Railway Crusaders

by Unnamedwriter

Chapter 4: To The Rescue

Somewhere between Manehattan and Hoofmouth junction, a long express train was thundering its way along the mainline. Cathrine, the big pacific express engine, prided herself on being one of the only engines fast and strong enough to keep up with the tight time tables of the Equestria North Eastern railway’s premier passenger train: The Sun Racer Limited. It was the only train that ran a round trip between two major cities in a single afternoon: leaving Manehattan for Canterlot at 2:30 sharp, and returning to Manehattan’s grand central terminal before sunset.

That was the real reason so many ponies, rich and not so rich took the train, because if the train wasn’t back in manehattan by sunset, the ride was free. Of course if you asked Cathrine, everypony rode the train to see her lovely fuchsia paint and gold stripes.

She felt her driver adjust the water level in her boiler, excess steam escaping from her cylinders as she steamed around a bend and through a station. She was speeding to make up time for a late start, so she was going so fast that by the time the staion master had raced outside her trains end was well out of sight. The stallion could only watch in horror as Cathrine blitzed under the signal gantry, her last coach passing underneath as the lights switched to dual red lights. Cathrine and her driver were now steaming up the long drag toward the highest part of the line, the hill that bore her name, and they had no idea what was waiting for them on the other side.

---

When the alarm rang out, it was followed by two sounds: The conductor’s rainbow of swearing, and the switchpony’s yelling through a simple megaphone. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo perked their ears up, their previous argument with Diamond Tiara forgotten as they listened along with the pink filly and Silver Spoon to the frantic shouting.

“Mike’s freight is off the line at the base of Cate’s Hill! All workers, report to the east platform immediately!” Sweetie Belle jumped slightly when she heard the conductor over by the engine shed, yelling to two stallions in dirty overalls and pointing to Jedidiah with his hoof. The stallions looked back at the old steamer hesitantly but then climbed aboard and soon steam was once again wheezing and hissing from Jedidiah’s cylinders.

“Come on Bunk,” Lilly’s driver said jerking his neck toward the station. “They’re gonna need all the help they can get.” The fire-stallion nodded and both took off toward the station building. Lilly cried after them that they had forgotten to put out her fire, but a sharp whistle from Jedidiah drowned her out completely. She and the five filly’s still standing beside her buffers could only watch as the old amareican pushed the crane gang out of its side track and across the yard to the station platform. Reversing back into the platform his tender was coupled to the front most coach, whose passengers had already been escorted out to make way for any available worker pony in the railyard. When every available railway employed hoof available save for the switch pony the conductor had piled onboard, Jedidiah gave a long whistle, steamed out of the station and headed onto the mainline. The worker’s coach had just rounded the bend when a scrawny unicorn came running out of the station building as fast as his hooves would carry him, only to stop and scream at the end of the platform.

“What’s he so upset about?” Apple Bloom asked as the unicorn ran toward the switch pony’s tower, leaping up the steps and yanking the door open with his magic. The switchpony, a clearly older unicorn mare came out and started talking to the younger stallion. Being across the train yard neither the filly’s or Lilly could hear the conversation clearly, but then the yellow farm filly noticed Diamond Tiara staring intently at the shouting pony’s, her lips moving slowly. Scootaloo looked at the spoiled filly and started to ask what she was doing, but Silver Spoon shushed her. The orange Pegasus looked ready to argue when Diamond finally spoke again.

“Called tower, rip track, Kate past milepost 68, High ball.” Apple Bloom was impressed.

“Dang. You got all that from just watching them?”

“How do you think I keep getting dirt on all the losers in school?” Any admiration the crusaders might have had was immediately quashed, sending Scootaloo right back into mocking mode.

“Yeah yeah, real impressive. Now what’s it all mean?”

“It means,” Lilly gulped. “That Cathrine and the express from Manehattan have just gone past the last signal before the hill at full speed!”

“But that means,” Apple Bloom started before the truth hit her like a ton of fruit. “That means they’re headed straight for that wreck on the other side!”

“We have to warn them!” Sweetie Belle yelled as Scootaloo tried and failed to hover above the thin tree line surrounding the yard.

“How?! Those guys must be miles down the tracks by now. Even if I had my scooter I couldn’t catch them.”

