Night fell over Ponyville as Spike was getting ready to leave Sweet Apple Acres. He had spent the day helping out at Sweet Apple Acres until Twilight had called on the phone and said for Spike to return home. Applejack was able to convince Twilight to at least let Spike stay for dinner, to which she agreed, knowing that Spike liked to spend time with his friends. Twilight would normally be against something like this, but lately it’s been quiet around Ponyville. With the new guard post near the castle, things had slowed down to nothing at all. Now it was late and Spike was even asked to stay the night with them, but he stated that he didn’t want Twilight to worry too much. Plus, Flash would lock him out as a joke if he stayed any later.
“You sure you’ll be OK, Spike?” Scootaloo asked.
“I’m sure,” Spike replied. “Besides, what could really happen in this small town anyhow?”
“Just be careful,” Apple Bloom said. Spike nodded and gave his friends a hug before walking out onto the porch. Just as he walked down the last step, he heard his name.
“Spike,” a voice said. He turned around and saw Sweetie Belle walking towards him.
“I just wanted to say thanks for helping us today,” She said. “Also, please let us know when you make it home. We really do worry about you when you’re out this late.”
“I will,” Spike said, as he gave her another hug. Only this time, Sweetie Belle had a plan. As Spike was hugging her, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek.
“For luck,” she said, as she walked back inside. Spike stood there for a minute before heading home.
The quickest way home was by the station. The rails shined brightly in the light of the full moon, illuminating them to look brand new. Spike always loved the trains that went through. He heard stories of the older ones, but he loved the new ones more due to their efficiency at delivering cargo from the Celestial Sea to the New Lunar Ocean.
Just as Spike neared the station, he noticed a train on the siding. Normally it wouldn’t be a big deal, but all the trains were back in Canterlot at the sheds for the night and no other train was scheduled to be in Ponyville. What was also weird was that this engine was an older one. All of Equestria’s steam engines were a 4-8-4 Solar class engines with a few 4-6-6-4 Lunar engines for heavier trains. This was a 4-4-0 Ponyville engine, one of the earliest engines to ever ride the Equestrian rails.
As Spike walked over to the mysterious train, the air began to get cold. This was extremely weird as it was in the middle of summer and the weather team had set it to where there would be warm air for the next week. He continued walking as he neared the car. The door was open so he was able to get a look inside. Inside were crates of supplies that had the words “Ponyville Railroad” on the side. This was weird as the Ponyville Railroad had been closed down for some time. It’s cars were left in the Everfree Forest to rot. No one knew where the cars stopped. Only that they would never be seen again.
Just then, the doors to the car closed. Spike jumped and looked around, only to see nopony in sight. He began to walk backwards, but took a deep breath. He was going to find out what was happening. He crept over to the engine, walking by the tender. On it’s side read “Ponyville Railroad” just like the crates of supplies. Spike could barely see the side of the cab, but he could barely make out the numbers “104”. He walked up slowly and froze.
What he saw was a stallion that’s eyes were black as night, no sense of emotion at all. Blood trickling down his face as he looked forward towards the Everfree. As the train whistle sounded, Spike turned and ran. He heard the train moving down the track but didn’t stop until he got to the other side of the station. Spike could only stare, frozen as the engine began moving into the Everfree on the old abandoned rails, whistling into the night. Spike walked backwards, his heart racing as he tried to take everything he saw in. For what he saw was something that maybe only Discord to make up on Nightmare Night. No, not even Discord would make something like that. Not even Luna when she was Nightmare Moon. This was something from the pits of Tartarus that had most likely escaped just like Tirek had.
As soon as Spike had calmed down, he ran to the castle as fast as his legs could carry him. He could only hope that Twilight would believe him, but knowing Twilight, he highly doubted it. Twilight was one that prefered logic over spiritual factors. Whenever somepony mentioned some place being haunted, she would always ignore them and tell them to leave her sight.
When Spike reached the doors to the castle, he was stopped by Twilight’s guard.
“Spike,” the guard said. “You’re late. Twilight said your bedtime was an hour ago.”
“G-g-g-g-g t-t-t-t-t-t-t e-e-e-e-e-e-e,” Was all that Spike could get out. Flash went over to him and put a hoof on his shoulder.
“Alright, Spike,” Flash began. “Take a deep breath and tell me what happened.”
“GHOST TRAIN GOING INTO THE EVERFREE!” Spike yelled out. Flash was surprised by what came from Spike, but he needed to get Spike to tell him what happened.
“Alright,” he said. “I need you to tell me what you saw.” As Spike told Flash the story. Flash wasn’t sure what to think. He knew there were things that science couldn’t explain, but he never really heard of a ghost train. As Spike finished, Flash was really confused.
“That track’s not been in use since the wreck of engine 104!” Flash stated exclaimed.
“I think I saw engine 104,” Spike whispered. “I couldn’t see the side of the cab very well at first, but I could make it out a little bit.”
“We better let Twilight know,” Flash said as he opened the door for Spike to enter the castle. Flash followed close behind to Twilight’s study.
