By the time that all of us realized that we were in the center of the black mass, it was already too late. The train was still moving on what we thought were tracks, but something was clearly wrong. As I continued to look out into the black mass, I was trying to figure out what I was seeing. However, before I could come to any solid conclusions, something happened.

At first it sounded like a distant train was coming, but then the vibrations started. Somewhat gentle at first, but that quickly changed.

"Hey! What's shaking up there Joe?" Don yelled through the intercom.

"I don't know Don! It could be more effects from the fallout!"

Before Don could reply to that, the shaking suddenly increased tenfold. In fact, it felt like the entire train was about to fly to pieces! Then it got really scary. The best way to describe what happened next is almost like the train was trying to chug along, but it was being chased by a small child who kept periodically grabbing at the train, causing it to lurch violently. This kept up, getting stronger and stronger, and then came the breaking point. The train lurched to the left, and I heard the sound of metal grinding against metal. It didn't take a genius to tell us what that meant.

"GWAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!" Joe screamed. "DON, WE'RE COMING OFF THE RAILS!!!!!!! AAAAHHHH.....!!!!!!" Then silence. Moments after the engine fell silent, I felt the entire bunk car get flung into the air, before slamming back down again. Everything inside not tied down seemingly got flung forwards as well, including myself. I was slammed head-first into the front wall of the SCC, and I blacked out.

An unknown amount of time later, I suddenly felt something wet on my face, as well as heard what appeared to be frantic whining. When I was able to open my eyes again, I looked up and I saw Aurora licking my face, as well as barking.

"Oh, Aurora, it's you Girl! Thank God you're ok!"

"Yeah, I'm fine!" She barked.

I then made the move to get back to my feet. I did so, and after shaking everything, I came to the conclusion that aside from a minor headache, and some odd burning pain on my back just below my shoulder blades, I was ok. It was then that I noticed something else; we were still moving!

"Wait, what?! The train is still moving, but how?! I thought that we crashed and derailed!"

I then glanced around the SCC. I expected to see a twisted mass of wreckage, but instead, all I saw was a completely intact and undamaged command center, Aurora standing next to me, and Alex and Todd lying on the floor! Both were starting to regain consciousness.

"Ok, so they seem to be ok, now then, let's see what's going on with the engine." I picked up the radio. "SCC to Big Boy, SCC to Big Boy, come in please."

No answer.

"Big Boy, this is Captain Leopard in the Secondary Command Center. Please respond, over!"

Still no answer.

"Joe, it's Leopard. Are you ok?!"

Still nothing.

I radioed back to Don. "Don, this is Captain Leopard in the SCC. Please respond, over!"

No answer.

"DELCI?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes Sir?"

"Well at least somebody is still functional! Ok DELCI, I need you to access the cameras, and I also need systems checks. Find out what happened to everyone, and why nobody will answer. You got that?"

"Yes Sir!"

While DELCI was busy with that, I began to help revive Todd and Alex. Finally, they both sat up.

"Ugh, oh man....what? What happened?"

"Take it easy Alex. You slammed your head pretty hard against the digital map. Are you ok?"

"Ugh, well, aside from a headache, I think I'm ok."

"Yeah, I'm good too. Also, where are we? Did we win?"

I shook my head. "I'm afraid not Todd. We failed. Vegas was nothing more than a massive trap. The Futas waited for us to show up, and then they nuked all of our asses straight to Hell. I don't know where we are right now though. Safely out of the radius of the fallout, I hope."

It was then that DELCI finished her assessments. "Ok Sir, here's the scoop. All systems appear to be online, and are fully functioning. Also, the reason that nobody answered your messages is because I believe that they're all unconscious."

"What? Unconscious? How?"

"Well, most likely like you Sir, they all hit their heads when we got tossed about."

I nodded. "Ok, well that's good to know.......wait. If everyone's unconscious, then that means.........THERE'S NOBODY MANNING THE ENGINE!!!!!"

