Chapter 9-Let's Get to Work
Now that the Earth Ponies and Unicorns had thrown their political and economic capital behind the project, it was hoped that things could proceed somewhat more smoothly.
Alphabittle certainly seemed to be more impressed than most. "Nice work, you five!" he said. "It's not easy to return an older piece of equipment like that to working order, but you seem to have done the work pretty well. Then again, putting your mind to things and getting them done is Izzy's middle name."
"No it's not!" Izzy replied. "My middle name is Jessica."
"To say something is your middle name is a figure of speech suggesting you know a lot about it," Zipp explained. "I know, that expression confused me too at first. Perhaps it's exclusively a Unicorn figure of speech?" She took out her phone. "Note to self: look up more colloquial phrases from each group and establish their meaning."
"Still," Phyllis said, "it'd be nice if we could upgrade. Imagine those smelly things running in and out of Maretime Bay all the time, throwing soot and dust everywhere. It'd be pretty unpleasant all the time, don't you think?"
"I imagine we can iron all of these things out," Sunny said quickly, who had rejoined them. "After all, we've cleared the first hurdle."
"Sunny, who is looking after the engine?" Pipp asked.
"Misty. She seemed so eager to hop in. After all, she just needs to prevent the water level from getting too low and keep the brakes applied. Easy peasy lemon squeezy."
"I hope we're not eating lemons," Alphabittle said. "I'm allergic to lemons. And most things in Zephyr Heights, apparently. Best avoid going to the spa."
Once the assembled personnel had gathered around the table once more, Queen Haven was keen to resume the talks. It soon became clear exactly why she wanted to do this. Cloudpuff was bouncing up and down at the side of her chair, seemingly eager to be taken for a walk.
"I'll take him out!" Hitch offered, and he then exited with Cloudpuff in tow. The dog was much quieter than he normally was.
"Seems Hitch is working his magic touch with animals again," Izzy smiled. "He really is really good with them. He even has a band of critters who help him out with his duties. But of course you already know all that."
"Why are you telling us this then?" Phyllis asked.
"Just in case somebody in the audience hasn't watched as far as Make your Mark Chapter 2 yet," Izzy explained, winking to somepony who wasn't there. "But quite why they'd be reading this without that knowledge I'm not sure."
"What's Make your Mark?" Pipp asked.
"Oh, never mind. It's a joke for somepony reading this from far away on a screen."
Queen Haven decided to take over the conversation before Izzy started breaking the fourth wall so severely it would destroy the space time continuum. "So, anyway, shall we get on? We still have many aspects of this rebuilding plan to discuss."
Misty sat in the cab, admiring all of the levers and gauges and controls and other gubbins inside the cab. As hot as it was in here, she had to admit it was a pretty neat piece of machinery. And not only that, she was quite happy. She'd actually managed to contribute by helping to restore it. Her loyalty was to Opaline, of course, but ever since that sleepover at the Brighthouse she'd begun to feel a connection to the others. Despite the suspicions of a certain pegasus, the others had treated her with the sort of friendliness and respect she hadn't felt in a very long time. Or ever, for that matter.
She was shaken out of her thoughts by a loud buzzing. She pulled out her compact and flipped it open. "Ready to report, Opaline!"
"I was beginning to think you'd fallen off a cliff," Opaline replied. "I've been running the dial tone for about five minutes now. If you could- wait. Is that... coal behind you?"
"Yes, Opaline, and apologies for the delay. It's pretty loud in here."
"Sorry, what was that? I can't hear you over all the hissing."
"I SAID IT'S PRETTY LOUD!" Misty shouted.
"I see. Anyway, I assume this is the engine you've been referring to. Any more news?"
"Yes," Misty said. "They've agreed to rebuilding it. The line, I mean."
There was a brief silence. "What did you say?"
"They've agreed to rebuilding the line."
"Oh." Opaline nodded. "This was not what I was expecting. These ponies are like superheroes- they sweep in at the worst possible time and ruin your well founded plans!"
"If you like I could do some sabotage here."
"You mean blow the engine up?"
"Yeah."
"Don't be ridiculous, Misty." Opaline paused again. "Blowing an engine up would only make them more suspicious and make them suspect outside interference. My operation cannot be revealed until the moment to strike has arrived."
"So, no blowing things up?"
"Nothing shall be blown up!" Opaline shouted. "Unless I order it, of course. Otherwise no. What I need you to do is keep an eye on proceedings and notify me on how things are progressing. This is, of course, a bit of an inconvenient setback, but even setbacks can be used to one's advantage should one take advantage of them well."
"Who's one?"
"It's an archaic way of saying my or me. Never mind. I shall be in contact later with some more information and support. Opaline out."
Opaline's image faded from the screen and once it was gone, Misty closed it shut. That added just as many questions as it did answers. Still, her current job was keeping this engine in order, and this was certainly going to do. She added a tiny bit more water to the boiler, the way Sunny had shown her.
