Canadian Pacific 5-5

My name’s Conner and I’m going to tell you a story that happened to my friends and I. My friends are Andrew, Brent, Brody and John. Some of you may know us as the Elemental Five. Or at least we were before Equestria appeared. You see the Writer was trying to create a crossover fic but got a little more than he bargained for. He didn’t realize that when he brought in ‘My Little Pony, The Conversion Bureau, and Railroads that he’d lose some of his power due to the fact that they were created by other authors. He filled us all in on this and on how he was trying to figure out a way to reverse it or get us out of the story without causing the world to collapse in on itself. Meanwhile the Barrier and the veritable no-man’s land that inevitably preceded it reached Ontario’s western border. He also gave us nearly free reign when it came to things involving Equestria. The only thing he wouldn’t let us do was get ponified. He said that, due to the laws of the other universes, he wouldn’t be able to bring us back from that.

Due to our nature we couldn’t just sit by and do nothing so we decided to join one of Canada’s two Railroad factions. We enrolled in the Canadian Pacific faction as they needed more fighters to deal with the HLF and PER. The other faction, Canadian National, had an easier job because they shuttled ponies along a more northern route through the back woods of Northern Ontario where few HLF cared to go and the PER weren’t quite as fanatic. You see Canada has always been a rather accepting country overall and when Equestria appeared there were few who had an issue with it. In fact, the general consensus of the Canadian Railroads was that almost 90% of the HLF presence consisted of Americans that had crossed the border. The PER were a little different story in that, while there were organized groups of them, most of the PER consisted of folks who figured it was a good idea to try and help others get ponified. Most of them would never force you to get converted though.

Another reason why the CN had an easier time was that CP teams 3-1 to 3-9 patrolled east to west to try and keep the HLF within a couple hundred kilometers of the border. While there were only three sections to each faction my friends and I marked ourselves as CP 5-5. And while most teams had three members and one truck (or bus in the CN’s case) we had five members loaded onto a customized 18-wheeler. The truck itself was fairly standard though I had made a few adjustments to improve power, speed and fuel capacity. The trailer was a different story. It had been a flatbed to begin with. I added a four foot tall fence of steel with a railing on top with a wall of lockers mounted at the front of the trailer, protected from the wind by the cab. I also added hinged panels that hung down beside the tires in an effort to protect them from being shot out. With three of us on the trailer with numerous weapons at our disposal we were a force to be reckoned with.

We painted our Railroad sign on just about every free surface. There was one on both of the doors, one on each of the four tire guards, the fuel tanks and the lockers. We’d even managed to grab a pair of road signs that we gave a new coat of paint before bolting them to the trailer’s tailgate and the truck’s grille. Flying proudly from a flag pole mounted to the trailer was a flag with the Elemental Five logo emblazoned upon it. We were proud of that truck and took the utmost care of it making sure it got checked over every time we returned to base.

Our trips consisted of running from Kitchener up and around Lake Huron to Sudbury where we’d pick up some more ponies before heading to Sault Ste. Marie. Once there we’d usually pick up a couple more and, in the first month, the stragglers from Thunder Bay’s own Bureau. We could safely transport up to 35 ponies but didn’t usually load more than 25. So in our first month of runs we managed 6 trips with almost 150 ponies in total. We beat our record the next month with 8 trips and 200 ponies. But to tell you the truth it would be trips 15 and 16 that we would remember for quite some time.

~~~~~~~~~~

We were about to get our assignment when the Writer showed up.

“The best I can do,” he said, “is copy you guys and drop them into an Equestria-free storyline.”

“Which means we’ll still be here,” John said.

“Pretty much,” the Writer replied, “I hope that won’t be a problem.”

“Not at all,” I reassured him, “We get to keep doing what we do best: protect the citizens.”

“Well, as long as there are no hard feelings,” the Writer said, “it’s time to clone you.”

Just then a horizontal beam of soft blue light appeared under our feet. As it passed over us an identical beam of light moved in tandem a meter away: producing exact duplicates of ourselves as it went. The whole process took about a minute.

“Now that was cool,” Andrew said.

“Thank you,” the Writer replied, “Well, we have to be going now. See you guys later.”

With that he disappeared along with the other Elemental Five.

“Well, that’s that over with,” Brody said, “Let’s go get that assignment.”

We all laughed at the fact that Brody was eager to get an assignment as we headed into the Bureau.

~~~~~~~~~~

“You are to take the thirteen newfoals from here,” the secretary said, “and pick up nine more from Sudbury’s main Bureau as well as three from Sault Ste. Marie. The Princesses themselves have requested that you pick up all 6 of Equestria’s ambassadors from the abandoned Bureau in Thunder Bay.”

“I presume that’s because we’re the only team equipped to carry that may ponies safely in one trip,” I said, “That and the CN’s getting backed up as it is with all those folks getting converted in Quebec.”

“Correct,” the secretary replied, “As a side note, CP teams 1-9 and 2-2 will meet you in Thunder Bay and escort you part of the way back here.”

