The moon shined high over a wooded area in rural Pennsylvania. The night was filled with the sound of the breeze against the trees, the chirping of crickets, and the occasional sound of an owl hooting. But if one were to venture far out into the forest, that person maybe lucky enough to hear another sound.
That one person is currently walking along the trail with a lantern in hand. After walking and pushing his way through a few thick branches, he stumbled in his destination. A huge warehouse building. It had a few lights on in some places but the metal walls were showing signs of rust and graffiti and most of the windows were boarded up.
Despite this, he approached a door on the side of the building and knocked. A few moments later a slot on the door opened and a pair of eyes peeked through. “Tonight’s password?” Asked the voice behind the door.
“Moonlight.” Said the man.
A split second later the door opened to reveal a man of African descent, who smiled upon seeing him and offered a fist bump. “Andrew you son of a gun. I thought you were down in Florida on vacation.”
Andrew, the Caucasian man outside returned the gesture and bumped his fist. “No that was last week Robbie. Just got home yesterday. Anyway I came to see the boss. I hear it’s finished.”
Robbie just looked at him. “Didn’t you also hear we’re not supposed to gather for another month? We still need to gather supplies.”
“I know, but you know how I like to see things for myself.”
Robbie sighed he knew his friend was excited as he was along with others they knew. “Alright boss is working in the engine. Can’t miss him.”
“Thanks Rob.”
The inside was enormous. The building was basically long enough to house a ten car train. In fact that’s what was inside.
Andrew took a moment to marvel the consist from the front to the back. Up at the front was an EMD SD40-2 diesel locomotive. It wore Conrail blue but the logo looked like it was scratched off. Behind it were two tank cars both of them were black. After that was a red 50 foot boxcar. The next car was a stainless steel vista dome car followed by a refrigerator car.
The next car stood out the most. It looked like an old railroad canon car, particularly a K5 rail gun. To Andrew it looked like something out of a steampunk sci-fi movie.
The next two cars were gondolas that looked like they were filled with construction materials. Behind them was a flatcar that had a generator and a Caterpillar D6R2 bulldozer. The last car was a former Chessie System caboose with what seemed to be a satellite dish on the roof.
After taking in the sight he decided it was enough and went to the engine. There he saw another man working on something in the cab. Andrew hoped it wasn’t anything serious. “Excuse me Howard!”
The cab window of the engine opened to reveal Howard’s bald head as he looked down at him. “Ah Andrew, I was expecting you to come see this.”
He soon exited the cab and climbed down. “Quite a beauty isn’t she. Hard to believe we found a whole scrapyard full of this stuff abandoned and decided to put it to use. Those railroad museums were too foolish to not check that place out.”
Andrew nodded. “Yes I agree sir. Hard to believe we are all one step closer to performing this grand plan. But don’t you think the canon is a bit much? I don’t think ‘they’ would want to see that.”
“It’s just in case we run into bigger threats other than our intentioned target.” Howard said sternly.
“Ok I think I understand. What about our path to get there? Is it stable?”
Howard smiled. “Yes in fact I went through it myself and it worked well for me. I’m confident it can handle a train. Especially with those tracks we laid. We just need to lay them to connect them to the mainline when we get there.”
“And are you sure this is wise? If it was just us walking through it be subtle but this practically makes us stand out like a vegan at an all meat barbecue.” Said Andrew referring to the train.
Howard laughed before answering. “Sometimes we got to be loud to make our voices heard like a train at a crossing. Now since you’re here I actually have a favor to ask of you and Robbie.”
“Yeah, what is it?” asked Andrew.
“I need you and the others to gather supplies and load them up. We may have a train, fuel, and construction materials, but we still need food, water, and other supplies.” Explained Howard as he gave Andrew a list.
“Understood, it will be done.”
Andrew turned and left leaving Howard alone. Howard watched him leave before walking up to a bulletin board that was by a workbench. On it were pictures of ponies, some of them were screenshots from episodes of a TV show. Although some screenshots had a human who appeared to be either yelling at ponies in a courtroom or melting piles of gold bits while ponies watch in sadness. Howard grunted at the sight.
The bulletin board also had what looked like cut pages from newspapers as well as printouts from news sites. He could easily read the headlines from a mile.
UNEXPLAINED DARK EPISODES AIRED ON CHILDREN'S CARTOON. ORIGIN UNKNOWN.
WE NEVER WROTE THEM SAY EPISODE WRITERS.
LAUREN FAUST OUTRAGED AT NEW EPISODES.
MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC TO BE PULLED FROM PROGRAMING AMIDST OUTRAGE.
NASA REPORTS STRANGE PHENOMENONS FROM INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION.
Howard scowled at the bulletin board and all it's details. He knew what happened wasn't the show staff's fault. He remembered he and a few friends of his stumbled on a strange portal while exploring an abandoned theme park, only to step in and get a glance at the other side only to see a world they thought was make believe. Despite the amazement they quickly had to leave only to make a pact to come back and right the wrongs.
"Enjoy your reign while you still can Jason Wright, because we'll be coming for you very soon."
A month passed by and one day the warehouse had a lot more activity. Many men and women were working around the train as they make the final preparations. Andrew sat in the engine's cab as he went through the check list wearing an Engineer cap with the MONON Railroad logo.
He picked up the walkie talkie. "OK Howard fuel is topped off, air brake supply is steady, and everything is working fine up here in the engine. How are things on your end?"
"Everything is ready and set. Bubba! Get the door."
The huge man grunted and pushed the huge door opened. The tracks that lead outside looked almost new. Andrew smiled as it seemed like only yesterday those tracks were worn out and falling apart. Bubba quickly got in the dome car along with the other people. "Everything set Andrew you can pull out while Stacy works her magic here in the rear. ALL ABOARD!"
Andrew blew the horn and pulled out of the warehouse. The engine's new coat of black paint glistened in the sun with the white words on the side saying 'IRON WAR HORSE.'
The train rocked and rolled on the tracks as they went along and slowly picked up speed. Andrew took in the sights of the Pennsylvania scenery knowing it would be a long time before he could see this world again. Then again he might not see this world ever again. But he was ok with that.
The train rounded a bend and Andrew saw it. The rocky wall side of a mountain. There was a strange looking generator and two strange tall metal structures on both sides of the track. He quickly picked up the radio. "Howard we are approaching."
Howard grinned and looked over to a young girl with glasses who sat with him in the caboose who was typing something on an old fashion computer. "Hehe you heard him Stacy. On we go to Equestria!"
"Yes sir!" She said excitedly.
She pressed a button and just like that a large glowing light appeared on the mountain until it became a swirling vortex. Andrew saw the portal and braced for impact. Only for the impact to never come as the vortex swallowed the train and disappeared right after the caboose entered the vortex that was actually a portal.
"Huh?" Said Gregory as he perked up from the food he was eating at a table.
A small pink pegasus and a blue adult dragon turned to him in concern "Is something wrong daddy?" Asked Cozy Glow,
"Yeah, you looked like you've just saw something strange. Is there someone strange outside the window?" Asked Ember as she stood up from the table and looked to the window with a scowl.
"No you two it's nothing. It's just I had a strange feeling. Like something happened."
"What do you mean? It's not like there's a threat, or a giant reptile or ape monster outside." Said Cozy.
Gregory turned to his adoptive daughter. "First of all, you need to stop looking up those earth movies Jason told you about. Secondly I just don't know what this feeling is. Maybe I'm working too hard."
The small family continued eating their dinner. But Gregory's feeling barely went away and he would be right to think something is going on because the human population of Equestria just went up in a flash.