//------------------------------//
// Chapter 17 
// Story: Upgrading the Railway Network 
// by The Stainmore Phoenix 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 17

Dangersignal was looking around, hoping that he’d run into his fiancée rather than Discord. Right now, he wanted to have a word with her about this hairbrained scheme that Princess Twilight Sparkle had finally hatched.

‘Maybe Rainbow Dash would be able to sort me out,’ he thought. ‘I really need her. Scratch that, I really need friends. I can’t keep pretending that things are all right when they aren’t.’

His thoughts began to flood his mind again, which meant that his attentions were elsewhere. Rounding a corner in the main hall of Twilight’s Castle, he crashed into Applejack, who was also lost in thought. Without any armor on, no-one scored any injuries, which was lucky. The two quickly untangled themselves and backed up, making sure the other was to form, with all their accessories.

“Pardon me,” Dangersignal said. “You look like your lost in the forest of your thoughts.”

“Same to ya,” came Applejack’s response. “Y’all might need to drink something to steady yer nerves.”

Dangersignal nodded. Applejack then eyed him, nodding to herself at intervals. It was forty minutes before either moved and the movements were that of Dangersignal moving to the side to allow Applejack to pass. Once she was clear, Dangersignal made his way to the “Tea room”-a room on the second floor of the castle, where the guards who were not on duty or on break sat to relax.

Weapons of any kind, if an Earth Pony or Pegasus are using them can weigh upwards of twenty to thirty pounds and be a real strain on the muscles. Alicorns and Unicorns are easily able to handle the heavy weapons as they can use magic, but when it comes to fighting, magic isn’t going to be a help; so, as often as possible, the Alicorns and Unicorns practice moving around, carrying the weapons in hoof.

Dangersignal, after spending a fair amount of time as Princess Celestia and Princess Luna’s Elite Guard, had gotten used to the pain and tiredness of the muscles from carrying heavy weapons. He had also trained himself to not rely on his Alicorn magic as much, as he knew it wouldn’t be helpful that much (his dealings with Sombra proved that theory, but it nearly cost him his life).

All the stretching and getting used to pain had meant that his reactions to feeling anything from a simple collision between two ponies were slower, and didn’t even register with him. His collision with Applejack proved that to him. He was thinking of Applejack’s odd behavior. Normally, the apple farmer wasn’t one to be doing all the nodding to herself and making mental notes; instead, she’d either be talking about apples or having a simple duel with Rainbow Dash to show who was better at being a tough guy, or tough gal pony.

‘Either I’m losing my mind, or Applejack and Twilight traded minds,’ Dangersignal thought. ‘Must be Discord’s doing? Where is he?’

As he entered the Tea Room, Applejack came running up.

“There’s been some chaos at Ponyville Station, a train of wagons were left blocking the passenger line, whatever that means,” the apple farmer said.

Dangersignal galloped off to the station to see a line of wagons blocking the points that allow goods trains to cross to the passenger lines when need be. He noticed that the wagon on the points, a box van that looks like a doghouse was off the rails, it’s wheel jammed in the points.

“Blasted salt van is “off” and “jammed” in the points,” he hissed. “There’s no way I can get it out without damaging the points. Passenger trains are just stuck.”

Dangersignal was ready to give in when he saw Discord coming his way with Applejack, A dark red stallion with a bright green apple on his flank. Dangersignal looked beside them and there was the Jinty coming along the passenger line, light engine. On the goods line, the Black 5 was shunting a crane.

Glancing back, towards where the line ran onto the Apple City Junction, his eyes nearly fell out of their sockets. The Robinson O2 2-8-0 and LMS Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2T were coming up, the large tank engine with another crane and a coach of work ponies.

“A “jammed” wagon?” Alistair called from the cab of the O2.

“Aye,” Dangersignal called back.

“Well, we can have it out without damage,” Dragonstorm said. “Hopefully.”

Dangersignal watched as the firemen of the light engines uncoupled the wagons that were next to the “jammed” wagon. Applejack and the stallion gave the motion to move the wagons away-a circular hoof/arm motion away from the body. With a toot on the whistles, the two “wagon rescue” engines moved slowly away and then, the cranes were moved into position. 

Discord moved in alongside Dangersignal and asked him how tightly the wagon was jammed.

“It’s fairly well jammed. If we could get some boards and stones, we can create a jimmy and have the wheel freed, with minimal to no damage to the points,” Dangersignal said.

With a snap of the fingers, Dangersignal saw boards and stones stacked neatly alongside the jammed wheels. With motions and careful working, Dangersignal and Discord had the wheels up and resting on the planks.

The cranes were positioned to guide the wagon and help keep it from jamming in the other points. Another engine was sent for to perform the wagon rescue.

“I hope that this works,” Dangersignal said. “This is something I’ve never attempted before and have no knowledge of.”

“Take a load off your mind,” Discord said.

“Why would I?” came the reply.

“Because life’s no fun when your stressed,” Discord chortled. “After all, I helped Celestia with banishing your old commanding officers. Oh the fun I had.”

Dangersignal thought that maybe Discord had changed, but he started to notice something else…every single pony and human were in costume. The men carried out the rescue while the Alicorn looked around.

“It’s Nightmare Night already?” he asked.

“Indeed it is,” Discord said.

Dangersignal said nothing. When the wagon was back on the rails, the Alicorn carried out an inspection and noticed that the wheels were damaged from being “jammed” in the points.

“Well, we’ll need a well wagon to carry the damaged wagon to the workshops to have the wheel sets replaced,” he said. “Right now, we need to get things settled and have the road cleared for the Horseshoe Bay Firebird.”

The cranes and wagon were moved into sidings and the lines were cleared in time. A heavy pounding noise, fallowed by a roar as the express blasted through the station. Once the train disappeared, men and ponies inspected the pointwork and some of the rails where the damaged wagon had been dragged along.

While all that was being tended to, Dangersignal looked around and headed to the castle, where he was to take up his guard duties. Hopefully the night sky might actually clear his mind and some walking around would help that process.

When he arrived, he was told by Shaydefire that the night shift would cover the day shift, allowing for the Alicorn to rest up after he overused his brain.

“Some sleep, from my experience,” he said. “helps clear your mind as well, my old friend.”

With that, Dangersignal headed off to bed.