Luna becomes an Engineer in a world where war is more common, she is now left once the carribou takeover canterlot to regain it.
This is the story of how Luna becomes an engineer and runs special freight and passenger lines all over Equestria and how she fights the caribou to retake Canterlot, after it was sieged.
Luna had just gotten back from the moon. And she was extremely bored, her sister had been doing so much stuff since her absence that she had nothing to do, except study new technology, she was especially interested in these trains, they were so useful hauling ponies and goods all across Equestria. Luna was currently reading about how to drive a train properly,
1. Put the reverser to 75% 2. Put the throttle at 1-25% 3. Ease the engine up to 2 mph 4. Lower reverser slowly to 50% while increasing throttle to 50% 5. Ease up to 10 mph 6. Lower reverser to 10-25% while increasing the throttle.
Use the throttle to control the amount of steam to the engine while using the reverser to determine how the steam is used, unless on VERY steep grades NEVER have the reverser and the throttle above 50% at the same time.
Suddenly Luna got an idea, “this sounds so easy maybe I could try being an engineer, they obviously don’t need me here”.
Naturally she wanted to present the idea to her sister, so she waited until the next morning.
Canterlot castle royal dining room 7:00 am
Celestia was currently eating her three-tier cake when Luna walked in with her modest 20 oz ribeye as she liked meat for some reason.
“Sister,” luna said, “I’m thinking about becoming an engineer”
“Good” celestia said, “there would be some interesting buildings around here at least, not all these cookie cutter houses”
“No not a structural engineer, a train engineer.”
“WHAT!!!” Celestia yelled in the royal Canterlot voice, making the entire castle shake, to it’s very foundation, “WHY?”
“well sister is seems like an easy enough job and as for why I am interested in trains and the job of “princess” doesn’t pay very well, we only make 1 bit a year and even over 1000 years I’m still not doing very well. Also it seems you have no need of me here as you seem to be able to easily take care of all the royal duties, additionally if you could set me up with a job as one I would give you 25% of my income”
“Deal”
“Why do you agree so quickly?”
“DO YOU KNOW HOW EXPENISVE CAKE IS??”
“Nooo?”
“This cake costs 1,000 bits, I had to take it out of YOUR savings”
“YOU WHAT?”
“I took it out of your savings, you obviously had no need for it on the moon.”
“You do realiz… wait YES THANKYOU FAUST here I’ll be right back.”
Luna scampered down the hall to the royal guard’s barracks, found shining armors office and stormed inside.
“Shining armor I need you to send about 10 guards with me now!”
“Ma’m yes ma’m”
About 5 minutes later princess Luna along with 10 royal guards went to the dining hall.
“Guards arrest this women she stole 1,000 bits from my bank account, to buy cake.”
“Luna what are you doing?” Princess Celestia asked
“Taking over Equestria legally.”
The guards arrested Celestia and after a fair and speedy trial Celestia was sentenced to being the sole ruler of Equestria and giving Luna the job she wanted and her cake.
The day was like any other, a bright sunny day, however there was due to be a snow storm in the afternoon, and Luna was excited, this was the first time she was going to be driving her new train, she had a 4-6-6-6-4 dual articulating nuclear powered engine, the first and only ever to be made of it’s kind, the reason being it was worth about 2 million bits. Luna was due to run a normal passenger, from Canterlot to the main terminal in Manehattan. Her engine was beautiful it was streamlined black with a purple stripe down both sides. Luna went to the depot office, picked up her clipboard and went to her engine, she was suprized to see a stallion waiting there for her.
“Hello, I suppose you will be with me for the run to manehatten?”
“Yes I will be, we will be taking the normal bypass passenger there.”
“Ok let me just do my pretrip check and we will be on our way”
Luna went around the engine checking that everything looked right and then climbed into her engine.
“Ok, were ready”
“Ok we need to couple to the consist on track 10”
Luna sent out 2 long blasts of the wistle followed by 2 short followed by one more lon g blast, to signal to everyone she was departing, and eased the train out of the shed.
She coupled to the train with out any problems, and hooked the air lines up, and proceeded to the station.
After picking up her passengers she proceded to wait until the light was green and proceded out onto the main line. As the speed limit here was 60mph she kept it right on 60 until at the bottom of the mountain. While she struck up a conversation with her accompiament.
“So what did you do before you became an engineer?” luna asked
“I worked on the railroads my whole life, I’ve been running trains for the past 10 years, but before that I worked my way up from coal shoveler, what did you do?”
“You don’t know, I was a princess, but as they didn’t need me in Canterlot I found out my sister had stolen from me while I was on the moon and charged her with ruleing the country and getting me this job and engine.”
“Wow, that is depressing”
“I know that is why I’m doing this now”
They proceeded to sit in silence the entire rest of the trip.
“Ok fyi we are approaching the manehatten station now”
“Ok cutting throttle and lapping breaks”
After comeing to a compete stop at the station
“Wow” the guy said “that was the cleanest smoothest most well executed stop I’ve ever seen”
“I expected nothing less”
“Ok let me just quiz you on the signals and you’ll be able to run all on your own” he said
“Ok”
"First question what do the letters A, B, and C mean under a speed sign?”
“A means if I’m running with the correct designation the max speed is the posted plus 50mph, b means the same except for 25 mph, and c means 10 mph, also there is R which means I have to run the posted speed limit”
“Perfect, ok then now obviously green is go red is stop and yellow is caution, but what does blinking red mean?”
“Blinking red can be seen at any time and means to put on the emergency brakes, because there is something major wrong.”
“Perfect, also you seem to know everything else based on your driving so you are now authorized to take trains anywhere you are assigned.”
Luna had been running trains for six months now, and there was a big wedding coming up, so everyone was busy, and naturally they only had 3 days to get everything to Canterlot in time, and Luna was also naturally the only main line driver there with the track record of having everything on time, also it helps she was the only one with a train powerful enough to haul everything they needed up in Canterlot there in time.
