She chuckles as Steve rights himself in the doorway. It had taken them both several tries to master descending that short staircase without falling down it. Nevermind that the next staircase is not only two or three times as steep, but at least thrice as high. And with a landing of rough ground, rather than the smoother- and possibly more forgiving- metal decking.
Even so, her chuckle disappears very quickly as she steps past him, out the door. Her wings twitch as she takes in a deep breath of fresh air, blinking in the gentle sunlight.
Then he manages to right himself and steps out as well- before glancing down the front of the locomotive. He hits his head on the now head-height railing as he pulls back, turning to his engineer. “You said we hit something?” he asks.
She blinks, looking down the front of the locomotive as well. “I… I’m certain we did- I saw fragments of wood and a cloud of steam after it disappeared past the hood.”
He looks back up at the “hood” behind them, being the compartment between the front walkway and the cab. “Musta been a tiny train…?” he asks.
She nods. “Couldn’t have been more than half the size- in either height or width. As per length, I’m pretty sure we’ve got it pretty handily beat.”
He looks back at the front of the locomotive. “I’m only seeing clear track- not even so much as a bogie.”
She nods. “Me too. The passengers ran off this… Oh.”
She’d turned and walked to the right side of the locomotive- and, from the top of the steps to the ground, the debris of the ex-locomotive became visible next to theirs.
He catches the tone of her voice and walks quickly over- so quickly, as a matter of fact, that he trips over his own hooves and falls on the walkway. He rises back up again and very nearly overshoots the top of the stairs, before gazing down at the debris alongside his lead locomotive.
She blinks at it a few times- and her eyes lock onto what looks like one of the passengers from that other train galloping around the denser parts of the debris field to reach them. Steve seems to notice the passenger as well. “Looks like they want to talk,” he states, glances down the short staircase, and takes the first step.
Unfortunately, everything goes wrong. His descending hoof misses the top step- and, devoid of his support, he tumbles headfirst down the steel staircase, ending up on his back on the ground.
Mary freezes, one hoof suspended over the staircase, as she watches him tumble down. He doesn’t move when he reaches the bottom. She returns the hoof to the decking under to her, and closes her jaw. That’s a fate she does not wish to repeat.
The other train’s passenger, a yellow-orange-furred quadruped with brown hair and something pointy sticking out of his forehead, seems to put on a burst of speed- and shortly comes screeching to a halt next to the fallen conductor. “You okay?” the new quadruped- sounds like a he- asks.
There is no response forthcoming.
So this stranger proceeds to be stranger. The pointy thing on his head glows blue once or twice, and she hears him cuss.
“Is he okay?” she asks.
The response instantly makes her think doctor. She doesn’t understand most of it- though she hears ‘concussion’ is in the mix, with the term ‘contusion’ appearing at least twice.
“...If we don’t get at least a splint on that soon, he’s going to have a limp for life- but my supplies went up with the train…”
“We have a first aid kit,” she blurts out, right as he’s about to call something out. It’s nowhere near as complete as any proper doctor might be used to- even one living in a time when steam ruled the rails- but at least it’s something. And, because they ride the rails for long durations, it’s pretty well-stocked. Her own emergency medical training, unfortunately, will be completely useless to him. Unless he can’t figure out what gauze is or something.
“A first aid kit?” he asks, glancing upwards, and nods. “Get that.”
She turns back to the door, moving rather faster than she had earlier. She’s right on the edge of falling over, she knows- but this way…
This way, she gets to the first aid kit faster. She pulls it from its shelf quickly, placing it on her back- quite a challenge, to her- and makes her way back out, using her wings to stabilize it. Once she gets back to the steps, she pulls it back off her back and lowers it down towards the doctor. “Got it.”
He looks up at it, pausing for a second before his horn- she can’t think of another word to describe it with- glows again… and the entire first-aid kit follows suit, floating down to him. “That’s a big first-aid kit,” he mutters- before popping the latches and opening it up.
She watches him work. In short order, he has Steve’s foreleg wrapped tight, a metal rod- she thinks it came from the wreckage of the steam locomotive- playing the part of a splint. He’d seemed amused by all the sterile packages- and had paused to read labels at least twice. Not that she’s going to hold it against him; he is the one that knows how to treat Steve, and she’d rather he know what he is working with than the alternative.
Much like herself, actually; it’s much easier to drive a train when she knows what kind of train she’s dealing with.
He finishes touching up Steve’s new bandage before he looks back up at her. “Anypony else hurt?”
She shakes her head. “No. We…” She glances at the upside-down wreckage. “We hardly felt the bump.” She focuses on him again. “We didn’t hurt anyone, did we?”
He shakes his head. “Shining Armor is really good with his shields. The worst any of us got is shock.” He then looks up at her locomotive, even as he packs up the remainder of the first-aid kit. “What is that thing…?”
“This…” She looks up at it too. “This is locomotive 7327. Not sure how we ended up here.” She looks back down. “I am sorry about your train.”
He shakes his head. “Ponies are more important,” he states. “You said locomotive?”
