Chapter 1: The Lonely Siding
One cloudy afternoon in Ponyville, Scootaloo was riding her scooter towards the old Ponyville Railyard. She was making good time down the dusty road that led there, and all the while, she kept thinking in her head about why she was going.
At school, a number of the colts and fillies had been telling a story, one that had been retold time and time again among various circles, and had intrigued many Ponies over the years. According to the story, within the Ponyville Railyard, in a siding towards the back, by themselves, on rusty, overgrown tracks, sat 6 old hopper cars filled with gray gravel. These 6 cars had been sitting there for ages, not moving, not being moved, yet still filled with gravel, seemingly waiting to be delivered somewhere. The cars were rusty, their numbers and lettering on the sides marking them as belonging to the Equestrian Railroad long since faded. Nopony knew why these 6 cars were left there, but the story was that as the cars were being moved through the yard one day, they struck and killed a switchpony who didn't hear them rolling behind him, and that's why they were put away on that siding. Others said that the cars were cursed somehow, but at the end of the day, nopony knew for sure, or even if the 6 gravel cars existed at all. Some Ponies doubted their existence, and no one from the Equestrian Railroad had ever commented on the matter either, but pictures of the 6 gravel cars did seemingly exist, and had made their rounds through the newspapers and magazines over the years. However, the mystery had never been solved regarding the 6 gravel cars, or their existence solidly confirmed.
"Until today", Scootaloo thought. "Today, I'm FINALLY going to solve the mystery of the 6 old gravel cars, and prove their existence! I sure wish that Sweetie Belle and Applebloom could be here though."
Scootaloo frowned, thinking about her 2 best friends. Applebloom was out of town that weekend with Applejack, Big Mac, and Granny Smith at a family event, while Sweetie Belle was spending the weekend with her sister Rarity. That just left Scootaloo, who wanted to spend the weekend with Rainbow Dash, but since she was away at a Wonderbolt show, that wouldn't be possible. So instead, Scootaloo decided to try and solve the mystery of the old gravel cars.
After riding for another few minutes, Scootaloo finally reached a pedestrian bridge that ran along one side of the Ponyville Railyard. Scootaloo stopped, and looked out through the fence that ran along the top of the bridge. Down below her, Scootaloo saw long lines of trucks, coaches, and various other railway freight cars, as well as small yard engines marshaling the various cars around, forming freight trains on some tracks, or dismantling other freight trains, and putting the cars in various sidings. A large steam locomotive was just leaving the yard with a heavy freight train in tow, and it blasted its whistle several times. Scootaloo looked around, and towards the back of the railyard, Scootaloo saw a row of freight sheds. Supposedly, according to the story, somewhere behind those freight sheds lay the siding that contained the 6 Old Gravel Cars.
"Now then, how am I going to get in there?" She wondered.
Since she was just a young teenager, and didn't work for the Equestrian Railroad, Scootaloo knew that she wouldn't be able to get in legally, but would instead have to sneak into the railyard, and over towards the back where the siding supposedly was. She knew that her best way of getting in would be to find a hole in the fence that surrounded the Railyard, so after getting off the pedestrian bridge, Scootaloo slid down a dirt embankment near the bridge, and soon found herself standing in front of the chain-link, barbed wire-topped fence that surrounded the Railyard. All over it were signs warning that the area was private property, and that trespassers would be prosecuted. Other signs warned about guard dogs, and hazardous equipment.
"Hmm. I certainly hope that there aren't any guard dogs in there."
Scootaloo had heard from a classmate who's brother worked in the Railyard that those signs were just to discourage trespassers, as having dogs running around a railyard while trains and cars were moving around everywhere was a recipe for disaster. Pushing these thoughts aside for now, Scootaloo began to walk along the length of the fence, looking for any holes, or other small gaps that she could wriggle through to access the Railyard. After looking for a long time, Scootaloo finally found a small hole in the chain-link fence that she could crawl through, so after leaving her scooter by some bushes near the hole, Scootaloo got down on her belly, and wriggled through the hole. Once she was inside the Railyard, she looked around quickly to make sure that nopony saw her. Nopony was in sight, so after sighing, brushing the dust off of her clothes from crawling through the hole, Scootaloo began to make her way along the fence near one of the freight sheds, slowly making her way towards the back of the Railyard.
