“So you’re the missing crew members?” asked the senior conductor looking at the three element bearers rather suspiciously. Around them several other staff members were bustling around preparing for the journey. The conductor was an older earth pony mare, a little short and plump, her white coat was well brushed and her pink mane done up in a tight bun. She was wearing the uniform of the train staff, a short green waist coat and a pill box hat with, in her case a shiny golden star on it. “Where are your uniforms?”
“There was a fire!” began Lyra
“We lost them!” said Vinyl.
“They were stolen!” said Bluenote at the same time.
“We thought we’d lost them in a fire but it turned out they were stolen instead,” explained Vinyl. The other mares nodded quickly.
“Well that explains everything,” said the conductor with withering sarcasm. “Still beggars can't be choosers. This close to the holidays it’s hard to get any staff at all. We should have some spare uniforms about, just don’t lose these in a fire. Anyway my name is Silver Service, and this is the Spirit of Friendship.” She indicated the train around them. “We will be leaving for Canterlot in less than five minutes, you will be serving on board until Los Pegasus tomorrow morning when we will be changing most of our crew... yes?” She asked as Vinyl raised her hoof.
“Could we stay on board all the way to Canterlot?” she asked.
The conductor paused blinking, “You’re looking for overtime? Most ponies want to be home with their families this time of year not stuck on the train for two days.”
“Well I just thought it would be a chance for other ponies to stay home.”
“That’s very nice of you, well if you wish, once we swap crew you won’t be my problem anymore anyway. I’ll send a message down the line and see what I can do. Now sign your papers and we’ll be on our way.” She passed over three thick sets of paper to Vinyl who passed a copy to each of her friends, they quickly signed them without reading and returned them to the conductor who filed them away.
“Good,” there was a slight shudder as the train started to pull away. “Well it’s too late to change your minds now, we’re off. That will be your quarters,” she indicated a door off the trains corridor. “Drop off your bags in there.” The element bearers quickly complied. “Ok, which of you is the cook?” Silver asked.
The three ponies looked at each other for a moment. “I guess that’ll be me then,” said Bluenote stepping forwards.
“Good, we start serving lunch in two hours, I’ll get you a uniform and you can head over to the kitchen. I’m afraid it’ll just be you, we’re short staffed but do your best. Assistant conductor?”
“Me!” cried Lyra raising a hoof. “I mean that’s me.”
Silver frowned, “Very well, I’ll show you around in a bit.” She turned to Vinyl. “I guess that makes you the firemare then,” she frowned. “Odd, but you must have chosen the job. You better head up to the engine then, Heavy will be glad of the help. Hop to it!”
Vinyl nodded and glanced back at her friends, she hoped they wouldn’t have too much trouble with their adopted professions, all this had been her idea after all, crazy as it might seem now. She just hoped they wouldn’t suffer just because she couldn’t stand to spend the holiday away from her family. She quickly made her way towards the front of the train. So she was going to be a firemare, she mused, didn’t sound too hard, just shovelling coal for the rest of the trip.
She reached the door at the end of the passageway and opened it. She was instantly struck in the face be an almost hellish heat. She felt herself begin to sweat and was almost forced back by the physical force of the increase in temperature. Within the room stood a large earth pony stallion, almost half again as tall again as her and probably double her mass. His face was largely covered by a harness linked to a shovel like blade which allowed him to pick up and manipulate the mass of coal piled in the back of the room and feed it to the hungry flames of the train’s boiler. Noticing her he lowered the device. “Hey, no passengers allowed up here,” he said. Once she could make out his face she saw that he was surprisingly young, not much older than she was. It was hard to tell his original coat colour, the coal dust had reduced it to a dull grey, but his mane was dark blue and cut, or burnt, short.
“I’m crew,” she said, “Firemare, you must be Heavy then? Silver sent me.”
“That’s can’t be right, you’re far too scrawny for the heavy lifting.” His brow furrowed. “Anyway trains are for Earth Ponies not unicorns.” Behind her glasses Vinyl raised an eyebrow, trains did tend to be the territory of Earth Ponies but other tribes were hardly unknown, as for her being scrawny, well size wasn’t everything, her magic should be more than enough to put this tribalist in his place. “Whatever are you wearing?” he gestured to her glasses.
