Chapter 1: Unseen things (In for a rebuild)

"General Winters sir?" Asked a young Private, saluting his superior officer

"At ease Private. Now what do you want?" replied the General motioning for the army man to put his hand down

After relaxing he continued, "Project 'Leviathan' has been packed away for safe keeping sir."

"Good, good, now would you care to remind me as to what project Leviathan is?" questioned Winters. Since he had only been in his position for a few days, nearly everything that he was being updated on made no sense at all.

"The personnel in charge only told me that I should tell you that it has been finished. They also said something about 'it would come in handy when we came out of stasis', sir."

The general lifted an eyebrow, "So you have seen nothing of this project or even heard of it til now?"

"Yes sir."

Winters rolled his eyes and sipped his coffee. Today just got weirder and weirder...

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2000 years has gone by since that last conversation. General Winters was soon shot for the murder of our last General, Mr. Esera. Since then the war had ended and the new Country of Terra had been founded by the Humans but they still had hardships to work through. such things as transportation and resources we the biggest of them all. These things had once been readily available when the humans ruled, but now was a total different story. Suffice to say was that we humans had gotten so used to the easy life that we had no idea what to do with ourselves. Little did anyone know that our once great creation that we had tossed aside would come back to help us in our time of need.

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A young Civilian with a brown stetson hat by the name of Richard Mattson walked across the dirty concrete floor of Lazarus, Terra's Capitol City if you could call it that. He was on inventory duty for the day, the worst job in the city. It saddened him to see the meager supply of food and fuel was at an all time low. Sure the ponies could help us with food but the fuel was something different. Not one person in this entire tiny country had the means, or the knowledge, to create a decent fuel source that could be burned in the various Military vehicles scattered about. Sure what M35A2s they had left could burn anything from used engine oil to vegetable oil, but we didn't have many of them left.

Richard fancied himself a decent mechanic, but not even he knew how to overcome the situation. He scratched his head as he looked at the food supplies and wrote down his findings. It was at about the same level as it was a few days before. Sighing, the young man sauntered over to a small stack of 55 gallon fuel barrels... he counted only 8 left in the entire world. His somber look turned into a very distinct frown. He pulled his hat low, tucked his clipboard under his arm and retreated from the gloomy warehouse.

Richard walked to the office of the only man that could help us, General McGoff. Stopping at a closed door the man knocked loudly.

"COME IN!" Yelled out a gruff voice from behind the door

Collecting his thoughts Richard grasped the brass knob and pushed open the oak door. There at a desk sat a military man in his best dress clothes. He was writing out forms and papers that helped keep the 2 month old country running. Being American meant that we would have almost the same government as we once had. That being said, the people had unanimously voted for Dr. Aaron Patterson to be the president but he turned it down since he had other things to deal with at the time. The vote was retaken and General Tyler McGoff was voted into office. Even though he was now the president everyone still called him General McGoff.

"General sir." said Richard as he fumbled with the forms in his hand

McGoff stared at the young man, "Rich, how many times do I have to tell you that you are one of my closest friends, you can cut the formality!"

A small smile broke across Richard's face, "Oh I am just messing with ya Ty. I thought I should deliver today's inventory forms directly to you."

"Well you know what I am gonna say about it, just take them to my secretary, she knows how to deal with them."

The once happy Civilian's face hardened as he slammed the papers on the presidents desk, "But this form is of TODAY'S inventory!"

"So? Whats the difference between today's and yesterday's?" questioned Tyler

"We only have 8 BARRELS OF FUEL LEFT!"

Tyler McGoffs face went stark white at those words. Sure he had known it would come sooner or later but he had hoped it would have been a lot later.

"We have no fuel left, what are we gonna do!?!?!" Shouted Richard

"I.. I have no idea." the president stammered as he lowered his elbows to the desk top and set his face in his open palms.

Richard rolled his eyes, "Well checking the old military records would be a start."

Getting up from his desk Tyler spoke, "I suppose your right, I'll see ya later Rich, got stuff to do."

"OK then, remember, only 8 barrels." said Rich as he walked out the door.

Tyler rubbed his face with his hands and groaned, "I am not meant for this job."

He walked to the dusty doorway of the once always locked military room and opened it up. Flipping the light switch he took the next few hours to run through every project to date, even some of the recent ones such that he himself had proposed to the current government. He was at wits end when he opened the last filing cabinet. Inside was an EXTREMELY dusty folder labeled 'Project LEVIATHAN'. He rolled his eyes, the old government was always coming up with new code names for there oh so secret doings.

Tyler opened the folder and the first things his eyes met was a picture of an old red steam engine. "Richard is the train freak, he would know what it was." thought Tyler

He stood from his sitting position and walked back into his office and hit the intercom button, "Miss James, could you please call Richard Mattson for me and have him meet me here in 15 minutes?"
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15 minutes had passed and Rich walked into the office.

"Now what?" asked the stetson wearing human

"I believe I have found something that needs your expertise..." Tyler said, throwing the LEVIATHAN folder on to the deck in front of them, "There is things in here that you and only you will under stand."

"But the only things I know about are long gone from this earth."

McGoff just raised an eye brow and motioned towards the unopened folder.

"Oh fine Ill look, but if it scares me for life I am haunting you if your still alive when I am dead."

Richard snapped up the folder and flipped it open. His eyes went wide when he looked at the picture. He picked out the picture and said, "Huh, never thought I would see a picture of this old girl in here."

Glancing at the form it was stapled to he read out numbers and titles that only he could recognize, such as weight, tractive effort, boiler pressure and what not. Setting the paper down on the desk he once again looked into the folder, another surprise was a second picture of a steam locomotive identical to the first one, but this one was purple! "Now these 2 cant be a coincidence." he thought

Scooping up all the forms and papers left in the folder he spread them across the desk top. 2 more pictures of steam locomotives and 3 of other steam related contraptions. One was a steam shovel, another a crane and last but not least a steam tractor.

"Tyler, do you know why these are in here?" Richard asked

"You have got me. Keep looking though, there might be something in there to tell us what this project was."

Rich happened apon the description:

Project 'LEVIATHAN

Purpose: rebuild

Contents: 1. 4-4-0 No.63 aka Leviathan

2. 4-4-0 No.60 aka Jupiter

3. 4-4-0 No.22 aka Inyo

4. 4-4-0 No.119

5. 10 40 foot wooden flatcars

6. 10 40 foot wood framed boxcars

7. 5 50 foot wood framed coaches

8. Case 80 hp steam traction engine

9. Bucyrus-Erie Steam shovel

10. Bucyrus-Erie steam crane

11. 12 miles worth of rails, ties, tie plates and spikes

12. 10 bottom plow

Description: Started in 2009 with the 'Leviathan', this project is charged with the purpose of dragging our sorry asses out of the Apocalypse. Being that there would be no fuel available we decided wood fired steam engines would be the best choice of direction. Be happy with what you have...

Rich showed the paper to Tyler and and he replied, "So they think that these old chunks of steel are going to be able to deal with our current situation?"

Being the railroad fanatic that he was, Richard knew the reasons why they chose steam power in general. It was easy to maintain, worked hard and was incredibly efficient when ran correctly. It wasn't fool proof but close to it. The 4-4-0 type was used in the late 1800s out west to deal with the rugged track and climate conditions that they ran through. They were so numerous that they soon had the name 'American type' and deserved there name since they basically built this country for the most part. there superior tracking capabilities where known to no other type.

Richard look at his friend and said, "They made a great choice by these engines and cars. Each is easy to maintain and would out power anything we could possibly get from the ponies. These engines were specifically built for this type of stuff, hell the Inyo DID it!!! The other 3 are replicas though."

"One question," asked the astonished president, "how do you know all this stuff?"

Rich smirked, "The internet is a wonderful resource. Anyhow, do you have any idea were this stuff could be?"

"How am I supposed to know?" replied Tyler

"You ARE the president, you should know this stuff." Richard said with an air of hilarity in his voice

Tyler just rolled his eyes and sat down in his surprisingly comfy 2000 year old office chair. Mulling over the location of a cache of stuff so large. It had to be over 30 feet tall to accommodate this equipment not to mention its width. He opened his desk drawer and pulled out a map of the military complex and scanned over it. He felt like an idiot when he found a HUGE room labeled 'PROJECT LEVIATHAN'. He pointed to said room.

Following the finger Richard slapped himself in the face, "Now how did we miss that?"

"Well, lets quit dawdling and go find out if all this stuff is still there." said McGoff and with that, the 2 men strode out of the office, leaving the map on the desk...

Chapter 2: Things to do...

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The crew of 2 walked the lonely halls looking for the massive room that was said to hold a treasure trove of society

"You know, if you would have grabbed that map we wouldn't be doing this right now." Richard said flatly as the 2 walked down some long forgotten hallway.

"Don't you think I know that!" Snapped Tyler, throwing his hands into the air in expression

"Well why don't we just go back and get the damn thing?"

Tyler said nothing, he just turned right around and walked in the general direction of his office. Took them all of 10 minutes to retrieve the map. Hours went past as the two stumbled along the long forgotten hallways looking for any clue as to where the door would be. Room after room was searched but came up empty. In their last ditch effort they entered the main storage room where they had kept the army vehicles and helicopters, aka the only room big enough to house something as large as these behemoths in the pictures.

Looking along the walls they found exactly what they had been looking for the whole time. A Gigantic stainless steel door. It must have been 50 feet tall and 50 feet wide!

"You think we should open it?" asked Richard

"I don't see why not..." Said Tyler as he walked up the the giant door an slid his pass key through the card scanner. It beeped in protest, refusing to open...

"What the hell! Whats wrong with this damn thing?" Shouted Tyler

"Let me try." Said Richard as he pulled out his own pass key. He slide it through the slot and much to the amazement of the 2 men it gave off a green light and said in a computerized voice, "Welcome Mr. Mattson"

"How come it opened for you and not me?" asked a quizzical president

Richard shrugged his shoulders, "Ya got me."

A few seconds later a metallic SNAP and a CLUNK sounded through out the room. With a hiss of air and the groan of long unused bearings the massive and extremely heavy door popped out of the wall a few inches and slid aside. The air rushed into the room to replace the other noncorrosive gas that had been injected into it 2000 years earlier.

The first mass of iron to be exposed was the Projects name sake, no.63 or, 'LEVIATHAN'. The bright red paint job gleamed in the crummy lighting of the hall. Dominating the front end of the heavy locomotive was a giant balloon stack used for arresting sparks from the wood being burned in the firebox. The headlight was of the kerosene type which could maybe be substituted for some other more readily available fuel source. A length wooden pilot protruded out from the head of the engine. Known as a cowcatcher it was used to 'push' cattle and other animals off the tracks (The creatures died most of the time anyway).

In the dim light of the rooms light fixtures the paint still glittered like the day it was built. The Jupiter, or no.60, was next to be exposed to the prying eyes of the men. The blue paint matched its red wheels like puzzle pieces in one of grandpa's giant masterpieces.

As the door continued to open a Brown and blond pony walked by and nearly fell over at the sight before his eyes. This pony arrived in Lazarus only a few days ago looking for work. He told the Government that he was extremely good with steel. Richard talked to him often about metallurgy since he used to be a welder and a machinist.

"Ah Richard, what are these?" the pony questioned

Snapping out of his gawking state, Rich said, "Oh hey Scrap Iron, these are pieces of humanities past. They basically built America, well the frame work for it anyway."

"They look awfully familiar. You think we took some or your tech and punched it together with some magic and created our trains?" Scrap asked

"That could very well be. Though yours are much smaller then these behemoths, that's for sure." Richard replied with a chuckle

While the 2 had been talking the door had opened completely, showing off the glistening giants. A massive red engine known as the 119 sat next to the Jupiter and along side the 119 sat the Inyo.

Inyo was built in 1875 for the Virginia and Truckee railroad in Nevada to move the silver ore. Its small driving wheels would tell most railroad men that it was built more for pulling then for speed. The only big differences between the Inyo and Leviathan and Jupiter was its pilot and steam dome (the down nearest the cab). The older designs of the Jupiter gave it and the Leviathan the brass plated domes where as the Inyo had the ringed domes with the brass strip in between.

The Inyo was by far the oldest of the 4, being from 1875 an all. The Jupiter and the 119 were built in the 1960s and the Leviathan was built in 2009, making it the youngest. The assortment of rail cars looked like most of the other pre1900 cars you would see in museums, but these were in allot better shape.

The other machines in the lineup Consisted of the 80 hp Case traction engine, its many moving parts covered in a thick layer of grease and oil from its last run. It was currently strapped to the first flatcar behind the Leviathan.

The next in the line was the Bucyrus-Erie Steam Crane with its long rigging laid out in front of its massive track bulk.

And last but not least, the Bucyrus-Erie Steam shovel (The one in this story is in much better shape though...). Though being slightly harder used in its life time it was a robust machine and could handle the stresses of moving the huge amounts of gravel and earth that would needed to be moved soon enough.

Scraps, Tyler and Richard walked along side the engines and cars tell they hit the very back of the room. Behind the railroad artifacts resided all the materials and machinery to keep them going for years to come. The fact that the government could do all of this without anyone outside of their ranks knowing astonished the 3 stooges. There was a whole god damn railroad in this one room!

