The plan that Low came up with was actually really simple. In essence it was just the standard flank the enemy attack plan. What Low had to add was in the details.
With a flash of his horn, Low had summoned a perfect replica of Wisp. Right down to the blue flame cutie mark and the fire in his eyes. It was like looking in a mirror.
“I can keep this guy up for a while, but I’ll still need you to move pretty fast a’right?” Wisp nodded. Moving fast and straight was his specialty. “Good. You’ll need to go all the way from the back to the front, ‘cause those are the only places on this thing that have ladders.”
Wisp nodded again. “Were you planning to rob this thing or something?” he said jokingly. “You sure know a lot about the layout.”
Low chuckled. “That’s just where trains put their ladders, ya’ donkey.” Another explosion shook the car before he’d finished the sentence, but Wisp was still able to catch the end. “I’m gonna move in with the fake after the next one. You should probably get going before then.”
Wisp nodded and trotted to the door to the previous car. Before he left he turned back and gave his reflection a fiery look. “You can do this,” he encouraged himself.
This time the other Wisp didn’t respond with simultaneous encouragement, but Low did. “As long as you can, I can.” For once his voice was completely serious, and, Wisp couldn’t help but notice, devoid of accent. Of course, that could have just been his imagination.
The next explosion shook the car and both of the stallions charged off in opposite directions. Wisp didn’t bother to check if Low made it or not. His tunnel vision was on now. The only things he noticed were the two scorched rooms whizzing by and the closed door at the end of the luggage car flying towards him.
Wisp broke hard just before hitting the wall. This stallion wasn’t going to get buried in luggage again if he could help it. For once he was thankful that he didn’t have his special powder with him. Starting a fire in a wooden car was probably not a good idea. Then again, if he did have the powder with him it would make taking out whoever it was that was bombing them easier. Or at least more fun.
“Now that I think of it,” Wisp paused, thinking aloud, “Didn’t I leave my luggage on the train when I went to the track?”
Wisp looked around, and, sure enough, his case was still there. The crew was supposed to take it to the hotel that the athletes were staying at. “They must have vanished before they could,” Wisp sighed. He kind of felt bad when he thought about it, but at least his case was still here. “In every cloud, a silver lining.”
Everything Wisp needed for an overnight stay was in the case, including his sunglasses and his favorite jacket. He was thankful for that of course. Odds were he’d be on the train for some time. Right now though, only two things in there mattered to him: his leather gloves, and his igniting powder.
Wisp slipped the gloves on effortlessly, and tied the pouch of powder around his waist. Normally he’d just dab some on his gloves before a performance, but in this case it was probably a good idea to wait. Sure he’d be fine if he did the trick on top of a metal train, but that would be a waste of the stuff if nopony was around to watch. He’d have to save it for when he punched out the bomber.
With his supplies gathered, Wisp threw open the back door and climbed the ladder to the top of the train. Stretched out before him was another vaulting test. Just like practice, only with bottomless pits on either side of him. Although, that wouldn’t matter once Wisp got moving. With a deep breath, the stallion put his blinders on and ran.
The run was just like the race. Each jump was equally spaced, so it didn’t take long for Wisp to get into a good rhythm. “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, jump.” Wisp counted as he ran. It took about five cars before the engine finally came into view ten cars away. Car ten shook below him and threw off his count a bit, but he was able to keep moving. He stopped galloping on car thirteen, just to be safe, and trotted the rest of the way until he finally made it to the engine.
Wisp caught his breath and climbed down. The engine room was vacant, just like everything else, and filled with coal. There were a few levers and pulleys around too, but the only one Wisp knew how to use was the whistle. It didn’t matter though. Wisp wasn’t here to get the train going. Hopefully Low would know how to do that. Right now the stallion’s goal was simple: charge forward and knock the bomber to ground with a high speed fiery hoof to the face.
Wisp took another few deep breathes as he thoroughly coated the leather with his special powder. This was the first time he’d ever used it to strike somepony, and he had to admit it worried him a touch. Still the awesomeness would be worth it. Besides, the bomber definitely deserved it, and it wouldn’t kill him or anything. It’d just hurt a lot.
