You can't

Chapters

Stranded in the middle of nowhere
Stranded in the middle of nowhere
Stranded in the middle of nowhere
Stranded in nowhere
Stranded
A piece of cake
Epilogue: anti-moral of the day

Stranded in the middle of nowhere

Author's Note

Dedicated to all those who were asked to do something they couldn't possibly do.

Stranded in the middle of nowhere

« Okay Twilight », the alicorn told herself. « It can’t be that complicated. It’s all just a matter of boiling water, producing steam and then using the pressure to make the wheels move. No big deal. »

She breathed, came near the hood of the locomotive and, after a slight hesitation, opened it.

Her whole face turned from purple to white, and she went a few steps back as she discovered the internal engine. It was clearly not steam powered. There were some magic catalysts, runes, a very complex mechanical construction, and altogether not the slightest thing that could seem even remotely familiar.

“I’m screwed…” bluntly stated Twilight as she was contemplating the technical marvel that is an equestrian locomotive.

Only the sound of the desert all around witnessed her statement and disarray. And it seemed as the equestrian princess had become part of that desert, as she was just standing there, completely stunned.

Of course, putting the locomotive back on the tracks after the derailment had been almost a piece of cake. Her magic was, after all, quite strong. But when she had realized that burning wood wasn’t making the locomotive move would it even be by an inch, she had understood the engine had broken during the fall.
Needless to say, she had realized repairs would be way more difficult than expected.

When her mind finally accepted the fact that she was stranded in the middle of nowhere, without any way to escape than the train itself, Twilight shut the hood off, took the help manual from the driver’s cockpit and went back to the camp. She sat under her tent, which was just two pieces of tissue pieced together heightened with two sticks and a few strings, and began to read said manual without even seeing the words, like in some sort of weird quiet nightmare.

“So, Twi’, how do you do?” asked a very familiar voice.

The alicorn raised her head and saw Applejack looking at her with her everlasting comforting smile.

“I’m doing okay I think.” she replied, before suddenly realizing and adding: “Actually, I’m not so sure I’m doing that well, but under those circumstances, I guess it doesn’t really matter.”

“Wait, what?” asked Rainbow Dash’s worried voice. “What is going on? How can we help you? What can we do? Is there some enemy around here? ‘Cause I would totally own his face!”

The princess couldn’t prevent a little smile to form around her mouth, but still quickly replied:

“No, no enemy. But I wouldn’t mind if you had any knowledge in engineering, because I sure haven’t.”

Her five friends looked at each other, at the exception of Fluttershy who looked at the ground. Of course they had no skills when it came to engines, and technical stuff. Applejack could have easily repaired a broken wheel, or a wall, or such things, but certainly not work on a very complex and highly advanced engine.

“Oh… yeah, that…” said Rainbow Dash. “I don’t think I can help you with that.”

“I’m deeply sorry, dear.” Rarity added. “But I’m certain that a pony as talented and smart as you will without any doubt find the solution and repair that locomotive in no time. For you, it's a piece of cake!”

All the others immediately agreed with Rarity. There was, after all, no pony they knew that was better at handling complicated stuff than Twilight and now that she was a princess, there was no doubt she would find a way to make everything okay in the end.

“Don’t you worry that silly brilliant head of yours!” joyfully said Pinkie pie. “We may be unable to directly help you, but we will cheer for you all the way!” she explained. “Right girls?”

Once again, they all confirmed what had been said. They had the upmost confidence in Twilight’s capabilities to solve the problem at hand. Only the alicorn herself seemed to really doubt that belief. And for good reasons. Still, the cheering did make her feel a little better.

“We better let Twilight focus on her book. Come on you all.” Applejack said to the others. “But don’t hesitate to come to us if you need anything whatsoever.” she added for Twilight.

The princess smiled and quickly went back to the manual. There was no way she would let her friends down. And no way she could fail. She was, after all, Twilight, the smart one, the bookworm, the scientific pony, and even more than that she was a princess. They were counting on her and it was her duty to reward their trust in her.

She spent hours that way, reading chapters after chapters of the manual, and then reading those chapters again as it wasn’t making the slightest bit of sense in her mind. Still, she was persevering. But the sun soon began to disappear. Twilight kept on reading for a while with the help of a candle taken from all the supplies she had packed for the big journey, but eventually fell asleep, her face directly into the pages of the book.