So everyone was in there switcher running around assembling the massive train for Luna to haul up the mainline to Canterlot, and massive was an understatement, the train was 2,000 cars long or about 3 miles, and was a mixture of freight and passenger, the best part Luna had been assigned emergency express passenger/freight. And as this was a really important train Luna had guards with her, and everywhere on the train.
The train was also due to make stops in Appaloosa, Ponyville and other assorted towns, Luna was just getting ready to pull out when 4 royal guards climb aboard the train, other than that there was nothing unusual about the train and she had been making good time, she had arrived at the last stop before Canterlot at 30 minutes ahead of schedule, and was now breezing up the mountain, but she couldn’t shake the feeling something was wrong, and as she made it to the halfway point the guards suddenly attacked her chipping her horn, while changing into changelings.
Now Luna was skilled and had had many years of fighting on battle fields, so she was able to take out the changelings quite easily, but the airlines to the breaks were locked, and they had broken the throttle and reverser in there fight so Luna was left riding a 200 megaton bomb basically up to Canterlot at full speed, when she got an idea.
She may not be able to use magic but her horn was just right to stick in the throttle to stop the train, however horns were VERY sensitive, so she may never be able to use magic again if she does.
“But if I don’t the entire city of Canterlot may be destroyed” luna thought
So she did, and the pain was intense, but she got the throttle closed, and applied the engine break, and then passed out.
Listening around me I immediately hear a beeping sound. And the last thing I remember was me stic… oh no, opening my eyes I immediately look up, and surely enough my horn has marks all along it. Trying to use magic just causes a pain to flare up in my head. Immediately the door to the room opens and my sister stomps in. “luna do you know what happened?” “yes I was driving a train up from ponyville to Canterlot, when 4 royal guards attacked me, I immediately subdued them, and while I was doing that we broke off the throttle and reverser in the train. After that I realized that I was basicly driving a 200 megaton bomb straight to Canterlot, so I did the sensible thing I stuck my horn into the throttle and brought the train to a stop, fully knowing I may never use magic again.” I realized I was crying now, at the realization, I would have to use hooves for everything. “Well obviously you had not been informed that there was an attack on Canterlot. But I suppose I should tell you that you still will be able to use magic, your horn will heal within 2-3 days, and after that I need you to transport about 3000 royal guards to the southern badlands.” “ok”
It was currently 1:00 am and three days after the accident, and luna was back on the train prepping to haul the longest train ever, 10 miles of passenger cars, the worst part was her sister was in the engine with her, watching to see how she did.
“Sister I don’t see the need for you to watch me.”
“I wanted to see why you liked driving trains so much.”
“Oh, well then, why don’t you try, just let me get us going…”
Luna let loose 2 long blasts two shorts and a long, and cracked the throttle open with the regulator at full. The engine lurched and you could hear the grinding of metal on metal, luna then opened the sander, and the engine lurched again, she then closed the throttle, released the air breaks and waited. About 3 minutes later, she let one long blast and opened the throttle to around 1%. The train lurched and started rolling, she gradually got the engine up to speed, and let Celestia try to drive.
“Sister come here.”
“What did you need lulu?”
“Why don’t you drive?”
“B-b-b-but I don’t know how.”
“I’ll show you”
Celestia hops into the drivers seat as luna points out everything.
They cruse along for around 10 minutes when luna sees a FLASHING RED SIGNAL.
“CELESTIA OUT OF THE CHAIR!”
“But why?”
“Just get, no time!”
Luna hops in the chair and cuts throttle, then throws the reverser clear to 75% reverse, then opens the throttle to full, a loud grinding sound is heard, while luna throws the air brakes into emergency. Alarms proceed to blare, as the train starts to slow down, luna then looks ahead and sees, a bridge 3 miles ahead has washed out.
“SHIT! BRACE!”
The train continues on seeming like it will not stop in time, but a mere 2 inches from the front guide wheels falling in the train jerks to a stop.
Luna hops up and closes the throttle then hops out of the train, with celestia following.
When they get to the front they see a whole train in the ravine, with the tracks laying at the bottom and bodies laying about.
Chapter 5 the bridge. "Well this train isn't going any further now at least." Luna commented "I may actually have an idea but it would require some really big rope." celestia mentioned "In the caboose at the end we have cable rated for 3,000 tons for hauling stuff, also it is 1,000 feet long." "Perfect, now we just need labor, Luna would you kindly get everyone out of the train?" "What is the term used now days for 'line up'?" "I believe it is 'fall in' nowadays?" "And what units do we have here?" "the entire infantry, army, and royal guard, basically everypony." Celestia commented "You may want to either cover your ears or use a sound bubble." "Wait your not." "Yes I am," Luna commented "I'll be over here then"
After Celestia said this Luna began breathing deeply to do something they haven't done in over 2,000 years even when the royal Canterlot voice was in style.
FALL IN! Luna yelled in the Royal EVERFREE VOICE (a/n yes It requires all caps because the royal EVERFREE VOICE is 10,000 TIMES louder than the Royal Canterlot voice, for comparison if you yelled in the royal Canter lot voice in Florida and they could here you in Maryland, then if you yell in the Royal EVERFREE VOICE they could here you in Seattle, just a background.) immediately thousands of soldiers started coming off the train and lining up in front of Luna.
"Ok then that was loud" Celestia said
"Well I have been itching to do that for a while now so that was the result."
"Ok well the basic idea is to hook one end of the rope to the bridge and the the men pull on and while the bridge is up we weld it back together."
"Seems solid"
Shining armor then came walking up to them.
"What the #### was that?"
"That was the royal EVERFREE VOICE!" Luna said
"Ok so whats the problem?"
Luna pointed to the bridge.