Alex and Todd both looked at me with fear.

"What?! You mean that it's going with no driver?!"

"Yeah! Well, not a conscious driver anyway!"

I began to race for the door to the SCC.

"Wait, Leopard, where are you going?"

I looked back at Todd. "I have to get up there and stop the train! Who knows where we are!"

Just as I made it outside of the SCC, I suddenly heard a voice over the intercom. "Hello, Hello! This is Major Don! Does anyone copy?!"

Todd grabbed the radio. "Major Don, this is 2nd Brakeman Todd Davis in the SCC! I'm here with Alex and Leopard. We're all ok."

"Whew! Well, that's a relief! The rest of the train's been hit-and-miss; some answer, and some don't. Which is really concerning me, because I can't get in contact with the engine!"

"Well, that's what Leopard's concerned about too. He's about to go up there now and stop the train!"

"Roger that, and tell him to hurry!"

I heard that message loud and clear, and after telling Todd, Alex, and Aurora to stay put, I quickly made my way up to the engine.

Once I was out of the SCC, I then made my way to the front of our bunk car, where I climbed up a ladder to the ceiling, and opened up the roof hatch. When I stuck my head up, I realized that we were moving along at a fair rate of speed. For some odd reason though, it still seemed to be nighttime; about 4-5am if my star-checking skills were accurate.

"Huh, that's really weird. Our attack started at sunrise, but if my eyes do not deceive me, the sun hasn't even risen yet!"

I decided to ignore this for now, and keep moving forwards. After fully climbing up onto the roof, I then made the jump onto the second car full of 200 tons of extra coal for the engine. After quickly running along the coal, I repeated the jump, only this time to the first coal car. As I was making my way across to the last car between me and the engine, the 100,000 gallon tanker car, I took another look at my surroundings. We seemed to be rolling along on tracks that had grass, and trees on both sides.

"Ok, now this is really starting to get weird. We were in the deserts of Nevada; why are there grass and trees here?!"

Once again, I had to put this thinking on hold, as I had to stop the train. I then jumped from the first coal car to the large water tank car that held extra water for the engine. After walking along the top, I climbed down the ladder at the front, where I then made the jump to the ladder on the back of the engine's tender.

"Ok, almost there!"

I climbed up the back of the tender, over the large water tank, through more coal, until I was finally in the cab. I then radioed Don.

"Don, this is Captain Leopard. I've reached the engine's cab."

"Roger that Leopard. What do you see up there?"

"Well, I see Joe, Frank, Carl, and their two guards. All of them are alive, but unconscious. I'm now stopping the train. Hold on."

I then took the controls, and after shutting off steam, I gently applied the brakes. After another minute or so, with a massive whooshing of steam, and a shower of sparks, the massive Battleship Express came to a stop just outside of the forested train track where she had just come from.

I then climbed out of the cab. "Ok, Don, the train's stopped. And if it wouldn't be too much of a bother, I would like both Alex and Todd to come up to the cab, and for medical personnel to come and take care of the Primary crew."

"Stand by, we're all coming up there!"

Don then put down the radio, and I suddenly became aware of the sounds of doors opening, and a few moments later, several individuals came running towards the engine. Among them were Don, Alex, Todd, and two medical staff.

When Don reached me, he looked mad enough to kill. "You! Cab! NOW!!!!"

I then climbed back up, as did Alex and Todd. Primary crew had been removed from the engine, and were being taken to the medical coach for treatment.

Once Don climbed up into the cab too, he turned to me. "Leopard. I'm so, so angry with you right now, I don't even know where to start! You launched an UNAUTHORIZED nuclear strike on Vegas! You may not have been the one who nuked all of southern Nevada, but you still broke regulations!"

"B-b-but, they killed Jim, and....."

"JIM IS FINE!!!!! He was just cut up and bruised a bit! He's going to be fine!"

All while he was listening to Don grilling me about my actions in Vegas, something suddenly caught Todd's eye.