Stranded in the middle of nowhere

Never had Twilight loved her bed in Ponyville that much. The sheets, the mattress, the sounds of the quiet village outside, everything was perfect. Well, pretty much everything as the mattress was quite hard for some reason, and that the sheets seemed to always fall from the bed, way too far for Twilight to get them back on her. And the sounds from outside were weird. There was no pony talking, no activity, just a weird silence all around and the image of a red ball turning above her head...

She opened her eyes and felt the pain of her face where the form of the pages was printed. In a matter of microseconds, Ponyville became nothing more than a distant and vague dream as all her memories came back to her and she came back to reality under the violent sun of the desert.

Mechanically, Twilight got up, took the manual with her and went back to the locomotive.

It was still there, standing on the tracks, waiting to end the journey, almost taunting the princess who knew it wouldn’t move.

Mechanically again, Twilight came near the hood and thought, as she had the very first time:

Still, she couldn’t take herself to immediately open the hood. She needed some time to let the illusion take place. And only then did she hopefully open it.

“I’m so screwed…” she stated, contemplating the complex machinery in front of her.

She tried to find some connection between what she had read into the manual and what her eyes were seeing, but she couldn’t find any. It was still the same confusing amalgam of technical parts, cables, springs and pistons than before.

She sighed and closed the hood again. She had no idea how she would find a way to make the train move once again. After all the time she had dedicated to understand that machinery, she could only come to the conclusion that she had better just napped somewhere as the result would have been the exact same.

There wasn’t much to do. She hold the help manual once again, but as it was time once again to take back some supplies, she went to the broken carriages and took something to eat from the luggage she had packed back then.

“Silly nitium!” joyfully shouted Pinkie Pie, appearing out of one of the suitcases.

Startled, Twilight jumped in the air.

“Surprise.” said the pink pony with joy. “Were you surprised?” she asked.

“Yes, I was.” replied Twilight. “What are you doing here?”

“I saw you were getting all depressed and stuff, so I decided to help you.” explained Pinkie Pie. “I know how tough the situation is for you, but you’ve got to keep on smiling, okay?”

Twilight would have probably ignored it as she had very good reasons to be depressed, be it for the fact that Pinkie Pie was also holding out a can of asparaguses to her at the exact same time. The alicorn’s stomach growled and she quickly took the can out of the pink hoof and opened it right away. She had no idea there was still asparagus left to eat.
And then, slowly, as her hunger was getting satisfied, she remembered Pinkie Pie’s presence.

“Thanks…” she said to her friend.

“No problemo!” Pinkie Pie replied. “And don’t worry so much. I know you can do it!” she added with a great smile full of hope and optimism, before suddenly disappearing back into the pack of luggage dispersed all over the ground.

Twilight sighed.

“But I know I can’t…” she whispered.

Still, the inside of her chest was feeling warm, and that was the best she had been feeling for a very long time. So she took some of the food she could find around, the help manual and went back to the camp.

There, she sat down under her weak tent and, once again, tried to read again and again the whole manual in the hope she might maybe find something that could help her repair that damn engine.

“Are you doing okay?” asked Applejack’s voice.

Twilight raised her head over the book and saw the familiar faces of her friends all around her. She didn’t feel necessary to reply.

“I’m sure she does.” said Rarity. “Twilight always manages to solve the most impossible of problems. The train will be back up in no time!”

Of course, her “argument” fell flat due to how long Twilight had been blocked there, unable to repair the engine.

“I’m sure she will find a way.” said the kind and gentle voice of Fluttershy. “I believe in you Twilight.” she added.

“We all believe in you!” said all of her friends in unison.

Twilight didn’t reply, but she was feeling better to know how much her friends were supporting her in her task. She went back to work, reading every little detail in the manual and forgot about everything but the engine she had to repair.
She was still reading when the sky became darker and darker. Noticing the sudden lack of light, she lit a new candle and kept on reading, until she once again fell out of exhaustion.

Stranded in the middle of nowhere

Twilight was loving the feeling of the wind on her face. She could see the landscape passing through as the train was running at full power to its destination. Actually, she was still feeling it was going too slow. She cast a spell and the locomotive jumped ahead, going faster, and faster, and even faster. So fast that the landscape became just one blurry image that turned black eventually, as the train began to fall into the darkness. Twilight screamed but no sound escaped her mouth. She escaped the carriage by the window and saw the rest of the train fall down below her as she just stood there, in the middle of nothing, in the cold, alone and afraid.

Twilight woke up. Instinctively, she focused on slowing her heart beating, and tried to breath at a normal rate. She was sweating, but she decided it was because of the heat of the sun in the desert. She decided to ignore the fact she would have given anything, and I do say anything, for a comforting hug at that moment.