"Rich," the president started, "What in the hell are we going to do with this stuff?"

"Exactly what the papers told us to..." replied Richard with a giant grin on his face, running his hand along the glistening brass dome on the Leviathan.

"And that is?" questioned Scrap

"Rebuild..." the stetson wearing human said flatly

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The room was filled with a cacophony of talking. Officials that had been elected only a month earlier sat around a giant oak table wondering what this meeting had been called for.

The President entered the room and held up a hand, silencing the group.

"I suppose you all are wondering why I call you people here," the group nodded an affirmative, "I happened apon an old military project known as Project LEVIATHAN." He threw the folder on the table and the pictures and papers spread out on there own.

"These are wood fired steam locomotives there steam powered cohorts were built for this same predicament, only they were designed in the 1860s." said the president, "We are supposed to use them to rebuild our society." At thos few words the group broke out in to laughter.

"What do you mean? These things are ancient!" shouted a young man of about 25.

Tyler smirked, "You forget that we are ancient as well."

That silenced the young lad but gave the rest of the group the room to continue there speaking.

An older fella with grey hair and a mustache spoke up and said "How are these supposed to help us though? We stopped using them for a reason you know."

"A friend of mine knows more about these engines and tech then anyone else in this complex. Many of you know him as 'train freak'. Here I present Richard Mattson."

Richard entered the room with a good size grin on his face and sat at the head of the table. He gathered the pictures and stuffed them back in the folder before he started speaking, "Well, I guess I am here to explain what all of this means. Steam power has been used for a long time for heating and transportation. Hell we even still use it to produce our electrical power in this very complex! Another good thing is that these contraptions are fueled by wood and water, 2 of the most common things on earth at this time."

The collection of government officials just stared wide eyed at the young man that seemed to surpass everyone in the room with his knowledge of these overbuilt teakettles.

"So your telling us that our whole future is in the hands of yourself?" an official said

"No, I have information that tells me that the Equestrians have trains them selves, though they rely on magic to produce steam. There railroads are well built and we could use there help in building our first line which will go north to the Iron Range."

Again, the officials just stared at the kid til the same old man from before said, "You know how far it is from here to the Iron Range right?"

"I do, but that's were we have to start. If we don't lay claim to that part first, which I am frankly surprised that no one else has, we might very well loose it." Richard said flatly

"What about man power, that is a big factor in such a task." said an Irish fellow of about 40 years of age, General McNeal

"I am sure that if we promise Equestria a slice of the proverbial cake they will happily provide us with some ponies to help in our endeavor."

"Seems like you have thought alot of this out, Mr. Mattson. But what about materials?",The man grabbed the description paper and read off, "With only 10 miles worth of rails and ties we couldn't possibly make it up there."

"Well Mr, Jenkins, that is another thing we will have to rely on the ponies for before we can get enough iron to build the first steel mill." commented Richard

A heavy built official grunted in amusement, "You seem to be relying on the ponies for an awful lot Mr. Mattson."

"Do you have any other ideas Mr. Lowing?" asked Tyler from his chair along side Richard

That silenced the fat man and he retreated into his mind to lick his wounds.

Turning back the the remainder of the group Tyler said, "So, any objections to my friends proposal?"

For the next minute the group talked amongst them selves and soon agreed that this was the only way.

"Good!" started Tyler, "Now the project will commence in 3 days and you all better be there, all the help is needed." With that Tyler and Richard exited the room.

Once they reached they reached the office Tyler spoke, "Richard, get down to the storehouse and start looking over everything, sing you know the most about all this stuff. I myself will change clothes and collect some heavy guys to help us."

"What are we doing now?" questioned Rich with a raised eyebrow

"We need to get that stuff outta there don't we?" Rich nodded, "Then that's what we are doing."

"Ok, guess Ill see ya there then." with that the railroad historian took his leave to the room that held humanities salvation.

Taking a some rights, a left and going down a few flights of stairs Richard found himself at the Store house. Taking his time, he looked for the stacks of rails and found them to be sitting on top of 7 of the 10 flatcars. The boxcars held all of the ties, plates and spikes needed to build 10 miles of trackage. That easy task completed he now looked over every piece of machinery in the room, the Locomotives came first. He climbed all over the engines trying to spot a single scratch or scour that would hinder the operation of such a beast, he found none on any of them. The bearings were all still greased and the wooden cabs were still as solid as ever.

the minutes ticked by and soon Tyler and his aforementioned crew of heavy men stalked into the main room, all wearing denim overalls and white shirts underneath. Rich Chuckled, "they all look like genuine railroad men." he thought.

"All right you lackeys, you ready to build a RAILROAD!!" Tyler shouted in a gruff voice

"SIR YES SIR!" the men all shouted in unison, raising there hands to their foreheads in a salute

"GOOD!!! Now each of you split in to teams of 5 half of the teams will haul the rails out here the rest are to move the ties."

With that the crew scattered into chaos before situating themselves in groups and going to work. It took the teams all of 5 hours to get the materials moved into the empty main room. Once that was completed Richard took over as team captain and instructed the men on how to lay track at the right gauge so the engines and rolling stock could run over the rails with out falling off. Since these engines were what we call standard gauge, meaning the rails were 4 ft 8 1/2 inches apart, that's what Richard told the men to do.The hammers rang aloud as the 20lb sledges slammed the spikes home. Richard and Tyler left the crew to their work after telling them the tracks needed to be laid to the elevator.

They themselves needed to gather fuel for the locomotives, a big task to say the least. Luckily they had allot of axes and allot of men to help with the work. The 2 made there way to the cafeteria, since it was lunch time this was were most of the population would be right now.

"All right people, we need some men with strong backs and arms! Who would like to volunteer?" Richard asked

Much to the pleasure of the 2 over 20 hands shot up. "Well, that's more then I thought I would get." muttered Richard, "Ok, when your all finished eating met me and the president here out in the woods to the north."

Chapter 3: Lumber men in the making

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"Now that your all here," Started Tyler, "We need to chop down a good many trees to fuel a little project of ours. Here are a few boundary's you cant cross, the trees have to be at least 12 inches in diameter and must be oak. I surely hope that we don't need to instruct you fellas on how to use an axe. Now to go to work men."

The mass of muscled men grabbed their assorted broad axes and commenced there laborious work. The sound of sharp snapping and popping filled the air and half the Forrest toppled over. Richard left the ex-general to be the oversee-er and went to work himself. Grasping a heavy axe he walked to the nearest tree, over 100 feet away and with a grunt, swung it at the looming tree. He swung it sideways into the trunk and it sunk in to the sappy bark and wood with a smack. Pulling it back out he brought the axe over his head and swung it at an angle towards the trunk, chipping a chunk off. He repeated this action for a good 10 minutes before he yelled out the iconic lumber mans call, "TIMBER!"

Snapping protest the tree slowly fell over with a tremendous crash. Richard did this 10 more times to the amazement of the rest of the group. Once he was done he walked back over to Tyler with sweat dripping off of his forehead and the axe over his shoulder. Taking a couple breaths he said, "Tyler, tell them to start sectioning the logs and splitting them."

Tyler took the advice and ordered to his men, "ALRIGHT FELLAS!!! START SECTIONING THE LOGS AND SPLITTING THEM UP IN TO QUARTERS!"

The once military men felled the trees they were working then dutifully followed the orders of the president. More smacking and chopping echoed through out the Forrest. Once again humans ravaged the american landscape with the sounds of progress and soon, the hissing of steam and clouds of smoke would flow through the air.

Richard clapped his friend on the back and muttered, "Ok, I need to go take a rest for a few hours. Have the men load the wood into the tenders of the 4 engines would you?"

"I think I can manage that." replied Tyler with a smirk

With that Richard left the site of the timber men and dragged his tired body to his room in a nearby house. He built it himself over the past 2 months. Rich thought himself a jack-of-all-trades kinda person, which was true no matter what way you looked at it. He was a master plumber, wood worker, mechanic, machinist and just about everything else you could think of. That were the main reasons he was chosen to be included in this endeavor over 2000 years ago. He opened the door and slammed down on the pony made couch, quickly falling asleep due to his tired limbs.
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Richard awoke several hours later and found it to be nearly 7:00 PM. He groaned, "Oh, who let me sleep that long?" and rubbed the sleep from his eyes before he stood up and walked out the door, heading for 'The Hall of Steel' as he called it. Slowly he walked across the hastily built town and stepped into the large expanse that was the main lobby for the government building. He greeted the secretary at the desk and continued his stroll through the halls looking for the stairs. It took him 10 minutes of walking before he finally found it. Grasping the brass door knob he slid through the door and down into the depths of the ex-stronghold. Finding his door he swung it open in to the main storage room. It contained most of the supplies that the humans still had though much smaller then it once was.

He finally reached the gigantic opening that was the hall of steel and turned on the lights. Again he was mesmerized by the glistening brass and polished steel before him. With broad smile on his face he climbed into the cab of the Red Leviathan and opened the fire doors. Seeing that the tender had been filled to the brim with wood he threw 10 or so chunks into the firebox before jumping back down. His eyes scanned the walls for a fire hydrant and soon found one and a hose. These engines needed water to do anything so he took it apon himself to fill the tenders with water before turning his attention to the boiler itself. It had a valve on the side where one would attach a hose and fill it with water.

The thing with these engines was they needed steam pressure before they could take water out of the tender's tank, which was kind of stupid but it was what it was. As the boiler filled to capacity you could see the level rising in a little glass gauge inside the cab. Slowly it filled to the point where 75% of the boiler was filled, the right level so as not to hurt the engines touchy valves and workings in the steam dome. Turning the water off, he wound up the hose and clambered back into the Walnut cab. With in seconds the experienced camper had the fire blazing like the sun. Seeing a flaw in his plans, Richard ran across the room to the elevator and lowered it just enough so the smoke that billowed out of the balloon stack exited before it could choke out him out.

Hour after hour past as Rich wait for the 'clock' to rise, meaning he was waiting for steam pressure. Throwing chunk after chunk of timber into the roaring fire. The gauge slowly crept round from 10 psi to 20 and so on and so forth. At 3:00 AM the gauge reached 150 psi, the max operating pressure for this engine. For the first time in centuries, the relief valve atop the boiler sprang open in a cloud of steam and lowered the pressure in the boiler a few pounds before closing itself. Rich just sat there with a grin on his face that would give any pony out there a run for his/her money.

Slowly leaning forward he grasped the reversing lever and pulled it back from the neutral position. Seeing that the boiler needed water badly he opened a valve, known as the injector, to the left of the back head (the control station or the very back of the boiler) and opened it. With a low whoosh water blasted into the boiler at the rate of 10 gallons a minute. Satisfied that everything was in good order Rich turned back to the main levers inside the cab. Taking hold of a small lever near his feet, he pulled it back and then grabbed the throttle. He opened it slowly and soon the engine let out a blast of steam from the front. The cylinder Cocks had been opened to allow the condensed steam to exit the cylinders so they didn't get blown apart. The pressure built inside the cylinders to the point were it was so great that it forced the pistons to move, propelling the massive locomotive backwards.

A moment later the engine had connected itself to the train of flatcars located behind it. Reversing the process from before, Rich coerced the beast in to a forward motion.

"To bad no one else is here to see this thing in action." muttered Richard

The engine chugged loudly as it pulled itself out of the 'Hall of Steel' and into the expanse that was the main storage room. The room echoed the noise.

The Leviathan clacked over the rail joints as it made its way towards the elevator. Seeing that the point of the cowcatcher at the head of the engine had just about his the wall, Richard shut off the steam and it slowed to a stop. the behemoth. He jumped from the cab and walked over to the control panel on the extreme right and hit the 'up' button. With a squeal the moving platform pulled upward, bringing the engine and 5 of the cars up with it. Slowly but surely the complication made its way to the world above.

Since most of the original military base was under ground the store house elevator came up right in the middle of town. Richard got a wild hair and once the engine had reached the top and the locking clamps activated, he grabbed the whistle cord...

A shrill single note scream broke out and woke the entire population of 150,000 people up. Lights popped on inside the main building and men and women flung open there doors of there houses, preparing to yell at the stupid joker before they seen what had made the noise. The air pumps thumbed loudly as the congregation moved towards the Red behemoth. It was still dark out so Richard sung out of the cab and walked up the the massive box headlight at the head of the engine. With a lighter in hand he lite the oil inside and a spotlight shot out of the light, blinding everyone in front of it.

An extremely happy Richard shouted out to the crowd, "THIS IS OUR SALVATION!!!! NOW GO BACK TO BED!!!" He then shewed them off and dropped the fire from the boiler onto the steel elevator floor.
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The next day Tyler McGoff called Richard in from engineering the new right of way to ask him a few... questions.

"Richard, what possessed you to make a scene like that last night?" the president growled

Rich just have off a fit of laughter and grinned wildly.

Tyler face-palmed and said, "You know I will never find out what to do with your shenanigans."

"I know, there SO bad arnt they." Chuckled the steam buff

"When you wake up all of the town, yes!" Snapped Tyler, throwing his hands up

"Fine, Ill never do it again. That make you happy?"

"If only you follow through with it, which I know you wont." the ex-general muttered

"So you think I can go back out and oversee the building again?" asked Richard

"Nope," Replied Tyler, "You gotta come with me."

