Thomas & Equestria Girls:
Welcome To Canterlot High
Chapter 8: Friends In Danger
"Thomas? Thomas!"
Sunset tried vigorously to shake Thomas awake to no avail; he was completely out cold. Sunset Shimmer and her friends were all eating dinner after a fun trip to the mall. They spent most of the day shopping around for new clothes and showing Thomas the unique stores that Canterlot Mall had. While eating his first ever meal, Thomas all of a sudden started feeling woozy and passed out on the floor. The Girls gathered around him wondering why out of nowhere he just collapsed from his chair.
"What's wrong with him?" Twilight asked.
"I don't know," Sunset said anxiously. "He was fine a moment ago!"
"Is he sick?" Fluttershy asked.
"I hope not."
Sunset looked over Thomas for any sign as to what might've caused him to blackout. Her forearms locked together as she grew more worried for him.
"We should call the hospital," Rarity suggested.
"First we need to get him out of here," Sunset said, pulling him up.
She grabbed Thomas' left arm and wraps it around her shoulder while struggling to stand and carry Thomas. Applejack tagged in and grabbed his right arm and wraps it around her shoulder.
"Where are we taking him?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"We'll take him to my house then call the doctor," Twilight Sparkle said.
"You're alright with that?" Sunset asked.
"Kinda have to!"
Rarity gasped and pointed to Thomas' sweater. The Girls looked where she was pointing and were all shocked to see a very unusual sight even for them.
Thomas' sweater turned a much darker shade of blue and was peeling off stitches of fabric along the seam, damaging and leaving ripped shreds, which hung loosely off his brand-new slim sweater. The dark blue coloring manifested from the sleeves and was spreading all through out his arm while turning even darker the more it slowly covered the rest of his body. Everyone looked at each other, worried and confused beyond thought.
"I don't think a doctor is gonna be able to fix that," Fluttershy said.
The Girls knew then that something strange such as this isn't just a simple illness, but the work of a terrible, manipulable magic.
"We have to hurry," Sunset said, determinedly.
The Girls left the mall in a flash, barging through the front doors and sprinted across the parking lot and city streets. Thomas was still unconscious as Sunset and Applejack hastily carried him through the suburbs of Canterlot with everyone else sprinting close by while keeping an eye on him. The dark shading slowed a little but was still covering most of his body. Thomas' sweater was completely dark and torn up at this point. The shading had moved on to his pants and shirt, tearing out holes and ripping the fabric seam by seam.
"What kind of magic could do something like this?" Twilight asked.
"It must be some kind of dark Equestrian magic," Sunset said.
"What If It's That Other Magic Source We Spotted Earlier?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"Whatever it is, it's eatin' away at him!" Applejack shouted, noticing the dark shade nearly covering most of his striped shirt.
The gang weren't that much further from Twilight's house and hurried at a consistent pace. Sunset started getting tired so Applejack continued carrying Thomas, showing no trouble of hauling him the rest of the way as she grabbed his legs and held Thomas with both her arms.
At last they made it to Twilight's place. The girls rushed Thomas upstairs to Twilight's room and laid him down gently on her bed. Sunset took off Thomas' sweater hoping that would slow down the effect. But upon removing it, she saw Thomas' skin was now almost all pale. What was once a boy with light blue complexion, had little to no blue left on him with his skin now just being a shade of milky white.
"Hey, what's going on?" Spike asked.
Spike was sleeping in his bed when the gang barged in. He awoke with a yawn and a stretch, before getting up and saw someone he didn't recognize being placed on Twilight's bed. He wasn't caught up to speed yet on why the girls were rushing in a complete stranger into Twilight's room. It wasn't until noticing that the boy was not in the best of shape with early all of his clothes torn to shreds did Spike at least have a feeling as to why.
"Whoa, he's not looking so hot," Spike said.
"We know," Twilight said. "He was fine when we were at the mall, but out of nowhere he just collapsed and now this shadow thing is tearing him apart."
"The worst part is we don't know what's causing this," Sunset said, nervously.
"Is it not Equestrian magic?" Spike asked.
"Ain't never seen Equestrian magic do anythin' like this," Applejack said.
Sunset agreed. "While I was Princess Celestia's student I studied a good amount of how dark magic can manifest, but nothing I know from back home could ever do this kind of damage."
The Girls all stared frightened and worrisome at a comatose Thomas, laying motionless on the bed while looking more and more sick with each shade of dark blue overlapped him and his clothes.