Nonetheless, she mechanically got up and went to the locomotive. As she got there, she observed it, intact, on the tracks, ready to go as soon as the engine would have been fixed. Twilight suddenly realized she had forgotten the manual at the camp. not that it really mattered in the long run, as she still had no idea what to do.

She lay on the ground and tried to forget everything around her. Then, she felt something on her cheek. She thought, for a little moment, that it was a hoof touching her, that somepony was trying to comfort her, that somepony would provide all the help she needed, even if there was no way a pony’s hoof would provide that precise feeling. Still, it was too good to think there was somepony there to accept the facts. At least not right away.
But when she finally opened her eyes, she understood she was crying and the feeling on her cheek was that of tears running down.

She immediately got up and screamed out of pure anger. No way she would give up. No way she would lose to a mere machine. She was a princess. She was smart. She was Twilight. And all of her friends were counting on her skills to repair that engine. So she would repair it.

She went to the hood.

« Okay Twilight », the alicorn assured herself. « It can’t be that complicated. It’s all just a matter of boiling water, producing steam and then using the pressure to make the wheels move. No big deal. »

She knew it was false, but she liked to think that, maybe, if she believed in it strong enough, the engine would suddenly change to a simple steam powered one. She opened the hood and, of course, revealed the very complex machinery that was the locomotive’s engine.

“I’m so fucking screwed.” screamed Twilight in horror. “I’m screwed, I can’t do it. I’m going to die here!” she despaired for a few seconds.

But with a strong effort on herself, she took back control of her breath and simmered down a little. It was clear, however, that she wouldn’t hold much longer without any progress in her task. So, this time, she decided to forget about understanding the machinery through a book, and just began to take the engine into pieces. She had absolutely no idea what she was doing and she couldn’t ignore the fact that she could be ruining the few chances she had to make it right forever that way, but at least there was that slight feeling to actually be doing something. To be acting, to have some sort of impact.

It wasn’t making any sense. Not at all. Of course the whole engine was just a machine, and was composed of pieces responding to the laws of physic, but even so, there were things that Twilight just couldn’t understand. For example, she saw a fluid cable that was linked to a spring that was doing absolutely nothing for the machinery and certainly couldn’t use the input from the cable. There was a red ball made of metal that seemed to be nothing more than a ballast, for whatever reason. And some blinking light without any energy source. Even more, she knew that the whole machine was supposed to use burning wood to function, but there was no telling how burning wood was supposed to power the magic amplificators that were disposed and connected to the pistons.

Needless to say, Twilight’s frustration was just adding with every second passing, but she managed to stay focused and ignore it during the whole day. Even when she lost a whole gallon of oil when she unscrewed a plate that happened to be some sort of sump or when she almost got electrocuted by an electronic circuit that took fire and probably destroyed part of its surrounding.

The alicorn ignored everything. She knew she was probably just making things way worse than before, but there was no turning back anymore anyway. A new tear appeared on the edge of her eye at the idea she had destroyed the last hope she had not to disappoint her friends’ hopes, but even that tear she managed to hold in.

“Here, I think it’s everything that’s left.” said Pinkie Pie’s voice behind Twilight’s back. “I doubt there is anything else left in the luggage. I’m sorry.” and her voice suddenly turned into a very optimistic tone: “But don’t worry, you’ll be finished before there is nothing to eat anymore. I see you’ve done quite a lot of work already. That’s really great. You can be proud of yourself!”

Twilight turned back to see the pink pony, but Pinkie Pie had already left and was nowhere to be seen anymore. Still, there was a pile of cans, not many, but a few that were probably containing all the food Pinkie Pie had been seeking.
The sun was going down and Twilight decided she should better stop there and save her strength before continuing to work on the engine. Even if there wasn’t much point to work anyway. At least nopony would be able to say she hadn’t tried her best.

She went back to the camp, went under her tent and almost buried her head in the ground. She was tired and she knew she could fall asleep if she were to just accept to. Still, she felt she couldn’t just let the day finish like that.

“Are you feeling okay?” asked Applejack. “You aren’t really looking okay…”

Twilight sighed. She knew the other four were there, watching her, worrying about her. And as much as she had wanted for them to come see her before she would be swallowed into her dreams, she was kind of feeling she wanted to be left alone.

“Define “okay”…” she replied with a little bit of sarcasm.

“Okay, you know, like in everything is as perfect as could be and we are doing great!” defined Rainbow Dash. “Just how do you intend to repair the locomotive if you begin to forget what words mean?”