“Safety glasses, all the rage nowadays. Shift aside,” she barged into the larger pony and wasn’t particularly surprised to find he hardly moved, she could feel the mass of muscles under his skin.
“Come off it, when we get up to full speed the Spirit needs ten tons of coal an hour to keep her fed. Why’d you ever choose this job?”
“Oh, you know there’s something about a train, all that huge thrusting machinery, catches a girl’s interest.”
The large stallion blushed and stepped aside. “Well... I don’t...” he stammered.
Vinyl grinned wickedly, “Tell you what I’ll race you,.”
“I don’t even know if the shovel will fit you,” complained the stallion.
“Shouldn’t be a problem,” she said, her horn glowing as she opened the door to one of the boilers, blinking against the heat, she glanced up at the bank of dials above it and began to levitate lumps of coal into it from the pile behind her. “Ready, get set, go!” she cried as she loaded the rocks into the engine.
“Hey!” cried Heavy, quickly struggling to put the shovel back on before hurrying to load more coal into his part of the boiler.
“Right, you two follow me,” said Silver Service to Lyra and Bluenote. “We need to get you in uniform.” She led them back through the train past a staff only sign and into a cramped room with a table and several chairs. “This is the staff room, and that,” she pointed to another door, “Is my office and quarters.” She opened up a locker and rummaged around inside before tossing a chef’s hat and apron at Bluenote who caught them and put them on.
“Ah, I feel more chef like already,” she exclaimed.
“More like?”
“Well of course I feel chef like most the time, given that I’m a chef,” said Bluenote her smile a little too wide. “I better be off to the kitchen then.” She backed out of the room and headed towards the front of the train.
“The other way!” cried Silver.
“Right, I knew that,” said Bluenote rushing back the other way.
Silver sighed and held her head in her hooves. “Anyway, let’s see what we can find for you.” She rummaged around the cupboard and pulled out a smart green jacket like she was wearing and passed it to Lyra. It turned out to be a little large, hanging loosely on the skinny mare. “I guess that will have to do,” mused Silver. “Now this,” she held up a small circular hat with a shiny badge on the front, “If the most important thing. It tells everypony, crew and passengers who you are.”
Lyra looked at the hat apprehensively. “So, um, who am I?”
“You are an assistant conductor, the second most important pony on this train, after myself. It is your job, neigh, duty to ensure the smooth running of the train, to ensure that everything and every pony are where they should be at all times.”
“So not just checking tickets then?”
“No,” Silver frowned, “Didn’t you get training?”
“Oh! Well, we were in a bit of a hurry and..”
Silver sighed again. “Never mind, just follow me and pay attention. Yes we do check that all the passengers have tickets but we also have to make sure that the customers are happy and have all they need, well the ones in first class anyway, standard class not so much. Anyway, look here.” She trotted into her office and returned with a large book, “This shows what passengers we are expecting at each stop and where they will stay as well as any who will leave and any empty cabins, we need to check that they’ve all settled in and are in the right place.” She drew a hoof up the picture of the train. “We’ll start up here then move down towards first class where our real job begins. Are you ready?”
“Yes Ma’am,” cried Lyra saluting crisply.
“You know you don’t have to do that, it’s nice and all, but we’re not in the military.”
“Yes Ma’am.”
Bluenote adjusted her apron and hat as she entered the dining car near the back of the train. The first class coaches stood to one side of her, the rest of the train’s passengers to the other. Glancing around for a bit she noticed a room which made up one side of half of the carriage, sticking her head inside she realised she’d found the kitchen.
It was the most cramped cooking area she’d ever seen in her life, she doubted she could even turn around in it. The walls were lined with cupboards and drawers. One whole wall consisted of row after row of little doors. She recognised some of the equipment sitting on the counter, what looked like a gas stove, a tea urn, and a large sink but others were entirely alien to her. What had Vinyl gotten her into? She supposed she owed the DJ for dragging her away from her family for the holidays but she really wasn’t sure this was going to work, they’d probably be thrown off the train before they even got close to Canterlot.
Sighing Bluenote started to search around the kitchen for some sign of what she was supposed to be cooking. She quickly found a menu for the next few days, a few basic meals for standard class and a much wider range of food for first class. She systematically opened cupboard after cupboard, she found a range of plates, cups and cutlery and a few limited supplies but nothing like enough to make meals for the hundreds of ponies on the train, oddly many of the cupboards were empty and warm for some reason, did they forget to stock up at the station?