Soon, Scootaloo began to notice that the further she got from the regular railyard, the more unkempt, overgrown, and disused the area became. Weeds, and tall grass grew up around rusty old rails that made up a series of empty sidings. Old cans, bottles, bits of metal, and other junk littered the ground, and aside from the wind blowing through the trees outside of the Railyard, and the cawing of crows that perched in said trees, as well as the distant whistles, and rumblings of trains in the yard, the air was eerily still.
"It's kinda spooky." Scootaloo thought to herself. "It's like they forgot that this area exists anymore."
It was starting to get dark, and Scootaloo kept looking around, but to her dismay, she didn't see the 6 gravel cars anywhere. All of the sidings back behind the freight sheds were empty, and there wasn't a soul to be seen anywhere. However, just as she was about to give up, Scootaloo walked past a set of rusty, overgrown switches, she looked past some overgrown bushes, and let out a small gasp. There, looming behind the bushes, was a series of 6 old hopper cars. They had once been painted gray, but their paint had long ago faded, replaced instead by rust. The lettering spelling out "Equestrian Railroad" had also long ago faded, but Scootaloo could see that the cars were indeed filled with gray gravel, as she could see the tops of the gravel in the cars from where she was standing.
"They....they are real!" She gasped a bit, taking out her camera to take pictures of the cars. "The 6 Old Gravel Cars are actually real!"
"Hey, you!" A gruff voice from behind Scootaloo growled. "What the hell are you doing back here?!"
Scootaloo jumped in fright, before turning around to see who had spoken. When she saw who it was, her eyes got a bit wide. The figure was a Human, one of a handful in Equestria, though this one was older. Dark, graying hair could be seen peeking out from underneath his faded old railroad cap, and he was dressed in a dark shirt, worn overalls, and black boots, typical of those who worked on the Equestrian Railroad. His face was covered in dark stubble, his piercing blue eyes seemed to look right through Scootaloo, and he also had a lit cigarette in his mouth. The figure was also holding a railroad lantern, which was now lit, and also revealed a faded tattoo of a black wolf's pawprint on the man's wrist. He looked menacing, and Scootaloo was terrified that he was going to hurt her.
"Again, what the hell are you doing back here? This is private property, and you're trespassing!"
"S-s-sorry, Sir." Scootaloo stammered. I..I d-didn't mean to trespass."
"How did you get in here? And why are you here? Are you a vandal?"
"N-no, Sir! I'm....I'm not a vandal! I c-crawled through a hole in the fence, a-and I came here to s-see if the rumors were true."
"Oh, so you came looking for the 6 Old Gravel Cars, did you?" The Human asked, a bit less gruff and anger in his voice.
"Y-yes, Sir. I wanted to know if they really existed, and why they're the way that they are."
The Human sighed. "What's your name, Missy?" He asked, taking a drag from his cigarette.
"S-Scootaloo, Sir."
The Human nodded. "Nice to meet you, Scootaloo, I'm Dirk. And you want to know about the 6 Old Gravel Cars, do you?"
"Yes, Sir. Do you know anything about them?"
Dirk nodded gravely, taking another drag. "Yes, I do. I was the one who put them there, long ago."
"Why though? Why did you put them there, Dirk?" Scootaloo asked.
Dirk sighed, and began his tale.
"Many years ago, way back when I was still a young man, I'd just started working in this railyard a few months prior. At the time, I had a coworker named Oilcan. He was an Earth-Pony stallion with brown fur, a black mane and tail, gray eyes, wore clothes almost identical to mine, and worked as a switchpony. His job was to throw the various switches in the yard as trains were being marshaled around the yard, and he was a very hard worker, but yet he wasn't very nice. He would argue with his boss, pick fights with his coworkers, and just be an all-around asshole. Worse still, he would drink on the job."
"Wait, he drank on the job? As in, he drank alcohol? Isn't that illegal?"
Dirk nodded. "Oh, extremely illegal, but he didn't care. Laws were a bit looser back then, but he was still facing serious charges, not to mention termination if he was caught drinking on the job, but no one could catch him drinking, as he did it when no one was around, and didn't get drunk enough for our supervisor at the time to notice. The rest of us did though, and we knew that it was only a matter of time until something really bad happened, and unfortunately, we were right."