By chance, Applejack shut the pegasus up, even if a bit too late.

“Well I’m not doing okay!” shouted Twilight. “There is no way I’ll ever repair that engine ever. It just isn’t possible.”

“Oh come on now dear.” said Rarity with a comforting tone, “It can’t that bad. Surely you will manage something.”

“No!” immediately replied Twilight, scaring off both Rarity and Fluttershy who was standing next to her. “How do I need to say it? I won’t manage anything whatsoever, because I don’t know how that thing works. I know about magic, I know about friendship, I even know some stuff about engineering, that’s true, but nothing that can make me suddenly figure out the complexity of what I’ve got to dealt with.”

“So… you’re saying it’s going to be hard?” asked Rainbow Dash, who just couldn’t believe Twilight couldn’t do something, whatever the thing may be.

Twilight didn’t reply, but sunk her head into the ground once again, which was kind of enough of an answer anyway.

“But… you’ve got the manual…” said Fluttershy from her bush, more to comfort herself than to reason with anypony.

“Yeah, great. I’ve got the manual!” complained Twilight, her face still stuck in the ground. “You know what is written in there? There is how to use the train’s breaks, how to accelerate, what paper you’re supposed to fill at the end of the journey, and there is even two chapter about what dance move a train conductor is supposed to do on a dance floor, and how to drink more alcohol than anypony else…”

“Really?” asked Pinkie Pie. “Can I see the dance move? Did you master them already?” she added with excitement and, even if Twilight couldn’t see it, probably doing some of her own dance moves at the exact same time.

“I just wish I had never left Ponyville with that train. I can’t even remember why I did that, but I’m sure it was a stupid reason.” the alicorn kept on complaining.

“Who cares why we made that journey?” said Applejack. “The important thing is that we are here, and that you’ll find a way to make it all alright.”

“Well I care.” replied Rainbow Dash. “Why did we make that journey all alone with that train again? Because whoever idea it was, it was very stupid!”

The others ignored Dash’s rambling and just assured Twilight of their support and confidence on her ability to manage in the end. The alicorn didn’t even heard the last words of support as she was already sleeping and her connection to reality faded away, replaced by some nice dreams and a much more pleasant world.

Stranded in nowhere

Twilight was facing all the pieces of the engine. They were standing there, very well ordered, ready to be assembled again into a working motor that would propel the train to its destination. The alicorn began inspecting the ranks of the pieces in her general outfit, but she quickly began to feel that those pieces weren’t serving her. In fact, she realized she was lost in the enemy ranks, completely surrounded by the adversary’s soldiers. And the pieces had begun to realize it as well. She tried to act normal, but the pieces began to move toward her, and, quickly, ignoring her orders to stand back, jumped on her.

Twilight jumped out of the tent in sweat and shivering. There was no pieces, of course. Only her tent. She was hungry, more than usual, so she quickly ate one of the last cans of food and then went back to the locomotive that was still standing still on the tracks, with its open hood.
There were waiting all the pieces Twilight had already taken apart from the engine, but there was no animosity left. Those pieces were dead. And there was pretty much no hope that they would move anymore. At least certainly not to make an engine run.

Ignoring the facts, Twilight kept on disassembling the engine. It took her hours and hours, but, after the hard work, under the burning sun, she managed to have every single piece set apart, disposed on the ground in some organized fashion, at least as organized as you can get without knowing what purpose any element you have is supposed to have.

The alicorn contemplated the pieces in front of her. She had that feeling of satisfaction you get when you’ve finished a task, but still, she knew she had done nothing at all. Even with her notes, she wasn’t certain she could assemble the engine back again and even if she did, there was no reason for it to suddenly work as she would just go back to the initial state.

She sighed. In a desperation move, she began inspecting the ranks of the pieces, as a general would his troops, but nothing happened. Those were inanimate objects lying on the grounds aimlessly.

So, without anything else to do, Twilight began to assemble the engine back up. She took a spring, connected it with a plate, took a cable, assembled it with the first two pieces, then screw another plate with the first one and tried to connect the spring between both plates as it was supposed to go, but her hooves were still tired and the whole thing just blew apart under the spring’s action.

Twilight breathed. It was just a minor setback. She just had to try again.

She took the pieces again and assembled them, but the spring once again made all the pieces blow apart. A third attempt ended in the very same way.

