//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: Slow and Steady. // Story: Railway Crusaders // by Unnamedwriter //------------------------------// The next day was a Saturday, and for Apple Bloom that meant an early rise to get her chores done in time to meet her friends at the station. The second her alarm clock rang she was out of bed and galloping toward the bathroom. After combing her teeth and brushing her hair at the same time she quickly tied her bow into place and zipped outside. She immediately had to all but shut her eyes against the glare of Celestias sun rising over the hill that bordered the east orchard, but her smile never left. As she began checking on the saplings that made up the front half of the orchard, she couldn’t help but think of what she and the rest of the crusaders would be able to do when they got to Pithsburg. After Pippins triumphant return with the paving stone trucks, Mikaela had of course promised the crusaders an early morning ride to Lilly’s station, and hadn’t stopped fussing and complaining until her driver and firepony set to work cleaning her tubes from fire door to smokebox. By the time Luna lowered her moon below the horizon for a new morning, Mikaela’s crew was exhausted, and the insides of her tubes shone like glass. Apple Bloom couldn’t wait to see her tank engine friend again, and did her best to blitz through her chores as quickly as she could. She checked the mail, made sure Winona’s food and water bowls were full, fixed herself a hoof-full of snacks for the day, cleaned the tiny mess making said snacks created, and finally zipped back upstairs to make her bed. With nothing else she could think of that needing doing by a little filly, Apple Bloom picked up her saddle bags and headed back towards the kitchen. She could already imagine her big sisters shock when she woke up and saw everything she’d done. Instead Apple Bloom was the one surprised when her front left hoof didn’t quite land on the staircase’s second step. “WhuuAAAAAAAHH!” In an instant Apple Bloom went tumbling end over end down the stairs, over and over until she landed on the rug at the bottom, only to go sliding across the living room like snow on ice, spinning and skidding before slamming back first into the family’s coat rack. The tall wooden post tilted over, and Apple Bloom heard a crash far too loud to be just the coat rack. As soon as her world stopped spinning she looked up, and her previous excitement turned to horror. When the coat rack had fallen, it hadn’t just taken a few stray hats and scarves down with it, but actually cracked in two. Now the lamp post like piece of furniture was lying in the same corner it had guarded for Apple Bloom didn’t even know how long, snapped in half like a twig. Thankfully she didn’t see her sisters prized Stetson among the fallen, but Apple Bloom’s relief was short lived when it dawned on her that dawn was nearly over. Applejack and Bic Mac could be back from the fields for second breakfast any minute, and even if she was headed for Pithsburg by the time her big siblings returned, she would still have to face AJ’s fury when she came home later. So Apple Bloom did what any child in trouble would do. Thinking and panicking all at once, she clutched the larger of the broken pieces in her mouth and quietly hurried back up the stairs, running back down to grab the other half as well. She then shoved both under her bed, silently promising all the while that she would fix them when she got home. She had to fight the urge to run all the way from her room to the gate, doing her best to keep her muzzle pointed down the road even as her eyes darted every which way, looking for any sign of her older siblings. It wasn’t until she was out of the gate and out of sight of the farm house that she finally broke into a run, and she didn’t stop until she was jumping and skipping over train tracks. Panting and nervous, she slowed to a trot as she approached the Ponyville carriage shed, her anxiety replaced with excitement when she saw her friends already gathered around Mikaela’s front beams. Like her they all had their saddle bags, and probably a feast of snacking goodies between them. The exceptions of course were Scootaloo and Silver Spoon, the later sporting an extra bag of drawing supplies, while their orange friend had neglected any kind of bag, snack or plan all together. And if the way she was eyeing Diamond Tiara’s snacks was any sign, she hadn’t included breakfast in her morning routine either. “And I said forget it,” The pink filly snapped hugging her saddle bag closer as Apple Bloom walked up. “If you’re so hungry then you should have eaten before coming all the way here.” Scootaloo must have been starving, because as Apple Bloom reached back she actually looked to be on the verge of begging. “Here ya go Scoots,” The farm filly said, passing her orange friend an apple, only for the ripe red fruit to vanish down the little pegasi’s throat. “Wow,” Sweetie Belle gasped as Scootaloo inhaled the apple, eating so quickly she made Apple Bloom thankful for her habit of removing the stems from her apples. “That was like one of Trixie’s magic shows.” “Yeah,’ Diamond scoffed. “But instead of poof it went,” she made an obnoxious chomping sound, and chewed loudly, and Apple Bloom couldn’t help but laugh at the silly face that resulted. Even Scootaloo was laughing when she finally came up for air. “Sorry. Breakfast at home didn’t really work out. The toaster kind of decided it wanted to try making barbecue. Bleh, toast does not taste good smoked.” “You too?” Sweetie Belle asked, only to shrink under the curious looks from her friends. “I tried to take a shower this morning and it well, sort of …. broke.” “Heh, that makes three of us I reckon,” Apple Bloom added, relieved just a little that her morning wasn’t the only one with screw ups. “I missed the top steps and snapped the coat rack.” “Well,” Mikaela huffed from above them. “At least you’ve gotten to do something this morning.” The big Mikado had none of the excited anticipation of a freshly cleaned engine. Instead of warming up for her return trip to Baltimare, she was sitting in the coach shed, and the only thing steaming was her temper. “Come on, where are they?” she grumbled looking around, as Pippin puffed past with a line of empty trucks. “Blimey are ou stil whin’n over ere?” He groaned. “Your driver’ll be ere when he’ll be ere, so it’s no use gett’n yer vaccum’s in a twist.” “But I’m going to be late!” She groaned. “I swear if he doesn’t hurry his hairy hind parts up I’m leaving without him.” “Careful love,” Pippin warned, knowing full well a steam engine couldn’t go anywhere without a hoof on their controls. “You ne’r no when ou might run into dan-ga, an chances are ole Casey Bones won be ere