts eventually!” Octavia smiled as she shut the door. Turning, she trotted down the two main cars much faster than before, nodding to whatever occupants inside each who actually glanced her way.

The elderly Conductor was practically jumping his way down the second car, asking passengers if they had heard anything about the Canterlot Train Station shutting down early that night. The stallion reading the newspaper was especially gruff, and although Octavia couldn’t hear anything that was spoken the Conductor turned an ashen color and hurried away from the passenger’s growl.

Octavia was sure to give the both of them a wide berth, and breathed a sigh of relief as she made it back into her own car. The young child seemed to be wailing inside the family’s cabin, but Octavia was assured by the sound of his mother’s cooing that he was being taken care of.

She opened the door to find Vinyl Scratch missing, but shrugged and made her way to ease into the comfortable seating. The child had quieted, his sobbing becoming more weak as Octavia assumed he drifted back off to sleep. She sipped absentmindedly at the splendid tea, musing on her adventures that day and letting the warmth of the cabin soothe the dull aches that wracked her body.

She turned to the door when she heard it sliding open, and smiled as Vinyl Scratch entered looking apologetic. “Hey Tavi, have you been alone long?”

“No, just came in,” Octavia smiled. “Where did you wander off to?”

“Oh ya know, just talkin’ to our neighbors about their crying colt. I’m gonna go grab some fresh air at the back, want to join me?” Vinyl Scratch asked hopefully, shifting her weight back and forth with the rocking motion of the train.

“I think I may just take a bit of a nap,” Octavia yawned as the tea worked its magic. “You go on ahead, okay?”

“Sure thing!” Vinyl Scratch sighed, relaxing visibly. As she turned to leave, her horn flaring to slide the door shut once again, Octavia spied a smear of crimson on her flank.

Octavia frowned, biting her lip. “Must have been left over from the hospital,” she mumbled to herself. She drained the rest of the tea, smacking her lips as she mulled over how odd Vinyl Scratch had been acting.

“I-I’m being silly,” Octavia stammered, lowering her cup and laying down. “My mind is tired, I’m not thinking straight. Just a quick nap until we get to Ponyville, then I can thinking about such things.”

She could have sworn the swaying of the train and the bumps of the tracks would have kept her awake, but within moments her eyelids were fluttering shut of their own accord. The sounds of the rickety train faded away, and Octavia embraced the welcome darkness of an unconscious state away from her terrifying memories.

The passengers of the train lined the aisles, clamoring with silent fervor to get a closer look at Vinyl Scratch and Octavia. Octavia smiled and waved to them, glad their moving lips held no sounds to ruin her wedding day. After all, who wanted that kind of tumultuous uproar going on when she had a mare to marry?

Glancing at her best friend - no, fiancee! - Octavia couldn’t help but blush a little. While obviously uncomfortable in a suit and having her wild hair tamed in a backwards sweep, Vinyl smiled right back in a warming gesture. She tried to say something, but was cut off by the sound of an organ.

Looking forward once more, Octavia saw that the end of the car had been expanded several hundred times into a fully sized cathedral while the train rumbled; complete with a several stories-tall organ that Lyra Heartstrings played solemnly, the cathedral held an altar from which to preside over the events. At the altar was none other than Princess Luna herself, mane flowing majestically with the glow of a million distant stars shining through. She had a sad smile on her tired face, drooping eyes betraying the lack of sleep a wedding had surely caused her.

“I’m sorry for taking you away from your duties Princess, I can see it’s affected you,” Octavia whispered apologetically when the couple had reached the altar.

“Not your fault in the slightest,” the Princess soothed. “It has simply been a long night, and these wedding dreams tend to always end one of a few ways…” A far away gleam betrayed a thousand abandoned brides and disappointing wedding nights, but Luna blinked a few times to compose herself.

“What am I saying? It’s the happy couple’s big day, and on a train no less! That’s new… let them speak their vows of true love to one another!” The Princess’s wings snapped open, and all the ponies in attendance paid rapt attention.

Turning inward to face Vinyl Scratch as she did the same, Octavia grew slightly embarrassed. “Vinyl,” she spoke in her soft accent, “ever since the Asylum I’ve been… I don’t know, seeing you in a different light. You opened yourself to me in those dark times, and allowed yourself to fall only to be caught.” Octavia smiled a little at her own pun, and failed to see Luna’s face tighten.

“When we ran from that… monster, you stuck with me. When it tried to take you from me, even when it got inside your head, you fought for me. I can never express how much that means, or how much I love you!” The happy tears were flowing freely, but as Vinyl opened her mouth to speak Princess Luna’s Royal Canterlot Voice suddenly cut her off.

