I was running over the telegram in my mind as me and Coal Dust walked through the small town of Ponyville. The idea of sleeping had gone completely out the window after we had read the warning from Files. So with nothing better to do, we decided to make the trip to the farm Dusty’s friend Big Mac lived on.
We had chosen to not take the way through town, as that would have brought us past the castle of Princess Twilight Sparkle, and being close to any place that might have royal guards was not something I wanted to do until I had the telegram situation figured out. After walking around the main part of town, we found ourselves amongst row apon row of apple trees, with a small farmhouse and barn sitting in the center of the fields.
“Damn, this place hasn’t changed a bit.” Dusty said as we walked under a big white sign that read ‘Sweet Apple Acres’. “Oh, I’ve heard of this place. My mom swears by their apples. I didn’t know you knew that family that ran this place.” I said as we walked towards the house. “You never asked.” Coal Dust said in a very Coal Dust way. But, just before we hit the porch of the white farmhouse, we heard the sound of hooves connecting with a tree. “Huh, I didn’t think they’d be harvesting by now.” Coal Dust said as he started to walk away from the house, and off towards the fields past the barn.
With no better option, as I didn’t know these ponies and didn’t want to be seen as some sort of creep or something, I followed after him. We walked through the rows of trees for a few seconds, before we came to a smaller clearing where there was an orange and blond maned mare with a stetson covering her head, bucking the trees and relinquishing them of their red fruits.
Coal Dust smiled, “Hey Applejack, it’s been years!” The mare stopped her work and turned towards the two of us. She looked at me for a second, before looking over at Coal Dust. She stared at him for a little longer, before a look of recognition dawned on her, “Coal Dust? Ah haven’t seen ya since Ah was a foal.” She said as she started walking over to us.
Coal Dust let his smile grow wider, “I’m actually surprised you remember me. You were only like 8 or 9 when I left town.” Applejack cracked a smirk when she got over to us, “Like Ah could forget mah brother’s best friend that he always got in trouble with.” Coal Dust laughed, “Fair point. Speaking of Big mac, where is he?” “He should be back at the barn stackin hay. Come on, Ah need to go get more apple baskets anyways.”
The three of us started walking back towards the farm proper. As we got closer, a rust brown stallion with a grease black mane walked out of the farmhouse and looked over towards us, “Oh AJ, I was just coming to bring you those apple baskets. Wait, who’s that with you?”
Dusty cracked another smile, “What’s up Ratchet!” He yelled from the tree line we were just walking out of. Ratchet looked shocked, “Holy crap, Coal Dust!” Ratchet ran over, and tried to tackle Coal Dust, but with a few quick moves from Dusty, he found himself on the ground. “Even after all these years, still too slow Ratch.” Ratchet laughed as he picked himself up off the ground, “Yeah, I guess so. What are you doing back in town Dusty?”
“It’s a bit of a long story, but before I get into that, let me introduce you to my friend here. Ratchet, this is Fire Stoker, he’s one of the colts I started getting in trouble with back in Tall Tale.” Both Applejack and Ratchet turned to look at me when Coal Dust mentioned my name. “Wait a second, Fire Stoker? As in the one that’s been in the news lately?”
I groaned internally at Ratchet’s mention of the news, “Yes, that Fire Stoker.” I said with annoyance. Applejack held up one of her hooves, “Woah, easy there partner. He ain’t tryin to blame you for nothin. Ponies out here aren’t quick to make judgments about ponies on what the papers say. Not after the last time.” Choosing not to question what she meant by “last time”, I breathed a sigh of relief, “That’s good to hear. Sorry but my life for the last month has been based around ponies making judgments about me based on what the papers say.”
