28 - Graveyard of Machines
The train came to a smooth halt. Indigo peered outside at the town they had arrived in. It was small. It made Ponyville look like a bustling metropolis. "Is this the right place?"
Luna rose to her hooves. "The movement of trains is loud, to say nothing of the work they perform tearing one apart, so they selected a small community. It was once even smaller, but the workers needed basic things and they formed in response to the demand." She began to lead the way off the car.
Cherry jumped off the car and looked around. Her face brightened as the train drew away, because right behind it was a vast sea of broken and abandoned trains. "Look!" She thrust a hoof at the glorious display of dry machinery. "Can we just take any we want?"
Indigo wheeled up beside her, facing the collection. "I doubt it. Some of them already look like they're being taken part."
"He is correct." Luna gestured for the stairs down and resumed leading the way. "We may have royal authority, but this is hardly a matter of emergency. We will consult with the workers and determine which engines they can reasonably part with."
Before they knew it, they were standing before three half-formed engines, each missing huge chunks of what made them work and clearly in the process of dismantling.
Cherry raised a brow as she looked between them and the lanky pony that had led them out to it. "Are these the only three you can offer? What about... that one?" She pointed at a nice and almost-new looking train with a hopeful smile.
He rubbed at his cheek a moment. "Can't do that one. It's scheduled for tear down tomorrow. Engineers say it can be salvaged."
Luna glanced between the disappointed look of her guest and across the junkyard of trains. "Surely there is one train you could part with that hasn't already been dismantled." She waved over the sea of metal. "Something too old and unreliable to be reasonably repaired."
He frowned with obvious thought. "Well, there's one..."
Indigo wheeled forward instantly. "Show us!"
"Alright, alright, this way." He waved as he turned and began leading the way. "Watch yer step, metal's sharper than it looks."
The sharpness of the metal was less of a concern for the two-legged sea pony and more of an obstacle. Cherry gave her friend some assistance over the first big bump, until Luna's magic glowed around him and lifted him several inches into the air, right over the majority of the debris.
Cherry stuck out her tongue a little. "Not so fast now, are we?" She could step over the obstacles. It slowed her, but never stopped her. "Dry swimming done right."
Indigo rolled his eyes at her. "No fish is perfect at everything." He was set down as they reached a relatively clear patch and he resumed pulling himself forward. "Let's find that train."
The train-tender showed them to a rusty hulk of a machine. It was old, beat up, and old. Did we mention old yet? But, it was intact. "We were considering donating it to a museum. About as useful as it'll ever be, outside of melting it down for scrap."
Cherry reared up and clopped her hooves excitedly, blind to its weathering and age. "It's magnificent!"
Luna cast a critical eye over the machine. "It's a bit... worn."
The engineer shrugged softly. "You asked for something too old to be repaired reasonably, here it is."
Cherry waved dismissively at Luna. "Don't mind her, it's lovely!" She stepped up towards it reverently, eyes tracing the lines of the mechanics she could see easily, which wasn't much. "I can't wait..."
Luna gestured the engineer to the side. "We will need this transported to the town of Ponyville, can you arrange this?"
The engineer whistled softly. "It won't roll itself, and that'd require re-scheduling of the tracks..."
"Can it be moved without the tracks?" Luna tilted her head faintly.
"It could... But it'd actually be easier to do the reschedule and tug it with a working engine down to Ponyville. It'll be up to you to get it from there to where you want it. We'd just drag it over there and get it off the tracks."
Luna gave a grave nod. "Very well, begin planning that, and arrange for a small team to move it once it's there. Charge it to the royal account."
"Yes, ma'am." He saluted, perhaps a bit happy at the idea of having access to the royal account. "We'll need at least two days to clear the schedule and get your train on the books, then we'll get her on the tracks and get her moving."
Cherry tilted her head. "It's a girl train?" She looked up at the old train and reached a hoof, brushing gently along the rusted metal. "Hello... grandmother train. I'll have you sparkling just like the young ladies, don't you worry. Does she have a name?"
The engineer smiled. "You really have a thing for trains, don't you? I feel better knowing she'll be in good hooves. She's the last of her line. Only reason she hasn't already been scrapped. I couldn't bear to see history erased like that." He gestured over the train. "Say hello to Red Rocket. In her prime, she was the fastest thing on the tracks, at least with a full payload." He tapped at his chin. "You see, other trains could go faster, empty, but what use is an empty train? It took real engineering to get an engine working that hard when it was weighed down with tons on tons of cargo."
