"Have you all heard of the story of the death train?" Rainbow Dash blurts out the question as Rarity lights candles and pours tea for everyone. They stare at her in fixation, for they know that nothing was as intense as one of Rainbow Dash's legends and folklore.
Rainbow Dash smiled at them, delighted to see their girlish eyes locked on her. " This is an old Train-colt's tale. They passed this down for many years and when each of their times came, the 11:59 death train came to take them away."
"Hey Dash, What's 11:59 stand for?" Twilight Sparkle asks, confused. "It seems a little weird."
"That's exactly the point!" Cried Rainbow. "The train workers used to say that if you hear a train's whistle at exactly 11:59pm, you're death will come before 11:59pm the next night. It's meant to give you enough time to take care of you're Equestrian matters and say good-bye before the train picks you up. By 11:59pm, you die...It's unavoidable"
They all stared in silence at Dash for a moment, then burst out in laughter. "That has to be the most unbelievable thing i've ever heard!" Shouts Twilight, struggling to talk through her heavy laughter.
Embarrassed, Rainbow flushes bright red and looks away from the group. She was ashamed that even Fluttershy was giggling uncontrollably about Rainbow's Train Story. She knew she believed in the death train, it's been told of for hundreds of years...She believed..but her friends..didn't.
Rainbow walked home alone that night, because her friends thought of her weirdly now. She lived a while away from her friends..up in the clouds. It was where she felt safe. As she walked by the old abandoned train station, she stared at it and thought about her story and how her friends laughed it away. She took in every detail of a broken-down train engine. Its wheels, controls, and the big headlight that adorned it's front side. Dash had always liked trains, ever since she was a little filly-- That's when she heard it. A sound that chilled her to the bone. A distant train whistle..that which sound was carried away by the wind.
Dash's heart skipped a beat when she remembered that not only was the train station abandoned, but no trains ever ran at night. She didn't dare look at the time..She didn't want to, but she let her eyes drift to the town's clock tower...It was true..the time was 11:59..
"N-No," she whimpered into the empty night." My time hasn't came yet..I need more time!" As she yelled her last sentence, she found herself flying away, leaving the cold train station behind her. It's unavoidable. Her dreaded words echoed through her mind over and over. It's unavoidable.
"Well, by Celestia I'll try!" She shouted out as she boarded up her windows. To take precautions from her fated death, she locked her door, and unplugged everything electrical. Alas, while she sits in the floor of her bedroom in the dark, her stomach rumbles for satisfaction. She needed to eat, bad.
"No, I can't eat..I might get food poisoning..or i might choke to death on the food..or drown on a drink.." As she said this, her left fore-hoof started feeling a bit numb. She figured it was just the way she was sitting, so she lay on the floor calmly and a few minutes later, fell asleep.
When she awoke from her restless sleep, Dash's fore-hoof was completely numb and her chest was hurting. She squinted as early morning light filtered through her boarded up windows. It was just enough light to check the time. 12:00 am. A little less than 12 hours until she is to be picked up by the death train. "If it ever gets me." As she rubbed her fore-hoof and winced in pain. "My body must be aching from not getting enough food. No matter how much it hurts, I can't eat anything until i beat the 11:59's death toll." For the rest of the day, until the night she kept her thoughts on her life..only her life. Her mistakes and greatest achievements.
She regarded her mistakes the most of all. Never finding colt-friend and never having fillies. All the years she's lived, she's been alone. Now, her life was going to end and she will never have a chance to change her life. Deep in the night, her fore-hoof was so numb the it started tingling and the pain in her chest grew heavier and heavier.
Dash yearned to know the time, though she was afraid of a gas leak, therefore she couldn't light a match to reveal her watch's time. Though her mind and body protested, she lifted her un-pained fore-hoof and lit a match. She held the watch to the light and looked closely at the face's hands. 11:57. This is it. She thought to herself. My last chance to try to beat death at its own game..is that even possible?
Her match went out suddenly and though she was hesitant to light another, she did. At that moment, no gas leak blew up her house, something seemed to explode in her chest. She heard a distant rain whistle and checked the time again.11:58. At that instant, a train crashed through the front the front of her home.
She was blinded by the intense headlight on the front of the train. It slowed down and finally stopped beside her and the whistle blew, causing Dash's ears to ring. An all white mare stepped out of the train and smiled in an odd, lonely way at Rainbow Dash. Her voice seemed to get carried away by the wind "It's your time Rainbow Dash. Time to board the 11:59. Come with me."
Rainbow dash knew that she could not have cheated death. Though she may try her hardest, it's unavoidable. She shrugged and smiled at the specter in front of her. "I guess it is time for me to go,huh? No luggage needed?" She steeped one hoof at a time onto the 11:59.
When Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be found for a couple of days and never came to Rarity's ghost story nights, Twilight and Fluttershy were sent to find her. They looked everywhere for her, calling her over and over. Fluttershy finally went to check Dash's house and knocked quietly. When no one answered, she trotted inside.
There Rainbow was, lying on the floor in a crumpled heap with no pulse. Stone dead. Fluttershy turned on the nearest light and noticed that Rainbow Dash's eyes were fixed on her watch. Mysteriously, it was stopped. It was stopped at 11:59. The Death Train had come and it came for her.