“B-but,” Silver Spoon stammered, “Can’t the big ponies deal with it?”

“I don’t think so,” Sweetie Belle groaned looking at the switch tower. “I’m pretty sure that’s the same kind of terrified out of their mind running around our neighbors do when a monster attacks Ponyville.”

“Aw horsefeathers.” Scootaloo kicked the gravel and tried fruitlessly to raise herself more than a few feet into the air. “If my wings were just a little stronger I could fly right to them!”

Fly. The word stuck in Apple Bloom’s mind, bouncing around like an unripe apple on the ground. She looked around the train yard and caught sight of Mikaela sitting in the shed, looking worried and bored.

“You rode the Fillydelphia Flyer a few months ago with him didn’t you?”

“Flyer,” The yellow filly mumbled before it clicked like a pair of well-oiled freight car couplings. “That’s it! Lilly!” She said whirling around to the little mulberry tank engine. “Do you think you could catch up with them?” The little engine was shocked at the farm filly’s suggestion.

“Ma-maybe. But I can’t go anywhere without somepony driving me, and all the workers left with the crane gang.” Apple Bloom wracked her brain for another solution, but it was Scootaloo who realized one, though she by no means liked it.

“Silver,” She said turning to the grey filly. “Can you drive a train?”

“N-no,” she squeaked, hesitating slightly before pointing a hoof at her best friend. “B-but Diamond can.” The Pink filly only had a moment to look betrayed before the little farm filly was shouting again.

“Then what are we waiting for?! You gals get Lilly rolling,” she said before turning to Scootaloo. “Scoots, help me flip the switches to let her out.”

“Aye aye captain!” The little Pegasus saluted running off with Apple Bloom to flip the switches by hoof. Diamond watched them gallop away until Sweetie Belle’s voice shouted at her from Lilly’s cab.

“Come on!” Almost by reflex Diamond hopped into the tank engine’s open cab as Silver Spoon scrambled back to uncouple Lilly from the coal cars. The pink filly’ face paled slightly at the dizzying array of gauges and levers, before confusion gave way to familiarity. She hopped up into the engineer’s seat and checked Lilly’s boiler pressure, but panicked a little when she saw the water gauge.

“The tanks are only half full! We’ll never get anywhere without any water!”

“I got it,” Sweetie Belle said jumping out of the cab and climbing up to Lilly’s left side tank. She opened the top and concentrated with all her might as a pale green aura grew over her horn. Diamond and Silver remembered enough from last month’s show and tell to know to duck, and hunkered down inside Lilly’s cab. But instead of a sparking explosion or fizzle, there was only the soft gurgling of water as Lilly’s tanks filled to near their tops. Diamond let water into Lilly’s boiler and watched as the little engines steam pressure climbed steadily.

“There,” The white unicorn gasped hopping back into the cab, mane frazzled slightly. She took a seat against Lilly’s coal bunker as Silver Spoon looked out across the rail yard to where Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were flipping the last switch needed.

“The road’s clear.” Diamond nodded to her friend and carefully opened Lilly’s throttle, letting the tank engine puff out of the siding and across the yard.

The switch-mare, who was now back inside in her tower frantically looking over the railway’s hoofbook for what to do, couldn’t believe her eyes when she finally looked up and saw Hoofmouth yard’s little 0-4-0 tank engine steaming out toward the main, a pair of young filly’s jumping aboard as she passed. By the time her hoof found the switch that would send Lilly back into the yard it was too late, and as the mulberry tank engine and her passengers puffed onto the main line, she gave a long almost victorious whistle.

In her cab, Diamond Tiara’s smile outshone her jeweled head piece by miles, another tug of Lilly’s whistle cord sending up another long blast. The crusaders had never expected to see their schoolyard tormentor having so much fun without teasing anypony. Silver Spoon knocked them out of it however, telling them Lilly’s fire needed more coal. A rhythm broke out in Lilly’s cab, Apple Bloom and Silver Spoon bucking coal from the bunker into tank engines firebox and Sweetie Belle using her magic to help Diamond Tiara adjust the gauges she couldn’t reach from the engineer’s seat, while a certain orange filly had scooted her way out of the cab and climbed out onto Lilly’s front buffer beam, her wings out and relishing in the growing wind.