"W-what happened?" Scootaloo asked nervously.
"On a cloudy late afternoon just like today, 'bout 30 years ago, a heavy freight train was being marshaled in the yard. It needed various cars from all over the yard, and it had to be ready by 5:30pm on the dot, so the yard engines, their crews, and the switchponies were racing around trying to get the train ready. Oilcan was helping, but because we were so busy at the time, we failed to notice that this time, he was very drunk. He was supposed to uncouple a line of 6 hopper cars filled with gravel that were needed for the train, which he did, but he was supposed to do so when a yard locomotive was there to take them away, not before. However, his drunken ass decided to just uncouple the damn cars, and let them roll down the tracks to where the rest of the train was being marshaled. And because the track that the 6 cars were sitting on was a slight grade, and the cars's brakes were off, they began to roll slowly down the siding that they were on, and towards the train further down the yard being marshaled."
"And what happened next, Dirk?" Scootaloo asked, still nervous.
"Somehow, Oilcan stumbled away from where the cars were uncoupled, and staggered over to where we were working on the train. I was standing next to some boxcars, making sure that they were coupled up properly, and was working on attaching the air hoses when Oilcan stumbled over to me. He was blatherin' drunkenly about something, and I shoved him away from me, causing him to fall down onto a switch-track. I was just about to rip him a new asshole for being drunk on the job, when suddenly, one of the yard engine crews shouted a warning about an oncoming line of runaway cars. I looked up, and to my horror, there were the 6 gravel cars, rolling towards our train at a fair bit of speed, maybe 20mph. I screamed a warning, and we all scrambled clear, but Oilcan wasn't so lucky. The leading hopper car ran him over, crushing him beneath its wheels, before crashing into the boxcar I had been standing beside less than 5 seconds earlier, denting it severely, and knocking it partially off the rails."
Scootaloo's eyes went wide with horror. "He....got crushed to death?" She asked nervously.
Dirk shook his head. "No, and that's the scary part. Oilcan was still alive after the leading gravel hopper ran him over, and crushed him beneath its wheels. He....g-got cut in half, but somehow, he was still alive when firefighters got to him, and once he sobered up in a hurry, he screamed in agony. Still to this day, I've NEVER forgotten those screams. It was like the screams of the damned in Tartarus. Worse still was when the screams stopped, and I realized that Oilcan was now dead, and his drunkenness had gotten him killed in a horrifyingly grizzly way.
It took hours for the EMT's to get all of his remains away from the wreck site, and another hour to bring in a railroad crane to re-rail the boxcar, plus another half hour to hose off all the blood from the gravel car, before hooking them up to the back of the train, finally putting in the damned caboose, and sending that bastard train on its way. And good riddance!" Dirk muttered angrily, taking another drag off his cigarette. "Nobody even missed that dumbass Oilcan, but yet, we were all still in horror at how he died. Railroading is a dangerous business, but he didn't deserve to die like that. While we still hated him, we did feel sorry for him in that regard. His name was added to the list of now 6 people and Ponies who had died in accidents at the railyard, and the 3 who suffered a heart attack and died while on the clock, for a total of 9 now. We thought that that was the end of the matter, but oh, how wrong we were."
"What do you mean?"
Dirk sighed again, a look of fear crossing his weathered face. "Oilcan may have been dead, but he sure as heck wasn't gone. A few weeks after the fatal accident, some of the Railyard workers began to report the smell of alcohol in the air, despite there being no alcohol around. Others said that they felt like they were being watched in some of the back areas of the Railyard, despite their being no one, or anypony around. A few said that they saw a shadowy figure lurking by a line of freight cars, but when they investigated, they couldn't find anyone. I and others still called it hogwash, that is until one month after Oilcan died, we heard the screams."
"The...screams?"
"Yes, the screams. As we were all working, we suddenly heard the sounds of what sounded like 2 freight cars colliding, and then someone, or somepony screaming in agony, and it was coming from Line 11, the same line where the freight train was being marshaled that night. We all came running, but when we arrived, the screaming stopped, and there was no one, or anypony around, not even an animal. A few tanker cars stood idle in a nearby siding, but there was no train on Line 11, and no one, or anypony who could have been screaming, and then had time to get away unseen. We were baffled, and a police report was filed, but no one ever found anything. Some said that it was Oilcan's spirit, but others still weren't sure. Until the accidents started happening."
