//------------------------------// // Starting Truro // Story: Luna and Truro // by Fujimi200SX //------------------------------// Luna woke up in the afternoon, possibly from the best sleep she had had in years. She looked around the coach, taking in a breath of now-fresh air before lifting the blankets off of her and sitting up. She let out a yawn and stretched as many parts of her body she could before donning her regalia and placing the blankets back where she got them. "Good Morning, Truro," she greeted. She giggled to herself as she realized the stupidity of herself talking to a train. "I hope you slept well." Sunrays slipped through the windows of the coach, giving the interior quite the look as Luna made her way through the coach, opening the same door she used to get in and stepping out onto the platform. She looked around, using the newfound light to map out the area. It was, to nopony's surprise, the same as last night. She stepped down the platform and looked at the engine. It felt... strange. When one sees a Steam Locomotive, they always expect steam to be billowing out of the smokestack and hissing out of the cylinders. When there was nothing, it just felt... strange. She sighed. "Well, Truro, once again, I thank you for your hospitality. I must go now, for I must go back... to... Equestria..." Luna's eyes widened. What was she saying? Was she really going to leave this train here? Alone? How was she to find it again? She couldn't fly, so she couldn't get a very good rundown of the area. Or even her journey home. A journey that, because she wasn't able to fly, would take an unknown amount of time. With a train... that time would be greatly shortened... Such as the train parked right in front of her, that despite having visible rust, looked entirely operational... She tilted her head. Could she operate a train by herself? She had a general idea of how, having read books about the machines, but she had never put the knowledge into practice. Her eyes went to the tender, which was filled to the brim with coal, and possibly water. This engine was ready to go. All she would have to do was start it, open the regulator, and she'd be off at a much quicker pace. Luna closed her eyes, took a deep breath in, and let it out. She opened her eyes, and made her way towards the locomotive. Tentatively, she stepped into the cab, and took in the controls. She took in another breath as she saw the controls. Brass fittings, pipes, gauges and levers lined the forward wall. One gauge showed the boiler pressure, another showed the cylinder pressure, another showed brake pressure, and yet another was a speedometer that went all the way up to 120MPH. She breathed. In, out, in, out. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath in, letting it out and opening her eyes after several seconds. Though the controls looked daunting, she knew for a fact that once the train was moving, all she would need to do was manage the fire, water, regulator, and reverser. She hoped that whatever other controls this archaic train had only helped to make the train run better. She'd be alright if the train didn't run as well as it could. If it could move faster than she could sprint, she was happy. "Well, it seems I am going to teach myself how to drive a train," she said to Truro. Luna started the process by putting coal into the firebox. The coal was of lower quality than Equestrian coal, but she would have to make do. She then checked the water levels, which were full both in the engine and tender, totaling at 3500 Gallons in the tender alone. After taking another breath, she used her magic to light the coal ablaze. All she knew was that the fire would heat the water to the boiling point to create steam, which took some time. Knowing this, Luna took the time to look all around the platform and train for anything that would help her to drive it. A manual, magazine, anything at all. She did find one thing. Inside the frame of the station building, she did find a book on the floor. A special edition of archival quality, she noticed, with acid-free paper. Designed to last a while. But to her shock, the second she picked it up, it disintegrated in her magic. This was strange, as such a book should not have been able to disintegrate like that unless it was very, very old. Granted, it had been exposed to the elements for presumably a long time judging by the building, but even then. She sighed as she walked through what used to be a doorframe. Her tail ever so slightly grazed a piece of wood. To her immense shock, that piece of wood crumbled, instantly bringing the rest of the "building" down. She jumped away and looked back at the building as it was turned into dust. Her jaw slacked a little as she processed what had just happened. Buildings, or objects in general, didn't just crumble to dust like that unless they had been left static for an exorbanant amount of time. She looked back at Truro, then around at the place around her. How old was this place? And why is it the only thing around? There were certainly no buildings or other paths around. This station would have served nopony. Not even the odd farmer or woodworker. Furrowing her brow, Luna lit her horn, and sent out a spell that would tell her the age of any object she pleased. In this case, it was the train, and the platform. She gasped harder than she had ever gasped in her life. A lump formed within her throat in short order a she saw the saw the age of Truro and platform. 