The Ride

A lone pale figure hurried through the darkened nearly deserted streets of Canterlot. The pale skin enveloped completely by a large yellow jacket, a hat covering only the top of the pink hair, the rest heavily matted against the back completely soaked through. Splashes of water from puddles spread out in circles around the matching yellow boots that only came to just bellow the knees.

Certainly an odd sight for someone, especially a young woman to be out in this weather looking dressed for bad weather, except the short pink and white plaid skirt with three butterflies on either side of very round hips.

The eyes that stared out, occasionally blinking away water drops from the rain were teal in color, wide, and innocent. They were so wide that if one could stop time in that very moment and look closely, their surroundings would be reflected to near mirror perfection. Upon further inspection one would find a small stuffed white rabbit clutched in the crook of one arm, settled against a fair pair of voluptuous breasts, her normal scent of pine trees and wild flowers overpowered by the muddled smell of rain water.

Her name was Fluttershy, and she was the type of girl who kept to her name sake, whether by coincidence or by fate, she was indeed a very shy and timid girl.

The only reason for her rush in such foul weather was that she was late getting back to the train station, which loomed darkly in the distance, the details of which were completely obscured in any distance in the thick downpour.

The distant sound of a train whistle could be heard, the thundering sounds of the train on the tracks blending with the powerful peals of thunder overhead. Fluttershy quickly made her way up the slick stairs of the platform, speaking quietly to herself, her grip on the rail to try and keep from slipping.

She could not see the train, but could hear the sound of the whistle in the distance fading as seconds ticked by.

“No, no, no, no, no.” She cried quietly to herself, holding her little angel bunny closer to her chest. She had missed the train, she quickly looked around and found a window with a faint orange glow inside.

Approaching it, she looked inside and saw a single man in a blue suit, an old fashioned mustache on his face, a hat with a gold tag on it sitting next to him as he looked at a computer.

“Um... Excuse me sir...”

The man did not look at her, obviously not hearing her timid and quiet voice over the rain, much less the sounds of the thunder rolling overhead.

Fluttershy bit her lip for a second, she did not like having to raise her voice, but she had to to get his attention. As she stood there looking at the man, his attention completely focused on the computer screen, he raised his hands and began typing across the keyboard.

“Excuse me... Sir... Hello?”

At this point it seemed as if the man would never notice her, she went to open her mouth to speak again, when an extremely bright flash of lightning struck down somewhere nearby i n the city, followed by what seemed like a loud explosion as a peal of thunder echoed around them. So loud and close was the combination of natures fury that it shook the building, and even the platform of steel and brick underneath her.

Fluttershy could not help but to cringe, her eyes squeezing shut, her hands covering her ears, as a small pitched cry leaped from her throat.

When she opened them, she came face to face with a man in the glass, the next flash of lightning arcing across the sky gave him a momentary sinister look.

Fluttershy leaped back, startled.

“Excuse me, can I help you miss?” The man calmly asked through a small speaker just under the line of the window.

Gathering herself quickly, Fluttershy approached and leaned forward slightly.

“Umm... I missed my train... I-is there another one, for Ponyville?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that.”

“Oh, sorry. I missed my train... Is there another one soon?”

“I’m sorry, what about the train?”

“I missed my train, is there another?” She almost cried out, her body shivering from the cold wet night.

“Oh, um, yes, I believe there is one last train coming. It comes in the evenings very late usually.” The man in the window turned and pulled up something on the computer.

“Ah, yes, here we are, the night train will be coming here shortly. Looks like it is running a little early. It will be another ten minutes of waiting.” The man turned and looked at the girl in front of his window, shivering in the cold.

“I’m sorry miss, Uh, would you like to borrow my umbrella? I hate to see you getting this soaked in such bad weather.”

“Oh, I don’t want to be a bother.” Fluttershy tried to say, but the man had already turned and opened a door to the side, he handed her a large blue umbrella and popped it open over her.

“I would let you inside where it is warm and dry, but unfortunately I’m not allowed to let others in , and anyways there is only enough room for one.” He said gesturing to the tiny enclosed space.

“Oh, thank you, this is fine.” Fluttershy said as she took the umbrella and held it over her head. She smiled as the rain pelted against the umbrella instead of her. At least the train will be dry and warm, she thought to herself.