"What accidents?"
"Over the next few weeks, there came numerous reports from the mainline freight crews, and other railyard crews elsewhere in Equestria of at least one car in their freight train, or in the railyard derailing without explanation, having its air brake hoses disconnect mysteriously, or start randomly moving on its own. These reports were always of the same type of hopper car, though some were empty, others held coal, or gravel. Eventually, the serial numbers of these cars were checked, and it turns out that there were 6 hopper cars; all of them from the night that Oilcan had been killed. The worst of all was the hopper car that had been the leading car in the consist that hit him, and ran him over. Finally, all 6 cars were recalled to the Ponyville Railyard, inspected once again, and when it was found that nothing was wrong with them, they were hooked back together, and were to be sent out on another train, following a quick stop at the local rock quarry to get them filled with gravel. However, that was the last time that these cars were ever used. No one, or anypony knew what was about to happen, but if we had, then I know that we would have handled this much differently."
Scootaloo looked worried, and not entirely about the story either. Ever since she had met him, while he was somewhat gruff, and hadn't done anything to indicate that he had ill-intentions, Scootaloo couldn't shake the feeling that there was something....off-putting about Dirk. Maybe it was just his piercing eyes, maybe it was the fact that he'd seemingly appeared from nowhere all of a sudden, or maybe it was because he so openly smoked, and used trashy language around her, and didn't seem to care at all what she thought about smoking, or trashy language, but whatever it was, she felt unsettled.
"And what....what happened, Dirk?" She asked quietly.
Dirk sighed, taking yet another drawl from his cigarette. "Once the cars were filled with gravel, they were brought back here briefly to be coupled to the end of that train, bound for Manehattan. I was there that night, and I was the one who monitored the coupling of the gravel cars, and then attached, and checked all of the air hoses. However, as I did so, I had this....unnerving feeling that I was being watched, and whoever was doing so had sinister intentions. I looked all around, but I saw nothing. Then though, I heard it. It was faint, and I thought that it was my imagination, but I could have sworn that I'd heard a voice whisper, 'My....sleep'. I ignored it at first, thinking that it was the wind. It was cold that night, and I just wanted to get the job over with so that I could go home."
"Then what happened?"
"By this point, I was almost finished checking all of the air hoses, when I heard it again, louder this time. 'My...sleep'. I looked all around once again, this time thinking that someone or somepony was messing with me, but still, I was the only one around. It was just me.....and those gravel cars. Unnerved now, I quickly finished checking the hoses, before grabbing my radio, and I told the engineer of one of the yard engines that he was good to go to bring over the caboose for the freight train so that it could be coupled up to the back, and then the train could pull on out. I heard 2 whistle blasts in reply, and the yard engine started to move towards the back of the train with the caboose, but then suddenly, it happened. Still to this day, I don't know how it happened, but I suddenly heard a loud hissing sound, and then a metallic bang, before the back of the train suddenly became disconnected! The coupling between the last tanker car, and the first of the gravel cars had seemingly come uncoupled, and the gravel cars began to roll away!"
"Oh no! Why'd they come uncoupled, Dirk? What did you do?"
"What I was trained to do, I raised the alarm in the yard that we had 6 runaway cars, and I ran over to the lead gravel car, climbed up on the ladder on the front, and grabbed the car's brake wheel. I tried to turn the wheel to put the car's brakes on, but the wheel refused to budge. I yanked and pulled, but the wheel was stuck tight. I then got off the car in case it derailed, and the 6 runaway cars were soon switched into a siding, and came to a stop at a series of buffers. Once they'd stopped, I and others came running to see why the cars became disconnected. We inspected the lead gravel car's coupling, as well as the coupling on the rear tanker car, but to our growing unease, neither the couplings, nor the air hoses showed any signs of damage, or any kind of a fault that would prevent them from working properly; it was as if they'd uncoupled on their own. There were several eyewitnesses who had seen the tanker car, and the rear gravel car couple up to each other, and the coupling pins fall, and locked into place, meaning that the cars were securely coupled to one another, and then I connected the air hoses. There was no way that this should have happened, but it did. But what happened after this is the reason why those cars were banished to that siding, and left to rot."
"And what was that?"