"Could you get the rope from the back of the train?" luna calmly stated.
"Sure" shining said
"Cover your ears again"
"Ok"
Form two lines facing each other in front of me parallel to the train! in sync they did as told as shining brought back the rope. Luna tied the rope to the bridge and then yelled again "pick up the rope!" then "HEAVE" slowly the bridge was hauled back to it's proper place, Celestia then wielded the bridge in place. they all boarded the train and the proceeded on.
It was 4 ALR(After Luna's Return) on may 5th a day that will live in infamy.
the train had just stopped at the disembarking location and everyone was excited.
"Celestia is it ok if I lead the troops for this battle."
"Sure, sister you were always better than me at that."
"Fall in!" Luna yelled in the royal canterlot voice(note the next lines in bold are in the royal canterlot voice, the ones in italics are the ROYAL EVERFREE VOICE.)
"Attention!"
"I will inform you that chrysalis is probably really scared right now and would you happen to know why?"
"Because we are here the crowd answered"
"That is correct! is she justified in this?"
"Yes!" they responded
"Why?"
"Because we are strong!"
"What is our policy for invaders upon our land?"
"Leave OR DIE!" they replied
"Parade rest, FORWARD MARCH!"
In one synchronized march they all chanted "LEFT, LEFT, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT"
It was so loud the not just the changelings could hear it, but even the griffin empire could hear it 5,000 miles away.
Then the chant began
(now italics signifies response, regular is call)
"I believe that we will win, I believe that we will win, we stand strong shoulder to shoulder we stand strong shoulder to shoulder, I believe that we are right, I believe that we are right, we will not delay due right, we will not delay due right, bringing justice till the end, bringing justice to the end, we march in Faust's name amen, we march in Faust's name amen"
They repeat this 3 times at which point they can see the enemy, standing.
It was pitiful, 3,000,000 changelings scrambled together, elderly, nymphs, workers, guards, caretakers, everyone was there, they didn't even have swords, they were just standing there.
You could hear, clear from the gryphon empire luna's call of "CHARGE!"
And charge they did, it was a slaughter! they just stood there, waiting. didn't try to defend them selves.
In five minutes the battle was over.
"Well that was disappointing!" Luna cried.
"But wait there's more!" someone shouted.
And surely enough there was and even bigger army coming at them, in total 5,000,000 changelings, the entirety of the hive, decked out in full copper armor, with lances swords everything.
Luna then yelled "Ready the heavy artillery! finally some action around here!"
Suddenly, 300 tanks, 500 mortars, and 600 Jeeps outfitted with machine guns started rolling over the hill.
"Fire at WILL!"
The crack of spell powered weapons (what did you really think they had bullets?) started up, the soldiers sheathed their swords, and took out, sub machine guns, ak-47's and all other types of guns.
Pretty quickly the enemy was reduced to a pile of body's.
And that is how the changeling/ pony war happened, in one day.
It was three months after the changeling war, and luna was currently driving to Manehatten to pick up a gift, she did not however know who the gift was for or what it was.
When she got there however she was utterly surprised, it looked like a engine, however it was completely streamlined, and it was 5 units long.
She came to a stop hopped out and looked in the cab and found a note.
To Luna,
We have discovered a new type of engine, it is called the EDOLHHHH1 or extreme duty obnoxiously long high horsepower heavy hauler one. It is capable of going really long distances with really long trains, around 10,000 cars, it is equiped with air brakes, dynamic brakes, individual brakes, and electromagnetic brakes.
The best part is it is the only one ever to be made and has been made, and it is solely for you, have fun.
From Celestia
P.S. I believe your next assignment is to haul a 11,000 car train up to canterlot, to test out it's abilities, it should be very interesting.
Luna took a good look around the cab.
It was quite spacious, it actually had a bed, a little kitchen, and a refrigerator. however the control center was what really caught luna's eye, It was absolutely top of the line, with cctv cameras placed around the train, it had a recliner as the chair and it had cab signal displays, auto speed braking, 50 speed throttle, full info displays. There was also a secondary command room behind the kitchen and bedroom, which had a full map of Equestria's railroads and signals positions. it was basically like a home in a train.
After looking over everything, luna finally decided to fire the engine up, and when she turned that key the roar was amazing, additionally a little screen came on saying "Diesel started, prepping to start reactor."
After around five more seconds, the screen changed to "Reactor ready to start, start y/n"
Luna hit Y and the diesel engine cut off, and the large screen came to life, displaying things like core temp, reactor usage, air brake status, everything.
Luna finally sat in the recliner and it was so soft, it felt like she was on a cloud, there was a signal in front of her that was red so she waited for it to turn green, meanwhile she put the lever marked reverser into the forward position. after five minutes of waiting the light turned green, luna released the brakes, and pushed the throttle to level one, the reaction from the train was instant, the train suddenly started moving forwards, at five miles per hour, and when she passed over the switch the wheels were ridiculously quiet.
Then on the main screen a little map popped up and displayed the cars she needed to hook up to and the switches, she quickly made her route to the cars and hooked up to them, she hopped out connected all the lines at the rear and hopped back in, and set off for Canterlot.
The longest train ever hauled EVER! (i don’t think it’s actually been done.)
And Luna was pulling it, it took a half a mile just to take out the slack!
However for the new engine it was nothing.
Additionally for reference as luna drives this train she will start talking to herself just to double check things.
(Manehatten departing)
“Engine temp 300 degrees, power generated 12 mega watts, sand on, coffee on, lights on, whistle check, throttle level one.”
Luna cracks the throttle, and the train starts going forwards very slowly, but slowly starts to pick up speed. “Trying whistle”
Luna hits the horn button and a very loud horn sound comes from the engine. It sounds like thunder rolling over the landscape. Luna lets out two short blasts, and proceeds on her way.
