As it turns out, these were the same ponies part of the crew that accompanied her on her way to Outer Grove. The same folks whom she ordered to wait for her input back at the previous junction. Seeing as the allocated two days deadline was running its course, without any news, the engineer embraced a pang of courage and took the matter into his own capable hooves, stationing his locomotive just far enough from Outer Grove to intervene if need be. Being on standby just in case the citizens had to be evacuated, or if they needed to quickly borrow a means of transport. As the stallion himself said, “better be pre-emptive rather than patching up unprepared.”