Ratchet smiled, “Well, with that cleared up, I’m gonna go get Mac. He’s gonna be over the moon to see that Dusty her is back in town.” Ratchet then trotted over to the barn, “Mac! Leave the hay alone for a second and come here!” There was a moment’s pause before a red and orange head popped out of the barn door., “What is it Ratch.” Ratchet then pointed over towards us, “Look who’s back in town.” Coal Dust waved, “What’s up Mac.” Mac caught sight of him, and cracked a smirk behind the stalk of wheat he had hanging from his lip, and walked out of the barn.
It was at that moment I understood why he was called Big Mac. Blow Torch was the biggest stallion I had ever know up to that point, and Mac was even bigger than him, and stronger by the looks of it. All I knew was, I did not want to be on his bad side, cause I felt like I’d get my head popped. The massive stallion walked over to us, “Well, been a while Dusty. Good to see you again.” Dusty smiled as he looked up at his friend, “Damn Mac, I always knew you’d grow up big, but I wasn’t expecting this.”
The big red stallion laughed, “Ah get that a lot. Who’s your friend here?” “Mac, this is Fire Stoker. Fire Stoker, this is Big Macintosh, Applejack’s brother, and one of the best ponies I got to know before moving out to Tall Tale.” I held my breath for a second, hoping this stallion had the same feelings towards the news that his sister did. But, Mac just smiled and held out a hoof, “Nice to meet ya.” I sighed in relief and shook his hoof, “Same to you.” As he let go of my hoof, he turned to look at Coal Dust, “Come on in the house, we can catch up a bit.”
Coal Dust smiled, “Sounds good to me, come on Stokes.” I nodded, and the three of us walked into the farmhouse. It was a small place, built completely out of wood, but it reminded me a lot of many homes back in Tall Tale, so I felt right at home. No pun intended. The three of us sat down at the small kitchen table, “So what have you been up to Dusty?” Mac asked. “Oh nothing much, just working hard on the railway. Nearly got killed once or twice, but that’s rail life for you.”
“So Ah’ve heard. You and Fire Stoker here have been all the papers have been talkin ‘bout.” That’s when I decided to speak up, “That’s actually part of the reason why we ended up here. We got lucky with a train switch up, and got sent on a run out here. And we’re probably gonna be out here for a while.” Mac raised an eyebrow to that, “Oh, and why’s that?”
Coal dust rolled his eyes, “It’s a long story full of bullshit. Go ahead and show him the telegram Stokes.” That shocked me, and I turned to him, “What, why?” Coal Dust waved a hoof, “Go on Stokes. Let him read it.” I was dumbfounded. Dusty may have known Big Mac for a long time before this, but I had literally just shown up in town out of nowhere with a press trail 130 miles long, and I was about to hoof this stallion I barely knew a telegram that basically said I was on the run from the Royal Guard on a murder charge.
But, after a lot of hesitation, I finally reached down into one of the pockets in my denims and pulled out the telegram, and slid it across the table to Mac. I held my breath a bit as Mac read over the telegram, waiting for him to reach across the table and try to strangle me or something. But, all he did when he finished reading was hum, “Hmm, so you got yourself in a bit of trouble with the Royal Guard huh? I’m actually kinda impressed Dusty. Worst you ever did back in the day was piss off the Sheriff's deputy.”
I was stunned by Big Mac’s shrugging off something I would consider at least somewhat suspicious, Coal Dust scoffed, “We didn’t do anything worthy of rustled Guard jimmies.” “According to them you did.”
I finally found my voice again, “But we really didn’t. We were just doing our jobs, and got caught up in some really bad luck.” Coal Dust nodded, “Exactly. Anyways Mac, since you always seemed to find a way to talk the group out of trouble, you got any ideas on how to help us out here.” Mac grinned, “I think I know just the pony, or AJ knows just the pony to be exact.”
Mac then got up and walked back over to the front door and yelled from the porch, “AJ, leave Ratchet alone and come here for a second!” Dusty looked over his shoulder and shouted, “Oh is Ratchet messing around with your sister now!” “Shut your mouth or you get no help!” Dusty laughed and looked over at me, “That’s a yes.”
