//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8-Run All Night 
// Story: Railway Adventure: a New Generation 
// by The Blue EM2 
//------------------------------//

The moon hung in the sky over Zephyr Heights, the sickly white glow from the secondary orb lighting the region in a spooky manner. Although the central commercial and entertainment districts were brightly lit, with screens and displays continuing to run well into night time hours, the same could not be said for other districts. In many parts, the glow of street lamps was the only indicator that a street existed at all, with the light being largely eaten up by black shadows who seemingly had foul intent upon those who lived there.

A truck rumbled to a stop in the middle of the night outside a warehouse. The truck was one of the first to arrive, as another two then pulled up behind it. All three trucks had tarpaulins over their loads, presumably to protect them from the elements, and not only that they were slightly late.

The first cab was opened and a driver got out. "Right, we got you to where you wanted to go!" he said, handing over some paper to Hitch, who had been riding with him. "Sign this and we can hand this over to the storage ponies."

Hitch took a pen in hoof and wrote his signature on the piece of paper before handing it back. "Here you go. One signature in place."

The pony who had been driving nodded. "Thank you. I'll just go get the door opened."

He was away for a few minutes, which left Hitch looking about bored. Not much seemed to be happening nearby, and he waited and waited a bit for something to happen.

Suddenly, the doors of the large warehouse began to slide open, and the truck at the rear of the formation moved forward. It began to back into the building as the doors slid open further, wide enough to take the full width of the truck, and then it stopped when it was most of the way into the structure before detaching from its trailer and driving off.

The other two then did the same, leaving their precious cargo behind as they set off for their depot far away. Hitch marched inside and took a look about at the achievement. "There!" he said. "I told you we'd get them there in one piece!"

Pipp yawned as she appeared from one side. "I still don't understand why you insisted on shipping them at night," she said, clearly tired from the long journey.

"Minimises the threat of them being stolen," Hitch replied. "This loco does represent a considerable amount of money after all, so having it stolen would be a nuisance."

"Who would steal a steam engine?" Sunny asked.

"A thief?" Izzy offered.

"Apart from the obvious," Hitch replied. "Now then, we'll need to reassemble it at some point and check it all works properly. Something tells me that somepony somewhere has taken it to bits a fair bit before but we need to be certain before we try to run it over any distance. That'd be embarassing."

"But first we need to sleep," Zipp finished. "I'm pretty tired."

"I think we all are," Pipp yawned.

"You did the least out of any of us," Zipp countered.

"If it weren't for my stream, your precious little engine wouldn't be here."

"It's hardly little," Sunny pointed out. "Based on our tests it weighs 82 tons."

"Slightly less than Pipp before her crash diet!" Zipp joked, who then ducked as a banana was lobbed at her.

As the five of them headed away towards the exit, and by logical extension a hotel, none of them thought to check back for the missing member in their tiredness. Misty was back there, tapping some buttons on a phone and transmitting data. "And... done!" she said. "Opaline, did you get all that?"

"Yes," a familiar voice replied. "Excellent work, Misty. I now know of their plans and their intentions. This will help me greatly in my next set of operations. Trail the others and continue to feed me any more information. Those fools seem to be oblivious enough to not suspect me anyway. Opaline out."

Misty closed the device and popped it away somewhere. "OK, which way did they go?"

As she trotted along, she reflected on the odd phenomena they had surrounding phones. They didn't need to put them in pockets or bags. When they needed to, they put it on their side and the device disappeared. Then when they needed it again, it just reappeared in the same spot.

Presumably something to do with the magic, Misty thought to herself. She would ask Zipp about it in the morning.





"Welcome, one and all, to the Zephyr Heights Grand Conference on the Restoration and Reunification of the Trans Equestrian Railroad and Subsidiary Branchlines!" called a voice.

Alphabittle and Phyllis took their seats at the table and glanced about. "I hope this doesn't take too long," Phyllis said. "I've got a mane appointment at lunchtime. Hopefully Queen Haven won't waffle."

"I left Onyx in charge of the Crystal Tearooms," Alphabittle added. "Knowing her she'll have turned it into a jazz bar and will be playing Bebop nonstop."

Just then Queen Haven arrived, flanked by her guards. "Phyllis, Alphabittle," she said, as she took her seat. "It's excellent you could join us today on this most suspicious day. It is a good thing we could schedule for such an inconvenient time."

"Are you feeling alright?" Phyllis asked.

"Yes. My speech just has a lot of typos in it." Queen Haven tossed it over her shoulder, and that was that. "Now then, we are here to discuss this railroad proposal my daughter has come up with."

"First point of order," Alphabittle said. "The names of your conferences are far too long. They take too much time to say!"

"Noted," said a guard, who began writing something down.

"We shall hear evidence from a variety of experts and thinkers in the relevant fields who can contribute their expertise to the future of this project," Queen Haven continued. "Bring forward the first witness!"

The presentation of evidence went on for a few hours, and many speakers said many things, including the Mane 5 themselves, who presented all that they had found over the last few days. Phyllis did miss her mane appointment, so she simply had the Royal Stylist do it in the midst of the evidence presentation.

Once the evidence was presented, it was time for negotiation. Alphabittle was the first to speak. "I'm not so sold on this idea," he said. "Based on that map there's a lot of track missing between here and there, and who would run it after all this? If the pegasi are putting in most of the muscle a lot of unicorns would regard it as a pegasus takeover of our operations."

"How about a joint operating company, with each of us operating our own bits?" Queen Haven suggested.

Phyllis was also seemingly unimpressed. "How much will this cost?" she asked. "As you probably know the Earth Ponies, whilst hardly destitute, are not the wealthiest group in Equestria. Who's taking the financial risk on the whole scheme, and how can we make this viable in the long run?" She paused. "I'm certain the Pegasi have the cash to fund their bit- you're the wealthiest of the three tribes, after all- but consider the unicorns!"

"Yeah! We're not exactly rolling in the dough, so to speak," Alphabittle added. "And is there any evidence of prior work? Proof this will even work? Proof that not only can a railroad of this scale can be build, but run properly and to time?"

Izzy spoke up. "We have an answer to that question, Alphabittle. Follow us, your many titlednesses, and you shall see."

"Your many titlednesses?" Phyllis questioned. "Oh please. I'm just a CEO."

"I am, amongst other things, the Vanquisher of the Pegasi and Defender of the Golden Teacups," Alphabittle smiled.

"Quite the pickup line. Not."

Zipp wrote this down. "Defender of the Golden Teacups. Must find said Golden Teacups."

Once they exited the palace, the engine was sat outside on specially laid rails. Sunny leaned out of the cab. "Ready?" she called.

"Ready!" Izzy called.

Sunny reached back and blasted the whistle, a low, deep chime echoing across Zephyr Heights. "I've always wanted to do that!"

With a whoosh of steam, the engine began to move off, a gentle puffing beat echoing across the landscape outside the palace. It slowly gathered pace along the track, before stopping at one end and halting to avoid falling off a cliff. Sunny then put the gear into reverse and drove the engine back along the track to the other end, again avoiding falling off a cliff. She then returned the engine to its original spot and stopped. "There you have it!" she said. "One proof of concept!"

Alphabittle smiled. "You know," he said, "this project may yet have some merit. I'm in."

"The Earth Ponies are also contributing," Phyllis added. "There are plenty of potential benefits, it seems."