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Opening Titles84 words
Chapter 1-That Lucky Old Sun1,506 words
Chapter 2-There is a Season (Turn, Turn, Turn)1,500 words
Chapter 3-Is there a Function to a Junction?1,506 words
Chapter 4-Underground, Underground, Wandering Underground...1,507 words
Chapter 5-Electric Indeed!1,517 words
Chapter 6-OK Then!1,510 words
Chapter 7-Just a Little Touch-Up!1,516 words
Chapter 8-Run All Night1,505 words
Chapter 9-Let's Get to Work1,533 words
Chapter 10-Heave Ho! Haul Together!1,517 words
Chapter 11-Gauge the Issue1,515 words
Chapter 12-Crash and Burn1,500 words
Chapter 13-Deerstalker Time!1,507 words
Chapter 14-Case Closed1,524 words
Chapter 15-All's Well that Ends Well1,517 words
Credits158 words

Chapter 11-Gauge the Issue

Zipp could really have done without this. Below her, a pegasus and unicorn construction crew were arguing.

"I knew it!" said one unicorn. "You pegasi cannot do anything properly, can you?"

"I could say the same of you," a pegasus smugly replied. "Unicorns seem to like doing things on the cheap. Talk about dumb!"

"You pegasi think you're smarter than us! That we are idiots!"

A second pegasus snorted. "You're not exactly doing much to dispell that notion, mate."

More unicorns came forward with tools and equipment. "Good thing we have magic at our disposal."

"But seemingly not the brains to go with it," a pegasus said, sarcastically. "Good luck hitting us with those when we're in the air."

Zipp knew she had to intervene. "STOP!" she shouted, in a voice which, had it been said thousands of years earlier, could easily have been confused for the Royal Canterlot Voice. "This fighting isn't going to get us anywhere!"

The two groups stopped, and looked up. "My eardrums," said a pegasus.

Zipp walked over. "Now then, I want both of you to explain the problem to me. Without resorting to insults or name calling, Got it?"

There was a nod from both parties.

"I thought so. So, what's the problem?"

"The problem is that they layed the track to the wrong gauge," said a pegasus. "We can't link them up."

"We did not!" said a unicorn. "We laid them to the gauge specified. The documents told us to lay this track to standard gauge, and that we have. You've laid yours to the wrong gauge, more like."

"We have not," the first pegasus replied. "Standard gauge is four foot, eight and one half inches. Has been for centuries."

"That's not standard gauge!" another unicorn chimed in, keen to provide his two bits. "That's narrow gauge. Standard gauge is five foot three inches. It has been since the creation of unicorn lands, and will probably never change."

Zipp immediately figured out the problem. "Pegasi and unicorns use the same word to refer to different things," she said. "In this case, different track gauges." She groaned. "Urghh, why didn't we think to check this?"

She turned and flipped on her phone. "Note to self: check what the earth ponies consider to be standard gauge to prevent more problems in the future." She then turned back to the track crews. "Obviously we'll need to figure out this problem or else trains won't be able to run from Zephyr Heights to Bridlewood. The only obvious solution that I can see is to pull up the unicorn track and relay it to pegasus gauge."

"Then our locomotives won't be able to run," a unicorn pointed out. "That's not very useful."

Zipp then had another idea. "Why not a dual gauge line?" she suggested. "That way pegasus freight and passenger cars can run through to Bridlewood without ponies having to change!"

"That's the solution, then?" the unicorn said again. "That certainly solves that problem. Right then, time to add an extra track!"

Sunny's phone buzzed as she oversaw some more construction work higher up the line. "Hello?"

"Sunny, can we talk?"

Sunny nodded. "Sure thing, Zipp? What's going on?"

"What track gauge are you using?"

"I thought we'd already agreed this, Zipp. Three foot in Earth Pony territory, and the other groups can use other gauges. Is there a gauging problem?"

"We just had to modify plans slightly and relay a section of line with dual gauge where the unicorn and pegasus sections meet."

"Why? I thought you were using standard gauge up there?"

"Turns out unicorns and pegasi mean different things when they say standard gauge. The tracks were different gauges, meaning they wouldn't connect. As a result, we had to use dual gauge track from Brickmere Junction to Bridlewood to ensure pegasus stock can run throughout."

Sunny pondered for a moment. "Well, that is a good solution. But it's not workable here. The road bed won't take pegasus track, put simply, so passengers will need to get on and off to change between earth pony and pegasus services."

Zipp sighed. "Noted. Got any good news?"