She checks all the informational things and then notices there is a green light ahead, however the back of her train is not even close to being out of the yard.
When she finally gets it out of the yard she increases the throttle to notch five, and the train immediately starts speeding up to 20 miles per hour, considering the speed limit was 100 in this section she then pushed the throttle up to notch thirty, and the train reacted instantly, the train lurched forwards, and in three seconds it was up to 100 miles per hour.
“Holy ##### if this train goes this fast at this power level with this long of a train, the trains I could haul.”
After a few hours of watching the land scape roll by luna was approaching Canterlot, and was beginning to slow down. However there was a problem. She was applying the breaks but nothing was happening, she looked at the pressure gauge and saw that the resovaour was full, she then checked the linkage connecting the handle to the brake valve and surely enough it looked like it was snapped off, luna at this point was confused, but as she was hurtling towards Canterlot she knew she had no time to waste, she first tried the independent brake but it was the same as the air brake, now she was really scared, she shoved the dynamic brake on, after cutting the throttle, and the train did nothing, luna now surveyed her options, she had two, either try reversing it, or go with the electromagnetic brake, she tried reversing it but the screen came up with a message that said “train in motion gear switching not allowed” so luna went straight for the big boy, the electromagnetic brake, it even had a label that said
ONLY FOR EMERGENCY USE OR PARKING, NEVER USE AT HIGH SPEED
naturally luna was still traveling at ninety miles per hour so she was fairly up there in the speed category, but she had no choice, she quickly pulled the lever.
Immediately alarms started ringing, and an electronic voice stated “you are currently traveling at 90 miles per hour are you sure you want to use this break?”
Luna replied “YES!”
It replied “confirmed please buckle your safety restraints”
Luna buckled the harness and immediately she was informed of the squealing of wheels, as every single wheel on the entire train LOCKED.
The train came to a stop, but the squealing was intense it took 2 minutes of deafening squealing for the train to stop, luckily she only had 500 feet until she would have reached Canterlot by that time, and luna was in shock. They had to put her on a stretcher to take her out and even then she was still in the same position as she was when they found her.
Luna had just been finishing her 100th run in her new engine and had just been notified that there was a prisoner from Tartarus that had escaped, naturally Celestia being the idiot she was had sent Twilight Sparkle with all the power of the Alicorns to fight him, however she failed miserably, so it was Luna's turn next and she had a piece of weaponry just perfect for this, it is called the Paris railgun. so Luna travels back to Manhattan and picks it up, then runs over just 10 miles away from where Tirek was last seen.
"Coordinates 14.5, 150, 300 prepare to fire" L0una instructed the soldiers manning it.
The gun cranks it's way to the designated target.
"prepared to fire" the soldiers responded
"FIRE!" Luna commands All of a sudden there is a loud BOOM as the gun fires, and the barrel retracts four whole feet from the recoil, but naturally due to superior intelligence, the round hits home and Tirek is killed in a single shot.
Luna had been running trains for the past six years with no incidents, however late one night she had a familiar dream. She was surrounded by ponies, specifically the nobility calling her things like useless, a killer, etc. she immediately knew who was back and asked for her presence.
"Nightmare Moon come here." Luna said calmly in her dream.
Nightmare moon appeared in front of Luna frowning saying, "Why aren't you saddened or angered by this?"
"I am no longer the ruler of equestria I now drive trains all day long. And I live a relatively stress free life, also I am now Tia's superior legally."
"How did you accomplish that?"
"Turns out Tia was stealing our bits while we were on the moon. I had some guards arrest her and charged her with getting me this job and running the country."
"Okay then so I suppose there is no reason to remain, so I should leave?"
Luna then frowned in thought, It was kind of lonely running trains all the time never really communicating with anyone on the outside.
"No. I have an idea! Give me about three or four days then meet me in the dreamscape."
"Ok sure."
By this time it was morning and Luna woke up, she immediately called her boss asking if she could use some of her vacation time. naturally since Luna was the only one qualified to drive her engine he was reluctant but after Luna quoted some labor laws he finally caved giving Luna around a week off.
She immediately went to the castle and started working on her project, it was long tedious work but after two straight days of straight black high octane coffee she had a marvel of engineering a fully autonomous android body, it did however cost her around her entire savings, of 4 million bits, but she finally had it mostly done. She ran a full systems test and made sure everything worked in the body, and then began on the most tedious part yet, creating the soul containment unit, that took another full 12 hours. Now all that was left was to mesh the two together once she convinced nightmare moon to separate and inhabit the body. Luna then checked the door was locked, passed out. she had a dreamless sleep however so she couldn't meet with Nightmare Moon.
The next morning Luna awoke and began drawing the runic circles, and glyphs needed to complete the project. after doing that it was late afternoon, so Luna curled up and went to sleep in her designated spot.
Naturally the second Luna was asleep nightmare moon was there to greet her.
"Hello Luna, would you like to explain what your idea is?"
"Absolutely, I realized that driving trains was a bit lonely, and as everyone else I know has there own lives, and wouldn't want to join me I thought I would extend the invitation to you."
"And how would I be able to join you? I doubt you would be allowed to sleep drive a train."
"Well if you agree I actually have a body for you to inhabit, brand new never been used and one which age has no effect on with regular maintenance."
"So basically ageless."
"You could say that."
"Well why not? it would certainly be more interesting then being here." Nightmare Moon replied distastefully.
"Great I already have the glyphs drawn, so we may begin, I suppose. I will however warn you this will definitely hurt a lot." while she was saying this in the waking world Luna began to put magic into the runes.
Suddenly in both the dreamscape as well as in the waking world everything went white, as there was a giant flash in Luna's room. Thankfully she had all the window's blinds closed so no one would see.