Cherry nodded with almost every word. Her train had such a glorious history, and she ate it all up with a growing smile. "I'll make her relive her prime days." She patted the solid-iron cow catcher on the front of the train. "She must be so sad, just laying around here for so long. We'll fix that."
Indigo wheeled up beside her. "It looks amazing... are you sure you can fix it?" He was clearly awestruck by the great machine, but intimidated wouldn't have been a bad word to use. "It's a lot larger than your clock."
"It is, but it's still the same thing." Cherry shook her head. "Take it apart, one piece at a time, learn how it fits, and put it back, repeat until I have the whole thing. But then..." She clopped a hoof on the ground. "We get to the fun part. I have to replace the parts."
"Just about every part," agreed the engineer as he walked away to arrange things.
Luna nodded at her guests. "It appears we are successful in our endeavor." Her eyes scanned up over the old train. "We confess, we do not see this with your eagerness, but we came for your satisfaction, not ours. We trust you will be responsible with this?"
"Yes!" Cherry started circling the machine. "I will take such good care of it. Twilight said she knows a pony that uses the power of dry to bake metal, just like a cake, but less tasty." She turned towards Luna. "You dry ponies use dry's power for so much! It's amazing."
Luna hiked a brow. "What, precisely, is the power of the dry?"
Cherry tilted her head. "The power of The Dry is hot and, well, dry. We have wet heat at best in the ocean, and only if you go to special places. In The Dry, you can summon its power wherever you want, but it works best in ovens and things."
Indie shook his head. "She's the expert on this. I'm still learning how The Dry works."
"You realize, this is land, not 'The Dry'. We have plenty of water, or we would not survive well." Luna shook her head a little. "Your perspective on land living is charming, but somewhat inaccurate."
Cherry wasn't listening. Examining her new train took precedence by far. Fortunately, Indie was still looking at Luna. "From our point of view, it makes perfect sense. You probably think of some silly things with the water. We promise to not be angry at you if you won't be with us."
Luna offered a hoof. "A sound proposal." They met with a soft clop. "We should be going. We will inform them that you need to be put up for the night and ride with the train back to Ponyville."
That caught Cherry's attention. She rushed back, her back legs almost falling out of sync with her excitement. "We'll get to ride it!?"
"It shall not function, not until you repair it," explained Luna. "They'll attach it to a functioning train in a couple of days--"
Cherry saw Indigo looking confused and leaned in. "A day is while the sun is high and a night is when it is sleeping."
"Ohhh." Indigo smiled thankfully at Cherry.
"Yes, precisely so. You will wait in this small town until then and ride your train back to Ponyville. You will also oversee its movement to near Twilight's castle, close enough that you can work on it easily, but not so close as to displease Twilight. Use your discretion."
"Discretion is my middle name," claimed Cherry, already ogling her train again with little giggles of excitement.
Luna sighed softly and looked to Indigo. "Of the two, you are less emotionally invested in this project. May we charge you with overseeing its satisfactory conclusion?"
Indigo almost jumped at suddenly being given a task of what seemed great gravity. "Oh, um, of course! I'll make sure they put it kinda close but not too close." He paused a moment. "How close is that?"
Luna gave a little smile. "We should think a five minute walk away from the town from the castle would be a fine placement. Thank you, young seapony. We must attend to other duties. Please watch over your friend and see to this."
Stats
Page generated in 0.023 seconds
Total duration
1,003 users online
164,352 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
"Graveyard of Machines"
Well, that's not ominous at all.
halt
taking them -> being taken, maybe?
displease
7234834 Fix'd!
You just had to say it didn't you?
Fun thing I got to do way back when I designed a bunch of train sets for Lego was going to a train yard to see an older steam engine being worked on. I used to think it was empty on the inside. Apparently some have pipes in there.
7234830 DUDE! CRACKED EGG! NO WAY! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT IT'S YOU MAN!
I feel like the title of this chapter could double as a field spell for Yugioh.
And it could be used to summon lower lvl machine monsters from the graveyard by destroying higher lvl machine monsters.
Perfect for Junk synchro/xyz decks.
7234937
do i uh
know u
You know what we'll go wrong... When Cherry first test the train it's going to crash into the Castle!
7234830 its actually not that bad, just like the Mothball Fleet, older military ships that have been retired for one reason or another...
It says a lot about the value ponies place on bovine well being that the train has a cow catcher.
Can't understand all the lyrics but the name fits right in...
just think of the fun cherry would have if her train was a union pacific big boy! oh the fun she would have!what a great chapter! well done!