te save ya.” Mikeala went eerily quiet at the trams warning, making The five fillies at her front curious. “Who’s Casey Bones?” Apple Bloom asked looking up at the heavy Mikado as Pippin shunted his empties across the yard. “That,” she said looking to the opposite side of the shed. “Is Casey.” The fillies followed her gaze, up to where a large painting hung on the shed’s wall just in front of Filthy Riche’s private coach. The painting displayed a black and grey steam engine with the same short pilot truck and cab as Jedidiah, but with a taller boiler and a slim stove pipe funnel. He had six tall driving wheels instead of four, and his tender was taller and had the number 382 painted on its side. “You know how the Elements of Harmony bearers are for ponies?” Mikaela asked as her firepony slipped into her cab unseen. “Yeah,’ Silver Spoon said quickly. “They’re incredible!” “Awesome,” Scootaloo added. “Heroic,” Diamond supplied. “Annoying,” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle answered together, earning them three scathing incredulous looks. “Big sisters remember?” “Well,” Mikaela laughed. “That’s what Casey Bones is for us: The bravest, most heroic engine of them all.” “What did he do?” Scootaloo asked, sitting back on her haunches in the gravel in front of the heavy Mikado. Diamond Tiara looked at the orange filly as if she’d grown a second head. “What did he do? What DIDN’T he do?! He made the Canterlot-Fillydelphia express run in four hours, set the top speed record for a mixed traffic engine, and completed a round trip from Tall Tale to Ponyville hauling the load of TWO engines!” Scootaloo actually recoiled, leaning back and away from the excited pink filly. Seeing Diamond geek out was still new for the crusaders, but it was a gleeful kind of pure excitement they already liked more than her old bullying self. “Got that right,” Mikaela beamed dreamily. “It doesn’t matter if he’s three minutes or three hours behind schedule, Casey always brings his trains in on time.” “Nevah had an accident neither,” Pippin added as he puffed past with four more empty ballast trucks. “Cheerful bloke. Lit-le on e quiet si but fairly nice once ou get’m talking.” Mikaela’s eyes got so wide, Apple Bloom thought they’d split her boiler apart. “You’ve actually MET him?!” “Indeed I ave,” The tram smiled. “Course back en he was work’n small express freights n locals through whitetail. Las I eard he was working on e coast, pull’n surfliners tween Filly’n Baltimare.” “Fella sure gets around,” Apple Bloom noted, as Mikaela’s firepony poked his head out her cab window, making sure everything was sorted outside, an orange glow now painting the tracks around the mikados firebox. As Mikaela’s crew waited for her fire to build up her steam, the heavy Mikado told her filly friends all the stories she knew and had heard about the almost mythical Casey. Pippin chuckled to himself as he continued to sort the tender engines train. He remembered when most of those stories happened, and he definitely remembered the ruckus that engulfed the roundhouses and sheds when news of one of Ole 382’s latest exploits came down the line. Unlike most steam engines however he had met the legend buffer to buffer, and though there was one story he could honestly say only a few even knew about, it also wasn’t his place to tell it. He also wasn’t about to tell Mikaela just why her driver and firepony were so late to get her ready. After the heavy mikado’s breakdown yesterday, she had been unable to return to Canterlot Union Yard with her empties, allowing them to pile up in the yard. Ponyville could certainly boast its fair share of storage when it came to rolling stock, but the truth was that the station was at most meant to let two short passenger or freight trains sit off the double track mainline before it split between Whitetail and Appleoosa, with just enough siding space left over for a dozen or so odd trucks. Now the empties from Mikaela’s last train, the stone trucks, and the ballast cars Pippin and the track layers were quickly working their way through had all but choked Ponyville station’s yard with rolling stock that had nowhere to go. With the sidings close to overflowing, Pippin had no choice but to marshal the cars on the new branch, leaving him to silently pray the workers had done their job right as he pushed and shunted cars across the freshly laid rails. However, it appeared to have worked out. As he pulled the last of yesterday’s flatbeds over the points before reversing them toward the rest of the empties, he realized that Mikaela’s front found just barely stick out from the yard once she coupled on. Still, that meant from the moment she was attached to the moment her train left they would be fouling the mainline, so they had to wait for a gap in the traffic scheduled on the north line between Appleoosa and Canterlot. But while Mikaela was anxious to get going, she was also very nervous. While they were all empty, the accumulated stock made for an awkward mix of bogied boxcars and flat beds with a long tail of empty two axle trucks trailing behind, not a load the heavy Mikado was looking forward to dragging all the way to Baltimare. But she put on a brave face, not wanting her driver to worry after spending all night cleaning her boiler tubes. Pippin had been around stubborn engines long enough to recognize when one was putting off a trip to the shop. A slight random hiss, a low creaking moan, and the slightest of delays between the driver pulling back the reverser and the next turn of the engines side rods. It wasn’t long after Mikaela’s fire began producing steam that Pippin realized she still had a lot of issues, mainly a number of leaky valves and pipes, but his biggest concern came from the dancing light on the ballast around her cab, a sign her firepony kept adjusting her fire. Before Pippin could bring the Mikado’s troubles up with the station master, he and Mikaela’s driver walked out of the station building, time sheet in hoof. “Okay then, as soon as the express comes through, the next train won’t be for another hour and a half, and even then it’s the Dodge connection, so it’ll stop here. Plenty of time for you to be off and down the line.” Pippin tried to ring his bell to get their attention, but Mikaela was already chuffing round to the front of her train, the five fillies trotting toward the caboose. “Bull eaded li’l,” Pippin grumbled as his frames shook. “Why do all e ole PR engines ave to be such stubborn bothers?” “Maybe it has to do with how she was built?” his driver suggested, even as the crusaders piled into the trains brake van, which was becoming an adventure in itself. Between the stacks of rails, ties, and all the crates and barrels of supplies, the Ponyville station was becoming more