Upgrading the Railway Network

by The Stainmore Phoenix

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The rainstorm that the two were scheduled to create was soon done and they rested on their respective clouds. Dangersignal gave a defeated sigh and closed his eyes. He simply wanted to forget that deed and continue with his simple existence.

“Hey, Danger, mind explaining why your starting to shut the world out?” Rainbow Dash asked, moving her cloud closer to his.

“It’s about the claim to fame that I gained here in Equestria,” he sighed. “The one about me fighting Sombra off and being considered a threat to him.”

“Yeah, I know that story, but it sounds too good to be true,” she said.

“Well, this is the first time your hearing the events,” he said. “It was while Princess Cadence was being married to Shining Armor. I was given the responsibility to keep peace at the Crystal Empire, when it returned, and before the two who run it came back from Canterlot. Celestia and Luna had trusted me to do my utmost to protect the crystal ponies.”

“And you did a good job,” Rainbow Dash said.

“That was a complete fluke though,” Dangersignal continued. “I was actually getting my sorry horn and wings handed to me on a silver platter. I had a cut that ran the length of my forehead and the blood streamed into my eyes, stinging them and forcing me to squeeze them shut. All I could do was swing blindly and from what I was told later in hospital, taking stitches in the wings and forehead was that Sombra ran off, bleeding and several bones broken.”

“Ah, but didn’t you suffer any other injuries during the fight?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Well, as a matter of fact; my front legs were broken, my rear left leg joint was out of socket, my armor was shattered and several large pieces were lodged into different parts of my body, I had a sword lodged between my skull and ear and I was losing tons of blood,” Dangersignal sighed. “I simply did what I could do before blacking out, either waiting for an ambulance or death to find me.”

Rainbow Dash was impressed, but was also rather green from the descriptions of the wounds that he’d incurred while doing that job for Luna and Celestia. However, he seemed to be the kind that nothing phased him. It was something that made her want to pry a little deeper into his secrets and figure him out, but she was afraid of becoming sick. He was the kind that could describe complete destruction without feeling anything, too.

“I want to ask you one thing,” Rainbow Dash quavered out. “If you can answer it without getting upset or making want to lose my lunch.”

“Sure, fire at will,” he replied.

“How can you be so calm when you see death coming towards you?” she asked.

“After seeing fellow guards and soldiers fall around me, my stomach became hardened to that. Also, I saw pictures of a place called Quintinshill. An estimated 226 people were killed when a troop train slammed into a local train, and a sleeper express smashed into the wreckage. Due to the coaches having gas lighting and being constructed of wood, they were ablaze in four seconds flat. The main cause of the accident was poor signalmen practices and laxity in the fireman of the local train in carrying out Rule 55, which we use to protect trains,” He returned.

“That bad?” she asked again.

“Worse, as many of the bodies couldn’t be identified as their identification cards and other belongings were completely burned in the accident. Three men were tried, and two were convicted of the crime while one wasn’t,” Dangersignal went on. “But there are accidents that are caused by fatigued men and poor company practices.”

“Oh, like what?”

“Hawes Junction, on December 24th, 1910. An overworked signalman forgot he had two light engines waiting behind the starter signal and when he pulled the signal “off” for the express, the two waiting “light” engines moved off and the express followed onwards, catching up with the two “light” engines and smashing into them and killing twelve passengers,” Dangersignal said. “Anymore and you’ll want to either cry or look for a trash can to empty your stomach.”

Rainbow Dash agreed and the two left the empty clouds behind, getting ready for another job. However that was shot down quickly when a purple Alicorn with a dark purple and regular pink colored mane and tail popped up from underneath some clouds, looking intensely cold and glaring at Dangersignal, who simply stood there, not even blinking.

“What do you think your doing with Dash?” The purple Alicorn demanded.

“We’re spending time together,” Rainbow Dash replied. “Lighten up, Twilight.”

“When your with him, it’s Princess Twilight Sparkle!” she retorted sharply.

“Do you have a problem with me?” Dangersignal asked.

“You!?” Princess Twilight Sparkle snapped. “Yes! You ditched your position as our guard to chase this long dead dream of upgrading the network!”

“It was Celestia and Luna’s orders,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Convinced you, did he?” came the sharp reply.

Before Dangersignal could reply, a bright white Alicorn cropped up. All three knew who it was.

“Princess Celestia,” they said, calmly, bowing down.

“That’s alright, you don’t need to bow every time you see me,” she chuckled. “Anyway, no-one needs to be at war with anyone else. He’s been finding his talent, since he had no Cutie Mark for the longest time and now he’s found it. While it may seem like he’s betraying you, it’s orders and to him, orders are orders and he’s been known to follow them to the letter.”

Dangersignal nodded. Celestia continued.

“Besides, he’s not exactly keeping himself out of death’s sights,” Celestia pointed out. “Railway locomotives and unbraked wagons are considered unpredictable and things could easily get worse.”

Princess Twilight Sparkle had a skeptical eye on Dangersignal, who was going whiter than snow, and his eyes were wide with the horror that a certain name would be uttered.

“Chapel-en-le-Frith,” Celestia breathed.

“What?” came the quizzical reply of the younger princess and Pegasus.

“Chapel-en-le-Frith,” Dangersignal stammered out at last, “Is a famous accident where a goods train ran away, after the steam pipe connected to the driver’s brake handle came loose and began filling the cab with scalding steam. The driver, John Axon ordered his fireman to jump for safety and attempt to pin the brakes on the wagons. While the fireman did so, John Axon was trying to fight for control, while he had a banking engine pushing the train, with the crew unaware of the problems in the cab of the engine at the front. From there, the goods train, with no locomotive brakes ran away. The guard on the runaway pinned the brakes in his van, but that did no good.”

He stopped to catch breath and collect his thoughts. Color was starting to return to him slowly and his eyes now trying hard to not show tears of respect for a man who had died, trying to save lives. He soon continued.

“At Chapel-en-le-Frith, there was a slow goods train and a DMU (Diesel Multiple Unit) waiting in the station. The station staff had been warned and evacuated the DMU. There was no time to warn the guard of the slower goods train, as by the time anyone could have warned them, there was the runaway. All the station staff could do was evacuate the station themselves. The runaway ploughed into the brake-van of the slower goods train, killing both the guard of the slower train and Driver John Axon. The runaway goods train was completely wrecked, while the slower goods train had not suffered as much damage and it was shoved some 600 yards ahead, with the shock of the accident knocking some of the wagons off the rails. He‘s remembered as a hero, despite his deadly circumstances.”

Silence reigned, like a mighty king. No-one said anything as there was nothing to say. Dangersignal bowed his head in a respectful silence to the person who had shown that you don’t need to have magic or superpowers to be a hero, but that you have a determination to stay and fight, even if it’s a battle that your losing, that you have the power to turn the tides and save lives, even if you end up dead.

At last, Twilight Sparkle looked at Dangersignal, who was quietly glancing down, watching ponies play at the beaches. Rainbow Dash was laying on his back, feeling safe and smiling, also looking down at the beachgoers. Silence still reigned, but it was Twilight Sparkle who broke it.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “It was that I’m so used to plans going accordingly and this was supposed to be a grand occasion, having the one who fought off Sombra acting as my body guard, but to hear that you went a different route made me…”

“I understand,” came the reply. “It’s how things turned out. You needn’t worry. I can still do guard duties when not needed for any tasks. Sound good?”

That was agreed upon and no more was said on any topic at all.