The sun began to descend in the sky, and before long the former blue skies over Maretime Bay began to shift in shade to a rather more orange affair. This, in and out of itself, signified a shift away from the day and towards the evening, which was a most wonderful and enjoyable time of day.
Sunny checked out of the window and checked the weather app on her phone. "OK guys!" she said. "Temperatures are dropping out there, so we should be good to go now. You got all your gear?"
"Here!" Zipp called, bringing her drone and spy gear out with her.
"Gotcha!" Izzy replied, quickly looking through the door. "Izzy Does It is ready to, well, get going!"
"It's less than a mile's walk," Sunny pointed out. "Wouldn't such a short journey be a dubious use of petrol?"
"What's petrol?" Izzy asked. "It's like a British person is writing this!"
"Never mind," Sunny answered. "It's just that walking makes less smoke and is good for you."
Just then, Pipp arrived. "Sorry I'm late!" she said. "I couldn't decide which set of combs to bring." She dropped a large bag on the ground in front of her.
Zipp rolled her eyes. "We're going less than a mile down the road," she said. "I don't think you need all that stuff to get to the yard."
Pipp sighed. "OK, I'll leave it at home, Mrs Grouchy." She pushed it towards a sofa and turned around with a pair of sunglasses on. "That better?"
"Totally. And for the last time it's Miss. I'm not married."
"Yet!"
Zipp rolled her eyes again. "She totally ships me with other ponies, doesn't she?"
Sunny's phone suddenly buzzed, and she checked it. "A message from Hitch!" she said. "I wonder what it is?"
The message popped onto her screen.
I am at the place you mentioned now. See you there. Let me know when you set off.
Sunny quickly texted back.
Just on my way now!
Before the chat suddenly got flooded with responses.
Yes indeedally!
Rock on!
#SunsetStream!💙❗
Sunny looked back in confusion. "How are you all responding to a text sent to me?"
"It's a WhatsApp," Izzy said. "We can all see those, remember? The message gets sent to the entire group!"
"Oh," Sunny said, looking a little sheepish. "I'd forgotten that. Still not 100% used to all this stuff!"
With that out of the way, the gang set off out of the Brighthouse and out into the street. The Brighthouse sat a little way out from the town of Maretime Bay, and a small forest of trees lined the roadside and path. This was certainly a nice new addition to the region, as it beat just empty fields. Not to mention it made driving large unlicensed vehicles into buildings a lot harder.
But just before they reached the edge of town, Zipp flew up to Sunny. "If the map is accurate, we take a right here. That should lead us directly into the yard itself."
"Seems a bit odd they'd put it this far away," Sunny admitted.
"Marshalling yards and stations do need to be near the track," Zipp pointed out. "Come on. Let's go." And she sped off before anypony could stop her.
As the others rounded the corner, Hitch was already waiting. "Hey there!" he said. "So, something interesting here, right? Looks kinda like an empty field to me."
"Those are some interesting buildings," Izzy said, pointing to some of the nearby structures. "That looks kinda like a big barn but with more doors, and the one over there is a really long house!"
Sunny pulled up a plan on her phone. "Based on Zipp's book, that's a stock shed. And the second building is a depot. Not sure what it's for, seeing as they already have a building for loading freight, but-"
Suddenly, spooky music echoed through the area. "What was that?" Hitch asked. "Is somepony following us?"
"No," Izzy said. "It's just Pipp doing a livestream."
And sure enough, she was. "Good evening, Pippsqueaks!" she said, turning so the others were in view. "Tonight, me and my friends-"
"My friends and I," Hitch corrected.
"My friends and me and I are in this super spooky place! Look behind me guys! This is so not a filter!" She spun her phone around to show the buildings. "And tonight, we are going to go inside this building and see if any ghosts still live in there!"
"A ghost hunting stream," Sunny said. "Really? Well, watch where your hooves are going, OK?"
They wandered through the abandoned yard, the weeds growing so tall you'd be pretty hard pressed to find anything relating to a railroad within them. Pipp, however, was paying very little attention. "Can any of you hear ghosts? I can't right now, but there must be some as there are always ghosts in old buildings, right?"
Suddenly, there was a loud crash, and Pipp was on the floor. "Oww," she groaned. "What sort of idiot puts such obvious trip hazards in the middle of a field?!"
"We did warn you not to trip on things," Zipp said, as she helped her sister up. "Eyes on the ground, not the screen. Shut it off."
Pipp rolled her eyes again. "Alright. Gotta go Pippsqueaks, see ya!" She glanced back to her sister. "You're more like mom than you care to admit, you know that?"
Hitch popped out of the depot. "Sure is weird in there," he said. "Old tools, some newspapers from a long time ago, and even food tins- empty, thankfully- alongside many other personal items. This place is a time capsule. Almost as if the ponies who worked here just dropped everything one day and left. Sure is spooky."
Izzy appeared from further ahead. "I've found something weird as well," she said. "Up ahead the rails go from rusty to, well, not existing. That's very odd. Why just leave something disconnected from everything else in the area?"
Zipp put a hoof to her chin. "That suggests the line wasn't just abandoned. It was pulled up. But why?"
"So it could be recycled somewhere else?" Sunny suggested. "Dad had some notes on the coal railroads around Hope Hollow, and those say that when a line wasn't needed anymore they took it up and rebuilt it somewhere else. Perhaps the same happened here. There is a streetcar system in Maretime Bay, so perhaps it was used there?"
Izzy had gotten closer in the meantime, and joined the conversation. "When Zipp and me were building the Marestream, I measured the gap between the tram car's wheels to check weight. It was three feet."
Zipp pulled out a tape measure and measured some of the track. "And this is three foot as well. Which is also the exact same gauge as Zephyr Heights! Not only that, it's conclusive proof that the streetcar network was built from old railroad track!"
"I also recall seeing bridges that went nowhere and oddly flat land during our journey to Zephyr Heights way back when," Sunny added.
"It's possible those bits were railroad bridges and embankments- the old route the line took." Hitch had provided his first contribution for a while. "But if that's indeed the case, then how does that bode for this project?"
"Yeah," Pipp added. "If it was pulled up, as you say, that suggests we'd need to relay it to connect the two cities together. And I don't do manual labour."
"We know," Hitch said. "But I think we have another rather more serious problem to deal with. As I say, I don't know a huge amount about trains. But doesn't a railroad need engines and coaches and freight cars to be able to move stuff?"
"Well, yes," Zipp said. "But how-"
"This place has none," Hitch pointed out.
"I couldn't see any in the old building over here either," Izzy added. "And we can't just magic a train out of thin air like we did the Marestream, as there aren't any spare streetcars."
Sunny nodded. "We either find one or build one."
"Sunny!" Hitch said. "Where exactly are we supposed to find a train? It's not like we can just pop down the shops and buy one. And building our own? That's beyond our technical skills."
"We'll have to find one, then," Sunny finished. "Those who say something cannot be done should not interrupt those ponies who are busy doing it. After all, they said ponykind couldn't be brought back together, and yet here we are now."
"So, what's the plan Sunny?" Izzy asked.
"I suggest we split up and go searching," Sunny said. "Izzy, Hitch, can you two look about in Maretime Bay and try and get some clues? There may be something right under our noses where we live."
"Sure thing!" Izzy replied.
"I'll head to Zephyr Heights and see if I can pull some strings," Zipp added.
"What can I do?" Pipp asked.
Sunny smiled. "Pipp, I want you to do something very special indeed..."