//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: Nothing To Sneeze At // Story: Railway Crusaders // by Unnamedwriter //------------------------------// After Pippin arrived, things quickly began to pick up around the Ponyville station. Trains of supplies were quickly sorted out by the old tram, who knew just how to handle the troublesome cars. With the supplies literally rolling in, and trucks of ballast now among the incoming cars, the workers were quickly laying the new tracks past the station toward their planned route through town. Pippin for his part enjoyed the work. First he would push two or three ballast trucks down the tracks until he reached the end, then let the railponies unload them. As they set to work spreading the rock and shaping it into a proper road bed for the tracks, Pippin reversed back to the station and retrived a flat car or two of ties and rails, after which it was back to the days construction site. While it wasn’t that much of a change from his old job shunting cars back and forth in the Tall Tale dockyards, the fresh air and green scenery had him smiling from before sun up to well past sunset. Not even a week after his arrival, Pippin was already pushing flat cars piled with rails and ties quite a ways down the new tracks, stopping beside the path that lead up the small hill to where the school house sat. He watched a group of ponies go by, a few of them pausing to wave their hooves or shout a hello, and Pippin couldn’t stop smiling. It amazed him just how many ponies remembered him from his old days on the Whitetail tramway. He wanted to ring his bell and say hello back, but he couldn’t. Not until … The school’s bell toned, and the foals rushed toward their waiting parents, free for the weekend. All were wearing scarves or hats, a sign of the dropping temperatures he could feel in his frames. Pippin lent his own bells chime to the chorus as five filly’s in particular trotted toward him and the work crew as the last of the ties left the flat car on his buffers. “Howdy Pippin!” Apple Bloom smiled. Her usual bow was complemented by an apple green scarf wrapped snug around her neck. Sweetie Belle was also wearing a scarf, hers the same light pink as her mane, and a matching toboggan hat on her head. “Allo,” He said wistfully, turning the filly’s good moods curious. “An may I say, it’s good to see some things nevah change.” “What do you mean?” Sweetie Belle asked innocently as the other once again tilted their heads in confusion at the old trams words. “Well tween all the new faces an buil’ns, its nice to know foals are still the same. Yer always appiest afer the school bell rings!” “Darn right!” Apple Bloom laughed as Scootaloo and Daimond Tiara cracked up together while Sweetie Belle and Silver Spoon giggled. “Yeah,” the grey filly smiled. “Now we can go to the library!” The laughter died as suddenly as it started, and the rest of the crusaders looked at their grey friend as if she’d grown a second head. “… well we could.” Scootaloo just rolled her eyes. “Uh, no. Why would you wanna coop yourself up inside when there’s so much to do outside? That’s like reading a book at a wonderbolts show.” Now it was Diamond’s turn to scoff. “Says the vice president of the Ponyville Daring-Do fanclub.” “Th-that’s different!” She quickly insisted as her orange cheeks went red, and her friends right back to chortling as a familiar banshee whistle echoed up the street. “Well com on then,” Pippin laughed. “That’ll be Mickey.” The tram rang his bell, and as soon as the crusaders had climbed aboard, set off back down the new tracks. Pippin wished his bell that was the only sound he made as he puffed, but his old frames and worn parts meant he almost didn’t need it. His hidden side-rods clanked terribly behind his side plates and his frames groaned like bare trees in a winter gale. Outside on the emptied flatbed though, the crusaders were none the wiser and were already, though somewhat reluctantly, talking about their class projects. “So,” Silver Spoon said studiously as she pulled her white and sky blue scarf snug around her neck. “It’s Diamond, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle doing the station, and me and Scootaloo on the bridge right?” “Eeyup,” Apple Bloom nodded. “But we only got til the end of next week ta get it done.” “Exactly,” Scootaloo huffed from beneath her thick purple scarf, tone tired and annoyed. “We’ve got this weekend and all of next week to do it, so why rush?” “Why not?” Silver asked innocently. “We have all this time to do it, why not use it to do the best we can?” “Because there’s tons things to do more fun than homework?” Scootaloo fired back. “Unless you think those railway egg-heads are gonna pick something a filly came up with.” “She has you there Silver,” Diamond Tiara sighed, her voice almost completely muffled by the thick pale purple scarf wrapped around and around her neck and head so many times it nearly connected to her white toboggan hat. “Ms. Cheerilee’s probably just using this as our last big homework before school ends for the winter.” Seeing Diamond and Scootaloo agreeing on something might have been wonderful, if it hadn’t come alongside a dip in Silver Spoon’s mood. The grey filly’s excited smile had reversed itself and now she seemed a little too interested in the flatcars planks