“Have you got the trolley ready yet luv?” came a call from outsider the kitchen.
Bluenote opened the door to find a young orange coated earth pony mare. “What?” the music teacher asked.
“The trolley with the food and drink for the standard class passengers?”
Frowning Bluenote remembered that the staff had brought around a trolley of snacks every few hours on the outbound journey. She’d found the thing a few moments ago when searching the kitchen. “Just a minute,” she called. Rushing back into the Kitchen she wrestled the trolley out of its storage space and tore into a few boxes of supplies to arrange a selection of snacks on it, she realised the trolley had its own hot water container and started up the kitchen’s urn. It heated up remarkably quickly, she suspected magic was involved, and quickly filled up the smaller container. Finally done she shoved the whole thing out of the kitchen. “Here you go!”
“Thanks luv.”
“Sorry for the delay, it’s my first day!” explained Bluenote.
“Don’t worry, you just better make sure you keep a brew on for when the VIPs start getting thirsty, put out some of the fancy cakes and the like as well.”
Bluenote thanked the other pony for her suggestions and returned to the kitchen to continue her search. She eventually found a collection of recipe cards which matched most of her menu, but the recipes only seemed to be partially completed, frowning she sat down puzzled over what that meant.
Vinyl leaned back trying to look relaxed as she continued to load coal into the ever hungry furnace. It wasn’t as easy as it looked, her magic was strong but she had her limits, a gentle ache was starting to build up in her horn, she could keep going for a while but not forever. She’d need to pace herself, once she showed this muscular neanderpony what she could do. Heavy was working like a stallion possessed lifting load after load of coal into the engine, his muscles stood out as he heaved against the weight, sweat streaming from his form and dripping onto the floor before quickly evaporating.
“Will you... stop... staring at... me!” he gasped.
“Hey, I’m just enjoying the view.” Vinyl winked leering at Heavy’s flank and weight shaped cutie mark as he strained to lift another shovel full of coal. “And a very nice view it is. Great wide open tracts of land, chiselled rocks, maybe even the hint of a mighty tower in the distance.”
Blushing the stallion tucked his tail between his legs and sank to the ground panting. “Ok, ok, I give up, you win! You can do this job!”
“Good! Now, my names Vinyl Scratch.” She dropped the load of coal she was carrying glad to rest her horn for a moment.
“Heavy Load,” said the stallion struggling to his hooves again.
“Pleased to meet you, now this is my first time as firemare, so I’ll probably need your help.” There was no harm throwing him a little life line rather than totally humiliating him.
“First time?”
“We’ll there was a bit of a staffing problem, just pretend I know nothing about the job, well apart from that gage says we’re at optimum pressure for the moment.” She pointed at an instrument. She wasn’t a complete novice to steam power, her grandfather had worked on the trains in his youth and she’d tried it as a power source for a few instruments in the past but not with much success, still she understood the basics. The fire heated the water creating steam which was used to run pistons which turned the wheels and moved the train.
Heavy looked at his colleague for a moment. “Ok, well this fine young lady is the Spirit of Friendship, the first of the class twelve hundreds.” He gently patted the wall of the train. “She has a 0-8-0 configuration, and a potential maximum speed of about one hundred and twenty miles per hour, although we rarely run past about eighty. If you treat her fine she’ll purr like a kitten,” he tapped a wall of the cabin again, “But she’s temperamental, if you don’t pay her full attention at all time she can throw a tantrum and we won’t arrive at Canterlot before Hearth's Warming, next year.”
“Nice to see you know how to treat a mare. I was joking when I said trains got me excited but would you like me to give you and Spirit some time alone?” she grinned.
“Anyway,” he hurriedly moved on. “You and me will be on shift for the next ten hours before we take on more staff at Fillydelphia.” Vinyl whistled, that was a long time and a whole lot of coal to shift, this wasn’t going to be as easy as she’d hoped. “We’ll have to help top up the water tanks every few hours as well as shift the coal, plus help Steep Gradient, the driver, and Stopping Distance, the brakestallion, if they ask.”
As he was explaining the train gave a slight shudder, the door to the front of the train opened and the angry face of an older black coated stallion appeared in it. “Enough jabbering back there, pressure’s dropping, get on with it!” he yelled.
