Whooves and Carrot Top had spent the remainder of the day travelling across Equestria by train from Canterlot to Trottingham. Even though it hadn’t been physically demanding for them both, by the time they’d gone back to Ponyville, collected their things and then gone onwards to Trottingham the two of them were tired out. Not saying anything to each other throughout their journey for lack of energy they both kept slipping in and out of sleep as the train gently rocked from side to side as it sped through the countryside on its journey.
“This is Trottingham! All change! All change!”
The words instantly caused Whooves to come out of his deep slumber. Wearily looking out of the window he could see all the stereotypical architectural features of Trottingham, slate grey stone buildings with white window frames, chocolate brown bargeboards holding up the drains on the roofs of the buildings, which were covered in emerald green roof tiles. Nudging Carrot Top awake, they grabbed their saddlebags and a battered leather suitcase and stepped off the train, making their way off the station and into the bustling cobbled streets of Trottingham.
Even though it was only 6 o’clock in the evening and the sun was still in the sky, a day of travelling had taken its toll on both of them, especially Carrot Top, who was now leaning against Whooves, walking blindly with her eyes closed as they walked up the staircase to the room in the B&B they had booked into. Whooves tiredness was now beginning to prevent him from registering everything that was going on around him as he somehow managed to open the door to their room whilst holding a suitcase in his mouth and keeping himself and Carrot Top upright.
He used the last of the energy in his body to set down his suitcase, gently place Carrot Top on the spacious double bed in the room and slip her saddle bag off her, before removing his own and walking over to the high backed chair at the end of the bed. He fell asleep as soon as he let his body hit the plush cushion stuffing.
The morning sun shining through the window of the bedroom spread across Carrot Top’s body, curled up into a foetal position. With an almighty yawn and stretch she slowly began to wake from her deep slumber, moving onto her back and lying there as she slowly worked her subconscious into action.
Why do I always end up waking up at the best moment in a dream? Hang on, where am I? I don’t remember seeing that awfully tasteless royal icing style plaster roof yesterday. Think Carrot Top, think, there’ll be a reasonable explanation for this.
She raised her head at the sound of the door to the en-suite opening, and Whooves strutted out, his hair spiked back in his usual fashion, wearing his signature white colour and green tie.
Of course Carrot Top, how could you forget?
She glanced at the clock on the bedside table, the clock hands reading half past seven.
Oh great, this means it won’t be long before I have to get ready for Celestia’s plan!
“Are you going to get up then?” Whooves asked, interrupting her thoughts.
“And a very good morning to you too, Whooves” Carrot Top only just managed a groggy smile before yawning again.
“We’d best get ready, the train leaves in just under half an hour”
Realising how little time there was, Carrot Top got off the bed and sat down against the wall opposite Whooves. Even though her hair was rather out of place and she didn’t look to presentable, this didn’t bother her given what her role was to be in the assignment. As much as she hated what the princess had proposed, she knew this tactic had its advantages that had been proved the other times she had been subjected to it.
Whooves opened up his leather suitcase and pulled out a thick book, on its cover the title “A Complete Account of the 748th Year of Celestia’s Reign” was firmly imprinted in gold lettering. The book itself had belonged to an old friend of Whooves, the late Dr Strangecolt. Entrusting it to Whooves on his deathbed he had made him swear that he would make the book, containing his entire life’s work, known to Celestia, for as Whooves soon found out, it wasn't all it seemed on first impressions. The old doctor’s work was not in fact making a detailed account of a single year in Celestia’s reign, but was in fact a project he named ‘The Minimizer’.
“Ready, Carrot Top?”
Carrot Top sighed “As ready as I’ll ever be”
Whooves pulled back the front cover of the book, revealing a small panel built into the interior of the book, concealed cunningly by the edges of the pages. Pointing the book towards Carrot Top he pressed on of six buttons built into the lower half of the panel, causing a tiny dish to rise up at the front of the panel and aim itself at her. With a high pitched whirr the dishes edge began to glow as Carrot Top tensed her muscles as she prepared herself for what she knew came next.