After two or three minutes Luna and nightmare moon finally woke up, Nightmare moon was shocked however about the look of the body she was in. It was like a regular pony body but it was clad in osmium and boron, in a elegant design. (a/n need to find picture or make one eventually) which was the strongest metal in existence (osmium) along with the most magically resistant metal known to anyone, the outside of the body had runes implemented into the design for added strength and durability and magical resistance. The armor was also enchanted to be stronger and once again more magically resistant. It could possibly also be struck by a lightning bolt resulting from all the power from the sun being stored up for a millennia and still not shock the electronics, or conduct it at all. The body was incredibly heavy however around 5 tons. for Luna however it was incredibly difficult to make as the metal had to be around the temperature of the center of the sun to be even slightly formable. The result however was a magically impenetrable, and unpierceable body. they were standing there for around two to three minutes before Luna said "well what do you think?"
"It's beautiful I love it."
Suddenly pinkie popped out of a potted plant and squeed, while saying, "yay I get to throw a 'nightmare moon separated from Luna and inhabited her own body' party!"
Pinkie was then grabbed in Luna's magic and held up to her face as she said "you will not throw a party for this nor mention this to anyone! understood! I don't quite think the general population would be too pleased with me right now." wellcanIatleasthelpwithbreakingthenewstocelestiaandthenthegeneralpublicafternightmaremoongetsaquantedwithhernewbody,whileyoufigureoutanewnameforherbecausetheauthorisgettingtiredoftypinganddoesn'twanttokeeptypingnightmaremoonoverandoveragain!"
Celestia was pissed. first she had all her cake taken away, then she was forced to rule the country, and she was now just hearing about the return of Nightmare Moon, now called Moonie!
Yep this week was turning out to be one of the worst one so far.
Naturally, then, Moonie walked in with her black and silver colors. And Luna just had to ask, "Is it okay if Moonie works with me on the railroad?"
And so she was forced to answer yes. Because she was still blinded by the unfair ruling.
Suddenly a Pegasus royal guard flew in sweating heavily carrying a red envelope. (a/n. in the politics of equestrian normal envelopes are white, yellow is urgent, orange is foreign, purple is diplomatic and red is of the highest priority for princess eyes only.)
Celestia opened the letter and her eyes widened, and she shouted, "Shit!"
Luna knowing what it takes to make Celestia cuss asked promptly, "what is happening?"
Celestia replied "The caribou are attacking Equestria and are currently only five miles away and marching fast. we need to evacuate Canterlot and move to the Everfree!"
Now it is not commonly known but in times of peace Canterlot is the capital, in times of war however the Everfree castle is the base of operations because the ruins are only a disguise for the actual base.
"We are going to let them take me and Canterlot while I place Shining Armor in charge of the war. Luna and Moonie you get out as fast as possible in case something happens!"
Luna and Moonie galloped as fast as they could towards the depot, there was their engine in all it's glory however there was no time to ponder, as soon as the word had gotten around the railroad activated E.V.A.C. Plan alpha, and Luna and Moonie now needed to get their engine ready to go. They hopped in and preformed the pre-trip checklist,
"Engine status warm, prepping for warm start." Moonie stated
They proceeded to the coupling point, and allow me to explain exactly what is going on here. Basically E.V.A.C. plan alpha is a mad scramble to get everyone off the mountain in as short a time as possible, as such every single railcar that was on Canterlot was put together and had ponies loaded onto it, coal cars held 10, gondolas 100, passenger cars 50, boxcars 30, and tankers held fuel as they couldn't hold ponies, cabooses held 20 also by the way. Additionally the total amount of rolling stock in this consist was the most EVER attempted around two hundred thousand units. Calling for the need of additional propulsion/traction. So they had to pick up the new unit for the engine, however the unit was only one quarter of the way finished, so Luna had Moonie grab the tools for working on it along with the materials. Hooking the unit up however was a bit of a problem because there were so many connectors that needed to be attached. but after five minutes of puzzling over it they finally got it connected, and proceeded to hook up to the consist. allow me to explain exactly what the new unit was not, it was not a power generation unit, instead it took the power provided and spread it out over a length of track, the "unit" was actually not just one car, it was actually seven cars semi permanently attached. the first car had a full kitchen and bathrooms, the second was dining, the third was a utility/ living room, the fourth was bedrooms, the fifth one was storage, the sixth was a workshop, and the seventh was a server room. Combined with all of the other units in the engine, the engine was now 12 units long.
Back to the present, Luna had finally hooked up to the consist and was having Moonie connect everything. afterwards Moonie climbed back into the cab to prep for departure. Luna assigned Moonie to start working on finishing the additional unit, and Moonie being as skilled as Luna in construction, had no problem doing so and managed to get the basic construction of the first and second unit done, before they were ready to depart. It had been around three hours once Luna had hooked up to the train, and the caribou were practically on Canterlot's doorstep, being only a quarter of a mile away.
"Prepping for departure, green signal received" Luna commented
"All systems are in the green, prepare to remove slack in consist" Moonie responded.
"Removing slack" Luna said as she pulled the cars taught with the engine "Slack removed, begin departure."
"Acknowledged we are free to roll."
"Rolling" Luna said after blowing the horn three long times, which meant that everyone should be aboard."
the plan was simple, get to the Everfree base, drop off the cars and then proceed to Manehatten, however as they were leaving the radio crackled with static and a voice said, "Luna the Everfree has been overrun, please find some other place to Evac to."
After another ten minutes or so there was a very deep voice on the radio that said, "You can run but the males will eventually rule."
Naturally after hearing this Luna and Moonie were practically fuming with anger but that soon turned into determination to take back Canterlot, because Canterlot had fallen.
After hearing the news Luna and Moonie proceeded to Manehatten where they dropped off all of the people, but then in the cabin of the train there was a voice that said, "You might as well give up, we already broke in Celestia!"
After hearing this naturally Luna and Moonie were outraged, so they decided to address the general public about this matter.