“Sorry Steep,” called Heavy turning back to the boiler, “She should be running better than this. I don’t know what...” he checked Vinyl's engine. “Did you just dump the coal into this all higgledy piggledy? No wonder you beat me! You need to lay it out right,” he started to poke at the pile of coal with the shovel around his neck, behind him Vinyl peered over his shoulder. “What do they teach new starts these days?” he grumbled.
The trip through the standard class parts of the train had been quick and business-like. Silver had explained to Lyra the role of the various staff and the internal communications system which consisted of cords which could be pulled from various points around the train to summon more staff or to stop the train in an emergency.
Silver had been polite to the passengers as they checked each cabin, and greeted each and everyone of them. There had been a few mix ups when the newly arrived ponies settled into the wrong cabins but that was soon sorted out. Still it seemed to Lyra that Silver’s heart wasn’t really in her job. She kept running through the same script again and again, schedule, rules, where the dining carriage was, etcetera, etcetera. Lyra wanted to ask if they could shake it up a bit but the older mare seemed to be in such a hurry.
The only problem had been when they had entered the cabin containing Medley’s family. Of course they had recognised Lyra and had been overjoyed that she had managed to get on the train. Lyra had done her best to secretly confirm that yes, she Vinyl and Bluenote were on the train but that the family shouldn’t mention that they weren’t really staff. It hadn’t been easy and she thought Silver was suspicious but she didn’t think she’d given the game away.
Eventually they reached the first class carriage, Lyra hadn’t been in it before and was rather curious as to how it looked. When she eventually asked Bon Bon out she had considered taking the mare of her heart on trips to various sights, of course they would travel first class, the candy mare deserved nothing less, seeing the carriages in person would help her picture those glorious days when they finally came.
“Right, now this is the important part,” explained Silver. “Did you know that if the first class carriage is full then everything else on the train is pure profit? These are very important ponies indeed, their every wish should be your command, preferably before they even know what they want. Do you understand?” Lyra nodded.
“Good, so first carriage is,” she checked her book, “Duke Fancypants, let me do the talking, he is a very important pony indeed.” Taking a deep breath Silver knocked on the cabin door.
“Come in,” came a plummy voice from the other side.
Silver pulled the door open and entered giving a shallow bow to its occupant. “Welcome to the Spirit of Friendship my lord, I hope you are comfortable in your quarters?”
“Ah Silver Service, I did hope you would be in charge for this trip,” said Fancy Pants, he was a unicorn stallion with a white coat and a carefully styled blue mane.
Entering the room carefully Lyra looked around, as expected the cabin was much nicer than the one she had shared with Bluenote and Vinyl on the way here, it was easily four times the size despite only having one occupant. A large plush bed stood against one wall while the rest of the room contained a smallish office space with a desk and chair, and a living area with a long settee and what seemed to be a mini bar set under the window. This certainly seemed the sort of place her and Bon Bon could laze about in while travelling between adventures.
“Ah, who is this delightful young mare?” asked the Duke looking at Lyra, “I don’t think I’ve seen her before.”
“She is my new assistant,” said Silver, “She’s just started.”
“Hi, I’m Lyra,” said Lyra, “Pleased to meet you!” she held out a hoof to Fancy Pants.
The smile froze on Silver’s face and sweat started to bead on her forehead as Fancy Pants looked at the hoof as if it was going to bite him, then he gave a booming laugh and shook the outstretched limb. “Good to meet you Lyra.”
“Is there anything I can do to make your stay more pleasant?” said Lyra formally.
“Well there is something.”
“Yes, my Lord,” said Silver.
“Well it’s only a little thing, but these cushions,” He gestured at the seats, “Well they’re a little flat, do you any anything plusher?”
“Of course, I will...”
“I will quest from one end of the train to the other, and beyond, to find the softest, fluffiest cushion in existence!” declared Lyra rearing up and striking a pose before turning and galloping out the door. Silver and Fancy’s mouths dropped in surprise.
“I say,” said Fancy Pants recovering first, “She is rather a firecracker isn’t she.”
“I do apologize,” said Silver quickly, “She is new and...”
Suddenly Lyra reappeared in the door followed by a whole flock of cushions held in her aura. “I couldn't decide which was softest,” she explained, “So I brought a selection. This one has a nice pink and blue pattern on it, and this one is very fluffy but it’s a bit small, and this one is in the shape of a duck, and...”
