Magic Carpet Made of Steel

VERY Creative Name, isn't it?

When Twilight followed Rainbow Dash out the window, the very first thing she noticed was the smoke.

It was hard not to. On a sunny, cloudless day, the huge, inky black smoke clouds, far darker than any thundercloud, was very noticeable. If Rainbow’s home was hit by that...no wonder she was so dirty. It reminded her far too much of that dragon’s smoke from so long ago. The effect it had on the Ponies of Ponyville was quite apparent. As she flew she could just make out the colors of a few Ponies make their way in the smoke’s general direction.

“Come on!” Rainbow Dash urged. This was quite unnecessary however, as Twilight was already beating her wings a little harder as they neared the station, her mind thinking of different scenarios, and what Rainbow could’ve possibly meant by ‘Monster’. Where they going to need the Tree of Harmony? Or ask Discord for some help? What on Celestia’s green Equis could make that amount of smoke? Was it a dragon? Did it want-

Her mind felt the carpet pulled out from under it and halted when they reached the train station.

There was only one thing Twilight could say.

“Holy Shit!”

        Twilight thought she could feel her jaw hit the ground.

It was absolutely TITANIC. Huge hopper cars, filled with what appeared to be iron ore, stretched off into the distance, seeming to never end. The locomotive itself was 3 times the size of any other steam locomotive she had ever seen. It was far longer than the station, obscenely tucked away behind it, but it was like trying to hide a barn with a blanket. This was not helped by its monodepressant coloring of black and grey, which made it stand out against the station. The only other time she had seen such a depressing and monochromatic color scheme was the engine that had broken down on the first trip to Appaloosa she had made with her friends and even then she was sure it had gotten a paint job based off the last time she was there.

As she swooped down with Rainbow and landed on the platform she could really appreciate how BIG it really was. It simply towered over her, a single driving wheel looked to be about as tall as Celestia herself, or just shy of that height. It hit her she and Rainbow were the only two who had approached the, for a lack of a better word, locomotive. Everypony else kept a good distance from it, almost forming a perimeter. You could cut the nervous fear it was so thick, and it was only getting thicker. You could hear a bit drop, and nopony so much as whispered. Nopony was panicking.

Yet.

But they could cross that bridge when they got there, for now they needed to investigate the locomotive. The only sound was the locomotive’s constant hissing. Twilight took off and circled around to first the front, where she landed. From here the loco’s huge size was painfully obvious, but Twilight jumped/flew onto the front and made a few observations anyway. The first was a single, very large, headlight, that didn’t seem to have a fire in it, which was very strange. The second were 2 rectangles facing at an outward angle, each painted black and with white block letter reading:

X4014.

This meant practically nothing to Twilight, although with some quick logic and reason, she figured that it was the locomotive’s ID or serial number, or an equivalent for those. The 3rd and by far the strangest thing she observed was a dark metal Shield with

Union

Pacific

4014

in raised, blocky letters, the only things on it. Ok, so 4014 was definitely an ID or serial number of some kind, but what in the world was this “Union Pacific.” ‘Union’ was VERY rarely used, and she, Twilight Sparkle had NEVER seen “Pacific”, not even in the largest of dictionaries, even for other languages as well

as “dead” and other very old languages. Perhaps it was this….mountain of a locomotive’s railroad.

She took off again, and started to fly to the back. Under a window to the cab was, you guessed it, 4014. It was as if this “Union Pacific” had an obsession with that number. As her eyes drifted towards the tender, she noticed the “Union Pacific” printed in the same, blocky, white letters as with everything else. She decided to fly into the cab. Upon doing so, she immediately noted the 2 ponies in there with her, a coal-black, or some color and covered in coal dust, earth pony and a navy blue pegasus mare, also covered in coal dust. The earth pony almost immediately noticed her, and when she got a look at them, she could see the absolute exhaustion in his eyes, and the bags under them.

“And who the hell are you?” He said, trying to hid the fatigue in his voice, but doing a poor job of it.

“I was wonder just the same thing, and 10 others. To Answer your question, I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, Element of magic, brother of Shining Armor, and student of Princess Celestia Twilight replied in a flat monotone.

The “Princess Twilight Sparkle” registered in both of them, and the earth pony was quick to apologise. “Oh, I’m so sorry I was so crass! It’s just been a LONG” he trailed off, then fell flat of his face. The navy blue pegasus gave an apologetic look and said. “He’s been up and working for….she trailed off as she pulled out a golden pocket watch and read it….about 28 hours. That’s one of the reasons he was rather rude to you. My name is conductor, and this is Blast Pipe, nice to meet you your…” At Twilight’s look she correct herself “Twilight.” The names Twilight was given of the two ponies sunk in, and she gave Conductor an odd look. “Our parents were both had coal and steam for blood. Didn’t help that we both happened to be born on trains.” Twilight still had that odd expression, but it had understanding in it now.

“Well, I have a few questions for you.”

Conductor gave Twilight an annoyed look and said “My friend just passed out and you wanna ask me QUESTIONS?!”

“Well it’s not exactly like he’s going to fall out or anything, and you’re the only one that can answer them currently.”

“Point taken.”

“Good. Ok, so let’s start with the elephant in the room. Or on the tracks. So, where did this come from?”

“I have absolutely no idea, and I think the ERA doesn’t either. All I know is that at 9:26 P.M. yesterday, I got a telegram to halt all opposing traffic and to clear the mainline. When I pressed for more information, they told me to hurry up. I went to Appaloosa, where there was a locomotive that had steam, and after this passed, we- I decided to chase it. We obviously managed to catch up, but the other locomotive had a boiler explosion so we couldn’t go back for the obvious risk. And we were unfortunate enough to catch up on an incline, and hadn’t figured out what was the break before the descent. We’ve spent most of the night since just trying to bring this thing under control again. Honestly, it’s no small miracle that the tracks HELD this thing.”

Twilight nodded her head in understanding, thinking of the size of the locomotive, and of the amount of iron ore it had to have pulled, and the weight of all of it. Whomever, or whatever, had made the brakes, she had a newfound respect for. Then she tried to remember the standard procedures in an event like this, and drew a blank.

“What is the usual thing you do when this, as in a runaway train, and why did they not do it?” Conductor responded, “The first thing we try is have a pegasus fly in from above and put on the brakes. As for why the B&O didn’t, I can only guess extreme incompetence on their part, which is unlikely, as almost everyone is very competent at their job, and we’re not understaffed, so even the incompetent ones

are a small problem, or, and far more likely, but still hard to believe,  it managed to get pretty far before anyone noticed, although this would still beREALLY, REALLY hard to manage.”

Twilight sat and stared off in thought, before she realized what she was looking at. She was looking at what seemed to be a slot right under the padded part of the giant chair. She walked over to it, reared up, balancing on her hind legs, and peered in. There was a book. Using her telekinesis, she pulled it out.

“A short history of the Union Pacific Railroad 4000 class “Bigboy” locomotive.” She read outloud. “Bigboy, hu? Creative nickname, isn’t it?” She said. “May as well take a look.”