//------------------------------//
// Chapter 12 - Rail Trip 
// Story: Pony-Z 
// by Black Light 
//------------------------------//

Rail Trip

Pete woke up the next morning before first light in his room groggy. After he had returned to his room Twilight had followed him and kept trying to apologize through the locked door. After some time, she stopped and Pete assumed she left to go to her own room. With a sigh Pete got himself out of bed and started preparing himself. Opening the wardrobe that was in his room Pete saw the light iron armor that sat near the bottom. In some of their down time they had gone down to the smithy and had it made to their specifications. He reached down and picked it up, the armor was as light weight it could be without sacrificing too much durability. Pete started to get into the armor, he made sure to spend some time getting accustom to putting it on and removing it when they got the armor from the smiths. He had finished suiting up he made sure his movements weren’t hindered too much. He checked the inside of his gauntlet to make sure that his combat knife was still secured, and tightened his belt that his new sword and sheath attached to it. He had to admit the smiths sure knew their metalwork.

Pete took the helmet out from the wardrobe and held it in the crook of his elbow as he opened the door to his room and walked into the hall. He started to turn down the hall to the main room, but a small blur of purple out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Turning his head he saw Twilight laying in the hallway next to his door, fast asleep.

“I guess you never did go back to your room.” He said to himself. With a sigh he slipped his helmet onto his head and picked up the mare from the floor. “Uff, Heavier than you look.” Walking a short ways down the hall he stopped when he reached Twilight’s room. Opening the door he walked in and laid Twilight down onto her bed. Taking his helmet back off his head he left the room and continued on his way to the main hall.

Pete entered the main hall and saw Pinkie, Matt, Jay, Liz, and around seven guards waiting there. “Alright is everyone here?” He asked.

“Yes sir, the rest of the guard are to remain here while we go to assist you.” One of the guards said stepping forward.

“Good” Pete said with a nod. “Let’s start off, we need to get to Ponyville as early as we can.”

“We’ll take one of the sky chariots.” A guard said starting towards the outside.

Pete followed behind with a grimace and a sigh.

The flight to Ponyville was short and the small contingent of guards that had brought them there in the chariot returned to Canterlot soon after, leaving the four humans, Pinkie, and the seven guards. “Which way to the train station?” Pete asked Pinkie

“It’s on the northern edge of the town.” She said in her cheery manner.

With a nod Pete started into the town, followed by the others. The town seemed free of zombies with only a few pockets every now and again.

“Something isn’t right.” Pete said. “The zombies shouldn’t have dispersed so quickly since we lured them away from Canterlot.”

“Even then, there should still be more than this.” Matt said getting a nod from Pete.

“What do we do then?” The head guard asked.

“Something obviously drew their attention away from here. Whatever it was, we should use it to our advantage to get to the train station.” He answered before turning to Pinkie. “You’re sure the train is still here?” He asked.

“It was here when we evacuated the town so I can’t imagine why not.” Pinkie answered her mane slightly deflated.

“Good, we don’t want to have come all this way only to find the train isn’t here.” He said starting to walk off.

“Hey Petey.” Pinkie started. Pete turned around to face her, she had a sad look. “Are you sure you’re-”

“If this is about what Twilight said yesterday I’m not going to talk about it.” He said turning his back to her. The other three humans all gave worried looks and Pinkie’s mane deflated even more.

They found the train station easily with no problems. Pete stepped onto the train, it was an old fashioned coal train like he had expected to find. He made his way from the caboose to the engine checking each car carefully making sure it was truly empty. Once his search was done he motioned for the others to get on.

“Matt head back to the second passenger car and unhook it from the first, we won’t need the extra cars to slow us down.” Matt left the engine with a nod. Pete turned to the guards. “You all find some shovels and make sure the engine has a good supply of coal to keep it going.” The guards saluted and went to their assigned post. “Liz you’re going to stay back with Matt and the guards for protection, Jay you’re staying up here with Pinkie and me.” The two nodded and Liz left the engine. “Let’s get this train running again.” He said turning to Pinkie who nodded. The two of them started going over the controls and gauges on the train checking to make sure everything was within operating range.

