The Shadow Collective

As I entered the house the door creaked open and fell off it's hinges.

"Huh, looks like I'm lucky I'm not getting the house after all." I said to myself. I left the door where it fell and trotted up the stairs to get my sister. I opened her door and all of her stuff was gone. No suitcases or clothes or anything. I called out for her but I got no response. I checked all the rooms but she was no where to be found. Classic twist I guess. I trotted down the stairs and grabbed my stuff to head for the train station. I threw everything in a cart and hooked myself up to it. I ran to the train station with the cart tapping me every once in a while and finally unhinged it and opened the door to the station.

"One ticket to Ponyville." I said between breaths.

"A please might help, sir." The pony behind the counter said.

"Besides, don't you mean two tickets?" A pony behind me said. I turned to see my sister standing behind me. "Planning on leaving with out me Cloud?"

"N-No I wasn't. You weren't home and all of your stuff was gone. I figured you took off on your own."

"Why would I do that? I'm 16, as you said I can't live on my own. I thought you might leave the graduation ceremony early to try and ditch me."

"I wasn't trying to ditch you. I'm not going anywhere without you sis." I said with a smile, giving her a hug.

"Sir I'm gonna need the bits for these tickets, I've got a line of ponies waiting." The impatient pony behind the counter said with a snap.

"I'm sorry." I said placing the bits on the counter and taking the tickets. My sister and I walked out of the door and boarded the train. I sat down and my sister sat next to me. I looked out the window and saw the clear grass fields of Hoof Falls and thought about how much I would really miss it.

"Cloud I'm gonna miss Hoof Falls maybe just as much as you. But aren't we leaving all of this behind us?" My sister said resting her head on me.

"Of course we are Fuzzy. We're moving on in our lives. Let's just try and get some sleep. It's a 7 hour train ride after all." I said closing my eyes. Within a moment I was asleep. I was falling into the abyss again, just a continuation of my last dream. All the hurtful words from my parents and all the judgmental looks from today.

"Come on cloud." My mother said to me. "It's just calculus, in Elementary and Middle School you went through it all with flying colors."

"What does Flying Colors have to do with this Mom? She and I aren't together anymore." I said to her.

"No Cloud, stop thinking about mares, you need to concentrate on your school work."

"Mom I don't want to do this any more. I'm done with school for the rest of my life." As I said those words I stormed out of the house and ran into the woods. I just kept running and I didn't stop, I couldn't stop. I don't know why. I saw a tree coming my way and I didn't stop. I ran straight into the tree and fell to the ground. I don't remember this from my past. I fell in a daze and heard the tree creaking. I watched it fall towards me and I rolled out of the way. As I stood back up I watched the day turn to night quickly. A shadowy figure stood in front of me, my height and my physique by the looks of it. He held a knife and wore a cape over his body and his face. This couldn't be me, I'm nothing like this. The pony rushed me and stabbed me with his knife. I looked down and watched the blood leak out of my chest and onto his knife and onto the forest floor. He twisted the blade but I felt nothing. His hood fell off to reveal my face, I was staring into my own eyes for 5 minutes. By far the most terrifying experience. The dark expression on his face turned to a devilish smile and he pushed all the way through my chest. This time I could feel the pain and I woke up to the train roughly tossing me around.

"W-What's going on? What's wrong with the train Star?" I yelled hitting my head on the window with force.

"I don't know! Are we gonna die?" Star yelled back with closed eyes. Before I could respond the train threw my head into the window again and knocked me out.

I woke up laying next to a train piece on fire in the grass.

"Ah great Celestia what happened?" I yelled out loud in pain. "Star? Star Fuzz? Where are you?" I looked around and I couldn't find her anywhere. I got up onto my hooves and looked at the carnage. Dead ponies everywhere. Tears filled my eyes. "Oh Celestia no. No no no. This isn't happening. I saw a few ponies gathered around one piece of burning train. My first thought was that they were survivors but as I got closer I saw that none of them were injured. Coincidence? I think not. I took a mental not of what I could see of their faces and began to sneak around them. Ponyville couldn't be more than an hours walk. I could see it in the distance, if Star Fuzz is alive then she'd be there or at least heading in that direction. I successfully got passed the suspicious looking ponies and looked to Ponyville. I took a deep breath, wiped a tear away and began trotting towards Ponyville.