"Huh? What's that?" He went over to the cab window on the left side, and peered out. "Uh oh!"

He then turned to Don. "Um, Major?"

"Not now!" He kept grilling me.

"Major!"

"I said not now Todd!"

"What is it Todd?" Alex went over to see what was going on. He looked out of the window too.

"........And I've just about had it with you!" Don was saying as he began to climb up on top of the tender to get back to his section of the train, "And if I EVER...."

"MAJOR!!!!!" Alex screamed.

"Ugh, WHAT?!?!" He screamed back at Alex.

"LOOK!!!!!" He pointed to something out ahead of the train.

Don looked, and I went to the window on the right side of the cab and looked too. Sure enough, what we both saw made our hearts stop. From out in the darkness ahead of us, only partially illuminated by our train's headlight, came a crowd of what looked like people. However, they then started running towards the engine, screaming all the way!

"ACK! DON, WHAT DO WE DO?!?!"

"LEOPARD, GET US THE BLAZES OUT OF HERE!!!!!"

I didn't have to be told twice. I seized the controls, and after throwing the directional lever into the reverse position, I quickly opened up the throttle, and with a loud chug, the Battleship Express began to move away from those who were chasing it, and was starting to pick up speed.

"THE FUTAS ARE STILL AFTER US!!!!" Todd yelled.

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock!" I yelled back.

Then from the intercoms, DELCI suddenly spoke up. "Hey! We need to get this train turned around! She wasn't build to run fast in reverse, and with a full train, any mistakes could prove catastrophic!"

"Well, then find us the nearest railyard or junction!" Don yelled.

"I'm trying Sir, but something's wrong! I can't access the internet anymore!"

"What?! What do you mean that you can't access the internet?!"

"Just what I said Sir, I can't! And when I tried to use the local controls for the map systems, everything's all wrong! I've never seen terrain like this before! There should be deserts and hills, but all I can see are fields and forests!"

"WHAT?!?!" We all yelled. "DELCI, That's impossible!"

"I thought so too Sir, but I checked, and double checked, and that's what our surroundings are! However, I was able to locate a junction that'll get us turned around! It's about a mile behind us, and we're closing the gap fast!"

"Well, that's something at least. Just keep us posted DELCI!"

"Roger that Sir!"

We all then continued to focus on the task at hand.

Meanwhile, from another perspective, things were a whole lot different. Just outside of the town of Ponyville, it was almost time for Celestia to raise the sun. The skies were clear, and from where they were, the Ponies of Ponyville thought that things would be ok, even with the war going on. However, at 5:25am, something very unusual happened. From what sounded like the outskirts of town, close to the Everfree Forest, there came a great chugging sound, like that of a massive steam engine.

"Huh?” Ponies wondered. "What's that noise? It's too early for any trains right now!"

High above Ponyville, Rainbow Dash was trying to sleep in her cloud-house. However, first the chugging, and then a violent screeching sound, almost like the applying of train brakes, woke her up.

"Huh? What in Celestia's name was that?!" She got up from her bed. "Damn, can't a Pony get some sleep around here?!" She then pulled on a tank-top and some sweatpants (she almost always slept nude), and went to investigate the source of the noises.

When she put her two hooves on the ground, she looked around her. Dash then spotted a crowd of ponies starting to gather at the edge of town, Pinkie Pie and Applejack among them.

Rainbow went over to them. "Hey guys, do you have any idea what's going on? I heard a heck of a lot of noise, and it woke me up!" She rubbed her face with her hands, and pushed her rainbow-colored mane out of her eyes.

"Um, if Ah had to guess, Ah'd say that the noise all came from that big feller right there!" Applejack pointed to something.

When Dash saw what it was, she gasped in shock. There, sitting on the tracks just outside of Ponyville, silhouetted against the dark sky, was the biggest, blackest steam engine that Dash had ever seen! It was a huge behemoth, all black with a gray smoke-box, and was sending up a massive column of smoke from its smokestacks. The engine was just sitting there, letting off smoke, and hissing steam. From where she was standing, Rainbow couldn't see if the train was pulling any cars or not.

