A Ponyville Ghost Train

Crimson's Backstory

As Hope was getting the water, Crimson was walking into the forest with his trusty ax, preparing to get some wood needed for the fuel. He always enjoyed doing this as it gave him peace which allowed him to remember his wife. As he was chopping down the first tree, he began to remember their first date: from the way that he held the doors to the restaurant open for her to when she was cold and he had given her his uniform jacket to keep her warm. When her body had been torn to shreds by the rouge Griffins and eaten by them, he had gone berserk and killed all five Griffins in his rage, mutilating their bodies.

Celestia intervened and knocked him out. The Griffin Empire soon used this as a tale for the younger ones to never do wrong, unless they wanted Crimson to kill them.

Crimson watched as the tree fell, just as he began to shout.

"Timber!" The tree hit the ground with a loud bang, the nearby critters running deep into the woods.

"What was that for?" a voice asked. Crimson just ignored them and went back to cutting up more of the tree. "You could've killed an animal." Crimson finally looked up to see Twilight giving him a hard look.

"Look, Your Highness," Crimson said. "We need fuel for the engine to run again and it runs on wood, hence we need to find the wood needed to get the train moving again." Normally Crimson wouldn't talk to royalty like that, but if he needed to get the engine moving after all these years, he needed to do what was needed.

"You could've waited on one of us to help make sure it was cleared out first," Twilight argued. "We have somepony that could do that."

"Maybe we should stop and sit down," Big Mac said as he walked over. "Wait for cooler heads to prevail. In the meantime, Fluttershy, could you have some of your animal friends help get the wood we need?"

"I... I can try," Fluttershy said, her voice breaking at the attention she was getting, but she put on a brave face and went over to where some beavers were cutting up branches for their dam. "Excuse me." The beavers stopped what they were doing to look at her.

"We would appreciate it if you could help us get some wood together," she began. "We have a tree ready, but we just need to get it into small enough pieces for us to carry it back to the engine, if it won't be too much of a problem."

The beavers went over to the tree that Crimson had cut down and got to work, helping speed the process.

"Thank you," Crimson said as he sat down next to another tree. "Being dead for all those years takes its toll on you. I just hope this curse can end soon."

"Trains today run on oil," Twilight stated. "It's much more efficient than wood burners, just so you know."

"I don't care how efficient an oil burning train is," Crimson argued. "We didn't have that in my time. We made do with what we could get and we did our best to make sure that there was always wood when we needed it."

"But your train will have to run on oil!" Twilight exclaimed. "It's standard procedure. According to the law provided by Canterlot nobles, due to the fact that there were many fires started by coal and wood burners, all trains must now run on oil. No exceptions."

"Did you ever stop to think about how my engine is built?" Crimson asked, trying not to lose his patience. He was after all, in the presence of royalty, but that didn't mean he could keep his temper in check. Especially to that one princess that seemed to think everything could be found in a book about trains. Before Twilight could respond, Fluttershy interrupted.

"I don't think this is really important," she began, her eyes beginning to open up wide. "Our main goal is to help get this engine running again. You two need to stop this petty bickering and deal with it later." Both Twilight and Crimson held their heads in shame, remembering that they were meant to work together, not against each other.