cluttered than the filly’s rooms. “At’s my theory at leas,” the old tram sighed. “I ope she don try’n hide at wheez’n from her crew, otherwise they’re in a heap-ah trouble.” He managed a smile when applebloom turned back for a moment to wave, answering with a quick chime of his bell before the farm filly joined her friends inside. She climbed aboard to find her friends already in their seats and waiting. They didn’t have to sit long however. Not ten minutes later the rapid fire click clack of an express train zoomed past, followed by the clunk of Ponyville stations lone signal gantry showing the points were for them. As Mikaela puffed out of the yard in a cloud of steam and morning dew, Sweetie Belle contented herself with drawing for a while, until a certain farm filly decided it was too quiet. “It’s getting colder.” She thought out loud as she poked her nose out one of the cabooses half open windows, filling the cabin with a definite, but not unpleasant chill. All five fillys were seated at the cars long bench and table, and on Silver Spoon’s insistence, trying to get a head start on their new projects. For the crusaders it was now clear the grey filly’s family had railroads in their blood, as Silver didn’t want to waste a second. But that didn’t stop Apple Bloom from wanting to make conversation. “Do ya’ll think Lilly’ll like Pippin?” she ventured, eying her fellow crusaders. “I don’t see why not,” Silver Spoon chimed from her seat on the other side of Diamond Tiara. “He’s certainly nice and doesn’t seem like someone who’d get angry easily.” Scootaloo’s bored stare turned just slightly as she looked at the little white unicorn sitting quietly beside her. “What about that kicking thing your Dad did to him?” The white filly squeaked and flinched in place, and she immediately set to correcting the error her start had caused on her drawing. “He said he was just saying hello,” Sweetie Belle supplied as innocently as possible, erasing and fixing her creation. “He said he used to know Pippin when he was still working in Ponyville before.” “And so did my dad apparently,” Diamond added with more than a hint of suspicion. She wasn’t quite at the point to give her deepest worries voice around them yet, but she was starting to see the Crusaders as friends. Her thoughts were interrupted before she could think too deeply on them however, when she saw Sweetie Belle’s drawing. “Um, Sweets,” She started, having unknowingly adopted the same nickname the other crusaders used for their unicorn friend. “Yes?” “I think you messed up on your drawing,” She answered, as politely as could be expected from a filly of her former schoolyard role. “There should be more tracks going through the station platforms and connecting back into the mainline.” The drawing was the first draft of their combined class project. Silver Spoon and Apple Bloom had partnered up on designing the new Saddle Lake Bridge, leaving Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Diamond Tiara to work together on the new Ponyville passenger station. But right now, Sweetie Belle’s drawing had the tracks leading into the station and dead-ending inside. “But they can’t,” She replied matter-of-factly. “Remember where Ms. Cheerilee said they think the best place for a new station is?” “Yes,” Silver Spoon answered, pointing a hoof to the map, just down the line from the old station. “Right here, just before that little stream.” This caused a light to go off in a little orange filly’s head. “Oh yeah! Now I remember,” Scootaloo said looking at the map. “We tried to get our stunt mares cutie marks jumping over it on my scooter and Bloom’s wagon. This side’s fine,” She said pointing toward the bank nearest the proposed station site. “But the other side is all loose and crumbly and muddy. Like those tiny cakes Pinkie Pie leaves with Fluttershy.” “Plus,” Sweetie Belle reasoned, “If this is going to be Lilly and Pippin’s station, why make it so other engines would use it more than them?” Diamond Tiara was shocked: not only did that make a lot of sense, but Sweetie Belle of all ponies had said it! Diamond had been convinced the little unicorn was a dumb little cry baby, but the white filly had just thrown all that off the hoofplate and left it on the tracks behind them. “That … makes sense,” She said meekly, not about to give voice to her sheer astonishment, instead turning her attention to Sweeties sketch. “But if the tracks dead end, how will the engines get out when they pull in?” “Oh,” Apple Bloom pipped up. “What about the turntable?” This gave Diamond an idea, and she pulled her own paper alongside Sweetie’s, a handout from Ms. Cheerilee of the Ponyville station’s current track layout. “If the trains turn in here, go and turn on the turntable, then they can push their trains in.” “Naw,” Apple Bloom said shaking her head and bow. “That seems like an awful lot of work for gett’n inta a station. Hmmm, wait, what if the trains pulled in first?” They kept tossing ideas and problems back and forth until they had nearly reached Canterlot. While only trains destined for the Equestrian Capital had to travel the winding tracks up the mountain itself, the line still climbed as they approached the yards at the mountains base. It wasn’t nearly as bad as the grueling four percent grade of Kate’s Hill, but it was a climb that continued all the way to Fillydelphia, enough to have Mikaela huffing and hiccoughing as her train began winding its way through boulder spotted hills. “Blast it all,” She wheezed. “This wasn’t so hard yesterday.” The cold weather was doing nothing for her chuff, and she was now puffing so hard, her firepony was having trouble keeping her fire going. With every turn of her eight driving wheels it seemed a piece of her fire was sucked up out her funnel, and by the time they passed the white post marking the edge of the Canterlot’s Union Yard, Mikaela was feeling very stopped up indeed. She tried her best, soldiering on toward Pithsburg, but no matter how she tried her boiler couldn’t raise the pressure, and her driver knew better than to try forcing his dear engine on up the line toward the infamous Horseshoe. For the five fillys in her trains caboose, the sound of a new whistle signal was the first sign they heard that something was wrong. “What’s that one mean?” Apple Bloom asked as Silver Spoon scampered out of her seat and up to the window. The grey filly’s answer was equal parts confusion and surprise. “We’re stopping,” She said hesitantly. “At least that’s the pattern for stop, but the tone is off.” “Why?