A TALE OF GOOGLY EYES

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria...

...There was a big train yard with lots of shiny sidings, trucks and coaches, and sheds, were a group called "The Other Railway" dwelled. They spent their time, hustling and bustling around the yard, and on the lines leading out from it. Near this yard was great, medium-sized building, the station. And in the Station's head office lived, well, worked, a brown earth pony named Dr. Whooves - but his friends just called him the Doctor. Day after day, the Doctor worked hard in his office, looking after the trains, the drivers, and other workponies. He was not alone with his task, though:

For every Saturday, a good friend of the Doctor came for a visit.

It was Ditzy Doo, known to her friends as Derpy Hooves, a spry, innocent, inquisitive gray pegasus with blonde mane, the brown stallion's long-time friend. She always showed up in the morning, bringing joy into the heart of the colt. She tried to help him, as best as she could, though she often tended to be a teeny bit clumsy, thanks to her wandering eyes. It's not that she had a dim mind, or anything, though, she was easily distracted, but the main cause of her flounder was her double-eye (or eye-switching) Strabismus.

Despite this, she proved to be a great help to the Doctor, helping him deal with the MASSIVE amount of documents that had taken residence in random parts of his office.

But one day, Dr. Whooves had fallen ill - terribly ill. His body was boiling hot with fever, and his throat was hoarse (no pun intended). Feeling dizzy and tired, he retired into his TARDIS, snuggling into his bed, under deep covers. Shivering yet sweating, he spoke to his friend:

"Derpy... " he muttered "I feel terrible... Ever since that night I personally washed down Bowler with those questionable cleaning detergents, I've been getting weaker and weaker... Now, only one cure could save me."

Derpy stared at him (or, at least, attempted to) with a mixture of worry and anxiety.

"...It's the Egg and Bacon Muffin!" the Doc declared, or rather, exhaled "Only THAT could save me now... Please, Derpy... Go down to the local Messco, and see if they have any..."

After a bit of thinking, he added:

"If they don't, go check the local Intersparta..."

Derpy didn't waste another minute, she packed her bundle full of ash-baked scones (as traditional in Hungerian folk tales - her mother read a lot of those when she was a foal), and then set off to find the cure for his dear friend.

She soon arrived to the local Messco. Once trotting inside, she found nopony but one stallion, crying on one of the pay desks... She approached him...

"What's the matter, sir?" she asked.

"Ohohooo..." the gray earth pony whimpered "I have such a great grief upon my head..."

"How come?"

"The Changeling army raided my shop and took my only foal!" the stallion cried "She's so young! Her fur is pure white like the freshly fallen snow... Her eyes are bright blue like the distant ocean... And her mane is like that of Wholly Berry's from X-Mane." he finished, quickly and reluctantly...

"Oh." Derpy replied "Well... Can I get some muffins?"

"Sorry, but the changelings also ransacked my shop. We're completely empty..." came the reply "BUT WHO CARES WHEN MY ONLY FOAL HAS BEEN CAPTURED?!" and he started sobbing again.

Derpy couldn't bare to see another pony sad. So she stood up to the stallion.

"I'll get her back!" she announced. The effect was instant.

"Oh! WOULD YOU?!" the stallion asked, holding the mare close, starry-eyed "If you help me, I'll give you my filly's hoof in marriage!"

He stopped.

"Wait, that doesn't sound right..." he muttered, looking back up, hoping he didn't scared the volunteering pegasus away.

Derpy was nowhere to be seen...

The stallion stood there for a moment.

Then cried out:

"HAVE THE LUCK OF A FOUR-LEAF CLOVER AND THE PROTECTION OF THE GODS, BUBBLY HEADED MARE!"

The gray pegasus wandered and wandered, for 12 minutes and 34 seconds, across the field, along the railway lines, when she saw someone.

It was a diesel engine, a Rail Blue Class 31 (oddly resembling a Class 50) with a complete, hazard yellow front, light gray roof with great, boxy roof-lights on top of either cabs, black window frames, and medium-big white BR symbols on the middle of his sides - his number, 33120, also in clear white under his cab windows.

He was busy pushing scrap off the line with his own, bare buffers. He was bending, warping and tweaking the metal like how a rotary hoe knots an earth worm!

Derpy called out to him.

"Hey!"

The diesel stopped, and rumbled back beside her.

His eyes were big and filled with experience, his pupils, oval and deep black, seemed to be fused with his irises, like how any engine's, not reflecting light like the eyes of ponies. His nose was long and flat, and his mouth was tightly shut.