Rich gave him a questioning look, "Where we goin and why?"

"To Equestria my dear friend." said Tyler

"For what?"

The president chuckled, "Did you forget your plan that fast?"

"OH!!! For the materials?" asked the engineer

"Yep, already got our dear friend Aaron there waiting for our sorry asses."

Richard lifted and eyebrow, "Why do we need him there?"

"Well for starters he is friends with Princess Luna. He can help plead our case for the steel rails. While we are there will see about our food crisis as well." replied Tyler as he looked at his government books.

"When do we leave?" asked Rich

"In 20 minutes."

"How are we gonna get there? Its over 1000 miles to Canterlot!" questioned Richard

"The Princesses have sent one of their carriages to pick us up."

With that Tyler shewed his friend out the door and went back to work.
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Richard made his way to his humble log house and gathered up a few sets of clothes and a second 'dress' hat. Stuffing his belongings in a duffel bag, he returned to groping inside his closet for something that would scare the shit out of any pony that knew what it was. Pulling out a cloth case about 4 feet long he smiled. The brass zipper was pulled ever so slightly and exposed the stock of walnut. Sliding the thing out of the case finally reveled exactly what it was, a Henry .44 lever action rifle. He needed more protein then what the veggies gave him so he took it upon himself to craft ammo for the old gun and gathered up venison while the test tube cattle grew.

Despite the guns age it always slung the bullet straight and true. It would come in handy for some stupid pony decided to try and rob us, which would be kind of stupid of them anyhow but the point still stood, plus it could give them there dinner. Placing the gun back in its case he zipped it up and slung it and the duffel bags over his shoulder. Satisfied that he had packed accordingly he stepped out and locked the heavy wooden door.

From the middle of the street Richard could see Tyler standing next to the glistening leviathan, waiting for the transportation to Equestria's Capital, Canterlot.

Chapter 4: A meeting of politicans

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Author's note: Now there is an awful lot of dialogue in this chapter so much of it might not be cannon/fannon. Everything in here is due to change if someone tells me something isn't right so be on the look out.
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The carriage arrived a few minutes later with 2 Greek mythological entities come to life. The golden clad pegasi lowered the magical wagon to the dusty earth and unhitched themselves. They cantered up the the 2 humans leaning against the red behemoth behind them. One of them wore a western duster, a striped shirt, blue jeans and a brown stetson hat. The other was clad in the official monkey suit. the 2 pegasi pulled off there helmets and showed there brown and white faces to the 2 men.

"You fellas must be Mr. Mattson and Mr. McGoff?" asked the brown one

The western styled human lifted his hat off his face and spoke, "That would be us, but it seems you have the upper hand in this situation as I don't know your names?" he said with a wave of his hand

"Oh, sorry. I am Sonic Thunder and this is Roy." the Pegasus said flatly

"Roy? I thought ponies got creative with there names?" Richard asked

"Generally yes, but my parents weren't exactly in there right minds when they named me." said the White one with a hearty chuckle

In a gruff and commanding voice, Thunder said, "Now that the introductions are through, would you two mind stepping into the carriage now?"

"We sure wouldn't." Said Richard, jabbing his elbow into Tyler's side.

"Wha... whats happening?" stammered Tyler, waking from his short cat nap.

Richard whispered into his ear the info that he had just been told before stalking into the open wagon's passenger compartment. Tyler soon followed and the ponies hitched back up and took to the sky. They traveled over the buffalo lands to the east and soon were passing over a town that the ponies called Appleoosa. Richard had been there a few times himself to inspect the railroad for some odd reason, but he is a train man so everyone expected it.

"You know whats funny Tyler?" asked Richard, breaking the silence that had been in the air since they took off.

A slightly groggy president sat up in his seat and said, "Whats that Rich?"

With a slight chuckle the engineer beside the president started to talk about some boring topic that flew right over Tyler's head. Normally the ex-general would tell Richard to shut up and fall back to sleep, but since he kinda forced the country fellow into coming he sorta deserved it. Hour after hour passed and Rich just kept talking and talking, thinking that Tyler actually knew what was being said.

Soon one of the Pegasi spoke up and started to talk with Richard about some metallurgy thing. Supposedly the Brown Pegasus was a blacksmith for the castle, creating the ornamental armor they now wore.

"You ever smithed gold?" asked Thunder

For a moment the all knowing historian was silent, picking through his mental filing cabinets. Finally he spoke, "I cant say that I have. I have mostly done steel and iron."

Seeing that he had something over the young human smith, he cleared his voice and began, "Well gold is totally different. You have to heat it to just the right temperature or it will just melt but you can have it to cold or it will just bend. Steel is allot more robust and takes allot more hammering to get it into shape where as gold is softer and only takes a few wakes to get it right. Steel is allot tougher but at the same time more forgiving. If you hammer a gold plate to hard it gets to thin, then you have to start all over. With steel it takes more strength but doesn't spread out like gold does..."

The conversation went on and on to the point were it put Tyler to sleep. Glancing over at his sleeping partner Richard let out a good laugh, "I guess we put the president to sleep Thunder."

Taking a moment to turn his head the Pegasus confirmed the previous statement and laughed as well before he looked back to the blue sky.
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Several hours later the group found themselves hovering over what the Pegasi said was Ponyville, the home of Aaron Patterson, the savior of the entire Human race. The ponies at the head lowered the heavy carriage to the ground and soon heard a few voices coming from the tree/library.

"How you think they do that?" asked Tyler

Richard just looked at his friend with a smile and said, "Really Ty? It magic! They don't gotta explain SHIT!"

Tyler just face-palmed and waited for Aaron to join them. The minutes ticked by until the door to the tree finally swung open and smacked against the wooden frame. Dr. Patterson himself walked out while he was shouting back into the library.

"No Twilight, I gotta go NOW!" he said as a little purple unicorn emerged from the doorway.

"But you still need to tell me about the civil war!" She shouted

"That can wait, my country needs my help. Cant let them down you know." Aaron said, waving a finger

"Could you at least introduce me to your friends then?" she asked politely with a smile as the 2 men walked up

"Ugh, fine! This here is Richard Mattson, the Chief Mechanic and Engineer of Lazarus and you have already met President Tyler. Rich, this is Twilight Sparkle, Ponyville's Librarian and local nutcase." He said with a chuckle

"I am not a nutcase!" growled Twilight

"Well, pleasure to meet ya Miss Sparkle." said Richard, shaking Twilight's hoof

"So your an engineer? What kind of engineer?" she asked with a grin

"Name one and I will generally tell you yes."

"Really? Interesting! I would love to know more about your profession Mr. Mattson."

"Maybe some other time. We have to be some where now. Don't we Aaron?" said Rich with a glare in Aaron's direction

"Ah... Yes! Yes we do. I'll see ya later Twi." said the Biologist as he ran towards the carriage

Twilight said good bye to her new acquaintances and retreated into her library. Crazy mare...

Seeing that the unicorn was gone, Tyler and Richard collected themselves and climbed into the small enclosed wagon and gave the Pegasi the go ahead. With a few grunts and wing beats the 2 stallions had the wheeled flying contraption in the air, on course for the white City of Canterlot.

Thunder cleared his throat, "Ok Gentlemen, it will be 8:00 PM by the time we get there so I will have one of the palace servants direct you to your rooms for the night. Any questions?"

"Ya, when do we eat?" asked Richard

"As soon as we get there." said the Pegasus gruffly

"What will be served?"

Growing frustrated by the questions the pony replied, "Do I look like a cook to you?"

"No..." the man replied flatly

"Then wait til you get to the castle and ask THEM!" growled Thunder

"Well, if its something like hay I am gonna have to pass." Rich said flatly

"Then what will you eat?" asked Aaron

"I am gonna go hunting!" The engineer shouted with a giant grin. Everyone's jaw hit the floor...

Thinking that he was joking, Tyler asked, "Oh ya? With what? Your bear hands?"

"Nope, got my Henry right here." He replied, patting his duffel bag

"You actually brought a gun here!" Tyler whispered into the young mans ears

Aaron just sat in between the 2 and looked at them in disbelief.

"Ya, I aint just gonna eat hay the whole time I am here! Plus it is gonna act as a deterrent if anything goes wrong." he said flatly as he pulled the gleaming rifle out of its case. Groping inside the bag he found a handful of shells and thumbed them into the magazine.

"Well, I guess since its already here I cant make you give it up." the president gave in, "Just don't show anyone and hunt FAR away from the castle!"

"Relax Ty, I got this covered." said Rich, waving a hand at his friend

One of the ponies looked back, "What you gu..." he cut himself off when he spotted the .44 lever action rifle. "Why do you have that?"

"I aint just gonna go around slung lead everywhere you know. Just for protection and such." the human repeated, placing the now filled Henry into his bag.

This brought on a glare from the ponies AND the president. Knowing that any argument they started with the engineer would just result with them being dragged down to his level and being beaten by his experience, neither tried. Richard was extremely immature for his age but knew more then some of the oldest personnel in Terra. It puzzled most people but sooner or later they warmed up to the oddity and excepted it.

Seeing that the moment had passed over the 3 men settled down in there seats for the long haul. One by one they slowly drifted off to sleep. Rich dreamed about, you guessed it, his plan to go north into the Iron Range while the other 2 merely slept. It was quiet for the time being with nothing but the beats of the ponies disturbing the tranquility.
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"Wake up fellas! We're here!" yelled out Roy as he unhitched himself from the now stationary carriage.

"Ugh! What time is it?" asked Aaron, rubbing sleep from his eyes

"8 o'clock." stated the white Pegasus

"Well guys, guess we should get up then right?" Muttered Tyler

"My god! I still have to go get dinner for myself don't I?" asked Richard

"I would make sure with Celestia or Luna if its OK Rich. They can be really intimidating under the right circumstances." said Aaron with a determined look in his eyes

"I suppose your right. Now where do you think she is?" questioned the engineer

"Well, seeing as its dinner time? She has to be eating about now." Said the brown pony that now stood in front of them, "Now if your follow me. We will be there in a few minutes."

They followed Thunder through the golden gates at the front of the Castle. It was truly mesmerizing, even in the twilight. The white stone that made up the walls and palace itself looked as if it was polished to the point of perfection. As they gazed at their surroundings Thunder spoke took the moment to speak with the guard at the door. Soon they were walking through the halls towards the dining room. The red rug underneath their feet seemed extremely springy for something as old as it was which made everyone in the group wonder what it was made of.

The group reached the large oak double doors at the end of the hall. Thunder knocked 3 times and the mass of wood creaked open slowly on the old hinges. He hadn't even been in the palace for 10 minutes when Richard started examining the building techniques used by the constructors 2000 years ago. Sure he had seen most of the construction long ago but now he was up close to it.

Everything looked like the castles built by the English all the years ago. "Maybe that's were they got the idea?" the engineer asked himself. Even the holes in the walls for archers were everywhere. He wondered why they hadn't taken up the rifles and pistols from the war but quickly put it out of his mind. They entered the Dining hall which was dominated by a large oak table, a squad golden clad guards and the two Princesses of old. The moment they stepped into the massive dining hall they were greeted by the regal white pony. She sat at the very end of the table, furthest from the humans. A smile on her face that told the group she was happy to see them. For what ever reason that was they couldn't guess.

"Welcome President Tyler and to you as well Aaron!" She announced, "I see you have brought a friend to our gathering?"

"Yes I have your majesty. This is Richard Mattson, our chief engineer and mechanic for our entire country." stated Tyler

"Nice to meet you your majesty" said Richard in the most polite way possible.

The sun princess just smiled and said, "The same to you Mr. Mattson."

"Ah, that was my father's name. Call me Rich." he replied, "Now forgive me for my manners. I havent been in any sorta meeting like this in a long time."

The young man took off his duster and hat before placing them on the chair. Taking his seat not a moment later with his companions followed suit.

"Its fine Mr... ah... Rich." she stammered, not used to the informal speech.

Aaron had walked over to the ever shy Luna and started a conversation with her over something about dark magic. He had been spending time with twilight, experimenting with his new found magical abilities. Soon the two had bust into laughter at a joke that no one/pony had any idea as to what was funny.

The food was served soon after and the politicials (and Richard) ate a good meal of Pancakes. They were quite good and tasted like apples for some reason. The moment Rich took a bite of the pony made breakfast food his thoughts of a venison steak washed away in a flood of flavor. Taking to moment to talk to his freind, Tyler asked Aaron about what he had been doing the past few months...

"Well, I have been studing magic with Twilight for the most part and helped Applejack on the farm the rest of the time." he said with a wave his fork, "I have to say I really do like being able to enjoy myself in life rather then be stuck in some chemical lab testing different meds and such."

"I hope to god you haven't told them about the 'tests' we preformed on monkeys and mice." whispered the president

"No! I wouldn't even think of it. They would be disgusted by me if I did so."

"Other then that you have been having a good time then?" asked Tyler

"Yep! Never been better Ty." replied Aaron with a smile

As the night dragged on the obvious awkwardness from the first few minutes vanished and soon the men and the ponies conversed amongst themselves with utter joy. Neither of the races have had a meeting like this in a long time. Aaron had introduced Richard to Luna for some odd reason but the engineer didn't complain. It sure was nice for the mechanic to get out of his shop/overseeing duties and talk with the people/ponies of the outside world.