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Is Mickey having trouble?” Any answers her friends had changed when the caboose shuddered and rocked horribly, sending pencils clattering and snacks bouncing out of open saddle bags. Up front Mikaela was now well past wheezing. With every turn of her side rods the Mikado felt like she was moving Canterlot Mountain itself, and when she did manage more than a few turns at a time, her drivers spun on the slick cold rails. Her driver and firepony swallowed and bit back curses as another round of wheel slip sent their train shuddering and shaking all the way down to the caboose. It didn’t end until Mikaela found Pithburgs southern platform creeping up alongside her, and her wheels and train finally clanked to a stop. “Oh my aching parts,” She groaned as five worried and quite shaken fillies hopped down from the caboose to check on their friend as her crew began to look her over. They had to step carefully though, as the platform was now covered in wood, tarps and paint cans, all laid out and ready for renovations. “Stopped up again Mickey?” Scootaloo asked, hover hopping up in front of the exhausted Mikado as her driver climbed to the top of her boiler. “Yeah,” she sniffled with equal parts annoyance and misery. “It was easy at first, but then it just became harder and harder to keep going. Like my boiler just, shrunk all of a sudden.” Diamond was about to give her own theory for Mikaela’s problem, when from atop her boiler there came a clang and a curse. “Consarnit all!” Her driver shouted through his own echo, now firmly stuck in Mikaela’s funnel as her firepony pulled on his back legs. He finally came free with a pop, now covered in soot from his ears to the middle of his barrel. “Yep,” he grumbled as he coughed out a thick cloud of coal dust. “That’s done it. Sorry Mickey, but looks like it’s back to the cleaners and the shops for you.” Mikaela could only sniffle. “Aw bolts, and of all the places to stop. I’m sorry girls,” She groaned. “I didn’t mean for our first trip together to go like this.” “It’s okay Mickey,” Scootaloo said, her tiny wings buzzing as she hopped up onto the mikados running plates in front of her cylinders, the other crusaders gathering round. “I don’t think anypony can have every day be a good day.” “I know,” she sighed, “but it still doesn’t do for my schedule. Between my leaving Ponyville a day late and now this.” She sunk into her wheels, making the crusaders worry for their friend. Being on time was everything for trains, and the last thing they wanted was for Mikaela to get in trouble for being late. As usual, it didn’t take the Cutie Mark Crusaders long to get an idea in their heads, or for one of them to act on it, even as a lighter whistle rang out. Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Silver Spoon, Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara looked away from the ailing Mikado just long enough to see Lilly puffing backwards, pulling a line of what looked like three of Terrance’s coal cars into the train yard, each filled to over flowing with clipped branches and bushes, save for a fourth rusted empty car. “Hey Lilly!” Scootaloo waved. “Hi girls!” The mulberry tank engine whistled back, pulling her small train across the yard and into a track near the station platform. She was clearly in a good mood, and a deserved one. The formerly overgrown railyard was now almost devoid of tall grass or weeds, and in several places new rails and switches were gleaming in the sunshine. It revealed a swath of sidings much longer than any of the fillies had been expecting, and it looked like some workers had begun digging away an embankment at the back end of the yard, their shovels already revealing yet more tracks burried beneath the earth. Apple Bloom couldn’t help but imagine what it must have looked like filled with loaded cars from the mine. Lilly was rightly proud of how things were coming along, but her good mood vanished when she saw Mikaela sitting on the mainline side of the platform, replaced swiftly with warried concern. “Mickey? What’s wrong?” “Clogged tubes,” The Mikado sniffled, as what little steam she could muster wheezed from her boiler. “Driver says I pulled my fire through my funnel, now the ash has stopped me up.” “Ouch,” The tank engine winced in sympathy. “That couldn’t have been nice coming up the hill.” “No it wasn’t,” She groaned in misery, reminding Scootaloo of what Rainbow Dash had been like after she brought a mild case of bird flu back from Griffonstone. “Lilly,” Mikaela’s driver sighed turning to the little tank engine. “You mind getting Mickey off the mainline? I’d rather not leave her there to surprise Cathrine when she rolls through.” “Of course,” she smiled, looking at her filly friends. “But I might need some help with the signals.” But before Apple Bloom or Silver Spoon could say anything. “On it!” Scootaloo snapped a wonderbolt salute and zipped right off the platform. Lilly was uncoupled from the cars, and two flipped switches later, gently eased her buffers up to Mikaela’s pilot truck. Once she was uncoupled from her train, the tender engine helped as much as she could, but even so Lilly was panting as she pulled and pushed the Mikado across the points and onto one of the yard’s empty tracks. “We can go ahead and marshal those empties,” Lilly’s driver shouted over the tank engines hissing cylinders. “Two of them are for us to use getting the old rails out of the mine. We can tack the rest of them onto the freight when it drops in.” Lilly gave a quick whistle before leaving Mikaela on her siding to fetch the empty flat cars off the mainline. “So Lill,” Scootaloo called as the tank engine reversed the cars over the points and into the yard. “Looks like you guys are getting things done.” “Yep,” Lilly smiled, pushing the line of cars onto the same track as the debris filled coal cars. “We’ve got almost all the line from here to the tunnel trimmed, but driver says the next bit is the hard part. And we still need a station master to run this place.” “Wait,” Apple Bloom piped up looking across the tracks to the station building opposite the mainline. “I thought this and that was all one station.” “It is,” Lilly’s driver said from the tank engine’s cab. “But as nopony’s really used it for passengers in years, management let this side of the line run down while the Foal Mountain Mine boys run the other building.” Sweetie Belle listened carefully, but couldn’t help but notice how Scootaloo seemed to be wandering around the station. Her wings however were the telling sign, twitching open and closed, almost fluttering. “Silver,” The little unicorn called as Lilly pulled two of the flat cars away and began to move them across the yard. “Yes?” “Um, I thought you should know something about Scootaloo, since you’re working together. She …” Sweetie Belle stumbled looking for the best, gentlest description. “She’s uh … she doesn’t like homework. At all. Whenever we have to do a project for class she always waits until