Artist’s comment:
 
Some ponies are seeing their plans come to their fruition in my Equestria dreamscape but others are only seeing failure ahead.
 
Corporal Trotter/Drone 992 stared at his math one more time. He’d recalculated, double-checked is work, confirmed he hadn’t missed a variable or critical element and final answer was still the same. The plan was going to fail.
 
“Trotter! What in the Tartarus is all this!” The sound of his commanding officer snapped him out of his research. Looking up he saw Gleaming Shield staring down at him.
 
“Oh! Uh, Captain! Um…..” Trotter looked down at the mess hall table that was now covered in books, magazines, maps, newspapers, and sheets of paper with his writing all over them.
 
“Well Captain, you see I was confirming a suspicion I have about this newspaper article in Manehattan Times.”
 
Actually he had been doing research for his Queen when he’d gotten mentally sidetracked with this problem.
 
The corporal levitated an old addition of Times over for the captain to see. Trotter had circled the story of interest with a red pencil. The article was about a statement made by the Minister of Commerce about increasing sales and production of wheat to the Southern Zebra Kingdom.
 
“Okay.” Said captain. “So what about this story warranted you dragging half the palace and company library into the mess hall?”
 
“The deal is going to fail sir. It’s not going to work. It’s not possible at this time for the Equestria to meet the demands that this deal will impose on the kingdom sir.”
 
“I read about something related to this a couple of months ago.” Said the captain as he scanned the article. “The Minister of Agriculture said Equestria would have no problem meeting, and the REWS says it will not require any significant modifications of rainfall totals to meet the demand. So how is it going to fail corporal?” The captain stared at Trotter.
 
“Rolling stock, locomotives, and a lack of switching yards and silos in the right places sir.” Said the corporal.
 
“What does that have to do with growing wheat corporal?” The Gleaming Shield had now sat down at the table across from Trotter.
 
Trotter started rummaging under paperwork until he found another newspaper article. He laid down for the captain to see.
 
“Sir. This is a later article in Manehattan Times discussing in more detail the specifics of the article. Here are the numbers for the amount of wheat Equestria is agreeing to sell and how much production will have to increase to meet it.” He flipped to another page in the paper where the article continued. “And here’s where the Minister of Commerce is promising as the delivery date.”
 
The older unicorn stared at the information. “Okay, and….”
 
“To fulfill this deal it will require a 15% increase wheat production.” The younger unicorn rifled through a stack of paper to find specific sheet he was looking for. “To be able to move that much wheat to Fillydelphia for shipping within the time promised in the agreement will require more engines and rolling stock than Equestria will have available sir.”
 
“What? Nah. Equestria has enough additional gear to handle moving a 15% increase in wheat.”
 
“Not during this harvest season sir.” The corporal dug through several magazines. “Here’s an article from the beginning of the year from The Association of Rail Operators talking about the fact that during that time this year Equestria will only have a 2% surplus of available gear. And that maybe generous when you factor in downtime for repair and refurbishing of existing stock.”
 
“Only 2%?” Asked the Captain incredulously.
 
The corporal nodded his head. “Yes sir. There are several factors that have contributed to this decline in engines and rolling stock. One is that many engines were lost during the time Discord appeared either due to collisions as results of him messing with time. Or random acts of mischief on his part. Second, much of Equestria’s engines are of the last generation and are quickly approaching the end of their service life. They’re having to be run at slower speeds and reduced load and are requiring more maintenance. Also the railroads are in the process of switching braking systems for all existing engines and rolling stock.”
 
Trotter found another magazine devoted to science, magic and technology. “And this publication from 3 months ago discusses the problems that the railroads are having with upgrading the older gear to the new standard. It is taking much longer than expected.”
 
“Why don’t they just forego the older equipment and order new from the manufacturers? They’ve been fairly profitable, and the Crown has a program to encourage that kind of thing?”
 
“They’d like to sir.” The corporal went back to the piles of documents. As he did this the Captain flagged a steward and ordered a coffee. Finally Trotter found what he was looking for.
 
“At the moment Equestria can only produce 2 complete engines a month. Rolling stock is faster than that at least. Our capacity was faster a couple of years ago, but the fire at the Bald plant in Manehattan. Another result of Discord mischief destroyed that location. They just finished the new buildings but they have not yet received all their new tooling. I’m no expert on that but apparently that takes a while to get set up right. This wouldn’t that bad, but almost all of the other manufacturers are also upgrading to build the next generation of engines, and they are not up to full capacity yet.”
 
Trotter found the article he was looking for. “And even if the factories were working at full speed it takes months to gear up to fulfill new large orders. Locomotives are large, heavy, complicated, resource intensive devices. Steel mills need months to provide the necessary material, and when they do this they need to order ore and coal for create it. That takes engines and rolling stock to do, and that takes time as well to fulfill. Never mind the thousands of smaller components that have to be ordered from subcontractors.”
 
The corporal was on a roll. With a flourish he rolled out a couple maps on the mess hall table. “And even if there was adequate stocks to move everything. The switching yards in both Fillydelphia and Detrot are inadequate to handle all the additional rolling stock. He pointed at the maps of the yards with his front hooves. Upgrading those yards and their storage silos capacity will take a year at minimum to do.”
 
“That’s why this deal is going to fail sir.” Said the corporal as he finished his impromptu presentation.
 
Gleaming Shield sighed. “Unfortunately my suspicions about you Trotter are correct.”
 
The changeling froze. Had he somehow just accidentally informed him that he was not who he claimed to be? He knew that at least one member of the court was suspicious of him.  
Excuse me Corporal by Baron-Engel
 
 
“Um, what suspicions sir?”
 
The older stallion shook his head. “That you’re wasting your time guarding prisoners and pushing mundane paperwork. You’ve got smarts Trotter. You’ve got drive and focus. Next cycle I am going to recommend you for promotion to sergeant and I will draft a letter that you be considered a candidate for officer training. You’ve got all the makings of a great intel officer. You can do both Equestria and yourself a favor by being in a place where your brains can be put to use.”
 
Trotter just stared at the captain for a moment. “Um, thank you sir.” He said softly. “Uh, that’s really something great you are doing for me.” He was genuinely touched by the offer and what it meant.
 
Gleaming Shield grunted and rose from the table. “Going to miss you Trotter. You’ve been one of my most reliable troopers, but in the end it’s the right thing to do.”
 
He looked at the mess on the table and grinned. “Just make sure you clean this all up before you report for duty alright.”
 
“Yes sir!” Said the corporal.
 
To be continued.