So, acting as if nothing had ever happened, Twilight just let those pieces be and went to another piece. She took it from the ground and observed it. It was the sump from the last day. The one she didn’t have the oil anymore to fill.
Twilight just put down the sump and went to another piece. She took it, looked at her notes and saw that it wasn’t mentioned anywhere.

She had no way to know what that piece was doing. She had probably forgotten to note it. Or maybe she had just been too tired to note it. Or maybe that piece had just appeared out of nowhere to drive her crazy.

Twilight just put the piece down and went in front of all the elements, lay down and began to slightly cry. Not that she was sad. She wasn’t really. But she was tired, exhausted even. She was feeling powerless and she had no way to ignore how much she had failed. She considered getting up to try assembling the engine again, but she saw no point. Her notes were useless, she had lost some oil and probably a few pieces, she had no idea what she was doing and the engine wouldn’t work even if she, by miracle, managed to build it back to its original form.

So she just stayed there, on the ground, under the heat of the sun, waiting for something to happen, or for nothing at all to happen anymore.

As her mind began to wander around, she heard the sound of ponies playing in water. Curious, she got up and went back to the camp where the sounds were coming from. There, she saw Applejack and Rainbow Dash who were diving into a pretty big swimming pool and playing with each other, as both Rarity and Fluttershy were just enjoying the sun on the side, on their deckchairs.

“Hey, Twilight!” shouted Rainbow Dash when she saw the alicorn. “Wanna join us? The water is great you have no idea.”

Twilight declined. She had no time to play or have fun in the water. She had to worry about the engine, and the train, and finding a way to move from that place and go back home, or anywhere whatsoever.

She went back to her tent and just lay there, feigning to ignore the laughs of her friends, but watching them with envy anyway for a while, before going back to sleep.

When she opened back her eyes, Twilight noticed that night had come. Her friends were all probably just sleeping, but she was feeling full of energy again, even if quite hungry. She ate what food left there was, and decided to go back to the engine’s pieces.
Once there, she began, with an extreme patience, to assemble the engine once again. She did it slowly, carefully, and quite blindly as, even with light, she had no idea what she was doing. It was like putting a big puzzle together. And focusing on the pieces, forcing them together or sometimes having the luck to have them cooperate smoothly was making the alicorn forget about her problems.
She wasn’t really repairing the engine, she was just killing time. And if it so happened that she would manage to make the locomotive work by sheer luck, it would just be some great side benefit.

Stranded

Twilight was feeling great. She was floating in the air, under the heat of the magnificent red sun, without even using her wings, or any sort of magic. She was just floating and the air was the most pleasant thing ever. There was no pain, no feelings anymore. It wasn’t too hot or too cold anymore. Everything was perfect.

She opened her eyes and the illusion of the dream followed for a few seconds before she realized she had fallen asleep on the pieces of the engine. The pain forced her to get up. She stretched in the hope it would make things better, which it kind of did, and looked at her work from the night. The amalgam of pieces she had assembled looked like nothing she had ever seen and certainly not the train engine.

It didn’t matter. Twilight convinced herself it didn’t. At all.

She just went back to the camp and began to look for food for breakfast, but remembered she had eaten the last bit the last day. So she drank a bit of water, noticing that there wasn’t much left either and, went under her tent where she just closed her eyes again.

“Hum… Twilight?” asked Applejack’s voice. “Shouldn’t you be working on the train?”

The alicorn kept her eyes closed.

“I know it’s not easy sugarcube.” the orange earth pony kept on saying. “But you’re the only one that can do it. You can’t give up.”

“Like hell I can!” suddenly shouted Twilight, furious, without even looking at Applejack. “And I give up! I’ll never fix that engine. I’ll die there and I don’t care anymore.”

“Don’t say things like that!” implored Applejack, very worried for her friend. “You have to try. If you try hard enough, you’ll succeed for sure. It’s just a matter of will for somepony like you.”

Now Twilight just went from furious to out of the scale bad shit enraged. She got up and looked at the earth pony right into the eyes and then pushed her away as she said:

“Oh yeah, it’s merely a matter of will. If I want it enough I’m sure the engine will just obey and everything will be fine.” Twilight pushed Applejack once again with all the strength she had. “Do you have any idea how hard what you are asking is? I can’t do it. I can’t do it! I just can’t! In what language do I have to tell you? Je ne peux pas le faire. Ich kann es nicht machen. No way! If you think it’s so easy, just do it yourself. In fact, why don’t you try it right now? I’m sure you’ll just have to want it strongly enough and everything will obey your will, right?”

