Chapter 2
A single, short note reaches the ears of the two stallions examining the damage to their now stalled locomotive. Both instantly turn to look down the tracks behind the train- nothing.
“That was definitely closer than last time,” the firepony states.
The engineer nods, making the quick jump into the cabin to give a similarly brief pulse to their whistle. It’s a simple enough signal for anypony to remember- as hardly a marker signal. He waits several seconds for any possible response before sounding a longer, single blast, to indicate that they’ve stopped. There is still no response.
At least, from the distant foghorn.
Their passengers, headed by Princess Celestia’s student and her brother, are emerging from the train.
“What’s going on?” Shining Armor, Captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard, asks.
The two earth ponies flinch. “We’ve broken down,” the engineer mutters, hopping back down from the locomotive. He glances back over to his firepony. “We don’t think we’ll be able to make field repairs.”
Twilight Sparkle, the Princess’ student on her unwilling way to Ponyville for her latest assignment, raises an eyebrow. “Is somepony getting help?” She asks.
He gestures back at the locomotive, and the thin trail of smoke still coming from the smokestack. “We called for it, and somepony responded. Not sure what kind of foghorn they’re using- but they’re probably close.”
“So that strange horn is our backup?” Twilight asks.
Shining, one ear pointed back, turns to look, his other ear joining in his search of the tracks behind them. “Hold on…”
Everypony goes silent, ears swivelling. It becomes readily apparent what noise he’s responding to- a distant, deep rumble, like a bonfire in an enormous firebox might produce, coming from down the tracks. Now that everypony is silent, they’re also able to catch the nearly-hidden sound of metal wheels on metal rails.
Twilight speaks up first. “That’s gotta be freight,” she states. “Nothing else needs that much fire… But at least it’s something. Maybe they’ll be able to push…?”
The engineer tilts his head. “It’s possible,” he states. “Some freight locomotives do have couplers on the front- and while passenger cars aren’t designed to be pushed like that, our train is small enough they should be able to take it… Celestia help us.”
Nopony knows exactly what just rounded the corner behind them- but they do know something about it. Firstly, it’s enormous. Secondly, it most certainly isn’t a freight locomotive. Third, it’s moving towards them.
Six stunned ponies watch as the sound of air brakes comes from it- then the deafening foghorn comes on, thundering out from it in a signal nopony bothers to listen to.
“Everypony off the train!” The engineer screams into the two VIP cars attached behind his locomotive, as soon as the foghorn falls silent once again. That thing looks way too heavy to slow down anywhere near as fast as his passenger train could. Ponies respond- and in a matter of seconds, every living soul is removed from the train. He then leads his firepony and all eight unicorns in a short gallop to the side, to what should be a safe distance, before stopping to shed a tear for his train…
Huh. Funny, the giant thing- which he can see from here is the front of a long train- is slowing down far faster than he might have expected… But not fast enough. He says a quick prayer; there was only once in history when a train was involved in a collision, and every pony present died in the clouds of scalding steam. At least our boiler isn’t up to full pressure… Where is that thing’s boiler, anyways? As such, nopony knows what to expect from such a collision, except danger. He figures they’ll find out soon enough- it’s just a couple seconds from impact.
She rests her hoof against the control panel, the other continuing to blast out a warning signal on the air horns. She’d set the computer to give her a specific braking pressure- and her locomotives are just about done equalizing the pressure in the brake lines. Her train is now decelerating at the maximum emergency stopping rate- but she’s not so sure that’ll be enough. Her locomotive is still moving too quickly; she expects she’ll hit that tiny little steam train at, oh, twenty or thirty miles an hour. She rather suspects that her lead locomotive alone outweighs the entire train stalled on the tracks in front of her.
She’s made it down to twenty five miles an hour or so- and just a couple seconds from impact- when she hears a yelp from next to her. A glance shows her conductor- or, she assumes the brown shape on the floor is her conductor- is moving, or at least awake. She yells over the noise of her air horns.
“Brace for impact!”
“What!?” he promptly answers.