beneath them. And if being around Pinkie Pie had taught Sweetie Belle anything, it was to let no frown go unturned. “Hey,” she said nudging the grey earth filly with her shoulder. “What’s wrong?” “Nothing,” she sighed quietly, looking anywhere by the unicorn filly’s eyes, but now Apple Bloom saw her too. “That frown ain’t noth’in. What’s buggin ya Silver?” Apple Bloom moved a little, just enough that she was between the three of them and Scootaloo and Diamond. “Well,” Silver started hesitantly, only to have another blast of a banshee whistle drown her out. Behind them Pippin was sure he could already hear Mikaela laughing about old rusted out engines when he rolled back into Ponyville station, but a glance back revealed laugh was the last thing the Mikado was going to do. Mikaela was just pulling into the station with the latest train of supplies, but instead of her usual strong whooping puffs, steam was wheezing from her cylinders in thin clouds, and her normally clean white smoke was tinted a dusty black. “Oh dear,” Pippin cringed, stopping just short of the switch connecting the new line to the old station. “You girls be good an wai ere. Looks like Mickey needs som elp.” The old tram uncoupled and reversed away over the points, then puffing forward again through the yard. The crusaders watched worried as he backed down on Mikaela’s front and gingerly helped the much larger engine into the yard. “Do ya think she’s hurt?” Apple Bloom asked looking at Diamond Tiara, who could only shrug. “Well it’s not strange for engines to make black smoke,” she said matter of factly. “It’s not advised, but it’s not strange.” Silver spoon didn’t know whether to be relieved or sad that her friends seemed to have forgotten about her for the moment, but she couldn’t help watching as Pippin gingerly helped Mikaela onto the yards turntable. He uncoupled and puffed away just as her driver and firepony climbed down from the cab and started to look her over. The crusaders immediately ambled over to the tram as he came to a stop at the end of the stations platform. “Is Mickey okay?” Scootaloo asked as Pippin driver hopped down and walked inside the station building. “What’s wrong with her?” “S’er repairs mor’n likely,” He said with a critical eye on the Mikado. “Shoddy clean’n an plum poor patches. Why, I woul’n be shoked if the wee girl’s got boiler ache on top off it’al.” “I’m fine,” Mikaela snorted, only it was more of a sniffle, steam still wheezing from her cylinders. “I was in that blasted tunnel for almost half a year,” she admitted sourly. “A few more trips and I’ll be right back to my old self.” Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara traded glances, both having heard the same story and tone from family members too stubborn to admit needing help. “Not stopped up lie at you won be,” Pippin scolded. “Wat you need is a proper fixin. A good week or two in da shop woul do you good.” “For the last time you pile of rusted iron! I’m fii, azu, aka, aaaAAAHHH-CHOOO!” Mikaela’s driver had the misfortune to be peering down her funnel when the tender engine sneezed, and he was immediately covered from tail to teeth in coal dust. What didn’t get caught in his coat and mane slowly settled over the turntable like charred snow. “Bless you!” Sweetie Belle shouted from under the protection of the stations awning, cowering from the dirt right alongside Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, leaving Apple Bloom and Scootaloo out in the filthy falling mix. “Yeesh,” The little pegasus winced slowly backing up to join her friends in the shade. “Say it don’t spray it Mickey.” After so many years in the dock yards of Tall Tale Pippin was beyond caring when it came to dirt, but he still threw a reprimanding glare at the much larger engine. “So … fine ar, ya?” “Shut up,” The Mikado groaned as her driver shook himself like a dog, throwing off shovels worth of black powder before making his way to the station building. He walked past the fillys, meeting Pippins driver and the station master as they came outside. Though they worked for different railways, Ponyville’s station master wore the same style of uniform as the crusaders had seen on the ENER; a crisp blue suit with a dark red trim that stood out against his chocolate brown coat and checklist cutie mark. “Well?” the station master asked, clearly hoping for good news, but Mikaela’s driver could only sigh. “For today at least, she’s had it. She worked up a devil of a draft heading through the Horseshoe. We thought we had it taken care of, but it still sucked half her fire into her tubes. She’s not going anywhere until they’re cleaned.” “Drat,” the station master huffed, only for his mood to sour even further when he took more than a passing glance at Mikaela’s train. “Wait, where’s the rest?” “What rest?” Mikaela’s driver asked dumbly. “The rest of your manifest. My dossier lists your train as hauling ten flat cars of ties and rails, seven ballast trucks, and a baker’s dozen trucks of paving stone.” The two stallions immediately began to argue like colts, while Pippins driver tried and failed to stop them as what had been a civilized discussion devolved into a shouting match. All this left the crusaders very confused, and looking to their railway expert. “What’s the problem?” Sweetie Belle asked turning to Silver Spoon, the