Sunny the Sentinel

by Sanguine Blade

Test Running

It wasn't until the next early morning that Sentinel was seen to. The Controller of the Vanhoover yard came with a crew to inspect this mystery engine that had arrived in his yard.

"Well. What's the condition?" the yardmaster asked.

"She seems in perfect order. Don't understand why someone would abandon a good locomotive." the fire mare said. They had looked for a builder's plate but found nothing.

"Well I want you to give it a trial in the coal yards. Run it through its paces and see what the limits of this loco." Said the yardmaster. The firemare started the fire and the locomotive sizzled merrily. Before anyone even touched the throttle the whistle rang out on its own making the yard master jump.

"What are you playing at!" The yardmaster shouted.

"Neither of us had even pulled the cord!" The driver snapped when the whistle went peep peep again with no one touching it.

"Must just be a loose whistle. Just check on it during work to see what happens." the yardmaster replied as the crew simply shrugged and pulled out of the yard with the Sentinel. The coal yard was filled with empty trucks ready to be shunted. The yard had only two old locos to shunt Ash and Soot

"Well let's see just how this loco can perform." The driver said moving the engine to the nearest set of freight cars and gave them a bump. The locomotive rolled along adding until the train was fit for the locomotive that was to take it away. Sentinel rolled this way and that collecting coal cars and filling them up for delivery. This continued for two more days until one day, Sentinel had finished the work while the other two locos were still trying to finish up. The yardmaster saw them come back to Vanhoover yard much earlier than expected and came to get their daily report.

"This little loco is really good. I don't understand why someone just abandoned it." The firemare said stepping off the footplate as the engine was reversed into a siding.

"Well that's good, but I talked to the controller and he refused. It is understandable since this locomotive has no known owner so we cannot simply claim it and no pony can sign it over to us. Tomorrow I need you to send it off to the scrapyard." The yardmaster said trotting away. The duo looked at the loco with disappointment.

"Well. It was fun whilst it lasted little thing." The firemare said running a hoof on the side sheet of the little mystery engine. Once they did this a feeble sounding peep came from the whistle.

"I know its probably just the last of the steam, but that sounds like a said wail." The driver said as the whistle wailed a second time before they left. That night the whistle continued to wail on and off on its own as the steam seeped out of the whistle. Her crew from the workers hut did not sleep well occasionally hearing the sad wails of the whistle like a pony crying into the night.

The next morning, the crew came to see Sentinel to the scrapyard. The engine was...different somehow. When the crew looked upon her, the shine and original beauty was covered in coal dust from its work over the past days, the steam was more wispy when fired and the whistle didn't sound once even when pulled by the crew. The ride was silent except for the wheels rolling and pistons moving.

"I still feel bad about this." the driver said.

"Me too, but we don't call the shots." The firemare replied as the engine reached the scrapyard. Wood Hoof's Scrapyard was written on a sign above the gate. Theduo disembarked the locomotive and went into the office to hand over Sentinel.

"Hi I'm Tied Wood Hoof what brings you to my scrapyard?" A stallion said from his desk.

"We are from Vanhoover and were told to drop off a locomotive." The driver said with twinges of sadness in his voice. Wood Hoof nodded in understanding.

"You don't want it scrapped do you?" Wood Hoof replied knowingly.

"Its apart of the job, but we didn't want to do it." The driver replied.

"Don't worry. I love locomotives and I promise I'll try to get it an owner before I have to scrap her." Wood Hoof said with a smile and this gave the crew a small smile.

"I hope you're successful then Mister Hoof. Now we must go." The crew said walking back to the nearest bus carriage stop as the locomotive let out one more mournful wail.