A whole day later Luna was standing on a podium in front of the entirety of Manehatten and a device which had a spell for two way communication between Manehatten and Trottingham. Luna then began her speech, "Attention citizens of Equestria, I regret to inform you that Canterlot has been overrun by caribou, and they have proceeded to defile my sister, on this day I ask of you shall we sit here and take this laying down?"
She was met by a loud "no" from the crowd.
"I say no also here's what we'll do, we are currently amassing an army, to take Canterlot back, and then Procced to the caribou homeland top make sure this will never happen again."
This was met by loud cheering.
"If you would like to sign up for the army please see the recruiters to my left and right."
Immediately the crowd split right down the middle and they all lined up in front of the recruiters.
Despite the huge turnout for the speech there were only 1,000,000 ponies who enlisted. It seemed to Luna that she had enough ponies now, so she figured all they needed was the equipment, so they had ordered 10,000 tanks, a couple hundred light armored vehicles, and she got all this from trotting ham military reserve.
Around one month later they were ready to depart for the biggest war ever seen on the face of Equus.
Luna had also assigned Moonie to drive as she would be on the COMM system prepping, also they had retrieved the Paris gun for sieging Canterlot. It turns out that Canterlot was heavily fortified by the Caribou, however it turns out it would make no difference. They arrived in Ponyville, and began to disembark.
Meanwhile in Canterlot castle they were in a complete panic.
For a brief day or so the population of Ponyville increased by around 10,000%.
Then they were ready, and the siege of Canterlot had begun, it started with a single round from the Paris gun, aka the shot heard round the world, because unknown to anyone but Luna she had recruited three MASSIVE militaries in this fight, the Minators, the Dragons, and the Griffins.
After the first shot was fired, a long low note was played on the war horn, and then the equestrians started marching in perfect sync, it was enough to cause mini earthquakes. but if that wasn't enough halfway through the first step 16 massive Griffon siege airships uncloaked, they were 50,000ft in length and armed to the teeth, and all that firepower was aimed directly at Canterlot, but then you could hear another very loud rumbling, the minotaur's had arrived, 100 million strong they by far dwarfed Equestria's army. Then and even louder rumbling started up and everyone looked east, as the others were on the western side, and then the biggest army in the world showed up, and the war was practically over when it started, as the dragons had arrived, have you ever wondered why no one EVER messed with the dragons, well it was because of their capital ship, or should it be called capital dragon, as the dragon's capital ship was actually the biggest dragon's armor, it had a gun on it that dwarfed even Luna's Paris gun, and was the size of the largest mountain on the planet. It was also manned by young dragons.
Then the dragon let out an earth-shaking roar, and the gun fired. Were the gates being of the outer wall was now a crater. The tanks then arrived and joined up to the rear of the Equestrian army.
Luna then shouted in the royal Everfree voice, "SHOW NO MERCY, GIVE NO QUARTER, KILL THEM ALL!!!! DOUBLE TIME MARCH!!!" the equestrians broke into a slow trot, "TRIPLE TIME MARCH" then a fast trot, "CHARGE!!" then a full out gallop, they proceeded to kill every single Caribou in Canterlot.
When the castle was breached Luna shouted, "CELESTIA SOME OLD FREINDS ARE HERE TO SEE YOU!!"
The massive dragon said, "I'm not old yet!!" and when he did this the ground shook.
Suddenly Dainn came out hands in the air, and was promptly shot by the Paris gun on sight, left a nice splatter too. Then Celestia came out and saw the massive armies that had come to her rescue and was suddenly crying.
Luna ran up to her and asked what the problem was and she responded, "I'm no longer pure." Luna was suddenly very angry, and decided then and there this was not over.
The first thing that happened after Luna heard those words, was Luna said, "Celestia you know what this means correct, we ARE going to war?"
And naturally Celestia still shocked said, "Kill them, kill them all!"
"Well there goes avoiding it however this will be fun!"
Luna then walked out and said in the royal Everfree voice, "ATTENTION, MY SISTER IS NO LONGER PURE, SHE HAS BEEN RAPED AND FORCED TO DO UNSPEAKABLE ACTS BY THE CARRIBOU. THEREFORE, EQUESTIRIA IS NO LONGER UNDER A ROLE OF PEACEFULLY LETTING THIS STAND. IN OTHER TERMS MY FELLOW EQUESTIRANS WE ARE AT WAR!!!!"
Suddenly the sun turned blood red, and unknown to all standing there as it was currently day, when the night came the moon would be red, thus informing the world that the fury of Equestria was about to be unleashed.
Luna continued, "MY FELLOW EQUESTIRANS AS MY SISTER IS CURRENTLY UNFIT TO RULE AND SINCE POLLICY DICTATES IN A TIME OF WAR WE MOVE FROM A PRINCESS TO A QUEEN, I AM HENSEFORTH TAKEING THE MANTLE OF QUEEN OF EQUESTIRIA. AS THIS IS NOW CONCLUDED, I WOULD HOPE THAT OUR ALLIES WOULD AID US IN THIS TIME OF TRAGITY, AND HELP US TO TAKE JUSTICE TO THE CARRIBOU!"
Both the giant Dragon and the Griffions all yelled, "IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA, AND JUSTICE FOR ALL, WE STAND!"
"AS THEIR ALLEGINCE IS NOW CONFIRMED ALL TROOPS FORM UP!"
The mighty forces of Equestria proceeded to get together, and got into ranks.
"FORWARD MARCH!!! LEFT, LEFT, LEFT RIGHT LEFT!"
In perfect sync, the troops of Equestria marched forward a sight which would strike fear into any caribou present, which there were a few spies that were remaining, to see how badly Dainn failed, and as they now sent their reports to their commanding officers and committed suicide, the caribou now were well and truly terrified, however they knew they deserved this, for messing with the force of Equestria.