"Richard! Will you come over here please?" called out the well dressed Dr. Patterson who sat across from the dark blue moon princess.

"I guess! What do you want now doc?" asked Rich with a chuckle. He slowly made his way towards the 2 from the far side of the room and sat down in the chair next to Aaron.

"I would like to introduce you to my ex-enemy and friend Princess Luna." replied the doctor

The western dressed human stuck out his hand with a wide grin and said, "Please to meet ya Miss Luna. I am Richard Mattson."

Luna returned the gesture and asked him what he did among the ranks of the humans.

"Well, I suppose that would take most of all night so Ill simplify it for ya." He said, furrowing his eyebrows, "Lets see, I am the main engineer and mechanic for the entire city. Meaning I fix everything that's broken weather it be the reactors and the steam turbines themselves. Its what I have wanted to do my entire life."

"Do go on Richard, I would like to know a little bit more." said the blue alicorn

"That's all there is really. Other then a new or rather ancient project that has begun to take shape, I have been lazy most of the time or building things in my work shop."

She seemed to except the answer before asking about the new project.

"Well, that's kind of why I am here actually. I need some supplies and pony power if I am to finish this." He said, scratching the back of his head.

"Still extremely vague Richard." she said with a look of 'More info please' emanating from her face.

"It has come to my attention that you ponies do have some what of a rail network for moving mainly passengers. Am I correct?" She nodded

"Well, the basis of your little engines came from ours from over 2100 years ago. Though somehow they got down sized in the process. We currently have 4 of the original versions of your locomotives shoved down deep inside the earth waiting for their chance at redemption. That's why I am here. I need laborers and rails so I can drag the railroad up north into what we used to call the Iron Range."

"I really do hope you don't mean those small mountains north west of those big bodies of water." said the now nervous pony

"And why is that Miss?" asked a confused Richard

She shook, "That's Diamond Dog territory. Great big beasts that would rather kill then give up there hoard of jewels."

The human chuckled, "Well, if we run into any trouble we will be sure to let them know we don't play games."

"Do you think you could try diplomacy first?" she asked politely

"I am sure we'll try. Tyler wouldn't let us go on otherwise."

"Well as long as you try first." she said softly, knowing what the humans were capable of went prodded with a stick.

"If anything we will just tell them about Alaska to the north. Lots of gold deposits up there along with diamonds in the upper part of what we used to call Canada." replied the engineer, "Once they know about that they will probably just pack up and take off."

"That sounds like a good idea. Would we, the kingdom that is, get a fair share of what you mine if we help?"

"Oh yes. I had planned that from the very start. You will get half of anything we get out of there. That is if anything is left up there." he said with a sigh

"There is." said Aaron

"And how would you know?" asked a confused Richard. He shifted in his seat to get into a more comfortable position.

"Mother told me." the doctor said flatly

"Well, since it has been proven true, you will get a fair share Princess." said the mechanic with a smile

Smiling at the offer before her the moon Princess gladly said, "Thank you Mr. Mattson. I will have our railroad start building towards your location in a few days. You will have to wait til then to receive your materials and labor force."

"But wont you need to OK that with the buffalo tribes?" asked the bewildered engineer

"I will talk with them about it soon. Even if we have to come down from the north around there lands you WILL get your supplies." she said, sipping from the goblet in her telekinesis.

"I have to thank you for your cooperation Miss Luna. You have been a great help to my people." said the ecstatic human with a giant smile adorning his face.

"My pleasure Mr. Mattson. It has been a pleasure but I need to go now for I have to deal with the night court." said the alicorn with disgust, before she stood and walked towards her older sister.

"Celestia, you need your rest. You should be going to bed now." she said softly to the white pony

"I know." Replied the older princess, standing from her sitting position across from Tyler she announced that she was taking her leave. With that the two regal ponies exited the room... leaving the humans with the hard apple cider. This could be bad...

Chapter 5: let the work of the giants BEGIN

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Authors note: OK, this chapter has a tremendous amount of description in it so it helps you know whats really going on. The few things that have been built by our engineer were built using parts from the now defunct military vehicles. Moving on I hope you like this new chapter and please, leave a comment. I do enjoy reading them.
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On May 10th 1869 the 2 halves of the United States were joined by 2 strings of solid steel known as the transcontinental railroad. That day was celebrated till the end of the human race. Now a new celebration had taken its place. That was the connection of the 2 countries of Equestria and Terra. Richard himself smashed a bottle of whiskey against the end of the brightly colored Equestrian engine, shattering it into a million pieces. When the whiskey ran the crowds cheer with delight. Both countries made it a national holiday as this was the day the 2 nations would be bound together for all of time.

Richard stood on the pilot of the weird magically powered steam locomotive with a glass bottle of whiskey in his hand, staring at the crowd of hundreds of thousands of people and ponies alike who waited for him to tie the knot. Cocking his arm back he swung the glass bottle at the smoke box of the little engine and with a crash cameras flashed and people cheered. With a smile of jubilation upon his was he raised the neck of the liquor bottle above his head and shouted, “THE DEED HAS BEEN DONE! NOW IT IS OUR TURN TO RETURN THE FAVOR!!!
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10 miles outside of Lazarus:

"You’re doing a fine job men!" Shouted the commanding engineer over the clang of steel

Behind him stood the ever present Leviathan at the head of a 10 car train of rails and ties. In the shining daylight of noon it glistened like never before. The men followed the young mans orders with pride and strength, knowing that he held their future in his immature hands. seeing that the crew was running low on gravel for the ballast (the rock under the track) Richard slowly walked over to a black monster with an eagle emblem bolted to the front of the smoke box. He slowly walked around the traction engine and inspected every piece of every moving part. The wheels were covered from top to bottom in grease from the past few weeks. Since he had the free time the young country had used the powerful brute to plow a few hundred acres of land for planting. Noticing that everything was in perfect working order he climbed onto the operator’s deck and yanked the whistle cord. A loud shriek blasted forth into the warm air across the empty fields around him, scaring every animal in sight.

"I always loved doing this kind of stuff." Mumbled the Mechanic with a smile on his face

He swung open the firebox doors and proceeded to throw chunks of oak into the blazing inferno. Sparks and ash flew out the stack while he did this necessary action to prevent it from losing steam while he worked it. Linked to the rear hitch of the earth moving engine was a ripper that was designed and built by him for just this purpose. With a grunt Rich pulled a giant lever down and a moment later the massive girth of the ripper was hovering above the ground by a few inches. A satisfactory chuckle later the man settled into the driver’s seat, pushed the reversing lever forward and open the brass throttle in one fluid motion. The engine chugged loudly as it pushed itself forward with steam hissing from the open cylinder cocks and the ground behind it being torn up by the solid axle of the MASSIVE steel wheels as he cranked the steering wheel to the left, avoiding the work crews directly in front of him. The field to the left of the crews was filled with good gravel and the engineer was using it to his advantage; gathering up tons of it for use on the new railroad line. as the engine advanced a few hundred feet at contraption came into view that would baffle most people by its hear awkwardness. Again it was a product of the young genius. Its primary use was to pick the gravel that had been loosened by the ripper and load it into a wagon provided by the ponies.

Feeling he was in a good spot, Richard again leaned back to grabbed the lever behind him. Clamping his fist around the latch the weight of the ripper fell to the ground with a crash. This tast done he turned his attention back to the controls of the explosive land locomotive under his control. Glancing at the water gauge he noticed that it was extremely low and acted accordingly by opening the valve to the water tank behind him. Soon the rush of water was heard as it forced itself into the pressurized boiler. Grabbing hold of the throttle he jerked it open and the engine chugged into motion, dragging the heavy implement behind its tremendous girth. The echo of the pounding exhaust could be heard miles away back at camp where half the crew sat eating their lunch. One such being was a purple unicorn pony that was munching on a dandelion sandwich.

Twilight had arrived a few hours before and made the long trek to the camp to visit a new friend of hers who was working on the new tracks. Once she finished the last of her lunch she hopped of the bench and cantered down the freshly laid tracks at a brisk pace. As she walked she could here a loud sort of thumping. Kind of like a train but only it was more to the right then directly in front of her. She quickened her pace and minutes later she came upon the sight of the traction engine, working hard as it drug the ripper through the earth at a 4 mph pace, spewing black smoke into the crystal clean air all the whole time. The young mare just dropped to the ground and stared in amazement. Normally it would take a big pony, like Big Macintosh of example; a few hours to do what this machine was doing in mere minutes!

'There must be some kind of magic involved with this...' she thought, 'Surly this wouldn't be possible without it.'

Gathering up the courage to walk up to the lumbering giant and shouted, "RICHARD!!! IS THAT YOU!?!?!?"

The head of the driver turned and it was indeed Richard. After seeing the unicorn he pushed the throttle forward and the engine came to an abrupt halt, hissing steam from most of the pipes. Seeing an opportunity to be immature he shouted back:

"NOPE!!"

Twilight rolled her eyes as she walked up the traction engine. She was slightly scared of the ominous beast but since the human was up there why couldn't she? Taking a few precarious step before leaping onto the operator platform at the rear of the engine.

"So you finally made it?" asked the sarcastic engineer with a smile

"Yep! Thought I should come up and maybe help you 'demons' with your work. As long as it doesn't involve any grunt work." she replied with a sheepish grin.

"I know you unicorns aint fit to do any hard labor." he said with a chuckle, "but I figured you might want to see what we can do with all this big equipment."

"You are absolutely right." She said, "I saw this 'thing' working and I cant seem to understand how just fire and steam alone can propel itself and pull that attachment."

"Its all a matter of gearing and the pressure of the boiler. I am sure you are thinking that magic is involved in some way arnt you?" she grinned and nodded

"Well if you could stand back a little bit I could sow you." said the engineer

The pony took a couple steps backwards and Richard leaned down and opened the firebox doors, exposing the raging inferno within. Seeing that it was a little low he grabbed a few chunks of wood and tossed them into it.

"See when the fire burns it makes a tremendous amount of energy given off in the form of heat. Since the heat would have an extremely hard time coming through the closed door it is forced out through the boiler tubes and out the stack. The heat is transferred to the water inside the boiler and the steam that is created rises to the top were a central valve is located." while he said this he pointed to just about everything, except the tubes inside the boiler since that would include sticking his arm into the fire.

"Once I have enough pressure built up inside the boiler I open said valve and the steam is forced into the valve chamber of the cylinder." he said and pointed to the box welded to the side of the cylinder. "Once there I move the reversing lever, which changes the amount of steam allowed into the cylinder as well as the direction of travel."

"That still doesn't answer how it can pull this contraption behind it." the pony pointed out

Richard face palmed and repeated, "Its all in the gearing."

The pony glared at the human.

"Fine!, he growled, "See there are 2 gears in the drive system. One is extremely small and the other is extremely large, the diameter of the entire wheel to be exact. When power is put for the to the cylinder the steam forces the piston back and turns the crankshaft, thus turning the back and forth motion of the piston in a circular motion." He took a deep breath and continued, "When the crankshaft turns, it turns this massive flywheel which makes everything run smoothly. The little gear is mounted to the crankshaft. When you push the clutch forward the 2 gears mesh together and the engine move. Since it takes more revolutions of the small gear to turn the big gear it, in turn, goes slower. Thus it is easier to turn a large gear with a small gear then it is the other way around. THAT is what helps the engine pull that RIPPER through the ground."

"You know, when I first seen you I would have never expected that lengthy explanation to just pour from your mouth like a scholar." said Twilight

The human smiled, "A lot of people used to tell me that."

The human turned his attention back on the steamed beast in front of him and commenced ripping the packed gravel up once again. As the hours wore on the mare just watched as the humans hands darted back and forth from lever to lever and from valve to valve. Soon the engine ran low on supplies and had to return to the rail head to refuel. Jumping down he grabbed an arm full of wood and dumped it into the empty bunker behind the boiler. He repeated this quite a few times before it was finally full. Once that strenuous task was completed he realized it still needed water. Likely there was a small creek nearby that he had gotten water from earlier in the day.

Starting the tractor again he drove the lumbering giant to the banks of the creek and drug out an old garden hose. Attaching one end to the hand pump on the rear of the engines he threw the threw the other into the current. He grabbed the centrifugal pumps hands and cranked at it for about 10 minutes, tiring his arm out to the point where it just hung limply at his side. Shaking his head at his stupidity his mind reverted back to the pony who once sat in the floor of the platform without saying a word. When he looked he spotted nothing... absolutely nothing. This worried the engineer slightly but thinking that she knew what she was doing pushed that thought far back in his mind.

Richard climbed back into the operators position and started the engine forward once again. As the clanked, rattled and rolled along steam hissed from few connections, indicating that it indeed had been rebuilt before put in its 2000 year storage. Minutes passed before he arrived at the gravel field he was working on. Thinking that he had ripped up enough for the day he proceeded to back the steam engine down onto his hand built gravel gathering contraption. Really it was nothing more than 2 sets of chains with scoops welded on, but upon seeing the machine the unicorn became enthralled with what it did, how it worked and what went into making it. Richard had told her it was nothing special but she insisted. He told her not to touch it because it was covered in grease and oil and was haphazardly welded together with chunks of rail and iron they had found. Lifting the heavy hitch on the rear of the traction engine he caught a glimpse of a purple tail behind the scraper.

