My Little Union Pacific: Big Boys are Magic

Jack and Emily looked at the alicorn dumbfounded, “follow me please, we have a lot to discuss,” Celestia said in a motherly voice, the two engineers nodded and followed her. After they had gone, everypony else turned to the locomotives,

“ooh new comers, this calls for a PARTY!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, she ran back to Sugarcube Corner to start making some sweets for the party, everypony else just rolled their eyes and chuckled, when she had left Twilight decided to enter the lead most locomotive, the 4023.

Meanwhile in the cab, Maria was stunned beyond belief, she was at a loss for words she watched as Jack and Emily where lead away to discuss some matters, she sighed heavily, just then a dull THUNK! Caught her attention and she diverted her eyes to the lavender alicorn that had landed on the footplate, “Hello I am Princess Twilight Sparkle,” she said with a friendly voice,

“hi there,” Maria said nervous but polite tone.

Twilight turned her attention to the locomotive’s firewall and she gasped at the amount of levers, valves, gauges, and other devices the wall had built into it to help control the steel Goliath, she climbed into Jack’s seat and surveyed the controls from the throttle to the brake, to the Johnson bar, she was completely blown away, she was not a train lover but this amazed her to no end, she started to develop a liking for this train considering the ingenuity put into it.

Maria smiled warmly at the pony’s innocence, she looked like a child, “this is amazing!” she said to Maria,

“Aye, she sure is,” she said giggling at Twilight’s enthusiasm, “my name is Maria and I am the fireman,” she said, Twilight looked at her and said

“nice to meet you, Maria,” Twilight said offering a welcoming smile, “could I ask you some questions?” she asked hopefully pulling out a pen and some paper

Maria smiled at her and said “nice to meet you to and of course you can ask some questions, but first let me brief you on which control does what,” she said kindly, she stood and walked over to Twilight and began pointing out the different controls that give and controlled the Iron Horse’s power, “this lever right here is the throttle, this opens a valve that allows the steam to flow into the cylinders, turning the wheels,” pointed to the small levers next to her, “these are the brake levers,” she said pointing to the two small levers, “they control the brakes on the train, the top one is for the locomotive the other one is for the rest of the train,” she added, “that lever in front of you is the Johnson bar, it controls the pitch on the cylinder valves,” she said, “push it forward the train goes forwards pull it back the train goes in reverse,” as Twilight soaked all this in like a sponge, she was really interested in hear the rest of the technical aspects, such as the length, the height, and the width, “this is the whistle,” pointing to a rope, “it warns everyone that a train is coming and to get out of the way, want to blow it?” she added with a grin, Twilight grasped the rope firmly and pulled hard ”WHOO, WHOO!” the mighty chime whistle bellowed, Twilight gasped at the power that the whistle had and so did everypony else not being used to the power that stood in front of them.

Twilight smiled, she was really starting to like this iron giant. “How much does it weigh?”

“1,250,000 lbs, if you count the tender,” Maria answered. Twilight’s mouth fell open, 1,250,000 lbs? that was heavier than all trains in Equestria combined.

“length,” she asked sweetly.

“132 ft 9 1/4 in with the locomotive and tender combined,” Maria said, Twilight’s mouth opened wider.

“width?”

“Eleven feet,”

“height?”

“16 ft 2 ½ inches,”

“top speed?” she squeaked quietly.

“80 mph,”

Her mouth opened even wider “it can go that fast?”

“Yep, pretty fast for something huge,”

“how much can it tow?”

“on level track, she can pull a Five and half mile long train,”

Twilight’s mouth completely hit the deck.

“it can pull that much?” she said in disbelief.

“believe me, this iron horse can handle just about anything,”

Twilight was confused by the term “Iron Horse,” she knew Maria was referring to the locomotive but she found it confusing, she decided to ask about the kind of creature Maria was.

“So what kind of creature are you?” Twilight asked

“I am a homo sapien, or a human,” Maria said, Twilight was amazed, she had herd about and studied about humans, she knew they were usually fighting wars, were using animals for work, or inventing and exploring, she did not remember reading about big iron giants that road on rails. Sure, they had trains in Equestria, but not on this scale.

Meanwhile in another part of the universe Rear Admiral Upper 1/2 Henry Morgan was sitting in his office enjoying a cup of coffee, he had worked for the United Galaxy Defense Alliance for over twenty years and was recently appointed as the commander of the Jesus Platoon, the most feared platoon in the galaxy, his engine was called the Iron Buccaneer. He was competent, reliable, serious, focused, but underneath his hardened shell and demeanor he had a heart of gold and was not afraid to put his life at stake, he was also very caring and merciful, he would attack ruthlessly (which is where his engine gets her name) but if the enemy surrendered he would provide care for them, he is a very strong Christian and willingly tolerates the beliefs of others unless they start flaunting it.

“It’s the human thing to do,” he always says. He wore a white uniform with gold epaulettes on his shoulders, a giant gold anchor with angel wings was stitched across his chest, he wore red trousers with gold stripes, tall black riding boots, and his head gear was a white saucer cap with gold scrambled eggs and two mariner’s crosses crisscrossing over a ships helm with a shield around them and an eagle perched on top.

As he sipped his coffee, until an alarm sounded.

“EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! UNION PACIFIC 4023 AND 4006 HAVE MYSTERIOUSLY VANISHED! COMMANDERS OF THE FOLLOWING PLATOONS ARE TO MEET WITH THE ALLIANCE COMMANDER ASAP!”

He quickly got up and sprinted towards the briefing room along with the commanders with the platoons that had been listed. Fleet Admiral Isabella Amor, commander of the Bethlehem Platoon, a hardened warrior with a motherly personality, four star Admiral Sarah Stowe commander of the Silent Night Platoon, a women with big sister like personality, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, commander of the Apostle Platoon, an arrogant and brash fighter who has a serious rivalry with the honest and kind hearted commander of the Disciple Platoon and always challenges the commander of the Gospel Platoon, the one of a kind person who can put a smile on anyone’s face, Fleet Captain Nemo to a race.

Then there was Commodore Henry Washington, commander of the Moses Platoon, rather shy and timid around new comers but a fierce warrior inside. The Jerusalem Platoon, commanded by Captain Noah Greenbaum, a bit of a neat freak and always concerned with his appearance but has a lot of generosity in him. Then rounding up the bunch, is Commander Houston, a Texan with a kind hearted and honest personality with a streak of stubbornness. They each took their seats when the Supreme Commander walked in. “ATTENTION ON DECK!” Morgan shouted.

“Please be seated, alright everyone, as the announcement said, the 4023 and 4006 have disappeared, however the tracking devices installed on them were able transmit one last signal before going dark. It is this planet right here,” pointing to a map of the galaxy. “We are sending eight of you search the planet for the train, there are going to be eight so the search is faster. If the local population find out who you while you are there, try not to fire on them if they are peaceful. You are not allowed to jump there, it could raise an alarm. Good luck.” The commander said. “YES SIR!” they said and left to mount their respective trains.