the last minute, and if it’s a group project.” “You and Apple Bloom end up doing most of the work?” The metallic grey filly guessed. Sweetie Belle could only nod, but to her surprise Silver simply shrugged, explaining: “Diamonds the same way. Unless the homework is something she’s reeeaaaaaallly interested in, she always waits until the last minute.” “I thought she got Pipsqueak to do it for her?” “Well,” Silver said with a cringe that was both embarrassed and sympathetic. “She did but … her Dad kinda found out.” “Ouch.” “Yeah,” the grey filly sighed before from across the tracks. “Hey-o Silver!” Apple Bloom called snapping both filly’s heads around to where the farm filly was waving them toward the end of the station platform. A brisk trot later Silver and Sweetie Belle had rejoined the other crusaders, who were standing around what looked to them like a giant hoof-print in the platform. Where a trio of shrubs had been growing before, the workers had clipped and cleared, revealing a long hoof shaped hole in the stone surface. It wasn’t empty though, and where Apple Bloom would have expected to find small stumps, there were instead a stubby forest of short metal poles rimming the edge of the shallow pit, none of them taller than the filly’s ankles. “What is it?” Scootaloo asked, kneeling down to get a better look at one of the short poles. “And why are there all these metal things in it? Did somepony try to plant a rust bush?” Luckily she was so focused on the pit, she didn’t see the deadpan glare Diamond Tiara sent her way. “It’s a hoof-bridge,” Silver Spoon supplied matter-of-factly. “Er, it was a hoof-bridge.” “And that is?,” Scootaloo asked, tediously, earning an eye roll from the pink filly beside her. “Duh, a bridge you walk on. It’s so ponies who can’t fly can walk from one platform to another without having to step on the tracks. Like you.” “Hey!” “Girls,” Sweetie Belle whined, fearful the two stubborn fillies were about to start arguing again. Unlike her unicorn friend, Apple Bloom had already learned to ignore the gathering storm clouds. Instead she was still learning all she could from Silver Spoon. “So there’s another’n just like this on the other side?” “There should be,” The grey filly answered as she adjusted her glasses and looked around the station yard. Rails and old bridge remains were not the only things the worker’s efforts had revealed. What had before appeared part of a hill and ridge the railroad had cut through, covered in vines and young saplings, was now looking more like a wall of earth. It ran along the edge of stations sidings, gently sloping down until it almost met the branch line. Silver Spoons mind was already running up to speed, imagining the hill on the other side of the mainline cleared in a similar fashion, trying to be sure if it was stone she saw peeking through the overgrowth, and imagining a short bridge between the two hills. She was interrupted though by the long blast of a two tone whistle, one that drew Lilly’s attention away from her train and toward the mainline. “Is that the freight?” She asked in disbelief. “Early if it is,” Her driver noted, shutting her throttle as they shunted the flat cars into a siding and uncoupled. “I could’ve sworn I saw Nick on the roster for it, but the whistle’s wrong.” The five fillies hopped back across the platform to see the arriving train, not realizing at first they had seen this engine before. The train was long and varied. Three short two axle vans followed by a trio of bogied metal hopper cars, and then four longer bogied box cars. Behind these were coupled a line of six green tank cars, each resting on three axels, and a short two axle caboose bobbing behind. But the engine up front though was the star of the show. His emerald paint and red stripes gleamed like fresh candy in the sunshine, and every single one of his wheels, from the two wheeled guiding truck and his six tall drivers, to the three sets under his tender were painted a bright matching red. Even his side rods shone, new steel gleaming like silver. The engine though looked very nervous, glancing this way and that even as his crew brought him and his train to a halting stop. “Hello,” Lilly chimed as she approached from across the yard, while Mikaela only managed a congested groan. The greeting made the new engine nearly jump off his frames, startling him so bad he let off steam. “Oh, uh, Hi,” He stammered quietly, but loud enough that Lilly recognized his voice, and when she did her eyes went as big as her driving wheels. “Mike?!” She gasped, looking the engine over once more even as he groaned. “Is that you?” “No, it’s Princess Cadance,” he grumbled, before giving out a sigh, “yes it’s me.” “Oh my gosh look at you,” She cried excitedly. “You look great!” “Thanks,” He blushed, smoke box starting to go red in spite of the black paint there. “You uh, you’re looking pretty swell yourself.” Lilly giggled at the complement, and Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but squee when she saw how the two engines acted around one another, but her orange feathered friend was blind to what the little unicorn saw. “Hold it,” Scootaloo pipped up when a thought and memory clicked in her head. “Do you mean Mike as in the engine whose wreck we saved all those passengers from hitting?” The tender engines face fell faster than a rock in a lake, and he quickly went back to looking nervous and guilty. “…Yeah,” he swallowed in shame, looking down at his rails sullenly. But instead of the reaction he expected. “Dad-gum,” Apple Bloom gasped. “Those shop ponies sure don’t waste any time do they?” Mike looked up hesitantly at the sound of what he could only assume was a complement. “No kid’n,” Scootaloo added. “And look at those wheels! Now that’s what I call hot-rod red!” “Th,-thank you,” Mike stuttered, timidly taking in the fillies complements as his driver and firepony stepped down from his cab. They were approached by Lilly’s driver, who quickly explained the situation with Mikaela. “I really am sorry for the trouble,” he said only for Mike’s driver to brush it off with some coal dust from his overalls. “Don’t sweat it. Granted the Horseshoe ain’t exactly a trot in the park, but Mike can handle a few more empties, and ther's always the banker. Hey,” He shouted forward to his engine. “What say we take a little rest here eh Mike?” he asked casually. “We’re not due to head through the Horseshoe for another half hour anyway.” “Oh, um, sure why not?” the tender engine stammered quickly, trying poorly not to seem nervous. Soon his driver and firepony were back at his controls, and Mike’s train was uncoupled from its brake van. He slowly pulled forward until he was past the points to enter the yard, while at the same time Lilly’s driver made his way across the