Lonesome Whistle

by Vauclains Understudy

Light in the Dark

Gallow sat back upon her bench, studying the panels she had completed. She still hadn’t decided the final layout of Iron’s coffin, but at least all her options were now laid out in front of her. Some of the panels were woodcuts of trains based off drawings of old; others were images of the Mane 6, some showing individual ponies, others showing all six together. She had also completed a small portrait of Ironside as he would appear once in the coffin. This was the only other part that was certain to end up in the final design.

In amazement, somepony whistled beside her. Startled, Gallow wheeled around to see who the visitor was. “You did all that on your own?” asked Thanatos as he pointed his hoof at the coffin panels.

“Oh, it’s just you,” said Gallow in relief, “I thought you were one of the guards.”

“That doesn’t exactly answer my question,” said Thanatos.

“Oh, yeah I did these by myself,” answered Gallow.

"Very nice work, Gallow,” said Thanatos in admiration, “Ironside would be proud of you.” Gallow agreed in a much softer voice.

Looking over at him, Gallow noticed that apart from his white coat and dark circles around his eyes, Thanatos was almost identical to Ironside. He had the same jet black mane and tail, and he was a Pegasus as well. “Do I remind you of somepony?” asked Thanatos when he noticed her studying him. Gallow shifted her gaze towards the coffin lid bearing Iron’s cutie mark. “Ah, I see,” said Thanatos softly. He trotted over to the small portrait and studied it for a bit. “He does look kind of like me,” he noted smiling.

“So is he gone?” asked Gallow.

“You mean is he dead?” emphasized Thanatos. Gallow nodded. “Honestly, I don’t know,” said Thanatos.

Gallow looked at him in confusion. “What do you mean you don’t know? You’re death incarnate! You take the souls of the deceased away from their bodies. Surely you should know who’s going to die and who’s already died!” Thanatos shook his head and pulled out what appeared to be a silver pocket watch around his neck. Just then, a red gemstone in the center of the watch blinked twice. Thanatos pressed the crown of the watch with his hoof. A sucking noise emanated from the watch, which was followed by the gemstone going from red to white and then back to red.

“I don’t separate souls from bodies, Gallow,” he explained, “I just collect them once they’ve been separated. This “watch” of mine is actually my gathering apparatus. When the red gem blinks twice, it means a soul has been permanently separated from its body and must be gathered. I press the crown, and the soul goes into the gatherer. The gem goes red to white when a successful collection has been achieved. At the end of each week, I twist the crown thrice, and the gatherer opens up to release the souls into the afterlife. It beats the heck out of having to gather souls manually.”

“So, you don’t keep track of whose soul you collected, and you don’t collect manually anymore,” said Gallow.

“Well, not quite,” corrected Thanatos, “I’ll still gather souls by hoof if I think I should. The gatherer just makes it easier to collect souls en masse. And it’s an actual mechanical watch too, so I do need to fine tune it every once in a blue moon.” He twisted the crown once and pressed down on it. When he opened the gatherer, however, he noticed a familiar face looking back at him from the inside cover in fear. He quickly closed the device and looked up at Gallow in seriousness. “There’s something I need to take care of personally, Gallow. I can’t stay.”

“The coffin’s not even assembled yet,” said Gallow, “You haven’t missed much.”

“Don’t rush it, kid. There’s still time,” said Thanatos. Without another word, he bolted out the window and disappeared from view.

Coupled together, 1015 and Hildegard dashed back to the Crystal Empire as fast as their wheels could carry them. Twilight sat in the driver’s chair holding onto her injured dragon. Spike had been struck by 1015 when the latter smashed through the coach and rear-ended Hildegard. He avoided being squished between the two engines (instant death for sure), but getting hit by a speeding locomotive is horrific in its own right. Sweetie Belle had fared better, but the burns she sustained required medical attention. Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash remained in Hildegard’s cab, tending to the Atlantic. To keep 1015’s steam pressure up, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had to alternate adjusting the water level and shoveling coal. 1015 seemed to be running lame, and it later turned out that the impact separated his left-hand low-pressure piston from its rod.

Passengers on the platform stood in shock as the two engines reversed their drive wheels and skidded to a stop beside the station. Shining Armor and Cadence made their way through the crowd in search of Twilight and her friends. Catching sight of her, they both waved to indicate where they were. Quickly, Twilight and Rarity jumped from the engines’ cabs carrying their injured siblings on their backs. Armor and Cadence ran ahead of them towards the infirmary in the castle, the group followed closely by the rest of the Crusaders and the Mane 6. As the ponies ran past, they failed to catch a glimpse of a white-coated Pegasus with dark circles around his eyes.

Spike was lucky. His thick scales had prevented his internals from being mashed upon contact with 1015’s steel cowcatcher, and being a dragon, his skeleton withstood the impact. Nevertheless, he was in a poor state of health. Several of his blood vessels had been ruptured, and he had internal bruises as well. It would be a while before he was even well enough to get out of bed. Twilight stood beside the operating table the whole time, watching as the medical unicorns worked their magic (literally) to repair the damage as best they could. A couple of rooms over Sweetie Belle’s burns were treated. She asked to have her friends and her sister by her side since the skin had to be peeled off the worst parts and it was not going to be enjoyable in the least.