"What are we gonna do?" Rainbow Dash said. "If we don't figure something out, who knows what's gonna happen to him."
Sunset hesitated to answer. She had no idea what to do. Then she thought of something. Placing her locket contained Geode Crystal around her neck, Sunset sat on her knees by the bed near Thomas and readied to grab his arm.
"I'm gonna see if reading Thomas' thoughts will tell us anything."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Rarity asked.
"So far."
Slowly, Sunset Shimmer reached for and grabs Thomas' left arm. Her eyes glowed snow white as her sights peered into the inner thoughts of Thomas' membrane.
Through this vision, all Sunset Shimmer could see was fire. The land was nothing but the illusions of scorching flames surrounding every area of the image. Everything was red. No other color can be seen under the many shades of darkened red that bathed this land. Next, she heard maniacal laughter that increased until it was loud enough to deafen her. The echoing laughing became unbearable to hear.
She visibly saw an abstract figure but couldn't identify what it looked like. All Sunset knew was that the relenting laughter came from them. The figure got closer and closer to her, but no matter how close they got their face was buried in a dark shadow with only their piercing, voidless eyes clear as day. As if a strong force of will fought against hers, Sunset felt herself being pushed out of Thomas’ consciousness, presumably by the force of nature behind this awful attack. She couldn't fight back against this power, this torturous laugh, and grating heat radiating off the land anymore.
Hearing a loud bang and a powerful surge streaming all over her upon loosing contact, Sunset was pushed out of Thomas' consciousness, thrown back across the room and slammed against the wall.
The Girls cried out to Sunset as they ran over and helped pull her up to her feet. Sunset was weary but recovered quickly. The impact banged her up a little but was practically left unscathed. The magical surge that pushed her still tingled through her arm and head.
"Are you okay? What did you see?" Twilight asked.
Sunset shook her head. "It's not good. Someone or something is hurting Thomas, and they're enjoying it a little too much."
"What could it be?" Spike asked.
"I still don't know," Sunset slouched.
Sunset thought she would find something that may be hurting him, but got nothing in terms of any solution that she was hoping for. Twilight Sparkle knew they had to do something and began initiating tasks for everyone to carry out.
"Alright, there isn't much we can do now except try and see if we can combat whatever’s hurting him. We need to make sure Thomas is cared for at the very least.”
“What do we need?” Rarity asked.
“We're gonna need a damp rag to put over his head and a bowl of cold water."
"The Cutie Tuttis Are On The Duty!" Pinkie Pie saluted.
Fluttershy nodded too and followed Pinkie out of the room.
"There's some pain blockers in the kitchen," Twilight said. "Maybe we can use those to help him feel better."
Rainbow Dash used her speeding powers from her Geode Crystal and rushed down to the Kitchen, searched through the cabinets and grabbed the pain blockers along with a glass of cold water on the way.
"Done," she said placing them on a dresser drawer.
"Anythin' else y’all need?" Applejack asked.
Everyone shrugged.
"Look at you taking charge for once," Sunset said, bumping Twilight's arm.
Twilight blushed with embarrassment. "I didn't sound too bossy, did I?"
"It sounded more like you remaining calm in a crisis and taking initiative to get everyone organized. You really have come a long way since we met. If anything, you're becoming more like the Twilight Sparkle back in Equestria."
"Yeah, it would seem so," Twilight said.
Though she wasn't sure if being identical to her pony counterpart was something to be proud of.
Thomas began groaning as the dark shading spread more and more all over his being. Sunset went over and sat on the bed next to Thomas, looking at the lifeless complexion of a boy going through more pain then he could feel. Suddenly, Thomas stopped groaning and resumed a normal and somewhat relaxed breathing pace the moment Sunset sat beside him. It seemed her presence was the only thing keeping him at ease even though Thomas was almost consumed in dark blue and left with shredded clothing.
"Don't worry, Thomas. We'll figure something out."
Sunset Shimmer brushed away strings of hair from his tightly shut eyes and hid them behind his ear. She didn't like seeing him in the state he's in. She wanted to see Thomas' bright blue eyes again, twinkling with the same happiness and wonder she saw in him the moment they met.
Twilight sat on her bed next to Thomas as well. She looked over Sunset with the same worried expression everyone shared. Spike got up on Twilight's lap, whimpering as he now knew the danger her new friend was in. They watched in horror as the darkening shade slowly consumes Thomas.
