It had been about five minutes since Jebediah had left the spot. The toys and ponies had been waiting under the hot sun. They heard no more chugging or whistles. It all seemed so hopeless now. From the rocks, Silas looked down on them with a victorious grin on his beak.

"Like I said," The goose announced snobbishly, "no more engines."

"Oh no!" The ballerina started crying. "Now we will never go!" Fluttershy tried to calm her by patting her back.

"Oh, dry up Twinkle Toes," The goose grunted. "If we get going now, maybe we can make it to a toy store in time for Christmas." She turned and started walking off back the way the train had come, and the other toys, full of dispair, started following her. All except for Rolo and the ponies.

"Wait!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Did you guys forget about the pirates? We can't leave here as long as they're around! They won't let us go without a fight!"

"Well Pinkie," Applejack replied. "I reckon at this point, we got no choice but to fight 'em."

"Forget fighting them," The goose replied. "What's the use? I forgot about them. That badger was right. We should just turn ourselves in to them. We'll make ourselves useful by turning ourselves in to people who can actually use us!"

"That's a very nice offer, dear," Silas called down to her, drawing everyone's attention, "but we don't want your stupid toys. We just want the food!"

"Well then, that settles it," The goose growled. "We'll give away our food to you if you leave us alone after that. And THEN we'll start looking for a toy store!"

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Silas smirked. He lifted up and flew back to the truck to pass on the good news to Gutt and the crew.

"Well, come on!" The goose barked at the other toys. "Let's go get our stuff from the train." She started walking back to go around the rock wall to the train. Still full of despair and saddness, the other toys followed her. Again, all except Rolo and the ponies.

"But... what?" Rolo stammered. "Are you guys quitting?" He couldn't believe it. He thought these toys were dedicated to their work. Everything else had been put together perfectly. He was determined to get this train over the mountain. He still had hope, and and had to somehow give the others hope too.

He ran up to the front of the line and jumped onto a rock so everyone could see him, making them stop.

"Listen to me!" He announced, "Quitters never... well, they-they don't win! They can't! Don't you see?"

"That's right!" Pinkie added, sliding up beside Rolo. "And winners never quit!"

"Look ya'll," Applejack continued as she climbed atop the rock as well, "them pirates are a nasty crowd. Ya'll don't wanna get mixed up with 'em. Now believe me: I've been in situations as dim and bleak as gi-normous acre of apple trees with just me to pick 'em! But neither me, my family, or my friends ever gave up hope, so don't ya'll go about doin' that neither! We WILL find a way out of this, and we WILL get over that mountain!"

A long row of smiles appeared on the faces of all the toys as Applejack spoke. Her speech seemed just as motivating as she had hoped.

"YEAH!" Fluttershy yelled. As she did this, the other toys all started cheering along too. Rarity could only shed a tear at the beautiful speech. The basketball player saluted the three on the rock.

"Well, those are all very nice words," the grumpy goose spoke up when the cheering died down, "But still, who's going to pull us?"

Before anyone else could answer, a new voice did.

"I think I can!"

Everyone turned in shock to the sound of the new voice. Tilly, the little blue engine had just puffed up the tracks toward them.

While Rolo, Applejack and the toys were confused at first, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie all had delighted faces on.

"Oh, great!" The goose grunted. "NOW we have a miniature choo-choo who thinks she can pull us!"

"I think I can!" Tilly repeated.

"Tilly!" Rarity squealed as she, Fluttershy and Pinkie all ran up to greet her. "Oh, Tilly dear, it's wonderful to see you! Are you here to pull us?"

"Yeah, I am!" Tilly answered.

"Well that's just super!" Pinkie exclaimed. "You came just in time! We really need a lift! You see there's these pirates, and-"

"Wait, what?" Chip interrupted, "Pirates?"

"Yeah," Fluttershy answered, "They're watching the train behind the rocks. They're trying to rob the train and collect loot!"

"Those big bullies!" Tilly gasped. "That's so mean!"

"Don't worry dear," Rarity said assuringly, "We are handling the situation quite well. In fact, Twilight and Rainbow are on the other side of the wall right now, defending the train quite well!"

"Yeah!" Pinkie added, "they can't touch the train with Twilight using her magic to block them off!"

Rarity brushed off the comment for the moment. "So anyway," She continued, "we will deal with the pirates! You just worry about getting the train along and over the mountain! Up for that?"

"You know she is!" Chip answered.

"I think I can!" Said Tilly.

"Well then what are we waiting for?" Pinkie shouted. "Let's get going!" The ponies trotted back to the group as Tilly chugged up alongside them.

"Do you really think SHE can get us over the mountain?" The goose asked, still unconvinced.

"Are you kidding?" Pinkie replied. "Tilly's the best little engine in the roundhouse... even if she is the ONLY little engine in the roundhouse... but she can pull any train just as well as any big engine!"

"That's great!" Rolo exclaimed. "That's just what we need! That's what we've been waiting for!" He turned to Tilly. "So yeah, um-Tilly was it? -Thanks for coming! You don't know how much we appreciate it!"

"I'm happy to help!" Tilly replied.

"We'll, I suppose it's better than giving up and handing over everything to the pirates," The goose sulked.

"I think she can do it!" Rolo said. "It's a proven fact that when you really put your mind to something, you can do it! And Tilly seems like a hard-working kinda engine, ya know what I mean?"

Rolo and Tilly smiled at each other. Already they liked and trusted each other.

"So come on everyone!" Rolo continued. "Let's get back to the train!"

And so the smiling toys all rushed back around the wall to the train as Tilly puffed along the tracks toward it.

With the ponies, Applejack was still confused. She stopped the other three and asked.

"Did ya'll already know this Tilly engine?" She asked. "How come I don't know her? Somethin' ya'll wanna fill me in on?"

Rarity giggled. She had forgotten that Applejack had not met Tilly yet. "We'll explain later," She replied. "We'll introduce you later too. Right now, we need to get going!"

And the four ponies followed the rest of the crowd.

Author's Note: Not sure if any of my readers noticed, but I raised the rating of this story from K+ to T. Thing is this really is closer to the T reading level I think. I'm not sure if my brother will be able to read it and fully understand when he reads it. I'm sure he will because of the three franchises interesting him, but I don't know. I just got so much into this project and started writing it like I normally do with my other works.

This story also deserves to be T because it will get pretty violent in later chapters (Sorry for the spoilers!)

So I just found out from my friend in the dorm yesterday how Season 3 is premiering on November 10th now! And I saw some of the new images they released for it. It indeed got me thinking "Wow, I gotta get back to this!"