Dirk frowned, but then shook his head. "Well....no. I don't want to tell you that. It's not for the feint of heart. Those cars were left there for a reason, not because they're dangerous, but it's because of......" He trailed off. "Just leave them be. You got what you came here for, now you need to go home, Young Scootaloo. This is not a safe place for you here, and if anyone, or anypony else sees you, you'll be in big trouble. Run along home, and feel proud that you saw the 6 Old Gravel Cars in person."
Scootaloo was confused. "Huh? Why won't you tell me what happened next, Dirk? I want to know what happened next, and why the cars were banished to that lonely siding."
Dirk scowled, his face suddenly not seeming so pleasant anymore. "I told you too much as it is. The sun is going down now, and you need to head on home, now. This is not a safe place, and if I were you, I'd drop this matter. Some things are best left buried, because they were buried for a reason."
"I'll go home, as soon as you tell me why those cars are in the lonely siding."
"Because of him...." Dirk muttered.
"What?"
"Nothing. Now GO!!! Go. Leave, right now, or I will call someone, and tell them that you're here illegally."
Scootaloo decided that she didn't want to get caught by the Ponyville Police for trespassing, so she decided to leave while she still could. Dirk watched her leave, his eyes never leaving her until she was back under the fence, and on the other side, having found her scooter, and heading home. Once she was gone, Dirk turned to look towards the setting sun, and then back at the 6 Gravel Cars, their shapes now looking more sinister on that overgrown siding as the sun went down. Suddenly, somewhere off in the distance, an owl hooted.
"Whenever the owl hoots, a mist rolls in." Dirk muttered. "And when there's mist about, there's a ghost about too." He then turned, and walked away. As he did so though, he looked back towards the fence. "Please, Scootaloo, don't do anything stupid." He thought. "If you push this, it'll break you, just like it broke me."
As she rode back home, Scootaloo was still trying to process what had just happened. She had indeed confirmed the existence of the 6 Old Gravel Cars, and she'd taken pictures of them, but at the same time, she'd also encountered Dirk, and learned some of their story from him, including the story of Oilcan, but then he just stopped the story, and pushed her away.
"That was so weird of him", She thought. "Why did he suddenly just stop the story, and tell me to go home? Granted, it could have been before anypony noticed that he was missing from his job, and came looking for him, and found me trespassing, and I think that that was part of it, but what about the rest of it? Why wouldn't Dirk tell me the rest of the story of why those cars were banished to that siding after somehow getting uncoupled from the rest of the train, and still filled with gravel? It makes no sense! I have to know more about what's going on there!"
It was then that Scootaloo made a decision that would haunt her for a very long time. She decided to sneak out of the house later that night, and return to the Ponyville Railyard, and hopefully finally get the answers that she wanted, this time without getting caught. She planned to wear black clothes this time, and knew that she might have to find a new place to sneak through the fence, as Dirk probably reported the hole that she'd used before.
"This is going to be so interesting", She thought to herself. "Tonight, I'm finally going to solve this mystery."
At about 1am that night, Scootaloo arrived back at the Ponyville Railyard, and once again hid her scooter in the bushes. The moon was partially obscured by clouds, and a low mist hung in the air, making it hard to see.
"Even better for me." She thought. "Now I can stay hidden even better." She then went to look for a new hole in the fence to squeeze through.
It took a long time, as it seemed that Dirk really had reported something to his superiors, as the vast majority of damage to the chain-link fence had suddenly been repaired. Even the hole she used to squeeze through before had been freshly welded together again, and gravel was piled underneath, preventing her from squeezing underneath it.
"Damn." She muttered. "They really must be trying to keep me out of there. But there's got to be a hole that they missed somewhere."
Eventually, Scootaloo reached the fence that ran along the furthest reaches of the Ponyville Railyard, and bordered the Everfree Forest. It was here that the sidings were rusty, and overgrown, trash lay strewn about, and the lights didn't really work, as this area was long-disused. It was also here that the 6 Old Gravel Cars were kept, though try as she might, Scootaloo was unable to see them from where she was standing, as they were obscured by some bushes. Suddenly, Scootaloo came to a spot on the very back of the fence where a tree had fallen onto the fence, crushing it inwards. If she was careful, she'd be able to climb up the fallen tree, avoid the barbed wire at the top, and then climb inside the Ponyville Railyard, with there still being enough of the tree on the other side for her to be able to climb back out again.