"What.....In Celestia's name....IS THAT THING?!?!"

"Well, it looks like a train Sugarcube, and a Goliath one at that!"

"Well, whoever they are, they need to leave!" Dash got ready to charge forwards.

"WAIT DASHIE!!!! How do we know that they aren't the Caribou, or the Zebras?! That could be their new hugest weapon to DESTROY US ALL!!!"

Pinkie's words however did little more than incite the crowd. With a fierce battle cry, they all charged towards the train. Suddenly, with a loud screech and chugging sounds, the train began to move backwards, rapidly picking up speed.

Applejack suddenly turned to Pinkie. "Sugarcube, you need to go get Twilight right now! She needs to know about this! Tell her that the enemy may be here in Ponyville, and that they seem to have a massive locomotive with them!"

Pinkie nodded, and ran to the Golden Oak library as fast as her two legs could carry her.

Meanwhile, back on board the Battleship Express, we were still fully convinced that we were being chased by the Futas. Eventually, we reached that junction that DELCI was talking about.

"Leopard, get us turned around right now!!!"

"Yes Sir!"

I then stopped the train, somebody jumped out and flipped a manual switch. Then I pulled the train forwards onto the track, he flipped the switch back, then flipped another, I moved the train over it, he flipped another..........and so on and so forth, until we'd finally done a full 180. I then grabbed the direction lever with both hands, and threw it into the forward position, before fully opening the throttle. With a screech, and some minor wheel slipping, the Battleship Express was once again moving forwards, and picking up speed.

"We have to keep moving! We have to link back up with other units!" Don then radioed back to the rest of the crew. "All hands, General Quarters, I repeat, all hands, General Quarters! We have the enemy behind us, so get all weapons online right now!"

"Yes Sir!"

They all then got to work on that.

Meanwhile behind us, the Ponies all witnessed our little 180, and as the train turned around, they saw it all in its entirety. From what they could all see, the engine was indeed pulling cars, and the train seemed to be at least half the length of Ponyville itself! It was also fast, faster than they could have even imagined was possible.

"Don't worry everypony!" Dash told them. "There's no WAY that an engine that size, and most likely pulling that much weight, could even go very fast!"

After Dash stood corrected, and the train went faster than Ponies could run, she called for backup. "Ok, time to call in the big guns!" She grabbed her handheld radio. "RD to Wonderbolt HQ, do you copy?"

A sleepy voice replied, "Yeah Dash, this is Wonderbolt HQ. What do you need?"

"Soarin, We've got a rouge train running the loop around Ponyville. We believe that it's controlled by either the Caribou or the Zebras, and we need to stop it now!"

"Well then, just out-fly it, get on board, and stop it!"

"That's the thing though, we need backup for this one!" Dash then gave the description that she had seen of the train.

When Soarin asked for confirmation, Fleetfoot went out, and when she came back, she reported that the train was indeed there, that is was indeed huge, and that it was indeed fast.

"That thing had to have been doing 50-60mph, at least! They're really booking it!"

Soarin then got in contact with General Shining Armor, who was in Ponyville at the time to help oversee fortifications, and alerted him to the situation.

"WHAT?!?! That?! In Ponyville?! Right! I'm on my way with reinforcements now! Just catch up to that beast, and do whatever you have to do to stop it! We'll take care of the rest!"

"Roger that General!"

With that, Soarin, Spitfire, Fleetfoot, and the rest of the Wonderbolts all took flight, and raced to Dash's aide as fast as they could.

When they arrived, they found one of the Friendship Express trains following behind the "Leviathan", as Dash called it. Instead of coaches though, this engine was pulling several flatbed cars. They all then landed on the cars.

"Ok Dash, so what's the scoop?"

