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>>164010Silver goes into the cabin. He sees that there is a dead stallion pushed aside and onto the ground beneath and to the left of the driver's chair. He sees that there is at least one bullet hole. He sees that a panel of the front window has been physically removed, with trickle trails of blood leading up to it. And he sees a stick in the center, with a pedal beneath.
>>164011Silver looks out of the removed front window, wondering if somepony managed to get out of the train that way.
>>164012It goes down the tracks, to where the track goes north and splits off east. Maybe he can see vomit further down, hard to tell. There are no visible corpses, at least from this perspective.
>>164013It's not going to be pretty, if he runs over any of the corpses. He calls out to see if Spec is nearby.
>>164014"Yes?" Spec comes to Silver
>>164015"How are your wings? I do not know if there are any bodies directly in front of train. Window has been removed."
>>164016He looks at Silver, and blinks.
"Move it into the station. We'll change the tracks to let the other train go around."
>>164017Silver blinks as well.
"Uh...alright."
The unicorn looks at the pedal and the stick, wondering how they work. He first tries the stick to see what it controls.
>>164018Up and down. Moving it by itself, no change
>>164020Hmm...Silver gets in the seat, and tries the pedal while pulling the stick back.
>>164021Silver feels a slight jolt. Slowly, the entire train has started to move backwards.
>>164022"Okay, I think I get it..."
Silver tries to just edge it backwards inside the terminal.
"Did you see way for incoming train to switch tracks? It may be safer for us to move this train to next station."
>>164024Oh my God anon, you can’t just ask people why they’re German
I’m out of town right now>>164023“The platform has a double track. I’m not sure how to switch the tracks though.” Spectral Streak answers.
>>164038"Hmm..."
With the train backing up, can Silver see if there was a body in front of it?
>>164039Silver thinks he sees two corpses on the side of the rail line, possibly to be hit by the edge of a train, but certainly not going under the wheels.
>>164041Phew. That's good at least. Silver lets go of the pedal and pushes forwards on the lever, hoping that this will engage the train's brakes. He also looks to Spec.
"Are you good to fly? If you are, follow train tracks behind us to find where two lines split, there should be switching station nearby. I hope..."
>>164042He pulls his lips up in a strained smile and waves his right wing. "I think... I think I should get on the platform..."
>>164043"Right..."
Silver allows himself to think, for just a moment.
"There is train coming and we do not have much time to spare. Go ahead and get off train, drive to next station in line in your car. I will take this train along tracks to next station, and we will meet back up there. Does that sound like good plan?"
>>164044"It's... okay" He says, quickly nodding
>>164045"Unless you have better idea."
>>164046"Put it in the passing loop in the station." He says
>>164048"Well... Take it back into station. And switch the track for the next train."
>>164049"But how and where do we do that?"
>>164050"I... Well it should be automatic. I don't know. But there is a passing loop in the station."
>>164051Silver sighs.
"Do not take this wrong way, but...may I have your flashlight?"
>>164052He blinks. Then scrunches. "You've lost a lot of blood."
>>164053"Please, Spec, just for moment."
>>164054He sighs.
"Okay. Quickly." And holds his eyes open
>>164084Silver shines the flashlight into Spec's eyes, just to be sure.
>>164088Silver sees the golden eyes of his long-gone Storm Warning shing back at him, on top of two opaque white spheres
>>164101Silver turns the flashlight off.
"I do apologise, but you know what danger replacement can pose."
Silver gets on the radio.
"Anypony know how to switch train tracks so two trains can sit side-by-side on parallel tracks?"
>>164103Silver shrugs, pushes the lever forward, and presses the pedal to have the train go forward.
>>164104The train starts moving forward at a relatively low rate of speed
>>164105Silver looks forward out the window for the passing loop.
>>164107Silver keeps going forward.
"It is amazing when you think on it. This train is powered entirely on electricity, it does not use coal and steam like old trains."
>>164108Spectral Streak, however, is more anxious.
"Keep going. Faster!"
The train does pass a split, where the rail goes off eastward and north. The train continues moving north.
>>164109Silver keeps going, faster.
"Was that passing loop we passed?"
>>164110"No. The passing loop is at each station."
>>164111"So we have to go to next station, then?"
>>164112"Well now maybe we do." He says, evidently anxious
>>164113"Spec, we will be fine. Do not worry."
>>164114"Just keep going, and faster."
it isn't that long before Silver believes he is nearing the next station.
>>164115"Alright, look for passing loop."
>>164116Up ahead, Silver sees another covered train station. As before, the track splits along the length of the train station into two tracks, one which is adjacent to a platform (again on the right) and another beside the right track on the left. There are some ponies waiting at the station. Not a crowd, but some.
“Here” Spectral Streak says
>shitpost
No train rides for her.
>>164131So, this begs the question...
"How do we switch?"
>>164132gaspShe is for train rides!
Only the good ones though
>>164133Roll intelligence
[1d20-1 = (17-1) = 16]>>164134>IntelligenceHoh boy, not Silver's strong suit.
