Author's Note

Picture a foal, a foal whose parents love him, or so he thought. Why do they favor a monster over him? He has been nothing but a good boy. He tries to make his parents and his brother happy, but it's all in vain. You have entered Twilight's Zone.

Warning Tags: Violence, Abuse

Schaden Sein

Dear Diary
I made a new friend! He's super-duper cute. I just love him to bits. I'll take good care of him I promise!

-Love Railway Spine

Dear Diary,
I took my new friend out for a walk today, he's kinda odd. He's just sort of a pile of wavy smoke. I'm not sure how to take care of him. I tried to feed him food I could find in the fridge but he just stared at it. I wonder if that's normal for a pile of smoke. I also took him on a walk. I got a few odd stares but I don't care. I'll take good care of you!

-Love Railway Spine

Dear Diary,
My new friend, who I have named Schaden Sein, or Sien for short. I am going to pour all my love into this little being who will grow up to be my bestest friend ever. We’ll be the closest of brothers.

-Love Railway Spine

Dear Diary,
Sein isn’t who I thought he would be, I treat him with love and he just throws it back at me. Am I feeding him the wrong thing? I ask my mom but she doesn't answer. I don't understand why. I tried extra hard today, to make sure he was happy. I also tried to get mom to look at me. She won’t look at me. I miss her attention

-Love Railway Spine

Dear Diary,
Something awful happened, Sien hit me in the face. I don't know why I tried to tell mom but she just ignored me again. I hate it when she does that. She seems to do it more often these days. She gives all the attention to Sien, I don't understand why. Am I not good enough? Maybe it was just an accident.

-Love Railway Spine

Dear Diary,
Sein is getting worse, he's grown more violent. He hits me with whatever he can find. If he can't find anything he uses his hooves. He's grown from an odd blob to a small filly in just a few days. He is now bigger than I am and I have no idea why.

-Love Railway Spine

Dear Diary,
I do my best to please Sein, I give him my toys, I give him my food, and I let him have all our parents love. Nothing works no matter how hard I try. He still ends up getting angry and hitting me. I don't understand how to help him. I don’t understand why mom still won’t look at me.

-Love Railway Spine

Dear Diary
I asked for mom's help again today. I told her about all the bad things Sein was doing to me.

Then I got up and showed her a scar he gave me, "and Sein gave me this," I said.

She didn't even look at me, She didn't even look at me. I tried again. I even ended up yelling at her but she still did nothing. She just kept staring into her cup filled with red liquid. I don’t understand.

-Love Railway Spine

Dear Diary
I thought Sein had hit me again today, but he didn’t. I was in the bedroom when I went through it, he was hitting me on the sides with his hooves. It was so real. Then I was back in the bedroom and I asked my brother “why did you hit me this time?”

I’m still trying to figure out how to get him to stop, he said. “I didn’t but I will if you don’t shut up.”

I was very confused, I believe him of course. It felt so real than when I thought about it harder. I realized he didn’t move. I don’t understand, it felt so real.

-Love Railway Spine

Dear Diary
Sein went too far today, I told him that he looked funny. It was supposed to be a joke but he didn't take it as a joke. He smashed my head into the living room floor. I was still there when I woke up. Mom didn't even take me to the hospital. I don't think she likes me anymore. I think she prefers Sein now. I don't understand why. I thought she loved me.

-Railway Spine

Dear Diary
Sein hurt me again today. Threw me against a fence. I didn’t even tell mom, what was the point? She didn't care about me anymore. She even stopped making me dinner. I have to feed myself now. I just have to do my best to try and survive.

-Railway Spine

Dear Diary
I'm trying my best to avoid mom and Sien, I only leave my room for food. I try and eat at odd hours. 10 am, 3 pm and 9 pm. That way I'm not in the kitchen when they are. I have learned what sound each pony makes. Whatever I have to do to avoid them. It doesn't work, somehow Sien always finds me. No matter where I hide, he knows where I am.

-Railway Spine

Dear Diary
I'm writing to you for what I think may be the last time. I'm in the kitchen right now and I hear Sein. I picked up a knife and held it in my magic. I wasn't going to let him hurt me. Not this time. Not-

A mother screamed in pain. She looked down to see a knife in her chest. She looked up to Sien who just smiled at her with glee. Her body flopped onto the marble floor, blood spilling from it and onto the white tiles. Sirens could be heard in the distance.

"Mam I want you to explain to us one more time. What happened?"

A worn-out pegasus mother looked up from her hospital bed at two officers. "it all began with Sien. He was always a little violent then he got an imaginary friend. He called him Railway Spine. He had a friend, which was good, even if he was imaginary. I treated Railway like he was another part of the family, I was just so excited. I thought that Sien was over his..tendencies."

She took a shaky breath and continued, "then I caught him playing with Railway. He..he was torturing his imaginary friend. After I caught him staring at the living room floor. I asked him what he was doing. He told me.

"I'm teaching Railway a lesson. He's been taking too much of your attention so I smashed his face into the floor."

I just couldn't believe it you know? Abusing his friend. I got scared and I started to ignore Railway. I stopped including him in things in Hope's that Sien would stop. He didn't, I caught him staring at random objects more and more often."

"Then one night I hear him chanting

"Die die die"

I called the police and ran right to him. I wish I hadn't. I had never seen a pony sport a smile with so much malice in it. It would have made King Sombra jealous. I didn't even have time to react before I was stabbed….what….what will happen to my son now?"

"We have him going through a psychology evaluation right now. He will be staying in a mental hospital. I assume you don't want to press charges…" The unicorn officer said trailing off the end of his sentence, he hated that he was required to ask that.

She shook, quiet tears rolling down her cheeks. She put her hooves up to her face and shook her head no.

"Well give you time to breathe. In the meantime have this," the other officer, an earth pony, said. He used his magic to hand her some papers. "It's about the options out there for you. We wanna make sure you get the help you need. We'll leave you be."

She waited till the officers left to sob uncontrollably. What could she have done differently? Was there anything to be done? At least Railway wasn't real….at least he didn't feel anything.