yard on hoof to set the switches. Once the end of Mikes train was past the main switch, Lilly’s driver waved his hoof, and Mike began reversing into the yard, and onto the track where Lilly’s debris cars and Mikaela’s empties were waiting. A bump and a clang later, the cars were coupled, and the length of Mike’s train had almost doubled, but it wasn’t quite long enough that he struck out on the mainline. He needed only reverse a little further back, and soon he was sizzling between Lilly on one track, and Mikaela on the other. “Mike?” Mikaela started with a sniffle. “Not that I’m not glad to see you back on your wheels so soon, but what are you doing here? I thought Nick was supposed to pull this train.” “Uh, schedule change?” He answered weakly, only leaving both female engines suspicious. Lilly looked like she was about to ask something herself, but a white filly’s curiosity rescued the nervous tender engine. “Who’s Nick?” Sweetie belle’s question was simple but it saved Mike, if only for the moment. “He’s an import,” Mikaela explained, pausing to try and clear her clogged tubes. “A big decapod freight locomotive built in Griffonstone that Mr. Top Hat bought to help with freight between Fillydelphia and Canterlot.” The fillies couldn’t help but notice the disdain in the big tender engines voice, even as she suffered through a clogged boiler. “He’s good with hills so he mainly works the Horseshoe.” “Did he do something mean?” Sweetie Belle asked innocently. “Oh not all!” Lilly added quickly. “He’s actually really nice! Sure he has this weird accent and he sometimes yells things in, uh, Mike? What’s the name of that language Nick speaks? “Griffish I think,” The smaller tender locomotive provided. “He had an um, mechanical issue this morning and asked me to take his train.” Mikaela of course didn’t look like she believed any of it. “Do you mean the engine who has only ever needed maintenance once, the engine who was cast in a single piece, the engine who on his first day, pulled not one but two failed engines and their trains through the Horseshoe?” Mike didn’t bother trying to stutter an answer, just looked down at his rails in shame. “That Nick?” “… No,” The smaller tender engine answered weakly. “He gave me his train. I just had to get out of the yard after …” “After what Mike?” Lilly asked, looking more afraid for her friend than hurt for his lie. “Well, I just got back from the works in Fillydelphia last night, so the yard manager in Canterlot wanted me to take it easy.” ... Earlier that morning ... Mike was sizzling nicely, his new paint and eager smile brighter than celestia’s sun. He was steaming up in the shop building, just a short trot away from the roundhouse. The shop ponies had delivered him yesterday afternoon, and the yard manager had promised him a full day of work in the morning. “Easy boy,” His driver laughed as the tender engine’s boiler pressure climbed. “What would Mr. Top Hat say if you blew your safety valve on your first day back?” “Sorry,” Mike smiled nervously, unable to contain his excitement. “It’s okay. Come on, let’s see how those shop-ponies did on your repairs.” He opened Mike’s throttle and the tender engine rolled forward out of the Canterlot Engine shed, side rods turning his wheels smoothly as they gently clicked over the points into the yard. Mike was so happy; he didn’t even mind his first job of the day was switching two of the bigger engines out of the roundhouse. His new two-tone whistle chirped as he came to a halt, then reversed back toward the turntable. His driver eased him slower, until Mike was crawling along, over the turntable, and into the stall directly behind, where Cathrine the express engine was still sleeping soundly. “Wakey wakey!” Mike whistled as he coupled up to the pacific, who made no effort at all to wake herself up. She barely blinked the sleep from her eyes before looking down at the engine in front of her. “Hm?” She groaned sleepily before looking down. “Oh, it’s you.” “Nice to see you to Cath,” The smaller tender engine smiled sarcastically, waiting as his crew checked Cathrine’s coupler. “Now hurry and wake up lazy bones, it’s time for work!” “Work?” She scoffed as Mike started forward, pulling the pacific out of the shed and across the turntable toward the water tower. “What would you know about work? It seems to me all you know how to do is crash.” “Hey! That wasn’t my fault!” But Catherine only laughed at him. “Oh really? Tell me, what kind of engine can’t even handle a few freight cars? Or going down a hill for that matter?” Mike grumbled and tried to concentrate on the rails ahead. He brought Catherine to a stop at the water tower, and uncoupled as her crew started to fill the pacific’s water tanks. “And do be careful with my coaches,” the fuchsia tender engine chimed down her nose. “I would hate for my passengers to be delayed by another accident.” Mike hissed steam back at her, and reversed back to the roundhouse and pulled the second engine from its stall, a sleek streamlined pacific that didn’t even bother to open his eyes. Once both express engines were drinking their fills and being checked over by their crews, Mike puffed over the switches into a different part of the yard, to the long curved sidings where the coaches were stored. He knew from the shop ponies talk that his accident had cost the railway thousands in bits, not only in repairs and clean up, but from the delay his accident caused the Sun Racer Limited. The end result was a free round trip for the passengers, hundreds out of pocket for Mr. Top Hat, and Cathrine being transferred from The Sun Racer to the Fillydelphia Flyer. By the time Mike found the set of gold and fuschia coaches he was looking for, he wasn’t smiling anymore. “I can’t mess up again,” he said to himself as he buffered up to the coaches. “No more delays.” As the waited for the points to change in their favor, Mike got an idea. Canterlot Union Station has seven main platforms, each with three tracks between: two on the outside for the coaches to be lined up and boarded, and a middle with dual switches so engines pulling in can uncouple and reverse out of the station. Cathrine, important as she thought she was, liked to get to the station before her coaches and sit on the middle track, where light from the stations overhead lanterns could best catch the shine of her gold and fuscia paint. If Mike could get the coaches to the platform before Cathrine could take up her usual beauty spot, then it would look like she was making the passengers wait. “Come on,” he grumbled impatiently as he waited for the switch points to let him out. “Come on this is my chance to get her back.” His driver tried to check him, but the moment the points were in his favor, Mike surged backwards, steam whooshing from