>>164135Silver remembers what White Orchid said to him once. The electrified trains will sometimes have radio connected switches in their cabs.
>>164136Silver quickly looks for such a switch to flip.
>>164142Silver does not see it, and he is very close to the station
[1d20+3 = (1+3) = 4]>>164143"Help me look!"
Silver desperately looks for the switch.
>>164147Oh, there we go. It’s on the right side on a panel beneath some other instruments. Switch it to the right.
>>164148>nat 1>"Switch it to the right."We all better start praying for the health and safety of Silver, Spec, and all of the ponies at the station.
Silver switches it.
>>164149The train enters the station, moving alongside the platform.
>>164150Did it switch, or did it remain on the same track?
>>164151Either it was supposed to go on the other track and Silver switched it, or it remained on the same track and was not switched. Hard to tell.
>>164152Silver looks to Spec for an answer.
>>164153“I don’t… I think the other train needs to go into the other track.”
Silver can either glide through the station, or go to another one.
>>164154Silver sighs, and keeps going.
"We are going to have some trekking ahead of us if we can not find way to loop around."
>>164155Silver moves ahead along open track. He can see to either side that new style of apartment building, three or four stories high, but also some stores, old apartment buildings, and a school. Silver sees a track that splits off to the left.
>>164168Can Silver switch the train onto that track?
>>164186That’s a good question. Can he?
>>164187Silver switches the switch to the left.
>>164189Silver moves along, and the train deviates off to the track in the left.
[1d3 = 1] >>164194Watching the train chug along, Silver has to shake his head occasionally to keep focus. He's having trouble staying alert with as much blood as he'd lost from getting shot.
"I hope we find medic soon. There
are medics in Homeguard, yes?"
>>164195“Some should have experience as medics. But the city has EMTs.”
For all of Silver’s internal problems, the world outside flies by at forty miles an hour. Silver sees office buildings with shops on the first floor, buildings largely from before the turn of the century. Silver knows that he is heading west, and now is in east side. The track, so long elevated above ground, now moves down into a dimly lit tunnel. Silver sees that here too, it splits, going straight, but with a section going left shortly after entering the underground.
>>164196Silver keeps the train going left, so as to loop around and eventually return to Jasmine Flower Station.
>>164197Silver moves into a tunnel with I-beam steel ribs separating it from the other track, and beige bricks walling against the ground, with a light placed every 50 feet or so. The track is parallel to the other, before slightly turning further left. Silver does not go very far at all before seeing in the train's forward lights, a wooden buffer, the rail suddenly ending, and a beige brick wall marking the end of the tunnel.
>>164198Silver has to pull back on the lever to engage the brakes.
"Блин!"
>>164201The train jolts, and Silver hears the sound of metal grinding as the train quickly comes to a stop a few feet before the buffer. Spectral Streak almost falls forward into the front window, before catching himself with a hoof
>>164202"Селестия, черт возьми! Почему маршрут закрыт?"
Silver outbursts in Cyrillic once the train stops, before turning to his son.
"Are you okay?"
>>164203“Yeah, ugh…” he pushes himself upright. “Let’s get out of here. And get you help.”
>>164204With the lever pulled back, Silver presses down on the pedal to get the train moving in reverse.
"We will try other route where track splits."
>>164205“Why?” Spectral Streak asks. “ I doubt that other train would want to come to
this line.”
>>164206Silver looks at Spec with a weird look.
"Would you rather trot all way back to Jasmine Station for car?"
>>164207"No. But I'm not sure it's safe to drive back, either."
>>164208"There may not be as much train traffic as there was. I think we will be fine."
I hope, he excludes from the sentence.
>>164209"Well, either we proceed on foot until we find a new car or a ride... or we go back the way we came, and hope not to collide with a train."
>>164211"I do not think I can trot very far in my current state. I am worried about passing out from blood loss as is. I vote we take train."
>>164212“I see.” He says, looking at Silver for a moment. “When we get out into the open, I will call the radio.”
>>164215"That is good idea, you know what to say to them and how to receive and relay information. I will keep piloting train."
Silver begins to do just that.
>>164217>>164223Silver starts moving the train backwards. He is unable to see behind him, only move the train backwards. The train moves out of the tunnel, back on the track going up (at reduced speed). Spectral Streak calls on the radio.
"We moved the train"
"The whole train?"
"Something like that. Line should be clear."
"Yeah, it seems they have already moved up to Poppy Field. Where were you?"
"We turned west to some dead end tunnel. We passed one station."
"You must have just barely been ahead of them. Give them a minute, of they stop at the next station to pass."
>>164224Silver hears this and brakes the train, hopefully more smoothly than last time. He calls to Spec.
"Am I on intersection or are we safe?"
>>164225“I…. We should be safe, I think”
>>164226Silver nods, and resumes backing up until the train is past the intersection.
>>164229As Silver moves back further, he notices that the rear cars of the train are turning north, the opposite direction from which they came. There must be another set of track that allows for mergers north.
>>164230"Hmm...Spec? Do you think way train is turning, we may be able to go back through way we came?"