Lonesome Whistle

by Vauclains Understudy

Cutie Mark Crusader Engineers, Yay! Take 2

Early the next morning, the three mischievous fillies met in their treehouse. Gallow’s nightmare had left her with the impression that Ironside was either dead or going to die soon. It wasn’t a very farfetched idea that dreams could predict the future (Abraham Lincoln apparently had a nightmare about his own assassination). Having overheard her conversation with Luna, the Crusaders consolidated at their hangout to discuss how they were going to bring Ironside back to Ponyville.

Sweetie Belle was rather reluctant about bringing the engineer back. Nopony had even mentioned Iron’s name since his rampage and booting the previous year. His locomotives had sat dormant in their stalls all that time, too. Also, since Twilight was officially a princess now, she had more authoritative power, which could not only prevent Ironside from returning on his own, but also prevent anypony from trying to bring him back.

“You got Twilight all wrong, Sweetie,” said Scootaloo after the unicorn filly voiced her reluctance, “It’s not like she’s going to give us the guillotine if we bring Ironside back."

“It’s not that, Scootaloo,” replied Sweetie, “Twilight had a good reason to kick Ironside out.”

“She’s also got a good reason to bring him back,” put in Applebloom, “That nightmare’s been driving Gallow insane.”

“She doesn’t really think he’s dead, does she?” asked Sweetie, “It was only a dream.”

“Dream or not, she wants him back,” said Scootaloo.

“But why?” questioned Sweetie, “He got drunk and beat her up! How could she possibly want him back after something like that?”

“Because friends forgive each other,” answered Applebloom.

“Even after one of them beat the other one up?” asked Sweetie.

“Yes,” replied Scootaloo, “If she’s willing to forgive him for doing that to her, she deserves to get her friend back.”

“But would Iron even want to come back? I’m sure he thinks they still hate him to the core,” pointed out Sweetie Belle.

“We’ll just have to convince him that that’s not the case,” replied Scootaloo.

“And I’m sure he’d be willing to come back if he knew how Gallow felt,” added Applebloom.

“I guess so…” agreed Sweetie.

“Come on, girls, let’s go get our engineer back,” declared Scootaloo as she stuck her hoof into the middle of the circle. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom placed their hooves on top of hers, and all at once the three girls shouted, “Cutie Mark Crusaders Engineers, Take 2! Yay!”

The Crusaders had to keep quiet as they snuck their way into the roundhouse. 2398, Hildegard, and Big Mike all sat dead silent in their stalls. The three engines had been drained of both coal and water since their driver’s departure. The girls stood in front of the massive locos, feeling very small indeed. “Um, I don’t know much about trains,” whispered Scoot, “Which one of them should we take?”

“Take Hildegard,” whispered a voice in Sweetie’s head.

“Who’s there?” asked Sweetie Belle in surprise.

“There’s nopony here but us,” replied Scoot.

“No, I heard a voice in my head,” replied Sweetie.

“Look to the engine on your left,” said the voice. Sweetie Belle fixed her gaze on 2398.

“Wait, are you talking to me?” asked the pony out loud to the engine.

“Yeah, it’s telepathy,” replied 2398. Scootaloo and Applebloom stared at Sweetie like she had lost her mind.

“Who’s Hildegard?” asked Sweetie.

“She’s the engine on your right, the pretty one,” answered 2398. Sweetie Belle turned to look at the Danish engine on the right. “She’s the fastest of us all,” said 2398, “She’ll get you where you need to go.”

“Are you Iron’s engine?” asked Sweetie. 2398 choked up a bit upon hearing his driver’s name.

“Yeah,” he said, “Are you going to look for him?”

“We have to bring him back to Ponyville,” replied Sweetie Belle.

“I’m glad to hear someone still wants him around,” 2398 said with a sigh, “But no one knows where he went. There’s been no word of him since last year.”

“Then we’ll have to search all of Equestria until we find him,” replied Sweetie Belle.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” asked Hildegard’s voice, eager to recover her dear driver.

“You need to get loaded up first,” replied 2398. Hildegard suddenly remembered that the three of them had been emptied of coal and water.

“Shit,” she muttered.

“Hey, language!” exclaimed Mike, “We got kids here!” Mike’s booming voice caused Sweetie Belle’s head to ring.

Sweetie turned back to the other two, who were still looking at her like she’d gone crazy. “We’re taking Hildegard,” she declared, pointing her hoof at the Danish lady, “But we need to refuel her.”

“How?” asked Scootaloo, “We can’t use any machinery to load up the tender without attracting attention.”

Sweetie Belle smiled and pointed at her horn. “Leave that to me.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” asked Scootaloo, “You’ve got to move a whole steam engine.”

“Well, there’s no way we’ll be able to push her out,” replied Sweetie Belle, “It’s the only way we can get her out of the shed.” Scootaloo and Applebloom reluctantly agreed and slowly opened the stall door, while Sweetie Belle gathered up her magical strength to move Hildegard outside. It wasn’t going to be easy; Hildegard and her tender weighed 129 tons. Sweetie Belle’s horn began to glow a pale green, and a similarly colored aura formed around Hildegard’s wheels and valve gear. It felt awkward for her to be moving, but not under her own power. Sweetie cringed and strained to get the engine out of the roundhouse and onto the service track. Luckily, the turntable was already lined up to lead Hildegard directly to that track.