Meanwhile, Armor and Cadence took 1015 and Hildegard to the machine shop for repairs. Hildegard suffered damage to her cab, running board, trailing truck, and tender in the crash. As I stated before, 1015’s low-pressure piston separated from its rod, so his whole cylinder assembly had to be removed. Hildegard had her cab, running board, and trailing truck removed for repairs as well. Luckily for them, the Crystal Empire had very well-trained machinists on standby, so repairs would only take a few hours.

The hours passed. Day became dusk. Ironside, M, and Hippo continued their trek across the abandoned line towards Huckleberry. The machinists finished up their repairs on 1015 and Hildegard. Spike and Sweetie Belle had both been successfully treated and were now resting in their beds. Twilight stood by her little dragon’s bedside, never taking her eyes off him. As he departed the Empire, Thanatos looked at the inside cover of his watch. Spike’s reflection was no longer there. He nodded, closed the watch, tucked it inside his cloak, and once again disappeared from view.

Twilight was interrupted by a knock on the door. “Come in,” she called.

Shining Armor stepped in. “Twily, could we step out onto the balcony for a bit?” he asked.

“Of course,” she answered. The two siblings stepped out. Without another word Twilight flung her arms around her brother, who immediately did the same to her. “I don’t know what happened, Armor,” whispered Twilight, “One minute we’re in a tunnel and the next…”

“Did you check the signal at the entrance?” asked Armor.

Twilight looked up at him. “What signal?”

“There’s a signal at the entrance to the tunnel. It should’ve been red at the time,” answered Armor.

“There was no red light. Every light I saw before entering the tunnel was green,” said Twilight. Looking into the sky, Armor could see the storm clouds now drifting away from the Empire. It didn’t take him long to figure out what happened.

“The storm must’ve taken out the signal at the entrance. You didn’t see a red light because it was bust.” Twilight looked over to Spike in his bed. “So it’s not your fault, little sis,” said Armor. Twilight tightened her hug.

Only when she had to eat dinner did Twilight leave Spike’s room. It wasn’t the only time she planned on leaving, however. Dusk soon gave way to night as Celestia and Luna performed their nightly routine. Twilight, realizing that she couldn’t write a letter without Spike, instead gave the Princesses a call to inform them on their progress so far. Both were shocked to learn of the accident in the tunnel and hoped that Spike would recover soon. After wishing them a good night, Twilight called Rarity into the room. “How’s Sweetie Belle?” asked Twilight.

“She’s recovering nicely, thank heavens,” replied Rarity.

“Listen, I need you to watch Spike for me,” said Twilight.

“Oh, of course I will! Anything for Spikey,” agreed Rarity.

“Good, because I’m going after Ironside,” continued Twilight.

“On your own?” asked Rarity.

“Yes,” answered Twilight, “I already put all my friends in serious peril today. I can’t risk that happening again.”

“But, Twilight…” began Rarity.

“Please Rarity, don’t argue with me this time. Stay here and take care of the girls and Spike.”

Rarity sighed and agreed. “Just promise me you’ll be careful, darling,” she said. Twilight nodded.

She trotted back over to Spike’s bedside and leaned in close to him. “Rarity’s going to take care of you for now, Spike,” she whispered to him. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. Get well soon.” With that, she kissed him gingerly on the forehead.

Rarity smiled and hugged her. “Take care, dear,” she said softly.

“I will,” Twilight replied. Rarity watched as Twilight trotted out of the room and down the staircase.

1015 sat sizzling outside the roundhouse. He had just finished a test run to see if the repairs to his LP piston would hold and was about to be backed into the shed for the night. Hildegard already had her fire dropped and was fast asleep. As 1015 waited, his headlight caught sight of Twilight galloping towards him. “Hey Twilight, what’s up?” he asked as she approached.

“You and I are continuing the chase,” she replied.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” he asked, “It’s late. You should be getting some rest with the rest of the group.”

“Every minute we sit here doing nothing is another minute Ironside gets to run off somewhere and leave us wondering where he is,” she said.

“Then you’re going to need a backup driver,” said Shining Armor as he approached.

“You don’t need to do this, bro,” said Twilight, “I can run 1015 on my own.”

Armor chuckled. “If I recall, you tend to check out at around midnight. We won’t reach Silverton until 3 am.”

“So? I’ll just make some coffee to keep me awake,” responded Twilight.

“2398 has the coffee set,” entered 1015, “Ironside does the late-night runs with him the most.” Twilight realized that there was now no reason why Armor shouldn’t go with her.

“The last thing you want to do is fall asleep at the controls, Twily,” said Armor, “So I’ll be your fireman and backup driver.”

Twilight sighed. “Alright, if you’re sure Cadence is okay with you running off in the middle of the night with me...”

“She already knows, as do the rest of the girls,” said Armor, “Rarity explained everything. They’re okay with you going, but they wanted somepony with you.”

The two ponies climbed into the cab. “How’s your piston holding up?” asked Twilight.

“It’s fixed; shouldn’t dislocate this time,” replied 1015. The Prairie slowly steamed away from the shed and onto the main line, gathering speed as he went. Rarity watched from the balcony as 1015 steamed off into the distance. Spike too was watching from his bed.

“Good luck, guys,” he said softly. Rarity looked back at him and smiled.

“They’ll be back before you know it, darling,” she said. Spike smiled back at her before drifting off to sleep.