//------------------------------//
// Bulgy 
// Story: Thomas and Friends: The Retold Adventures 
// by The Blue EM2 
//------------------------------//

It was Bank Holiday weekend on the Island of Sodor, and the people of the Island and nearby England were taking the opportunity to have a nice short getaway. Practically every form of vehicle that could move had been pressed into service to move the boatloads of passengers who had arrived on the Island, and one morning Duck sat at Tidmouth station, waiting to depart for Arlesburgh West. The signal was red, and Stepney wasn't due in for another few minutes, so he took the opportunity to look about the yard and see what he could see.

Suddenly, on his left, a big double decker bus appeared. He was painted red and cream, and he didn't look friendly like Bertie. Instead, he had a great big scowl on his face, and was covered in posters reading FREE THE ROADS. He glared at the passengers, and his engine growled and roared as he saw them boarding Duck's train.

"Stupid nonsense, eh Gilda?" he said. "I wouldn't have brought them if I'd known they were going to have a right on a steam train. I'd have broken down on the way, or something."

"And I could be in bed," said his driver, a woman with brownish skin and white hair, combined with piercing green eyes, a blue shirt, a black leather jacket, blue jeans and a pair of yellow boots. "It would have been a nice way to spend a Monday instead of sitting in this heat!"

"It's hotter in here!" Apple Bloom shouted over to her. "Y'all just try bein' on the footplate of a steam engine fer a change!"

"It's a good thing you didn't break down, Mr..."

"Bulgy. The woman's called Georgia, or Gilda if you want to use her nickname."

"It's a good thing you didn't break down, Mr Bulgy," Duck went on. "You'd have ruined their fun otherwise!"

"Oh really?" Bulgy snorted. "One of these days, your silly railway will be ripped up and it will become a guided bus-way!"

Duck was horrified. "We have a friend called Bertie. He's a bus, but he likes the railway. He'd never want it ripped up! It'd mean his friends were gone, and we couldn't have that, could we?"

"Ah Bertie, the old slowpoke. He once ran himself silly chasing Edward along his branch line, and he's too slow and unpredictable to be of any use, unlike us diesel buses."

"Come on, time to go," Gilda said, as she put Bulgy into reverse. The bus drove off and Stepney rolled into the platform.

Duck was still fuming. "Beware that Bulgy!" he called to Stepney. "He's silly and the rudest vehicle I've ever met!"

"Even more rude than D199?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Even more rude!" Apple Bloom replied.



Duck warned Oliver about Bulgy, but Oliver took little notice of that. But later on, Oliver pulled into Arlesburgh West, and he looked furious.

"Look out!" Oliver called to Duck. "There's another bus just like Bulgy who's taking his passengers, so he can take ours!"

"We're not kidding," Scootaloo added. "He looks exactly the same, and the only way you can tell them apart is by the driver."

"But he can't take our passengers!" Duck said, horrified. "Besides, how long does it take by road? An hour at least. Does it, Apple Bloom?"

"Yep," his driver replied, sighing and huffing a bit. "We used ta have ta take the apples ta market by that road. Thankfully we don't anymore, thanks to this here railway."

"Bulgy claims to know a shortcut," Scootaloo said. "I'm calling fiddlesticks on that, there's no way a bus like him could find a way through."



Later that day still, at Arlesburgh West once more, Scootaloo oiled Oliver down for the return rush to Tidmouth as Duck was backed onto his coaches. But the platform, which they were expecting to be busy, was completely empty. "Where are the passengers?" asked Duck.

"Look!" Oliver called. "There he goes!"

Bulgy roared out of the parking lot. On his sides were the markings RAIL REPLACEMENT BUS. "Ya boo, snubs!" he cried as he sped down the road.

"He's nicking our passengers!" Duck shouted. "Honestly, the nerve of that bus!"

"Oh no he ain't," Apple Bloom said. "Let's go! We can beat him to Tidmouth!" With a roar and a puff of smoke, Duck thundered out of the station and into hot pursuit of the bus. The road and railway don't follow each other, so Duck had no idea of Bulgy's progress, but when he was halfway down the line he saw a man holding a red flag up ahead. Apple Bloom applied Duck's brakes, brought him to a stop, and walked over to the workman. "What's goin' on?" she asked.

"Bulgy attempted to go under this bridge. He's too tall for it, so he's stuck there!" the workman replied. "Rather like that Halford's van a few years back!"

"Is the bridge stable?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Only if you go over slowly."

Duck rolled his eyes. "So this was Bulgy's shortcut. No wonder he got stuck."

A passenger ran out, angry. "This stupid bus tricked us!" he shouted. "The driver wouldn't accept our return tickets and tried to make us think he was a railway bus! Can we catch the train instead!"

"Climb up the embankment and get onboard!" Duck replied. They did, and hopped into the coaches. Duck slowly, nervously, carefully rolled over the bridge. Bulgy shouted up.

"Watch it!" he shouted. "It may fall on me and Gilda!"

"Well, you shouldn't have tried to fit under a bridge that was too small for you, eh?" Duck replied. "It would probably have been worth it to 'go the extra mile?' Get it?"

Apple Bloom groaned at the dreadful pun. "Can we just get off this bridge and away from this bus?" she asked, annoyed.



Duck made it on time, and his passengers caught their connections. Bulgy never did go back into service; he was so badly damaged that passengers stopped trusting the bus company he belonged to, which went under. He is now in use as a henhouse, which is good for a serial liar. The hens never listen anyway!