The secretary handed Andrew a clipboard with the ponies’ names on it and we headed to the lunch room. Andrew called out the names and checked them off in the first of three columns as they walked over to us. Double checking that we had gathered all the correct ponies we headed out side and got them loaded on the truck as Andrew checked off their names for a second time. The final column would get checked off when we dropped them off near the Barrier. The ponies were all very excited not only because they were finally headed to Equestria but also because they were being taken there by the 5-5. You see we had made quite the name for ourselves as being the most reliable and amicable. We also held the record for the lowest casualty to trip ratio: only five injured in total.

This trip wasn’t very different from the rest of them. There was a lot of chatting between the newfoals all the way up to around Terrace Bay when they started talking a little quieter. The trailer full of ponies became eerily silent as we drove through Nipigon as we all knew that the HLF loved to patrol close to the Barrier. Brody, Brent and I went to high-alert at the same time as we were the ones on the trailer, John was driving and Andrew was riding shotgun. Surprisingly the HLF left us alone through the last dozen kilometres even while we off-loaded the ponies. I was grateful for the peace that we had been afforded. We all then climbed back onto the truck and turned back to Thunder Bay.

~~~~~~~~~~

We arrived a little after dawn and found CP 2-2 already waiting for us. About an hour later CP 1-9 showed up. They explained that their transmission was damaged and couldn’t get any higher than second gear. I told them I’d fix it and have it ready by the time the Ambassadors arrived. Sure enough I had no sooner gotten done when Brent pointed out the royal chariot. I slid out from under the truck and saw that the pegasi pulling the chariot were flying quite close to the ground. ‘All in the name of safety,’ I thought, ‘Boy that is one fine piece of construction.’ I admired the chariot for a little while longer before heading back over to the truck and beginning my own routine inspection.

“They seem to like the work you’ve done on old ‘Blue-Eyes’,” Brent said as he checked tire pressures, “They may even want to shower you with praise!”

Brent and I chuckled at that while I checked the fence to ensure it was still well secured and that none of the support posts had been jarred loose. Soon enough we were ready to go and we all took our positions. I introduced myself before warning them, “We’ll be well past the northern-most point of Lake Superior before we start to relax so it’s in your best interest to keep to yourselves. I’d also like you to keep as low as possible until we’re in Sault Ste. Marie.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Almost 300 km later we started to feel a little safer; the four hours had seemed to take an eternity. Finally deciding to relax a little I sat down and leaned against the fence. Twilight took the opportunity to ask some questions.

“I noticed the flag you’re flying but in all my studies of human culture I’ve never seen that particular one,” she said, “What country’s is it?”

“It’s not actually the flag of any country,” I replied, “It’s our group’s old emblem. The one we had before we joined the CP.”

“Interesting,” Twilight said, “Now, I have a few questions. First, what does ‘CP’ stand for? This is the first time we haven’t been transported via air in Canada. Second, what’s the symbolism of your flag? Finally, what is it about you team that has earned you your reputation?”

I was impressed with the questions she had come up with, “OK, your first question. I presume you’ve heard of the American Railroad teams? Good. Well, Canada has two different Factions based off of old rail companies that both built a line across the country; Canadian Pacific, ‘CP’, and Canadian National, ‘CN’. CN teams take a more northern route that has little to no interaction with the HLF and PER for how far north they drive. In fact, they had to build new roads just for the CN’s use. Now, the CP has to deal with the HLF and PER for how closely we work to the border between Canada and the US. Normally a CN team has three members to a bus and can escort 20 to 25 ponies depending on the type of bus. The CP however usually have three to a pick-up truck, like those escorting us, and can only take three at a time. However we also have to deal with the HLF.”

“Very interesting,” Twilight said, “Now, about my other questions?”

“I’ll save those for later,” I replied.

“Why’s that?” Rainbow Dash retorted.

“Because, to be quite frank, it’s a long story. In the meantime; do you have any simpler questions?”

“Well,” Twilight queried, “Would you mind explaining a little more about the railway?”

“Not at all,” I said, “Canada’s factions are split into three sectors each with nine teams in each sector labelled 1-1 to 3-9. The reason why they let us have 5-5 as our team number is because we used to be called the Elemental Five or E5 for short. And since ‘E’ is the fifth letter of the alphabet it seemed natural to go for 5-5. And before you ask; yes, I will explain why we were called the Elemental Five. Later. Now, where was I? Oh, yes. Each team has a set of code names. Usually characters from books that come in sets of three. We didn’t follow that rule and our code names should become self-evident later. I’m Wrought Iron, Brody there in the red jacket is Sparx, Brent in the blue one is Ice Tray, John, the one driving the truck, is Spartan, and our navigator Andrew, the other one in the cab, is Origin. Now, I need to get back to my post. We’ve had some issues with the PER in this area.”

“But why?” Applejack asked, “It’s not like yer HLF.”

“I know, but it’s hard to protect ponies when you are ponies. And I don’t mean that you folks can’t fend for yourselves, it’s just that you can’t bring yourselves to use deadly force,” I replied as I stood up and started scanning the skies for signs of pegasi.