He was now utterly pale in the face. Thomas' clothing had holes, wears and tears the likes that would make Rarity faint upon seeing such cruelty to fabric. There wasn't much that could be done now, except hope that Thomas is fighting back whatever's doing him harm.
His number one emblem was on its last seam, dangling off his shirt for dear life.
[The Next Day on The Island of Sodor: Early Afternoon]
James was given the job of pulling a freight train of tar tankers. He spent all morning going around Sodor delivering them to their destinations, impatiently trying to get his job done and over with. James didn't like pulling tar wagons, it reminded him too much about the time he ran into a tanker and got covered in the gooey substance. But he had to complete his job. So, he rushed around trying to dispose of them as soon as possible so Sir Topham Hatt can give him a better job.
After he was done, he went to go find Sir Topham Hatt.
As James rode down the line, he spotted Harvey pulling Rocky the Crane from behind. Further ahead he noticed an engine had derailed from the tracks. When he got close enough and slowed a bit, James saw that it was one of the Scottish twins, Donald, who was derailed off the line. His brother Douglas was far behind pushing a set of trucks the two of them were hauling. The two twins were arguing about something James could faintly over hear.
"What be that then, Donnie?" Douglas said pulling up close to Donald. "Ye nearly took meh doun wich ye this time."
Donald scuffed. "What are ye on about?"
"Ye weren't lookin’ where yer going is what am saying. Ye gone and thrown yeself off the line again."
"Me eyes started gettin’ fuzzy. I cod see da bend ahead of meh. Is not my fault. You should've applied the brakes tae stop meh."
"You didnae even try tae stop yeself," Douglas said. "Is if ye be wantin’ tae go off the tracks,"
Donald gasped. "Is no'."
"Is."
"Is No'."
"IS!"
"IS NO'!"
"IS!"
James continued puffing while hoping Harvey and Rocky will get Donald back on the tracks safely.
Things only started getting weirder when James puffed down the line. When James chuffed by a shunting yard, he saw that there was yet another derailed engine. Molly had gone off the tracks while shunting some trucks so Dennis brought Jerome and Judy to help pull her and the trucks back on the line. Molly looked disoriented, like she had no idea how she ended up off the tracks.
"Maybe this whole job switching thing wasn't such a good idea," James said as he continued puffing.
At last, James arrived at Knapfort Station and found Sir Topham Hatt pacing about back and forth on the main platform.
"Hello, Sir. I completed my job like you asked. Can I pull passenger trains now?"
Sir Topham Hatt was too busy looking over his clipboard. He was murmuring something to himself until he finally noticed James waiting for him.
"Oh, James. Done with your work?"
"Yes, Sir. I'm ready to receive my next job," he tried to say cheerfully in hopes that he'll be given coaches to pull.
Sir Topham Hatt was a little distracted by all of the reports in his notes, and so he didn't have a job planned for James until he remembered one that he also gave to Edward.
"Ah yes, very well. Um, you can pull the Express today, James."
James interrupted. "Oh yes, The Express. Finally! Thank you, Sir! I won't let you down."
Before James could say any more Sir Topham Hatt continued.
"With Edward."
James was baffled. "But, but, but,"
"This Express train the two of you will be pulling is much longer than a normal train. Therefore, it needs two engines to pull. Plus, with all delays and piles of visitors held up at the station, the coaches are going to be very crowded."
"But I can assure you, Sir, I'm much more capable of pulling the Express by myself."
"Not this time, James. I want you and Edward to pull it for the rest of the day. We're a bit short on engines as it would appear. Not only do we need to pile all the Express coaches together now, we also need engines who don't have jobs yet and who aren't flying off the tracks to stay busy."
"Edward loves shunting trucks. Why not have him work in the shunting yards again? Since Molly got into a crash, you'll need to find another engine to get that job done, right?"
"I've already given Edward this task, James. He's out fetching the coaches now as we speak."
James groaned in annoyance.
He didn't want any help pulling the Express. He wanted to pull it himself so that everyone could see what a bright and shiny red engine he is. Instead, he has to pull it with Edward, who will more than likely take the front while James would be coupled up from behind. Suddenly, James felt something bump into him. It was Edward, parking five Express coaches behind his tender. Edward noticed the engine was James and smiled. Then he chuffed back to get the rest of the coaches.