“Oh, I do like her!” exclaimed Fancy to Silver.
With a gently shudder the train came to a stop in a station. In the Kitchen Bluenote remained confused as to how her job was supposed to work. There was no way the kitchen contained the resources to feed all the hungry ponies on the train, she doubted she could even make all the food needed in the hour or so she had left even if she had supplies. The trolley pony had returned a few times to top up and now even the snacks were getting low. Outside in the dining car other members of staff were starting to lay out cutlery for lunch, however did it all work?
Suddenly there was a knock at the kitchen door shaking Bluenote from her examination of the recipe cards. She opened the door and looked out expecting to need to refill the snack cart again instead there was a small group of ponies, trays held in their auras or resting on their backs on padded saddles. “Got the food for you,” explained the leader.
Surprised Bluenote stumbled out of the Kitchen and watched as the Ponies opened the rows of doors against the kitchen wall and placed their loads within. “Here did you forget to turn the heating on?” one asked, “It’ll get cold.” He took a large lever in his mouth and turned it about half way, there was a bubbling sound like water flowing and the temperature in the room started to increase. The ponies worked in relay and in only a few minutes they had filled the whole kitchen, before leaving to return to the station.
As the train started to move off again Bluenote cautiously opened one of the doors and felt a gentle heat within, she lifted a small foil covered packed out and unwrapped it. It contained a portion of macaroni and cheese, once again on the standard class menu, she checked the next door container, a bowl of stew, the next one along salmon. Her mouth watered at the smell, fish was not a common food for ponies but many considered it a delicacy, in small doses.
Bluenote started to smile as she realised what this all was. Most of the food was cooked at the stations and delivered to her kitchen where it was stored in these heated containers, she only had to add a few last minute touches before dishing it out to the hungry passengers. Considering the time, she better get started, she thought as she checked through the menu. Most of the extra work seemed to be for the first class passengers she noticed, whereas the standard class only got the precooked meals, it didn’t seem fair really, there had to be some way she could personalise the food for them, she thought.
“Come on Dad!” called Trouble as the small hippogriff pulled his father through the train towards the dining cart.
“If we’re too late there won’t be anything left!” warned his brother.
“Well, we can’t have that can we?” agreed Rockall as he broke into a slow gallop down the train’s gently rocking corridor before bursting into the dining carriage. Spotting an empty bench he plopped himself down onto it, Double and Trouble crawled over him to take their own seats while Trotsy and Dogger approached at a more sedate pace. “So what do you want boys?” he asked lifting a menu and holding it in front of his sons.
“Hey, Mac and Cheese! My favourite,” squealed Double.
“Is not! You said you liked porridge more yesterday,” said his brother.
“Is too! I’ve always loved it.”
“Since when?”
“Since forever!”
“Three Mac and Cheese,” said Rockall to a waiter as he passed ignoring his squabbling offspring.
The food was soon delivered and both colt and their father grinned at the large smiley face drawn on the top of the dishes in sauce.
After several hours Vinyl though that she knew more about working a fire than she ever thought she would need. Still it was a fascinating subject, you never knew when that sort of thing would be useful. After their initial tension Heavy had turned out to be quite good company having a wealth of stories about past trips. The two of them had slipped into an easy rhythm which allowed each of them an occasional rest while the other made sure the engine was running at maximum power. The train had stopped at its first destination a while back allowing them to take on water which had at least broken the monotony.
It was just as well, the gentle ache in her horn had begun to grow and spread into the rest of her skull, she was proud of the power of her magic but she considered her forte to be delicate manipulation rather than pure strength, it wasn’t going to be easy to last all day. She’d tried a few tricks to make the job easier using the force of the falling coal to lift the next load, and even using the heat of the fire to help power her magic but nothing was perfect. She had even, with difficulty, tried on the shovel designed for earth ponies and started to move a few loads using that, it certainly gave her an appreciation of Heavy’s muscles that he was able to move so much weight with the contraption.
She was just lying back and resting her aching form for a few minutes while Heavy rearranged the coals to get the greatest heat when the door to the driver’s compartment opened again and Steep entered the fire compartment again. “You’re the new lass then?” he asked.
“Yeah, Vinyl Scratch,” she said, hopefully this stallion would have less problem with unicorns, she didn’t feel like having to prove herself to every member of staff.