"Twilight! I thought I told you not to come over here!" he scolded her

"I just wanted to know what it was. It’s not a big deal." she replied

He sighed, "It is a big deal. What is something broke and it fell on you? Then what would you have done?!?"

She hung her head in shame. Richard groaned. He had always had a soft spot for the women, weather pony or human.

"I am sorry but you cant do this kind of stuff out here. This isn't like Ponyville. Things here arnt as inviting as they seem. So watch your step. Everything extremely dangerous and you could have gotten hurt. With help a mile back that way... Agh! I just wouldn't have been able to live with myself." he sighed and returned to hitching the conveyer machine behind the traction engine.

The pin dropped in and he then checked every bearing and smooth running surface for wearing. Noticing that it had gone with out oiling for some time he grabbed the little can from the engine and oiled every part, moving or not.

Twilight just watched the man work. She had never seen anypony fuss over one piece of equipment for so long in her entire life. It made her ever curious. Richard called for her to climb back onto the engine and with that the tractor groaned into motion with the contraption and its accompanying trailer clattering along behind it. The only thing weird was that nothing was moving, well except for the wheels. The chain of buckets hung lifelessly a few inches above the dry ground when she thought they should be moving. The axles were solid as far as she knew. There were a few levers on the machine that she hadn't ventured to move or even touch for that matter.

"Alright Twi. Here is where you get to see some real human engineering." Said Richard with a massive shit-eating-grin on his face

Leaning back over the contraption he grabbed a rope and pulled it hard. With a snap and a smash the heavy scrapper head hit the ground, making the chains clatter together. It scared the mare to the point of backing into the hot firebox door behind her. She pulled forward fast enough so that her flank didn't get burned to a crisp against the hot door. Richard just laughed, hard, at the pony which she glared at him for but he still went right on laughing. After he recovered from his fit of laughter he grabbed yet another rope, but when he pulled it only snapping sound was made... Nothing clattered or went bang, much to the astonishment of Twilight.

"What did that do?" she asked

"Its what we call a clutch. You noticed that the buckets wern't moving when we were right?" she nodded

"Well it engages teeth on a drum on the wheels. Now when we move this time you'll hear another click when it locks into place." he replied

After adjusting his leather gloves he grabbed the throttle and opened it slowly. Steam rushed forth from the boiler and into the valve chamber, forcing the piston back with 100 psi of pressure. The engine shot black smoke out the stack with a loud bark as it lumbered into motion. With a metallic snap the clutches engaged and the chains and buckets rattled into motion, gathering up rock, dirt and gravely as it slowly sunk into the ground. The soil advanced up the angled conveyer and dumped into the waiting wagon at the rear.

Again Twilight was amazed that all of this stuff worked! How they did this with out any magic she will never know. Yet somehow they managed to survive harsh conditions and wars that would have brought Equestria to in knees, without the service of magic. The humans were surly remarkable creatures that astonished any living being but themselves. They had a machine for just about everything! Even to talk to each other over a long distance! Since the ponies had taken over though they had lost most of the accomplishments to the sands of time. Much to the disappointment to the young unicorn.
It still made her gaze at the steam powered beasts they used in wonderment. If these were considered old tech to them... what was new!?!?!?
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The traction engine clattered into camp at half past 9 with a full wagon of gravel trailing behind it. Once the engine had been parked under a hastily built shelter Richard pulled a lever that dropped the fire and ashes to the ground beneath it.
The pair jumped off the machine with sleepy legs and eyes. They walked to the bunkhouse without dinner and fell into their respective beds and fell asleep almost instantaneously.

Chapter 6: Of brass and iron

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When steam was king people stood in awe of its power and sheer size. Now is a completely different story…
I speak for the machines that built this country for they will be back to aid us in our time of need, relinquishing the past in favor of the future…
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The shrill whistle howled in the morning air. Waking all the sleeping crews and making them rise from there slumber with groans and sighs. Slowly but surely the camp awakened and turned a whirling mass of bodies as they went back and forth from the showers and the rough sawn wooden mess hall. If you could see this in person you would have thought it was a ghost town by night and a huge city by day. One by one humans and ponies alike filed into the light wooden coaches coupled behind the Jupiter. The ever vigilant engineer saw that the crews had taken their respective seats and with another blast of the single chime whistle he tugged the throttle open, spewing wood smoke and steam into the morning air, powering down the line towards their tracks terminating end.

Twilight had been up for the past 4 hours helping Richard steam the massive blue steam engine. It was slow work that was for sure. She was tired but sat in the fireman's seat with confident smile on her face. At the present time, the ends of the tracks were a little over 4 miles ahead. With a wicked smile Rich flung open the brass throttle and let all the steam from the boiler flow endlessly into the pounding pistons. Gaining speed steadily with each cracking report of the labored exhaust they arrived in mere minutes. With a hiss the air brakes came on and the train came to a screeching halt 10 feet behind the construction train.

Richard let out a satisfied chuckle; His reflexes were still tuned to this kind of stuff. He sat there waiting for the human and pony brigades to disembark so he could back the train down the line to Lazarus to gather much needed supplies. After 5 minutes the train was completely empty. seeing the clear opportunity he pulled the reverser all the way back and started the lumbering beast backwards to uncouple from its train at the spot which was aptly named Gladstone for its conveniently located gravel pits which had been worked by Twilight and Richard the day before. Slowly the engine and its track clacked down the hastily laid track, rocking back and forth all the way.

The young engineer grabbed hold of the brake handle and pulled it into the application position and stopped the train on a short siding that was built only a few days ago. Richard hopped out of the wooden cab and made his way to the rear of the engine to unlock the knuckle couplers on the engines tender and the first car on the train. With a clunk the massive fists opened, relinquishing their grasp on each other. He didn't even bother to unhook the air lines, and just climbed back into the roomy cab.

The engine slowly pulled forward before the air hose came apart with a snapping whoosh. These couplings were meant to do this so he didn't worry. The air pumps thumped along, making up for the lost pressure as the engine maneuvered over 2 switches and coupled to a waiting train of 5 boxcars. With a solid clunk the couplers locked and the engine and train were now one. He asked the young pony to go connect the air hoses as she had seen him do in the morning when he had coupled the Jupiter onto the passenger coaches.

With a gleeful smile the mare jumped down with enthusiasm, Richard had no idea why, and proceeded to let the air flow through the entire train. It took the unicorn 10 minutes to figure out how to connect the 2 hoses. Once she did that she just appeared in the cab with a flash of purple light, scaring the shit out of Richard...

"WHAT THE HELL TWI!!!!" He yelled, flailing his arms about

"What? I figured this would be easier then climbing up here myself." she stated

Richard just glared at the young pony, "At least warn me when your gonna do that next time."

"Don't worry, I won’t." she replied with a smile

Richard just shook his head and grabbed the whistle cord, without letting the mare know. It scared her nearly out of her own skin. She turned her head towards the laughing human and rolled her eyes; “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” She muttered

"Hey twi. Could you pull on that rope above your head please?" asked Richard, pointing to the braided rope

Complying she surrounded the rope in her magic and gave it a good yank. Attached to the other end of the rope was the brass bell which clanged in delight at its first ringing in 2000 years. Once the pony got the rhythm down it clanged nonstop until Richard was forced to tell her to stop. He shook his head and opened the throttle slightly. Seeing an error, he quickly pulled a lever on the floor that released a whooshing sound that was near in sync with the exhaust beats of the locomotive.
After a few revolutions of the massive red driving wheels he pushed the lever closed with his foot, silencing the sound. He opened the firebox door and tossed in 5 chunks of wood before closing the gate to the mini hell.

It was 10 miles to Lazarus and the engineer was going to use every inch of it to let the lumbering behemoth stretch her legs in an all out run. With a wicked smile he glanced at the unsuspecting mare who returned the look with confusion. Jerking open the throttle the drivers spun wildly as they fought for grip on the cold steel rails. Slowly the engine regained its grip and chugged backward, advancing in the direction of the small city. With another pulled of the whistle it let out a wild shriek as the blue locomotive charged down the line at 40 miles per hour.

With a grin the engineer motioned for Twilight to look at a gauge bolted to the middle of the back head. With only a glance her jaw hit the floor. She had only seen pegasi move at speeds this great. Slowly the speeds built up the the point where it was traveling at 50 mph; an astonishing speed for something so large and heavy.

"What makes it able to travel at such speeds?" asked the quizzical pony

"Remember what I told you yesterday?" he replied

"There are no gears on this engine though..." she pointed out

"That's true, but the same thing applies here." He took a quick glance behind him before continuing, "The rods are bolted to the driving wheels at a point where it can travel at these speeds but have a good amount of power as well. Say if the rods were 3 inches lower from center on the wheels it would go slower but have a great amount of power. But if the rods are closer to center it would go faster but have an extremely hard time pulling anything at all."

"I guess I can see how it works." she said, placing a hoof to her chin in thought

"I was taught how to understand it, not how to teach It." he said with a smile

He turned around to see the first of the outlying buildings of the expanding town. Turning serious he grasped the shiny brake handle and swung it into emergency. With a sharp hiss the brakes clamped down, hard, on every axle of the train. Somehow, some way, the train ground to a halt a scant foot before the end of the tracks. He wiped the sweat from his brow with his arm before replacing his Stetson. With a slight laugh at his luck he leaped to the ground and walked to the storehouse were the supplies, such as apples (of course), meat (we needed protein), and the rest of the food stuffs were kept. He lifted the heavy cast iron latch and pulled the heavy oak door open. Inside were mounds of produce that could feed an army for a while year, it had to. At least until the crops came in.

With a groan at the task ahead he started the arduous work of transferring the food from the storehouse into the boxcars. Before he reached the location of the first crate it was surrounded in a purple aura and slid into the air with ease. Twirling around he found a smiling Twilight with her horn shining with the very same color aura. They worked for hours, loading crate after crate into the wooden boxcars. It was slow and tiring work but by 3:00 PM most of the food had been moved. Throughout the work Richard had kept the fire hot but not hot enough to make too much steam and send it out the safety valve.

"Time to go back..." Richard said flatly
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"When I asked you if I could help you I did not mean like this..." growled the grease covered unicorn, trying to wipe the grease and grim from her face

He laughed, "Well, this is how you maintain a locomotive like this Twi; though it doesn't help when you trip and have all the grease and oil drop on your head."

Twilight threw the soiled rag at the laughing human but he dodged it. He went about greasing and oiling ever joint and pivot on the massive locomotive like he was tending to a newborn child. Grabbing the oil can he proceeded to fill the little reservoirs that sat atop the piston rods. Finishing the oiling process he grabbed little white sticks of solid grease. He motioned for the unicorn to grab the little bundles of fat and had her follow him to the first of the giant red driving wheels.

Pointing to what looked like a screw above the main crank pivot he said, "This is where the grease sticks go." He pulled a wrench out of his pocket and undid the little bolt, "Now all you have to do is mash the grease in and replace the bolt." He then placed the stick in the hole and mashed it down as hard as he could. Placing the bolt back, he threaded it down a little before cranking down on it with the wrench. He repeated the process for each of the wheels until grease had squeezed out around every pivot.

Glancing at his watch after the maintenance he realized that it was 6:00, quitting time for the crew. Climbing into the wooden came of the hissing locomotive he grabbed the whistle cord and let out 2 long blasts, signaling for the crew to get back to the train before it left in 10 minutes. As time slide past the men and ponies filed back to the trains and one by one boarded. Like clockwork, 10 minutes passed and the labored chugging and clanging of the brass bell echoed across the flat landscape. The Jupiter powered backwards down the line with the twilight sun glinting off its polished brass that adorned its massive girth.

"I have a friend that would think this machine is truly beautiful." Stated Twilight, gazing at the sheer beauty of the beast

"She isn't the only one." Richard pointed out with a smirk while he looked over his shoulder at the rising silhouettes of the camp. "Some people could never grasp just how beautiful these machines were. They didn't when the humans ruled at least." he sighed
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The next day was nearly exactly like the first except for the fact that the rails had reached a point were they couldn't go without help. Upon seeing this, the leviathan had been pulled back to camp with its train of flatcars yesterday before Richard hit the sack. Steaming silently, it sat directly between the Jupiter's passenger train to the right of it and the string of boxcars to the left. With a roar the safety valve popped open and spat searing hot steam into the air. It was restless after sitting for the past few days and wanted to move out. Richard had been known to talk to his machines for some odd reason but no one ever questioned it.

Walking up to the red giant he spoke, "I know you’re angry at me for not usin ya for the past few days, but you'll be able to stretch your legs today."

Twilight had spoken with Richard earlier that day and said she was needed back home. She wanted to stay and see if she could learn more from the weird human but she could hardly understand any of it. Before leaping into the cab she asked for several locomotive mechanics book.

"All right... So you want mechanics books? Why?" asked the quizzical engineer with a look of confusion

"I guess I want to learn as much as I can about these machines." said the studious unicorn

Rolling his eyes he replied, "Still don’t understand but you can have them if you want. I got copies in storage. Your gonna have to wait till we get back to Lazarus before you get them though."