She nods. “Uh, yes. We’ve got six of ‘em leading our train.”
He tilts his head. “How fast?”
She blinks. “Not very, but they sure pack a punch.” She looks at the wreckage again.
He nods gently. “How quickly could it get us to Ponyville?”
She tilts her head. “How far?”
He glances back towards his companions. “I don’t know.”
“So… How bad is he, in commoner-speak?” She indicates Steve.
The doctor glances down at him. “He’ll live,” he says, “Probably. He needs hospitalization.” He then turns to glance towards his companions. “Our drivers passed out, though. Maybe…?” He glances up at her.
She looks at the staircase, and frowns. “I… don’t particularly want to end up like him,” she finally states.
The doctor raises an eyebrow. “So jump.”
“What!?” It almost comes out as a squeak.
His eyebrow goes back down. “Pegasi are more impact-resilient than earth ponies,” he states. “It should be almost difficult for you to get hurt when falling from that height.”
She blinks, looks down at the ladder, and picks a spot of ground past Steve and the doctor. “Okay, here goes.” She jumps.
She almost nails the landing. Her wings had gone out instinctively again; she didn’t fight it, except to tilt them both upwards; she did not want to land on her back, or side. Thus, she’d managed to land right-side-up- but she had too much forward velocity, sweeping herself instantly off of her hooves. She slid a few feet before coming to a halt.
She scrambles back to her hooves, folding her wings and checking her chest for injuries. Sure enough, as painful as that landing had been, she appears to be completely unharmed. She then follows the doctor back to the party, at a vastly reduced pace. She hasn’t quite figured out how to trot just yet.
It seems most of the steam train’s passengers were unicorns. One of which turns on her as she walks up.
“What is that thing?” the purple unicorn demands of her.
She half-closes her eyes. “It’s a train.”
“And you were in the engine?” she asks.
She nods, electing not to correct the error.
“Why weren’t you scouting in front of the train, then?”
Before she has the chance to come up with an answer, a white unicorn with blue hair steps in, dragging the purple one back away from her. “Enough, Twilight,” he states, before turning to Mary. “Sorry about that. My sister can be… Energetic.”
She smirks. “One way to say it, I suppose.”
Then he looks over at the train. “I do have to ask, though- if your driver is out cold, how are we going to move it…?” He blinks at her.
She’s holding back a chuckle. “Uh, no. I’m the driver.”
He stares for a half-second or so, then nods. “That would explain why you weren’t scouting ahead of the train,” he states.
She tilts her head. “Why would I…?”
He raises his eyebrow. “If I remember correctly, whenever there is a pegasus on the crew, they’re held in reserve- firepony, usually- to scout ahead if the engineer has any reason to suspect a dangerous situation on the tracks ahead.” He sighs. “If there had been somepony available to do that, the collision could have been prevented. I think that’s what Twilight’s so bothered about.”
Then a green unicorn with two-toned blue and white hair steps up next to them. “Didn’t you see how unstable she seemed walking over?” she asks, before turning to Mary. “Did you not used to be a pegasus?”
The white one snorts. “Really?”
Mary nods. “Something like five minutes before, um,” She glances briefly back at the locomotive. “That, we found ourselves on this track. I immediately started slowing down- but Steve was unconscious until right before the… event. We…” She looks at her hoof, holding it up in front of her. “We didn’t used to have hooves… Or wings.” She glances briefly back at hers. “I can’t fly, even if I wanted to.”
The green one looks up at the train. “But you can drive that thing, right?”
Nod.
“Good… looks like our engineer managed to hurt himself when he collapsed.” She glances sideways at the doctor. “I did what I could, but…”
He nods, before turning to trot towards the creatures lying on the ground.
She turns back to Mary. “Anyways, how much passenger capacity does that thing have?”
She looks back up at it. “Um, none? It’s freight… But we can probably carry people on the outside walkways, but it’ll be noisy and uncomfortable.”
“Anywhere inside…?”
She shakes her head. “I’m afraid that, for safety reasons, I can’t let any untrained personnel inside.”
Scowl. “Oh well- we’re unicorns, we can work with that. Any chance we could get a ride to Ponyville?”
The white one seems not to approve, and finally injects himself back into the conversation. “Lyra-!”
Mary cuts him off. “No, it’s all right,” she states. “With a train this big, she won’t even notice a dozen extra people. My only worry is how far away Ponyville is- and if there are going to be any more trains in our path.” She looks at Lyra again. “There is a hospital in Ponyville, right?”
She nods. “That’s where Doctor Horse works.” She glances back at the doctor. “Ponyville should be… what, a hundred kilometers away?”
Another nod. “As long as there’s no other trains to worry about, I can get us there in around an hour.”
Twilight gasps, stepping around her brother. “What-? An hour? But we were supposed to arrive in half an hour!”
Her brother issues a groan, but Mary beats him to the punch.
“Or you could walk,” she states.
Twilight’s pupils contract, then she hangs her head, pulling backwards. “I’ll ride, thank you,” she mutters.
The white unicorn shakes his head with a sigh, before looking back up at Mary. “Thank you.”