When it finally came time to venture out toward the train station, the air had taken on a very different feel. What had been a somewhat warm day had become cold without sunlight, and the town had been consumed by a strange sort of stillness. Few of the streetlights still burned at this hour, and every path was empty. This was the nature of small towns, the way they were strange and almost alien when every pony had gone to bed and been lying still and warm for several hours already.
Berry Punch had come to relish this time of night. It was not something she saw often, but it was impressive and familiar every time she had to attend work in the late night. As a filly, she had spent many hours wandering between the rows of her family’s ancestral vineyards, looking up at the stars overhead. Now she greeted that night as an old friend, and as a stranger- -because in a town, it took on a far more ominous tone. In the fields, she was alone, but she was meant to be. Here in Ponyville, the town seemed almost ghostly, and standing amongst the silent and dark houses somehow made Berry feel far more alone than her family’s land ever had. It was that very feeling of isolation that made this night feel so magical.
Reaching the train station was easy. She had gone there numerous times in her life, although admittedly never at this hour. As she approached, she was momentarily apprehensive, wondering if she had mistaken the time. Sparkler had, of course, been correct; there was really very little logical reason for this train to be running at this time. Ponyville was a tiny town, and had remained tiny even after Twilight Sparkle had established her royal court in the vicinity. The day trains were already running nearly empty. A night train was almost unheard of, save for perhaps in the busiest lines around Manehattan.
This doubt was crushed almost as soon as Berry reached the station. The main body of the station was indeed closed, but the platform itself was open. It’s bright, crisp electrical lights were running at full power, casting a strange and eerie glow against the enormous train and causing Berry to cast several shadows simultaneously.
Berry could not help but giggle and stamp her feet at the sight of it. Not because it was funny in any way, but because it was REAL. The train actually had come late at night, arriving silently and with no indication of its existence apart from a tiny footnote at the end of late-printed train schedules. Berry had found it- -and she was going to ride it.
Like always, Berry took a moment to walk up and down the platform. The train extended backward into the darkness, a system of modern passenger cars that from Berry’s assessment were brand new, built in the latest style for commuter trains: consistent, even, understated but efficient, with independent suspension and auxiliary breaking systems installed in each car and linked by class-G second-generation couplings.
Then there was the engine itself. Berry felt herself tingling as she looked at it. It was the element she had not told Sparkler about, largely because she was not enough of an optimist herself to believe that it was true. There had been rumors, but they were just that- -rumors. Now Berry Punch saw that they were true. The locomotive itself was not the normal steam engine that served Ponyville; that one was resting in one of the auxiliary shed, the coal in its engines still smoldering in preparation for an early-morning start with the 5:30 express to Appleoosa.
Instead, this was a Continuum class experimental engine. As far as Berry knew, only three had been constructed, and none had yet been put into commercial use- -save for this one. Many ponies within the train-enthusiast community doubted that they even existed, but Berry Punch knew better. She had been present when trains were still drawn by teams of ponies, and witnessed the birth of the practical steam engine- -and now this.
The engine, according to what Berry Punch had read, had been designed by a magic researcher in Canterlot by the name of Moondancer. It was based on extremely ancient schematics recovered from the ruined redoubt libraries of the Crystal Empire. What the device the schematics had actually been for had long-since been lost to history, but it had quickly been understood that the central aspect of the design was for an engine, one that ran not on fuel but on magic itself.
Building such an engine had been impossible until the resurgence of the Crystal Empire; crystals of the correct structure and nature simply could not be found anywhere else, and the knowledge of how to cut them was thought to have been lost with the extinction of the crystal ponies. Now, though, it had been built- -and Berry Punch was there to see it: a sleek, almost threateningly large metallic engine, devoid of any windows or smokestacks or external mechanisms, alive and humming with energy.
A cold wind blew suddenly, and Berry Punch shivered. She raised the rim of her jacket higher, and suddenly realized how dark the world looked around her, save for the stark and artificial light of the station. It was like a strange island, different from the dark outside only in the presence of the bright cold light. She was just as alone as she had ever been- -the platform was empty. There was no conductor, and the service counters had closed many hours before. The ponies had gone home, and the train now stood in silence without the sound of a churning engine or puffing steam. Somehow this made Berry feel even colder.
The doors to the main cars were open. The light inside seemed warm, lit no doubt by the crystals fed with magic from the central reactor of the engine tasked with pulling the train. That light looked warm, but it gave Berry pause. It occurred to her that there was no real reason for her to ride this particular train, and that it was late. That she could return home and go to bed, where it was warm and still.