Dash retold her story, and explained the whole situation. "....So that's where we currently stand. We have to stop that train, and kill any on board!"

"Yeah, and I think that we should also see about capturing this beast.” Spitfire added. "It would definitely be worth handing over to the War Department for study, especially if this train is indeed a prototype!"

Dash nodded at her teammate. "Yeah, I guess that that would work. Now then, let's get up there and see what's what!"

With that, they all took off, and flew as fast as they could to catch up to the train, which was about 30 yards or so ahead of them.

In the gray light of the dawn, they were all in awe at the train's massive size.

"Gosh", Fleetfoot whistled, "Look at the SIZE of that thing! It's f@#king huge!"

"Yeah, no kidding!" Dash agreed. "Whoever designed this beast obviously did so to show off how strong they were!"

Spitfire evaluated everything. "We need to split up. We need a group to head to the engine, more groups to distract the soldiers on the train, and one more group to see about boarding that odd-looking caboose at the back!"

It was decided that Dash, Soarin, and a handful of others would head for the engine, Fleetfoot, Misty, High Winds, and others would distract the soldiers, and Spitfire would lead the last group to try and take the train from the rear.

"Ok, here we go!"

They all then made their runs for the train.

"Sir! Our radar techs are reporting bogeys on our 6 o'clock!"

"What are they?"

"Well Sir, it appears to be a small train, and, wait....what?"

Don looked worried. "What is it Corporal?"

"They seem to be Humanoid figures, but they're flying, and without the aide of technology!"

"WHAT?!?! Your instruments are screwed up Corporal!"

"That's the thing Sir, they're not! I'm looking out of the window right now, and I can see them! They look like Humans, but they're flying!"

"Well, not for much longer." He changed frequencies. "Are all AA weapons and machine guns online?"

"Affirmative Sir!" Came the reply.

"Well then, let them have it!"

"Yes Sir!"

Back in the air, Dash's team flew along the top of the train, and waited for the other teams to draw fire. As they did, Soarin spoke up.

"I don't know what it is Dash, but I don't think that this train belongs to either the Caribou or the Zebras."

"How do you figure?"

"Well, for starters, this seems to be a war-train. Our enemies have never used one before. Secondly, I keep getting static on my radio, meaning that that train must have radio as well. Remember? Our enemies don't have radio, they just use holographic messages."

Dash was maybe about to reply, but then sudden bursts of fire came from the train.

"WHOA!!!!! ALL WONDERBOLTS, TAKE EVASIVE ACTION NOW!!!"

From various points along the train came bursts of fire from what appeared to be guns. The Wonderbolts all had to keep flying in crazy patterns to keep from getting hit!

"Major, whatever those things are, they're so small and fast that they keep evading our guns!"

"What?!"

"Yes! Whatever those things are, they're not natural! Even with the motion detectors on, they're still managing to evade the guns!"

Don thought for a moment. "We need to lose them! Leopard!"

"Yes Sir?"

"Put the throttle to maximum! We have to put more distance between us and them!"

"Yes Sir!"

"Alex Barkley?"

"Yes Sir?"

"We need more coal! The auger isn't bringing it into the firebox fast enough. Shovel more on!"

"Yes Sir!"

Sure enough, the train's speed continued to pick up. From 55, it was now to 60, and still climbing.

"More speed, that's all we need; just more speed!"

"Hey! That train's picking up speed again! Soarin, Dash, get to the engine now! We have to stop it before it derails, or worse, makes it back to Ponyville!"

"You got it Spitfire!"

They and their team began to fly faster. They flew over the caboose, then some kind of boxcar, more boxcars, an observation coach, 6 huge guns arranged by three's in two turrets, more coaches and boxcars, 2 huge guns that took up the entire length of a car, more cars with guns on them, more coaches, what appeared to be bunk cars, more weapons cars, one final bunk car, then two coal cars, and a large tank car. Finally they reached the engine.

"Gosh, how many cars do they need on this thing?! That's how many, 32?!"