It took ten long and strenuous minutes for Sweetie to push Hildegard onto the track, and the little unicorn was exhausted by the time the engine was in place. The Crusaders took a break to let her recover before loading up the water and coal. In addition to Sweetie’s magic, Scootaloo and Applebloom loaded the coal manually into Hildegard’s tender. The water spout simply had to be swung round, the water tank uncovered, and the spout opened. It took another twenty minutes for the tender to be fully loaded before the Crusaders could fire up Hildegard and begin their search for Ironside.

Hildegard gave instructions to Sweetie Belle, who then relayed them to the others. They had to pump water manually into Hildegard’s boiler, since there was no steam to run her injectors. Applebloom found an old rotted out bench next to the roundhouse that seemed incapable of supporting any pony’s weight. She figured this would make a suitable kindling for the fire. Meanwhile, Scootaloo found a tank of kerosene under the fireman’s chair in the cab. With the utmost care, she poured some onto the rotten bench, making sure not to spill any onto the floor. With the kindling prepped, Applebloom slid the bench onto the lip of the firebox, leaving about half of it sticking out. Sweetie Belle brought out a lighter from under the driver’s chair, had the girls and herself stand back from the bench, magically ignited the lighter, and lowered the little flame onto the kerosene-soaked bench.

Flames shot up from the bench almost instantly. Sweetie pushed the bench all the way into the firebox, and then had Scootaloo begin shoveling coal into it. All the time she was relaying instructions given to her by Hildegard. It was going to take quite a bit of time for steam to build up inside Hildegard’s boiler, so Scootaloo left on her scooter to get the girls some lunch. Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom stayed in the cab, shoveling coal and adjusting the water level in the boiler. Hildegard then told them that her running gear needed to be tended to, so she had Sweetie relay to Applebloom where the grease and associated machinery were located, as well as what parts of the running gear needed to be lubricated and with what type of grease.

The two Crusaders soon realized just how hard being an engineer really was, and they were tuckered out pretty quickly. While Applebloom was lubing up Hildegard (yeah, I know, that sounds dirty), Sweetie Belle was left to shovel coal on her own. The shovel, which was designed for a human, was long and awkward to hold, and it was very difficult to balance when the blade had coal on it. Scootaloo’s first attempt to shovel a load into the firebox had actually ended with her banging the blade against the backhead, spilling the load of coal all over the floor.

By the time Scootaloo returned with lunch, the other two were tired, filthy, and very grateful to see their comrade. “I have…no idea…how Ironside…is able…to do this…on his own,” panted Sweetie Belle.

“Oh yeah,” panted Applebloom, “He runs…his engines…solo.”

“Jeez,” said Scootaloo, “I think you two should take a shower before we leave.”

“You have no idea how good that sounds to me,” replied Sweetie.

“It won’t do you much good, liebes Kind,” put in Hildegard, “You’ll be getting dirty again once we begin our travels.” Sweetie Belle groaned and looked at her dirtied mane and coat.

“Thank Celestia my sister isn’t here to see me like this,” she said softly. Actually, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash had no idea that the Crusaders were going off to search for Ironside. They simply assumed that the girls were going to spend a day in the treehouse and head back home before nightfall.

By the time lunch was finished, Hildegard had a large enough head of steam to get going. The boiler pressure wasn’t as high as it would normally be when she was running the express, but she would be running light (running without any cars) for this trip, so it wasn’t a big deal. Scootaloo was to be the driver for the initial part of the run. She had never driven a locomotive before, as had neither of the others, so Hildegard instructed her through Sweetie Belle how to operate each of the controls. Actually, Scootaloo had operated Hildegard before, but this was during the incident when the Crusaders tried their hooves at driving trains the first time round. The end result (as Spike stated before) was 2398 and Hildegard backing up and busting out the back ends of their stalls, while Big Mike was driven forward and into the turntable well.

Having given clear instructions to Scootaloo, Hildegard felt confident in the little filly this time. Scootaloo spun the screw reverser clockwise until it reached the end of its travel, then released the air brakes and pushed the throttle lever to the left. The familiar steam jets shot out from Hildegard’s low-pressure cylinders as the engine slowly rolled forward. On Hildegard’s (and Sweetie Belle’s) cue, Scootaloo shut off the drain cocks and the simpling valve, then opened up the throttle more and rolled back the valve gear a bit.

The majestic Danish engine slowly chugged away from the roundhouse and onto the main line. The tracks were clear, so Hildegard called out “Highball,” as did Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo opened up the throttle all the way, and Hildegard accelerated down the line, her chuffs becoming quicker and quicker until her stack was roaring. Neither the engine nor her crew knew where their missing friend was, or whether they were going to find him, but they were going to bring him back, and they weren’t returning until they had.