Applejack came walking into the house, “Whatcha need Big Mac?” Mac walked back into the kitchen, grabbed the telegram off the table, and brought it back over to his sister, “Take a gander at this.” Now I was worried all over again, Applejack said she didn’t judge based on the news, but Royal Guard searches, that’s a different story.
The look AJ gave me made me think my fears were correct, “You two are running from the Guard for murder!” I held up my hooves in some sort of defense, “Wait, let me explain. We didn’t do anything. We fell over a bridge and the rest of the train ran away. Somepony is just looking for a scapegoat!” I sat there, waiting for Applejack to charge at me or something, but instead, the look of anger washed from here face and she smiled, “Well, if that’s the case, we need to get you some help.”
She then turned and walked towards the front door, “Come on, we’ll go see Twilight and get this all cleared up.” I stared at her, “Wait, as in Princess Twilight? We can’t just go walking in to Princess Twilight’s castle!” Applejack laughed, “What’re you talking about, me and the girls do that all the other time.” Dusty cocked an eyebrow at her, “How are you on such good terms with the Princess?”
Applejack waved a hoof, “Oh me and the girls have been best friends with Twi since that Nightmare Moon hooie.” I tried to wrap my head around what AJ had just said, when something clicked, “Wait a second, are you one of the Elements of Harmony?” It was a long shot, but it was the only thing that made sense to me. Applejack smiled and nodded, “Yep, Ah became the Element of Honesty. That how I could tell you weren’t trying to talk your way out of this Royal Guard trouble.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Everypony in Equestria knew what the Elements of Harmony were, and all the heroic actions they had performed. But, the crown had done their best to keep the names and images of the Elements out of the public, so that the six ponies could live a normal life as best they could. The only name the general public ever properly learned was Twilight Sparkle, after she became an alicorn, which kind of made sense since she was kinda a princess and couldn’t really hide from the public anymore. The others however, had mostly stayed unknown.
I looked over to Coal Dust, “Dusty, why didn’t you tell me that the sister of one of your best friends was an Element of Harmony?!?” Dusty turned to me, “How the hell was I supposed to know, I haven’t seen them in over a decade! And that Elements of Harmony stuff only happened like five years ago!” Our argument was interrupted by the laughing of both Applejack and Big Mac, “Alright you two, enough bickering. Let’s go get you two out of trouble.” AJ said as she opened the front door.
Me and Dust both stood and went to follow after her. “Guess we’ll have to finish catching up later Mac.” Dusty said as he walked past the red stallion. Mac chuckled, “That’s fine Dusty. By the sound of it, you have more important things to worry about. Ah’m sure we can catch up over the next few days, as it seems like you won’t be leavin’ for awhile.” Dusty smiled, “Sounds good to me Mac.” And with that, we walked out of the house.
As we walked up the road leading to town, Coal Dust looked over to Applejack, “Where’s Granny and little Apple Bloom?” “Oh, they’re in town getting some ingredients for dinner tonight. You and Fire Stoker over there can stay for food if ya want. Not gonna leave a friend with an empty stomach or no roof over their head.” Coal Dust smiled, “Thanks AJ, I think we just might take you up on that.” The rest of the walk into town was mostly filled with small talk between AJ and Dusty as they caught up on time gone by.
I however, stayed quite at the back, still worried about the fact that I was about to walk into a Royal residence while wanted by the Royal Guard. But, as we walked through the town of Ponyville proper, my nerves started to fade. Everypony around me, despite the fact I was a complete stranger, smiled and waved a friendly hello, it reminded me a lot of Tall Tale. And being somewhere that reminded me so much of home helped calm my nerves a little.
As the top of the crystal castle came into view, a colt came running over to me. I noticed that he was one of the ones that had been standing by the tracks when we rolled in with 9413 and 9414. The white and brown colt looked up to me as we kept walking, “Excuse me mister, are you a railway worker?” He asked with a thick Braytish accent.