Instead, though, she found herself stepping up onto the train, her hooves leaving the ground and elevating onto the vehicle. The crystal light became brighter, and Berry felt herself breathing deeply, smelling the scent of the car: the smell of whatever cleaning fluid they used, and the odor of the plastic and wood that were used to make the seats and carpets. The smell told her that her assessment had been correct: these cars were indeed new.
At the top of the short set of stairs, Berry looked around, trying to find whoever it was who was supposed to take her ticket. She saw no one, though, although it became apparent that the car was not entirely empty. Several other ponies had elected to take the night train as well.
There were not many. Toward the front of the car was an earth pony in a guard-cadet uniform, asleep with his helmet set beside him. He was no doubt on his way to Canterlot to start a career in the military. Why he had taken the late train was unclear: perhaps to have just a little bit more time with his family before leaving, or because it was all he could afford.
Slightly behind the young stallion was an older one, dressed heavily against the weather despite winter still being several months away. He showed no sign of tiredness, and in fact had taken out yesterday’s paper and begun to read it. To Berry, he seemed an insomniac, not taking the train out of any particular need but because for him it was no different than any other train at any other time of the day.
Farther toward the back of the car was a couple, a pair of thestrals. They shared a seat, and were both quite alert, laughing quietly and whispering to one another. Their kind was something of a rarity in Ponyville, but in their case it made sense why they would prefer a late train. As nocturnal creatures, a train that ran in their equivalent of the afternoon was no doubt a great boon.
The only other passenger that Berry was able to see was a yellow-colored earth-mare, but she was not sitting. She instead passed through the door on the far side of the car to move further down the train. Berry only saw her for a moment, and saw that she was impeccably dressed. What was strange, though, was that Berry had not seen her get on before her. The platform had been empty outside, meaning that this mare must have stood up and moved as soon as she had seen one more pony entering the car.
As rude as that was, Berry ignored it. She instead sat down on one of the benches and looked out the window at the station. The glass of the window seemed oddly thick, and it made the pure white arc lights of the station seem strangely red.
Then the train began to move. There was not really any warning, and as odd as that seemed Berry Punch could barely contain herself from excitement. The acceleration was rapid but perfectly smooth. While in some respects it lacked the charm of a steam-powered startup, it was intriguingly different and strange. There was no real sound apart from the couplings shifting and the wheels of the cars beginning to turn, and there was certainly no scent of coal smoke. Likewise- -as Sparkler had hoped- -there was no whistle. Just silent motion.
The train quickly got up to speed. Outside the windows, the light of the station faded and was replaced by blackness and the barely visible moonlit rise of the land outside. Despite being barely able to see, Berry felt the familiar turns of the track and the trundle of the train as they took the track northward toward Canterlot. She had traveled this path hundreds of times before, at all times of the day- -save for night. This was new and different- -and somehow strange.
From what she could tell, the train was moving incredibly quickly. The normal Ponyville steam train would have been struggling at almost maximum capacity to move at these speeds, but the Continuum was seeming to have no difficulty whatsoever. There was no shuddering of the cars, or lurching changes of speed. The ride was perfect, and Berry had a curious feeling that she was not even moving.
The trip between Ponyville and Canterlot through the Mountain Pass Line normally took two hours. As fast as they were moving, Berry was sure that there was no way they would get there in less than one. That meant a round trip in three to four hours, a perfectly reasonable time for a relaxing train ride.
As she settled in, Berry Punched opened her saddle bag and produced one long flute glass, which she set next to her. She then filled it with some richly colored punch. Doing this was normally somewhat difficult due to the rumble of the train, but on this particular night it was possible to do it with ease. Berry Punch was quite pleased.
So she sat, sipping her punch and watching the darkness roll by. In front of her, the cadet was hugging his helmet and snoring lightly. The old stallion behind him had reached the sports page in his paper, and over his shoulder Berry could see that he had taken a great interest in an editorial about some hoofball coach and his controversial training regimen. On the other side of the train, the thestrals were giggling and quite possibly kissing. Berry did not mind much; she had been young at one time as well, even if she had never been a thestral.
After a while, though, she began to feel the train settle into a long straightaway that led up toward the mountains. Berry decided that this was an ideal time to stretch her legs. She carefully set her glass down- -it was highly unlikely that any of these few ponies would bother with it- -and walked past into the isle.