She stopped there. She could see the fear in Applejack’s eyes. And she felt like apologizing. Never had Twilight wanted to scare of hurt her friend. She was just tired. And a bit hungry. And ashamed. And very afraid.
The orange earth pony probably felt that because she went back up and just said:

“I’m sorry sugarcube. I really am. I can’t help you. You’re the only one who can fix that engine.”

A little silence ensued, as Twilight had nothing to respond. She already knew she was the one who had to do it. The fact she couldn’t didn’t change anything there.

“I still believe in you.” said Applejack. “I’m sure you’ll manage. You always do. For somepony like you, it’s a piece of cake, right?” she added with a smile.

Twilight smiled back. She was pretending to agree, as Applejack was pretending, at least it seemed so, that she believed in Twilight. There was nothing else to do. Just pretend until the very end.
Twilight noticed Applejack’s party hat.

“Oh, that?” said the orange pony, realizing what was behind the princess’s look. “Well, it’s kind of my birthday tonight, so we have organized a little party. There will be cake, and punch and then we will play some games and have fun.”

Applejack smiled at the idea of the party, because she knew it was going to be great.

“Sounds nice.” stated Twilight.

“It sure does.” replied Applejack. “And I heard that the other have prepared some great gifts for me. I know I shouldn’t await those, but I’m still a little bit excited to say the truth.”

“Certainly sounds nice.” repeated Twilight.

“Yeah. It will be a blast.” affirmed Applejack, knowing it was going to be a blast for sure.

“So…” said Twilight, without going any further.

“So?” asked Applejack.

“Well, you know…” said Twilight.

“No I don’t. What is it? Is there something you want?” asked Applejack, ready to help.

“I was just going to say I had to go back to that engine and fix it.” Twilight lied.

“Oh, that…” began the orange pony. “I’m deeply sorry. One day for sure, right? After all, you’ll be done with the train in no time now.” sort of didn’t lie Applejack.

They both looked at each other for a while, in silence, in what was a pretty awkward stand, but Applejack finally said goodbye and went back to the party that was awaiting her, as Twilight went back to the train and the impossible task of fixing the engine.

She began to blindly assemble pieces together at first, but soon tears appeared on her cheeks that she couldn’t ignore. She could hear the sound of the party in the distance, knowing everypony was having a lot of fun, and focused on the pieces even more than before.
For a moment, she thought she had found something. Some sort of a trail she could follow to solve the mystery of that engine. It put her into a trance where she just saw stuff like never before. The pieces were literally speaking to here, saying things like:

“I’m here to ignite the first booster, I want to be coupled with the string number sixteen B.”

Or:

“My role is to enable the compression of the air through the chamber. If you add a join, I shall provide a force that can be transferred to a lever arm.”

She assembled them like never before. She wasn’t even looking at her notes anymore, she was just putting stuff together and it always worked great. She never needed to force any piece with another. She never needed to wonder if she was doing things right. She was right. She just had to follow the instructions the pieces were giving her. Even if she was just gluing stuff together, even if she knew, deep inside, she wasn’t doing anything helpful at all, even if, at some point, she realized she had damaged a few pieces in the process.

At least she had been under the impression, for a few minutes, to have been able to do something worthwhile.

She stopped her levitation spell and a dozen of pieces fell on the ground. She looked at the engine, but it was painful to look at. Twilight felt bad for that piece of machinery. After all that time, it had become like a son for her, in a very metaphorical sense. She knew she had been acting very wrong toward it and apologized.
She slowly began to take the pieces away once again, to heal the engine, so that she could repair it correctly in the future. To prove she was going to take good care of it, she even kissed it on one of the front plates.

“Twilight?” asked Pinkie Pie’s voice. “Are you feeling alright?”

The alicorn turned back to her friend. She wasn’t feeling alright. She was sweating, she was dizzy, she was afraid and in some kind of trance. She suddenly lost the coordination of her hooves and began to fall, but Pinkie Pie caught her up before she touched the ground.

“Don’t worry, I’m here.” she said. “We are your friends, we will always be at your side to support you.” she added with a smile.

“I’m sorry Pinkie.” Twilight told her. “I’m so sorry.”

“What are you sorry about? Because of the party? Because you missed the party? Don’t worry your silly head about that.” Pinkie Pie said with a smile, “There will be plenty of other parties and they will be even better than that one.”

But it wasn’t why Twilight wanted to apologize.

“No.” the princess began. “I’m sorry because I let you down. I let all of you down. I couldn’t repair the engine. I just couldn’t do it. I hope you’ll excuse me.”