Thus began the biggest invasion the world of Equis had ever known (so far).
The defenses of the caribou were much stronger than the makeshift ones around Canterlot, they had a large wall and a giant shield made by runes, this shield was the main thing that would provide a problem, as even a continued siege with all of the weapons at Luna's disposal would not be enough to break it, thankfully Luna had brought Celestia with her as Celestia had said, "I want to see them all die with my very eyes"
So Luna had to ask the question, "Celestia, in the name of retribution against the caribou do you think you could preform a solar strike on the shield?"
"Certainly Luna just allow me to perform the proper precautions."
Luna then addressed the forces, "ATTENTION, COMPRESS AND PREPARE TO FORM SHEILDS!"
Quickly all of the unicorns began drawing shield runes around the perimeter of the camp, and at the same time the leader of the griffons walked up to Luna, and asked, "Queen Luna are you really going to authorize a solar strike against the caribou?"
"Yes I am they defiled my sister, we have every right to do so."
"I understand however are you sure this wouldn't kill all of us too?"
"No it will not kill all of us it is not as devastating as a lunar strike at least, actually I retract that it is but it is more concentrated. A lunar strike would kill everyone, caribou and us included, but a solar strike will not, honestly the only reason why we even are here anymore is so Celestia can get her aim right and so that we can witness what happens to people who mess with Equestria, as the only other time that this has been performed was against, the humans when they tried to invade Equestria."
"Ok, actually where are the Minotars?"
"They are staying behind in Canterlot to protect it."
Celestia then walked up and stated, "Luna we're ready, the forces have retreated inside of the shield, and the preparations are prepared"
(a/n, What is about to happen is actually not originally my idea, I "borrowed" the idea from a fellow writer and changed some things, sorry but I have no other idea for how they would punch through the barrier, and also this is Equestria's version of an atomic bomb.)
Luna responded with, "FIRE AT WILL!"
Then Celestia began, she lit her horn and drew a portion of plasma from the center of her sun, bringing it into a tightly condensed ball, then she condensed it even more, again and again until it was a extremely highly concentrated ball, around the size of a pebble, and with the density of a piece of a neutron star, she then directed it towards the shield, it was around a five minute flight, and Celestia began counting down, "T-TEN!, NINE!, EIGHT," it was now entering Equis's sphere of influence, "SEVEN!, SIX!, FIVE!, FOUR!," it was now just passing Luna's moon, "THREE!, TWO!" it was now entering the atmosphere, "One!, BRACE!, ZERO!!" At near light speed the solar strike impacted the ground, and exploded.
With the force of a ANTIMATTER bomb, the solar strike decimated the caribou's capital, the shield was shredded, but the Equestrian's shield held strong, and the blast was deflected up and over their forces. The result was a massive crater where the Caribou's capital once was, and assuredly every single caribou was dead.
After the war ended Luna, now the queen of Equestria, promptly ordered her forces to return to their homes Also discovering the amount of corruption in the nobility, she promptly ordered a council meeting when she returned to Canterlot.
----Present-----
Luna was currently sitting in the council chamber, a room that heavily resembled an arena. Surrounded by nobility, she stood in the center in front of a podium. As the last of the minor nobles filed into the room and found their seats. This council meeting was mandatory viewing for the entirety of Equestria, so once the equipment feeding live footage to massive screens placed in every town and city in Equestria was turned on, she began her address.
Luna began with, “Hello my fellow Equestrians, as you no doubt know by now, we have decisively won the war with the Caribou. However upon further inquiring about the actions of the nobility during this time of great stress, I was and still am concerned, because the vast majority of the nobles, only helped because it would advance them in some way, additionally I have discovered that some nobles were supported by the caribou, and upon further inquiring into the nobles actions in the past, have discovered that the majority of the current nobility is corrupt, and so from hence forth the entirety of the nobility, is stripped of their status and the majority of their estates, additionally all of the nobles except house Sparkle, and house Pants are required to vacate the city of Canterlot in no less than two days time. And from henceforth every city shall elect no less than two ponies, and one more pony per 100,000 ponies residing there upon the date of the annual census. As there is a massive amount of change going on in Canterlot, I am appointing house Sparkle to represent Canterlot with two ponies.
“Additionally, this change also requires every town to elect no less than two ponies, and one additional pony per 1,000 ponies recorded residing there upon the date of the annual census. Additionally, no town shall have more than 10,000 ponies residing there at any given time, thus allowing no town to ever have any more representatives than twelve, two starting and ten additional representatives. Also, no city shall have any more than twelve representatives.”
“This is all my little ponies, have an enjoyable day.”
With that Luna left and most of Equestria including the nobility, were left wondering how big the balls on Luna are for doing this. But slowly the shock faded and the ponies started going about their day, and the nobility, started filing out of the council chamber, except for Fleur De Lis, and Fancy pants, as they had been summoned to meet with Luna immediately after Luna’s address.
Upon requesting to be led to Luna they were slightly startled to be led directly to the princess’s chambers, but after announcing themselves, they were swiftly granted entry.
“Fleur De Lis, and Fancy Pants, it is good to see you, please have a seat. As you may be wondering I summoned you here to give you the position of royal advisors.”
“Your majesty, I am honored but what does this position mean and why are you giving us this?” Fancy Pants asked.
“I am giving you this because I am going to be going back to my job soon, and I would like somepony, to help me keep Equestria running as neither me nor my sister can do so, additionally as I am now stuck with the position of queen, and since that position cannot be retired from, or resigned from, the amount of paperwork required will most likely be multiplied by a factor of ten. And you are the only uncorrupted house remaining except for house sparkle, you were my only options, and as you are into politics and house sparkle is not you are better suited for this task. So do you accept or not?” Luna said worryingly
“Absolutely we accept, would we get to ride with you during your trips?” Fleur De Lis asked
After the meeting with fancy pants, and fleur de lis, Luna was scheduled to talk to Celestia, and then to go back to work, she actually had to meet with Celestia to discuss who had ownership of the Everfree forest.
