Rise of the fallen

by Iron Sides

Chapter 10: Homecoming

The Leviathan, recently awakened from its 2 month slumber in the newly built shops in Lazarus, pounded down the rails with its victory train in tow. They were still about 5 hours north of Lazarus and about a half hour away from Gladstone. Right behind the locomotive was a sleeping car. Berthed inside were the two heroes, Rig and Richard. How they survived the daring feat was unknown to anybody/pony. They slept soundly all the way from the railhead in Minnesota to their present location. They were tired, very tired. The physical stresses of walking 1000 miles north, blowing up an occupied mine, and making the trek back would take allot out of sentient beings.

The shrill single chime whistle of the red behemoth broke a deathly silence, waking up the human. Richard slowly sat up from his bunk and yawned widely, trying to wiggle his body free from the clutches of sleep. He was currently on the top bunk on the plush wooden Pullman car. With a heave he jumped down, landing on the soft carpet of the normally unused car. He smiled warmly, feeling the fibers of the hand made carpet just made a man feel at home. Glancing around he found his hat and his boots next to the bottom bunk and a few minutes later he was dressed for success, in his normal western Duster and a pair of caterpillar work boots with a red T-shirt and blue jeans to compliment the outfit that would make Rarity scream in terror. He chuckled at his terrible fashion sense and strode out the door at the rear of the sleeper. The next car in the 8 car lineup was the dining car which was equally as unused as the sleeper. It was Filled to the brim with travelers returning from there forays into the new frontier. The way everyone/everypony sat and chatted reminded the young engineer about his school days in history class.

Unlike most kids, Richard as a young boy loved history. It was just such an interesting topic. Naturally his favorite was the heavy industry brought by the revolution but the next was westward expansion. This scene he was witnessing right now was straight out of those thick text books. Men, women, ponies and children of all shapes and sizes sat in their booths as they dined on nicely cooked meals. The males wore wide brimmed stetson, mostly of equestrian make, while the women wore the general jeans. That was really the only difference between then and now. Women played an equal part in society now and they would for the rest of time.

Richard sat down in the soft booth as the waiter, a man dressed in porter clothing just like the old days, meandered up to his side and set a menu down on the table. "Evening sir, what can I get you for a drink?"

"Id like a glass of Pepsi please." returned the engineer with a smile as he opened up his menu

"Will that be all?"

"You betcha."

As Rich skimmed through the paper menu, he spotted some interesting meals like a wide assortment of flower sandwiches and fried veggies. He cringed at them and flipped to the meat section and was astonished to see a nice steak at the top. With out a moment of thought he threw down the menu. "WAITER!"

The regal man strode up to him, "What is it sir?"

"A nice juicy steak with mashed potatoes and gravy. said Rich with a needy look

The waited snatched up the menu and nodded, "Right away then Mr. Mattson."

"God I hate that name..." breathed Rich silently. He leaned back and stretched out his limbs and searched the car with his peepers. Nothing stood out to him except for the vast majority of the occupants of the car were equine which surprised him. It seemed that expansion was bringing in humans as well as ponies which was great. They had skills that the humans lacked since urbanization took place when the humans still ruled the world. It wasn't uncommon for a pony to build their own house in equestria and that was a great thing to know how to do out here in the frontier.

A few minutes passed before the waiter showed up and placed Rich's food and drink in front of him along with a freshly printed, as of 2 days ago anyway, news paper. The jack of all trades thanked the waiter, sipped his drink and flipped open the paper. The first think Richard noticed was that some well to do ponies had showed up and were advising the construction of a smelter in Lazarus, much to his enjoyment. Some of the railroading ponies had even taken charge and started constructing a roundhouse to keep the iron steeds in and work on them. It had been official for some time, but the Railroad was the first business in Terra to have any species employed by them. A grand feat that Rich prided himself with.

The shriek of the leviathan's whistle signaled that the train was approaching Gladstone, the place that had been basically leveled by Richard himself. Since the railhead had moved, a town sprung up in place of the "Hell on Wheels" camp. Small shacks had been built along with a brightly painted yellow of brown station. It looked like one out of the railroading books Richard loved so much. Thankfully he had found a man like himself who knew how to construct these buildings and set him to work providing the infrastructure to sustain the railroad.

As the train pulled into the station, Richard noticed that the building now served two tracks as well as a small yard, wye, turntable water tank and coaling tower. Some other buildings like a water tank and coal transfer facilities were in the process of being built. Things were progressing quickly. It helped a good bit that the ponies were so forward in wanting to help them. Recently he had shipped off some plans for a batch of locomotives to be built. They were going to be the new main work horses of the line so the 4-4-0s like the leviathan could be relegated to just passenger and mail trains.

The Leviathan's cylinder cocks opened up as the brakes came on and brought the train to a stop right in front of the station. On the far side of the station sat a tiny Equestrian train though it looked... different. It now actually had cylinders, rods and proper running gear. Sitting behind it was a tender piled high with coal. It seemed that it was a mutual thing between the ponies and humans as they had took pictures of the human machines and built a new type of engine around those ideas. Hitched behind the engine was a line of coaches also patterned off the human stuff.