"Oh, hey, Vac!" the mare said, recognizing the engine "Didn't recognized you for a second!"

"Hello, Derpy!" the engine smiled "What are you up to?"

"The Doctor's sick, and I'm going to get him some muffins! Did you get an eye-operation?" she asked, pointing at the right (to him, left) eye of the locomotive. He used to have Strabismus as well, thanks to an accident some years ago, but apparently, it got fixed.

"Yes, Princess Luna herself fixed it as a reward for my hard work with the Royal Mail!" Vac explained "Pity she couldn't fix my body."

"Why, what's wrong with it?" the mare asked, worriedly.

"Well, I used to look like a normal Class 31, but then I got into an accident, and the workmen repaired me, thinking I was a modified Class 50." the diesel gave a sight "Nevertheless, I can still work very well, and all's well if it ends well, right?" he finished, and chuckled.

"OK." Derpy replied, not understanding half of what the engine said "Listen, I'm going to find a changeling army that ransacked the local Messco and foalnapped the owner's filly."

"Sounds dangerous." Vac muttered "And fun."

"You're pretty awesome in iron-kneading." the mare went on, pointing at the twisted scrap beside the lines "Wanna help?"

Vac thought for a moment, but his child-like curiosity for the world overpowered his sense of work.

The line was cleared, anyway...

"Weeeell... Sure, why not? I was left out of the "driver-training" course, anyway!"

"Well, I can be your driver!" Derpy smiled. The diesel looked at her with eyes tinkling and broad smile.

"Really? Would you?" he asked.

The mare smiled.

"Sure!"

It didn't took her long to learn the controls, and, after nearly colliding with a goods train at a red signal, they rolled away onto a branch line that went along the mountains.

Soon enough, they came across a switch. One track went along the mountains, the other plunged in between them.
Without a second thought, they raced down the latter, soon arriving that a set of sidings, all of them leading into caves.

They stopped on the tracks leading into the first one.

"OK. I'll head in, and you stay out here..." the mare said, once outside the diesel's cab.

"Are you kidding? I'm coming with you!" Vac replied in a no-nonsense manner.

"AFTER ALL THESE THING WE'VE BEEN THROUGH, I CANNOT ALLOW YOU TO RISK YOUR LIFE FOR ME!" Derpy cried, dropping the bag of scones on a stick she had, and clenching the cheeks of the engine (with some difficulty, considering the size difference between an engine's face, and a pony's... Body), pushing them together.

But the Class 31/50 deadpanned.

"Oh, C'mon! We've only been adventuring for, like, 20 minutes!"

And with that, he rumbled into the cave, the bubbly mare following him reluctantly.

Once inside, Derpy and her friend were lost for words... Mainly, because they were in complete darkness...

"Wait, I'll turn on the lights!" Vac spoke, and did so, switching off ALL of his lights (including the blinding halogen-lamps on the top of his cab) with a great clang! Afterwards, they were REALLY lost for words, facing the humongous, disturbed, hostile-looking swarm of changelings in front of them, their Queen in the center.

"Do you mind?" she asked, peevishly "We need our 12 hour morphing sleep!"

"Oh, sorry!" the diesel replied in an embarrassed manner, and turned his beamlights off, but left his normal lamps alight.

Bad decision.

The Queen managed to get to her senses...

"Aaah... Look what the wind blew in..." she smirked, before sniffing into the air "Ugh! Along with some stench!"

"Uh... Sorry! That musta' been my exhausts!" Vac muttered, even more embarrassed.

"Anywaysss..." the Queen went on "Look who we have here..." she grinned, eyeing up her soon-to-be-prey (NOT).

"A little pony..." she said, looking at Derpy "And a..." she stopped, raising an eyebrow "What the death are you?"

"Vac." came the short reply.

"No, I mean, WHAT are you?"

"A diesel."

The Queen and her minions deadpanned.

"...What?"

The diesel and the mare exchanged unimpressed looks, with Derpy's eyes doing what she wanted, for once.

"Lemme guess... You weren't there to witness the great "Revolution of the Rails", right?" Vac asked.

"We've spent the last few months cooped up in her, waiting for our bodies to heal completely, plotting revenge, and starving." the Queen replied dryly.

"Oh! Right..." the engine muttered.

"But never mind that..." their captor went on "What I'm interested in is WHY did you came into our lair? Ponies could sense the presence of a changeling hive, and naturally avoid it..."

"So THAT was that growing sense of impending doom I felt!" Derpy exclaimed, sighing in relief. The Queen rolled her eyes.