“EXPLAIN YOURSELF, BEAST!” she roared fiercely, moving between the two loving ponies. “DID I NOT SEAL YOUR REMNANT AWAY FOR ETERNITY, LEFT TO ROT AS DID YOUR TOMB AROUND YOU?!”

Vinyl Scratch’s entire demeanor changed in an instant: her hair began to move in an absent wind, and blood began to seep from around her eyes into the iris. They became bright crimson in color, and an inpony smile stretched across her face.

“My old carcass, I did not believe you had actually happened upon this one’s dreams. A shame too, I was so looking forward to…” the distorted Vinyl Scratch fixed on Octavia, “RAVISHING her on the wedding night! Ah well, seems plans must be set in motion earlier than expected.”

With a wordless cry Luna lunged forward to pierce the thing, no longer Vinyl Scratch in what was quickly becoming Octavia’s nightmare. She turned to flee as her former fiancee and a Princess of Equestria began to do battle with their horns, but found herself aghast at the sight of thousands of ponies blocking her path. Each dismembered, disemboweled, carved from being recognizable as blood flowed freely. Yet they stared at her, hungrily, unmoving.

A yelp of pain came from behind, and Octavia turned in a panic to spy Luna’s chest sliced open. “WAKE! FLY, YOU FOOL!” Luna yelled at her before blasting Octavia with a powerful spell. At the same time, what was once Vinyl Scratch roared in pure frustration.

Octavia jumped awake, shocked by the severe cold of the Princess’s spell and the fact that the monster’s bellow seemed to continue into the waking world. In a panic she looked around, trying to get her bearings. Finding herself in unfamiliar surroundings shut her eyes and whimpered a few times, before the shaking of the train reminded her where she had fallen asleep.

Relaxing, Octavia opened her eyes to a sight she hadn’t expected: track, lit only by the light on the front of the train. Starting to breathe a little harder, Octavia began to look around wildly; knobs, levers, and dials greeted her.

But that makes no sense, I fell asleep in the car before the caboose! Her terrified mind couldn’t accept the fact that she was standing in the cab of the train, alone, as far from her cabin as she could be.

Turning, she saw the door to the next car was slightly ajar and moving with the sway of the tracks. There was a noise coming from the other side of the door, a rasping noise that sounded different from the train itself.

Momentarily forgetting her own sleep-trotting experience, Octavia cautiously approached the portal with the trepidation of one who’d been burned many times before. She inched closer and closer, with each step making the noise louder to her adjusting ears. Octavia barely dared let herself breathe, let alone move more quickly to the door.

The rasping, almost wet noise finally resolved itself into a single utterance.

“H-help…”

Octavia’s anxiety spiked as she paused mid-step. The plea was so pitiful, so final, that she desperately wanted to come to the speaker’s aid; on the other hoof, it could be another trick.

What if we didn’t kill that thing at the asylum? she asked herself desperately. Is that what was in my dream?! What is going ON!

Another whimper, more quiet than the last, came from the other side of the door. Octavia steeled herself, figuring she might as well face it head-on once more. Throwing open the door, she leapt through the door and glanced around only to see she was in the back area of the dining car. It was a kitchen area, brushed metal surfaces reflecting around every corner.

The cooking utensils were thrown around as if the train had come to a sudden stop, all thrown towards the front area. A multitude of knives had embedded themselves in the wall as well, still quivering as the train continued its journey. The whimper came again, from beneath a pile of the heaviest looking pots.

Octavia move towards the shuddering pile with trepidation, reaching a hoof forwards to pull a pot away. Beneath was a lusciously fluffy red coat that Octavia immediately recognized as the chef, Amber Spice.

With relief she began to toss the pots and pans away from the train’s chef, slowly revealing a pony in poor shape. Blood matted her once-beautiful hair in many spots, oozing slowly from several large gashes across her flesh. Octavia covered her mouth in horror as Amber Spice shuddered in an attempt to raise her head.

“D-don’t try to move, you have to relax!” Octavia gasped, trying to push the fluffy chef back into her reclining position. Amber Spice lifted her head just enough that she could view Octavia with one eye.

That eye grew wide with fear, and the weakened Amber Spice tried desperately to crawl away as her terrified sobbing grew hysterical. “Leave me alone!” she cried softly, unable to drag herself any further. “You don’t have to finish the job, please Celestia don’t hurt me any more!”

Octavia extended her hoof slowly, mouth wide. “W-what are you talking about? I would never hurt anypony! Just please let me help y-”

Amber Spice kicked away the offered hoof, and with a final surge of resilience reached up to take hold of one of the knives embedded in the wall. She pulled it free, and turned it downward to plunge into her own chest.

“I… will never… join you demons,” she spat at the now hyperventilating Octavia as her lifeblood pooled under her. “Never…”