Lonesome Whistle

by Vauclains Understudy

Change of Plans

Gallow and Big Mike rolled back into Ponyville about 3 hours ahead of schedule. Nopony seemed to notice, though. Daily life in Ponyville was quite lively, and the citizens all had their own lives to concern themselves with, so nopony thought that the big Santa Fe freight engine rolling back into the yards minus a string of empties was anything suspicious. Nevertheless, Mike tried his hardest not to make any excessive noise as he snuck back towards the turntable and the roundhouse. Had he a face, it would have been as pale as Gallow’s.

2398 and Hildegard sat quietly in their stalls. Word of the incident in the Draconian Pass had not yet reached the surrounding areas, so the two Atlantics were quite shocked to see Mike spinning around on the table. As they glimpsed the right side of his cab, they saw little Gallow sitting there, her head in her hooves. The two engines exchanged worried glances. Mike soon had his tender facing the roundhouse, and he rolled silently and slowly in. Once he came to a stop, Hildegard and 2398 looked at him and saw the blank stare on his smokebox.

“Uh, Mike?” asked 2398. Mike jumped (literally!) as his trance was shattered. His front end landed back on the rails with an earth-shattering clang, causing the shelves and racks behind him to come crashing down on all three engines’ tenders. “Ow! Damn it all, Mike, what the hell happened?!” yelled 2398.

“Why are you two back so soon?” asked Hildegard, directing her question to Gallow. Gallow didn’t answer. Her head was still buried in her hooves. “Gallow, dear,” Hildegard whispered, “What happened?” Gallow slowly lifted her head up and stared out the fireman’s side window at the Danish engine. Her throat was dry as paper. When she tried to speak, all that came out was a raspy, unintelligible whisper.

Mike sighed and answered for her. “We lost control of the train and it fell off one of the trestles in the Draconian Pass.” 2398 stared at Mike. The tone of the Santa Fe indicated that he was being sincere about it. Gallow buried her face again.

“It’s my fault,” she moaned in a muffled voice, “I didn’t hook up the air pipes for the brakes before we left.” The Bavarian engine looked down at his coupler. He knew that hooking up the air pipes was a mundane but crucial job that could cause disaster if forgotten. He wasn’t surprised that Gallow had forgotten about it, but the fact that she was able to cause such a huge train wreck still shocked him.

Gallow hopped out of Mike’s cab and sat down on 2398’s pilot. “Ironside’s gonna kill me, isn’t he?” she asked, looking up at the Bavarian.

“Not if you get the lead out of here before he comes back,” he responded, “And you’ve got quite some time before that happens.” Gallow didn’t seem relieved to hear that. She couldn’t believe that she had left the engineer who saved her life in such a horrid position.

“I can’t come back, can I?” she asked mournfully.

“Not true,” the engine replied, “You’ll just have to stay in Ponyville while the railway officials sort this out.”

2398 thought for a while about where Gallow could go and what she could do while she was away from the railway. Something told him that the hospital wasn’t a good idea, since it was full of bad memories for her. The mortuary (yes, Ponyville has one) was even worse. “Why the hell did the mortuary pop into my head?” he said to himself. In any case, he browsed through the options in his mind, considering all the possibilities. After a good ten minutes, he figured that the library was the best place to send her. Twilight and Spike would take good care of her, and it would be a nice place for Gallow to stay in while the freight accident was sorted out.

Meanwhile, the special test train continued its return to Ponyville. Ironside had by this point recovered. Rarity, on the other hand, was having a panic attack. Without the new fabrics, she would be behind schedule on her latest dress designs. While plenty of her materials could be found in Ponyville, Canterlot, and the surrounding areas, some of the fabrics had to be outsourced. Luckily, the fabrics on the train weren’t in short supply. They were just hard to come across. Nonetheless, Rarity commenced her “Worst Possible Thing” routine, complete with obligatory couch. Ironside looked on with an “Oh brother…” expression on his face.