Twilight was at her desk reading over the three files she had gotten from town hall. She couldn’t put the pieces together on what happened to Crimson and Hope, but more and more she believed that they had stolen the goods for themselves and ran off, avoiding the authorities as the years passed until they had passed on, but if that was the case, why wasn’t the goods ever recovered. Before she could think of another possibility, the door opened to reveal Spike and Flash.
“Spike where have you been?” Twilight questioned. “It’s way past your bedtime mister.” Twilight got up and began to drag him to bed but stopped as Spike shouted.
“GHOST TRAIN IN PONYVILLE!” Twilight turned to Spike with an angry look.
“I told you to not eat a bunch of sweets,” she said. “They cause you nothing but trouble when you’re going to bed.”
“But there was a train in town on the abandoned rails leading into the Everfree,” Spike explained. “It began moving along the tracks into the forest.”
As soon as Spike said this, Twilight stopped, her eyes wide as the news shook her to the core. She began to think that Iron was right, but wanted to believe in the science aspect that there were no ghosts.
“Spike, I need you to tell me everything about what you saw,” Twilight said. Spike took a deep breath and began to describe what happened again. From the cold air, the doors closing by themselves, to the way the engineer looked. “Did you see a number on the train?” Spike nodded.
“Barely, but I’m sure the number was 104,” he said. Twilight stood in shock. Iron was right all along. As she composed herself, she turned to Flash.
“Can you get my friends here?” she asked. Flash nodded and left to do as he was asked.
One hour later, Twilight’s friends and their siblings were at the castle.
“There’s gotta be something here about ghost stories in Ponyville,” Twilight said as she looked through her library.
“Twilight,” Rainbow began. “You can’t really believe that old story, can you? Besides, whoever told you this is just somepony that needs to be put in a crazy home.”
“It was the blacksmith that told me about the ghost,” Twilight countered. “However, it was Spoiled that got me looking into the crew of the engine.”
“Why’s that darling,? Rarity asked.
“A coffin that belonged to one of the first families here,” Twilight answered. “Does the name Light Shield ring any bells?”
“Granny Smith talked about the Crown/Shield family a lot,” Applejack began. “Said that Crimson would always try and make sure that their apples were delivered to Canterlot on time. He even brought stuff into Ponyville or wherever it was needed. She even mentioned how one of our family saw the engine after it disappeared, but the rest of the family wrote it off as a foal being a foal and wanting attention.”
Twilight began to explain the day's events to her friends, most weren’t sure. Rainbow kept saying that there were no such things as ghosts and that Iron should be sent to a looney bin. The others were wanting to see the train for themselves or maybe search for something causing the train to appear. While the Everfree had calmed down, there were still many mysteries to be solved.
A knock soon stopped their arguing as Spike went over to the door. He opened it to reveal Starlight, Sunburst, Celestia, Cadance, Shining Armor, Luna, and Starswirl the Bearded. All of them bore a grim expression on their faces.
“There was a crash near the old castle,” Starlight began. “ We don’t know where, but it sounded like it was near the old railroad tracks.”
“What were you all doing at the castle anyhow?” Rainbow asked.
“We were actually showing Starswirl what happened while he was gone,” Luna began. “We were here visiting when Celestia brought up our old castle and Starswirl was curious on what happened to it. Starlight and Sunburst wanted to check out the old spell books so we all left when Twilight went to go talk with Mayor Mare. As we were leaving, we heard a crash from where Celestia said were abandoned railroad tracks.” Twilight looked at her friends.
“That settles it,” she said. “We’re going to get to the bottom of this once and for all.”
“What’s going on?” Sunburst asked.
“That wreck you heard was most likely the same thing that Spike saw,” Twilight began. “That was a good chance of being the ghost of engine 104.” Celestia’s eyes widened as she heard the number.
“I knew the engineer of that train,” she said. “He was a good stallion. Always wanted to put others before himself. He was well on his way to captain when his wife died. After that, he raised his son and they both began to work for the Ponyville Railroad. That was the last I heard until the engine vanished. We wanted to send out some teams to investigate, but they were all turned back from the timberwolves and whatever else lived in the forest at the time.” She took a deep breath and allowed herself to become more serious than she had ever been before when addressing Twilight.
“I want you and your friends to find out the full mystery of what happened. This is our one chance to find out the truth and I want to see it for myself as well.”
Twilight nodded and turned towards her friends.
“You girls ready for another adventure?” she asked.
“Count us in,” Pinkie said, hopping up and down.
“Same,” Applejack replied.
“I’m in,” Fluttershy agreed.
“I guess,” Rainbow answered.
“Alright,” Rarity agreed.
“OK,” Twilight began. “We just need to get everything ready and tomorrow night, we’ll head out.”
“Why tomorrow night?” Starlight asked.
“Because if what Iron said was true,” Twilight answered. “Then the train won’t run again until tomorrow. That was what he told me on the legend. The train will run again the week of it’s wreck.” She turned to the others.
“Get some sleep,” she said. “Cause tomorrow night we’ll be going on another great journey.”