//------------------------------//
// Chapter 13-Deerstalker Time! 
// Story: Railway Adventure: a New Generation 
// by The Blue EM2 
//------------------------------//

The second Zephyr Heights Grand Conference on the Restoration and Reunification of the Trans Equestrian Railroad and Subsidiary Branchlines was now meeting at Zephyr Heights, and this meeting was, I am sorry to say, a good deal more frosty than the previous one.

"Right then!" Queen Haven said, trying to remain cheerful. "Who wants to go first?"

"I shall," Phyllis said, looking at her paperwork containing her points. "As you are undoubtedly all aware, a few days ago an unfortunate accident occurred on the earth pony section of the line. A maintenance train, which had been stored higher up the line, was found to be rolling downhill by itself, and then fell off a bridge and caused considerable track damage on both the bridge and the nearby rails. The delay has been serious."

"Well, that's unfortunate," Alphabittle noted to himself.

"You would say that, wouldn't you?" Phyllis replied.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that it confirms my suspicions," Phyllis said flatly. "A unicorn derailed the train to slow the project down. That is what happened. Of course, that is what they would want."

Alphabittle leaned over to Izzy. "That mare makes me hot under the collar sometimes."

Izzy looked confused. "But you're not wearing a collar. I'm certain I could unicycle one for you, though!"

"No need." Alphabittle adjusted his microphone. "I utterly and completely rebuke that claim. Unicorns had no involvement with that derailment. If anything, it's the earth ponies and pegasi who are making things hard for us unicorns."

"How so?" Phyllis asked.

Zipp glanced to Sunny. "This isn't going too well."

"What makes you think that?" Sunny replied, her voice in full snark mode. "The casual throwing of threats and accusations- this isn't looking too good."

"I would like an answer to that question as well," Queen Haven added.

"Earth ponies are sending us unrealistic construction deadlines and expecting us to rush our work, whilst pegasi are constantly observing our work and buzzing our work crews. We've got quite enough on our minds with laying the track and sorting out this dual gauge nonsense without having to worry about pegasi constantly hovering over us like swarms of bees."

"We are not like swarms of bees!" Pipp protested. "In fact, pegasi are very good at the concept of personal space."

"Then why are you standing about half an inch away from Zipp?"

"Oh." Pipp shifted to one side a bit. "Sorry."

"The unicorns have a saying- if something is to be done, it is to be done properly."

"Quickly," Phyllis interrupted.

"Properly!"

"Quickly!"

"PROPERLY!"

"QUICKLY!"

Hitch looked about. "I'm gonna go elsewhere until they stop arguing," he said, and trotted away towards a door.

Queen Haven, on the other hand, had had enough. She grabbed a megaphone and bellowed through it. "ENOUGH!"

The other two looked over.

"All of this bickering and squabbling is preventing us from finding the true culprit in this case! Phyllis, do you have any evidence a unicorn did it?"

"No, but it's the sort of thing they would do, isn't it?"

"Such flawless logic," Sunny said. "I can see why CanterLogic kit was impeccably made. Oh wait, no it wasn't."

"And Alphy- sorry, Alphabittle, I do apologise, the only reason pegasi are observing the work is because we want the line to be finished. I'll inform them to reduce the levels, though." Queen Haven moved back in her chair. "In the meantime, I propose a compromise. Obviously, this accident needs to be investigated before whomever did this strikes again. Assuming a pony did this and it wasn't a simple accident caused by mistakes or an act of Faust."

"Who should head up this enquiry?" Phyllis asked, noticably cowed from having taken the full force of the Royal Pegasus Voice.

"Me, obviously," Alphabittle answered.

"Not any of the leaders, obviously," Queen Haven replied. "The perfect candidates are in the room with us. After all, they are the ones who brought back magic, became friends despite the circumstances they found themselves in, and have a reputation for impartiality."

"The Filly Four?" Phyllis ventured.

"Izzy and her friends, you doofus!" Alphabittle answered.

"Feather."