his cylinders as he gave a hard pull on the coach’s couplings. “Whoa! Easy boy!,” His driver shouted as the small tender engine shot forward. “The stations not going anywhere.” As the last coach cleared its siding and he brought the train to a stop, Mike started to think his plan was a bad idea, until a steam whistle echoed across the yard. Fearful Cathrine could be starting toward the station, Mike puffed harder, pushing and spinning his wheels before they found traction again, and leaving his driver and firepony stumped. “You ever seen him like this?” “Never,” His driver admitted as Mike hurried his train across the yard. He made sure to whistle loud and clear as Mike clicked his way across the various junctions, all while making sure their train didn’t exceed the yards speed limit. Mike meanwhile was trying his hardest to push the coaches faster, but there was something besides his drivers brake holding him back. “Why does my train feel like it’s getting heavier?” Every puff felt like it did less and less, and anypony nearby would have noticed a high pitched squeal growing over the sound of Mike’s puffing. By the time he rolled into the station there was no ignoring the near deafening shriek coming from the coaches. Mike no longer cared that he had beaten Cathrine to the platform, now his main concern were the worried glances his crew were trading. “Oh Celestia,” His fire pony gulped, looking at his driver. “Brake lines?” “Probably,” He huffed glaring at their engine. “Mike certainly bashed them hard enough.” The mogul’s eyes darted around the station in fear, looking for anypony who might have noticed his mistake. Thankfully none of the guard or porters seemed to be looking at the wheels, just going about their normal business loading the baggage car and getting the coaches ready to receive their passengers. He thought he was in the clear, and breathed a sigh of relief as one of the guards uncoupled him from the coaches, when he saw none other than Mr. Top Hat walking down the platform toward him, and that is when it all went wrong. Mike had been sitting still longer than his crew realized, so when his driver opened the throttle to reverse away, a torrent of steam and cooled water erupted from Mike’s pistons like a pair of geysers, completely drenching anypony nearby. “Yeeeesh,” Scootaloo winced. “You really stepped in it didn’t you?” Mike sighed dejectedly, sinking into his frames as those around came to see the scope of his screw-up. “Yep. I high-balled it out of there as fast as I could. I tried to hide shunting in the yard but I was afraid Mr. Hat would find me, so when Nick was getting ready I asked him if I could take his train instead.” “Well,” Lilly said trying to make her friend feel better. “It is your first day back right? I’m sure they don’t expect you to get everything right. And remember what Terrance always says; sometimes the only way to get it right.” “Is to stop getting it wrong,” The mogul sighed. “Doesn’t matter how many times he says it; it still makes no sense.” “It means,” Mikaela sniffled. “That you can’t give up because of a few mistakes. Terrance learned that the hard way.” “Really?” Mike asked, looking at the Mikado. “But I thought Terrance was one of the smartest engines around.” The fillies weren’t quite ready for Mikaela to laugh as hard as she could with a stopped up boiler. “He wasn’t always! I remember back when he was just starting out. Oh you should’ve seen him! Causing accidents left and right. Terrible Terrance we called him!” “All right enough chit-chat,” Mikes driver smiled as he ambled up between the engines. “Time we be head’n out. You ready Mike?” “Sir yes Sir!” The mogul smiled, letting off steam as his crew climbed aboard. Lilly’s crew were also preparing for a new journey, but the tank engine looked very nervously at Mikes train. “Are you sure you don’t need any help? It’s a steep climb through the Horseshoe.” “He’ll be fine,’ Mikaela sighed, rolling her eyes up and away from the little engine. “I was built and bred for this line. I’ve seen older and smaller engines take plenty more up that hill, no problem at all.” But Mikes driver wasn’t so sure. “Better to play it safe though,” he said, looking over to Lilly’s driver, who nodded his agreement as Lilly beamed. Sour mood or not, nothing got the little tank engine excited faster than a chance to run on the mainline. Her enthusiasm was only matched by five other small hearts. “We’ll be right behind you,” Her driver smiled, only to find five pairs of big eyes staring up at him. “… Very well, come on then.” “YES!” They cheered together, clambering into Lilly’s cab. The firepony immediately gave them each a harness and rope that was tied to Lillys hoofrails for safety, and with a whistle from Mike the cavalcade set off. Diamond had to resist the very real urge to climb into the driver’s lap, and Silver Spoon quickly set to scolding Scootaloo when the Pegasus filly insisted on sticking her head outside Lilly’s open cab, but it was soon apparent the main one that had to be watched was Lilly. “Easy girl,” The tank engines driver said, checking her speed as another charge by the tank engine biffed and bumped that cars old frames together. “Mike’ll signal when he needs help. All we’ve got to do is keep speed for now.” It didn’t stay that way for long. The Horseshoe was more than just as curve who’s shape made for an easy name, it was the peak of the longest grade in all Equestria. Mike and Lilly were soon fighting the moguls extended train, and both were seriously doubting Mikaela’s claims, veteran or not. “Bugger me,” Lilly’s driver groaned as the tank engines wheels spun on the rails, sending the ponies in her cab stumbling. “Older and smaller engines my marked flank.” They had slowed to a crawl now, their speed barely showing on Lilly’s cab instruments. None of which sat well with the crusaders. “Should we get out’n push?” Appel Bloom asked, when they heard a whistle chime from the other line. “That’s it you’ve got it!” A large black engine whistled as he steamed past, the fillies only managing to catch the numbers three and eight written on his black tender. “Keep at it! Don’t let those cars beat you!” “We won’t!” Mike chimed from up front, and Lilly felt the weight on her buffers slacken with the moguls second wind. Before they knew it Mike whistled back to them. They were over the hump and away down the other side, leaving Lilly free to return to Pithsburg. Coasting backwards down the hill was a welcome reprieve from the torturous climb, though it may have been better without five safe and bored fillies on board. “But why?” Scootaloo asked as Lilly was switched across the mainline to the other set of tracks. “Our stations on the other side, so why do we have to change tracks if we’re just gonna switch