Duck and Apple Bloom puffed sadly down the line, and at last arrived at Wellsworth, where Edward was sitting in the bay platform. Applejack had got off the footplate and was having a rest when she saw Duck arrive. "Well, howdy Duck!" she called. "Fancy seein' you here! How are thin's?"
Duck looked sad. "Diesel has been telling lies about us, and made the other engines and Sir Toppham Hatt think we're horrid."
Apple Bloom got onto the platform and stepped nervously toward her sister, who gestured for her to sit on the bench. "Sis," she stammered, "Ah-Ah can explain-"
"There's nothin' to explain," Applejack replied, putting her arm around her. "Yer the victim of a frame job. And when Ah find out who did it, oh boy are they gonna regret messin' with us Apples."
Edward joined in. "I know you both well enough that you wouldn't do such a thing. So does Sir Toppham Hatt, I am certain of that fact. Things will go back to normal eventually, just you wait and see. In the meantime, do you want to help me with these trucks?"
Duck and Apple Bloom enjoyed working with Edward. They would couple to the back of the train going up the hill, and then would help to propel the heavy goods trains up to the top of Gordon's Hill. Then, they would be uncoupled, and run back down the hill to Wellsworth to await another train that needed to go up the hill. Then the procedure would repeat itself, multiple times a day, until the last train went through and all fell silent.
The trucks were rude, silly, and noisy, but to be honest this was not much of a change from the usual. Both engines and their drivers had to work very hard in order to get the trains up the hill to the very top. Eventually, the top was reached, and the points were thrown. Apple Bloom released the brakes on Duck, and they rolled gently over the points to the Up line. They both enjoyed the run down, coasting along, with the wind blowing gently through Apple Bloom's hair and the run being fairly easy. They were almost to the bottom of the slope when suddenly, a frantic whistle could be heard nearby.
It was the whistle of the guard of the goods train they had just banked up the hill. The trucks had broken away from the rest of the train, and were now racing back down the hill towards them. "Hurrah, hurrah!" the called, laughing. "We've broken away! We've broken away!" As they screamed down the hill, one of them worked the others up into a frenzy. "Chase them! Bump them! THROW THEM OFF THE RAILS!"
The sound of clattering wagons and laughing trucks was terrifying, as they continued to race towards them at high speed. Apple Bloom looked back, and saw the brake van of the train getting closer, and closer, AND CLOSER. "Hurry, Duck, hurry!" she cried, and jammed the regulator wide open. Duck flew through the station, with the trucks following just seconds later. They got closer and closer.
"As fast as we can; then they'll catch us gradually!" Duck cried. A few seconds later, the trucks collided with his rear bufferbeam with a bang, causing him to surge forward and gain speed briefly. He was flying along, with out of control trucks, at speeds of up to 50 miles an hour! But Apple Bloom was gaining control of the runaway train. With incredible precision, she applied the brakes. At last, the speedometer began to go down, the needle getting closer and closer to zero.
"Another clear mile and we'll do it!" Apple Bloom called. They had reduced speed to 30 miles an hour when she looked ahead, and yelled in fright.
"Ah glory, look at that!" she yelled. Ahead of them, sitting in the platform, was a passenger train that hadn't been cleared to depart. If it didn't move off soon, there would be a crash! "It's up ta you now, Duck!" Apple Bloom yelled. "At the very least, make sure we don't hit that train!"
Duck put every ounce of steam and power he had into combating the momentum of the trucks. The brake blocks screeched and his wheels thundered round and round in reverse as he tried to slow the trucks down. As he roared past the red signal, the AWS siren sounded in the cab, and he closed in on the brake coach of the passenger train in front. But they wouldn't stop in time. "It's too late!" he cried, and shut his eyes. But suddenly, he felt himself swerving to the left! Upon reopening them, he discovered that he had been turned off onto a siding nearby, out of the way of the passenger train, which was continuing onwards as if nothing had happened. But worse was yet to come. Up ahead was a barber's shop, positioned right at the end of the siding just across the road. "JUMP!" he shouted to Apple Bloom.
She needed absolutely no prompting, and bailed from the cab, rolling onto the ground with a bang as the pannier tank flew away from her, and crashed through the buffers at the end of the siding. He went into the wall of the barber's shop... and through it... and finally came to a stop, then and there.
It was quite a mess, broken bits of wall and wood lying everywhere. But the trucks didn't care. They were very pleased with themselves, laughing in their silly way.
"Beg pardon sir," Duck said, looking very embarrased. "Excuse my intrusion-"
"No! I won't!" the barber boomed, and grabbed his shaving cream. "You've scared my customers! I'll show you!" and he lathered Duck's face all over. Then Apple Bloom entered.
"What in the?" she asked. "Duck, are ya OK?"
"Who are you?" the barber asked. "Shouldn't you be in school?"
"She's called Apple Bloom, and she's my driver," Duck explained. "And, apart from this cream, I feel fine."
Thomas and Twilight arrived to clean up the mess, and brought Sir Toppham Hatt with them. He stepped inside the ruined barber shop, and laughed at the sight in front of him. "I've seen many strange things, but an engine being shaved certainly takes the cake!" he smiled.
"I do not like engines popping through my walls!" the barber fumed.
"Then why did ya build yer shop next to the railroad tracks?" Apple Bloom asked, not unreasonably.
"I appreciate that you are upset," said Sir Toppham Hatt, "but you must understand that this engine, and his driver, have both prevented a serious crash out on the mainline. I would not want a repeat of Quintinshill on my railway, after all. You could say it was... a close shave?"
Apple Bloom and Duck both groaned at the dreadful pun.
"Ah!" said the barber, who filled a basin of water, and delicately removed the shaving cream from Duck's face. "I am sorry, you two. I didn't know you were being a brave engine."
"That's alright sir," Duck replied, as he was hauled out of the structure, which continued to fall apart. "I didn't know I was being brave either."
"Neither did Ah," Apple Bloom added. "Why does trouble always follow me around?"
"You were both very brave," Sir Toppham Hatt assured them. "And when Duck is cleaned and fixed, both of you are going straight back home, to the yard."
Apple Bloom's face fell. "But they hate us," she said sadly.
"Indeed," Duck said sadly. "They don't like me and Apple Bloom. They like Diesel, and that dratted Silver Spoon."
"Not anymore," Sir Toppham Hatt said. "I never believed either of them, and they then tried to tell lies and pin in on Henry. But we caught them them red handed, and sent both of them back to the mainland. That's where they are now, at Bounds Green depot. The other engines and their drivers are very sorry, and want to apologise for how they behaved."
And when they returned home, so rousing was the chorus of whistles and cheers, that you had absolutely no doubt that they adored Duck the Great Western Engine, and his driver, Apple Bloom.