Queen Haven shook her head as the room sounded to numerous shouts of 'bing bong'. "I'll sort them out in a moment. In the meantime, you five had best get to work. If we're going to lower the tension in the room, so to speak, we need to ensure this mystery is cleaned up as soon as possible."

"Understood, your majesty," Sunny replied. "Let's get going!"

"Detective Zipp is on the case!"

Pipp looked over. "Zipp, why are you wearing a silly hat?"





Pipp and Zipp deployed to the crash scene as soon as they could. It was still something of a smouldering wreck, though thankfully the fire that had started not long after the accident had been put out. There was something about the scene which didn't seem right, though, so Zipp checked in with the forepony.

"Is everything in place?" she asked.

"It is, Your Highness," the forepony replied. "Everything has been left exactly where it landed exactly as you asked, although we did put the fire out."

"Understandable," Zipp said. "Pipp, got your phone? I may need you to take pictures."

"Don't you have a phone?" Pipp replied, as the pair approached the mangled wreckage of the engine. "You could take pictures on that!"

"I could," Zipp answered, "but that would reduce the amount of space for audio recordings."

Pipp huffed. "We're not in the stone age, Zipp. Most phones these days have 16 gigabytes of storage as a bare minimum."

Zipp nodded. "Focus. We need to look at the cab." She popped out her magnifying glass and wandered into the cab remains. It was pretty badly mangled, as you'd expect of a machine that has been trashed in a crash, and some of it was badly squashed.

She glanced about with her goggles, scanning for any trace chemicals or other signs of interference. Just then, she spotted something pretty important. Her eyes looked closer, and saw something around the regulator.

She snapped a few pictures. "Note to self; badly burned rope tied around regulator. Suggests regulator was tied on to ensure crash." She took a few more looks for evidence, then backed out of the cab.

Pipp looked over. "Well? Anything interesting in this heap of junk?"

Zipp nodded. "Yes. This was no accident. It was an act of sabotage."

"How can you tell?"

"Burned rope around the regulator handle. This suggests it was tied on rather than simply open."

"Well, that sorts confirms Phyllis' suspicions," Pipp sighed. "But who did this, and why?"





"This is a bit dull," Hitch admitted, as he looked closely at the bridge. The pair had been deployed to look at the bridge site to ensure impartiality, for the same reason that the two pegasus sisters had travelled to earth pony lands and Izzy was currently in pegasus territory- that way, nopony could accuse them of bias towards their own kind. "Do we have to look a metalwork all the time?"

"Well, the old bridge is a fine surviving example of late Imperial Equestrian steel construction," Sunny replied. "Dad did a lot of research into the surviving ones. And the new bridge is looking pretty good too."

It was. It was about half finished, with some parts still yet to arrive, but otherwise things were going reasonably well. Track was now on either side, simply waiting for the bridge to be installed so that track could be put into place over it.

Hitch sighed. "I see. Well, not everypony is as interested in the past as you, Sunny. Come to think of it, most of us just see transport as a way of getting from A to B, not a thing to do otherwise. I mean, whatever next? Ponies building railroads with vintage equipment so other ponies can ride on them for fun? What a silly idea!"

Sunny's face suggested otherwise. "I think there's mileage in that concept, actually," she said, noting something down in her journal. "In fact, that sort of thing could bring lots of money into deprived areas!"

Hitch looked around as Sunny continued excitedly talking. If Sunny had a flaw (and she had several) it was her tendancy to talk at length about topics even when the other pony wasn't interested or paying attention. He spoke to interrupt this. "Hey, Sunny, don't you think it's strange we haven't seen Misty in a while?"

Sunny stopped, and looked over. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"I said that don't you think it's strange we haven't seen Misty in a while?"

Sunny nodded. "Yeah, that is true. I wonder where she's gone?"

Suddenly, Hitch's phone buzzed with a message. "Hey, it's from Pipp! Apparently they're done investigating the crash, and want to present their findings to us at the Brighthouse."

"Izzy's on her way there, and apparently she found Misty, so they're coming along too," Sunny replied. "Let's go!"

It would prove to be a pretty long day.