“Listen, I’m usually off, but I had a few things to write up, I can keep you company until the train comes if you would like. I would feel bad letting a young woman like you stay here in this horrid weather all alone, even if the train is to be here in a few minutes.”

“Oh, no, I don’t want to be a bother, I mean thank you, you are very kind, but still I really don’t want to keep you from anything important.”

She replied, her voice keeping a level tone, albeit still with an air of uncertainty, and timidness as she spoke. The man shook his head is response.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine. I have nowhere important to be.”

The two stood there, the man occasionally politely asking a few questions like what had her out in such horrible weather, where she was from, where was she going, did she have a warm place to get to. She answered everything politely, she had been visiting of friend of hers in the city, she was going home to Ponyville, and yes she was meeting a few friends at the train station.

After a little bit of time of conversation there came a low rumbling sound. Fluttershy looked up to see a massive black shape looming from the distance through the rain.

“Well, here it is, this is the night train, you will be the only one boarding from here. It only waits a couple of minutes so I’ll get on board.” The man offered. Fluttershy thanked him, but handed his umbrella back, before rushing over to the train and climbing aboard. Just as she got on and sat in an empty seat, there came a long loud hissing sound, and a short blow of the whistle there was a jerking motion as the train already began to pull from the tracks.

Fluttershy looked out the dark window, to try and find the man who had stayed with her to wave goodbye, but she could not see anything with the lights inside the passenger car on right above her. She could only see her own reflection in the window, and just a deep dark silhouette of the train station outside.

Strange, she thought, I guess he already turned the light off and left after I handed him his umbrella.

Fluttershy turned to look around the inside the car as another flash of lightning inside lit up the darkness outside.

The man was still there, in his full attire, the hat on his head, a dark pale look to his features were caught in the brief light cast by the storm. His eyes had a slight red glow to them, a frightening smile on his lips, seemed to twist his features almost into a devilish form, a dark red jagged line between his head and shoulders, the substance running down quickly darkening his suit.

As the flash of light doused, mere millisecond later another took its place, as fluttershy turned, a shiver suddenly running down her spine. Beyond the glass in the flash of light, she didn’t see anything but the now vacant platform beginning to move away from her view as the train slowly moved forward, seeming to take forever gaining speed.
A lurch of the train and that quickly changed as the train began to pull away from the city train station with slightly more speed. Fluttershy sighed and leaned back, she pulled out her phone and pulled up a name of her friend, Rainbow Dash. She set up a quick text to her, and added two other names to the text to make things easier by sending a mass text. The message was she missed her train and was now on a night train so would be arriving a little bit later than she had anticipated.

After sending the message Fluttershy leaned her head back against the cushion of the train and heaved a small sigh, the sounds of the constant muffled clacking of the tracks and the steady shaking and rocking motion slowly began to lull her to sleep.

Fluttershy looked around the empty room. She felt a chill and shivered trying to rub her arms to warm herself up. She could not remember coming into this room, she could not even remember where she was at the time. She heard a small voice behind her. She turned to look to find a long dark hallway behind her, she knew it wasn’t there moments ago. She stood thinking how strange it was when she heard the voice again.

“Oh, Fluttershy, I’m so sorry...” She looked into the shadows of the hallway. The voice had been familiar, a little gruff and boyish, she could just make out the silhouette of someone walking closer. She realized by the multicolored hair that it was her best friend Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow, whats wrong? Why are you sorry?” She looked into her friends face and saw her eyes were strained and blood shot from crying, even now she began to shed more tears as Rainbow sniffled and wrapped her arms around her in a hug.

“Oh, If only I had gone with you to make sure you had made it home...” Came another familiar voice.

Another person stepped from the shadows, a young woman with velvet purple hair, pale skin like alabaster, and a fashionable black gown.

The sounds of loud sobs could be heard to her left, Fluttershy turned to see her other friends, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Apple Jack, and Spike, all with looks of sorrow. Pinkie was sobbing harshly, while Twilight tried to comfort her, holding her in an almost motherly embrace. The two were also wearing black clothing, and behind Pinkie were three balloons, usually she carried around colorful ones, but these also were black. She looked to Spike, the practically adopted younger brother of Twilight, he had hit his growth spurt recently, though several years younger than the rest of the girls, he was a few inches taller than them all now. He wore a black suit and tie, she was sure he would look handsome if only he did not look so sad. He just stood next to Twilight, still holding Pinkie, his eyes bored holes into the ground at his feet. AppleJack stood next to Spike, with a similar look of sorrow, her stetson hat removed and held over her chest.