grey filly explaining as best she could. “There’s more cargo in Canterlot. Mickey was supposed to pick it up on her way, but her driver didn’t know about it, so it was left behind.” “So?,” Scootaloo asked flatly. “Just put it on the next train down.” “They can’t,” Pippin said sourly, earning him the attention of all five fillies. “Canterlot’s a Union yard.” “Onion?” Apple Bloom asked, her nose scrunching up at the memory of the eye watering vegetable. “U-nion,” Silver Spoon enunciated as she adjusted her glasses. “It means the yard isn’t owned by just one of the railways. So instead of only being used by Equestria North Eastern, Southern, or Grand Solar trains, this one can be used by anyone.” “Wouldn’t the engines argue a lot?” “It depens really,” Pippin said. “Ers lots of ole rivalries tween the roads, but Canterlot’s always been a kinda neutral groun. The problems come,” he explained sourly, “when yer movin cargo cross differen roads. Any freight train stops in Canterlot has to be marked, so engines from differen roads don’t leave with the wrong cars. But at also means the cars can only be picked up by engines from that road.” “And,” Silver Spoon added. “Ponyville’s station isn’t ENER, it’s on the Southern railroad. Uncle Hatty had to make a special deal so some of his engines could bring stuff to build the new tracks here. Some kind of special registration or something.” “A Running Rights Certificate,” Pippins driver said trotting up around the fillys to Pippin. “So far only three ENER engines have the certificates needed to run on Southern Rails. Your friend Lilly’s one, and Mikaela the second.” Apple Bloom counted in her head and quickly spotted an error. “Who’s the other engine?” The stallions muzzle turned up in a sly grin as he looked around at Pippin, and when the old tram saw his meaning, his planks went pale. “… Oh bugger.” “Sorry old boy, but Lilly’s needed on the old branch, and Mickey’s going nowhere soon. You know better than most what kind of trouble forgotten freight can be.” Pippins expression turned stern. He did know better than most. Some of his sourest memories were of shoving forgotten or mislabeled freight cars onto out of the way sidings between warehouses and wharfs, watching them pile up until somepony in management auctioned them off. “I suppose,” he said with no small amount of hesitation. “But I’ll nee to top off fore we leave.” His driver nodded his thanks and turned to the station master, who positively beamed at the news. “Excellent,” he smiled with a clap of his hooves. “I’ll fill out the necessary forms, shouldn’t be but a moment.” He turned to go back inside, only to stop just before the stations doorway and briskly trot back. “And for the sake of time you can leave Mikaela’s cars here.” “What about us?” The railways stallions all looked down at the five fillys still standing on the platform, and Mikaela’s driver suddenly looked more like a sheep than a pony. “I … might’ve promised them a ride to Pithsburg on the return train.” He admitted nervously, looking at the filly’s in question with no small amount of regret. “I’m sorry kids, but it doesn’t look like you’ll be able to make it today.” “Old on.” Everypony looked at Pippin. “Now maybe it’s my old age tawk’n, but what says these fine young ladies ave ta stay ere? I‘ll need to take me own brake van won’t I?” It only took the railways stallions one look down at five sets of big expectant eyes to realize the old tram had painted them into a corner at the filly’s benefit. To his credit, the station master was able to hold out an entire seven seconds, right until Apple Bloom pulled out her puppy-dog eyes. “Argh, fine!” he sputtered, quickly averting his gaze and bracing for an assault he knew was about to hit. “You can take Mikaela’s caboose.” “HOORAY!” The five filly’s cheered as the station master immediately covered his ears, leaving Pippin and Mikaela’s driver to be bombarded. “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS RAILWAY JUNIORS, YAY!” The shout was loud enough that workers across the railyard flinched, never mind the old tram right next to the fillies. “Cinders an ashes what a noise!” Pippin shut his eyes as his frames and planks rattled up and down, trying to get his bearings as his hearing returned. But unlike the two engineers standing stunned, the old tram was laughing. “An ere I though Pransylvanians were the loudest of em all.” He waited for his driver to shake his sense back into his head, the still partially deaf stallion finally climbing aboard as the crusaders took off across the train yard for Mikaela’s caboose. The station master called out to them as the tram began to roll away from the platform. “But keep an eye on them! Anything happens to those fillies the Element bearers will have my hooves for glue!” Pippin rang his bell in response, and calmly trundled back across the yard, stopping only for a moment at the short water tower before rolling over the points, back and then forwards to buffer up the caboose, where the crusaders now stood waving goodbye. “See ya Mickey!” Scootaloo cried, waving both a hoof and her wings at the Mikado. “And get well soon,” Sweetie Belle added. The stopped up Mikado managed a wheeze from her whistle, smiling her thanks as Pippin and the caboose slowly pulled away and headed onto the mainline towards Canterlot.