She hardly even feels the bump. As a matter of fact, she probably wouldn’t have noticed it, had she not seen the train in front of her very suddenly stop getting closer. Another five or six seconds sees both trains at a standstill- and the flick of a hoof initiates a release of all remaining pressure from her air brakes.
Now, she finally looks back at those strange limbs she’s been ignoring. First, the one at the base of her spine- which, yes, is a tail. A glistening, golden tail, to be specific. Next, the two beneath her shoulders… which turn out to be wings. Sky blue, feathered wings. She stares at them for a couple seconds, before folding them… an action that feels natural, despite the newness of the limbs. Then she checks out the windshield once again; it seems the… creatures that had fled the smaller train are in shock or something. She looks down at the brown creature on the decking next to her. “Steve?” Oh good, her voice hasn’t changed.
The brown creature- four legs, check; black hair and tail, check; swiveling ears, check, wings… Nope. Interesting. It rolls over to this side, looking back up at her with confusion on its face… which has way too big of eyes. It looks somewhat like a child’s depiction of a horse.
“Mary?” it asks, using Steve’s voice.
She raises an eyebrow. She must look similar, with different colors and wings, then; and this must be Steve. She nods gently. “I just made an emergency stop- after striking what looks like a small steam train from behind at about twenty miles an hour. Shall I signal Mark to go play flagman?”
He blinks a couple times, then looks down at his hoof. “You sure he can?”
She shrugs, offering her own hoof. “I stopped a train with these,” she states. “I’m sure he can figure something out.”
He lets out a chuckle. “Go ahead,” he states. “I’d rather not get hit.”
She nods, reaching for the air horns for one last time.
One long note and three short blasts later, she makes a couple strokes to the controls and twists to allow herself to drop forwards off of her seat, landing on her hooves as the engines shut down. She stumbles, but manages to stay upright… Or, as upright as any quadrupedal stance might be. It does feel natural, not unlike standing on two legs as a human. “It looks like the occupants of the steam train were able to evacuate before we made contact, but I’m not certain. Since I only barely felt the bump, though…” She shrugs. “Wanna help check up on them?”
He manages to twist upright and rise shakily to his hooves as well, looking himself over. “Sure… I notice you have wings?”
She nods. “I also notice I’m blue.”
He shakes his head. “And here I thought I was green.”
She rolls her eyes. “You wish. Wouldn’t be surprised, though, given…” She glances at her side. “No telling what the limits are.” She then leads the way towards the door- only to trip over her own hooves right before she reaches it, falling on her side. She lets out an undignified yelp as she falls- and takes a second to right herself again, during which her conductor stumbles up next to her.
“Something tells me poor Mark is going to have the time of his life getting far enough away to protect the train,” he chuckles, before reaching up to open the door… and failing to turn the round knob, instead falling on the floor himself.
Mary snorts, rising back to her hooves. She leans carefully against the wall next to the door, enough to place her left hoof flat against the knob, and smiles down at him. “Let me show you how it’s done,” she smirks, and twists her hoof. The knob twists with it- and a moment later, the door swings open. She promptly falls after it- but her wings argue instinctively with that, helping her twist in midair. As a result, rather than landing on her back and potentially hitting her head on the top of the staircase, she lands on her front- where her front hooves are not prepared to catch her, so she hits the floor anyways.
Steve chuckles, clambering back to his hooves to walk up next to her, before joining her in looking down the short staircase. He then glances back over at her. “So… Enterprise already found an uncharted system, then they beamed down the Captain and his trusty First Officer- only for the two to be transfigured into… um… What are we, anyways?”
She shrugs- a different effect when standing on four legs. “Some kind of quadruped, I think. I do hope the whole wings thing isn’t an unsurmountable species barrier or something. Anyways, we were transformed by some kind of… Oh, I know! The Cap’n and First Officer weren’t transformed- we’re remote-controlling robots that only look like… us… in order to communicate with the natives…? Humm…”
He shakes his head. “Whatever. NX-7327 can wait, we’ve got a minor collision with a sublight vessel to deal with first.”
