Smokestack Lightin'

by Logic Flip

Fits The Name, Don't It?

When Twilight flew out the window alongside Rainbow Dash, she immediately saw the smoke before anything else.

It was hard not to. On such a beautiful day smoke stood out and this particular trail was blacker that the angriest raincloud. If her homes was hit by that...no wonder her pegasus friend was so dirty. It reminded her far too much of that dragon's smoke from so long ago. The effect it had on Ponyville as a whole was apparent. As she flew she could make out the moving colors of the townsponies slowly making their way in it's direction.

"Come on." Rainbow Dash urged. It was unneeded though. Twilight beat her wings a little bit harder the closer they got, her mind running through a list of possibilities of what Rainbow could have meant by 'Monster'. Were they going to need the Tree of Harmony? What could make smoke like that? It wasn't a dragon, was it? Was it dan-

Her mind froze when they reached the train station.

"Woah." She heard Spike breathe.

'Woah' was right. Twilght was sure her jaw came unhinged.

It was huge. Twelve long passenger carriages trailed behind giant of a locomotive that had to be three times longer than any locomotive she had ever seen. It was longer than even the station, obscenely tucked away along the platform as if it was trying to hide from the rest of the world and doing poorly at it. That was not even mentioning it's color or lack thereof. The only time she had ever seen such a monochromatic coloring scheme for anything was the engine that had broken down on the first trip to Appaloosa she had ever made with her friends and even then she was sure it got some paint job done the last time she was there.

Together with Rainbow, she swooped down to the platform, and realized it was even bigger up close. It just towered over her, a single one of it's larger wheels had to be more than half the size of a adult pony. She idly realized that only the two of them had gotten close, everypony else who congregated to the station stayed a good distance back, almost forming a perimeter. An air of nervous fear thickened, nopony making so much as a whisper. No one was panicking.

Yet.

The only sound was the locomotive's constant hissing, groaning, and other various noises. Twilight examined it closely, walking along the massive drive wheels until she came across the name and number on the locomotive's tender. "Union Pacific 4014." She read to herself. She continued, past the tender and to the first coach and saw, pinned to it's side, a banner which read:

Union Pacific 4014 "Big Boy" Inaugural Reconstructed Transcontinental Run

What did that mean?

"Landsakes, Twi." A familiar country twang called from her side. The alicorn looked to see an orange earth pony making her way through the crowd. "What kinda train is that?"

"Applejack! What are you doing here?"

"Well, Ah saw the smoke an' thought the town was on fire." She explained, before motioning to the train. "Didn't expect to see this thing here."

"Yeah, speaking of," Rainbow scratched her head with her hoof, turning to look at Twilight as if she had answers to everything. "Where did this train com fro--WHOA!"

With a sharp WOOSH, a smelly could of steam shot from it's wheels and rolled over the station, causing everyone but Twilight to jump back.

"Crud that stinks!" Rainbow Dash choked out, pinching her snout.

"Tell me about it." Spike coughed.

Applejack said nothing, only pulling off her hat and fanning away the steam.

"Sorry about that." A voice came from somewhere. No, not somewhere, from the locomotive. Twilight looked up and and noticed movement from the cab.

The head of a white earth pony, face splotched with coal dust leaned out of the cab. "Still don't know how to work it yet."

Twilight was about to ask him what exactly did he mean by that when his body began to shrug. He tipped to the side, then completely pitched forward out of the cab. She instinctively reached out with her magic to catch him only to be beaten by a red Pegasus diving out of the same cab afyer him. The mare caught him in her forelegs and with a few quick beats of her wings landed softly to the ground.

Twilight galloped over. "Is he okay?"

The mare shook her head. "Hasn't had any sleep. Been up all night trying the get his thing here. Might need a doctor."

"Best to not move him, just in case." Twilight turned to Rainbow who already had her wings spread. "Dash, I need you to get Doctor Stable from the hospital and bring him here. Oh, and get the rest of the girls while you're at it."

"On it." She said, taking off.

"Don't worry, Rainbow is the fastest here. She'll get the doctor here in no time." Twilight said to the mare before glancing at the monolith they had been occupying. "While she doing that though, I have a few questions for you."

"Really?" The question was hissed like a curse as the red pegasus frowned, obviously not in the mood.

Twilight mentally recoiled a little at the harshness of the mare's glare but quickly steeled herself, her desire for information trumping her discomfort. "I'm sorry but some questions need to be addressed while we're here and you're the only one at the moment who can answer them."

Applejack approached from the side put a hoof on her shoulder. Both the orange mare and her knew that she was probably being very insensitive right now. "Twi, this probably isn't the time fer th-"

"You're right. It isn't." The pegasus snapped. "Ashpan is out cold and you think it's the time for a questionnaire?"