“3..2..” Wisp counted aloud and leaned forward. The doors in front of him were all open save one wooden one close to the end. He was sure he could break right through that with a good spinning kick.
“1!” With that, Wisp took off toward the bomber. Again he counted the cars. Car one and two passed with no issue. It was car three that the door came into full view. Now it was time for Wisp’s signature move.
With a careful spin and a nice drag of his hooves, the stallion floated forward. This time sparks flew from his from hooves as he turned, and soon enough the leather was covered in bright blue flames. Meanwhile Wisp kept his eyes on the door, and the moment he floated into range he let a hoof fly. The kick connected, but the result was not even close to what the stallion expected.
Wisp had been prepared for the door he was kicking to simply breakaway and let him through, but what he was kicking wasn’t a door. Instead, his hind leg slid across the trunk of a tree as its bark peeled away, and Wisp found that, while he had slowed, he was still moving forward at an alarming pace; directly toward a window. In desperation Wisp grabbed for the tree, completely forgetting that his hooves were still on fire.
The grab worked to slow him down easily enough, although he still managed to fly into the wall below the window and smash the glass with his skull. That didn’t strike him as important though. The burning tree was the important thing right now. Wisp threw himself into a stand and stomped his hooves, quenching the fire. Then he turned his mind to putting out the tree.
Wisp didn’t hold his thoughts there for long though. He didn’t have to. Soon enough the tree was fully engulfed in orange fire. The fire didn’t spread though. Just the tree burned. In fact, not even the apples the tree bore were scratched.
“What the hay just happened?!” Low yelled accusingly as he moved into the car. Wisp didn’t hear him though; he was too busy trying to think on the strange sight. The fruit in particular confused him, particularly the gleaming orange one in the center. “What in Luna’s name did you do Will?”
Wisp was too taken in by the fire to react. Even Low’s shoves did little to move him. Eventually though, the fire did burn out and Wisp snapped, mostly, back to his senses. The fire stopped surprisingly quickly in fact. Nothing was left of the tree but its ashes and its fruit in less than a minute. Still even with the fire gone Wisp wasn’t quite in his right mind yet. The little gem drew his attention first.
The gem was an orange broach, Wisp found. It looked kind of like an apple, but with a point on it for some reason. Wisp didn’t realize that it was an ace of spades until he was already reaching for it. It wasn’t until he finally got the trinket in his hooves that Wisp could finally hear Low’s yells again.
“What he hay are ya’ lookin’ at that thing for? We gotta run!” Low continued shoving Wisp as he spoke. The shoves still didn’t register though. Wisp almost laughed upon realizing how weak his companion was, and then he realized why Low was pushing him.
“Oh buck,” Wisp cursed as he suddenly realized he was surrounded by apples. His next move was to dash out of the car as quickly as possible. Low followed along after a stumble, but in the end the both managed to get out before the bombs went off. The pair didn’t manage to close the door in time, but thankfully the only thing that resulted from that was a blast of smoke, not shrapnel. Admittedly the smoke was so thick that Wisp ended up breaking a window in an attempt to thin it, but it was a least less lethal than the force.
“The hay were ya’ doin’ back there, kid?” Low complained with a cough once the smoke had finally cleared.
Wisp responded by taking another look at the gem in his hoof. “I dunno,” he said, “I just kind of thought this thing was important?” Wisp smiled and glanced up at Low. “It looks a lot like your cutie mark, Low.”
Low chuckled and shook his head. His chuckling was interrupted by fit of coughing though. “Ahem,” Low used an intentional cough to regain his voice before speaking again. “Whether or not it’s important ya’ shouldn’t have risked your life, kid.” With that, Low shot Wisp another smile and pulled the Trinket out of his hoof. “’Course, if you’re gonna do that anyway, I’d prefer ya’ risk it for me.”
Wisp smiled and made no effort to take the broach back. It probably belonged to Low after all. Briefly Wisp considered whether or not that made sense, but he didn’t dwell on it long. It would look better on Low of nothing else. “So where do we go from here?”
