Equestria had been on a rapid modernization kick for the last couple decades. Inspired by her trips to the Human world, the recently declared Princess of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle, had been pushing Equestria to be a pinnacle of modernity and tradition.
One place where the sense of modernity hits harder than the rest, was the railways. Gone was the age of bright pink “Toy Class” 4-4-0 Equus Types pulling The Friendship Express. Now sleek streamlined “Crystal Liners” pulled the trains, having been given the nickname due to them being designed in the Crystal Empire.
Truth be told, Twilight had never cared for the dirty and smoky steam engines due to a frightful experience she had as a filly when she witnessed a Baltimare & Ohayo “Big Six” class 2-6-6-6 explode, killing many ponies. So when the chance came, she abolished steam traction on the national network with two exceptions. Equestrian Central Railways “Toy Class'' No.1 “Princess'', and Manehatten and Baltimare No.999 “Celestia”, a 4-6-2 “Mustang” class, which holds the record for being the first engine to officially exceed 100 MPH.
Along with losing steam, the railroads of Equestria began to abandon unneeded lines as they were no longer viable. And in the Everfree Forest, one of these abandoned rail lines lay dormant. Once herald as the first railroad to officially go from Ponyville to Canterlot, the Canterlot & Everfree Railway worked for decades hauling timber, ore, perishables and anything else that needed hauling… However due to the economy and the Everfree Branchline being made redundant, it had closed decades ago, with the Canterlot & Everfree soon following the branch after it was acquired by the Equestrian Royal Guard, and later portions sold to Equestrian United Railways.
Two young ponies made their way through the Everfree Forest, having decided to take a hike one Saturday, hoping to find the Castle Of The Two Sisters.
The first colt was a somewhat short and portly Earth Pony with an ash coat with a charcoal mane and tail, he wore a deep blue bandana and an old engineer's cap. His name was Smokey Cinders, his cutiemark was of a locomotive's driving wheel.
His companion was a tall and somewhat buff Pegasus, he had a deep brass coat with a golden blonde mane and tail, his name was Crosby Chime, he wore what appeared to be an attempt at fashionable overalls and a gray Newspaper Boys Cap, and his cutiemark was of a steam whistle. He usually kept his wings covered by the overalls due to an injury he had years ago that left one of his wings unusable.
“Smokey, we’ve been following that map for hours, can we go home? I wanna go get a drink from Sugarcube Corner” Crosby asked as he looked down to the crudely drawn map they had been following, Smokey had traced it off a map he’d seen Twilight had, though poorly.
“Just a little farther, CC!” Smokey said as he looked into the dark woods. “At least let’s see what’s behind that brush- WOAH!!” Smokey exclaimed as his hoof hit something in the tall grass that made a dull metallic clang, the gray colt falling into the brush. “Ooooh…”
“Smokey!” Crosby shouted as he bolted to his friend and leaned down. “You ok?” He asked as he helped his friend up.
“I’m fine!” Smokey said as he staggeredly stood up. “What’d I trip over? Didn’t sound like a tree root” he said as he bent down and his brunette eyes widened. “Train tracks?”
Crosby stepped back and looked around, noticing the dull rusty rails and rotten crossties. “I didn’t even know there was a railroad through the Everfree Forest”
“Must be a spur off some old railroad…” Smokey said as he looked back towards Ponyville and then deeper into the Everfree. “But why?…”
“Probably a logging line? Lots of good timber out here” Crosby said as he watched Smokey begin to walk into the brush, following the track deeper and deeper into the dark woods. “Smokey, wait up!” He called as he followed.
The two friends made the long trek along the old tracks in decent time, finding several short spurs and sidings, and one to a rather… eerie looking mine with a few old rusty coal cars laying in disrepair, and soon coming to a long spindly wooden trestle which spanned the Everclear River and the hundred foot drop made by it.
“Smokey… I don’t wanna cross it” Crosby shivered as he looked down, he’d been afraid of heights since his injury, where he’d miscalculated while showing off and clipped a roof, falling to the ground and crashing through a stand in the market, costing him the use of his wing.
