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

Mavis is a diesel engine who works for the Ffarquhar Quarry company. She is a British Railways Class 04 diesel, with six wheels and a long bonnet under which her engine sits. She has her face mounted over the front radiator grill, and a tall cab in which her driver can stand protected from the elements. Her wheels are covered by sideplates, and her front and rear bufferbeams have cowcatchers fitted, giving her a somewhat similar sillhouette to Toby, if viewed through distorted lenses with a broken projector.

Her driver is a young girl, though for long time readers of this series that should hardly come as a surprise. She has pink skin and purple hair, interwoven with white streaks, and a pair of light blue eyes. A small tiara sits on the hair just above her ear, and she has purple earrings. Most days, she wears a black V neck shirt, a yellow long sleeved jacket that looks like it escaped from a glam group from the 1980s, a grey skirt, black cycle shorts underneath them (don't ask why, I have really no idea why), and a pair of yellow boots with black straps on the bottom (inlayed with more of the purple gems), and white heels and boot tops. Her name is Danielle Thompson, but is usually called Diamond Tiara after the object in her hair, and she is the daughter of Filthy Rich, or the driver of BoCo.

Both of them are young, and have their own ideas of how to do things. They would constantly rearrange the trucks, and move them in such a way as to confuse everybody. Not only that, it meant that Toby's trucks would end up in places far away from where he had left them, and this annoyed him greatly.

"Trucks," he said, "should be where you want them, when you want them. That's final!"

"Right," Mavis replied. "It's not as if you can't go and get them anyways."

Toby lost his patience. "I can't be bothered to play hunt the trucks with you nowadays," he snapped. "Take them yourself!"

Flash rolled his eyes. "You'd think kids would listen to the experienced ones, but apparently not."

Diamond Tiara laughed. "Sometimes new ideas are good."

"And sometimes new ideas just leave everything in an even bigger mess than they were before," Toby replied, as he steamed off.



A few days later, at the station where the main line joined the branch, Mavis sat there fuming when James came to a stop nearby. "Hello Mavis!" he said. "How are you today?"

"Toby is always complaining and says I cannot handle trucks!" Mavis replied. "I can, and I intend to prove it."

Rarity smiled. "Darlings, you can always achieve something as long as you put your mind to it and are sensible. And I must say Diamond, your fashion sense is simply dazzling."

"One of the benefits of having the wealthiest man on Sodor as my father," the girl replied, her face flush with pride.

"I once put my mind to getting rid of a diesel that was in our yard," James continued, "and I send him packing."

Mavis was interested in this, but didn't know that James was lying. It was Sir Toppham Hatt who had seen off the diesel, not James, and this was to cause trouble later on.



After the Ffarquhar quarry limits are left, the line runs across a local road, and then dips down into a very steep drop, before rising again to the normal level of track for the rest of the run. This section of track is called 'Discord's Dip', for reasons that will soon become clear apart from the fact that Discord built it. It is hard enough to work in the summer, but in winter it is covered in slush and ice, making it very slippery indeed.

Toby, being older and wiser, always waited before the dip before running into the quarry, as the guard went across and halted the traffic. Then Flash would ease him into the steep grade, using the weight of the trucks to push him down and then up the other side to safety. It is the only safe way to work this stretch of line, and Toby had warned Mavis of this. But Mavis had brushed him off. "I can manage!" she said. "I'm not an old fusspot like you!"

That day, the trucks were silly and tired after a long day at work, and were being noisy. Mavis rolled into the drop, up the other side, and then stopped in front of the crossing. The guard got out to halt the traffic, and Terence rolled to a stop as he saw Mavis positioned on the climb.

"You might want to get the chain out, Big Mac," he said. "We might have a tow to do."

"Eeyup."

The guard waved. "Alright Diamond, bring her over!"

Diamond smirked in the cab. "I love being right. I can stick this one right in Apple Bloom's face!"

Mavis was jubilant too. "That's one in the headlamp for old fusspot Toby!" she exclaimed, and began to move forward. Then stopped. She had stopped in the middle of the dip, and as a result the weight of the trucks held her in place and meant she could not moved. Her wheels spun and her engine roared as she tried to get them moving. "RRRagh! Move, you stupid things!"

Diamond covered the track with sand to try and improve grip, but it was no use, and Mavis just continued so slide helplessly on the hill. "Couldn't we just leave these here and come back for them?" Diamond suggested.

"And block the line? Never. Toby would always use that against me."

Big Mac sighed. "Ah think gettin' this mess cleared and movin' those trucks is more important than scorin' points against one another." He glared at Diamond. "And that's BEFORE	Ah brin' up what ya did ta Apple Bloom."

"What?" Diamond replied. "I only said I though Duck looked like a giant rolling apple!"



Toby sighed when he heard the news. "Well, I warned her," he said. "But she wouldn't listen."

"They're both young, Toby," Flash reminded him. "Besides, the trucks belong to you really. If she's discovered taking them down the line, then we're all in big trouble."

"I supposed we had better help them," Toby sighed, and off they went to the crossing. When they got there, a farmer was bellowing loudly at Mavis.

"I know exactly where to put your trucks!" he boomed. "You diesels are useless and incompetent!"

Diamond was furious. "Do you have any idea who I am?" she asked.

"Some stuck up brat who can't drive an engine to save her life, and only got her job through nepotism?" the farmer replied.

Diamond was shocked. "I'm suing you for slander!"

Toby coughed. "Well Mavis, I thought you could handle trucks without me, but clearly I was mistaken. Oh well, it can't be helped. We'll pull you out."

"Big Mac?" called Flash.

"Yeah?"

"Can you and Terance provide a bit of extra torque?"

"Eeyup!"



Toby was hooked up to Mavis, and Terance was hooked up to Toby. All three engines pulled on the grade as hard as they could. Toby's fire glowed white hot, and Flash began to spread blazing cinders on the track in order to melt the frozen snow. The area sounded to the puffing of a steam tram and the roar of diesel engines, until at last the mess was cleared out and moved.

"I imagine you'll manage now!" Toby smiled, and puffed away into the quarry. Mavis didn't answer, but that evening, she left the trucks and raced back home as fast as she could.