With a bright flash the dish shot a yellow beam of light at her, picking her up off of the floor as it hold. Whooves used one of his forehooves to shield his eyes from the bright light, waiting for it to cease before looking back at Carrot Top. Looking back at her she was still stood in the same position that she had been before Whooves had used the gadget on her, the only difference was that she was now shrunk down to half the size of a school aged filly!
“Any problems Carrot Top?” Whooves asked, pointing the book at their saddlebags and shrinking them down to her scale.
“None that I can find” Carrot Top finished looking herself over, satisfied that none of her body had become deformed during the shrinking process she picked up the saddlebags in her mouth and walked over to Whooves’ leather suitcase which was in an upright position on the floor, the locks for the case lid left open. With a great heave on her forehooves she pulled the lid down of the case, revealing it’s rather plush interior.
Whooves took a small ear piece off of the desk. Designed to look like a small hearing aid that would be used by an old aged pony it was his own secret way of communicating with Carrot Top without being noticed, particularly when she was miniaturised as she was now. He lifted up one side of his collar and stuck a tiny microphone to the part of his green tie that ran underneath it, folding the collar back down to cover it up.
Carrot top sighed quietly as she clipped her own earpiece and microphone to her head and climbed into the suitcase “Travelling in this case isn’t particularly that thrilling Whooves, you don’t have anything that could make this journey more entertaining do you, like a newspaper?”
Whooves smiled, picking up something small off the desk, hidden from view from Carrot Top “I’d already thought of that, so I thought I’d shrink down this for you”
He reached out his forehoof, handing to Carrot Top the book she had been reading recently, shrunk down by the minimizer. She threw it down in the case when she realised what it was.
“I hate you”
Whooves grinned a cheesy smile “No need to thank me”
He shut the lid of the case and locked it shut, picking it up in his mouth and heading out of the room, bound for the railway station.
Celestia was waiting in her throne room, pacing up and down the long red carpet that stretched the length of the room for the umpteenth time. Now she was beginning to remember why she’d never made Octavia part of a big assignment before, her time management was less than satisfactory, rather ironic given that she was a musician by trade!
A faint knocking sound came from behind the throne room doors, causing Celestia to snap out of her train of thought.
“Enter” she called out.
A lot of loud fumbling followed as the pony outside tried to turn one of the heavy door handles, usually attended to by the royal guards, who were off duty at this time in the morning. With a lot of effort, the pony managed to unlock the door, causing it to swing out infront of them quicker than they expected. Octavia fell forward, landing a heap on the floor if the throne room amongst the many maps and scrolls she’d brought up from the Canterlot Archives. She moved the hair that had fallen across her face to see the Celestia staring down on her, a deadpan expression on her face.
“M-morning princess!” Octavia blushed, her cheeks turning a deep red.
Celestia simply shook her head in a disapproving manner “Good Morning, Octavia. Did you bring the map?”
Octavia scrambled up off of the floor, gathering up the documents she’d brought with her “E-everything’s here. I’m sorry I’m so late, but I accidently slept through my alarm, then it turned out the power has been knocked out in apartment, then I had to go around making sure that everything was fillyproof so that there’s no chance of Vinyl damaging the place or herself, and then…”
She accidently dropped one of the maps, which rolled out as it hit the floor.
“Sorry!” Octavia almost squeaked in her mad panic, dropping everything she was carrying in order to roll up the one map, creating more work for herself in the process.
Celestia just rolled her eyes when Octavia wasn’t looking. This was going to be a long day!