"If only my stupid wings were working!" She muttered angrily as she climbed. "WHY did they have to be malformed when I was born? I can't f@#king fly now because of that, and if I could, I wouldn't even have to worry about sneaking through the fence! Unless of course they have Magic barriers to prevent this." Scootaloo then picked up a loose stick from the tree, and tried to throw it over the fence, only to have it collide with something in midair, and then drop to the ground. "Yep, I wouldn't have been able to fly over this barrier even if my wings weren't malformed." She then finished climbing over the tree, and dropped down onto the other side, and was finally inside the Ponyville Railyard.
"Finally! Now then, let's see if I can find those 6 Old Gravel Cars again." She then began to make her way towards the freight sheds, as she knew that the 6 Gravel Cars were just beyond the farthest wall of the last shed.
As she walked though, Scootaloo kept looking anxiously around. The moon was still partially obscured by the clouds, and the mist still clung to the ground, and was in the air, making it hard to see. The lights in this part of the yard were mostly broken, though a few still worked, casting eerie shadows in the fog. She also couldn't really risk using a flashlight, just in case somepony saw it, and came over to investigate. The mist, and the low light levels, as well as the distant sounds of the active parts of the Railyard began to play with Scootaloo's mind. In the fog she saw shadows, and strange but scary shapes. And Dirk's story kept playing on her mind.
"Get a grip on yourself, Scoots. There's no such thing as ghosts. There's nothing wrong with those 6 gravel cars, and there's nothing here in the dark and the fog that you haven't seen in the daylight. It's just playing tricks with you. There's nothing to be afraid of." However, this didn't make Scootaloo feel too much better.
Eventually though, she reached the last freight shed, turned to her left, walked forward about a hundred steps, and there, illuminated by the light of several old, sometimes flickering yard lights, though partially hidden by overgrowth and the mist, there were the 6 Old Gravel Cars. Their dark, rusty shapes looked much more sinister at night in the fog. Scootaloo began to quietly snap more pictures of them, all the while though, she couldn't shake this uneasy feeling that she was being watched. After a little while, Scootaloo began to walk closer to the 6 Old Gravel Cars, a cool breeze blowing through the Railyard as she did so. This time, there was no Dirk to stop her, and eventually, she touched the first gravel car, which to her surprise still bore the dents, scratches, and other minor damage from colliding with that boxcar all those years ago.
"I don't know what Dirk was so afraid of", She thought. "Yes, Oilcan did die after this car ran him over, but it wasn't because of the car, it was because of his own negligence, and drunkenness." After a little while longer, Scootaloo felt that it was time to leave, and she began to turn to walk away from the gravel cars, and back towards the freight sheds, when she suddenly stepped on something.
"Huh?"
She looked down, and saw that it was an old beer bottle. The glass bottle was still intact, though the label had long since rotted away. Scootaloo then had a funny idea. She picked up the bottle.
"Hey, Oilcan!" She called as loudly as she dared. "Want another beer?" She then tossed the bottle, which hit the side of the lead Gravel Car, and smashed against it, shattering on impact.
Scootaloo froze. The shattering had been louder than she thought that it was going to be, and she waited another minute or so, but aside from the wind, and her own breathing, as well as the sounds of cars being moved around in the distance, no other sounds could be heard.
She then began to leave, when she suddenly heard it.
"My......sleep."
Scootaloo thought that it was just the wind, but then she heard it again, a bit louder, but still sounding like a raspy whisper.
"My......sleep."
Scootaloo looked all around her. "Wh-wh-who....who's there?" She asked nervously.
"Disturbed.......my sleep." The raspy whisper said again.
"Oh very funny, Dirk." Scootaloo snapped, turning back around to where it sounded like the voice was coming from, "You're truly terrifying."
However, as Scootaloo looked to where she thought she'd heard the voice from, which was near the 6 Old Gravel Cars, she didn't see Dirk anywhere. She also didn't see anyone, or anypony else; it was just her, and the 6 Old Gravel Cars.
As Scootaloo began to back away from them slowly, she heard it again.
"Sleeep...."
