Written to Tears

by Kittyluvr

Chapter 3, The Night Thickens

Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy carried the creature that the train had hit in to the car. Applejack, Applebloom, and Spike had already returned. Twilight hadn’t thought they would find anything, as the caboose and bedrooms were either empty or had their occupants accounted for, still, it was important to be certain.

Fluttershy began to try and do what she could to help the poor creature, but she could not see what she was doing, and the night was so thick that even Twilight’s magic could barely penetrate it. Still, Twilight did what she could to help, but after a few minutes, she left. She was worried Rarity, Sweetie Belle, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Scootaloo. None of them had returned.

Twilight and Spike went to the Cab of the train, while Applejack and Applebloom went to help in the kitchen. Fluttershy stayed behind.

As the Apples entered the kitchen, they saw a huge mess. There were pans and pots strewn all over the floor. Broken dishes lay everywhere, and the cutlery drawer had come loose and thrown it’s contents across the room. One of the large heavy cabinets had fallen over and hit the counter, breaking both the counter and the pottery inside. The most important thing about that cabinet, though, was the fact that it had fallen so that a pony was trapped under it. It was thanks only to the counter that said pony was not crushed. Applejack’s three friends were now pulling this very cabinet, trying to get it off the pony. The other chef was standing on the other side of the room, eyes wide and staring into spaaaaaace.

Applejack and Applebloom walked up to the cabinet and the other ponies. Applejack slid a metal sheet between the cabinet and the trapped pony. She then reared up on her forelegs. “Everypony stand back!”

Using all her strength, Applejack kicked the cabinet. Large cracks formed in it. She kicked it again. Those cracks widened. She kicked it for a third time and the cabinet shattered, raining splinters and broken pottery towards the pony underneath. The shrapnel, instead of hitting the pony, hit the metal sheet and bounced off. Sliding to the floor. Once the rain had stopped, the pony got up and left the now dented sheet behind.

Meanwhile in the cab, Twilight Sparkle and Spike entered to find Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo attempting to interrogate the conductor, who was too shaken to speak. Twilight interrupted them, saying “Come on, we can interrogate her later! Bring her to the seating car. I’ll check the kitchen.”

Just as Twilight and Spike entered the kitchen, there was an explosion of wood and clay shrapnel. A minute later a pony crawled out from the metal sheet which seemed to be the epicenter of the explosion. Spike told everypony to head to the passenger car, where everyone regrouped.

It was still dark. The electricity had completely stopped, but the unicorns present used their magic to light up as much as possible.

“Ok,” Twilight said. “What happened.”

The conductor pony had finally calmed down, and was sitting in a nearby seat. “There was something on the tracks. I slammed the brakes to try not to hit it, but the momentum still carried us into it.”

One of the chefs snapped, “Well, did you think about the ponies ON YOUR TRAIN? NO! YOU DIDN’T!”

Twilight, trying to calm the chef, said, “I’m sure she did what she could on instinct. Besides, everyone ended up ok...”

Fluttershy quietly interrupted, “We don’t know that yet! This poor thing is still injured!”

Applejack replied, “Well Twilight, why don’t ya’ll move over there to give Fluttershy some light while you have your important conversation.”

Meanwhile Novel, who had fallen asleep in his chair, was having a nightmare. His thoughts and worries had followed him into his dreams, and they were showing what he thought to be the worst possible situation. Worst of all, even though it was a sunny afternoon in his dream, there was an inexplicable night wind. His back fur stood on end, and tingled and shivered. Suddenly he woke up.

The breeze was still there. His shaking spine continued, as his house was filled with cold. Novel stood up, and started up his illumination spell. He struggled against the cold darkness before his light burned bright enough to see. He followed the breeze to an open window. He had to get quite close to see it.
As he reached to close it, he noticed some smeared ink splotches. The splotches were in the shape of a cat paw-print. There ink was spread by the night wind, but it was fresh, within the last four hours. What scared Novel the most, though, was that the prints only pointed out. There were no return prints.

Novel stepped out of his house, a scarf tightly wrapped around his neck. He found the window and saw indentations in the dirt. He followed them, but they quickly disappeared. Losing hope, he walked back and sat in his house, in the cold, to wait for his pet to return.

Author's Note:

The plot thickens. I probably won't write another chapter today. Maybe tomorrow.