She shook her head, "I don’t mind."

(A little video for your viewing pleasure :Leviathan and no, this has nothing to do with the story.)

Feeling time was of the essence the young engineer started the empty train backwards towards its destination. Traveling at 30 miles per hour for the duration of the trip they quickly found themselves among the hustle and bustle of the small wooden city. It looked very much like your average western town that you would see in a Clint Eastwood or John Wayne movie. Most of the buildings were of the false front verity that was incredibly simple but exponentially strong. Richards engineering mind kicked in and it was like X-ray vision; he could see the skeleton of the buildings around him. Mentally flicking a switch in his head he turned to the pony and said Goodbye, after giving her the books of course.
Once Twilight left on the pony train he walked to the spindly construct at the edge of town. The rails needed to cross a deep creek and to do that they needed lumber, and lots of it. Luckily Richard had seen this coming and had a saw mill delivered via rail over a month ago. Somehow it had been thrown together in a matter of days, much to the satisfaction of the engineer. The only problem was... they didn't have a way to run it. The mill needed to be belted to something in order to get the circular blade spinning at the right RPMs but that wouldn't happen. Not with the Traction engine in Gladstone anyhow. The problem was puzzling to the engineer but he knew there was a way to get it to work. He was trained to do this stuff after all. Slowly he scrolled through a list in his mind of the supplies still in the Storehouse. There was the 8 barrels of fuel left and the engines from the military vehicles. His eyes widened at the realization. He could weld together a frame for the engine and somehow bolt a pulley to the flywheel.

'Hmm... Yes! That will work!' he thought and ran into the empty storehouse with the plans in his mind...

The hours ticked by as the bright lights of an arc welder flashed from the double doors while Richard cobbled together something that would work. Piece by piece it came together and soon it was ready for the 6.5 liter V8 engine. Sadly it was fuel injected which meant it needed electrical power in order to run. Rich wasn't an electrician, even though he was everything else, so he asked one of the maintenance crews to build a wiring harness for the saw mill’s power plant. With the engine hoist positioned over the V8 the man pumped the hand operated lift cylinder and the engine slowly took to the air. It swung from side to side as he pushed it over to the stand and lowered the heavy engine into its new home. A few bolts later and it was ready, ready for more work anyway.

Chapter 7: MINNESOTA BOUND!

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Iron ore is something that every country needs, but few actually have strikes within their borders. Equestria is one such country. They relied on dealing with the diamond dogs for the iron they had but soon relations grew hot and the connection was severed. That was 100 years ago and nothing has been done to help the situation since. The solution was to evict the beasts, which would be a job for the remains of the US army. While the railroad pushed through Iowa unicorn ponies were busy with their human mechanics trying to convert the gas guzzling vehicles to magic power. A tough task to say the least.
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Back in Lazarus, the machines or war were being taken apart for refitting.

"Up just a bit further." said a young man, motioning for the engine hoist to pull up a few more inches

With a grating sound the heavy V8 engine tore free of the ancient Humvee and swung lazily from the chain it was suspended from. It was a turbo diesel. It would be set aside for some other project once they had the means to drill for oil or something like that. The helicopters on the other hand were being ripped apart piece by piece. The jet engines had already been torn out the day before in preparation. Un-needed electrical parts lay strewn about the complex and an organized chaos fashion. Separate piles for different things with different uses.

"Hey boss! You think we need this here temp gauge anymore?" asked a greasy mechanic from inside the cockpit of the heli

"I don't think its unnecessary but I suppose we should keep it just in case. Throw it in the misc pile." ordered the head engineer. He turned around to consult with his unicorn counterpart,

"OK Mr. Spark. So tell me, what do we need for all this stuff to work?"

"Lots of magic and lots of gems." stated the blue, stocky unicorn stallion

The engineer went wide-eyed and asked, "You mean diamonds, rubies and stuff like that?"

Spark looked at him with a smile and said, "Yep!"

"You know how hard it is to get those things in North America?!?!?! Those were all IMPORTED!!!" shouted the irate engineer

"Calm down Jack! It isnt even that hard to get them, hell their scattered all over the place in abundance!" said Spark

"What do you mean you crazy pony?" asked a quizzical Jack, still slightly angry at all the wasted hard work

"I could go outside and dig some up with a shovel."

"They take MILLIONS of years to form! I can take the magic thing but diamonds everywhere? Cant happen." stated jack, crossing his arms and looking at all of his men tearing into the equipment

With a determined look on his face the pony stood up and cantered out the nearby service door. After finding a shovel he lit up his horn with a spell. With a grin spread across his muzzle he walked forward to a glowing chunk of earth and released the spell. Grabbing his shovel, he dug a foot down before the iron tip connected with something that was, indeed, much harder then the tool. A strenuous grunt later a floating clutch of about 5 diamonds, 6 sapphires, and 8 fire rubies floated alongside the stallion. He walked through the door and dropped the gems in front of a now extremely surprised human.

"Told you." stated Spark before sitting down with a satisfied smile

The astonished engineer stared at the pile of priceless rocks for a minute before snapping out of his stupor, "Ha.. how... how did you FIND all of these?"

"Right out there." said Spark, pointing to the said location

Jack blinked his eyes a few times before turning back to the progress of the other equipment. Without turning his head Jack asked, "So when is all of this going to be done?"

Putting a hoof to his chin the unicorn took a moment to run some numbers. After about a minute he threw out a rough number, "I would have to say... about one to two weeks."

"Hmm, I have learned to not ask questions. Especially if it concerns ponies." said the engineer with a chuckle
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Smoke drifted across the open plains of Iowa, 5 miles from the boarders of Minnesota. Every crew member was extremely nervous. Hostile territory was close. They could smell it. Every inch that the rails pushed forward was another inch closer to conflict, a conflict that no one wanted to see. Sentries stood at the corners of the camp with their assault rifles, primed and ready for action. Each man wore his military issued ACU clothing, covered form head to toe in camo. The rest of the crews worked tirelessly on the railroad.

Richard was currently sitting in a tent waiting for something to happen, something exciting. Though he was sure it wouldn't come for a few days he took it upon himself to plot the rest of the route. At this time the head was just outside what used to be Fort Dodge. The next leg of the trackage would take them to Humboldt Iowa, a scant 30 miles straight north. If the crews kept up their 10 mile a day pace they would be there in 3 days time. In the past month the railroad had progressed greatly. 269 miles lay between Fort Dodge and Lazarus. A good many miles that could be traveled in only a day. In that time Richard had instructed rookie firemen/fireponies and engineers on how to fire and control one of the precious iron steeds.

He took great pride in his teachings and soon there was a couple towns along the line that were serviced daily by a mixed freight headed by the Wood fired Inyo. The train consisted of 4 boxcars and as many passenger coaches. All of this was held together by the settler ponies that in fact payed to ride the train to the new towns. Farms began to be built by the ponies and ranches started by the humans. Sure the little 'test tube' cattle had yet to mature but the fact still remained that once they were fully grown there would have to be a place to keep them. All of this happened in only ONE month. True expansion if I do say so myself.

Sitting back in his make-shift chair, Richard collected his thoughts. Closing his eyes he decided to take a quick cat nap. Everything was going according to plan. After only a moments rest a loud shriek of the damn inyo's whistle snapped him out of his sleeping state. Grumbling, the engineer threw on his duster and his Stetson before storming out of the tent with an angry look on his face. The Inyo had been sent back an hour ago. What was it doing back.

Walking up to the hissing locomotive he climbed into the cab and confronted the sooty engineer and firepony.

"What are you two doing back so early?" he asked sternly

"I hate to say it but the tracks have been torn up." stated the clam engineer

With a look of shock Richard responded, "What do you mean 'torn up'?"

Crossing his arms in front of him the human leaned against the cab side, "I mean just that. The rails were ripped right out of the ties. Looked like a bunch of paw prints scattered around it of all things."

"I was afraid of this." sighed Richard

"Afraid of what?" questioned the brown firepony who stopped midthrow of chucking a log into the fire

"Diamond dogs." stated the young mechanic.

The log hit the floor while the pony stood wide-eyed in shock, "DIAMOND DOGS!?!?!?"

"Calm down Ash. We'll keep you safe." said the stoic engineer with a down motion of his hand

"These are Diamond dog Dave! They could kill us all in ONE SWIPE!!" retorted Ash

"We got a few things they don't." Said Richard with a grin

"Oh ya? And whats that?" asked the pony

"Guns and explosives." replied Richard with a smirk

Ash raised an eyebrow, "Your gonna blast them out?"

"Maybe, we aren’t really sure what we need to do yet, but if they continue to sabotage our line we will have to take 'action'." said Rich with 'air quotes', "but ya, that's the idea."

"Can’t argue with that logic." said Dave with a mischievousness grin as he turned back to the locomotives back head

"Well, you ARE the man in charge so its your decision." commented Ash with a roll of his eyes and picked the log up off the floor and chucked it in the fire

"I need to catch a ride back with ya guys. First things first though. We need to fix the tracks and I am guessing we need new rails, right?" asked Richard

"Yep, the gone and bent them around the trees." said Dave with chuckle

"Huh, sounds like what the rebels did in the Civil War." replied Richard

"What’s the 'Civil War'?" asked Ash with a questioning look

"That is something I will not tell you about. Look in one of the Libraries back in Lazarus. Tons of books on it." stated the young historian/engineer

Richard leaned out the cab and called out, "LENNY!! DANIAL!! WE NEED ABOUT 4 RAILS AND A SPIKE MAUL!!"

"YES SIR!!" Yelled 2 burly men in the track gang
They broke off of the mass of moving bodies and headed for the equally crowded stack of rails. These men walked around all buff and tough but they were the nicest guy you could ever meet. Hell, sometimes you would even see them having tea with the mares!! They were that well mannered and civil. Surprised the hell outta me the first time I seen it.

Each man took one end of a rail and heaved it into the air with a grunt. After a few minutes they quickly loaded 4 into an empty boxcar. With that through they threw in some complementary spikes and last but not least, the maul itself. A wave of hands later and a hoot of the whistle the train was backing down to a small why track to turn around. Once that was done Dave threw open the throttle and the 2150 year old locomotive lurched forward. Loosing grip for a moment the wheels quickly regained it and it chugged loudly out of camp with the wooden cars clacking on the rail joints.

A full hour passed before the train reached the torn up section. Richard jumped out and walked to the coaches to let the occupants know of the delay and that it would be over shortly. He shut the coach door and leaped off the vestibule (the platform at the ends of the cars). With a chuckle he asked Dave and Ash to come help him with the repairs. Dave climbed into the boxcar and dragged the rail out far enough for Ash to position himself under one end and Dave on the other. Rich took his position in the middle and they slowly moved the heavy rail over to the bad section.

"How did those two do this all by themselves?" asked the pony as he panted from the exertion

"I may know allot of things but that aint one of them." Replied Richard with a slight smirk, he wiped his brow with his Stetson and retreated back the boxcar with his makeshift team in tow

One by one the rails were brought over and hammered into place. An hour after beginning the process they had finished and were on their way. Taking the time, Richard clambered over the wood in the tender, over the boxcar roofs and into the lead passenger coach. With a sigh he sat down in the plush seat. Leaning back, he covered his eyes with his hat and drifted off to sleep
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Sorry for the long wait guys. Been struggling with writers block, but I have some through with something. And as mentioned in the chapter there WILL be explosives used!

Chapter 8: surprises and planning

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Richard stood before his good friend, the president. Something was on the young engineer's mind, but Tyler could not quite place it. When Rich wanted to hide his feels or intended purpose he could put forth an awesome poker face.

A minuted went by before the impatient official finally asked, "What are you doing here Richard?"

"Well, seems we have run into some 'difficulties' in construction." answered Rich

Tyler was growing frustrated, "And what might that be?" he asked, rapping his fingers on the desk top

"The diamond dogs." he replied, "They ripped up a small portion of the tracks 30 miles from Fort Dodge. Gone and wrapped the rails around the damn trees!"

Tyler was now extremely interested. The fate of his new country rested in the hands of his crazy friend and his railroad. Without the steel and iron the country would surely die. "What do you propose we do about it?" he asked

"Explosives are always the answer young Tyler. I wanted to ask your permission before I blew them sky high!" said Richard excitedly. He has always liked TNT and everything of the sort.

"Did you try diplomacy first?" responded the president

Rich shrugged, "They attacked us first Ty. Nothing I can do about it."

"We should ask the Princesses about this 'plan' of yours before its acted upon. They might not like it." commented Tyler

With a straight face Richard responded, "You do what you think is best Sir."

"You bet I will. I will send a courier pony tomorrow with a message. For now you can go relieve Jack Mallard. He is currently head of our refitting effort." said Tyler, waving his friend out
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Richard slowly walked through the steadily growing city with hast. His first stop was a recently built garage on the north side of town. Every once and a while some random pony of human alike would wave in his direction. He really wasnt used to the recognition but nervously waved back. A few minuted passed before Richard finally made it to the garage. It looked HUGE from the outside. He guessed it was taking over for the underground storage house. The building was built like the normal pole barn using rough cut 4x4 pieces of timber and hand hued log siding. Measuring out to be about 100x100 feet, it massive for a pole barn which was normally longer then it was wide. The large sliding doors were currently open, exposing the hustle and bustle of humans and ponies who feverously worked away at the human equipment. The bright flash of arc welders nearly blinding anyone walking through the building. He noticed 2 beings, a pony and a human, standing next to one of the helicopters undergoing refitting for what was to come.