"This is easy," she said, and rocked back- only to fall off the chair and onto the floor with a loud bang. "Ow..."
Back inside the negotiation room, things were back on track. Sort of. "There's an issue that Zipp raised that I wanted to discuss," Phyllis said. "The Pegasi regauged there bit- is that the right word?- and although I don't really understand the science behind it I get the impression that Pegasus track won't fit on the Earth Pony bits as they are too narrow."
"That's correct," Zipp pointed out.
"They'd fit on ours though!" Alphabittle said. "But that brings up another point. How and where do we build from? And how do we manage locomotives and stock given that the gauges will be different?"
"As you know, only electric traction is permitted within Pegasus territory on the main line- the engine we saw outside is an exception as that's a demonstration built for today- and that's a bit of an issue, admittedly." Queen Haven paused. "I believe the Earth Ponies favour steam power and the Unicorns diesel, is that correct?"
"Yes," the other two leaders said.
"It's also not feasible to pay to upgrade the entire system to electric power as the traffic levels are projected to not be high enough. Perhaps a solution is we use our own traction on our own sections and transfer passengers and cargo between trains at dedicated points?"
"Well, that's one issue resolved," Phyllis said. "No doubt there'll be others."
"Guys, I've had an idea," Sunny said. "You said earlier that you aren't sure where to start building from. Why not work from multiple ends at once?"
"How do you mean?" Pipp asked.
"Simple!" Sunny smiled, nicely demonstrating the origin of her name. "One of the ending points was in Maretime Bay, and the other was near Bridlewood, based on our maps. The Zephyr Heights bit is in the middle, roughly speaking, so if we have an Earth Pony crew working from Maretime Bay, a Unicorn crew working from Bridlewood, a Pegasus crew working towards Maretime Bay, and a second Pegasus crew working towards Bridlewood, we'll be able to build the line at twice the speed and with fewer slowdowns, as resources will only need to be delivered to one place at once rather than dropped all over the place."
"Give that mare a medal!" Izzy said. "No, wait, that was actually sincere. Unicorns don't really do sarcasm."
There was a brief moment of writing from the various parties involved until after a few minutes that writing stopped. "Well," said Queen Haven. "It seems that all parties are in agreement, correct?"
"I'm certainly agreeing," Alphabittle noted, as he scanned over his notes one final time. "I'll head to Bridlewood and inform the other Unicorns of the game plan. This is gonna be a lot of work, but worth it in the long run- I hope."
"I shall head back to Maretime Bay and do the same," Phyllis said. "Glad that things went a bit more smoothly than our last interaction, Your Majesty. Being the mother of a pony who nearly ran a monarch over is not the best of records."
"All is forgiven," Queen Haven replied.
As the leaders left, Zipp looked at the map. "That was the easy part," she said. "Now the difficult bit begins."
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And we're back!
cool chapter mate keep it up cant wait for the next chapter i wonder is izzy is pinkie pie descendant
Again, this was a rather well done chapter. The exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up are, of course, rather well done. Quite certainly liked the dialogue concerning figures of speech, the other characters' confusion concerning Izzy's fourth-wall-break and Opaline and Misty's exchange concerning not resorting to sabotage too soon and why that might call too much premature attention to them.
VERY much looking forward to more of this.
Well, looks like we got our first complaint, and no shock that it's from Phyllis.
Why does this make me feel nervous?
Welp, she did it again, another fourth wall break. Still, someone has to do it.
That and there's a slim chance she'd survive a boiler explosion. Most of the time no one makes it out alive.
Shouldn't have jinxed it.
You read my mind!
Yep...
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Glad you liked it bud!
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In the video game Fallout: New Vegas, the character of Mr House expresses the sentiment that a planner should not reveal their entire hand at once. Instead, revealing singular cards will be enough to make you unpredictable. Opaline, as far as I can see, follows the same mindset, hence her many schemes running at once.
I tend to use Izzy for the off-the-wall humour owing to her similarities to Pinkie Pie (without being a Pinkie clone as some detractors claim).
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1. True, but it is a somewhat reasonable complaint. Many cities across the world have emissions limitations laws that date from the steam era. As mentioned in a previous reply, this is part of the reason diesel engines are banned from much of New York City.
2. It should.
3. It only feels natural, given Izzy is pulling fourth wall gags in the film.
4. Indeed. Just look at Casey Jones!
5. Nope.
6. As was often the case during the gauge wars of the Antebellum period. It wasn't until the 1870s that standard gauge was adopted across the US.
7. As the saying goes, rocket science is simple. Rocket engineering is the tricky part.
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1. Mhm
3. True
4. Mhm, rest his soul.
6. Interesting.
7. yep.
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1. But not MYM.
3. Yes.
4. Not the Greatful Dead song.
6 and 7. Yes.
Is Jessica really Izzy's middle name?
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That's actually a reference to a joke near the end of the first Cars movie; before the final race, Mack briefly states that Gascan is his middle name. When Lightning clarifies this, Mack admits it is not.