“Well Miss Scratch, you and young Heavy have done a fair job so far, how’d you like a chance to drive a train for a few minutes?”
Vinyl’s ears perked up. “Really?” she asked, Alder would be so jealous when she told him of this. The thought of her brother brought a surprising wave of homesickness, still she’d be back in Ponyville in a day or two, in time for the holidays she assured herself.
“Follow me,” said the driver as he retreated back into his cabin. The front of the train was open to the air and Vinyl gave a sigh of relief as she moved away from the heat of the fires behind her. Around her the scenery was a blur as the train powered on, eating up the miles between it and Canterlot.
“Now this is the throttle,” said Steep gesturing to a lever, he wrapped his fetlock around it. “Forwards is faster, back is slower. You think you got that?”
Vinyl rolled her eyes. “I think I can manage.”
Steep chuckled. “I can be a little more complicated that it looks. Now give it a go.” He stepped aside.
Vinyl walked forwards feeling a little nervous for some reason, before resting a leg against the leaver. “So forwards for faster right?” Steep nodded. She gently leaned forwards and felt the rumble all around her change its pitch as the great iron beast responded to her, the tens of thousands of tons of it its body eagerly leaping forwards. Despite her best attempts a wide smile spread across her face as the vibrations of the engine spread up her legs, Alder was going to be so very very jealous. “Choo Choo!” she whispered.
Bluenote slumped down for a rest, she’d finally dealt with the lunch rush. She was lucky she had some cooking experience, despite most of the food being precooked she’d needed to mix up over a dozen sauces to go with the meals and some of the first class passengers had been very demanding, she’d gone through half a dozen meals for one of them before getting the fish cooked just right and properly flavoured.
The staff had quickly grabbed most of the left overs when it came to their own time to eat, there was apparently a strict hierarchy as to who got to choose from the remains first. She, the cook, apparently got first dibs, probably in recognition of being able to hide anything she wanted, followed by the head conductor, then the other conductors and so on down to the cleaners.
She’d had a quick chance to talk to Lyra as the new assistant conductor ate, she seemed to be settling in well and even seemed to enjoy trying to fulfil the needs of the various passengers, it sounded hard work to Bluenote. The engine staff apparently put their orders in and had the food delivered to them, it was a shame Bluenote would have like to have seen how Vinyl was doing.
At the next stop a small army of ponies had come to take away the empty containers and restocked the train with snacks. Unfortunately, Bluenote was left with the onerous task of washing up the plates and cutlery for dinner, which was never her favourite part of cooking, still it needed to be done. Filling the sink with soapy water she began to clean. She needed to hurry, once she’d finished she’d have to start on the sauces for the next meals which would apparently be delivered to her in a few hours. She began to hum to herself quietly.
“So why did you choose to become a conductor?” asked Silver.
“It was sort of a split second decision really,” said Lyra. The two of them were sitting alone in the staff room, the rest of the staff currently occupied. The train was quiet for the moment, the sun had set and dinner was still a while off, but they were ready to spring into action if needed. Or in most cases it was Lyra who had to spring into action, Silver was content to leave her assistant to deal with most requests after she’d shown herself to be competent. “And you?”
“Oh, when I was younger I liked to travel, always going here and there, working on a train seemed natural. Of course later I found somepony I’d like to travel to and settled down with,” a small smile passed over her face, “He’s a copyeditor for a newspaper in Los Pegasus, and well travelling away doesn’t seem so fun anymore. I’m in line for a desk job soon, if nothing goes wrong. I’m just glad I’m home for the holidays this year. I’ve got two foals to spend Hearth Warming with, well not foals any more, one of them's going to be a mother in a few months.” She sighed. “I was most pointed when I explained to her that I was far far too young to be a grandmother, but I didn’t get any say in the matter.” She looked up. “Enough about me, do you have a special somepony to go home to?”
“Oh, yes,” said Lyra nodding vigorously. “She’s the most wonderful pony in the world!”
Silver laughed. “I guess she’d have to be to make you impersonate a member of train staff for.”
The smile dripped off of Lyra’s face. “Oh, um, I don’t... oops.”
“It wasn’t very hard to work out, I checked the telegraph when we stopped to take on water, the real staff got put on the wrong train due to a mix up. So why are you and your friends here? You don’t seem like robbers or con mares but why shouldn’t I put you off the train at the next stop?”