I smiled down at him, “Why yes I am, I’m an engine driver. Weren’t you one of those colts standing by the tracks when I came in earlier?” The colt’s face lit up, “You were one of the ponies in those massive engines that came in?” I smiled back, “Yeah, I was in the lead engine.” “What are those things? Their bloody huge!” “Those, were two engines of a class build to deal with the big grades in the Smokey Mountains. They’re extremely powerful, and take a lot of practice to learn how to drive properly.”
The colt stared at me wide eyed like I was the newest alicorn, “So, you’re like a really good engine driver?” I smiled down to him, “According to some of my friends back home, I’m one of the best.” “Wow, I wish I could become that good one day.” “So you want to be an engine driver one day?” The colt nodded, “One day maybe. I just love watching engine pull into the yard. They always seem so big and powerful.”
I nodded with a grin, this colt reminded me a lot of myself back when I was young, “Well, uh.” “Pipsqueak, but my friends call me Pip.” “Ah, well Pip, being an engineer can be a fun job, but it’s also dangerous. Things can go wrong, but, the best way to avoid that is to hold respect for the machines you work with. Treat them like a Canterlot mare, and you’ll never have one get angry with you.”
Pip looked at me curiously, and I couldn’t help but chuckle, “I know it sounds weird, but trust me, it works. I’ve been running locomotives through the hills of the Smokeys for nearly ten years now, one of the hardest lines in the nation, and I’ve nearly never had a problem. If you respect your machine, it’ll respect you.” Pipsqueak smiled, “If you say so Mister.” I chuckled again, “Please, call me Stokes, I’ve never been no Mister.” The colt nodded, before Coal Dust yelled from ahead of me, “Come on Stokes, we’re here!” I nodded, “Alright Pip, I gotta go take care of some things with the Princess, and my friend. Have a good one, and keep what I said in mind.” “I will, have a good day Mister Stokes.” I couldn’t help but chuckle at that, before I turned and looked up at the crystal castle I was now standing in front of.
Pip had helped me forget about me nerves, but now that I was standing in front of the castle, they came rushing back. Nothing was said as he climbed the steps to the door, which were unguarded, which I found strange. As we got to the doors, AJ knocked as if she was just knocking on the door of a friend’s house. There was a moment pause, before one of the doors swung open. I expected to be greeted by an armored guard, but instead the figure standing in the door was a small dragon, about half my height. I didn’t know whether to be relieved, or more scared.
“Oh hey AJ, what can I do for you, and your two friends?” The little dragon spoke. That blew my mind, the dragon just spoke. I didn’t even know that was possible. “Spike, we need to talk with Twilight. Is she busy?” The dragon, Spike, shook his head, “Not really, she’s just looking into some paperwork Celestia sent her. Come on, she’s in the map room.” ‘Map room?’ I mouthed, confused. But despite my confusion, I followed after Applejack and Coal Dust, and walked into the castle.
I looked around in awe as we walked through the massive hallways of the castle. I had never seen such a massive building before, and I worked on a railway with some of the biggest commercial structures in the nation. At the end of the hallway we were in was a set of double doors, one of which was swung open. As we walked up, Spike called inside, “Twi, AJ and a couple of stallions are here to see you!” “Oh, alright. Let them in!” A mare’s voice called from inside the room. I gulped, this was the point of no return. Applejack nodded to the small dragon, “Thank ya kindly Spike. I can take care of things from here.” Spike nodded back, “Alright AJ.” He said, before he turned and walked away.
With nothing left between me and my fate, I set my resolve, and followed Applejack and Dusty through the door. And there she was, sitting in her throne, surrounded by six others in front of a large crystal table, was Princess Twilight Sparkle. She pushed some papers she was working on aside as she looked up when we walked in, “Hey Applejack, who are your friends here?” Applejack smiled, “Twi, this is Coal Dust, an old friend of Mac’s from his school days. And this his friend and co-worker from up North, Fire Stoker.”
