Tales Of The Canterlot & Central Territory Railway

by CyberFan479


A Rough Start

Next morning, at the crack of dawn, Twilight was already up. But her firelighter hadn't arrived yet.

"Where's my firelighter? I'm going to be late!" Twilight exclaimed.

Rainbow Dash yawned loudly, "Cool your boiler, Twilight."

"But, my boiler is cool. My fire hasn't started."

"It's an expression, Twilight. It means calm down," Rainbow Dash said sleepily, "Besides, it's a little too early to start work."

"Oh, right," Twilight responded sheepishly.


A few hours later, Twilight and the other engines were wide awake, their fireboxes burned nicely.

Rarity had already left first to pick up her morning branch line passenger train. Twilight's driver and fireman arrived to take her to the goods yard.

"Come along, Twilight," said her driver, as Twilight chuffed out of the shed.

The goods yard was quite far away. Because her tender couldn't hold much water, Twilight had to stop frequently at water towers to take on more water.

Twilight was worried, "I'm going to be late! I'm going to be tardy!"

"Don't worry, we have plenty of time. I'm more concerned about your water tank, it's quite undersized," replied her driver.


Meanwhile, Bon Bon, a DRG Class 86 tank engine, was resting in a siding, when Lyra chuffed by. They were giving each other the silent treatment, after a bad fall out.

Just then, Celestia approached them, "Lyra, Bon Bon, a new engine has arrived and I need you two to help her out in the goods yard."

"Can't you send just one engine?" Bon Bon asked.

"I need two engines," replied Celestia,"not one."

"But..."

"But..." stuttered Lyra and Bon Bon who still weren't speaking to each other.

"Three engines are more suitable to handle a big goods yard than just two," Celestia said. With that, the controller left.

The two engines looked at each other and reluctantly puffed away.


Twilight was already waiting at the goods yard, when she heard two unfamiliar whistles.

Lyra and Bon Bon chuffed into the goods yard, still refusing to speak to each other.

"Finally!" exclaimed Twilight, "I was wondering when you would get here!"

Lyra perked up at the sight of Twilight, it meant having an engine, other than Bon Bon, to talk to, "Hi there! I'm Lyra! Welcome to the Canterlot & Central Territory Railway!"

"Thank you, Lyra," Twilight replied, "Now show me how you do things here, and I can help you get this yard sorted out."

Lyra and Bon Bon happily obliged, but they still didn't say a word to each other.

"Watch out for those 'troublesome trucks'!" warned Lyra, "If you're not careful, they can get up to all sorts of tricks."

"Don't worry, I'll be careful."

Soon, the three engines were soon busy shunting and arranging trains for the day.

The yard was all neat and organised in no time at all. There was a slow goods train ready, but no engine had arrived to take it.

The yard manager walked up to Twilight, "Pinkie was supposed to take the slow goods to Neighagra Falls, but she's been delayed. You're a spare engine, you could take it."

"Well, I don't know. I usually just shunt and arrange the trains, I don't know if I'm built to pull trains," replied Twilight.

"Twilight, it's not what you're built for that determines what you do," said Bon Bon, "It's what you think you can do that does."

Twilight wasn't quite sure what she had meant, "Or maybe you can just 'shunt' the whole train there!" teased Lyra.

Twilight wasn't listening, she was deep in thought. Then, she made up her mind, "I suppose I could take this train."

"Great!" replied the yard manager, "Afterwards, I expect you to come back here straightaway!"

Twilight was coupled up to the slow goods train, and slowly but surely, she pulled out of the yards on her first goods run.

Lyra and Bon Bon looked at each other once more.


Twilight puffed happily down the line, it felt great to get out of the clustered yards she was all too familiar with. But she soon ran into some problems.

"Driver, my boiler feels dry!"

Driver shook his head in dismay, "I knew this problem would come back to bite us."

Twilight stopped at the nearest water tower. As she was filling on water, Rarity puffed by. She was on her way to collect her next passenger train, she was surprised to see Twilight.

"Twilight, I thought you were supposed to be working in the yards."

"I'm taking Pinkie's slow goods train, she's been delayed."

Rarity sighed, "Not again..."

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked, slightly confused.

"With the increased workload, we've barely have any time to finish out jobs on time. So there have been a lot of delays with our trains. Celestia said that she was trying to find engines to come and help us," Rarity explained.

"I see," replied Twilight as she set off.

As she puffed along, she began to feel thirsty again.

"There's a water tower at that station ahead," said her driver.

As Twilight began filling on water, the stationmaster walked towards her. He'd never seen Twilight before, and didn't understand about her low water capacity.

"Please clear the line for Vinyl's passenger train!" he ordered. Twilight's fireman tried to explain, but the stationmaster wouldn't listen.