She turned and headed for the junction to the next car. As she had expected, the threstrals were both covered with their leathery wings, and two pairs of eyes watched her pass with stifled giggles. Berry smiled- -she genuinely did think that it was funny- -and continued to the small door that led to the cars behind hers. She was glad to find that it had a handle instead of a knob, and she opened it, easily passing through the thin moving floor onto the next car.
To her mild surprise, she found this one to be completely empty. It looked- -and smelled- -exactly like the first, but there were no ponies in it. Berry paused. It struck her as odd, because she thought she had seen another pony enter this car. Eventually, she just shrugged. No doubt she had gone further back into the train.
Berry quickly forgot about this as she walked through the car toward the next juncture. She opened it and passed through into another train car, this one also identical to the first- -and also empty.
“Wow,” she said to herself. “Sparkler was right, wasn’t she? Nopony wants to ride this train.” Berry was not sure how it made money, but she found a way to rationalize that. No doubt this was a test run of the new engine, done at an off hour to ensure that it could accommodate the track and schedule without breaking down before they used it to augment the tried-and-true steam engine.
So Berry continued through the train, moving from car to car. As she did, she began to feel strange. Something started to feel odd. Initially, she did not notice it beyond the way one might notice themselves beginning to develop a cold or experiencing a backache after a long walk. It was instinct, a distant thing that a reasonable mind pushed to the back of consciousness in order to focus on the task at hand.
But Berry Punch had no real task. She was just walking, and the thought began to rise to the surface of her mind far faster than it would have if she had been given any other kind of task. It was by the fourteenth or perhaps fifteenth car that she stopped, confused.
“No,” she said to herself. “That isn’t right…”
She tried to think, to remember exactly how many car she had walked through. Of course she had not been counting- -there was no reason to- -but she knew that it was a lot. Far too many for a normal commuter train. The standard train only had a maximum of six cars, and a long-range train with sleeper and diner cars had at most ten. This train had far more than that- -and none of them were sleepers, or diners. They were all identical commuter cars: all built exactly to the same specifications, and all empty.
Once again, Berry Punch’s mind began to rationalize. It made sense to load the train heavy- -after all, they were testing it. That was logical and clean, a good reason for the train to have this many cars- -but for some reason, Berry felt her heart beating quickly in her chest and her eyes wandering, looking from seat to seat and corner to corner. It was just so silent, and so empty, with her as the only pony occupying a space that she felt she was not meant to be in.
“They’re just extra cars,” she said to herself as she stepped forward. For some reason, she wanted to turn back, to return to her seat and drink the rest of her punch very quickly. Instead, she refused to turn. That would be giving into her fear, to be doing something ridiculous. This was a train. Berry Punch knew trains in the same way Starlight Glimmer knew kites- -it was something she loved, even if it was not part of her special talent. It was her primary hobby, something she knew as much about as any other pony in Ponyville.
So she kept going forward. One car after the next passed by. Berry did not want to count them, but she could not help herself. First there was one. Then five. Then ten. As she moved through them, she felt herself accelerating, first to a fast walk and then to a trot- -and then to an outright run. This did not make sense- -somehow, none of it made sense. She needed to get to the end of the train- -if she got to the end, everything would be alright.
Except the end never did come. She kept pushing through empty car after empty car, sprinting all alone through the emptiness surrounded by nothing but the same repeating room- -until finally she burst through into one that was different.
Berry Punch almost collapsed with joy. She had thought she was going insane, or trapped in a nightmare, but now she knew that she had been right. The world was indeed logical; the train was simply unduly long. She actually started to laugh at herself- -until the laugh caught in her throat as she looked around the car.
The car was identical to the others, and now held no passengers- -but it was different. And familiar. In one seat sat a newspaper, neatly folded with the sports page open. Behind it, a seat was occupied with a saddlebag- -and beside it, a single flute-glass filled with berry punch.
“Wh…what?”
The train suddenly slowed, and Berry Punch watched as the glass tilted and then slipped free of its perch. It fell and shattered, staining the carpet with deep red fluid. There was no pony around to notice. The train was empty.
The station appeared next to the train, but it was on the wrong side. Then Berry saw that it was not just on the wrong side- - it was the wrong station entirely. She knew the Canterlot station extremely well, and knew that this was not it at all. It did not have the same lights, or the broad curving platform, or the delicate unicornic architecture on the stationhouse. Instead it was simple and wooden, its lights now fading in favor of the rising sun.
This was the Ponyville station. Berry Punch was back to the exact location that she had begun the trip.