After a moment, Fluttershy realized that Rainbow was no longer holding her. She looked around to find herself all alone once again.

She began to whimper as she was definitely frightened now, this was the strangest thing ever. She suddenly found herself walking forward, almost, being drawn forward into the shadows of the hallway. She walked on for a few moments before she heard another voice, one that was melodic, and spoke of passion, vitality, and wisdom. She then saw Celestia, standing in front of a podium, her friends all gathered around something. Celestia was speaking, but Fluttershy could not hear anything that was being said.
She glanced between all of her friends and came to a halt, a frightening realization in front of her. There in a casket was her own self, quiet, a peaceful look on her face, as her friends around her seemed to cry out in anguish.

“No... No, NO, NOOOO!!!”

The screaming woke her, and Fluttershy looked around, the light was dim, but still there, outside a storm seemed to envelope the land all around her view. She felt a strange sensation of moving, and yet she was not doing anything. Slowly her mind was able to piece things together.

Her visit to Rarity in Canterlot, her finding a poor orphan kitten and feeding it, before finding a shelter for it, then realizing the time and rushing through the storm soaked streets to the train station. Missing her train, but boarding another one. She glanced around, she had been sure when she had sat in the passenger car she had been alone, but as she glanced up over the top of the seats she saw the heads scattered about in other seats in front of her.

No one seemed to notice her, or even the scream that had came from her as she woke from that brief nightmare. She settled back sighing with relief.

Her moment of peace did not last as she jumped at a gruff voice.

“Ticket, miss.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” She apologized as she regained her composure. She fished around in her coat pocket and brought out her slightly wet train ticket and handed it over. The man looked at it before handing it back and moving on without another word.

Fluttershy leaned back and seemed to shrink into the chair, a look of concern in her face. She had hoped she would make it home ok, and the dream was only just that.

The ride on the train seemed to stretch, Fluttershy once again found herself close to drifting off again when nearby voices caught her attention. She slowly raised herself up to see a group of people a few rows down from her all standing around in the aisle talking to one another, one or two seemed to glance her way, making her drop out of sight quickly with a small whispered shriek.

“Looks like we have a new passenger.” Came the sultry voice of a woman.

“Oh, yes, indeed. Shall we... Introduce ourselves?” Came a chuckling response of a man. The way he said the last part had Fluttershy shuddering. It just didn’t sound right, as if the man was intending something dreadful. She had spoken to all of her friends at various times about her point of view and why she was always so timid and frightened of things. Mostly other people frightened her because of the way they acted and spoke. In her mind it always seemed like they had harmful or dark intentions. Her friends had worked with her at length to try and get over this. It had helped and she had slowly improved. Which was why she was not moving now, that or it could have been the paralyzing fear.

She could definitely tell this mans intent was not very nice at all.

No, no, that's not what Twilight and everyone says, its just my fear getting the better of me. I cannot let that happen. Think clearly, don’t over react.

Her internal struggle between her friends advice and her own fear came to a halt as a shadow fell over her.

“So, my dear, are you here to join us?” The man asked. She recognized the sound of his voice as the man who had replied to the woman. She looked to his left and saw the other people, five others, standing next to him, all their eyes cast down on her.

“N-no, thank you. I just, just want to get some sleep before I get home. I don’t mean to bother anyone.”

“Oh, Cedric, you daft old fool, you’ve gone and scared the poor girl. Such a brute at times, and that laugh, I’ve told you time and time again not to laugh like that, you sound positively sinister.” Came the voice of another woman, she was elderly and seemed so kind. Her face was pale, and slightly plump. Strange as she seemed to be wearing an old fashioned red dress from an earlier period of time. In fact, all the others were wearing clothing of different and earlier times.

Strange, I wonder if they are trying to follow fashion like Rarity, she said some of the far older swinging fashions were trying to make a come back.

The red dress glistened and sparkled at her movements, large double looped pearl necklace hung down from around her neck, a small hat tilted on her head, a long thing black stick in her hand, the end of it a white cylinder, wisps of smoke drifting into the air.