Lilly was beside herself, smile growing and growing as Diamond opened her throttle, sending the little engine racing along the line at speeds she had only dreamed off. She might not have a train behind her, but she knew her job right then was even more important than pulling any freight cars. They kept gaining speed, blasting round curves, thundering down straightaways, and it wasn’t long before Lilly’s frames felt their speed in more ways than one.

“I’ve never gone this fast,” she groaned as they crossed a long stone viaduct over a dry gorge. Apple Bloom and Silver Spoon stopped shoveling as Diamond kept a close eye on Lilly’s boiler pressure and steam generation. As they rounded another bend in the mainline, Scootaloo spotted a tall hill ahead with twin ribbons of track running up its slope.

“I see the hill!” She cried from Lilly’s front, squinting her eyes against the wind, only for them to snap open wider than before. “Holy Hay and there’s the wreck!”

---

Cathrine groaned against the heavy weight of her train. It was always near the top of the hill she felt the coaches weight most. But her fire pony had built her fire up and she had plenty of steam in her boiler. Though not able to maintain their previous line speed, Cathrine was confident they could still make good time into Canterlot. She knew the slope coming down the other side was much steeper than the one she was climbing now, and the same weight she was fighting against now would help her gain speed and precious time back once they reached the summit. Maybe they could even manage to arrive in Canterlot ahead of schedule.

---

On the other side of the summit, Mike’s train had wrecked him just above the bottom of the hill, the silly cars using their out of control momentum to force him off the line on an inclined curve and into a line of old trees. Snapped trunks and branches lay all around, tumbled coal cars and telescoped box cars crushed under their weight, their piled up wreckage spilling over both of the mainlines double tracks. Mike was on his side, his two wheeled pilot truck buried and twisted in the piled up earth, while the side rods linking his six driving wheels to his cylinders had snapped on one side. His boiler was dented in from a tree falling on it, and his tender was laying upside down to his left. He could see the mess piled up around and behind him, and felt very foolish for letting the freight cars get the better of him.

Lilly could also see the wreck clearly now, along with Jedidiah and the crane gang on the left line. The workers and rail cranes were already clearing the mess, completely unaware they were on the same track as a speeding express. Diamond shut Lilly’s regulator and Sweetie Belle slammed the tank engine’s brakes hard on, bringing Lilly to a screeching stop behind the few of Mike’s freight cars still on the right line.

Lilly could hear worker pony’s yelling and shouting in confusion, some already moving toward her cab. But before they could get there, Silver spoon jumped into the engineer’s seat and quickly yanked Lilly’s whistle three times. The worker ponies froze, easily recognizing the signal for an oncoming train to stop, and what little color remained in their faces drained away when a deeper whistle answered with four short blasts. Again Lilly’s whistle blew three times. Thinking fast, Jedidiah lent his own whistle to the warning, sending up the three long tones for danger, just as a tender engine and its passenger cars appeared over the top of the hill.

Workers scattered like ants and Jedidiah’s driver quickly started him rolling backwards, but with the old amareican still coupled to the heavy cranes he knew he was going nowhere. Cathrine's brakes screeched in protest against the coach’s weight and the steep down hill grade, the big pacific engine fighting to stop. Scootaloo, still on Lilly’s front buffers, felt her wings droop when the rapidly increasing size of the oncoming train clicked, and she bolted back along Lilly’s boiler and dived into the immediate safety of her cab.

Apple Bloom held her bow down over her eyes, Sweetie Belle ducked into a corner,, and Daimond Tiara and Silver Spoon held each other in mutual terror as the orange Pegasus filly dived into what coal was left in Lilly’s bunker. All five braced and waited for the horrendous crashing of twisting metal and hissing steam. But instead …

KA-THUNK!

“ …. Is that it?” Sweetie Belle moved a hoof enough to see, then lifted her head to peek outside the cab.

“Is it over?” Silver Spoon whimpered.

“Are we dead yet?” Diamond squeaked, as Apple Bloom let her bow flop back up and tapped a hoof on Lilly’s cab floor.

“Enoope. Still here.”

“Hold on.” Scootaloo popped out of Lilly’s bunker, dusted in coal from muzzle to tail feathers. “Does that mean?” The five filly’s poked their heads out of the cab one by one and looked across the main.