"So what brings you two here?"

"Ummm... Salutions!" Vac uttered "We're here to take back the Messco owner's filly... Oh, and the goods, too!"

The Queen jumped off her throne, and flied down to the two friends, feebly, but steadily. She stopped before them, glowering at the mare, looking deeply into her eyes.

"You got some nerve, then..." she muttered "But I'll have to disappoint you. We no longer have the treats. Or the foal."

"How come?"

It was the Queen's turn to feel embarrassed.

"A few hours ago, a group of teenage dragons ransacked US in our sleep. They took everything, including the filly as well. At least we managed to eat SOME of the crap you ponies call "food"!"

"Right... I guess we'll be going then." Derpy replied "The muffins aren't here..."

The Queen smirked, and trotted back to her throne.

"Not so fast... You two fools had trotted, errr, rolled straight into my... OUR lair. You will not escape that easily..."

"Oh dear..." the diesel muttered, forgetting that there was NOTHING that would block their escape - aside from a swarm of changelings.

"We changelings have special needs..." the Queen went on "And you two, or at least one of you, will fulfill them!"

Our heroes exchanged worried looks, as the changelings closed up around them.

"What sort of needs?" Vac asked boldly, after a moment of silence.

The Queen continued to smirk.

"While changelings and equines a different, we also have a few things in common." she spoke "We all need something to live, something that gives us power. For ponies, that is food, water, the sunlight and the darkness of night. It is much more simple in our case, as WE'RE not as extravagant." the Queen scoffed, then went on with a softer tone "Yet far more complex in the same time. Well, according to everyone else, that is. We never really bothered to figure out the "Why", as we were more focused on the "How"..." she finished, thoughtfully.

"...What sort of need?" Vac repeated calmly.

"Love." the reply echoed in the cave, the sound of hundreds, maybe thousands of voices repeating the same word in the same time, with a hungry, demanding tone.

"Ah, yes!" Derpy suddenly remembered "Changeling feed on other beings' emotions, most importantly, their love..."

"So are they like Dementors?" Vac asked.

"Whats?"

"Never mind."

"You ponies are capable of giving out MORE than enough love than what you use. It would be a shame to see it go to waste." the Queen grinned, then frowned, as he looked at the engine.

"As for you, errm..."

"Diesel."

"As for you, diesel..."

"Actually, my name is Vac, but..."

"...As in "wacky"?" the Queen sounded surprised. This rigid machine of steel hardly seemed anything CLOSE to what can be described as "wacky". Living or not.

"No, as in "Vacuum Cleaner"..." he growled, getting impatient. This made no sense for the changelings what so ever, as they never possessed any household appliances - they were more distant from technology than the ponies.

"Anyways..." the Queen went on "You, pony, have what we need. And you'll give it to us!"

The mare an the engine sat in silence.

Then...

"OK!" Derpy smiled, and flew up to the Queen, her flight being a bit wonky, but she landed safely on the altar.

All changelings were on alert, not expecting the pony to fly straight up to their queen. Nobody could be THAT daft.

The Queen herself was surprised as well, taken aback as the pony trotted up to her, eyes not looking at her, in fact, not even looking into the same direction.

She stood, one leg raised, folded against her chest, as the pegasus walked up to her... Stood on her hind legs...

And HUGGED her!

She could hear her subjects chirp. No surprise there, though.

The cave was FLOODED with love, the purest, almost chemically pure: Innocent love. It overfilled their heart, pouring into, and out, of every changeling drone, reverberating from the walls, and returning to them.

She felt smothered, even though the pony barely reached up to her chest, as she sat, dazed, surprised, and charged to the max.

She felt a tingle at the tip of her horn, which grow stronger and stronger. She couldn't see, but she could tell that her crooked horn was glowing with magic, something it haven't done for months by now.

It's glow enlightened the entire cave, until everything had a green shade to it... There was a whirring sound coming from her horn, which grew louder... And louder...

She winced in pain, as an electric arch leaped from it, hitting the closest metal object around - Vac.

"OW!" he yelped. Derpy opened her eyes, and quickly let go of the Queen, blushing in an embarrassed manner. She, too, felt her usually cold blood rush to her cheeks, although, in her case, they grew green, rather than red.

"Y-You may leave..." she mumbled, almost inaudibly. If she would of kept Depry around, they would of probably lasted for years without leaving the cave. Now, they were only stocked for months...

"Eh... Where's the dragons' cave?" Vac asked.

"The one right next to ours." The Queen replied, still looking quite absent-minded.

