//------------------------------//
// Some Help Please? 
// Story: Thomas, Twilight, and the Magic Railway 
// by The Blue EM2 
//------------------------------//

On a road somewhere on Sodor, Cozy Glow brought George to a stop next to a pub. She set his gearing to hold him in position and hopped off the footplate. "I just need to make a quick phone call," she said, and headed indoors. So George was left sitting there all alone, with nobody to help him.

Suddenly, Storm King appeared from nowhere, jumped onto his footplate, released the controls and opened his regulator. George began to steam off down the road, utterly helpless to stop himself. "Help! Help! I'm being stolen!" he cried.

"You'll never need to bother about that little brat again!" Storm King laughed. "Where you're going, you'll be very useful indeed."

As George steamed helplessly into the distance, Cozy Glow heard the commotion and ran outside to see her steamroller rolling off without her. "GET BACK HERE, THIEF!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. But Storm King just ignored her. Going back to her phone, she dialled 999. "Hello? Police? I'd like to report a stolen vehicle. Yes, a steamroller- stop laughing!- has been taken. It's dark green, with red lining and gold bands on the boiler cladding. You will! Thanks." She ended the call, and put the phone down, her face seething with rage. "Nobody takes MY steamroller and gets away with it."





After a very slow drive to some sidings (as George could only travel at a maximum speed of 8 miles per hour), Storm King brought him to a stop. Diesel 10 was already waiting for him, as were Splatter and Dodge, grinning at the steamroller, who looked horribly awkward.

"I got the goods!" Storm King called triumphantly.

"Excellent," Diesel 10 smiled. "Now then, George, I assume you know why you are here?"

"Because I was stolen and driven down the roads at speeds far faster than I was meant to!" the steamroller snapped back.

"Apart from the obvious," Splatter chimed in.

"What's obvious?" Dodge asked.

"That George was stolen and driven here," Suri explained to him. "That's why it's obvious."

"Oh, right," Coco answered. "Now it makes sense."

"WHERE'S MY COFFEE?!"

Diesel 10 sighed. "Ignore them; they're idiots. I know you dislike railways and steam engines, and so do we. Trains need buffers in order to stop and not crash, so if you destroy the buffers, the steam engines will crash. Once they are all gone, we'll rebuild the buffers, and take this railway for our own."

"What good will that do?" George asked. "They'll just build new ones."

"There's a new woman on the railway, a temporary controller," Storm King explained. "She has a special power that allows her to teleport between this world and a place on the mainland via a set of buffers. So all we need to do is destroy all the buffers on the island, and then she won't be able to escape, and I can get right of her once and for all." He jumped onto George's footplate, swung his roller to the right, and opened the regulator. "Let's get started!"

George closed his eyes as he rumbled out of the parking lot, over the track, and smashed into a pair of buffers on a siding, completely smashing them to matchwood.

"Well, that's one down!" Dodge called.

"And now, I'm stuck," George grumbled. And he was.





Elsewhere, Autumn had finally come back into phone reception, and dialled a number as she did so. "Hello? I'm trying to get through to Nottingham. Hello Mr Flam! Have you seen her anywhere? You have? Excellent! I'll call her now!" She hung up, dialled another number, and listened as it began to ring. "Please pick up. If I know her, she'll be preoccupied..."





A little way down the Great Central Railway (Nottingham) there is a tunnel. This is an enclosed space on a steep gradient, which makes it especially fun when the railway is operating steam locomotives. They have to work very hard to get their coaches back up the slope, and the resulting din and smoke produced is a remarkable sight indeed. Today, the line's resident 8F was pushing its coaches back up the gradient (the line having no turntable or runround loop at the Loughborough end). As it reversed through the tunnel, it was now possible to observe a figure standing by the side of the tunnel. This figure was a girl with yellow skin and dark blue eyes, with a pair of purple glasses sat atop them. She had blue hair of multiple coloured strands that was almost green in places, and currently had her hair done up in pigtails, held in place by bands designed to look like projector reel holders. She wore purple shoes, white socks with what looked like cherries hanging off them, a black skirt with purple dots on the bottom (don't ask me why). a light blue blouse with a white collar, and a purple jacket. Her name was Juliet Monroe, or Juniper Montage as she was often referred to (again, don't ask me why). She currently had a camera in her hand, and set it to record just as the engine thundered past, steam erupting into the air just as the engine emerged from the tunnel, producing a thunderous display of smoke and steam.