When the conductor, a man by the name of Greg Sanders, had given the passengers the all clear signal they all stampeded off the train in a slightly less then orderly fashion. Most stretched their legs from the long ride while others ran to embrace their families. Richard on the other hand decided to stroll through town and take a better look at the servicing structures and the engines using them.

The engineer took off at a dead run as he saw what looked like a prototype to his locomotive's he had ordered. Everything about them looked the same, but smaller... They actually looked like the Denver and Rio Grande's narrow gauge C-16! He ran around the locomotive taking a careful look at everything. It was then he remembered he borrowed out one of his books to a pony who said he ran the Marechester locomotive works. Richard never really did think anything of it but now he realized why the pony wanted it.

It wasn't long before the engineer of the locomotive poked his head out the window and glared at him. "What do you think your doin crazy?"

Richard pulled his head out of the frames and tipped his hat, "Hello Mister. I am Richard Mattson, designer and head mechanic for the Lazarus and Northern. I was just admiring your fine machine here."

"So yea like 37? She was just recently built if ya didn't notice." said the stallion with a proud expression.

"I noticed." Smiled Richard, "She looks like something out of my books back home."

"I did hear tell that it was inspired by a human machine. A C-16 something or another." spouted the pony, waving his hoof. "But I am not completely sure."

"It does look like the originals that's for sure. Even down to the paint on it. Its even got a name that one of them would have worn. Empire, by the way, is a very good name for one of these engines." replied Richard as he tapped one of the bearings with a finger. "In fact, it looked like a scaled down version or the engines I ordered from your shops."

"Is that so? I certainly wouldn't be surprised. When I first ran this girl there was a line of 5 engines in the bays one their wheels just waiting for the finishing touches." surmised the pony

It was then that Richard heard the warning signal from leviathan saying that it was 2 minutes till departure. "That's my Que, gotta go." he said as he sprinted off leaving a chuckling earth pony behind.

******

2 hours earlier...

Back in Lazarus the humans and ponies alike were putting the finishing touches on the roundhouse and engine servicing equipment. The lathes and Bridgeport mills had been moved out of the dark cavernous underground and into to shops to make working on the Iron Giants easier. The road building equipment like the steam traction engine and the steam shovel, along with their water tenders and other attachments, had been placed in a large pole barn to keep them out of the weather. The guy overseeing all of this was a top notch builder by the name of Ellis D Wherhouser. He was almost exactly like Richard but a little less "get up and go" and more "take your time and plan it out".

Ellis was dressed in a plaid shirt, jeans and a brown stetson to top off the western look much like everyone else. The tall man had been stressed out of his mind for the past few days as he had to oversee numerous projects. One such being the Equestrian State Railways had expressed interest in gaining access to the shops to work on their own equipment which meant making everything dual gauge... This made it possible for the smaller pony trains to use the human stuff with little hassle. In reverse it made it a grand undertaking for Ellis. The man somehow kept a cool head and made sure everything was ready.

The final 3rd rail was laid down when the first Equestrian freight train rolled into town with a load of various goods to sell. It steamed up next to one of the now numerous warehouses and workers soon started unloading it. Box after box of food and textiles were moved inside to be sorted and moved to stores through out Terra. A scant 10 minutes later the Leviathan, the flag ship of the Lazarus and Northern, rolled down main street. With a single hoot of the whistle the passengers began unloading. One such passenger stepped down from the coach and nearly fell on his face from the sheer sight of his city. His hazel eyes gleamed with delight. A dream he had long held in his mind from when he was a boy was now being realized. He had a railroad at his command and the crews loved him.

Author's Note:

A bit rushed and prolly screwed up beyond all belief but I figured I should give you fellas something for the LONG wait. Some discrepancies have showed up i am sure but there isn't much I can do about that.

Comments

[Gigabyte]

Le first : p

New pony/train/thing

[PegasusKlondike]

Good news faithful WotFR writer, LargeFish8 and I are back in correspondence. Right now we are hammering out the details and the timeline for the sequel to the original! Fish has graciously provided a character list and bios for most of the main characters as well as background conflicts. All we need now is a little more time.

[Paddle Steamer]

Well I thought this was pretty good, short yea, but still good. The grammar needs work but that's not that big of a deal, besides, how many stories are there on American steam locomotives?

So is this story done? The story still says "incomplete" but the chapter before this stated it was the second to last, making this the last chapter and the end...correct?

[Iron Sides]

2363759 Thanks for proofing! One day I am sure I will go through them all and try messing with them again but as of now I dont really see the point. I intend to make it longer then it is, if you are watching Pegasusklondike you will see why I gotta make it longer XD

[Iron Sides]

2370714 Pegasusklondike is reading this as I write it so if its okay with him then it really doesnt matter.