She could make it so it can run on land. How cool would that be having a train that doesn't need tracks to travel?
which (I also notice Luna has relapsed into the royal we. I was surprised neither of the seaponies called her on it.)
slightly
Just let Starlight see Twilight's object-summoning spell. Starlight's amped-up version could probably yank the whole train to the castle at once. (Have I mentioned that Starlight is OP?
)
They can see the sun from underwater, and they keep track of time, so he should know what a day is (same language, after all). If he didn't, it would have come up long before now.
Cherry will obviously need to adapt the train to trackless movement. Maybe give it big tractor wheels and a way to steer. Considering what Cherry has done with her mechanical legs, this might end up being the first amphibious train ever. It would be odd, but Equestria has the combination of technology and magic she would need to pull it off. All it will need is a permanent enchantment (like Tank's helicopter) supplying air to the burner and keeping it water-tight. I can just picture Cherry showing all the seaponies her fiendish marvel, that lets her travel at great speeds by the Power of Dry. (I know it's silly, but it would be so cool!)
An old, Old train engine just Lion there, fit only for the museum?
Maybe it could get just one more outing as the star of a movie about an old train in a museum getting one last chance to pull the last train to the end of the line, so that the official riding the train will sign it off as still runnable.
Dear Pinkie, Cherry is bringing home the Titfield Thunderbolt.
She could fix the train and make it so it can travel underwater alowing the wet and the dry to Travel to each other. And once she finds out how to make more legs then she could mass produce them for her people so they could dry swim with her.
7234882 SENSEI WU WEI! IS THAT REALLY YOU!?! HOLY CRAP I REMEMBER YOU BACK WHEN YOU WERE JOHN PINKERTON!
All I could think of when I started reading this chapter was this song.
The DRY
The Iron Horse that breathed fire and ate ponies
It's so dirty
It's so awesome
It's so big
It's nice?
I really like it's mane
It's pointed right at my castle
Run Forest Run!
She raised it from a graveyard to do her bidding
Heh, the two best ponies in Equestria to determine how far a five minute walk is...
7235003 I shudder to think of what Cherry would do with a Mountain Big Boy. depending on how big ponies are a Bigboy may be larger then Twilight's castle
7235437 it would be fun to see twilight reaction to see a big boy sittingthere, with cherry just smiling!
I can't help but picture the train being anything other than Lady from Thomas The Tank Engine and the Magic Railroad.
Keep going! ;)
Inb4 Cherry turns the train into a bullet train.
Or a monorail.
Or a plane.
Or a rocket.
Or a spaceship.
Or a fully-functional advanced AI with control over a facility that does tests with a specific portal creation device.
7234990
The only thing I know about a cow catcher is that I think it's the triangular thing on the front of steam trains.
so they selected a small populace - so they selected a small community.--or-- so they selected a small population center.
determine with engines - determine which engines
less of a concerned - less of a concern
*****
Cherry's excitement is contagious, I'm eager to see what she learns as she tears the old engine down and starts restoring it, not to mention what sorts of modifications and work-arounds she implements. I wonder if equestrian trains run on steam, if so her mechanical aptitude had better include working on pressure vessels. High pressure steam can be deadly.
7237106 I think a lot of people, let alone sea ponies, would be awed to own a real piece of locomotive history like that. Typos scared off the tracks.
"What can possibly go wrong?!" (c) Babsy the bobcat.
I'm sorry...
7237221 C-can even Fluttershy manage to tame the fabled typo?
Here's one conclusion and in John Taylor's words from BO3 "...Conclusion, Train go boom."
that sounds familiar...
um, isn't the Everfree forest within 5 minutes walk from Twilight's castle?
I can imagine a "the chase" length story sprouting from something like this.
The young sea-pony obtains the ancient hulk of metal, and over many many chaptera, and hundreds of thousands of aords, she finally finishes it After having multiple adventures with friends and meeting new things and places.
When they finish the train, a sudden need for it arises, and they find that 4th ting is the new Queen of the Rails, racing to do some heroic deed on the new Cherry Express!
(Remix of the music used in FF7 for the Train Graveyard location.)
What kind of train are you modeling?
I was picturing something like this.
i.pinimg.com/originals/fa/8a/d7/fa8ad794c91bc3912056f18a6b29d357.jpg
These trains are operated with magic, yes? Perhaps she will manage to resurrect the spirit of the train.
11549388
That is a question the show gives no solid answer to. For this fic, they are more technological than magical.