"Thanks, Chrysalis!" The diesel smiled, and, giving a friendly toot, rumbled out of the cave, Derpy following him...

Only when they were out of sight did Queen Chrysalis notice something:

"Wait... HOW DID HE KNOW MY NAME?!"

Entering the neighboring cave, they met with darkness again. However, in the distance, what seemed like the end of a long tunnel, there was some faint light, barely noticeable for the naked eye, like a dying star on the night sky.

The mare climbed back inside the engine's cab, and he rolled forward, into the musty tunnel.

At the end were the dragons, the same group that bullied (and eventually accepted - for a short time, that is) Spike, when he joined the migration.

The line abruptly ended at a simple buffer, hidden from the dragons by a large rock.

Derpy climbed out of the cab as quiet as she could, and climbing up onto the buffer stop, she peeked over the boulder.

There were the dragons, all six of them.

"Uno!" a fat, purple one called.

"Blaze. We're playing Swindle, not 'Uno'..." the white one responded calmly. The red one sitting next to him seemed to be struggling to hold back his anger.

"Ah... Alright..." Blaze replied "I was wondering what was wrong with these cards..." he turned to the others "Who's turn is it again?"

The red one snapped.

"OH, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! BLAZE, GET YOUR BRAINS TOGETHER!"

The deep purple dragon looked hurt.

"Hey, I have A.D.D.!"

"I don't care! I wanna play ONE stupid card game through without you messing it up!" the red one snapped back. The others didn't seemed to agree.

"Leave him alone, Garble!" the white one called out.

"Yeah, it's not HIS fault!" a black and gray one added.

"Oh, shut up, Ghost! Who are you, his caretaker?!" Garble muttered, fiddling with his cards.

"I told you, my name is Johnathan!" the albino dragon snapped back.

"The Heck is with you, today, Garble?" the lanky, dart-toned one asked "We got our loot, AND someone to organize our stash!"

"Shove a rock in it, Smokey!" Garble throated him down "Which reminds me... You OK back there?" he asked, turning away from the others, towards numerous pile of gemstones "Need anything?"

"No, I'm fine!" said a small voice. Derpy's eyes perked up, as she stared.

Among the gem lumps, there was a small clearing, where a little filly was arranging the different gems into separate lumps diligently.

Derpy instantly recognized her, thanks to her Wholly Berry-like mane.

"Aha. There's the filly." the pegasus muttered.

"Need any distraction?" Vac asked.

"No, I'll just sneak past them. If you see them move, cause a disturbance!"

Derpy proceeded, lying down the ground and crawling pass the playing dragons, army-style. Going round the light-circle of the lamp on the table, and pass the piles of gems (even though one became loose and nearly buried her alive), she made it to the little filly.

"Hello!" she said "You took your time."

The pegasus deadpanned.

"You knew I was coming?"

"Yep!" the small unicorn smiled "Daddy always hopes for someone to come to rescue me. And if nobody comes, he'll get all paranoid and come rescue with his T-34, scaring the poop out of everyone else. It's embarrassing. It's good that you came instead!" she frowned a bit "But what took you so long?"

The mailmare turned heroine turned gawking duck's mind was still progressing what the little pony had said, so she only replied:

"Changelings."

...Before scooping her up, and ninjaing her way out beside the dragons.

But just as she was about to reach the big rock hiding the buffers and the tracks (not to mention her companion), she, being Derpy, wasn't paying attention, or rather, paid too much attention on whether the dragons have noticed or not...

Point is, she flew straight into a support beam, knocking it slightly loose, but more importantly, knocking off an old lantern that was hung up on it.

The lantern fell with a loud crash, alerting the dragons.

"Hey! What's going on?!" Smokey muttered.

"Someone's taking our hostage!" Gargle roared "Grab 'em, guys!"

Nursing her head with her hoof, and holding the foal in the other, Derpy flew pass Vac's face.

"Vac! Decoy! NOW!" she yelled, and jumped into his other cab.

The diesel wasted no time.

The dragons were hot on the mare's trail.

Suddenly, a bright light blinded them, and a loud, howling sound deafened them, temporarily, as a voice called out:

"You shall not pass!"

The thunderous noise was drowned out by an ominous rumbling: the weakened beam could not withstand the resonance of the horn, and the cave began to collapse.

As the engine raced out of the tunnel, a deep BANG! echoed from inside, and the shaft spewed out a thick cloud of smoke. By the time it visibly collapsed from the outside, the two heroes and the filly were far away.