Fluttershy grimaced as she realized it was a long pipe holding a lit cigarette, she could not smell thew smoke thankfully as it was held away from everyone as the woman turned, bright red lipstick gracing the thin strips of flesh.

The other men wore various suits, from early Victorian to just thirty years prior.

Fluttershy suddenly felt more than uncomfortable, almost suffocated with these people so near her. She slowly shrank into her seat a little more. As her arm pressed against the wall of the passenger car, Fluttershy jumped suddenly feeling a shock, she looked outside and saw nothing but darkness. Her mind began to suddenly take in that the train felt off, the vibrations of the train were harsher, as she gazed outside, momentarily forgetting the others around her, she saw a black silhouettes of a town flash by.

Her mind panicked.

“How fast are we going?”

“Oh, quit fast. We must always try to make a proper speed before we make our stop.” Cedric, the man who first spoke responded, now a dark glint in his eyes as Fluttershy had turned to gaze at those around here. Fluttershy shrank back at the looks of everyone.

Some of the men wore strange grinning looks, the way their clothing and the lighting overhead left shadows over their lowered faces as they all gazed down at her. The others just held solemn dark looks, the only two women present stared off into nothingness, their eyes dark and blank.

“What stop? Ponyville?”

“Oh no, deary, it is someplace else.” Everyone present seemed steady and yet also became jostled as the train seemed to reach a speed faster than any other train ride Fluttershy had ever been on. Fluttershy was slightly thrown forward against the back of the seat in front of her. She braced herself as there was a repeated instance of this. Fluttershy closed her eyes tight.

“Oh, I got on the wrong train.” She wailed, slightly over a screeched whisper.

“Oh, she is ever so frightened.” Came a deep chuckle from Cedric again, and yet his voice seemed different. It was not only deep but raspy as well, lacking any feel of life ion his words. The others laughed, strangely, cackles from the other men, and shrills from the women. Fluttershy was frightened but opened her eyes and saw something that threw her eyes wide at the ghastly sight before her.

Cedric stood in front of her a mangled skeletal being with flesh hanging loose from his body, his grin white and braced for eternity from the teeth that almost glowed white from the skull.

The woman next to him seemed a torrent of burned and scarred flash of flesh, bone, and clothing. The pearls were pulled tight around her throat, digging deep into the flesh, blue and purple bruises obvious around the white orbs. Her eyes were missing, part of her head smoking and skin seared black from being burned. The smell of burnt flesh filled Fluttershy’s nose, almost making her gag, along with the smell of blood and rot. The other patrons were also mangled up bodies a couple with pieces and parts of metal sticking out of their bodies, one even standing there without a head.

Tears streamed out of her eyes, the bile in her stomach starting to rise from her stomach, she pulled away and screamed in horror at the sight before her.

“Oh, yes, scream all you want, no others can hear you, but a wailer is sometimes pleasant when they die. Peggy, you were the last wailer were you not?” Cedric seemed to ask the woman in the red dress.” Dark humorless, and evil laughter erupted all around from the other people in the car.

“No, Get away from me, I don’t want to die. I’m just trying to go home to be with my friends!” Fluttershy screamed. The vibrations of the train seemed to grow until it seemed dangerously violent, the car jerking now, the metal wheels starting to pull up from the tracks before landing back down, lights of sparks flying up, the screaming of metal against metal overpowering the laughter, and yet also seemed to be laughter along with the others.

“Oh, it is far too late now, my dear. I believe you will be here with us forever.” The laughter, that horrid laughter. There were loud sounds of metal screaming, different than the wheels railing against the tracks, no, it was the buckling of metal, followed by the loud snaps of wood.

Fluttershy could do nothing but lower her head, cover ears and scream, tears pouring from her eyes.

“Where is she?” Rainbow asked, looking to the others. Once more she checked her cell phone, the last text had come an hour before, from Fluttershy, saying she would be late but was on her way.

“I don’t know, Rainbow.” Twilight responded. She looked up at the sky, the clouds were heavy and dark, but the storm seemed to have ceased for the time being.

Their heads turned as one as in the distance there was the scream of something loud, crashing, and a small explosion.

The three friends jumped and screamed at the same time once they realized the explosion and all was a wreck further down along the train tracks.

“FLUTTERSHY!!!”