//------------------------------//
// Thomas comes to Breakfast 
// Story: Thomas and Friends: The Retold Adventures 
// by The Blue EM2 
//------------------------------//

Thomas the Tank Engine- "WHEEEEEEEEESH!"

Sorry, what? Reset the scene and start over!

Thomas the Tank Engine and Twilight Sparkle have worked the Ffarquhar branchline for quite a long time now, and know it very well. They know each and every station, every level crossing, and where all the passing loops are. One day, Thomas ran into the platform with his train, and came to a stop at Knapford platform one very smoothly indeed, going past the signal box with the gigantic hole smashed in it by Douglas.

Twilight smiled as she got off the footplate. "You know just where to stop, Thomas!" she joked. "You could almost manage the entire run without me!"

Unfortunately, Thomas didn't realise that Twilight was joking. He thought she was one hundred percent serious on the matter, and whilst talking to the others, he brought it up, Twilight, Pinkie, and Flash having finished work for the day.

"You know what?" he said, casually to the others. "Twilight says I don't need her anymore. I know the route by myself."

"Thomas, that's ridiculous," Percy replied. "And Pinkie knows all about being ridiculous. An engine cannot physically move without their driver. Who would move all the controls, or adjust the injectors, or refill the sandboxes? Or even light the fire?"

"Firelighters," Toby told him. "I wouldn't go anywhere without Flash. I'd be frightened."

"Puh!" Thomas snorted, finding Toby's concern to be utterly ridiculous. "I'm not scared."

"Apart from the fact you could not move by yourself," Toby answered, "you'd never dare go without Twilight!"

"I would then!"

"You'd never dare!"

"I would!" Thomas said with finality. "Just you wait and see, Toby."



Thomas' first run of the day is at about 8 in the morning, so the firelighter came over to the shed at 4, as the sun was only just starting to rise. It would take a while for Thomas' fire to get up, and the blue tank engine simmered happily, albeit drowsily, as his boiler pressure slowly rose to operating levels. Percy and Toby were still asleep at the time, as they didn't start work until later in the day. Only then were their fires lit.

Thomas suddenly had an idea. "Silly stick in the muds!" he exclaimed. "I'll show them! Twilight did say I could manage without her, after all, and so I'll go out a short way, and then I'll stop and WHEEEESH!" He chuckled to himself. "That'll make them jump."

Thomas suddenly started moving forward. He thought he was being very clever, but in reality he was only moving because a careless cleaner had fiddled with the controls whilst cleaning, and had forgotten to put them back afterwards. He soon found out his mistake when he tried to 'wheeeesh', but he couldn't. He then tried to stop, but without Twilight on the footplate he couldn't stop either. He just kept rolling helplessly along, flying toward the sidings in Knapford yard. As he rolled onto one of the sidings, he suddenly was filled with horror.

At the end of the siding, across the road, was a house. And the siding had no buffers. He was going to crash into the house, which at this time in the day was no doubt occupied for breakfast!

"Horrors!" cried Thomas, and he shut his eyes. He fell off the end of the track, crushed the Flashing Rear End Device (FRED) totem on the end of the track, rolled straight across the road, and into the wall of the house. The house itself shook like thunder. The window had shattered when Thomas had collided with it, and plaster was falling everywhere. Thomas had accidently collected a piece of topiary on his travels, which sat on his lamp iron. But this wasn't what surprised him. Sitting inside the house was a man with light blue skin and dark blue hair, a woman with grey skin and purple and white hair, another man with white skin and blue hair, and... Twilight? "Fancy seeing you here!" Thomas said.

Twilight looked just as confused. "Thomas?" she asked. "You're a bit early. If you'd wanted to join us for breakfast you should have asked us!"

The man with blue skin stood up. "This won't do at all; there's a hole in my wall!"

"That's my dad," Twilight explained. "Night Light."

The woman then got up, picking up the plates. "You miserable engine. Just look what you've done to our breakfast!" she thundered at the blue tank engine. As she went out of the door, she looked back. "Now I shall have to go and cook some more!" With that, she slammed the door, and the house shook once again.

Night Light looked over. "I think we've got bigger worries than the breakfast!" he shouted.

"Sorry about her," Twilight said, as she went outdoors to shut off Thomas' regulator. "That's my mom, Twilight Velvet. Her real name's Tara Vere, and my dad's really called Nigel Liddon, but we use nicknames. It saves time. The other boy's my brother, Shining Armour."

Thomas didn't reply. He was very sad, so much so his eyes were slightly out of alignment, making him look similar to Derpy- sorry, I meant Muffins! Workmen soon came to stabilise the house, and rails were laid to the garden, putting Thomas on them. And then arrived Donald and Douglas. Lyra hopped off of Donald's footplate and ran some steel cable to Thomas, hooking him up. "I have to say," she said to Twilight, "this is a most novel way of remodelling your home."

Twilight sighed. "Can we please just get this tank engine out of my house?"

Donald overheard, and laughed. "Dinnae fash yerself, Thomas!" he laughed. "Don't ye worry noow, we'll soon have ye back on the rails!" And working hard, both engines pulled Thomas to safety without the house collapsing any further. A broken window frame, plaster, the piece of topiary which had once been the pride of the Sparkle's front garden, and glass all sat along Thomas' bufferbeam, which was badly bent. The twins left, but Twilight stayed with Thomas until Sir Toppham Hatt came.

"You," he said, " are a very naughty engine."

"It wasn't his fault," Twilight said. "The controls were in the open position and the brakes were left off. Somebody had meddled with them!"

"But was that person in your wall?" Sir Toppham Hatt asked. Not waiting for Twilight to finish, he went on speaking. "This will need work at Crovan's Gate, and it means we'll at least be able to eliminate that non standard front bufferbeam. In the meantime, however, I shall use a diesel to work the branch instead of you and Twilight."

"A diesel?" Thomas asked.

"WHAT?" Twilight exclaimed.

"Yes," Sir Toppham Hatt smiled. "Diesels always stay in their sheds, until they are wanted. They don't go gallivanting off to breakfast in people's houses." Little did Sir Toppham Hatt realise, he had no idea what he was letting himself in for...