"My dear daughter! You're safe! Safe and sound!" the Messco owner cried, weeping happy, manly tears, hugging his foal close. The filly just smiled, and hugged him back.

"What have they done to you?" the stallion suddenly asked "Did those ruffians treat you bad?"

"No, daddy!" her foal replied "The changelings were all icky and bug-like, but they were funny, too! Their Queen was like a real royalty among them, though, she looked a bit ane... Anoe... Anorak... She was too thin!"

"Well, I'm glad those beasts didn't harm you!" her father sighed.

"Oh, but it isn't over, daddy!" the filly smiled "The changelings ate most of our food, but then, a dragon gang arrived, and took me to their underground hideout!"

The gray stallion's eyes grew wide.

Derpy fidgeted nervously.

"D-Dragon gang?" the owner whispered.

"Yes! Teen dragons!" the foal chuckled "But they weren't ferocious or anything! I think they weren't really into hostaging... They let me eat some of the food they took from the changelings, and told me to arrange the gems, "if I wish", while they played Swindle." she looked worried for a moment "I hope they're alright... When we left, their hideout collapsed!"

MEANWHILE

"HEEELP!"

"MOMMY!"

"FOR DISCORD'S SAKE, SMOKEY, SHUT UP!"

"HEY GUYS! I FOUND THE EXIT!"

"Oh, thank ERAGORN! Where is it, Blaze?"

"Uhhh... I forgot..."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

*****

The gray pegasus looked even more nervous, but the owner smiled broadly.

"Well, you brought her back, and that's all that matters!"

The mare smiled back.

Then, her face fell...

"But... I didn't managed to get any of your food back."

The stallion smirked.

"Not an issue! While you were away, the shop was restocked. so, what can I give you?"

Derpy smiled her sunniest smile.

"One Egg and Bacon Muffin, please!" she said. The owner gave her an odd look, then shrugged his shoulders, and went to the back of the shop, returning with a paper bag.

"Odd... Nobody ever bought this type before... So I always had to use it for fertilizer, or give it away to griffons... At least, they like it..."

"Sho 'oe' 'y f'ienh'!" the bubbly pegasus replied, the paper bag in her mouth "'oo' 'ye!"

And she flew back to the station, as fast as the wind.

"There you go, Doctor!" she smiled, as she carefully placed the muffin into the brown earth pony's mouth by the side. The Doctor was so weakened by now that she had to lift his head so that he could reach the muffin.

Truth to be told, he WAS actually sleeping when Derpy burst into the TARDIS, and shook him from his slumber, so he WAS kind of dozy.

But as his tongue tasted the flavor of the bakery product, his eyes shot wide open, and he sat up, and completely obliterated it - not even a crumb remained.

No sooner than he finished, he jumped out of his bed, his chest puffed out and his muscles flexed.

"Oh, thank you very much, Derpy!" he beamed "Now I can get back to work!" and with that, he jogged out of the room.

Derpy smiled.

Her quest was complete.

Now, there was only one thing left to do.

"What's with these muffins?" she spoke out loud, as she reached for the surplus one in the bottom of the bag...

"...Long story short, she spent the night on the toilet, and had to retire into the TARDIS for the next few days. She was ill!" Vac finished.

The other diesels, AND the mares present gave him incredulous looks.

Vac smiled innocently, baring their gazes.

There was a long silence...

"...I guess an eye-operation doesn't back up the loss of brain cells..." Old Stuck-Up muttered, finally breaking the silence.

"Stuck-Up!" Rarity scoffed.

"Well, uh, anyways..." Derek coughed "It was an... Interesting story..."

"You're putting it lightly..." Diesel growled, but Twilight shushed him.

"So, who's turn is it?" Bowler asked.

"Yours?" Stuck-Up asked "You assigned for "horror"..."

"Oh, right!" Bowler smiled, which soon turned into a wicked smirk "I got just the right story! And, just a bit of foreshadowing: an untold amount of bricks will be shat tonight!"

"Oh?" Spamcan asked, while the ponies exchanged looks, unsure of what the BR Green Class 40's last sentence meant.

The grimy Class 46 wasn't convinced, however.

"So what's your story?" Derek asked.

"It's called "The Russian Sleep Experiment"." Bowler replied, with a clearly sadistic smile stretching across his face.

The engines' eyes widened, and they all let out a collective, irritated groan.

The mares, however, gazed at him with interest, prompting him to take on a more comforting, showman-like smile...

Diesel could clearly see where this was going, and promptly shut his eyes, hoping to escape the excruciating moments that would follow, hiding into his dreams...

...And an untold amount of bricks were shat that night...