This earns him a snort and a gentle shove on the shoulder, perpendicular to the staircase. She then makes a swift jump for the bottom of the stairs, in an effort to avoid his inevitable counter-shove.
Her attempt is successful- though, her landing could use some work. Her wings had spread- again on instinct- to steady her drop; she’d felt the muscles fighting against the air, allowing it to carry her forwards in a glide. Unfortunately, though, she had hit the ground at a decent pace- and not been able to absorb it all without taking a step. She’d faceplanted once again. She rises back to her hooves, turning to look back up at Steve- and actually laughs at his expression. His already gigantic eyes are wide open and staring, his jaw hanging wide.
He shakes himself out, blinking a few times, before looking back at his engineer. “You… Flew.”
She shakes her head. “Not really,” she states. “That was more of a glide… and even that was off-kilter. Much further and I probably would have landed on my side.” She lets out a sigh, and starts her way up the steps again, to rejoin him at the top. “Probably going to want to walk down it- we’re not jumping the steps off of the train.”
He nods. “Might even want to practice here, where we won’t be hurt- too much- by a bad landing.” He glances briefly at her. “Can’t exactly help anyone if we’re hurt ourselves.”
Ten ponies and one dragon watch as the thing finally strikes the back of their train. It doesn’t seem to even notice their little train, plowing into it like it wasn’t even there.
As for the VIP train Celestia had ordered, the story is very different. The rear car sacrifices itself in an effort to accelerate the rest of the train, shattered wooden panelling flying away as the iron frame buckles like so much flimsy wire. The train’s brakes are still firmly engaged, though, so its efforts are nearly in vain.
The front car is only slightly less violent, vanishing over a slightly longer period than the one behind it. It manages to accelerate the sliding locomotive a little further, but to no avail; just like its predecessor, the thin iron frame components flex and shatter, practically spraying off to the sides.
Finally, the locomotive is moving only about a third as fast as the thing is when it impacts. The coal bin veritably explodes in a shower of fuel and water, before the locomotive’s sturdier frame makes an attempt of its own to absorb the impact. It buckles as well- but would have managed to save the functional parts of the locomotive, if not for the knuckle-like protrusion on the thing plowing into the back of the boiler.
Iron panelling peels apart, blowing outwards with a cloud of scalding steam. The entire upper half of the locomotive blasts itself apart in this manner- though the blast is less violent than it might have been had the boiler been up to full pressure. The lower half of the locomotive then tilts forwards against the air brakes, sliding up the front of the thing still barrelling down upon it, before catching on something and twisting suddenly sideways, off of the tracks. It lands upside-down next to the tracks, leaving a clear path for the thing to keep going.
It doesn’t keep going, though, instead grinding to a halt just past the debris, ignorant of the ponies standing in a clear spot in the debris field, not nearly far enough for safety.
Yet in just the right position to now be abreast of the leading… thing.
The earth ponies pass out.
At least one of the unicorns follows suit, but the rest continue to stare. This… thing is around twice as tall as the train it just crushed, and around twice as wide. It’s clearly made entirely of metal- and it’s close to twice as long as their entire train had been.
Not to mention, there’s at least three of them chained together, forming only the beginning of this ginormous train. Almost as soon as it makes a full stop, the sudden hiss of releasing pressure emits from each and every one of them simultaneously.
This one was fun to write. And, if not for the chapter break at the end, I wouldn't have been able to figure out what to write next! 
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THE BOILER'S GONNA BLOW! EVERYPONY RUN!
9093477
Oops. Too late. :D
9095782
Mm? May I ask, what was too late?
9095873
The Boiler 'asplodey bit. It did.
(I like the part about coincidentally standing in the one clear spot in the debris field. Run fast, run far. :D )
9095882
Ahh, right. My bad, I didn't see the reference the first time.
As for the clear spot... it probably wasn't all that coincidental. Shining Armor is one of the ponies in that clear spot.
9095891
Ahh... That would do it.