"No kidding!" Soarin agreed, "And almost of of them had weapons on them! Whoever controls this train, they're all armed positively to the teeth, and ain't fooling around!"

From the back of the train, Spitfire reported her team trying to board the train in several spots, only to be beaten back by,

"These strange looking creatures. They look like us, but they don't have any fur! They do however have gray, dog-like ears and tails, and are wearing military uniforms. They kept calling us 'Futas', and told us to, 'Get the f@#k off our train!'"

"But they didn't look like Caribou or Zebras?"

"No, not at all!"

"Well, just keep trying back there, we're still going to take the engine. Also, we may have a name for this train."

"What do you mean Soarin?"

"Well, on the back of the massive coal tender, the words, 'Union Pacific', are visible. Also, the engine's number is '4009'."

"Um, neither of those ring any bells. So if this train isn't ours, and it ain't the enemy's, then who's f@#king train is it?!"

"I dunno, but whoever they are, they're sure pissed off!"

"Well no shit Ponelock! Just get to the engine, and stop this beast!"

"Roger that Spitfire!"

Closer and closer Soarin and Dash crept to the engine. From the back, they could see a strange creature standing on the front of the tender, and inside the cab, two more creatures stood at the controls on the engine's backhead. A fourth figure was also visible, and he was holding a coal shovel.

"Ok Dash, here's the plan. On my signal, I rush the two at the controls, you take care of the one on the tender."

"Sure, but what about the one with the shovel?"

Soarin smirked. "We'll take him together."

Dash nodded. "Ok, awaiting your signal."

"Don, no offense, but you really need to take cover! You can't just keep standing exposed like that. You need to get to cover!"

Don nodded. "Sure. I'll get out of here fast. Just alert me once we've lost those fiends!" Then, to our utter astonishment, Don then pulled some serious acrobatic skills, and in just a few quick moves, was over the tender, tank car, and the two coal cars, before leaping back onto the main part of the train!

"HOLY......!!!!! HOW THE HELL DID HE DO THAT?!?!?!"

Todd and I could only shrug. It was then though that we were attacked. From behind the tender, one of them suddenly tried to enter the cab!

Alex smacked the creature in the face with his shovel. "GET OUTTA MY CAB YOU FUTA FILTH!!!!!"

Unfortunately, that only served as a trigger. Moments after this, our train got swarmed. They were all over the engine in seconds. At least 5 or 6 jumpsuited figures with goggles attempted to board the train. Alex, Todd, and I tried to beat them off with tools, (we forgot our guns in the SCC!) but they kept coming back.

"AUGH!!!!"

"They're breaching the cab!!!"

Unfortunately, our problems were about to get a whole lot worse. Our train was moving so fast, and we were under so much pressure that we failed to notice the boiler pressure indicators. They were in the red zone. Too much more, and the whole boiler would explode, again!

When Don pulled off his incredible acrobat stunt, all of the Wonderbolts stared at him in shock.

"Holy.....How the hell did he just do that?!" Dash was dumbfounded.

Soarin was equally unnerved, as was everypony else. "I don't know, but that just leaves 3 guys. On my signal.....NOW!!!"

Soarin then charged in, only to get bashed in the face with a shovel.

"GET OUTTA MY CAB YOU FUTA FILTH!!!!" Someone screamed.

Now Dash was angry. "Ok, NOPONY does that to my friend! All Wonderbolts, ATTACK!!!!"

With that, Dash and her team, including Soarin, (who wanted revenge for getting hit with a shovel!) stormed the engine, Spitfire and Co. stormed the back 3 cars, while the rest of the teams took the middle of the train. The result was an absolute free-for-all.

Punches were exchanged, kicks were kicked, clubs were wielded, Ponies grappled with train crew, train crew tried to push them off, it was pretty bad.

It was the worst in the cab. Everything was either extremely hot, or made out of metal. Controls got hit, all of us got burned at some point, and nopony noticed a sign up ahead. "Ponyville: 5 miles."