“All right then, let’s get this thing rolling.” Pete said as he pulled a lever out of its back position and the brakes were heard releasing. Pete started to turn a few wheels while Pinkie flipped switches on the control panel. Every so slowly the train’s wheels started to turn and the train began its journey to the Crystal Empire.

Pinkie sat down in conductors chair and started spinning around in it still using the controls as she did so. Pete stepped out of the compartment and onto the front of the train. Looking back he saw Liz and Matt on the back car of the train. “HAVE THE GUARDS TAKE SHIFTS SHOVELING, AND THE OTHERS REST IN THE PASSENGER CAR. NO TELLING WHEN WE’LL NEED SOME FULLY RESTED FIGHTERS!” Pete shouted back to them over the train. The two gave a short nod and left his vision. He turned his attention forward keeping a watchful eye ahead.


~~~Seven Hours Later~~~


The sun was around midway in the sky. The train was still chugging away. So far there had been no interruptions in their progress. A few zombies were scattered around, but they either were too slow to catch the train, or too slow to get out of the way. Pete and Pinkie had been switching off control and lookout ever hour and a half. Pete was out front currently.

“PINKIE BRAKES NOW!!” Pete suddenly shouted at her, she responded quickly pulling the emergency brake, making the train screech to a stop.

Pete jumped off of the train and took out a pair of binoculars.

“What’s going on, why’d we stop suddenly?” Matt asked as he jumped down next to Pete.

“Looks like we were going to be a bit late getting to the Empire.” Pete said handling Matt the binoculars.

Matt took them and followed he rails down. “Is that another train?” Matt asked.

“Overturned and crashed yes.” Pete responded.

“Also surrounded by hordes of zombies.” Matt added on lowering the binoculars.

The others had made their way down standing next to the two. “Alright, we’re going to need a distraction, this rail only goes between Ponyville and the Empire, so if there’s another train here that means it came from there. Looks fresh too, so if the zombies are still outside of the cars, there may be some survivors.” Pete told them.

“So how do we get the infected away from the cars?” The head guard asked.

Pete turned to Matt. “Did the smiths complete that project we asked about?” He questioned. Matt smiled and pulled out a small cylinder. “Perfect.” Pete said smiling as well.

“What’s that?” Jay asked

“Something that makes our job a whole lot easier.” Pete told him.

“Now we just need to find a way to get it all the way over there while remaining a far distance away.

“Well, that’s easy silly. We can use this.” Pinkie said as she pulled a small very pink cannon off of the train.

Pete’s eye started to twitch. “You did not get on the train with that.” He stated.

“Of course not, but I have them stashed all over Equestria in case of emergency.” She told him.

Pete took a few breaths. “All right, aside from my building insanity, this is looking up.” He said rubbing his temples. “How accurate are you with that?”

“Pretty accurate.” Pinkie told him.

Pete extended his hand and Matt placed the cylinder in his hand. “Do you think you can get this passed the train car?”

Pinkie took the cylinder and tested its weight. “Easily.” She told him.

“Good, Then get ready to fire, we have limited time.” He told her.

Pinkie nodded and fiddled around with the cannon a little. “All ready to fire.”

Pete flipped a small red switch on the cylinder and a red light started to flash with a beep accompanying each flash. Pete used his finders to pull a small string out of the top of the cylinder, and taking a lighter started the string on fire. “Fire this quickly.” He said handing it to Pinkie who threw it into the barrel of the cannon and fired it quickly. The small cylinder flew through the air beeping loudly. The zombies around the train looked up as the cylinder flew over their head. They began to follow the sound of beeping as the cylinder landed a ways away from the train.

“Oh, so it’s made to distract the infected?” One of the guards asked.

“Well, that’s step one.” Pete answered.

“What’s the seco-”

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

“Let’s go, I want that train car open yesterday.” Pete said running towards the train his armor clanking lightly as he did so.