Tales Of The Canterlot & Central Territory Railway

by CyberFan479

A New Era

Octavia the Rebuilt Royal Scot Class locomotive steamed into Canterlot Union station with The Celestial Limited, the Canterlot & Central Territory Railway iconic express train. She had to cover for Rainbow Dash after she got delayed at the goods yard. As she was uncoupled from the train, a BR Class 67 diesel locomotive hauling a passenger train rolled into the platform next to her.

"What's this 'coffee pot' doing here?" snorted the diesel, "A railway musuem, or one of those heritage railways should be a proper place for you."

Octavia didn't say a word, she was used to insults like this. She chuffed away, a composed expression on her face.

She still kept that expression as she moved onto the turntable, a few more diesels were in a nearby siding. They were close enough for Octavia to hear them. A few of their sentences drifted into her funnel.

"...should have scrapped those steamies and replaced them with..." said one.

"...won't be long now!" said another, "It's clear, it's clear what's going to happen soon, the diesels will be taking..."

"...don't believe how they managed to still operate for so long!" said the third, "They should be falling apart left, right and..."

At last, Octavia's face fell. She rolled away sadly, to collect her next passenger train.

---

Octavia backed down onto her train, as depressed as ever.

"Cheer up Octavia!" said a voice. Standing on the platform, was Celestia, the controller of the Canterlot & Central Territory Railway.

"I can't Celestia," Octavia replied sadly, "Is it true what the diesels said?"

"What did they say?" Celestia asked, slightly puzzled.

"The diesels would be replacing us."

Celestia smiled warmly at her, "That would never happen on my railway. Whatever happens elsewhere, steam will always be at work here."

Octavia felt better. But she still had questions she want answers to, "Celestia?"

"Yes?"

"I've heard about our coaches being fitted with special 'receivers' so that our passengers could get signals. But, we have them all along the line, so what do they mean by 'getting signals'?"

Celestia chuckled, "It's not that kind of signal, Octavia. They meant a '3G' signal," she paused, trying to figure out how to explain it to her, "It's like a sort of radio link so that the passengers could go on the Internet on their mobile phones and computers."

This just raised more questions, "Then, what's the Internet?"

Celestia thought for a moment, "Well, it's quite hard to explain it to you. To be honest, I don't quite understand it myself..."

Before Celestia could say anything else, the guard blew his whistle and waved his green flag, Octavia chuffed out of the station with her passenger train. As she went into the distance, Celestia couldn't help thinking to herself. This was not the first time another engine had to cover for another. She knew her engines were doing their best, but there was simply not enough of them to go around. She knew she had to do something about it.

She walked back to her office, she had a call to make.

---

Octavia backed up into the sheds. It wasn't was big as the main shed near Ponyville, but it was still as nice and cosy. She joined Vinyl, a Stanier Mogul, and Lyra, an Ivatt Class 2 tank engine. She had time to think on her passenger runs, and decided to put her question forward.

"Vinyl, Lyra?" she began.

"Yeah, Tavi?"

"What is it?"

Octavia took a deep breath, "Have you two ever thought about the future of this railway? I mean, what do you think is going to happen to us? What do you think is going to happen to this railway?"

The sheds were awfully quiet that night, not even Vinyl, who was notorious for being a loudmouth, uttered a word.

Lyra spoke up first, "I'm not sure. But whatever happens, I'm sure Celestia will find a way to keep us from being...being...scrapped..."

The three engines shuddered at the thought of being scrapped. They were the last of their classes, they have seen their brothers and sisters being sent to the scrapyard to meet the cutting torch.

"Yeah! She's the controller of the railway, she'll always find a way!" Vinyl added, still feeling a little unsettled after what Lyra had said.

"Well, I hope so..." Octavia whispered to herself, recalling the words she had heard from the diesels this morning.

---

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash, a Peppercorn A2 had entered the main shed after a very busy day, the shed enclosed several berths around a turntable. She was turned around and backed up into her berth, next to Applejack, a Stanier 8F. Also in the shed was Rarity, a Class B12, Pinkie Pie, a Class J23 and Fluttershy, a Class C2 'Klondyke'.

"I'm tired!" Rainbow Dash groaned, "And I didn't even get to pull my favourite train!"

"Well, at least be grateful your wheels are still on actual rails," Applejack said.

"But still, the workload has been increasing over the years, with less engines to manage it. Personally, I'm not really surprised. I'm exhausted as well," Rarity stated.

"Me too," murmured Fluttershy.

"I guess you're right, Rarity," Applejack replied, "I'm tired too. I wish Celestia would get us another engine or something."

"Maybe we should ask her!" Pinkie exclaimed.

"Well here she is!" Celestia quipped as she strode into the shed with her sister, Luna, the deputy controller.

"Good evening, Celestia and Luna," Rarity greeted.

"Good evening, engines," Celestia returned the greeting, "Now, it has come to my attention that there has been several delays with trains leaving the goods yard."

"We know, Celestia," Rainbow Dash replied, "I'm sorry, but...we're trying our best."

Luna smiled, "Indeed, you all are. But you engines were used to having less jobs to do where you were able to use more time on each one. The sudden increase in workload has been hard on all of you, hasn't it?"

The answer was a resounding 'yes'.

"It's clear that we need more engines to help out. First and foremost, our goods yard needs a dedicated shunter," Celestia proclaimed.

The engines looked at one another, "Does that mean 'she' will be coming back again?" Rarity asked.

Celestia knew who she was refering to, "Well, no," she replied.

Just then, a Fowler 4F rolled into the shed. She was coloured purple with dark blue lines going around her boiler.

"Engines, this is Twilight. She'll work as a shunter and spare engine."

Everyone looked at Twilight, all their eyes fell on her unusual sloping tender.

"Twilight, you start work at the goods yard tomorrow."

"Will I be working alone?" Twilight asked.

"No, I will send two more engines to help out," With that, both controllers left. Twilight frowned slightly, she was more comfortable working on her own.

"What's with the funny looking tender?" Pinkie asked curiously, "It looks like someone cut it in half!"

Twilight wasn't really amused, "It's a Slopeback tender, it's used by locomotives with yard switching duties, because they greatly improved the driver's ability to see behind the locomotive when switching trucks or coaches."

"Ohhhhh!"

"Well, I'm going to get some sleep now," she said, as she backed into an empty berth, "Can't be tardy for my duties tomorrow."

"Come on, Twilight! There's plenty of time to get some sleep. For now maybe we can get to...know...each other..." Pinkie hesitated when she noticed that Twilight had already closed her eyes.

"Well, I guess now's a good time to sleep. I'll have more energy for tomorrow," Rainbow Dash yawned and closed her eyes as well.

One by one, the engines fell asleep. All of them mentally prepared themselves for another busy day.

Author's Note:

Thomas & Friends was one of my favourite shows when I was younger. Now MLP is my favourite show. So why not do a crossover on it? And why not do a crossover where the ponies are the engines? And why am I still asking questions?

Also, the CGI series isn't that bad, to be honest.

One last thing, it is an Alternate Universe, but no alternate locomotive classes. Every steamie and diesel is from the real world. Just making that clear to you.

Comments

[lazyreader19]

I didn't expect this to be readable (as in I was skeptical of a Thomas/mlp crossover being able to work)

but its too late, I read, I liked! Looking forward to more!

[CyberFan479]

5125259 Thanks!

[Riddleja]

Is Pinkie Pie a GNR Class J23, or an LNER J23?