//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 - Cleanup // Story: The Conductor // by Tailgate //------------------------------//         Celestia sat on her haunches, watching as a regiment of Canterlot engineers raised the last wall of a house. The basic frame of it was complete. Using a system of pulleys, a group of five ponies pulled their ropes back which in turn lifted the wall off of the ground.         Celestia stood back up and walked down the rail-covered streets. With the mass of rails crosshatching Ponyville, they had started repairs by removing the rails that laid where houses once were. Thus, the majority of the roads were still covered in the rail from the previous day’s incident.         Ponyville was now clear from the trains, but since they hadn’t shut off after The Conductor left, they were magically carried away and held outside of town inside a shield created by Shining Armor that kept them from chugging off.         The construction crews had already started rebuilding before the other crews had finished carrying all the trains away. As a result, earlier today, they had finished a house before the town was clear. It quickly became evident that doing so was a mistake.         One of the uncontained trains rocketed off of its rails and immediately smashed through the house. After that incident, the crews double-timed on getting the rest of the trains out of Ponyville.         Celestia scanned the construction activities proceeding around her. She stopped when she saw the first completed house. Well, the first not-immediately-destroyed completed house. She trotted into the front yard whilst Bon Bon walked out of the front door of the house and waved.         “Hey, Princess Celestia! We just finished building my house back up! I think I’ll be able to help out the other crews in a few minutes.”         Celestia smiled. “Good work, Bon Bon. I hope that the other houses are built just as quickly as yours.” Bon Bon walked out into the street from her new doorway. “Yep! It only took me working all night to get it done. You wouldn’t believe how surprised the others were when they woke up to my half built house!” Celestia nodded her head. “It’s nice to know we have dedicated ponies like you helping ou-” “Princess!” An angry voice called out from behind her. Celestia turned her head around to see a fuming Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash’s face scrunched up as she complained, “I don’t understand why we can’t fly! You know it would make this much easier, right?” Celestia nodded in agreement, “I do know, but I’ve banned it for the reason of the missing train. Twilight told me that it flew down and-” Celestia cleared her throat. “- killed a pony.” “I’m sure it’s alright,” Bon Bon chimed in, “The ponies turned out to be fine, and that train hasn’t been seen for ages!” “By ages, did you mean one day?” Celestia interrogated. A bead of sweat trailed down Bon Bon’s forehead. “Y- Yes, but stil-” Smash. Bon Bon fell forward and onto her face as her whole house was reduced into nothing but splinters. Celestia’s knee-jerk reaction was to project a shield over the three of them as the wood shrapnel propelled itself from the collision. Celestia watched through her barrier as the dust cleared to reveal a single freight train embedded vertically in the center of the house’s foundations. After a moment of silence, Rainbow Dash spoke up, “I found it.”         Bon Bon pulled herself back up off of the ground and turned to her house. She gaped at the pure destruction that had once been her home. The only part of the house still standing was the back wall. But it was not long until a loud creak came from the structure and it too collapsed on top of the rest of the rubble.         Bon Bon got over her shock and weakly stated, “W-”         The freshly fallen wall suddenly burst into flames, causing Bon Bon to snap her mouth shut in surprise.         Rainbow Dash prodded the ground with a hoof, “Sooo… Can we fly now?” -----                  Celestia trotted out of Ponyville with the offending train in her magical grasp. It levitated high above her in the sky as there was no room for it to float directly over the ground. Ahead of her, she spotted Shining Armor standing outside the shield near the campground set up for the royal guard.         He was standing beside a hot pink shield that enclosed the trains in a sphere. He had to stay at the camp to sustain the energy required to power it. She strolled past the campground filled with guards performing their duties and others casually chatting. She reached the end of the camp where Shining Armor sat.         He turned his head to look at her and whilst doing so, created a hole in the shield to allow the train she carried to enter.         “Good morning, Princess! There has been no strange activity from the trains.”         Celestia gave him a nod and levitated the train through the entrance. Once it was fully inside, she released it and it smashed into the trains below it. Unfortunately, none of the trains even received a dent.         He rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry, we must have missed that one.”         Celestia smiled softly. “Don’t trouble yourself. Trust me, there was no way you could have caught this one.”         Shining Armor closed the hole in the shield once more whilst Celestia stated, “Thank you, Captain. Carry on.”         “Yes, Princess.”         She turned around and was about to start her walk back to Ponyville.         “Umm…” Shining hesitated. “One more thing, if you don’t mind.”         Celestia twisted her head around to give him her attention. “Yes?” After a short moment of silence, Shining spoke up, “Pinkie…”         A frown snaked its way onto Celestia’s face. “I’m not going to tolerate the behavior she showed the other day. She crossed the line when she let ‘The Conductor’ in.” “But don’t you think you’re being a bit harsh? I mean, sending her to Canterlot for incarceration? Don’t you think that’s a little too much?” “No,” she said flatly. Shining sighed, “I just hope Twilight and her friends don’t get too angry. It’s going to be hard to explain it them when they find out you sent her there... discreetly.”   Considering his statement  as the end of the conversation, she turned around to face Ponyville and began her walk back. -----         Upon entering the small town once more, Celestia took note of the various crews. The section of Ponyville she traversed through was still mostly rubble. Demolition and cleanup crews were knocking down anything left of unsalvageable buildings and carrying the materials into a nearby clearing for further removal.         She watched as a crew to her right knocked down a house’s remaining supports. The majority of which were gone after one side of the building was completely decimated.         One of the mares supervising the job yelled out, “Incoming!”         Celestia ducked as a light grey blur flew over her, the pony had hurtled themself at one of the walls with concerning speed.         Smack.         The pegasus mare slammed face first into the side of the house. The momentum and the lack of supports caused the wall to give in and fall inwards onto the foundations of the house, carrying the mare with it. She laid still on top of the collapsed wall whilst Celestia ran to the wreckage.         The crew that had been working inside was standing outside where the door of the house once was. The mare pulled herself up and shook off some dust and debris that had settled on top of her.         Celestia trotted up to the mare and asked, “Are you alright?”         “Yup!”         Celestia noticed her crossed eyes and gasped, “Do you need a doctor?”         “Nope!”         The pony started to flap her wings with the intention of flying off. Celestia opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by one of the workers.         “She’s fine, Princess!”         Without another word, the pony flew into the air and straight into another building’s wall. A large hole was left where her body smashed through it. Celestia’s eyes darted around in confusion. “I-I don’t understand.” The pony nonchalantly flew out of the hole she just created. “Demolition!” she joyfully cheered with a bright smile on her face. “I see…” She felt a tap on her shoulder, and turned to the pony trying to get her attention. Before her was a rather scared looking stallion who had a bead of sweat running down his face. “Princess?” he asked sheepishly as he bowed, “Could you please help us lift up a large piece of rubble out from the inside of one of the houses?” Without a second thought Celestia replied, “Of course!”         The stallion led Celestia to a house near the town hall. The house in question had been covered in signs of a fire, namely ash and blackened wood. It had imploded and large slabs from the walls laid in a pile.         A team of five unicorns stood off to the side of the house, unsure of what to do. Celestia and the stallion trotted over to the unicorns. After receiving bows, she gave them a nod and turned to the pile of debris.         All six of their horns lit up as the remains of the building was enveloped in a magical field. As they lifted the debris, Celestia could hear a series of grunts. Assuming it was the unicorns, she continued levitating the pile.         Thud.         Celestia looked underneath the floating debris to see a creature laying on the ground, groaning in pain. She opened her mouth to speak, but the creature quickly hopped up off of the ground and scanned his surroundings. Now that he stood, Celestia could tell that it must have been one of the bi-pedals that Twilight described.         His eyes caught Celestia’s and the two of them stared at each other.         Without warning, the man turned around and sprinted away from from Celestia and the crew.         Celestia commanded the crew, “Get it!”         The crew and Celestia gave chase as the man tried to escape. An earth pony bystander near the man took initiative and sprinted at the him. As he was about to tackle the man, it stopped, backed up a step, and swung it’s arm in a vertical arc downwards.         Unable to change his course, the stallion whooshed by the man whilst getting karate chopped on the forehead. Feeling more pain then the receiver of his blow, the man pulled his arm back and continued sprinting away only for his left foot to be held in Celestia’s magic.         Expecting to be able to move his left foot, he lifted his right foot off the ground and promptly fell forward after the momentum from his run continued despite the sudden resistance. She started dragging the creature through the grass and towards her.         “He’s going to get me! He’s going to get me! Please!”         Celestia picked the man off the ground and held him up in front of her.         “Who is going to get you?”         The man struggled in her magical grasp and cried out, “He’s going to come back! The Conductor, he’s going to get me!”