As far as Richard could tell, these two were the leaders of the effort and soon decided that talking to them was the best idea at the present time. With a slight air of authority he walked over to Jack.

"Well, it seems that the job has been going smoothly?" said Richard, sneaking up on the unsuspecting pair.

They both jumped around, charged for an assault that wouldn't be coming anytime soon. They glared at the laughing cowboy wannabe for a few moments before collecting themselves and standing straight and throwing piercing stares at the still laughing human. The looked like twins, meaning as alike as things from two different species could get.

"And just who might you me?" asked Jack, raising an eyebrow

"I have to ask the same thing." commented the blue unicorn stallion

"I am pleasantly surprised to find 2 'beings' that don't know who I am." Rich extended a hand, "I am Richard Mattson, chief engineer here in Lazarus."

Jack immediately got a huge grin on his face. Almost like he was meeting royalty. He enthusiastically grabbed the offered hand a shook it. "It is a PLEASURE to meet such an iconic man in our, less then good, situation!"

"It is nice to meet you Mr. Mattson. Though I am sorry, but I still haven't the slightest idea as to what you do here." said the Unicorn

Jack facepalmed, "How can you be here and NOT know about him?" he exclaimed, "He is just the guy, you know, that guy that is SAVING ALL OUR ASSES!"

"Now I wouldn't go that far but that's the gist of it, yeah." said Richard, with stupid grin

The offending unicorn turned up his nose, like he was trying to look DOWN on the 6 foot tall human in front of him, and walked away. Jack grew angry and ran after Spark.

"Well that was stupid." muttered Richard, dragging a hand down his face in frustration. Today was going about as smoothly as the rock mountains. He now had to wait for a letter from the princesses before he could 'deal' with the offenders to the north. As he stood around the building he got whispers of some great beast to the north. Everyone/everypony said they called it the 'sun eater' what ever that meant. But the moment that said something about gold Richard was all over it. He ran up to a group of 3 ponies and a human and asked various questions about what was going on to the north. They all just said something was eating ponies and that was it.

If you haven't been able to tell by now, Richard is a frontier man. There are 3 things that utterly fascinate the young man. one is mechanics in general, two is mining and the 3rd is the well know trains disease. All of those can go hand in hand with each other any way you think of it. After thinking about the next big thing he could bring about, he decided a walk was necessary to clear his mind. He walked out of the large building and into the waning sunlight and stared at the growing city. It had expanded a lot since he was last down here. There was now a saloon, filled with drunk ponies and men alike. Richards inner party-er took over and drove him to the beer hall. The iconic butterfly doors were hinged to the sides of the doorway, much to the marryment of the wannabe cowboy. With a massive smile plastered to his face he walked bow legged through the doors and mock spit into the spittoon to the right of the door. After he let his laughter die down he noticed no one in the building had noticed his natural stupidity.

He threw his hands out in front of him in disbelief, "Come on! That was funny!" Everything stayed eerily quiet for a saloon.
Grumbling, the engineer sat down on a stool bolted to the floor in front of a bar and asked for a shot of whiskey. The bar keeper brought over the bottle and a small shot glass. The man filled the cup and was about to take the bottle back when Richard told him to leave it. The bar keep shrugged his shoulders and moved on to the next drunk down the bar. It wasnt long before Richard was stumbling around the building hitting on every female around. Yes that did include some ponies.
Everyone he tried his 'magic' on laughed at his drunken manner before telling him to go home, to bed. After a few more tries he decided it was a good idea and trudged towards his house. Before he made it further then the couch he was out cold on the floor. Leaving the door open.
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The next morning, birds were chirping, and a small breeze blew through the dusty town, taking up dirt and sand from the streets. Near the entrance to the large, concrete government building sat a gold carriage, with gold clad guards hitched to the front. Back at the log house, Richard woke up with a pounding headache. The moment he opened his eyes he was staring into purple orbs of Princess Celestia. He jumped back a few inches.

"WHAT THE HELL!?!?!" he yelled

The face of a white pony, clad in gold, barged in and glared at him, "HOW DARE YOU YELL AT THE PRINCESS!"

"Seeing as this is MY house! I am in charge! And I would like your regal monarch to speak for herself before you try and spit out something." Richard spat back, rubbing the sleep from his tired eyes. He walked to the kitchen to grab a glass of water and some left over fried chicken from the ice box before returning to the living room. With a mouth full of food he looked at the ponies in front of him. They were all staring at him in shock.

"What?" asked a confused Richard

The appalled princess pointed a hoof at the offending meal, "Your eating meat!"

"Ya? so what?" he replied, spitting chunks of flesh and meat out of his mouth as he spoke, "I don't judge you because you eat hay."

The princess thought about it for a moment, "I suppose your right. But next time, please don't eat it in front of us." She sat down on the dusty couch next to Richard.

Rich shrugged his shoulders, "I guess I can handle that. Now on to the elephant in the room, why are you here?"

"Your president notified me that you wanted to 'blow the diamond dogs sky high'," She glared at him, "Didn't my sister tell you to try diplomacy first?"

The human waved a hand in the air, "Yes she did. But they attacked us first. Well, not really ATTACK us but destroyed our hard work which I had to fix."

"You should still try diplomacy." replied the white Alicorn, "The Diamond dogs were hard to deal with all those years ago and they are even more so now. I have no idea how they govern themselves but you should still try to figure it out."

"Celestia, you forget I am an engineer! Not some political bush beater." declared Richard, crossing his arms in front of him

"Then should I have your dear friend Tyler deal with it?" asked Celestia with a wink

A wide grin spread across Rich's face, "I think that is a WONDERFUL idea!"

"Then I will be taking my leave. I hope to see you soon Mr. Mattson." With that, the regal pony strode out of the diminutive house, followed by her guards that glared at him with ill intent.

"I got guns ya know!" Richard called out with a smirk before slamming the door. Walking over to the table that sat in front of his tacky couch, he snatched up the meal and devoured it hastily. A few gulps and gasps of air later the water went streaming down into his gullet. After cleaning up his dishes and putting them away he walked to his bed room to take a LONG nap, which would hopefully dispel his hang over from the night before.
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A week had passed by while Tyler was sent off to the north my pegasus chariot to deal with the offending dogs. The moment he returned he threw up his hands, and much to joy of his young friend, shouted "I DON'T GIVE A DAMN!!! BLOW THEM UP!" and walked into his office and slammed the door.

The smile on Richards face would put every pony out there to shame. It couldn't be measured in mere inches. With a case of C4 and good old fashion dynamite, he boarded the next train and made his way to the end of the line. By the time he reached the end he was extremely tired, almost to the point of collapsing. His giddy jumping around in the baggage car had worn him out and the mail ponies had laughed their asses off at the childish human and the unicorn levitated him out and into the sleeping car. Since the train would stay in camp til tomorrow they decided to lite the pot bellied wood stove and leave the tired engineer for the night.

The next morning was a hectic one to say the least. Richard was busy preparing for his excursion to the Diamond Dog tunnels. He made sure to have the gangs supplies well stocked and his will written before he made the journey. To help with the burden of hauling the massive amounts explosives needed to infiltrate and expel the dogs a pony by the name of Rig was contracted to help. He was a heavy built Earth Pony, about the size of Big Macintosh, who knew how to rig anything to explode. Hence his name. He was dark grey in color with a black mane and tail. A fuse, or a white squiggly line, depending on your mindset, stood for his mark.

With a grunt, Richard lowered the heavy saddle bags onto Rig's back. They were filled with C4 and detonators. When they had infiltrated the lair of the dogs, they would locate the major load baring supports and strap c4 to them. Along with the tremendous power of the plastic explosives, they would add to it with about 5 sticks of dynamite. Richards motto was, "If its worth doing, its worth OVER doing!"

Once they were rigged for the biggest bang for their buck (hehe, explosive puns) they would quickly extract themselves from their location and get miles away before setting the bombs off with a remote detonator. After a few hours the crew of 2 were packed for the trek, 3 days, to where Tyler had said the main chamber was.

They started their journey at 10 AM. With a could grunts they strode out of camp, loaded down with explosives. They walked through thick brush and wide expansion of open fields. While the pony slept, Richard would go on a hunt for a rabbit or something small to feed his nearly bottomless gut. This sequence repeated itself 3 times before they arrived at their destination. The majority of the place was barren rock, the foliage long since burned or taken away by the greedy dogs. This was northern Minnesota at its finest. If you were to look on a map, the lair would reside in one of the numerous open pit mines that dotted the hills surrounding the shores of lake Superior.

"So whats the plan boss?" asked the pony with a questioning look

Richard took the opportunity to explain his incredibly detailed and well thought out plan to the demo expert to his right, "Well, we are going to blow it up!"

"Sounds like a plan to me!" exclaimed Rig, thumping a hoof to his chest

Chapter 9: Explosions applenty

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Richard and Rig sat, hidden behind a pile of rock and dirt, looking over the milling pit of activity before them. There were hundreds of Diamond dogs scattered around the old mining site. The only was to describe an open pit mine, is a hole in the ground. A 2 foot wide spiral wound itself up from the floor of the hole all the way to the top. Thousands of years ago this would have been the road the HUGE mining trucks used to move the iron ore from its resting place at the bottom. Over the years the wind and rain had worn the rock ledge so much that is was only a few feet wide now, a foot path more or less. If you squinted enough you could see the extremely rusted hulks of steel that once were cranes, loaders, and dump trucks from yesteryear. You would have thought that the iron hungry Diamond dogs would have cut them to pieces by now right? Wrong. Everything about those machines was heavy. You needed a crane and a massive loader to change ONE tire. Just one. Richard just sat there with his thinking face plastered on. He was thinking of how to get their two clumsy hides into the fortified mine at the bottom.

Rich looked to his cohort, "Well Rig, you got any ideas?"

The pony put a hoof to his chin in thought, "Well, I say we try and use crates of old explosives to our advantage. There is one to the extreme right and one halfway up the side of the wall. You can use the bottom one to distract them and then set off the other, creating a rock slide and burying them all under it."

The human looked at the pony with an astonished look on his face, "I think your right." replied Richard as he started to feed cartridges into his Henry .44. As he fed the last one in he shouldered it and fired at a seemingly harmless crate of ancient Dynamite near the extreme right side of the mine. There was a second crate about halfway up the side of the pit, ready to be set off.

The dogs, frightened by the explosion, all ran towards the site. They all looked at the crater with confused looks on their faces, like they had ever seen a crate of TNT explode. Stupid dogs...

Richard took aim and again fired at the other crate. Over the years, the walls had become extremely unstable, making for the perfect chance to cause a rock slide. The explosion vibrated the wall enough to send a couple rocks down, but not the entire wall. The dogs looked around to see the source but came up with nothing and resorted back to the investigation.

Rigs face twisted in anger and was about to yell out before Richard stopped him, "Just wait for it..."

Rig looked at his boss and calmed down slightly. Just then the ground shook violently, causing the engineer to grin with satisfaction. Rocks and rubble started to fall from the side, crushing the unsuspecting dogs underneath. It was quite a sight to say the least. Boulders millions of years old tumbled down and smashed into a group of cowering miners and converted them into pancakes. Soon the once hundreds of dogs outside the mine had been turned into 3 lone wolfs, running for the mouth of the mine, their tails between their legs.

Seeing their chance,Richard and Rig took off down the slope towards the bottom. The human soon lost his footing and tumbled down, head over heels towards the hard bottom. His face slammed into the shale floor with a solid smack and just laid their, still as a rock. Rig galloped down after his boss and stared at the limp body before him.

"This cant be good." The pony muttered to himself, "Hey boss! wakey wakey!" he prodded the human with a hoof.

"Eh... 5 more minutes..." sighed Richard, batting the hoof away. Rig rolled his eyes and poked him again. "Ugh! Fine, Ill get up!"

The lumbering, and slightly confused, human stood up to his full height and glanced around. He found their pack of food stuffs and swung it over his shoulder, but something was missing.

"Where is it?" he asked Rig

The stallion looked at him, "Where is what?"

"The rifle." Richard said flatly

The pony pointed a grey hoof in the direction of said gun. The brass casing sparkled in the sunlight, indicating its location. With a huff of annoyance, Richard strode towards the rifle, snatched it up and swung it around his shoulder along with the pack. Nodding to Rig they made their way to the opening of the mine. Just as they got to the entrance they could hear howls and barks. They scampered into the mouth and hid behind a wooden pillar just as a brigade of dogs marched past them. The demo man and pony looked at each other and wiped the sweat from their brows in relief.

Now it was time to make their way to the main cavern, 100 feet below from what their sources told them. Slowly they moved from rock to rock and pillar to pillar, trying to keep out of sight of the extremely vigilant guard dogs scattered through out the mine. Most had weird metal helmets atop their heads, that covered their eyes for some odd reason. Richard looked at one for a few seconds before ducking back behind the rock.