Suddenly, the few yard lights that were still working began to flicker, and from the area near the 6 Old Gravel Cars, Scootaloo thought that she could see pale yellow fireflies dancing in the night through the mist. Then the yard lights all went out, and the yellow fireflies grew brighter, revealing 8 tall, dark shapes behind them. Scootaloo squinted, and looked closer, and then with a rush of terror, it hit her. Those weren't fireflies, they were eyes! 8 pairs of glowing yellow eyes peering at her from 8 shadowy figures; the ghostly visages of deceased railway workers. Suddenly, a 9th shadowy figure appeared next to the leading gravel car, this one taller, and more menacing than the others, but seemingly had no eyes at first.
"You....disturbed...MY SLEEP!!!!" The figure roared.
Scootaloo jumped. The 9th shadowy figure in front of her had fiery red, glowing eyes, was wearing tattered, bloody overalls, a destroyed white shirt, and had clearly visible wounds around its abdomen. The figure then reached towards her, seemingly trying to grab her!
"OILCAN!!!!" Scootaloo screamed. She then took off running at top speed back towards the fallen tree, as Oilcan and his spectral coworkers vanished into the mist, none of them seemingly making any attempts to follow her.
Scootaloo reached the fallen tree, climbed it as fast as she could, which resulted in her slipping a bit, and getting cut, and her clothes torn apart by the barbed wire at the top, but Scootaloo didn't care. She had to get away from the Railyard as fast as she could. She knew now that Dirk had been trying to warn her, but she was too stupid to listen. Now she deeply regretted coming back there. Scootaloo then reached the other side of the fence, and ran along it until she found her scooter, and was just about to ride off into the misty night, when she heard a voice calling out to her.
"Scootaloo!"
She turned to look, and there, near one of the buildings in the Railyard, was another pair of glowing yellow eyes! Scootaloo screamed again, and was just about to ride away, when the figure stepped into the light of one of the functional yard lights, revealing the figure of Dirk.
"I warned you, you Stupid Little Filly!" He yelled as she rode away. "But you didn't want to listen to me, did you?! Now you'll suffer the consequences! What you saw tonight will never leave your memory!"
If Dirk said anything else, Scootaloo never heard it, as she was too far away. Once she was back home, she snuck back through her window, being careful not to make noise that would disturb her Aunt Lofty, and Aunt Holiday, went to her bathroom, took off her damaged clothes, cleaned her wounds in the sink, and then tried to get some sleep, but the memories of what she'd just seen haunted her. She didn't get any sleep that night, she just lay in her bed, hoping that she hadn't been followed home by Oilcan.
A few days of very little sleep later, Scootaloo decided to return to the Ponyville Railyard, this time to talk to Dirk again. She wanted to apologize to him, and hope that he would forgive her for not listening to him. However, she didn't want to go anywhere near where the 6 Old Gravel Cars were, but near the main entrance to the Railyard, Scootaloo noticed what appeared to be a small Visitor's Center. She went inside, and discovered that it was a small museum dedicated to the Ponyville Railyard, and the early history of the Equestrian Railroad. There were a number of pictures on the walls, and a number of railway tools on display, as well as a few dioramas showing the Ponyville Railyard through the years, and to Scootaloo's unease, the last 2 dioramas showed the lonely siding where the 6 Old Gravel Cars were, which were also included, plastic gravel loads and all. She then went up to the mare who was seated at the front counter, near a few small racks of souvenirs.
"Excuse me?"
The mare, Sure Sell, looked at her. "Yes? What can I do for you?"
"Have you been working here very long? I wanted to know if you knew somepony who worked in the Railyard."
Sure Sell nodded. "Oh yes, I've been here for many years, Young Filly. I've seen many workers come and go, and I know all of them by name. Who did you want to know about?"
"I don't know his full name, but he's a Human named Dirk."
"Dirk......" The mare thought for a moment. "Older looking guy, scruffy face, piercing blue eyes, wore faded overalls with a dark blue shirt, and smoked a cigarette?"
"Yeah, that's him. You know him?"
"Oh yes. His name was Dirk Peterson, and he worked here for many years. Good worker, but never stopped smoking. Everypony told him to quit, but he refused. We all knew it would get him in the end, and it did."
"Where is he though? I wanted to talk to him. Is he on duty in the Railyard now?"
Sure Sell gave her a strange look. "Is he on duty? Heavens no. He hasn't been on duty for a long time now."