"Yes!" she cried, pumping her fist. "Perfect!"

Her jubilation was interrupted when her phone went off. Groaning, she went and answered it, to see it was Autumn. "However this is, know you just ruined a perfect shot."

"Where are you?" Autumn asked at the other end.

"I'm just north of the tunnel," Juniper replied. "Why?"

"I need you to get to Sodor as soon as you can. My supply is running out, the gold dust seems to be running out, and the number of sentient machines here relative to the number we used to see tells me we are in serious danger."

"I don't have any gold dust on me!" Juniper answered.

"Then use the buffers. Remember to go to the station building first and tell the Flim Flam brothers that you won't be around for a bit." Then the line went dead.

Juniper rolled her eyes. "Why do I always end up cleaning up Autumn's mess?" So she walked up the line towards Rushcliffe Halt, hoping to join the train there.





Sunset looked out of the window and saw the train enter a large tunnel. Just then, an announcement started over the train intercom. "Good afternoon passengers, and once again welcome onboard the 10:30 to Sheffield. We are now passing through Nottingham, where this train does not stop. Please do not attempt to alight from this service. Once again, thank you for travelling with East Midlands Trains."

"What?" Sunset cried, and looked out of the window. "Oh no! I got on the wrong train!" She watched helplessly as the platform vanished away, and she was whisked further north.

On the platform, a woman quickly grabbed her phone. "Hello?" she asked. "Oh, Hi Somny. Mah daughter got on the wrong train and just passed through. Could ya go ta Sheffield station and ensure she gets on the right one back? Thanks. Ah'll be here."





Thomas and the other engines were currently having an indignation meeting, or an indigestion meeting, depending on whether Percy was capable of spelling today. Gordon started the conversation. "So, what do we all intend to do? Autumn Blaze is nowhere to be seen."

"Last I saw," Thomas replied, "she was having a phone call."

"Diesel 10 wants to destroy us!" James cried.

Edward, who hadn't said a word up to this point, spoke up. "And I fear that, if we don't work together, he may destroy us all."

"So we band together, same as we always have," Thomas replied.

"But what if Diesel 10 tries to drive us apart, like that Class 08 did with Apple Bloom and Duck?" Henry asked.

"Please don't bring that scoundrel into our conversation," Percy asked. "The situation is bad enough as it is."

Thomas then suddenly sneezed, very violently. "AH- CHOO!"

James shut his eyes. "Say it, don't spray it, Thomas!"

Toby cast him a glare as Twilight got onto Thomas' footplate. "I need to go now," he said. "Autumn Blaze needs our help. I dropped her off at Kellsthorpe road, and with any luck she'll still be there. Goodbye!" Blowing steam from his cylinders, he reversed out of the yard and got on his way.

Henry looked over. "What's wrong with mentioning diesel?" he asked, confused.

The other drivers came over and boarded their engines. "It's because that diesel was so nasty ta us, and further more him and his driver tried ta pin it on mah own family," Applejack explained, as she released Edward's brakes. "And Ah hope that nasty ol' diesel and his troublemaker friends ain't causin' havoc fer the rest of us."





Storm King brought George to a stop on the Crovan's Gate road, and pivoted his wheel to the left just as Sir Handel re-entered the yard for the Skarloey Railway. The steamroller rolled up alongside the tank engine, who glanced up at him. "Oh, hello," Sir Handel said. "What are you doing here?"

"You puffballs need to get out of the way," Storm King said menacingly. "I have a plan, and you won't stop it."

Gallus smirked. "Still smarting over the fact we beat you in that race?" he asked.

"You lot are such annoying brats," Storm King snarled, and he pulled open George's regulator.

Nothing happened. Then there was a loud clunk, and Ocellus appeared from underneath George.

"I removed the drive link," she explained. "Cozy Glow phoned ahead to warn me of a stolen steamroller, and I planned accordingly."

Storm King looked enraged as Suri and Coco appeared. He jumped off the footplate and began shouting. "Get these idiots! They have something of mine!"