My heart stopped, I knew my name was going to come up at some point, but having AJ just come out and say it within ten seconds of me meeting one of the princesses who’s Royal Guards were now tracking me down made my nerves go haywire. Of course, my nerves were not calmed in any way when Princess Twilight’s gaze was directed straight at me, “Wait a second, you wouldn’t happen to be the Fire Stoker who has been in the news lately for those railroad accidents?”
I gulped, of course she knew who I was. It was at this point I realized that I had basically done nothing since I walked into the throne room, so I quickly bowed before responding, “Um, uh yes that’s me your highness.” I was able to stutter out, before I braced myself to here a call for the guards, that I surprisingly still hadn’t seen, to come drag me away to the dungeon. Instead, I heard both Applejack and Princess Twilight laugh. Princess Twilight, was laughing, at me.
Before I could let my brain run away with ideas on what that could mean, Applejack spoke up, “Oh pick yourself up Fire Stoker. Twi here still don’t like ponies scraping and bowing at her.” Confused by the fact I wasn’t getting attacked by guards, I picked myself up off the castle floor, but I had to ask the question, “Wait, I’m not going to get dragged off by the Guards to the dungeons or something?”
The look of confusion that crossed Twilight’s face would have been priceless if the situation had been different. “What are you talking about? I just meet you, why would I have you taken to a dungeon I don’t have with guards that aren’t here.” I couldn’t help but stare at her in utter confusion, but thankfully Applejack stepped in to explain, “That’s why we’re here Twilight. Some pony’s got the guard out hunting these fellers down because of that accident where that pony from the Crystal Empire died.”
As my brain was still trying to reboot, Coal Dust walked up and gave the Princess the telegram Files had sent. Princess Twilight read the telegram over, and gave it a quizzical look, “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would the Royal Guards be dispatched to something that should be handled by local police?” Twilight then lit her horn and summoned a fresh quill and piece of paper, “I’m going to write a letter to Celestia. If a squad of royal guards did get dispatched to Tall Tale, she can tell me why.”
I just kept staring as my brain tried to catch up and understand everything that was going on. I wasn’t going to be thrown in a dungeon, there were no guards waiting around the corner to grab me, and Princess Twilight had no idea why guards had been sent to Tall Tale. By the time my brain had caught up with what was going on, Twilight had finished her letter to Princess Celestia, and sent it off in another burst of her magic.
She then turned to look at me and Coal Dust again, “You know, I’ve been looking into railway operation ever since your story came out in the papers two weeks ago, and I just can’t seem to understand some things about what happened. From what I've read, your railway had a near spotless safety record, but now there seems to be a lot of accidents.” I smiled, “Well I can explain anything you want to know Princess, but we might be here awhile. There’s a lot to explain.” And so, over the next hour and a half, myself and Dusty laid out how the railway had gone from one of the best in the nation, to one of the worst.
By the time we had finished up, we had basically given the abridged history of the Tall Tale Mountain Short Line. “I’m sorry to hear all of that Fire Stoker, but it does seem that there is something else going on here.” Twilight said. Dusty rolled his eyes, “Trust me, we figured that out a while back.” I reached over and smacked him, “Dusty, respect.” “What, it’s true.” Just then, Spike walked through the throne room door with a scroll in his claw, “Twilight, Celestia sent you a letter.” Twilight took the letter in her magic, “Thank you Spike.” Spike nodded, then turned and left again.
“What did the Princess say Twi?” Applejack asked. ”Dear Twilight, I looked into the guards dispatched to Tall Tale, but found that there is no record of any guards being sent to the area. I even talked with many of the guard commanders and found that none of them knew what I was talking about. To find out what is going on, I have dispatched a group of my personal guards to find out what is going on. I will let you know what they find when they return. Celestia.” “Well, this just makes things seem even stranger. At least Celestia is looking into it.” Twilight said as she put the letter down.