"Rig, you think they got echo location somehow? You know, like bats?" inquired the engineer

Rig took the chance to take a look for himself and came back down with a 'thinking face' on. "You know, I think your right. Other wise they would just bump into each other. It could be because they are always down in these mines."

"So like termites. They cant see at all. In fact, I don't think they even have eyes anymore. The dogs up on the surface have eyes though, and don't wear the helmets."

"From what I can tell," Started the grey earth pony, "the ones up top are the managers. The ones down here are the grunt workers, never really getting out into the sun light."

"Little observations aside, I think the hall that that big one is guarding is the main hall to the cavern." observed Richard, pointing to the oil in the wall with dirt covered hands.

"Lead the way then." replied Rig

Richard grabbed a duffel bag from the pony's back and dug his hands inside. When he pulled them out a large cloth covered a long object. When it was unwrapped it was found to be a gun. But not just any gun, and tranquilizer gun, complete with elephant darts. Richard smirked at the confused earth pony. Rig thought it was a real gun, one that went BANG! when it was fired. The human opened the firing chamber and slid in a dart. He snapped it shut, shouldered it, aimed and fired in one smooth motion. It was near noiseless and the dog went down right when the dark hit. It rolled around on the rock floor for a few seconds before being knocked out cold by the tranquilizers that were injected in to its blood stream moments ago. The obstical taken out, the pair proceeded to their destination. 500 feet and a couple close calls later they walked out into the MASSIVE underground mine. It was nearly a half a mile across the bottom but as it went up it turned into a cone, making a rounded point at the top. Made up of about 100 floors, with Richard and Rig being on the 3rd from the top. Each floor had around 100 or so tunnels that had been drilled into the walls, excavating out as much rock and minerals as possible while still being structurally sound. Large lodge pole pine trees, debarked and nearly 8 feet across had been dropped in from the top to act as supports for the very top. With about 20 jutting up from the bottom, they shot up and were cabled to the roof. Their engineering was a wonderful sight to Richard, but sadly, it would all have to be ended if they were to achieve their goal.

"Woah..." was all Richard could say.

Rig just stared into the huge space between them and the floor below. Luckily the crew of demo beings had ended up on the 3rd floor, the floor were the poles came right up through the middle of the floor. It would be easy for them to blow the thing up.

Rig and Richard slowly made their way to the first pillar. They strapped the Dynamite and the C4 just above the floor and covered them up with dirt, not before inserting the detonator first though. These detonators were powerful transmitters that could beam through rock and dirt with very little power being used. Quite the innovative device it was. Made demolishing stuff easy to say the least.

it took about 2 hours to get the explosives strapped down and hidden and once it was done, the 2 infiltrators quickly fled the arena of pending destruction. They dodged guards and sentries, hid behind rocks and boulders. They did just about everything they could think of to keep just out of the dogs vision. It took them 2 MORE hours just to get to the rim of the old pit mine, Once there they hid behind a pile of over Burden and panted from the strenuous climb.

"Ready Rig?" sighed Richard, still trying to catch his breath

"Ready when you are Boss." replied the demo pony

The human reached into his pockets, looking for the detonator. He began to panic when it wasn't in his right front pants pocket. He frantically searched each and every pocket, sweating as he went. Rig noticed his companions panicking and chuckled, prodding him with a hoof.

"WHAT!?!?!" yelled Richard in frustration

"Ah, the detonator is still in the pack..." he said, pointing to the saddlebags

With a deadpanned face expression, Rich reached into the bag and pulled out the red button of death.

"Heh, here it is." he pointed to the button, getting a facehoof from Rig in return.

Richard just stared at the button in his hands.

"So you gonna just sit there and stare at it, or are ya gonna press the damn thing and get this over with?" commented the pony sarcastically

With a sheepish expression, the human flipped open the safety lid and counted down.

"10... 9... 8... 7..."

"WILL YOU JUST PRESS THE DAMN BUTTON!"

*click*

*BOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!!!!*

Half the pit caved in on itself and into a hole that wasn't there before. Rocks and boulders clattered around, hitting the stray dogs on their way into the depths of the earth. What had once been a giant, circular hole in the ground was now an oval, since half of the one wall had filled in the cavern, suffocating the dogs within...

_________________________

Authors note:Damn it, almost made it to 2000 words. Well, here it is, the next to the last chapter.

Chapter 10: Homecoming

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The Leviathan, recently awakened from its 2 month slumber in the newly built shops in Lazarus, pounded down the rails with its victory train in tow. They were still about 5 hours north of Lazarus and about a half hour away from Gladstone. Right behind the locomotive was a sleeping car. Berthed inside were the two heroes, Rig and Richard. How they survived the daring feat was unknown to anybody/pony. They slept soundly all the way from the railhead in Minnesota to their present location. They were tired, very tired. The physical stresses of walking 1000 miles north, blowing up an occupied mine, and making the trek back would take allot out of sentient beings.

The shrill single chime whistle of the red behemoth broke a deathly silence, waking up the human. Richard slowly sat up from his bunk and yawned widely, trying to wiggle his body free from the clutches of sleep. He was currently on the top bunk on the plush wooden Pullman car. With a heave he jumped down, landing on the soft carpet of the normally unused car. He smiled warmly, feeling the fibers of the hand made carpet just made a man feel at home. Glancing around he found his hat and his boots next to the bottom bunk and a few minutes later he was dressed for success, in his normal western Duster and a pair of caterpillar work boots with a red T-shirt and blue jeans to compliment the outfit that would make Rarity scream in terror. He chuckled at his terrible fashion sense and strode out the door at the rear of the sleeper. The next car in the 8 car lineup was the dining car which was equally as unused as the sleeper. It was Filled to the brim with travelers returning from there forays into the new frontier. The way everyone/everypony sat and chatted reminded the young engineer about his school days in history class.

Unlike most kids, Richard as a young boy loved history. It was just such an interesting topic. Naturally his favorite was the heavy industry brought by the revolution but the next was westward expansion. This scene he was witnessing right now was straight out of those thick text books. Men, women, ponies and children of all shapes and sizes sat in their booths as they dined on nicely cooked meals. The males wore wide brimmed stetson, mostly of equestrian make, while the women wore the general jeans. That was really the only difference between then and now. Women played an equal part in society now and they would for the rest of time.

Richard sat down in the soft booth as the waiter, a man dressed in porter clothing just like the old days, meandered up to his side and set a menu down on the table. "Evening sir, what can I get you for a drink?"

"Id like a glass of Pepsi please." returned the engineer with a smile as he opened up his menu

"Will that be all?"

"You betcha."

As Rich skimmed through the paper menu, he spotted some interesting meals like a wide assortment of flower sandwiches and fried veggies. He cringed at them and flipped to the meat section and was astonished to see a nice steak at the top. With out a moment of thought he threw down the menu. "WAITER!"

The regal man strode up to him, "What is it sir?"

"A nice juicy steak with mashed potatoes and gravy. said Rich with a needy look

The waited snatched up the menu and nodded, "Right away then Mr. Mattson."

"God I hate that name..." breathed Rich silently. He leaned back and stretched out his limbs and searched the car with his peepers. Nothing stood out to him except for the vast majority of the occupants of the car were equine which surprised him. It seemed that expansion was bringing in humans as well as ponies which was great. They had skills that the humans lacked since urbanization took place when the humans still ruled the world. It wasn't uncommon for a pony to build their own house in equestria and that was a great thing to know how to do out here in the frontier.

A few minutes passed before the waiter showed up and placed Rich's food and drink in front of him along with a freshly printed, as of 2 days ago anyway, news paper. The jack of all trades thanked the waiter, sipped his drink and flipped open the paper. The first think Richard noticed was that some well to do ponies had showed up and were advising the construction of a smelter in Lazarus, much to his enjoyment. Some of the railroading ponies had even taken charge and started constructing a roundhouse to keep the iron steeds in and work on them. It had been official for some time, but the Railroad was the first business in Terra to have any species employed by them. A grand feat that Rich prided himself with.

The shriek of the leviathan's whistle signaled that the train was approaching Gladstone, the place that had been basically leveled by Richard himself. Since the railhead had moved, a town sprung up in place of the "Hell on Wheels" camp. Small shacks had been built along with a brightly painted yellow of brown station. It looked like one out of the railroading books Richard loved so much. Thankfully he had found a man like himself who knew how to construct these buildings and set him to work providing the infrastructure to sustain the railroad.

As the train pulled into the station, Richard noticed that the building now served two tracks as well as a small yard, wye, turntable water tank and coaling tower. Some other buildings like a water tank and coal transfer facilities were in the process of being built. Things were progressing quickly. It helped a good bit that the ponies were so forward in wanting to help them. Recently he had shipped off some plans for a batch of locomotives to be built. They were going to be the new main work horses of the line so the 4-4-0s like the leviathan could be relegated to just passenger and mail trains.

The Leviathan's cylinder cocks opened up as the brakes came on and brought the train to a stop right in front of the station. On the far side of the station sat a tiny Equestrian train though it looked... different. It now actually had cylinders, rods and proper running gear. Sitting behind it was a tender piled high with coal. It seemed that it was a mutual thing between the ponies and humans as they had took pictures of the human machines and built a new type of engine around those ideas. Hitched behind the engine was a line of coaches also patterned off the human stuff.

When the conductor, a man by the name of Greg Sanders, had given the passengers the all clear signal they all stampeded off the train in a slightly less then orderly fashion. Most stretched their legs from the long ride while others ran to embrace their families. Richard on the other hand decided to stroll through town and take a better look at the servicing structures and the engines using them.

The engineer took off at a dead run as he saw what looked like a prototype to his locomotive's he had ordered. Everything about them looked the same, but smaller... They actually looked like the Denver and Rio Grande's narrow gauge C-16! He ran around the locomotive taking a careful look at everything. It was then he remembered he borrowed out one of his books to a pony who said he ran the Marechester locomotive works. Richard never really did think anything of it but now he realized why the pony wanted it.

It wasn't long before the engineer of the locomotive poked his head out the window and glared at him. "What do you think your doin crazy?"

Richard pulled his head out of the frames and tipped his hat, "Hello Mister. I am Richard Mattson, designer and head mechanic for the Lazarus and Northern. I was just admiring your fine machine here."

"So yea like 37? She was just recently built if ya didn't notice." said the stallion with a proud expression.

"I noticed." Smiled Richard, "She looks like something out of my books back home."

"I did hear tell that it was inspired by a human machine. A C-16 something or another." spouted the pony, waving his hoof. "But I am not completely sure."

"It does look like the originals that's for sure. Even down to the paint on it. Its even got a name that one of them would have worn. Empire, by the way, is a very good name for one of these engines." replied Richard as he tapped one of the bearings with a finger. "In fact, it looked like a scaled down version or the engines I ordered from your shops."

"Is that so? I certainly wouldn't be surprised. When I first ran this girl there was a line of 5 engines in the bays one their wheels just waiting for the finishing touches." surmised the pony

It was then that Richard heard the warning signal from leviathan saying that it was 2 minutes till departure. "That's my Que, gotta go." he said as he sprinted off leaving a chuckling earth pony behind.

******

2 hours earlier...

Back in Lazarus the humans and ponies alike were putting the finishing touches on the roundhouse and engine servicing equipment. The lathes and Bridgeport mills had been moved out of the dark cavernous underground and into to shops to make working on the Iron Giants easier. The road building equipment like the steam traction engine and the steam shovel, along with their water tenders and other attachments, had been placed in a large pole barn to keep them out of the weather. The guy overseeing all of this was a top notch builder by the name of Ellis D Wherhouser. He was almost exactly like Richard but a little less "get up and go" and more "take your time and plan it out".

Ellis was dressed in a plaid shirt, jeans and a brown stetson to top off the western look much like everyone else. The tall man had been stressed out of his mind for the past few days as he had to oversee numerous projects. One such being the Equestrian State Railways had expressed interest in gaining access to the shops to work on their own equipment which meant making everything dual gauge... This made it possible for the smaller pony trains to use the human stuff with little hassle. In reverse it made it a grand undertaking for Ellis. The man somehow kept a cool head and made sure everything was ready.

The final 3rd rail was laid down when the first Equestrian freight train rolled into town with a load of various goods to sell. It steamed up next to one of the now numerous warehouses and workers soon started unloading it. Box after box of food and textiles were moved inside to be sorted and moved to stores through out Terra. A scant 10 minutes later the Leviathan, the flag ship of the Lazarus and Northern, rolled down main street. With a single hoot of the whistle the passengers began unloading. One such passenger stepped down from the coach and nearly fell on his face from the sheer sight of his city. His hazel eyes gleamed with delight. A dream he had long held in his mind from when he was a boy was now being realized. He had a railroad at his command and the crews loved him.

Rise of the fallen

by Iron Sides

Chapter 1: Unseen things (In for a rebuild)

Chapter 2: Things to do...

Chapter 3: Lumber men in the making

Chapter 4: A meeting of politicans

Chapter 5: let the work of the giants BEGIN

Chapter 6: Of brass and iron

Chapter 7: MINNESOTA BOUND!

Chapter 8: surprises and planning

Chapter 9: Explosions applenty

Chapter 10: Homecoming

Question from the Author