right back when we get there?” “It’s a precaution,” Silver Spoon answered matter of factly. “The whole point of having a double track mainline, is so trains can travel in both directions at the same time without running into each other. This way we don’t need to worry about hitting another train on the way back.” “Because the only trains on this track,’ Sweetie Belle realized. “Are going the same direction as us. That’s really smart.” “Yep,” Diamond smiled. “Optimizes traffic and safety. It’s foolproof.” No sooner had the words left Diamond Tiara’s lips than a three rapid shrill whistle cries cut through the air, startling the fillies but confusing Lilly and her crew. “Odd,” she said. “That sounds like a guard’s whistle, but we don’t have a guard.” And the whistling didn’t stop either. Though it was slowly getting quieter and further away they could still hear the shrill, almost frantic tones. “Uh, girls,” Scootaloo swallowed nervously. “I still don’t know much about trains, but that sounds a lot like the emergency signal we used at Hoofmouth.” “It is,” Silver spoon realized, before the friepony’s eyes went wide and his coat paled. “Sweet Luna look at that!” All eyes immediately snapped back down the line, none quicker than Lilly’s when a caboose and thirteen trucks came barreling around the bend. On their line. “Horsefeathers!” The driver spat, quickly opening Lilly’s regulator and sending the tank engine racing down the hill. “They must’ve snapped a coupling.” “H-hurry!” Lilly shrieked, wondering why her driver hadn’t fully opened her throttle. “We have to get away!” “Easy girl, we’re all right,” he soothed, then turned to the crusaders. “You girls hold on tight. We’re going to stop those cars.” Lilly picked up speed, racing down the line as the trucks came ever closer. Slowly though the gap between them shrank less and less as they matched the runaway cars speed. Lilly’s driver carefully closed her regulator, slowing down until the caboose came to rest of Lilly’s buffers. “We got em!” Scootaloo cheered just as Lilly’s wheels began to squeal against the new weight. “That’s it Lilly, steady now.” He closed her regulator, shut off steam and began applying the little tank engines brakes. “We’ll ease em down, nice’n gently.” “Um, Sir,” Apple Bloom gulped, looking back with wide eyes and trembling legs. “I don’t think that’s gonna be an option!” The driver and firepony looked back and paled at what they saw. Not only were they quickly approaching Pithsburg station, but there on their line, sat in the west bound platform, was a great black steam engine and its coaches. “Go for it girl!” Lilly’s driver shouted, shifting her reverser and throwing open the throttle as he yanked an emergency signal on the whistle. “It’s all on you now!” Lilly strained, forcing her wheels forward as the trucks forced her racing backwards, every ounce of steam left in her boiler puffing hard against the runaway cars. She already knew they were in trouble, then Scootaloo shouted five words no one ever expected from her. “We’re coming in too fast!” It didn’t take a genius to see she was right, and though the engine ahead was starting to pull away, Apple Bloom knew they’d never stop in time. “Everypony hold onta someth’n!” The ponies braced, ready for the impact or metal on metal they could see fast approaching, but it never came. In their excitement everyone, from Lilly’s driver and firepony, to the crusaders and the tank engine herself had forgotten the switch they would need to cross to reenter Pithsburg yard. Lilly suddenly jerked to the right, her speed lowered enough that she didn’t tip over in the turn, before she and her passengers went screaming into the yard. They streaked past Mikaela, the big Mikado dumbfounded when Lilly and a line of Mikes trucks streaked across the tracks in front of her, through the yard, and out the other side. Lilly barely had time to realize she was on the branch line now, her wheels and bearing red hot from her fight, and only just heard the encouraging words of her driver and friends as she brought the runaway cars to a halt just beyond the yard. “Owwwwyyy,” She hissed feebly, sinking onto her wheels as five shaken fillies stumbled down from her cab. “Holy Hayseeds,” Apple Bloom gasped, legs shaking with as much excitement as fear. “Is everypony okay?” “I think so,” Diamond trembled, leaning on Lilly’s frame until her legs could stop shaking. “That, that was.” “AWESOME!” Scootaloo cheered, jumping from the cab and flipping twice through the air. “We have SO got to do that again!” “L-lets not,” Sweetie Belle stammered, knees all but buckled in terror. “P-please? I think I saw my life flash before my eyes.” “Me too,” Silver Spoon gulped, fixing her glasses with a shay hoof. “Twice.” After a moment to catch their breath and steady their nerves Lilly was puffing back into the yard, the switches mercifully set to let her shunt the trucks into a siding. She brought them to a halt just as the engine across the station called out. “You girls alright? Nothing bent or broken?” “We’re fine,” she whistled back weakly. “We stopped the cars so we’re okay I guess.” “You guess?” He laughed. “What’s your name youngster?” “Lilly.” She couldn’t see the other engine behind the station building, only the tail end of his black tender. “Well Lilly, I’m not sure where it is on the railroad you’ve been working until now, but round here there’s a name for what you just did: Heroic, marvelous, and pretty darn brave.” “I screwed up,” the tank engine sighed. “If I hadn’t bumped the cars the coupling wouldn’t have snapped, and none of this would’ve happened.” “You’re right,” The other engine said plainly. “But the only way those cars beat you is if you give up. Keep at it, take your time, and you’ll see.” “Thanks,” she whistled as the mystery engines guard blew their whistle. “Welp, it was nice talking with you Lilly. Have a good day, and remember what I said.” “I will.” With that the engine puffed away, black boiler and wheels almost lost within a cloud of steam, but not the white numbering of 382 proudly painted on his tender. None of the crusaders had thought it possible, but Lilly squeaked. “That … that was.” The tank engine was openly gaping enough to be a bug catcher, and Diamond Tiara was in a similar state, wide eyed and stunned. “Wow.” And that was how she stayed until the tail of Mikes train rolled back into the station. Lilly quickly marshalled the trucks back into line, while the workers generously and quietly donated a few extra lengths of chain for the couplings. In no time both engines were ready to climb the hills once again, while the crusaders bravely decided to stay at the station. They had a lot to think about, and more than a few messes of their own to clean up when they got home that afternoon.