Upon arriving at celestia’s office, for her meeting, Luna politely greeted and then entered.
Naturally celestia had to ask the all important question, “Luna, why do you want to know who owns the everfree forest so badly.”
“I have ideas” was Luna’s swift reply.
“Well it turns out that we both own the Everfree forest.”
“Ok then how much would you like for your half?”
“Well you can have it if you want, because there is really nothing you can do with it, because of all the monsters.”
“Thank you Celestia, if you could fill out the paperwork for a transfer of deed than I believe that this meeting can be concluded.”
“Now hold on Luna, I would like to know what exactly you plan on doing with the Everfree!”
“Well it just so happens that I looked at a ground penetrating scan of the Everfree, and I have found some very large caves, so I would like to build a house down there, as it is secluded, and is very protected. It would also be a safe home for the decreasing number of Thestrial ponies in Equestria. I would also like to construct a rail line to these caverns to facilitate the transportation of materials.”
“Wow that is a very ambitious project, how would you get the funding required to do such a project?”
“All of the labor will be done by me over the course of a long period of time.”
“Ok then i have no clue how that will work but ok have fun.” celestia says after handing luna the deed.
Luna then goes to her train and joins up with fancy pants and fleur de lis.
“Hello fancy pants, and fleur de lis, are you ready to go?”
“Yes, we are ready, however it appears the door is locked.”
Luna proceeds to walk up to the door and bang on it loudly yelling, “Moonie open this door!”
There is a hissing sound and then the door swings open and Luna, Fleur de lis, and Fancy pants enter the engine. Luna then walks into the cabin and promptly engages in a conversation with moonie.
“Moonie, how much do you think we’ve earned so far?”
“Around one to two million bits so far? Why do you ask?”
“Well it’s funny i just acquired the deed to the entire everfree forest and i’m thinking about making a city in the caverns below it.”
“Neat idea.”
“Ok anyways what are we hauling today?”
“We are hauling a mixed freight from canterlot to appleloosa, i have also been warned that the tracks there are a bit bumpy so we will have to take it slow.”
“Ok would you like me to drive for this one?”
“Sure, also who did you bring aboard?”
“I brought fancy pants and fleur de lis.”
Luna and moonie went on to complete the trip successfully, and it was six years later before anything else interesting happened.
Luna was just completing a mixed freight from trottingham to manehattan, when moonie yelled, “Luna, the boss wants to see you!”
Luna replied, “ok!”
Luna proceeded to finish what she was doing and went to see the boss.
The boss was a stock middle aged unicorn, he had blue fur and a chromatic mane.
“What do you need sir?” luna asked
“Luna as a result of the recent dip in the economy, we can no longer support your train and you on the railroad. I am very sorry about this, as we tried to keep you on but the running costs were too high.”
“That’s ok it was time for me to take a vacation anyways.”
“I don’t quite think you got the message, allow me to be blunt, you’re fired.”
“Ok” luna responded, and proceeded to find moonie.
Once she found moonie, she proceeded to say, ”moonie, we are no longer employed with the railroad.”
Moonie responded, “so we’re beginning on the everfree then?”
“Yes” luna responded.
“Ok let’s collect fancy pants and flur de lis, and depart. Did you get the materials for the construction?”
“We will pick them up on the way”
Around one hour later after explaining what they were doing to fancy pants and fleur de lis, they departed with all the materials required for the construction in the everfree.
After arriving in the everfree they pull into the siding and begin construction on the rail line, the rail line went from the main line to the side about 20 ft and then began descending. It was to be made at a 1% gradient, and it would spiral down around 10 miles, they had around 1000 miles of track to lay, the total radius would be around 100 miles wide, allowing it to make ten full rotations down deep into the ground, it will be the deepest and the longest continuous curve ever done anywhere. Then it would continue to descend down to 15 miles below the surface, it would also be the highest pressure anywhere, except under the ocean, with a staggering 1.5 bar. And with a width of 30 ft the tunnel would also be one of the widest. And they were just beginning construction. The whole project would take 2.5 years, and the weirdest part is the entire excavation will be done with a state of the art continuous tunnel boring machine, it was of luna’s own design, it allowed the tunnel to be bored constantly and the concrete to be poured and rebar installed automatically, at a rate of 1.39 miles per day or a rate of 0.057 miles per hour. Thus making it the fastest TBM in existence, and the only one of it’s type, it was powered by the nuclear reactor on Luna’s train. As it operated at 100 Terawatts per hour, which is a consumption rate only the reactor can keep up with. The entire excavation work was actually completed on time, and then they got to the hardest part of the job, going through the outer rock of the cave, it actually wasn’t that bad, and they managed to make it through within three days, thus allowing the entire TBM to be disassembled, however I have apparently skipped over describing the cave so allow me to do that. The cave was massive it was five miles high by 3 miles wide, by 20 miles long, thus making it the biggest cave ever discovered. Luna proceeded to finish the whole project by laying track for the rail yard, and setting up the life support systems. All in all except for the final touches and Luna’s residence the entire project was finished, so Luna started on the next project, making the doors.
The doors, are also state of the art, at five feet thick, they would be some of the thickest doors ever made, for their size. They would also be inset into the tunnel walls, the doors were for if anything were to ever happen on the surface they would close. There were actually 40 sets of doors, each one at 90 degree intervals on the spiral. These would allow luna to completely seal off the cave from the outside, and as all the doors were hermetically sealable, there would be nothing that could penetrate the doors.
Also she laid the second and third tracks in the tunnel, and made sure the doors would seal over them. Then she went to invite ponies into the cave to carve out their homes. And as the cave would hold up to 5,000,000 ponies, there was very little fear of it being filled up.