"Please, James,” Sir Topham Hatt issued. “With all the recent accidents and Thomas gone missing, there aren't enough engines I can get a hold of to switch around even more jobs."
"Wait, Thomas is missing?" James asked.
"Yes. He was supposed to take the Flying Kipper with Percy last night but he never showed up. Percy brought Duck instead and told me the reason Thomas wasn't there was because he's helping Toby. But even so, he wasn't at Tidmouth Sheds this morning and I haven't seen him all day."
"Hmm. I've noticed that to," James pondered. "Where has that silly tank engine gone to?"
"Hopefully somewhere safe for the time being. I'll have to send out a search party for him later. We're too busy as it is with all of the commotion and we can't afford to put business on hold until things start to slow down a little."
"I wouldn't worry too much about it, Sir. I'm sure he'll show up at Tidmouth Sheds by tonight."
Sir Topham Hatt sighed. "I hope so too, James, for his sake. I'm just, worried something bad might have happened to him."
"You mean like, getting derailed?"
"I wouldn't be surprised at this point. Until then, every single one of you will need to pull their weight if we’re to continue keeping this railway running smoothly and right on time."
While they were talking, Edward shunted five more Express coaches behind James then chuffed back to get positioned in front of the train. Upon arriving, Edward backed up in front of James and shunts himself onto him. The two engines were coupled up and ready to go. Sir Topham Hatt turned to Edward.
"Now be careful, you two. Engines have been going off the rails as of late and I wouldn't want either of you ending up in that same predicament."
"We will, Sir," Edward said.
"Very good. Have a safe trip," he smiled while tipping his top hat.
Sir Topham Hatt walked away while waving at the two engines. James and Edward waited for their passengers to board their coaches. The Express train being pulled today extend out to ten coaches, which meant when arriving at a smaller station, they’ll have to move a head a little so that passengers seated in the back coaches can get off. This was going to be a long trip, but James and Edward were both ready to do their Job; more so Edward enthusiastically than James was.
"Why are you always so eager being given a two-engine job, Edward?" James asked. "Don't you think it would be much better if it was just one engine, specifically me for example, taking the Express?"
"That's Impossible, James. I could never pull that many coaches on my own, and I don't think you could either. Besides, it's much better with two engines. It gets the job done more efficiently."
"Well, if I wasn't stuck with you, I could be sailing down the line right now with everyone admiring my shiny red paint."
"They can still see your paint, James," Edward said, irritably.
"Yes, but when they see me at the station, they should see only me and not another engine blocking my view. I work really hard to look presentable so that others can see how splendid I am. Now no one will see my shiny red paint in its glory. They deserve nothing but the best of me, which is every visible spot of red."
"You know, James, I think you need to work on being a little more generous. There's more to giving back than just showing off how splendid you are. You and Gordon should realize there's no shame in helping others and giving back by working hard. That's why we do the work that we do; to make sure our passengers are happy."
James just sulked. At last, all the passengers were seated in their coaches. The conductor blew his whistle, and the two engines took off with the Express.
It was a difficult start at first. They had to pull ten Express coaches filled with tons of passengers. They pulled and chuffed, putting all of their strength into getting the Express out of Knapford. When at last they gathered enough momentum, pulling the Express became a lot easier as James and Edward puffed down the mainline while keeping at a good speed.
They stopped at their first station. The two engines chuffed in carefully so as to not over shoot the platform and applied their brakes at just the right moment.
"Heeerrress James!"
"Heeerrress Edward!"
After a second of silence, the two engines chuckled as passengers got off and on the train.
"Hey, that's my line, Edward," James said.
Edward chuckled. "Sorry. I couldn't help it."
The engines looked over to one of the passengers examining them in an admirable gaze. People pointed and murmured among each other at how grand the two engines looked side by side.
"See, James,” Edward said. “They still like you even when you're helping other engines."
A small child pointed at James. "This red engine isn't strong enough to carry all those coaches. He needed an old engine to carry it for him!"
The child laughed and pointed some more. James looked over to Edward both annoyed and insulted. All Edward did was shoot him a sheepish smile, also feeling a little insulted by the child's comments.
Once they were done with the first station, the two engines carried on becoming much better at pulling the long Express train out of the station. They rode down the mainline with ease stopping at different stations after different stations. They were nearly done their job as they had one more stop to go. They reached the final station and dropped off the last wave of passengers. Edward and James were proud to have finished their job on time. But it wasn't done just yet.