When I felt someone grab me, I immediately turned around, and got them in a headlock. "Oh no you don't Missy!"

As I fought with my opponent, I saw Alex in a fight with the one he hit with a shovel, and Todd was using his helmet as a club to beat off those who attacked him, in addition to kicking them. We all also found it odd that our opponents seemed to be both male and female, and that they had fur, and even tails just like we did. Eventually though, it was just down to the one with white fur and blue hair attacking Alex, a female with tanish-yellow fur and bluish-white hair tussling with Todd, and the one with blue fur that I was fighting with.

I then got a better look at my opponent. "Wait.....cyan-blue fur, and rainbow hair, and a rainbow tail?! RAINBOW DASH?!"

My opponent looked down at me. "Huh?! How do you know my.......?!?!?!"

Then, it happened. Remember how I said that the boiler was about to possibly blow up? Well, Todd was the first to notice that the gauges were pushed past the red lines, and that the safety valve was whistling.

"GUYS, THE PRESSURE!!!!!!! IT'S TOO MUCH!!!!!!"

"What do you mean?!" I yelled to him, "This fight?!"

"NO, THE BOILER!!!!!!!! THE GAUGES ARE GOING THROUGH THE ROOF!!!!!"

That was all it took. In less than the blink of an eye, I managed to get up from the cab floor, and open the emergency pressure release valves. Alex did the same on his side, and with the boiler still hissing steam at an alarming rate, we both threw open the valves to dampen down the fire, pulled back the lever to shut off the coal auger, (the whole time I was doing this, Dash was actually practically piggy-backing me! She had one incredible grip!) and then I shut off steam and slammed on the brakes!

With a scream, and a shower of sparks, the entire train began to first slow down, and then just outside of Ponyville Station, came to a complete stop. Then, due to the extreme stress, fatigue, and being surrounded by steam, all of us in the cab blacked out.

Here's where more things get interesting. After the train came to a complete stop, the sun came up over Equestria. Now everything was revealed in the light of day. From all over the train, various crew members came forwards, ready to do battle with the enemy that they hated more than anything else in the world. However, when they did, they were in for the shock of their lives.

There were no Futas to be seen anywhere. Instead, they were greeted by these strange, bipedal, equine-like creatures, of all colors of the rainbow, and only a few of them seemed to be holding any weapons! The ones who had attacked their train were wearing blue and yellow jumpsuits with goggles.

"All of y'all! Drop yer weapons, and get away from that train, now!" A mare with orange fur, a blonde mane and tail, jeans, a white shirt, and a stetson hat, also holding a shotgun demanded.

Instead of surrendering, the strange creatures drew their own weapons. "Not likely Missy! Now drop that shotgun!"

"Um, Applejack, these creatures don't look like Caribou or Zebras. In fact, they don't look like any creatures native to Equus at all!"

A mare with purple fur, with a purple mane and tail, wearing what appeared to be a school-uniform, stepped forwards.

"Um, hello? Do any of you speak Equish?"

"Um, no? We all speak English."

"Oh, ok, that's interesting. Well, we're getting somewhere at least. Next, are you loyal to either the Caribou Empire, or the Zebra Empire?"

"The who-which now? No, we're loyal to the United States of America!"

"And which one of y'all's in charge?"

"That would be me, Ma'am." From the middle of the train, another creature stepped forwards. He looked youngish, with brown hair, and a blue and gray uniform.

"And who are you?" Applejack challenged. "In fact, come to think of it, who are all of y'all? Where did y'all come from, and what is up with your train?!"

The creature smiled. "My name is Curry. Major Don Curry, at your service." He bowed a bit. "And for the rest of it, you might want to grab a seat, because this'll be a little bit of a long story.

