//------------------------------// // I Can Help A Little // Story: Nopony Can Do That! // by bigbear //------------------------------// The next day, Twilight got a scroll from Princess Celestia via Spike’s dragon fire. It was a royal summons, requesting all the Element Bearers to come to Canterlot that day. Train tickets on the Friendship Express were arranged for everyone, including Spike. The summons did not detail the reason for the trip, but seemed urgent. Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Spike boarded a passenger carriage. The conductor called out, “All Aboard!” The engineers stoked the train engine’s magical heating elements, brought the steam pressure up, and the train chugged merrily away from Ponyville station. The girls found benches for themselves in the passenger carriage and got comfortable. They were experienced train travelers. After settling in, they speculated on what the summons was about. “Princess Celestia said in her scroll that some unusual magical energy flows have been detected.” Twilight held up the scroll. “But she didn’t give any details.” “Probably something nasty afoot, and the Princess wants you girls to take care of it.” Spike, Twilight’s small purple and green dragon assistant, jumped up onto the bench next to Rarity. He carefully scooted until they almost touched. “Ever since we cleared the taint from the Everfree Forest and reclaimed the Elements, Celestia has stored them in the vault at Canterlot Castle.” Applejack adjusted her Stetson hat. The orange earth pony reclined comfortably. “Makes sense we should go there first, if trouble is afoot.” “Maybe she has a giant selection of cakes, and needs expert advice about which ones to eat first.” Pinkie bounced on her cushion. The pink earth pony never seemed to stop moving. “That’s easy, all of them!” Pinkie licked her lips with her giant tongue. “Hmmmm. Cake!” Fluttershy sat on a bench in the carriage next to an open window. She closed her eyes and let the warm rays of the sun wash over her back and wings. Her extraordinarily long pink mane and tail fluttered in the wind, as the train increased speed on the downhill leg of the trip. “You are looking quite fit today, Fluttershy.” Rarity spoke softly, so as not to disturb her friend. The white unicorn looked over the pegasus with a professional eye. “Your more upright posture is also very becoming. The next time you are at the boutique, we must update your measurements.” Fluttershy didn’t open her eyes. “Thank you Rarity. The sun feels very... nice... today.” The wheels of the train made a louder than normal screeching sound. Dash looked out the window. The blue pegasus with a rainbow mane scrunched up her muzzle in a frown. “I like things to move fast, but does this seem like a little much for a train on mountain tracks?” The train was definitely going faster than normal, and it was accelerating. Twilight looked about the car, but didn’t see any of the train’s personal. “Find the conductor, and see if they can slow the train down.” Before anypony could move, the train lurched. “Enough of this, I’m going outside, to see what's going on.” Dash jumped out the open window, spread her wings, and flew toward the train engine. Fluttershy stuck her head out the window to see what was happening. The train was accelerating every second. The wheels were screeching non-stop and sparks shot out where the wheels met the rails. A cliff dropped away on the right side of the train tracks, and the turn ahead looked extra sharp. “Hold on,” squeaked Fluttershy, as the engine got to the curve. It was going so fast that the front wheels of the engine hopped up and went straight on. Driven by the power of the engine, and the weight of the train cars speeding downhill, the rest of the wheels of the train engine jumped the rails and the whole engine plowed straight over the cliff. Everypony screamed! “I’ll try to hold it together,” Twilight shouted. Her horn glowed like a purple sun,  and purple magic enveloped the train to kept the cars from falling apart. But she couldn’t keep the train from going over the cliff. Fluttershy jumped out the open window and flapped her wings to get some distance from the train and see if there was anything she could do. The whole train glowed purple. The engine was fully over the cliff and diving toward the ground far below, while the first carriage had also jumped the tracks and was following it over the cliff. “Looks like Twilight’s magic needs a little help,” called Dash, She zoomed over to the first carriage and disappeared under it. Fluttershy could see the rest of her friends were still inside the train carriages, along with a lot of other passengers. Her heart was racing, and panic rose in her chest. But she couldn’t freeze up now, her friends needed her! She had to do something if she could. Fluttershy beat her wings as fast as she could and flew over to the engine. “A little help,” she thought. “I can help a little.” She flew her body through the purple magic bubble that Twilight was using to hold the train together, put her fore hooves under a flange on the side of the engine, beat her wings, and pushed up as hard as she could. “I hope this will make a difference,” Fluttershy whispered. The pushing seemed to do no good, as the train engine continued its downward trajectory. Fluttershy could hear continuous grinding of steel against steel, as more cars jumped the rails and started over the cliff. She beat her wings harder and faster, but the small flange was hard to hold onto, and the bulk of the engine kept her from getting full strokes with her wings. Fluttershy walked her hands and her body side to side, seeking better purchase on the engine and a clearer space to flap her wings. She finally found a long, straight piece to push on, where her wingbeats were unencumbered. Still the train was falling. Fluttershy closed her eyes and grimaced. She beat her wings as fast and as hard as she could.  “Please...” she pleaded. “Let me help Twilight save the train.” The engine shuttered under her hooves. She felt her angle of flight shift, from flying straight down, to flying slightly forward. Fluttershy redoubled her effort, wings buzzing like a humming bird. Her angle kept shifting, until Fluttershy was finally flying straight ahead. She opened her eyes. The train engine and the cars behind were no longer falling. She had hand walked her way completely under the train engine, and her hooves pushed on the front axle. It felt like a giant tiller, as she had seen on once before on a boat. “Twilight’s magic just needs to be steered,” Fluttershy thought. “I can do that!” The now horizontal engine had stopped falling, but Fluttershy could still hear terrified cries from the rest of the train behind her. The carriage cars attached to the engine drooped down in a long curve. The caboose was pointed nearly straight down, and the train conductors in it were holding on for dear life to keep from falling out. “I can’t stop pushing to go help them, I need to keep steering,” Fluttershy thought. “Dash always said one cure to a sagging back end was to go faster.” She beat her wings harder, pushed on the axle, and the train leaped ahead. The cars behind the engine rose until the entire train was speeding horizontally through the sky. The cries of the ponies turned to cheers. “This can’t go on forever,” Fluttershy thought. Her heart was beating a mile a minute, and she was afraid that if she thought about what she was doing too hard, she would roll up into a little ball. “I can’t stop now,” she thought. “I’ve got to find a way to help my friends get back to the ground safely.” In the distance, she spotted a long, straight, empty stretch of track leading into Canterlot. “Maybe that will work.” “I hope you can feel what I’m doing,” Fluttershy whispered. “Please follow my lead, Twilight.” She pushed up on the right side of the front axle. The train slowly banked left. She stopped pushing up on the right side and pushed up on the left side. The train slowly banked back to the right, until it lined up over the track. Fluttershy leveled the front axle, and started into a slow dive and began losing speed. She spotted Dash behind her. “Dash,” Fluttershy called, “I’m just steering this train, Twilight is holding it up with her magic." "That's not gonna last forever," Dash called back. "We need to get the train back down on the ground." "I'm going to try to steer the cars onto the track," Fluttershy said. "Make sure the wheels line up with the rails on all the cars as they come down. The caboose is going to touch down first.” “If it’s not too much trouble,” her mind added, but she didn’t say it. “Got it,” Dash said. She turned sideways out of Twilight's purple magic bubble and was caught by the slipstream. Seconds later, she was back at the caboose and outlined the plan to the engineers. Fluttershy adjusted her pressure on the axle, and the train slowly lost altitude and airspeed. She maintained her position directly over the tracks that lead into Canterlot. The cars behind the engine drooped, until the rear wheels of the caboose were inches from the track. She heard Dash grunt as she pushed the caboose into alignment then yell “OK”. Fluttershy let the train drop just enough to put the rear wheels of the caboose onto the tracks. They met with sparks and loud screeching, but Dash had made sure the alignment was true. She heard another grunt and another “OK”, then she let the front wheels of the caboose down as well. Moments later Dash yelled, “caboose away” as the conductors decoupled the caboose from the rest of the train and brought it to a halt. One car down, only six more to go. All the rest of the carriages, but one, came down cleanly, with grunts from Dash, sparks and screeching wheels, and determined flying from Fluttershy. The carriages were left stranded on the rails, but the passengers were safe. Only the engine and the last carriage were left. “Twilight and the girls are in the last carriage, so we have to bring these down together,” yelled Dash. The purple bubble around the two cars flickered, but held. They were running out of time. “Twilight’s magic is fading, we can’t go around again,” Fluttershy thought. “Canterlot Station and the end of the line is approaching fast, so we only get one try.” She felt her panic rise again, but pushed it back down. Her friends still needed her. Fluttershy dove down until her hind hooves were just above the rails, then hooked her fore hooves around the front axle and pulled for all she was worth to stop the train. The train stopped its furious forward motion. The carriage wheels met the rails, sparked and screeched, then the carriage bounced back into the air. The rear wheels of the engine hit the rails next, and the coupling pulled the carriage back down. Only the front wheels of the engine were in the air, with Fluttershy underneath. The purple bubble around the carriage and train engine burst with a blinding flash. While everypony was blinded, there was a loud crash as the front wheels of the engine met the rails. When their eyes cleared, The train engine and carriage were stopped on the rails in front of the Canterlot Station platform. The train cars looked a bit bent, but were intact. Fluttershy stood in front of the train engine. She gave a great sigh. She had been blinded by the magical flash and barely able to scramble out from under the train before it crashed to the ground. “Is everypony Okay?” called Dash. She spotted Fluttershy standing in front of the engine unhurt, nodded quickly, then dove to the platform. Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Spike were helping a dazed Twilight out of the carriage. The train’s engineers dismounted and stood wobbly kneed on the platform. “We are all oaklie doklie, except Twilight,” said Pinkie Pie looking concerned at her friend. “She’s all ‘Oh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh’.” “It’s the backlash from her spell collapsing,” said Rarity, “I’ve seen this happen to her before. She should be allright in a few moments.” “I was so worried,” said Fluttershy. “That was awesome flying, Shy,” said Dash. “Oh, I was just steering. Twilight was keeping the train together and holding it aloft.” Fluttershy instinctively ducked her head to avoid any attention. “Thas not wight...” Twilight said haltingly. “Keep calm, dear.” Rarity put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Preserve your strength.” “But thee’s wong, Flutterspy is wong.” Twilight closed her eyes and shook her head to clear it. She opened her eyes and continued. Her voice was stronger this time. “Fluttershy, my levitation held the train together, but I was inside the bubble. I don’t know how to generate lift when I’m inside my own bubble.” “But that can’t be right, Twilight,” said Fluttershy, “For that to be true, I would have to be able to lift up a train.” She slipped a fore hoof under the front of the train engine and lifted. The massive engine came off the ground with no more effort than lifting a bunny. Fluttershy stood, stunned, holding up the front of the train with one hoof. Her friends and the crowd at the station were equally shocked. “Well, that’s a thing,” said Applejack. The crowd on the platform burst into panicked cries and galloped hither and yon. Atop the roof of Canterlot Station, Discord popped his head out of an unused chimney and surveyed the chaos. “Better and better,” he said.