Now the two had to get ready to pull the Express back to Knapford. Edward shunted the coaches over onto the other side of the track facing the opposite direction and James backed up into the coaches. Edward soon followed after as he backed up into James and coupled up to him. Passengers piled in one by one, filling up every seat the coaches had. When the guard blew his whistle, the engines set off once again swiftly pulling the Express. They stopped at every station previous right on time to drop off all the remaining passengers for the day. James was starting to enjoy himself. He'd prefer if it was just him pulling the Express but still had fun pulling coaches again regardless. Edward took note of this as the two engines agreed that they were having a wonderful time taking such an important train.
"I told you working together is better than doing everything alone," Edward said. "All it takes is a little bit of teamwork to really bring out the best in us."
James didn't want to admit that Edward may be right and continued tugging the Express with all his might.
The two engines were almost at Knapford. On the way, they came across a signal light further on down the track. It was indicating on coming engines to stop as the points from a y junction were switched on and led into a forestry area. James and Edward would have to stop and wait for the man in the signal house to switch the points so they can continue down the Mainline.
But then there was trouble. As they were coming up to the crossing, Edward began feeling a bit dizzy. His vision started fogging up and he was having trouble keeping his eyes awake. He could barely see what was in front of him, nor could he hear the sound of his own wheels puffing down the tracks. James noticed something off about Edward as well. The bright blue paint on the back of his tender started turning a dark shade of blue as it slowly spread all through out the rest of his tender. James was confused and wondered what was going on as he watched his friend become consumed in this dark shadow. He started to worry the more the dark shading began chipping away some of his paint work as well as the number two emblem on both sides of his tender.
There was worse to come. James looked over and saw the signal coming into view knowing that he and Edward had to stop. James panicked and tried to apply his brakes as hard as he could. They were slowing down only a smidge, but he couldn't stop Edward from moving at all. Edward wasn't applying his brakes, he kept on charging towards the switched crossings while dragging James and the passengers along behind him. James was afraid. His wheels screeched against the tracks causing a storm of sparks to fly off, putting in every ounce of strength into his brakes. There was no way of initiating any impediment for Edward. They were about to be in a serious accident if they don't stop the train on time; and Edward was showing no sign of slowing down.
"Edward, Stop! The Signal!" James yelled trying to warn him.
But he didn't listen. The only thing that can be heard was faint sounds of his surroundings as Edward was nearly close to blacking out completely from the pain slithering all through the tip of his funnel, to his almost decimated tender.
A distressed James yelled for Edward to put his brakes on too little success. The coupling on Edward connected to James was rotting away into rust when suddenly it broke off from his. Edward was still puffing uncontrollably as James finally slowed down to a halt. He yelled at Edward to stop but he kept on going, getting closer and closer to the points.
Miraculously, the dark shading on Edward's tender finally began to vanish. His number two emblem was repaired and his bright blue paint returned back to normal. Edward regained consciousness again when the pain he was feeling seconds ago was lifted and returned him back to a more self-aware state.
"Edward, look out!" James yelled.
Edward immediately realized what was happening and quickly applied his brakes. He puts in all that he could into his brakes hoping to stop before hitting the switched tracks, but it was too late.
Edward ran into the switches which sent him bouncing up on impact until he drove off the tracks. Slamming back on the ground with a violent quake, he slid straight across the grassy land and rammed into a nearby tree, knocking it off it’s truck with a loud crash and onto the ground just inches away from hitting Edward, who sighed with relief after the tree landed next to him. Luckily nobody was hurt. Edward thankfully remained up right but was still off the line with his wheels covered in damp grass and earth.
James called out and tried puffing towards Edward, but it was much too strenuous to move the heavy load of coaches still attached to his tender. He pulled and he pulled. His wheels screeched against the track but the coaches kept holding him back, making it difficult to move ahead at a normal speed. James couldn't believe he wasn't strong enough to carry the coaches, but he refused to give up. Slowly but surly, James was able to tug at the coaches but couldn't move at a normal enough speed to were he would already be near Edward by a certain point. Panting heavily, James struggled greatly while chuffing close enough to where a derailed Edward stood from the track and leaning up against the tree he knocked down. Edward could hear James fighting to pull the coaches forward and frowned upon hearing him giving up half way through.
James was all out of breath the moment Edward came into view and stopped in his place. Both engines were stuck where they were. None of them were going anywhere for a while.
To Be Continued.