You can't

by TwiwnB

Stranded in nowhere

Twilight was facing all the pieces of the engine. They were standing there, very well ordered, ready to be assembled again into a working motor that would propel the train to its destination. The alicorn began inspecting the ranks of the pieces in her general outfit, but she quickly began to feel that those pieces weren’t serving her. In fact, she realized she was lost in the enemy ranks, completely surrounded by the adversary’s soldiers. And the pieces had begun to realize it as well. She tried to act normal, but the pieces began to move toward her, and, quickly, ignoring her orders to stand back, jumped on her.

Twilight jumped out of the tent in sweat and shivering. There was no pieces, of course. Only her tent. She was hungry, more than usual, so she quickly ate one of the last cans of food and then went back to the locomotive that was still standing still on the tracks, with its open hood.
There were waiting all the pieces Twilight had already taken apart from the engine, but there was no animosity left. Those pieces were dead. And there was pretty much no hope that they would move anymore. At least certainly not to make an engine run.

Ignoring the facts, Twilight kept on disassembling the engine. It took her hours and hours, but, after the hard work, under the burning sun, she managed to have every single piece set apart, disposed on the ground in some organized fashion, at least as organized as you can get without knowing what purpose any element you have is supposed to have.

The alicorn contemplated the pieces in front of her. She had that feeling of satisfaction you get when you’ve finished a task, but still, she knew she had done nothing at all. Even with her notes, she wasn’t certain she could assemble the engine back again and even if she did, there was no reason for it to suddenly work as she would just go back to the initial state.

She sighed. In a desperation move, she began inspecting the ranks of the pieces, as a general would his troops, but nothing happened. Those were inanimate objects lying on the grounds aimlessly.

So, without anything else to do, Twilight began to assemble the engine back up. She took a spring, connected it with a plate, took a cable, assembled it with the first two pieces, then screw another plate with the first one and tried to connect the spring between both plates as it was supposed to go, but her hooves were still tired and the whole thing just blew apart under the spring’s action.

Twilight breathed. It was just a minor setback. She just had to try again.

She took the pieces again and assembled them, but the spring once again made all the pieces blow apart. A third attempt ended in the very same way.

So, acting as if nothing had ever happened, Twilight just let those pieces be and went to another piece. She took it from the ground and observed it. It was the sump from the last day. The one she didn’t have the oil anymore to fill.
Twilight just put down the sump and went to another piece. She took it, looked at her notes and saw that it wasn’t mentioned anywhere.

She had no way to know what that piece was doing. She had probably forgotten to note it. Or maybe she had just been too tired to note it. Or maybe that piece had just appeared out of nowhere to drive her crazy.

Twilight just put the piece down and went in front of all the elements, lay down and began to slightly cry. Not that she was sad. She wasn’t really. But she was tired, exhausted even. She was feeling powerless and she had no way to ignore how much she had failed. She considered getting up to try assembling the engine again, but she saw no point. Her notes were useless, she had lost some oil and probably a few pieces, she had no idea what she was doing and the engine wouldn’t work even if she, by miracle, managed to build it back to its original form.

So she just stayed there, on the ground, under the heat of the sun, waiting for something to happen, or for nothing at all to happen anymore.

As her mind began to wander around, she heard the sound of ponies playing in water. Curious, she got up and went back to the camp where the sounds were coming from. There, she saw Applejack and Rainbow Dash who were diving into a pretty big swimming pool and playing with each other, as both Rarity and Fluttershy were just enjoying the sun on the side, on their deckchairs.

“Hey, Twilight!” shouted Rainbow Dash when she saw the alicorn. “Wanna join us? The water is great you have no idea.”

Twilight declined. She had no time to play or have fun in the water. She had to worry about the engine, and the train, and finding a way to move from that place and go back home, or anywhere whatsoever.

She went back to her tent and just lay there, feigning to ignore the laughs of her friends, but watching them with envy anyway for a while, before going back to sleep.

When she opened back her eyes, Twilight noticed that night had come. Her friends were all probably just sleeping, but she was feeling full of energy again, even if quite hungry. She ate what food left there was, and decided to go back to the engine’s pieces.
Once there, she began, with an extreme patience, to assemble the engine once again. She did it slowly, carefully, and quite blindly as, even with light, she had no idea what she was doing. It was like putting a big puzzle together. And focusing on the pieces, forcing them together or sometimes having the luck to have them cooperate smoothly was making the alicorn forget about her problems.
She wasn’t really repairing the engine, she was just killing time. And if it so happened that she would manage to make the locomotive work by sheer luck, it would just be some great side benefit.

Comments

[RedvsBlue327]

So, Twilight... Diiiid you check to see if the parking brake was on before you started all this?