"Listen, I'm sorry." Twilight apologized. "But according to my friend that thing just showed up out of nowhere and blew her cloud home out of the sky." She said, making a vague motion towards the locomotive.

While the pegasus didn't show it on her face, Twilight didn't miss the way her eyes widened at her declaration. After a moment, her sharp gaze softened a bit and she sighed. "No, I'm sorry. It's been a long night and I have coal in places I don't want it. Just..." She took in a deep breath. "Be quick, okay?"

"I will." Twilight agreed. "First, what's your name?"

"In Time. Conductor of the Appaloosa branch of CU & Baltimare rail line." The Pegasus said with a salute. "You?"

"Princess Twilight Sparkle, Bearer of the Element of Magic."

Again, it surprise didn't show on her face but in her eyes. "So, you're the one who saved the world, huh?"

"Well, I couldn't have done it without my friends." Twilight said, with an almost bashful wave. "Now to address the elephant in the room, or on the rails in this case, what kind of train is that and where did it come from?"

In Time sighed once more before sitting, turning her tired gaze towards the locomotive. "You might want to get comfortable, your majesty. This is going to be a long story."

---

Under most circumstances, sleep was something easy for Princess Celestia to achieve, and even easier to keep. It wasn't that she needed it in order to survive by any means. It was just one of those simple pleasures in her long life that she refused to get rid of, much like sweets and playing the innocent prank every so often. It made her feel normal, more a part of her nation's society than apart from it. For those few hours that she had her head connected with one of her many pillows she was free of the pressures of her rule, free of responsibility, free of the annoyances that the nobles houses bothered her with every day. It was those nights that provided her the calm, pleasant, and motherly constitution that she wore on a daily basis.

It was to bad last night wasn't one of them.

The night before hadn't been pleasant for her. Her rest hadn't been all that restful and she couldn't figure out why. Even reviewing the night over and over in her mind hadn't provided an answer to it. The closest she could find to one was that last night hadn't felt...right and even then the feeling was vague at best. It hadn't been a sense of dread that kept her up or anything of the like.

Whatever the reason, the fact remained that she, Celestia, Diarch of Equestria, Alicorn immortal, had not gotten any sleep last night...

...and she hadn't realized just how much her mood relied on her rests.

From almost incessant questions from her sister at breakfast if she was okay, to the way that nopony, not even her guard, could look her in the eye for longer than a few seconds, it had slowly become apparent to her that today wasn't one of her better days. A day that quickly got worse Daycourt opened. She could deal with the reasonable requests like anypony, it was only when her time was wasted by nobles complaining about something or the other that was banal and unimportant that she found her already lit short fuse for the day being snipped a little bit shorter with each pony that came.

"Hey, Celly!"

So when Discord, with no warning mind you, happened to poof next to her throne in the middle of another noble's proposal she...overreacted. Granted it put a stop to Candy Floss' boring to tears petition to demolish a school in order to build some kind of home in its place. It also shattered one of the stain glass windows closest to her throne and made even the guards at it's base jump.

"WHAT?!?!"

Discord, to his credit, didn't react to her violent Royal Canterlot Voice beyond his usual snark. "Ooooo, Catty." He said turning his paw into a tiny kitten, which immediately turn to it's owner and clawed him in the face with a loud yowl before hopping to the floor and running out the throne room.

"NO! Catty!!" The draconequus cried then heaved a sad sigh as the cat got out of sight. "I loose most that way." With a flash of his magic, a glass of water appeared in the air and began pouring over his stump. "So, I take it this is a bad time?"

Celestia allowed herself a few moments to properly compose herself. It was uncanny how he could pop up at just the wrong moment. By the time she spoke, Discord's paw had grown back in like a tree and was currently perched under his chin while his talon spun a pen in between it's fingers and...Where did the note pad come from? Oh, this was going to be a long conversation.

"Discord." She said, through a tightlipped smile. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, a little this and a little that." He said, waving his paw in the air as that was an adequate explanation.

She noticed a familiar glint in the spirit of Chaos' eyes and her tone quickly took a sharp edge. "What are you up to, Discord?"

"Moi!" Discord gasped putting 5 pairs of paws over his chest. "I'm wounded, Celestia. I've been reformed twice over and forgiven for my actions. Why would I want to risk that again?"

Celestia's flat look broadcasted exactly what she thought.

"Fine!" Discord harrumphed, snapping his fingers. A wooden door appeared along the carpet and the draconequus marched to it in much the same way a foal would defiantly go to bed. "I guess, you don't want to know what appeared in Ponyville today."

That got Celestia's attention. "Wait, what?"

"Too late." Discord cackled, snatching open the door and jumping through it. In a flash, the door disappeared, replacing the air it occupied with questions in the white alicorn's mind.

What was in Ponyville right now that would have Discord come here to...

Suddenly, there was a small pop like a fire cracker and a scroll with a recognizable wax symbol appeared at her hooves. A letter from Twilight couldn't have come at a better time.