Suri charged after Ocellus, who fortunately had quick reflexes. "Here, Smoulder, catch!" she called. She threw the link through the air, and it landed in Smoulder's hands, which was doubly impressive as she was driving Duncan at the same time.

"Good catch!" called Skarloey.

Storm King ran after Duncan, who abruptly stopped, reversed, and then stopped again. The link was thrown through the air, only this time to land in a truck being shunted by Rusty.

So Suri went after Rusty, only for Sandbar to gun the engine forward. At the same time, Yona and Rheneas were just returning from a goods run, and shunted their stock right into Suri's path."Oh no you don't!" the Welsh engine smiled.

"Such infuriating little scamps, aren't they?" Storm King snarled. "Coco, go get that link from the coffee pot!"

Sandbar then threw the link over to Ocellus, who had taken Skarloey's controls, and the tank engine backed up into the shed. As Coco ran in, she suddenly ran back out, yelling in fright. And who should emerge from the shed but-

Duke. He rolled out of the shed, hissing steam and looking very cross. "You impertinent young scallywags," he scolded. "Leave my friends alone."

Storm King stalked over to him. "Somebody should have scrapped you long ago, Grandpuff," he said, and went to kick the old engine.

But before he could do so, he was suddenly caught up by a passing slate wagon being propelled by Peter Sam. "I have to say," the tank engine smiled, "I am enjoying this game of pass the parcel."

"THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!" Silverstream cried. "But what's that? You want a cold bath? Sure!" Just then, the door of the slate wagon opened, and Storm King was deposited into a water trough.

He stood up, shaking his fist. "This isn't the last you'll see of me!" he shouted, and he retreated into the forest alongside Suri and Coco.

Ocellus got out of Skarloey's cab, and reattached the drive link to George. This was just as Cozy Glow arrived, who was huffing and puffing and looked ready to blow a house down. "He thinks he can just steal my steamroller?" she screeched. "Wait until I give him a piece of my mind!"

"Storm King has a plan," Smoulder quickly explained, "but we don't know what that is. I'm willing to put our old animosity aside for the sake of saving the Island. What do you say?"

Cozy smiled. "I'm in."





Sunset got off her train at Sheffield, several hundred miles north of where she wanted to be. Sighing, she stepped onto the platform and got her bag, to be greeted by a woman with salmon coloured skin with dark blue hair, purple eyes, and dressed in (mostly) white. "Hi, Meadowbrook called ahead about you," she said. "You need to catch the train back to Nottingham."

"Or I could just go back to London and forget about this entire thing!" Sunset snapped. "I never wanted to come to this dump anyway."

There were a number of angry looks from passers by, who disliked the idea of somebody calling Yorkshire a 'dump'. 

Somnambula sighed. "I'll be accompanying you on the train, to ensure you don't try something like that." And they went over to the ticket booth without so much as an argument.





A couple of hours after that, Sunset somehow found herself at Ruddington Fields (forever). As she walked up the platform, Caramel ran up to On Time.

"Sir!" he called. "Ah saw the stranger! He was doin' somethin' near the buffers!"

"Which is where those black lines on the map go to," On Time sighed. "I'm convinced of it now; he's trying to find Lady."

Glancing in the direction of the buffers, they could see a shimmer of light continuing on from the buffers, as if a railway line continued (which it once had). After a moment or two, the two went their own ways.

Meanwhile, inside the station building, Sunset looked even more confused. "How on Earth did I end up here?" she asked. "Am I just cursed to get on the wrong train perpetually?"

She jumped as a door burst open, and Juniper suddenly appeared. "Hello!" she said. "I'm Juniper Montage! Who are you?"

"Erm, I'm Sunset," Sunset replied, and extended her hand. "Sunset Shimmer."

"Nice to meet you, but I gotta go, bye!" Juniper vanished out of the door and headed off down the platform.

On Time then entered again. "Hello," he said. "Are you Sombra and Meadowbrook's daughter?"

"Yeah," Sunset replied. "Why?"

"He's very worried about you," On Time said. "I've got a few minutes until my next train goes out, so I can walk you over to his shed."

"He lives in a shed?"

"He spends most of his time working there, on an old engine. Come, let us go."