//------------------------------// // Loss of Life // Story: Screaming Metal // by Fujimi200SX //------------------------------// The train left the rails and tumbled down the embankment, plowing through houses like nothing. The Trona spilled everywhere, covering what wasn’t crushed like a sandstorm. Literally every car had jumped the tracks, piling into each other like an accordion. One car was even launched into the air, landing on a house and plowing into another. Even a swimming pool was no match for the train. Finally, after the caboose came off the rails, remaining upright, everything stopped. I vaguely remember hearing the passenger train stop as I lowered myself to the ground. I could barely move as I surveyed the area, staring at each destroyed building, pausing whenever I saw signs of life within a house. It was sheer… bedlam. Mangled metal and Trona everywhere, it looked like the worst tornado had swept through. That’s the only way I can describe it. I did this. A sharp pain snapped through my heart as the thought went through. I had done this. I had failed to stop the train in time. Icaused ponies to die. I wasn’t good enough. I wanted to say I wasn’t the only one who could have stopped it, but I couldn’t. I was the only being that found the train. It was all on me for not stopping or at least bringing the train to even a safe-ish speed. I was a murderer. I woke up on a couch, exhausted. I slowly sat up and looked around at the small apartment we had rented for our stay in Detrot. I stopped suddenly, looking at the kitchen several feet away. At the stove, I saw my best friend Fleetfoot. “Oh for-... Ahem. Morning,” I greeted. “Morning, Spitfire,” she replied, turning around with a pan of steaming eggs. “Scrambled eggs?” “I’d love some.” I sighed, rubbing my head. “You are not going to believe the dream I just had.” “Really? What was it?” “It was… crazy. I was following the nearby train tracks, then this giant out-of-control train came speeding by with this… infernal noise. I tried everything to get it to stop. Slammed it into emergency, broke the air hoses, everything. It went all the way into Detrot where it derailed. Man, you should have seen it. It was so real! But so terrifying! But also pretty cool in hindsight.  It was…” I trailed off as I looked up at Fleetfoot, whose face was pale and her eyes the size of a hoof. “Uh…” I slowly stammered. My colleague quickly shook her head before grabbing a plate. “Spitfire…” My ears flattened. “That wasn’t a dream… was it?” Fleetfoot sighed as she picked up the dished-up plate and handed it to me. “Let’s eat. Then we can check it out.” “Looks… exactly the way it did last night,” I slowly said as we approached the wreck. There were way more details visible now that the sun was out. Rescue ponies were everywhere, with more arriving via train. Earth Ponies did their best to clear the spilled Trona, as did the unicorns, and Pegasi brought in supplies. I sighed. “I could have prevented this.” “Could you though?” Fleetfoot asked. “By what you said, there was nothing you could do.” “What if there was something I could’ve done? I don’t know trains! There might’ve been some emergency brake I didn’t know about.” “You literally said you threw it into emergency.” I groaned. Fleetfoot grimaced as she saw two corpses pulled out from underneath a hopper. “They say the body count is up to… twelve?” She trailed off, noticing my eyes darting around the scene. She looked back, trying to see if she could spot my target. “Uh… What is it?” she asked as we descended to a workpony. “Where’s the locomotive?” I asked. “Locomotive?” the pony asked back, glancing at me. “What locomotive?” “There was an engine on the front when it derailed.” “Most witnesses say they never saw an engine leave the rails. It was only hoppers.” “Uh-... What!?” “Maybe it got buried,” Fleetfoot suggested. “No way,” I replied. “It was way too big to have gotten buried, no matter how many cars.” Me and Fleetfoot began helping to clear up the Trona, but mostly to try and find the engine. Alas, nothing. Nopony could find the smokebox or cabin of the engine. Then, after an hour, as we were picking through the mangled carcass of a hopper… “Is it stupid to think it might have stayed on the rails?” I looked at Fleetfoot like she had just screamed bloody murder. “Excuse me?” “Think about it,” she began. “When you load a hopper to the brim with something; Trona, in this case, wouldn’t the center of mass be stupid high? Say, higher than the engine? Meaning they would derail easier?” “...Fleetfoot, that-” I inhaled. “That train was going way too fast. The engine had to have jumped the track.” “But is it really out of the question that the engine kept going? Maybe it stopped or derailed further up the line!” “...” “Can we at least check?” I sighed. “Fine.” We flew up and away from the crash site, maneuvering until we were following the train tracks like an iron compass. We flew for miles, passing two trains before stopping and turning back. “See? What did I tell you?” I asked. “It would have stopped by then. Or