Author's Note
Like I said Alan Jackson is the narrator, or Jimmy Buffet depends on what you want
also, trains are ID’d by their lead unit’s number and the direction they started in such as a train that has a lead unit numbered 4533 that starts off heading south would be numbered S-4533
Prologue 8 Months Ago
11/3/09
Canterlot, Mississippi
7:06 AM Central DLT
The early morning sun rose over the city of Canterlot Mississippi bathing it in its orange glow almost as if God painted it orange. In the small rail yard between the towns of Mattandale and Canterlot was a set of three locomotives dark green in color all but one with the same logo painted on the side the first two having a white rectangle with two more on the front and back side connected as if they were one and M&D written inside of them in big black letters, covered in dirt and bits of rust these two locomotives being over sixty years old. The third one was different not only with the logo but also with make and model the logo was a large white circle with the silhouette of a German Shepard with its head held high also white the rest being green all of them having the top painted black. The first two were GP7 low-nosed types of diesels connected front to back and the third one was a GE U18B a much newer locomotive looking newly painted but still fairly old over 30 years old connected back to back they were numbered 1244, 1499, and 2990 which was written on the side of the cabs. They were preparing a local freight for Black County Yard in Canterlot twenty-six miles away with two tracks all of the way there and turning into a single track around fourteen miles outside of Canterlot and stays that way for fifty miles. The conductor was Maddox Williams a young African American man in his late twenties, while the engineer Thomas Whitaker was forty-six with a brown beard showing signs of age and short brown hair while his conductor had no facial hair with the little hair he had, being black both of them wearing neon shirts with M&D written on them in black, reflective vests, blue jeans, work boots, and orange hardhats Maddox hanging off the back locomotive telling Thomas how far he was from the first set of cars two maroon BNSF covered hoppers connected to a long train of covered hoppers between empty lumber flats on the left and boxcars on the right. The train they were building was to be made up of in this order two BNSF covered hoppers, one fifty-foot flatcar, four black sixty-foot GATX tankers, one green M&D boxcar, two yellow TTX boxcars newly painted, five loaded Union Pacific Centerbeams loaded with covered lumber and a red M&D caboose.
In Canterlot a young girl with violet hair was slouching over her laptop the screen black the desk it sat upon covered in books for an essay that this girl was trying to write the girl was Twilight Sparkle one of the main characters of our story it was now 8:00 AM when she began to stir and wake up from her slumber. She tiredly looked over at her clock squinting as the sun hit her eyes as she saw what the small alarm clock said her eyes opened wide before she bolted up from her chair adjusting her glasses and running over to her closet opening the sliding doors and grabbing a purple skirt, her gray Brooks and Dunn Cowgirls Don’t Cry
t-shirt that her friend Applejack gave her for her 16th birthday five months ago, she walked over to her dresser grabbing a pair of white socks and sat on her bed with blue sheets and a gray blanket with two pillows that were white with green cases. she slipped them on and grabbed the pair of black and white converses sneakers off the floor the floor being hickory with a black rug in the center, she tied her shoes and quickly put her books in her purple backpack and grabbing her purple jacket and slinging the strap over her left shoulder and running out of her room nearly slipping on the rug still managing to keep upright, she ran down the stairs and over to both her sitting at the counter her dad had already left for work. She kissed her mom and ran out to her car a red 2009 Chevrolet Malibu and threw her bag in the passenger seat before quickly situating herself in the driver's seat, starting it and tearing out of the driveway nearly hitting a blue 2007 Dodge 1500 pulling a trailer with a Kubota zero turn lawnmower and several weed eaters she drove down her street running the stop sign. At this point, the train identified as NW-1244 was nearing Canterlot at 45 MPH passing through an open field the train rattled and screeched as it passed over the fairly old yet still in good condition railroad tracks that were silver on the top from nearly 20 years of use dipping slightly in some places causing the train to rock slightly it’s bell ringing with the typical sound the familiar pinging sound everyone who works with trains knows, unlike some trains these locomotives had their bells next to the fuel tank the clapper moving back and forth due to air pressure. As Twilight drove she thought to herself
“I’m late, I’m late, oh God......no it’s not due till forth period and lunch is before that I’ll just do it during lunch in the library.”
But she didn’t notice that the gates were down for the crossing next to CHS and train NW-1244 was approaching, as she drove under the gates and onto the crossing, the train slammed into her car producing a crashing sound that was louder than the train itself as it pushed her car past the yards southern main entry track as it was supposed to back into the northern entry tracks and continued past the northern tracks. Twilight had not buckled her seatbelt and was thrown against the driver's side hitting her head on the front coupler of GP7 1244 as it smashed through the window giving her a concussion, she was then thrown again the ceiling and then into the passenger seat dislocating her knee and left arm as they were crushed against the seat and door, her right leg shot into the window busting the glass before it pulled back in getting cut on the glass that didn’t shatter completely. She woke up on a gurney next to what was left of her car she couldn’t move her head and she could barely move legs, she looked over next to her to see the massive diesel locomotive rumbling while her car, or what was left of it sitting in front of it mangled and bent pain shot throughout her entire body pulsating as her heart beat everything muffled her heartbeat was the loudest thing even next to the massive train. She then saw two EMT’s one male and one a woman their faces blurry as her glasses had shattered, she heard a helicopter land in front of them and she was lifted into it before she passed out as the helicopter lifted off. she awoke in a hospital bed her head hurting tremendously she could feel her arms but they felt like they were asleep, actually her entire body felt that way her hearing was clear but her vision blurred she could feel tubes in her body and lots of beeps, she tried to scream but she couldn’t because of the tube connected to the ventilator in her mouth. she could hear a woman talking but all she listened to was.
“She may never recover,”