But for all response, Pinkie Pie just deposed a piece of cake in front of Twilight, hugged the alicorn and kissed her front, before happily hopping away.
Twilight stayed there for a moment, looking at the cake, and, as the cake hadn’t disappeared, reached for it and tasted it. Surprised by the taste, she quickly swallowed the rest of it and felt a little bit better.
There was no plate left, and for a moment Twilight wondered if she had eaten the plate as well as the slice of cake, but it didn’t matter enough for her to solve that matter.

She took a decision. Either she would be able to repair that engine, or she would die trying.

So, for two days straight, between dream and reality, caught inside a long torment made of illusions, hallucinations and fever, more hungry with every second passing and ever more thirsty, Twilight worked on the engine.

But at in the end, as the sun went down in the horizon, as she had used every single piece she had at her disposal on the ground, she had no other choice but to accept that there was no universe in which what she had created would propel anything whatsoever.

Exhausted, not knowing if she was still alive or dead already, Twilight closed her eyes.

A piece of cake

Twilight was covered with the engine pieces. She was screaming, shouting for help, crying, and suddenly she heard a little voice deep inside her head. A voice that told her to fight. It was more than a signal for the alicorn: it was a revelation. She cast a shield that blew the pieces away and then began to unleash every bit of magical power she had to annihilate her opponents. She could see the pieces run in panic and she laughed at their disarray while shooting them down, freezing them off, turning them into ashes or making them melt under the heat of her magical rays. She could feel the power at her disposal, all of the universe that had been mocking her previously suddenly under her orders, even more, at her side as an accomplice to take her revenge and create a new path for her to walk.
It felt great.

She opened her eyes. She could still feel all the power she had developed during her dream running through her veins. And the idea came up in her mind that she had seen how she should handle the matter.
And even if it wasn’t making any sense, she decided to follow that path. Only because, at least, she wouldn’t be the only one to perish there. That train that had taunted her for so long would go away with her.

She saw the engine, lying near her, charged her laser and blew it up in a gigantic explosion. She laughed. She was happy. Happy at last. She focused on the biggest parts that had survived and exploded them too with a joyful smile. Then, she remembered the existence of the locomotive itself and the carriages. Using her magic, she lifted the locomotive and threw it on the rest of the train. Then, she cast a new spell and covered the whole wreck with dark spikes that began to explode in a magnificent firework.

Twilight wasn’t over. She still had some energy left.
She blew up a cactus near her, and then focused more of the pieces that were left of both the engine and the train itself. Then she focused the rocks. And then the ground itself. She was just shooting at everything for the sake of shooting, eager she was to fight for her survival. And what a fight it was. Had there been any living being in sight, she would have eliminated it before it could have done anything whatsoever.

And a living being happened to appear behind the alicorn.

“Stop that!” said the voice.

Twilight turned back and shot, but the living being had already teleported behind her back.

“I’m telling you to stop that.” ordered the voice.

Twilight turned back again and shot, but the pony had teleported again. So she began shooting at random all around in the hope of touching her target. But suddenly, a mass jumped on her and she fell on the ground.

“Please stop, we are not like that.” said the pony. “You are not like that. You’re a good pony. You aren’t a warrior, but a princess. We ought to act like one.”

Twilight knew that voice and she answered with the same one:

“Let me go. If I’m going to die, I want the world to know I didn’t disappear in a whisper, but in fire.”

“You’re angry, and sad, and tired.” said the familiar voice. “I understand that. But we aren’t dead yet.”

“Yes we are.” responded Twilight. “There is no train left. We are way too far to reach any help, this is hopeless.”

“There is always hope.” responded the voice. “I’ll help you if you help me, okay? I just can’t save us both without you, so I need your support.”

Twilight hesitated. As shameful as it was, blowing everything up was feeling way better than anything else she could imagine at the moment, so it was hard to give up. But at the same time, some sense of reality was coming back to her through her hallucinations and fever and she realized how far into insanity she had gone.

“Alright, I’ll follow your lead. What do you need me to do.” she asked the other pony she knew so well.

The other pony smiled, released her grasp and just explained:

“The mechanism of the engine… it’s actually quite simple. There is a red ball made out of cilinitium, which is a magical component that reacts to heat if exposed to a moderate magical aura by turning on itself.”

“You mean that that piece wasn’t just some sort of ballast?” realized Twilight. “That’s… wait, if what you say is true…”

The other pony began to smile, because she could see Twilight had understood.

“This is genius. I mean, it’s simple, but genius.” stated Twilight.