"You'll have to get more water from the next water tower," with that, Twilight left the station.

Soon, she came to Rainbow Hill, it got its name after Rainbow Dash stalled there while pulling the Celestial Limited.

"Bust my buffers!" exclaimed Twilight, "I wasn't expecting this hill."

"Me neither," replied her driver, "But we have to try to get these goods to Neighagra Falls on time!"

But as they were halfway up the hill, Twilight began to go slower and slower, "What's wrong, driver?"

Her driver looked from gauge to gauge, "You're boiler's almost dry, you're running out of steam!"

The troublesome trucks saw their chance, "Hold back, hold back!"

Twilight found herself going slower, and slower, and slower. Until she ground to a halt, "Vinyl will be coming through with her passenger train soon!" exclaimed the fireman.

"I'll go contact the signalman," replied the driver.

He ran to a call box near the line.

"It's too late to switch Vinyl onto another line," replied the signalman, "You'll have to flag her down."


Later, Vinyl chuffed to the foot of Rainbow Hill with her passenger train, she frowned slightly when she saw someone waving a red flag.

"What's wrong?" asked Vinyl, slightly annoyed.

"Twilight's stuck on the hill, see if you can help her!"

Vinyl puffed up the hill, "I'll see what I can do!" she exclaimed, as she buffered up to Twilight's train.

She tried to start up again, but her wheels kept slipping on the steep track and she could not move at all.

"It's no good," said her driver, "We're going to need a banker engine to help us. I'll call the controller."

"I think we'll need more than just one banker engine," remarked the fireman.


Back at the goods yard, Lyra and Bon Bon had given up on the silent treatment, but were now arguing with each other.

"You should stop being pushy!" snapped Bon Bon.

"Don't call me pushy!" retorted Lyra.

"Then you shouldn't have pushed my into that cart!" exclaimed Bon Bon.

"You..." she was interrupted by loud cough, there was Celestia herself.

"Twilight and Vinyl are stuck on Rainbow Hill. I need both of you to be their banker engines."

"Can't..."

"No, Bon Bon. They need two banker engines to help them." then, Celestia left for other matters.

"I don't need you to help, I can handle this all on my own!" Lyra boasted.

"Go on then!" snapped Bon Bon. The two engines set off for the hill.

Soon, they arrived at Rainbow Hill. Lyra buffered up behind Vinyl, "I'll show you!" she shouted to Bon Bon.

Lyra pushed as hard as she could, but no matter what she did, she could not get the trains to start.

Lyra sighed, now she knew she needed Bon Bon's help, "Bon Bon, could you help me? Please?"

Bon Bon remained silent.

"Look, I'm sorry I pushed you into the cart. It was an accident, and I made a big deal out of it. I'm sorry..."

Bon Bon grinned slightly, "I'm sorry too, I also made a big deal out of it. Now I know how silly we both were," with that, she switched onto Lyra's track and buffered up behind her.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Ready!" replied the three other engines.

Lyra, Bon Bon and Vinyl started up and the strange train rolled up the hill.

Twilight tried to help, but with little steam left, it was the other engines who did most of the work.

Soon, the four engines chuffed triumphantly into Neighagra Falls station.

"Thanks a lot, you two!" Vinyl shouted.

"Thank you too!" Twilight shouted as well.

Lyra and Bon Bon puffed away happily.


That evening, Octavia was surprised to see Bon Bon back in the sheds.

"Nice to see you back here again, Bon Bon," Octavia greeted, "So did your feud finally end?"

"Yep!" Bon Bon replied.

"If Twilight and Vinyl hadn't gotten stuck on the hill, we would have never stopped!" teased Lyra.

"Hey, I didn't get stuck!" exclaimed Vinyl, "Twilight got stuck, and I couldn't start on the hill!"

"So you did get stuck!" exclaimed Bon Bon.

"Maybe the hill should be named 'Vinyl Hill'!" chuckled Lyra.

"Looks like you all had an interesting day today, care to tell me about it?" Octavia asked.

"Sure!"

"No problem!"

"Why not?" replied the three engines.

And they chatted and laughed happily through the night.


Twilight returned to main shed, the other engines were already inside.

"Hey there, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash shouted, "I heard about your little incident with the trucks."

"Yes, Lyra told me they can be quite troublesome. And she was right," Twilight replied, as she backed up into her berth.

"Well, don't worry about it, Twilight," Applejack said, "You'll get used to them soon enough."

"I do hope so," Twilight replied, "I don't want to be sent away."

"Don't be a worrywart, Twilight. I'm sure Celestia won't send you away for something like this!" Pinkie reassured.

"And if anything happens, we'll always be behind you, Twilight," Rainbow Dash added.

"Thanks everyone," replied Twilight, she had a feeling she'll enjoy her time on the Canterlot & Central Territory Railway.