“Oh C’mon! This bridge is as structurally sound as ever!” Smokey said as he stomped a hoof down onto the bridge deck, feeling the old wood jar under his hoof, a few birds flying from under the bridge… but it didn’t crack. “I’ll be here with you!” Crosby whimpered before he sighed and slowly walked onto the old bridge. “Just focus on the other side, and don’t look down,” Smokey said as he guided his friend across.
Crosby slowly walked across the bridge, the wood under him gently groaning under his weight as he made his way across the aged wooden structure, hoofstep by hoofstep. And after a few short minutes that felt like hours to the brass Pegasus, his hooves hit firm ground again as they walked across the abutment that secured the bridge to the edge of the cliff.
“See! I told ya you’d be fine!” Smokey said with a smile as he patted his friend in the shoulder.
Crosby rolled his eyes. “The stuff you make me do” he said with a chuckle as the two started walking, continuing through hock-high brush to follow the forgotten railway line.
Smokey held his head high as the sun shone down, this area was much less wooded and much more peaceful. He was about to comment when he spied a rotten wood sign with a large W on it… a whistle board… he looked up and gasped. “Crosby...look!” said Smokey, as he pointed in shock. Crosby did so, looking to see… an abandoned train yard and town… in said yard was the remains of several old freight cars, a station that was close to collapsing, and on the far right, was a large brick engine shed with eight stalls and a turntable in front of it. The turntable’s pit was flooded and looked more like a swimming pool.
“Look at this place…” Smokey said as he began to walk around the yard towards the station.
The two colts began to explore, they had to admit the ghost town was eerie in a way... it was like the Ponies there left in quite a hurry. On the station platform, there was luggage, freight, and all manner of other items. In the station, there was a decent amount of Bits in the register and a roll of train tickets, along with the usual things found in a station... well, usual aside from a hornet's nest the size of a buckball.
The two hastily exited the station to not face the stinging wrath of the hornets and soon headed for the engine shed, the tall brick roundhouse had stood the test of time rather well. The doors were locked with a complicated looking magic padlock. Smokey found this strange. “everything else was open… Why would this place be locked?” He asked as he looked at Crosby, who shrugged.
“Don’t know, maybe we should-“ before Crosby could finish, Smokey picked up a large wrench and began to bash the ancient lock, it gave way on the third swing and the door creaked open. “SMOKEY! We can’t just break in!”
“Who’s gonna know?” Smokey said smugly before entering first, coughing as decades of dust and stagnant air hit him. He pulled up his bandana over his muzzle and looked around the old shed, it was as if the Ponies that worked here just walked away and never returned. There were tools, machinery, papers... and in the middle stall... a large steam locomotive. It had four leading wheels and six large driving wheels. It was rusty and like everything else, covered in an inch of dust. “Crosby! You have to see this!” Excitedly shouted Smokey. Crosby then rushed forward to get a better look. “It must have been here for decades” Smokey said as he walked up to the front to see its number plate... 13.
Crosby went to a bench next to the engine and looked it over, finding an old cap, on the front was a small metal tag which stated it was worn by a conductor. “Why’d they leave all this here?” Crosby asked as he looked to Smokey as he came around.
“I guess when they closed the line, they never bothered to scrap it...” he said as he walked around to the tender to see the engine's railroad. “Canterlot and Everfree, ” he said as he thought aloud. “that railway closed down about thirty ago, that means no pony owns the engine or the yard!”.
Crosby looked to Smokey. "Uhh..don’t get any ideas, how would we get this thing running? Heck, how would we get a permit to run it?.. Smokey?... You're not listening to me are you?...” Asked Crosby with annoyance as his friend climbed into the cab and sat in the engineer's seat, putting his hoof on the throttle.
“I think we could do it!” Smokey grinned widely, his eyes twinkling as he turned and looked at the cracked lenses of the gauges and the rusty piping. Little did the colts know what they were getting themselves into…