Low looked toward the engine. “I’m guessin’ ya’ didn’t run into anything else on the way here?” Wisp shook his head. “Then we need to get this thing started.” Low chuckled again and started trotting towards the engine. “After that, who knows?”
Wisp followed along right behind his companion. As he trotted behind Low, Wisp noticed something wrong. The stallion was moving kind of slow. Slower than he had before they’d run into the tree anyway. Sure Low was probably just tired, but it didn’t hurt to ask. “You get hit back there? You’re walking kind of funny.”
Low chuckled and shook his head. “You’re movin’ kind of slow too, kid,” he said with a glance to Wisp, “And I know I saw you get out okay. I think we’re both jus’ tired.”
Wisp nodded. He didn’t buy it though. Sure he was tired, but he was only moving this slow to keep pace with Low. Plus, he’d done a whole lot more running than the unicorn. Low was already moving at a slow pace to hide the limp though, so it wasn’t like Wisp could do any more for him.
“So,” Wisp decided to change the subject. At this pace it would take them a couple of minutes to get to the engine, so he might as well make conversation. “What did you do before this whole thing started?”
Low glanced back at Wisp again, apparently surprised by the question. “I was a card player,” he sighed as he turned away from Wisp. “What’d ya’ think this mark meant?”
This time it was Wisps turn to chuckle. “You can’t trust marks. I’m a racer and my marks a fireball.” Low snickered from in front of him. “So if you’re a card player, what were you doing on the train?”
“You athletes ain’t the only ones with tourneys,” Low said, his voice lightened up a touch, “I was headin’ to Dodge City for a big game.”
“I never thought of poker as much of a sport.”
“Then you haven’t seen it really played.” Low laughed again for a moment before letting out a sigh. “Shame too, I thought I had a real chance of winnin’ this year.”
“Hey, at least you might still be able to make it if we sort this out,” Wisp sighed, but smiled, “This crazy nonsense actually interrupted my race.”
“Yeah,” Low chuckled, and stopped in front of the engine door. “So, Will, you really think we can fix this mess?”
Wisp took a look out the window. There was nothing but gray emptiness outside. He paused for a long second to think about his answer. Low had seemed confident before. Had that been a lie too?
“I hope so.” That was Wisp’s answer. It wasn’t much, but it summed up what he thought pretty well. Whether or not they could fix this in any way wasn’t really something he knew, but he didn’t want to think about what would happen if they didn’t.
“Heh,” that was Low’s response. It wasn’t really a laugh or a chuckle. It seemed more honest. “Well I suppose it would sure stink if we couldn’t huh?” Wisp nodded. “Right, then let’s get this engine movin’.” With that, Low moved into the next car.
*****
Thanks to Low’s claims and the fact that the train proved incredibly easy to start, Wisp was completely convinced that the unicorn could run the train the second they’d entered the engine. It wasn’t until they had to stop the thing that Wisp suddenly began to doubt his friend’s expertise.
Wisp and Low had only realized they needed to stop upon seeing a pair of mares being assaulted by some sort of demon nearby. As it turned out though, Low had chosen to figure out how to stop later, and the pair had to scramble to respond to this emergency. Wisp was doing most of the work by trying every lever and pulley in the train-except for the starter of course. Low had already figured that one out-in an attempt to bring it to a halt. Low was busy keeping his eye on the mares.
“Hurry up Wisp, they’re at the station now, and I think one of ‘em’s hurt.” Low shouted from the window. Wisp would have complained, but at the moment his lips were wrapped around a lever. With a powerful tug Wisp pulled the lever down. Judging by the shriek that came from the train, he’d finally found the brake.
The train didn’t come to a stop quickly, but it managed to stop soon enough. Sure only three cars were still in front of the platform, but at least they could theoretically reach the mares. Wisp let go of the break and took a deep breath while silently thanking Celestia for not letting them miss the ponies.
“Nice job, kid,” Low cheerfully smacked Wisps back as he spoke, interrupting the stallion’s deep breath. “C’mon, let’s go see if they’re all right.”