Picking it up in her magic, she unrolled it and began to read.

Dear Princess Celestia,
I know it has been awhile since my last letter and while I wish this could be about what has happened over here the last few weeks while trying to adjust to have the castle pretty much to Spike and myself, the urgency of the current situation has taken priority.
This morning my breakfast was interrupted by Rainbow Dash, covered in soot by the way, telling me that a train that just rolled into town blew apart her cloudhome. She led me to the train station and there was, is a train unlike one I've ever seen in my life in the station now and it's huge. Twelve cars that look to carry passengers and a behemoth of a locomotive. If the smoke is any indication, then I believe Rainbow's statement about her house. The design of the locomotive alone is...could it have been designed by Anyway, it was driven here by two ponies, a white earth pony stallion named Ashpan, who is currently in Ponyville General after collapsing from exhaustion and a red Pegasus mare named In Time both of whom work for the Applaoosa branch of Celestial Union and Baltimare Railroad company. From the statement I collected from In Time, she was able to give me a brief description of events that led to the arrival of this train.
At 9:06 last night, In Time, conductor of Appaloosa Station, received a urgent telegram from a signal box operator further up the line to halt all mainline traffic and clear the rails. According to her, when she pressed for details for why, she was told that there was an unmanned locomotive heading towards Appaloosa. She immediately made sure the lines were clear before warning Ashpan before the runaway was seen. It passed by in excess of 45 mph. The runaway train is indeed the locomotive in the station. Both, Ashpan and In Time went after it and managed to catch up. However in the process the locomotive they used derailed preventing them from simply stopping the train in the middle of nowhere. In Time, with Ashpan's instruction, helped operate the train to get it into Ponyville junction to bring it to a safe stop.

Now, I've studied a little about railroad emergency operations and the first thing I learned was that if something like that happens, the company will usually have a pegasus drop in from above and bring it under control. When I asked her why this didn't happen she said she had no idea why this wasn't done. So either this was gross incompetence on the Rail Authority's part or somehow this train managed to get very far before anyone noticed it, which I doubt. Also, there is the issue of where this thing came from. It has 'Union Pacific' on it's tender along with the numbers "4014' but beyond the Union part the rest is a complete mystery. I've never heard of the other word. Maybe a name or another type of Not to mention that In Time, who is a going on twenty year veteran of the rails has never seen nor heard of this type of locomotive.

Simply put, I have no idea what I'm looking at and your help would be greatly appreciated.

Your student fellow Princess
Twilight Sparkle

Celestia read the letter at least three times before she could truly understand it. A train? That's what appeared in Ponyville? No, It was more than that. It was a train that nopony had ever seen before, not even Twilight. These thoughts and many others were flying through her mind at a mile a second. If this really was the case then she had to make sure this train wasn't a danger.

"Guards." She said to get the attention of the one's at the base of her throne.

"Yes, your Majesty?"

"Prepare my carriage for a trip to Ponyville immediately." She ordered. "And send a contingent of day and night guards to bar access from a train currently in Ponyville station. By my royal decree, nopony is to be allowed near it until it is deemed safe."

"Understood, your Majesty." The guard responded and marched out of the room, stepping around Noblemare Candy Floss' unconscious body who still hadn't woken up from the shock of Celestia's outburst.

"And can someone please get this poor dear home?" Celestia added.

Author's Note:

When you really think about it Big Boy Locomotives really do deserve the King of the Rails title.
I mean look at the size of it compared to a car:

Anyway, please like and comment and subcri-Actually, that's youtube, right?

Well, like and comment at least. I wanna know how I'm doing for my readers.

Comments

[RainbowTheTankEngine]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! This is one of my engine favorites. The power of this engine makes and put out is amazing. You have my intention.

[Logic Flip]

5401857 Wow. Such an enthusiastic response. I'm glad you like it.

[Iron Sides]

The funny thing is that its not the biggest lol, of the King of the Rails title was to be real, it would have to go to the DM&IR yellowstones. None-the-less, a good read. Hope to see more!

[Hereward]

Re A/N: Looks like someone's combined a British Railways Class 4 with a Dash 9.

[M4Tiger4014]

5491381 Plz! A Bigboy's wheels arecAT LEAST 6ft in diameter, and 6000 ton trains are NOT 12 cars long. Wait ITS THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD NVM THE 2ND, BUT COME ON 45 MPH IT COULD OULL 100 IRON ORE CARS UP A 4% GRADE AT 80.

[Prism Smasher]

5411216
Actually the Big Boy was bigger, but the Yellowstone had more pulling power.

Both were articulated with 16 drive wheels, with the Yellowstone winning tractive power and the Big Boy taking the title for straight-up horsepower.

[starship55]

4014 big boy was just refurbished a couple of years ago, and is now being used on the rails again.