“We were trying to get a friends family to her for Hearth's Warming,” explained Lyra, “We didn’t have tickets for them and us.”
“Well it’s just as well you seem to be good at your fake job isn’t it? Your friend’s not a bad cook either, and I’ve heard no complaints from the cab.” She seemed to weigh her options for a moment. “I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt for the moment, I’m off the train in about eight hours, then you’re somepony else’s problem. If you don’t mess up by then I’ll keep quiet. Deal?”
“Deal!” agreed Lyra reaching out to shake Silvers hoof.
“Good, now there’s something you won’t know about, given you’re a fake. One of the jobs of the conductors is to provide entertainment to the passengers of an evening. They used to hire professional entertainers, but of course this is cheaper. Normally we have to put on some sort of lecture, maybe music or storytelling, I even know a half decent stand-up comic on the line. Now I can keep first class entertained, I’m not a bad raconteur, but I’ll be your job to keep the standard class passengers happy. I hope you’ve got an interesting hobby or something.”
A big grin spread across Lyra’s face. “I would consider it an honour to entertain our passengers with tales of glory,” she exclaimed.
There was a quiet ringing in the background and Silver turned to check the alarm call. “Somepony in carriage three is calling. Off you go...” she said, but by the time she’d turned back Lyra was already gone.
“Far too enthusiastic that girl,” she mumbled to herself, “Was I ever like that?”
Vinyl Scratch staggered down the corridors of the train, exhausted almost to the level of collapse. Despite a quick shower from the last water tank the train had stopped at, her normally pristine white coat was stained a dirty grey from the coal dust. She leant against Heavy and would surely fall over if it wasn’t for his help. Under normal circumstances she might enjoy the move of the thick muscles under his coat but tiredness had sapped her libido. Her horn felt like it was going to drop off and her every muscle screamed at her, she didn’t think she’d ever been more tired in her life, still she felt a warm glow of a job well done in her chest.
“Here you are,” said the large stallion gently pushing open the door to the female staff’s cabin. It was even more cramped than the cabin Vinyl had been in for the trip out, she was sharing with five other staff members, but to her the bed looked like heaven.
“‘hanks,” she mumbled staggering forwards like a zompony, she was off duty for the next nine hours now and she had no intention of wasting a single second of possible sleep time.
“Yeah, I remember my first day,” said Heavy with a grin. “They had to wake me up with a bucket of water. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He turned and gently closed the door behind him.
Vinyl fell forwards onto the small bed and was asleep even before her head hit the pillows.
Dinner was finally over and many of the passengers had packed themselves into the observation carriage awaiting their evening’s entertainment.
Lyra paced nervously back and forth waiting for the last of the stragglers to arrive. It was a good sort of nerves which most of her friends knew well, even the normally stoic Octavia had told her than she felt her pulse quicken before a public performance and for Lyra this was quite a large audience. Not for her the packed clubs of DJ Pon-3, or the concert halls Octavia might be used to, she normally performed to a smaller crowd, a few dozen ponies in the park or streets. Still a change would be good, she peeked into the cabin and gave the strings of her Lyre one last tune before stepping forwards.
“Good Evening everypony,” she said brightly, there near the back stood Medley’s family. Trotsy and Doggar were sitting on one of the seats while Rockall stood next to them, Trouble and Double were hovering near the ceiling of the carriage, kept aloft by rapid flaps of their wings. There was a rough rumble of welcome from the rest of the passengers, it looked like they might be a tough crowd, still she knew how to deal with them.
“Given the time of year I thought I’d start tonight’s show with something a little traditional.” Surprising the audience Lyra reared up and brought her Lyra to bear as she began to strum it as she pronounced the ancient words of the story of Equestria.
“Once upon a Time,” she began. “Long before the peaceful rule of Cadence, and before ponies discovered our beautiful land of Equestria, ponies did not know harmony.”
Her horn glowed and an illusion materialised above her head, she wasn’t that skilled in that type of magic and the figures were rather cartoony with huge eyes and pointy hooves but they were enough to get the idea across.