Luck seemed to be on Gallow’s side, though. The conductor of the train had double-checked his waybill and discovered that there was no scheduled freight for the 8:30 timeslot. He then relayed this to Ironside, who scratched his head in serious confusion. The freight train itself was listed in the schedules, but it wasn’t supposed to leave until 10:00. This meant that none knew what engine and crew took the train out so early. For all they knew, the crash could have been the work of arsonists, even though such occurrences were rare. Ironside decided that all possible causes should be investigated, and that the surrounding areas should be patrolled near the railway in case arsonists were behind the crash. The conductor agreed.

Fluttershy wore a worried expression on her face. If arsonists were the cause of the derailment, then the crews of the railway, Ironside included, were all in serious danger. She had heard and read many stories regarding things gone wrong on the rails. The gory details concerning passenger train wrecks were too much for her, but she knew that freight train wrecks were horrific in their own right. She also worried for her little woodland friends too, as train wrecks could occur in the forest. Fluttershy shook her head and tried to force the worries from her brain. She instead tried to concentrate on Rarity’s panicking. Nothing came to mind as to what she could do to help her, though. Fluttershy sighed and sat down next to Ironside, deep in thought about the safety of her friends.

Back in the roundhouse, Big Mike, Hildegard, and 2398 all said goodbye to Gallow, who gave each engine a farewell kiss on the smokebox before heading off to Twilight’s. Once the little pony was out of sight, Mike let out a heavy sigh of relief. The move took Hildegard by surprise. “Why so relieved?” she asked.

“Well, I didn’t want her to hear what I have to tell you two,” the Santa Fe replied. The two Atlantics rolled forward so that their smokeboxes were close to Mike’s. “That freight we took wasn’t supposed to leave for another two hours,” he whispered. 2398 rolled back in surprise, knocking his tender against another shelf, which promptly fell over.

“Are you kidding me?” he asked.

“I’m not,” Mike replied, “The freight was scheduled to leave at 10:00.”

“Why would you do that?!” yelled Hildegard, “You threw the schedules out the window and risked an inexperienced engineer losing the entire train?!” She angrily let off steam from her cylinders, causing the entire stall to be filled with steam.

“I…” Mike began. He just now realized how dumb he was to let Gallow try her hoof at running a full-size freight train without her having any prior experience in railroading.

“I thought that maybe railroading was her calling,” Mike said finally, “I’m sure that the creature hanging from a hangman’s noose isn’t the kind of cutie mark she wanted.”

“What, you were trying to change her cutie mark?” asked 2398.

“It’s possible, 2398,” Mike responded, “You know that.”

“I know,” 2398 said, “But it’s a real rarity.”

“Still, think about it. The poor little girl’s been stuck with that mark since her parents died. Don’t you want her to have a cutie mark that represents her true calling and not just a tragic episode in her life?” 2398 looked back down at his buffer beam, mulling over what Mike had said.

“Look, Mike,” Hildegard whispered, “I’m glad your heart was in the right place, but cutie marks are formed when a pony discovers what his or her true talent is. They must find this true talent on their own.”

“Not only that,” piped up 2398, “But very few ponies ever find that their true talent is railroading. Ironside just happened to be one of those whose talent was just that.”

Mike sighed and rolled back against the fallen shelf behind him. “I’m the one Ironside’s going to kill.”

“You’re going to confess?” Hildegard asked.

“I have to. I can’t let him believe that Gallow was to blame for the accident. Besides, this was all my idea from the get-go,” the Santa Fe replied. He looked over at Hildegard, who wore a worried expression. Mike simply chuckled. “It’s going to be OK, Hildegard,” he said, “I’m a 160-ton locomotive. He can’t do much harm to me.” Hildegard softly laughed to herself too.

Then, in a twist worthy of Hitchcock himself, 2398 turned to the readers of this story. “Hey folks, you won’t be seeing us three making much of an appearance in the next few chapters. This story is about little Gallow, so we’ll instead see how her time with the Mane 6 (as you call Twilight and her friends) goes. Don’t worry, we’ll still be present in the story, but more as background characters, just like those two ponies…um, what were their names? Oh yeah, Lyra and Bon-Bon!”

Mike and Hildegard stared at 2398, then at the readers. “Dude,” Mike said, “You just broke the fourth wall…”

“Naw, I do it all the time!” Pinkie Pie replied.

“How the [bleep] did you get in here?!” Mike shouted. Pinkie just turned to the readers and winked.

Author's Note:

Random ending, I know