“We did it!” Lilly cheered, letting off steam happily as the fillies slowly stepped down from her cab, taking in the sight. The express engine’s coupler was embedded in an upside down coal car’s frame, now properly twisted, but with every wheel behind still firmly on their rails.

“We did it,” Scootaloo gasped, her mouth hanging open as Diamond dropped back on her haunches, her mane frizzy and poofy from the moisture hissing in Lilly’s cab.

“We actually did it.” They all looked at one another and up at Lilly, before shouting all at once.

“WE DID IT!!” Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo joined in a group hug, leaping into the air while Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon giddily danced back and forth holding each other’s hooves. Lilly managed a triumphant toot and whoosh of her own. The six heroines were so caught up in their success, nopony noticed a flash of bright unicorn magic behind them. When they did stop bouncing long enough to open their eyes, three Filly’s found a big sibling each staring at them, and one found the eyes of her father.

Apple Bloom gulped when she realize they, The Cutie Mark Crusaders, the terrors of Ponyville, were standing in front of not one but what appeared to be two train wrecks. A glance to her left and right confirmed it: her fellow crusaders also had an idea of how good this didn’t look, but nopony’s mouth dropped farther than Diamond Tiara’s when a large Khaki brown stallion shoved his way to the front. At that moment, the pink and yellow filly’s had the same thought out loud.

“Aw crabapples.”

Author's Note:

Mike: a 2-6-0 mogul mixed traffic engine based off designs developed by the Grand Solar Railroad, this model was designed to be an all purpose all around hard worker. Budget cuts however, meant only a hoofful were ever built, and those that were often suffered from the unavoidable flaws of a hodge-podge construction. One of the most notable has been in the brakes.

Cathrine: The self proclaimed pride of the Eguestria North Eastern railway, this 4-6-2 pacific is the steam powered equivalent to the Wonderbolts top flyers. Capable of speeds in excess of 110 miles per hour, these engines were deisigned to never slow down, and most are equipped with drop down water troughs to take in water on the go. But all too often, the only thing bigger than these engines appetite, is their ego.

Comments

[reader238]

so basically catherine is the rainbow dash of trains

[The Stainmore Phoenix]

Nice. One minor thing though-You say that a pacific is a 4-6-0, that is incorrect, pacifics are 4-6-2's. Other than that, it's a promising story.

[Unnamedwriter]

6458193 ...

[Unnamedwriter]

6457877 In a nutshell

[Telaros]

"Dang. You got all that from just watching them?”

“How do you think I keep getting dirt on all the losers in school?” Any admiration the crusaders might have had was immediately quashed, sending Scootaloo right back into mocking mode.

That made too much sense. Loved it. xD

[Telaros]

Spoilers below!

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.
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“N-no,” she squeaked, hesitating slightly before pointing a hoof at her best friend. “B, but Diamond can.” The Pink filly only had a moment to look betrayed before the little farm filly was shouting again.

Et Tu, SILVER SPOON!? Poor Silver, you just blurt out everything when you're under pressure, don't you? *squee* So cute.

Aww~ that's so cute! Sweetie got to help. ^^ Now I wanna see what that show and tell was like. Fillies and colts doing show and tell. I don't think I've read an actual take on that beyond a couple comedic parodies of the idea.

while a certain orange filly had scooted her way out of the cab and climbed out onto Lilly’s front buffer beam, her wings out and relishing in the growing wind.

I'm flying!
(Scootaloo would buck me in the face for comparing her awesome scene here to that)

For all they've done and what they're doing, wow. It may as well been hijacking a star ship. Because that's still quite the feat for such young fillies. Hurrah! Hurrah!

Scootaloo's drooping expression as she notices she's still in the front outside on Lilly's bumber frame. That filly is too much of a thrill seeker. Rainbow Dash isn't doing her any favors in that department. xD

That ending though, whoa. WHOA. Great cliffhanger, I loved this chapter so much.

[SonicStreak5344]

6458193
So mike and Cathrine are supposed to be James and Gordon. Oh boy I can hear Cathrine saying, "Oh the indignity!"

Then on Sodor Gordon hears her say his that line and calls out loud, "Hey that's my line!"