“What did you write to her?” I asked. “I just said that an old friend of Applejack’s had wrote to her about the guards appearing in Tall Tale looking for somepony. I didn’t tell her about you two in case there was a good reason for the guards to be out there.” I nodded, “Well thank you for looking into this Princess Twilight. We have no idea what’s going on.” Twilight smiled, “It’s alright Fire Stoker, I’m happy to help. I’m also going to look into what’s been going on with your railway. There is definitely more going on behind the scenes.”
“Thank you Princess, we really appreciate it, right Dusty?” “Oh yeah. It’d be nice if we could just go back to running trains and only partly worrying about dying on a run.” I laughed, “Yeah, gotta love the railways.” “Always.” Applejack and Twilight laughed, “Alright you two, it’s getting late and dinner should nearly be ready back at the farm. Thanks for all yer help Twilight.” Twilight smiled, “Not a problem Applejack. If I figure anything out for you two, I’ll be sure to let either you two or Applejack know.” Both me and Coal Dust nodded our thanks, before following Applejack back towards the farm.
As we got back to the farm, we noticed Ratchet leaving the house dressed in a brown uniform. “Oh, hey AJ. I was hoping you would make it back before I went out.” “Where are you going Ratchet?” Coal Dust asked. “Oh yeah, I didn’t get to tell you before went to go talk with Twilight, I work for the sheriff’s office now.” I watched dusty try not to laugh, “Wait, you, work for the cops? How’d you manage that? I thought they would have turned you away, given the track record we had when we were young.” Ratchet laughed, “Yeah, well it’s a bit of a long story. I’ll have to tell you about it before you head home. But right now, I really gotta go. See you guys tomorrow.” With that, Ratchet walked off towards town.
The rest of us made our way into the small farm house and then over to the kitchen, one of them being one of the fillies who had been watching us roll in earlier. Set out on the small table was a dinner full of apple related goods, and the rest of the Apple family sat around it. “Howdy Granny, Bloom.” Applejack said as she took her own seat, and motioned us over to two empty ones next to her. “Well look who found his way through the apple trees, I haven’t seen you since you were a wee youngin Coal Dust.” Granny Smith said as she was able to recognize the colt. Coal Dust laughed, “Nice to see you too Granny.”
He then turned to the youngest of the Apple clan, “And it’s nice to see you all grown up Apple Bloom. Last time I got to see you was when you were still in diapers.” The rest of the family laughed as Apple Bloom blushed. “Don’t take it too hard Apple Bloom, I’m just messing with you.” “Ah know, Big Mac has told me some stories about you and some of his old friends and what y’all used to do.”
Coal Dust them looked over to Mac as I dug into a stack of apple pancakes, “Speaking of friends, what happened to Mason? Didn’t see him around town.” Mac chuckled, “Ah’d be surprised if ya did, he went and joined up with the guards after we got out of school. Said he got into this new Air Force thing they’re cooking up. Haven’t seen him in a few years either.” “Grandad still live in town?” Mac nodded, “Ee’yup, he still lives in that little house he always has.”
“Alright, quit yer yappin and eat. Y’all can talk after dinner.” Applejack said with a chuckle as she dug in herself. The two stallions laughed and did as they were told. Dinner wasn’t completely quiet, but it was mostly spent enjoying the fresh home cooked meal. The rest of the night was wasted away in conversation as Coal Dust caught up with his Apple family friends, and I got to know them and them me.
That night, as I sat wrapped in a hoof made blanket on the couch of the farm house, I smiled. Despite still technically being on the run from the law, and banned from my home in a way, I felt happy. I had two of the Princess’s checking into things to figure things out for us, and by the looks of things, everything was just a mix up. I sighed as I closed my eyes, “I’m finally going to get to put this all behind me.” I said as I drifted off to sleep.
I had no idea at the time about how wrong I really was.