"I saw him in the Railyard yesterday." Scootaloo insisted. "We talked for a while about the 6 Old Gra...."
"NO!" Sure Sell interrupted suddenly. "We DO NOT talk about those abominations here! And what you said is impossible. There's no way you could have talked to Dirk yesterday."
"Why's....why's that?" Scootaloo asked uneasily.
Sure Sell looked down at her. "Because Dirk Peterson died almost 5 years ago from a heart attack caused by his excessive smoking. He died on the job, becoming the 10th Pony/Person to do so."
"10th? I thought that there were only 9 fatalities in the Railyard; 6 from accidents, and 3 from heart attacks."
"No, there's been 10." Sure Sell corrected. "That's the memorial to them over there. Go take a look." She pointed to a large display on the wall.
Scootaloo walked over to it, and she realized that it was the names of the 10 people and Ponies who had died while on duty at the Ponyville Railyard while it had been in operation. There were the 10 names, how old they were, the cause of death, and their picture. Scootaloo went down the list, and paused when she saw Number 9.
"Oilcan, Age 30. Cause of death: Run over by a freight car". Scootaloo saw that the picture was of an Earth-Pony stallion with brown fur, a black mane, and blue eyes, wearing the usual overalls of a railway worker, and a white shirt; identical to what Scootaloo had seen that night. Then she looked at Number 10, and froze.
"Dirk Peterson, Age 58. Cause of death: Heart attack." The picture next to it was identical to the man that Scootaloo had seen in the Railyard the afternoon before the fateful encounter. Scootaloo couldn't believe it. Oilcan wasn't the only ghost that she saw; Dirk was a ghost too! But how could that have been? How could Dirk have been a ghost? He was completely solid, but yet, Scootaloo hadn't heard him walk over to her; he'd seemingly just appeared out of nowhere.
She stepped back from the wall in shock, and turned around, and began to walk away, and leave the Visitor's Center.
"What's wrong with you?" Sure Sell asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
Scootaloo looked right at her. "I did. I saw everyone, and everypony on that list", She pointed to it on the wall. "I saw all of them in the Railyard; 8 were shadowy figures, Oilcan looked like a Demon, and I swore that Dirk was a regular person."
"You weren't the first one, and I doubt that you'll be the last." Sure Sell said quietly.
"What?"
"Nothing. Just.....don't go poking around where you don't belong, Young Filly. Some things were buried for a reason, and should stay that way."
"I can agree with that." Scootaloo answered, still in shock over her revelations. "I.....I need time to sort this out."
She then left the Visitor's Center, and began to ride her scooter home, unaware that she was being watched by a lone figure from within the Railyard. He was glad that she was safe, and that Oilcan hadn't been able to hurt her. The figure then lit up another cigarette.
"Goodbye, Young Scootaloo. It was very nice to know you. May we meet again one day on the Other Side." The figure, Dirk, then sighed. He knew that there would be others who came to see the 6 Old Gravel Cars, and he would have to warn them about the dangers of such a thing too. Hopefully, they would be a bit wiser than Scootaloo was, and wouldn't end up like she had, or worse.
"There are worse things than death after all, much worse things. You could be trapped here like I am, forever doomed to act as a warning to anyone or anypony foolish enough to come here. Oilcan will bide his time, just waiting to snatch away another victim, and I can't let him do that."
Dirk then let out one final drawl on his cigarette, and faded away into the afternoon light. Scootaloo would never quite be the same after that night, and the revelation of what she found at the Visitor Center, but she was a much wiser Pony for it now. She never pokes around where she doesn't belong, mostly out of fear that if she does, she may not be able to escape from Oilcan the next time.
(THE END)
Author's Note
And, that was my very first horror story, or at least, my first attempt to write one. I put this together in about 2 days, so I really hope that you all enjoyed this one. I hope that I spooked at least a few of you, and even if you weren't spooked, I hope that I still entertained you very well. If this story goes well, I may attempt to write other spooky stories down the line a bit.
So what did you all think of this story? Did you like the twist at the end where I revealed that Dirk had also been a ghost the whole time? And what about when Oilcan, and the other ghosts revealed themselves? I'll be interested to hear your thoughts. In the meantime though, like always, comments, questions, feedback, as well as spreading the word about this story are always appreciated, and I'll see you all again soon!
ScarFox out for now!