Slowly she outlined the history of the tribes, the earth ponies ruled by the eccentric blue coated earth pony Chancellor Puddinghead and her assistant the stoic grey coated Smart Cookie. The pegasus lead by the grumpy Commander Hurricane and the timid but good hearted Private Pansy and finally the unicorns ruled by the beautiful Princess Platinum her pink and blue mane streaming behind her and her major domo the glasses wearing Clover the Clever.
The three tribes were forced from their homes by the ice age created by the monstrous Windigo and their own bigotry, after many a quest found the land of Equestria only to bring their old hatreds with them almost destroying the land before it was founded.
The rulers and their seconds were trapped in a cave and slowly freezing to death when they realised the stupidity of their fighting hastening their demises and decided to come together in their last moments. The ponies joined their voices together in song, a spell and special training allowing Lyra to voice all three ponies at once and their friendship ignited a flame driving the Windigo away and allowing Equestria to be founded.
The last chords died away and Lyra dispelled her illusion before dropping back to all fours, the crowd blinked a few times then began to stomp enthusiastically. Lyra smiled, she was rather proud of herself, now if she’d read the audience correctly...
A small filly wriggled away from her mother and nervously padded forwards. “Um, excuse me miss but what happened then? Can you tell us another story?”
“Ah, there are always other stories, and other songs,” said Lyra raising her instrument. “You see even after Equestria was founded there were still dangers in the land and many brave heroes were needed to defeat them, perhaps the greatest of them all was the mare who would later claim Princess Platinum’s hoof in marriage...”
With a mighty yawn Bluenote made her way towards her cabin in the middle of the train. Dinner was finally finished and every single piece of cutlery washed and packed away. The rest of the staff could deal with any requests for snacks for the rest of the night. If she understood the schedule she’s need to get up several hours before dawn to collect the breakfast supplies, judging by the menus and recipes she’d need to do a bit more work to get those ready.
Slumping down into the first free bunk she began to curl up, then she glanced across the cabin. There led Vinyl on top of the sheets, her dusty coat blackening the bed clothes, entirely insensate, she let out the occasional quiet whinny. There was no sign of Lyra yet. Bluenote reached over the prodded her friend in the ribs. “Hey Vinyl,” she hissed, “How was your day?”
The whitish unicorn gave no sign of having heard remaining almost motionless on the bed. Bluenote poked her again and she turned away curling up into a ball. Bluenote smiled the DJ must really be tired, her friend was normally such a night owl, she wondered what she’d been doing all day. Gently dropping to the floor Bluenote trotted to Vinyl’s bed and pulled the bed clothes over the sleeping unicorn, the cabin was a bit chilly. “Good night,” she whispered, “Don’t worry we’ll get you home for Hearth's Warming.”
“Night mom, love...” muttered Vinyl.
Bluenote grinned, her friend could seem so tough sometimes but underneath it all she was a big softy. She was glad she’d agreed to go the extra mile to make sure she could get home, she deserved it.
She was just falling asleep herself, when the door opened and Lyra appeared in the gap. “Bluenote!” she cried then lowered her voice as she noticed Vinyl’s sleeping form. “How was your day?”
“I don’t think you need to whisper, she’s totally wiped,” said Bluenote poking Vinyl again, the comatose pony didn’t even move.
“I hope she’s alright,” said Lyra, clambering up a ladder to take the bunk above Bluenote.
“I’m sure she’ll be fine. My day wasn’t bad, I’m glad I got a job I’ve got some skills with, otherwise I’m sure I would have been thrown off the train by now.”
“Oh, Silver knows who we are!”
Bluenote sat up in bed almost knocking her head against Lyra’s bunk. “What!” she exclaimed.
“Don’t worry,” said Lyra leaning her head over the bunk so she appeared in from of the music teacher upside down. “She’s ok with it.”
Bluenote let out a breath. “That’s good then. So how was conducting.”
“Like lots of little quests to make ponies feel better, I liked it! I even got to put on a show!”
Bluenote laughed. “I heard it, or the stomping anyway, sounded like you knocked them dead. We’ve got another day to go and then we’re home, shouldn’t be a problem really. Still we better get our sleep, I’ve got to be up to make breakfast tomorrow and you’ve got to conduct something I guess.”
“Good night Bluenote,” called Lyra as she retracted her head.
“Good night Lyra,” said Bluenote wrapped herself up in the covers.
“Good night Vinyl,” they both chorused.
*Snore!* exclaimed the DJ.