we would have seen some rescue…” Fleetfoot looked at me as I trailed off. “What is it?” I pointed down at an extra track that went into the nearby forest. “Where does that track go?” “...Oh! That’s the Foaledo Branch. Maybe it’s down there.” I sighed and banked to the right, flying just above the track with Fleetfoot following suit. FoooOO! FOOO! We quickly dove out of the way as a rescue train came barreling by. Once the last car passed, we… …didn’t continue. Instead, we both noticed a track switch beneath us. We looked down the new track, but were momentarily disappointed when we saw it end a mere hundred feet from the switch. It didn’t even have a set of buffers! “Who would be that stupid?” I asked, annoyed at the lack of the buffers. “A train could easily run right-...” We looked at each other. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” “Yep.” Grins on our faces, we took off to the end of the line. We were quick to see deep markings occur just past the rails. Flying along the trail of destruction, we counted how many feet was between the rail and the point of stopping. 50 100 150 200 250 300 Finally, we stopped. There, sitting at the edge of a pond, was the steam locomotive. Its front end was smashed, its boiler was dented, its paint was marred, dirt matted its valve gear, but it was still intact. It looked like it could steam and pull itself back onto the rails. “Whoever built this bad boy must have really known what they were doing,” I remarked. “Yeah… Wow this thing is huge.” I sighed. “Big engine for a big train.” Fleetfoot looked at me as I landed on the ground. “You alright?” “I’m just… I still can’t believe that I ruined my chance to stop the thing, is all.” “I- Well…” She sighed. “I don’t know what you want me to say. Here, let’s go tell everypony that we found the engine. We can get to the bottom of why the train ran away in the first place.” I sat silent for a moment, staring down the locomotive. I didn’t speak, nor did I move. “Spitfire?” Fleetfoot asked. It was a moment later when I finally uttered a few words. “Why did you do it?” “The derailment’s final death toll was 49. The damage was so severe that the town couldn’t afford to rebuild a single destroyed building, instead cleaning up the mess and using the funds gained from Princess Celestia to improve other parts of town.” “The locomotive was found to be badly designed. Several leaks in the articulation allowed steam to escape, lowering the brake pressure as the night went on. At least, that’s the theory. The accident was deemed to have been caused by equine error, but nopony knows who the heck caused it. What they do know is that the engine, two hoppers, and the caboose were the only pieces of rolling stock that were salvageable. Everything else was destroyed.” “While derailments usually bring new polices, rules, and guidelines to railroading, therefore allowing some good to come out of them, this wreck didn’t do, well, anything. Nothing changed. There were too many unknown factors as to what really caused the wreck. All it did was take lives and destroy a chunk of a town. What kinds of new policies could we implement as a result of this specific wreck?” Spitfire stared at the stallion sitting a few feet away, awaiting a response. “Do you still blame yourself for the accident?” the stallion asked. Spitfire sighed. “Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. Depends on my mood. Even now, I don’t know if there was a chance of me stopping the train. Maybe if I had thrown the hoofbrakes on the cars it would have slowed it enough. But… I don’t know.” The pony nodded. “And uhh, why did you ask the engine that question? 'Why it did what'?” “I guess I just thought the engine was somehow sentient. That it might’ve done this itself. Which is stupid since we do have a sentient engine in Equestria now.” “Alright… Do you think the wreck has affected your foreseeable future? What is your plan?” “...Forget, I guess. I have a journal. It’s already in writing. Heck, I might write down this whole interview. After that, there’s no point in me remembering it. I just want to forget and get back to a normal life.” The stallion nodded. “Do you think that’s enough?” “Y-... Yeah. Y-Yeah, I think that’s enough. I think I’ve said all that needs to be said.” “Alright.” The stallion stood up, prompting Spitfire to do the same. “Thank you, Spitfire, for accepting this interview and allowing us to hear your side of the story. The public has been interested ever since the rumors came about.” Spitfire nodded as she shook hooves with the stallion. “You’re welcome. I’m just glad to get this off my chest.” “Mm.” The two made their way to the exit, the stallion opening the door for the fiery pegasus. “It is alright if I write this interview down in a journal, right?” Spitfire asked. “If you’d like. It’ll likely be on public record.” Spitfire nodded. “Got it. Have a nice day." "You too." Spitfire stared at the hallway, hesitating for several seconds before finally leaving the office. The stallion then courteously closed the door behind her.