“Not really.” said the other smart familiar pony. “They actually probably didn’t understand it all and made it way more complicated than it needed to be. We could very probably create a way simpler model that would hold until we come back into Equestria. Granted the ball of cilinitium has survived all your blasting that is.”

Twilight understood and immediately began to search for the red ball. By chance, it was still intact, protected as it had been by some other elements, and with the help of the other pony that was always staying right at her side, or behind her depending on where the source of the light was, the alicorn managed to create a very basic mechanism to propel the wheels of the locomotive. She managed to put back what was left of said locomotive on the tracks, rectified the wheels and the axles back with magic and adjusted the engine.

“I hope it will work.” said Twilight as she was finished.

She pulled the lever, put a few logs in the furnace and the locomotive slowly began to move. Not only could Twilight have cried like a baby out of joy, but she did on a very extreme level, even if she was kind of out of tears at that point.
She thanked herself for the help and loaded as many logs as she could. She then began her way back to Equestria, going as fast as her little contraption was able to because she was still very weak and needed some support very soon.

But she had a very good chance to do it.

No, even better:
She knew she could do it!

THE END

Author's Note

Sometimes, you have to work very badly, because you are late on pretty much everything you have to do. Like your studies. Like your job. Like your second job or even your third job (yeah, it is possible...).
When it happens, I seem to just write a story about ponies.

Because f**k my jobs and my studies!

For the anecdote, it took me about four hours to write that story, but more than four month to think about the structure, the pacing and a lot of little details. Didn't make it the best I coul probably do, but not only couldn't I make as good as I wish I could even if I tried really hard, but I wouldn't have the time anyway...

God is writing hard!

I hope that this story at least won't have made you waste your time if you made it through the end... Otherwise, I'm really sorry. I really am.

[edit:] Made some improvement, mostly to give hints during the story about the ending (so it doesn't appear out of nowhere anymore, at least not too much.

Epilogue: anti-moral of the day

Author's Note

This epilogue can be seen as an extended ending. It isn't really part of the story, it was just something that I wanted to have written somewhere and that was supposed to be in the story when I conceived it. So you can see it as an extended ending, but not as "the" ending.

It's just that the moral of that ending is not really a good one... or maybe it is. I've actually got no idea.

Epilogue: anti-moral of the day

The engine of the locomotive was holding, the speed was more than satisfactory, so Twilight began to relax and closed her eyes for a second.

“Alright Twilight!” said Rainbow Dash’s voice behind her back. "You see that you are very smart!"

“Yeah, we knew you could do it from the very beginning. And you who doubted yourself.” added Applejack.

“Seriously, dear, you made quite a lot of drama back there. I mean, relatively speaking, but still.” almost complained Rarity.

Hearing those voices, Twilight used her magic to stop the locomotive.

“What are you doing?” asked Applejack. “It’s time to go back.”

But Twilight didn’t make any gesture.

“Hum… Twi’? Time to go back? Shouldn’t you make the locomotive move?”

“No.” she replied. "Look, I know all you did was to help. But you better stop right now speaking about it."

Her friends looked at each other without understanding.

"You just don't want to admit you acted like a drama queen back there." affirmed Rainbow Dash.

“Care to repeat what you just said?” asked Twilight.

“What, the part about the fact we knew you were able to repair the train all along and that you shouldn’t have made so much drama about it and that it was just a piece of cake for that huge intellect of yours?” asked Pinkie Pie with a huge smile and a weird tone of complicity. “I’m not sure if I remember, but I can try if you want.”

“Get off.” replied Twilight.

“What?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Why?”

“Just get off my train.” Twilight answered. “Now.”

Her friends obeyed and went off the locomotive, wondering about what was going to happen. Only Pinkie Pie seemed not to care so much.

“What now?” asked Applejack. “Surely you aren’t going to leave us here all alone… How would we go back home?”

“Well, I’m sure that, for a strong pony like you Applejack, and a fast pony like you Rainbow Dash, and a creative pony like you Rarity, it will just be, how did you say already? A piece of cake?”

“But, Twilight…” tried to say Rainbow Dash, understanding that the alicorn was serious.

“Make your own train. Don’t worry, I believe in you.” replied Twilight. “And use the journey to learn your lesson!”

Then the alicorn, princess of Equestria, put a few logs in the furnace a let the locomotive retrieve all of her speed, leaving her friends away with a feeling of deep satisfaction.

And shame yes.

But mostly satisfaction.

As she knew her journey had taken a new turn and that everything was going to be fine. And she was feeling free, at last.

THE END