Sunny glanced up as the nearby cranes got to work. "It's been going pretty well. Apart from the somewhat boggy ground near Maretime Bay we're well on our way to making our daily target of sixty miles a day. We've even got the new bridge going in right as I speak."

"That's fantastic. Tell Hitch I said hi and to keep up the good work."

"Sure thing." Sunny ended the call and popped her phone back into the mysterious space it always went to. "Hey Hitch. Any further news?"

"There's gonna be a slight delay," Hitch said. "Some track got a bit delayed, meaning we won't be able to get the bridge up and running today. But the good news is we've got the roadbed fully ballasted for the sixty miles, so we'll only be 4 miles off-target by work's end today- provided all is going to plan."

There was a whistle nearby as a train rumbled to a stop at the front of the bridge. To Sunny's surprise, it wasn't headed by one of the contractor's engines, but a regular locomotive. "Ah! The machines we ordered from CanterLogic Locomotive Works have arrived!" she beamed.

"You ordered steam engines from CanterLogic?" Hitch asked.

"Good use of an old factory, isn't it?" Sunny said.

A workspony came over and handed over some paperwork on a clipboard. "Good news!" he said.

"Is it the Dacia Sandero?" Sprout asked, as he had just arrived.

"What?" Hitch asked, confused. "What's a Dacia Sandero?"

"Never mind."

The workspony spoke again. "We've just tested the permanent way as far as the bridge, and it's passed flawlessly. At this rate, we'll be at Zephyr Heights' door in no time!"

"We're not actually building tracks to Zephyr Heights, remember?" Hitch pointed out. "We're only laying them as far as the yard."

"Of course."

This got Sunny wondering to herself. How were things going over in other bits of unicorn territory?

Several trucks shifting steel beams and other metal things arrived at the sight of the old bridge. The driver of the lead truck leaned out of the cab. "Where do you want this lot putting?" he asked.

The inspector trotted over. "By Stoneheart's Saddlebags, that was quick!" he said. "Offload them there in a neat pile."

"Expedited delivery from one A. Blossomforth," said the driver, who then took the load off to another point.

Misty was watching when suddenly her compact buzzed. "Err, excuse me just a sec? I need to take this." She trotted behind a tree and opened the device up, looking closely at it. "Ready to report, Opaline."

"Oh I do like to be beside the seas-" Opaline abruptly stopped and looked at Misty. "I was in the bath, Misty. Go ahead."

"Were you just singing then?"

"I don't sing. Do you have anything useful to report? Or are you just wasting time?"

Misty gulped. "I have news. They're building a new bridge here to replace the old one, and apparently stuff is being linked up across the network pretty fast. I can send a map if you'd like."

"Just a second, I'm on my way to the cauldron." There was a pause. "Send it through."

Misty then sent the map she had through the device's attachments function. "Is it there?"

"Just accessing it now, and... good grief! They're working faster than even I could have anticipated! The roadbed is open, it seems!" Opaline seemed to be annoyed. "Why is it that when my enemies want to do something they face no obstacles, but when I try to do things my path is always blocked up with stuff?!"

There was a pause. "Excuse me. Obviously, this pace of operation is rather inconvenient. To this end, I think now is the time to act. Focus your attention on the earth pony section. There's a bit of line that can be dealt with."

"What do you mean?"

"Block it with a train, of course."

Misty was confused. "How do I do that?"

"Crash it into a ravine, blow the engine up, strap dynamite to the flatcars and set it off when it goes over the bridge, I don't care! Whatever you do, make sure it looks like an accident. You don't want us to get implicated, do you?"

"No."

"No what?"

"No, Opaline."

"That's better." Opaline leaned into the screen. "This task is very important, Misty. Do not fail me, or you can forget about ever getting a cutie mark."

"Uh, crystal clear."

"Good. Opaline out."

As the call faded away, Misty weighed up her options. The easiest one would be to crash a train, as that was the easiest to fake as an accident. But the first challenge would be getting down there in the first place.

"It's just one train," she said to herself. "They can rebuild. Besides, I'll get my cutie mark out of this." And she set off across the country, the fiendish scheme forming in her mind.

Author's Note:

This chapter is based on a phenomenon which occurred remarkably often in the early days of the railways. Before standard gauge (4' 8 ¹² in) was adopted as, well, standard in 1845, many railway companies chose their own gauge. The most famous example of this was the Great Western, which used 7' ^1/4 in (colloquially referred to as broad gauge), which meant that whenever the GWR met another railway company, everybody had to get off one train and change to another. This problem was eliminated when the GWR abandoned broad gauge operations in 1892 and rebuilt its entire rail network to standard.

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Railway Adventure: a New Generation - The Blue EM2

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