Magic Carpet Made of Steel

What the-

The slow chug of the  Baltimare and Appleloosa railroad (for some reason called the B&O) 4-4-0 locomotive , witch was rather colorful was heavy in the chilly night air as it backed into the siding behind Appleloosa’s only train station. Inside the cab was a dark grey, almost black earth pony wearing an engineer’s cap and a Steam cutie mark, although he was so covered in coal dust he could’ve had any coat color and still been dark grey. He gave a heavy sigh as he pulled the lever to neutral, he would’ve PAID to do what he did he liked it so much, but that didn’t change the fact that he had worked 14 hours, and without a fireman too.

After checking that all the gauges were in order and putting on the breaks, Blast Pipe finally let the long day catch up to him.

The long haul was never easy, as standing up and paying attention for 14 hours was never easy for him, and the lack of a fireman, and thus requiring him to shovel coal as well, didn’t help. Having gotten off the dual track mainline, the brakemen and conductor had long since left, with tired and dull “ ‘night’ and ‘see ya in the morin’ “ said in his general direction as they left.

Actually, he could really use some sleep, just a short power nap before the next engineer came for the 3rd shift. That and a nice, long, shower, he thought to himself as he shook some coal dust out of his coal-dust colored fur.  But could wait until home.

With a bed.

With his bed.

He pulled out his golden pocket watch and saw it was 10:00 on the dot. The next fireman and engineer weren’t due until 10:45. May as well get some shut-eye. So, with one more shovel of coal to keep the boiler hot, he pulled his cap over his eyes and laid back….

“Nice to see yer back mate!”

….and immediately jumped up, banging his head on the roof of the cab.

“Damn it Willie!” Blast Pipe swore, glaring at the bright orange-red earth pony.

“You ‘k?” Willie asked, the concern  in his voice rather obvious.

“I’m fine.” Blast Pipe said while rubbing his head. “What are you doing out here anyway?”

“Can’t somepony come to see his best friend?” Willie replied. “Thought you may want to have me keep you company.”

Blast pipe rolled his eyes before facehoofing “I was about to get some beauty rest before you showed up.”

“Ah’m sorry. Didn’t mean to wake ya or nothin’.”

“Sure, sure” Blast Pipe said (in a very snarky tone), before getting up. “I thought you were going to the studio tonight after helping at the farm.”

Actually, I need to go to that. See ya tomorrow.”

But before he could do that, Willie was cut off as a navy blue pegasus with a gold pocket watch and a ticket puncher cutie mark flew right out of the sky, landing right next to the steamer. “Conductor? What are you-?” Blast Pipe stopped, noticing the fear in her eyes. His nerves were immediately put on edge, as Conductor was panting like she had tried to race Rainbow Dash, and the 20-year railroad veteran had never looked even mildly anxious.

“We’ve got a runaway on the mainline.”

Blast Pipe felt his blood run cold. A runaway was rare, but very nasty usually had an empty cab, and was NEVER slow, and could cause thousands of bits in damages, and a derailment would mean shit had REALLY hit the fan. The next question ment either panicking a little but putting it the the 50-mile long 4% grade, “son-of-a-bitch hill”, as it was called by literally every fireman on the line, or hauling ass to stop it. “Coaster or under steam?”

“T-t-that’s the thing.” Conductor said, taking a deep breath before calming down considerably. “ERA* doesn’t know.”

“Doesn’t know?” Those words both confused and terrified Blast Pipe. Even Willie paled at that. “The hell? It’s a steam engine damnit all, either it’s under power or not.”

“Ya, isn’t that really easy to tell? Willie added.

“Tell me something I don’t know!” Conductor said, raising her voice in frustration. All I know is that Signal Control got a telegram to haul ass and get all opposing traffic off the mainline. When I tried to get details they said that it was coming our way and to move.”

Blast Pipe frowned, and glanced up to see that all the signals were up and red. “What about air protocol?” Knowing that if there was runaway train the first thing they’d do is have a pegasus with engineering experience  fly in and put on the breaks.

“Like I said, they didn’t tell me anything.” Gotta wonder….. the pegasus stopped short, and it took Blast Pipe less than a second to figure out why. He felt it  before he heard it, a vibration in the tracks that shook his locomotive, went up through the cab and this hooves. Then he heard a fast-paced chugging that grew in volume, as did the shaking. All at once all three of the ponies looked at the mainline track and looked up them.

A set of lights pierced the darkness, and the shaking grew so much that Blast Pipe clenched his jaw lest his teeth fall out. Then what must’ve been a whistle sounded, but it was so deep that sounded more like a horn than a whistle. Blast Pipe wondered what in Celestia's name was coming.

Less than a second later, his question was answered. By Luna’s mane it was huge. To call it just a locomotive was like calling the Everfree just a forest or Celestia just a queen. Even that was an understatement. It DWARFED any other locomotive he had ever seen in his life, a monstarus monodepressent grey/black machine. Time seemed to slow and Blast Pipe finally got a good look at it. It had a huge amount of drivers, 2 sets of 8, when the most he had ever seen was 6. They were each HUGE, probably twice as tall as he was, and that wasn't it either. It also had 4 leading and 4 trailing wheels, just like everything else, were huge, about as large as his locomotive's DRIVERS.

Time slowed to a croll as the monstrosity and it’s hopper cars neared, before it hurtled past followed by a seemingly endless amount of iron ore cars. Even his locomotive rocked from the sheet power of it.

Conductor was the first to recover, pulling Blast Pipe out of his daze.

“You!” She said as she pointed a hoof towards Willie

The shellshocked earth pony jumped, not even noticing his hat had been blown off. “Y-yes?”

“Go to the signal house and tell them to throw the switch for Son-of-a-Bitch hill and siding number 4,014! She ordered. Hurry!

Willie needed no further motivation and he ran off into the night.

Then Conductor moved a pipe over the 4-4-0s tender, and then started to shovel more coal into the firebox, much to the shock of Blast Pipe. “What are you doing?”

Conductor stopped shoveling to reply. “If you don’t get this train moving I’ll kick you ass so hard that YOU will pull it! She said in a tone that begged more discussion. Then it clicked for Blast Pipe. Conductor’s unspoken plan.

Run that thing down.

There was a metallic click and Blast Pipe saw the switch move to the mainline. The train was on the right-hoof track, luckily,or else they’d have to wait for the rest of the train to pass.

“Why are we going after it? Shouldn’t we clear the track?”

“Because”, Conductor said, “If we don’t stop it before it derails or hits something, and we catch it on the incline…..”

Are you sure a 4% grade will even slow it down? Blast Pipe said, thinking of the giant that could barely be called a locomotive.

“Not really, but I’m praying it does, because just imagine when it hits the downgrade.”

“Fuck” was all Blast Pipe could say as he opened the throttle wide.