The low pitched chimes of the clock on the Trottingham Town Hall rang out 8 o’clock as down in the station yard the gold bullion was being loaded into the express train by a guard and a porter from a simple wooden platform across from the main station platform. Moneybags had also come down to supervise the loading of the shipment from the Trottingham Bank. The train itself simply consisted of a simple parcels van, designed for running at high speeds, and an express diesel engine. Diesels were rarely used on the Equestrian Railway networks, mainly because they were fairly temperamental due to not being a technologically advanced as there steam counterparts, which the engine crews preferred. One advantage they did have over the steam engines though was the ability to accelerate far more quickly.
Moneybags held out a blank docket in one of his forehooves, with a pen in the other “Sign here, if you please”
Taking them both in his own hooves, the guard read through the paper “Six crates, security A. Seals unbroken. Right”
The guard was a slightly older pony grey coloured earth pony with a black moustache that covered his mouth entirely when he wasn’t speaking. His companion the porter, was a far younger white coated teenage pony with a rather untidy dark blonde mane, obviously new to his job judging by the fact that his shirt sleeves that poked out from under his waistcoat were rolled up above his elbows untidily. The prospect of having to travel with such a valuable load made him extremely nervous, but he just got on with making sure the load was secure without saying a word.
“Well” Moneybags gulped nervously “They’re all yours”
“Don’t look so worried mate, we’ll make sure they get to Canterlot without harm” he turned to the porter “Right, let’s get these doors closed”
Wrapping one of his hooves round a door handle he was about to slam the door to the box van shut when…
“Excuse me gentlecolts!” A slightly muffled voice called out.
Both the guard and Moneybags looked down the platform, shocked into disbelief at what they saw. Before them stood Whooves, carrying his suitcase in his mouth by the handle, wearing his signature white collar and green tie. Whooves set his suitcase gently down on the platform “This is the train for Canterlot, is it not?”
“We’re going to Canterlot” began the guard.
“Ah, good” Whooves replied, starting to bend down to pick up his case.
“But I’m afraid this isn’t a passenger train”
Whooves chuckled “I realise that. I don’t expect the usual comforts, just an odd corner. Wherever you can fit me in”
Glancing at the seconds ticking by on his pocket watch, Moneybags interrupted, speaking angrily to Whooves in an authoritative voice “This is a security shipment. Under no circumstances will you be allowed aboard!”
“Not even under these circumstances?” Whooves smiled, pulling out an envelope that he had folded up in his collar.
There was a small silence as Moneybags read through the letter, his expression changing from one of anger to one of disbelief as he read on.
“I-I don’t understand” he stuttered, glancing back through the letter again “How did you get this authorisation?”
“Will it suffice?”
“Just about…” Money bags showed it to one of the guards “It’s from Celestia herself”
The guard quickly read through the letter, impressed, before handing it back to Whooves, who folded it up and slipped it down behind his collar again.
“Well” Moneybags began “You’d best be going”
Whooves picked up his suitcase in his mouth and with a nod to Moneybags, stepped aboard the parcels van, setting his case down in an upright position on the bottom rack of a shelf unit on one side of the van as the heavy wooden doors were shut behind him.
The guards pulled down one of the windows of the van and leaned out, green flag and whistle in his forehooves, ready to signal the clear to go. Moneybags was still present on the platform, waiting to see the train depart himself. A mighty clunk from in front of the train caught both of their attentions, making them both turn their heads in time to see the signal arm bounce slightly as it settled into the ‘line clear’ position.
With a blow on his whistle and a wave of his flag, the guard got a deep blast on the diesel engines horn as a response from the driver. With a large growl of its engine, the train slowly began to move out of the platform.
“Good luck!” Moneybags called after the train as it began to pick up speed, getting a quick salute from the guard as a response before he ducked back into the carriage and pulled the window shut tight.
Moneybags waited on the platform till the train was out of sight and the signal arm had risen back into the ‘danger’ position. He plucked his pocket watch from his suit pocket and flicked open the lid. Realising it was far later in the morning than he thought it was he hurried from the platform. He was going to have to rush if he ever wanted to be on time.