1468. Truro was 1468 years old, while the platform was 1472 years old. That shouldn't have been possible. The train, platform, and building would never have survived this long. It was as if they had been preserved by a third party, magical or otherwise. Without that, the train would have fallen apart into a rusty mass of metal centuries ago. And it was a train! A newer form of transportation introduced mere decades earlier! How could it have existed? If this machine had been built back then, transport likely would have evolved exponentially in that time. It shouldn't exist. It simply shouldn't exist. Nothing the age of this train existed, yet this train did. She did the spell several more times to confirm it. Each test yielded similar results. However, strangely enough, when she tested the coaches, she found that they were younger than Truro, at 1434. So it wasn't a collective number thrown at her. Truro and the coaches behind had been built at the times she was given, but that did little to calm her shock. Tentatively, the princess stepped back into Truro's cab and looked at the boiler pressure. No pressure. She could faintly hear the water boiling and generating steam, but whatever steam was being made wasn't getting to where it was supposed to be. She tapped her chin. Wasn't there a device to help the train with generating steam at a standstill? She checked the controls, reading each sign carefully. Her eyes settled on a small plaque on the starboard wall. 'Rebuilt in 2025 by the Museum of the Great Western Railway, Swindon.' "Intriguing," Luna said as she continued her search. "Hmmm... Blower! That was the name," she said as she twisted a valve. Now Truro was beginning to sound like an idling steam locomotive. She could hear the steam surging into the boiler, and smiled when she saw the boiler pressure begin to inch upward. "I am about to pilot a steam locomotive," Luna cheerfully said to herself. "A... millenia-year-old steam locomotive..." Her smile faultered. The only way this locomotive would be as old as it is was if it were transported through time. Transported through time and somehow preserved here, in the condition it was in. She took a breath in, held it, then let it out. Where exactly did this train even come from? The plaque said it was rebuilt by the Museum of the Great Western Railway, but where was that? Where even is the Great Western Railway? Was this long-abandoned line part of the GWR? Or was it just an old line? And for that matter, how old was the line?! Luna took in another breath as she checked the age of the tracks. 1492. So only somewhat older than the train. "You should stop dwelling on the matter," she told herself. "You must get this train running and moving. To get back to Equestria." Fifteen minutes later, Luna was sitting in the cab, shoveling a bit more coal into the firebox via magic whilst staring at the boiler pressure. It just kept going higher and higher. Past 100PSi, past 150PSI, All the while accelerating in the rate it gained pressure. As it shot a little past 200PSI, the noise of escaping steam filled the air as the safety valve opened. Luna, realizing this, bit her lip and smiled. She had successfully started a steam locomotive! Now it was time to get it on the move! The princess stood up and eyed the reverser. It was a strange one, unlike what the Friendship Express had. Instead of a lever that moved forward and backward, it was instead a handle spinning in a circular motion. She grabbed the handle and began spinning it clockwise, keeping at it until it stopped. Seeing this, she reached over at the long bar that was the regulator. She grabbed it with a hoof, pausing as she looked around. There was nopony around, no animals, not even a birdcall in the distance. Taking a deep breath, Luna tentatively began to open the regulator. Steam surged into the cylinders for the first time in forever, pushing on the connecting rods. The steam dome shook and the cylinders creaked. Dirt and rust were sliced off surfaces as Truro began to edge forward. Chfff The first chuff of the engine was like music to Luna's ears. Chfff "Come on..." she said as the train shook. The couplings tightened as the tender helped to start the first coach, and the first coach helped to start the second coach. The chuffing steadily increased in rate as the bearings spun, creaking more and more. Luna smiled. "Come on Truro! You can do it!" With a pounding puff and a heaving huff, Truro was on the tracks, front wheels guiding it down the line with Luna at the controls. The princess couldn't stop smiling until she remembered something. Something that made her look up. "The whistle..." Luna reached up and tentatively grabbed the cord. With a deep breath, she looked to her left, seeing the platform. She had never blown a whistle before, much less one on a steam locomotive. Here she was, holding a whistle cord, feeling like she had control of the Elements themselves. With a deep breath, Luna pulled the whistle cord. foooWOOOOOOOOOOOOH! FOOOOOOOOOOO! Luna screamed with joy. FOOOOOO! FOO! FOOO! FoooOOOooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOHHH! The whistle pierced through the air, screaming like a pegasus flying for the first time. It wasn't low and booming like the Friendship Express, nor was it high and distorted like the Crystal Zephyr. It was a perfect blend between the two that greatly befitted an engine like this. "Yes!" The coaches dragged behind, becoming less and less resistant as the train went faster. Luna grabbed the reverser and spun it counterclockwise, allowing the pressure in the cylinders to stay level. The rate of chuff continued to steadily increase, and the train officially left the station. "This will greatly help me on my journey!" Luna exclaimed, feeling like a filly again. "Though I musn't go too fast. These rails are old and decrepit, and I do not know when a sharp corner will arrive." Truro continued on, chuffing through the forest like the elegant machine it was. Luna smiled, cementing the thought of her restoring this millenia-old locomotive in her mind.