Once his audience was ready, Don began his story. "Ok, well, like I said, my name is Major Don Curry. I'm a Major with the Armed Forces of the United States of America. Our train here is the Battleship Express, and it's the flagship train of the Railway Warfare Division. We all come from the country of America, on the planet Earth. As to why we're here, well...." Don then went on to explain about WW6, the Second Cold War, and our campaign to take back America. Even all about our disastrous battle in Las Vegas.

"....And so that's pretty much it. It's just been the 216 of us, the rest of Battalion 4009, and of course our train for the past hour or so. Now then Ma'am, I've told you about us, now would you please be so kind as to tell us about you?"

The mare nodded. "Certainly! I'm Twilight Sparkle, and currently, you're all in the town of Ponyville, which is located towards the center of the land of Equestria, the homeland of the Ponies! Also, this is Applejack", She motioned to the mare next to her holding the shotgun, "And Rainbow Dash was around here somewhere. But um, well, for now, I guess that I should probably inform the Princesses of your arrival."

Twilight then turned to her assistant. "Spike, take a letter."

Once Spike was ready, Twilight began her letter.

"Dear Princess Celestia,

About an hour ago, from out of the Everfree Forest, a massive train appeared. This train is apparently called the 'Battleship Express', by the creatures who crew it. Apparently, they are 'Humans', from the country of 'America', on the planet 'Earth'. The Battleship Express is a massive 32 car war-train pulled by the biggest, black leviathan of an engine. According to the leader of the train's crew, Major Don Curry, the engine is called a 'Union Pacific Big Boy Locomotive', numbered '4009'. The engine itself is a huge advancement in technology, unlike anything I've ever seen before. It is 136 feet long, has a 4-8-8-4 wheel configuration, weighs 1.2 million pounds empty, is capable of speeds of up to 80mph, and can pull huge loads of freight up steep mountain grades almost effortlessly! The train itself also has guns, and other weapons and technology that are further advanced than either ourselves or our enemies have, but yet are surprisingly simplistic.

I'm sure that you, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadence would be very interested in meeting these new arrivals. Their entire train is currently at Ponyville station. Please come in haste.

You're Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle"

Once Spike was done with the letter, he blew his magic fire on it, and the letter was on its way to Canterlot.

Meanwhile, in Canterlot, the three princesses were discussing the strange reports of a massive engine and train that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

"Could this be some type of new weapon by the Imperial Alliance?" Luna asked.

"I don't think so", Cadence answered. "From what Shiny was able to tell me, the train didn't match anything in our enemy's arsenal. In fact, he said that it didn't seem to be from Equestria at all!"

"WHAT?!?!"

Before they could all debate on this any further though, Twilight's letter arrived.

"My word!" Celestia exclaimed when she read the letter.

"What is it Sister?" Luna asked.

"We need to go to Ponyville, immediately!"

"What? Why?"

"Well, remember how we all said that we needed a miracle to defeat the Imperial Alliance?"

"Yes, why?"

"Well, our miracle is sitting at Ponyville Station right now! And our miracle's name, is the Battleship Express!"

Author's Note

Whew! Well, that was another long chapter, wasn't it? So, now the Battleship Express is in Equestria, and it seems like its crew have gotten to meet the locals! What happened to Leopard, Alex, Todd, Soarin, Rainbow Dash, and the others in the cab? Are they alright? Is the Battleship Express the miracle that the princesses have been praying for? Will later interactions go any smoother than the first time around? How will the princesses react when they see the train? Or General Shining Armor and his soldiers for that matter? Most importantly though, what will the Caribou and the Zebras think of the train? Well, the only way to find out, is to keep reading!

Also, I apologize if the story got a little hard to follow towards the end. I had to keep flipping back and forth between two fields of action, and when the Ponies and train crew met for the first time, the flip was every other sentence! In the end, I did get all of the kinks hammered out, (I think) so I hope that you all enjoyed it!

As always, comments, feedback, questions, as well as spreading the word about this story, are always appreciated, and I'll see you all again in Chapter 5!

ScarFox out for now, ALL ABOARD!!!!