//------------------------------//
// Autumn Blaze's Busy Day 
// Story: Thomas and Friends: More Tales from Sodor 
// by The Blue EM2 
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It was yet another early morning on Sodor, and the engines at Tidmouth Sheds were being readied for duty. They expected a long day ahead of them.

"So, what will today bring, I wonder?" James asked, as Rarity opened his cylinder cocks.

"Hopefully an express train," Gordon said.

"It's not as if we pull anything else," Rainbow Dash replied.

"Apart from goods trains, and pipes, and chase down runaway engines, and go down the wrong line, or fall in a di-"

"PINKIE!" everybody else chorused.

Thomas glanced about. "I wonder where Sir Toppham Hatt is?" he wondered. "He's normally here by now."

"Maybe he's delayed," Twilight suggested.

"Or confused," Fluttershy whispered.

"Ah'd hate fer him ta be both," Applejack noted. "Normally, we're the ones causin' that."

Suddenly, there was a golden glow at the lineside. "Look at that!" exclaimed Henry. "The lineside is glowing!"

Suddenly, the glow grew brighter, and a familiar figure popped out the other side and landed on her feet. "And fell in love with this opera singer, and he wore a freaky half-mask thing, and he played the organ a lot and got all broody 'cause the  singer was in love with another dude, so he took her away on this underground gondola. I mean, who doesn't love musical theater?!"

"It's Autumn Blaze!" called Percy. "Hello Autumn!"

The engines all whistled a happy greeting.

"Hello guys!" Autumn Blaze replied, smiling. "You all have SO much fun to have today! You may be wondering where Sir Toppham Hatt is. Well, the last few days have taken a toll on him, and he's come down with something. So he asked me to look after you whilst he was indisposed. It'll be just like old times!"

"Do you have our jobs for us?" Rarity asked.

"Of course! Here are the manifests now."

Just then, a car pulled up outside the shed, and an old woman got out. She had white hair and wore a large brown hat. She also had a white suit on, paired with a pink coat. "Excuse me, but who are you?" she asked.

Autumn Blaze wheeled around and jogged over. "Hello ma'am!" she said. "I'm Autumn Blaze. I'm looking after the railway whilst your son recovers from his illness."

Edward blinked. "So this is Dowager Hatt," he said. "I thought the voice sounded familiar."

Dowager Hatt seemed unconvinced. "I find that very hard to believe," she said. "The railway of the Island has been run by a member of the Toppham Family since the 1970s uninterrupted, and I don't intend for that to change anytime soon."

"What about the narrow gauge railway, or the Arlesdale line?" Percy asked. "Neither of those are operated by the North Western."

Autumn Blaze was next to speak. "Besides, somebody has to run the railway! It can't be left to run by itself!"

"Then I shall run it myself!" Dowager Hatt exclaimed. "Besides, how hard can it be?"

"Famous last words," Murdoch grumbled.

"Besides, you don't know anything about running a railway!" Autumn Blaze protested.

"Considering the chaos that happened the last time you were in charge, neither do you," Dowager Hatt replied. "Take her away, boys!"

Suddenly, two men walked over, picked her up, and walked off with her. "Hey! What sort of a joke is this?"

Dowager Hatt had taken the manifest in the meantime, and took a look at it. "That's better. Now, let's get down to business."

"There aren't any huns around here," James quipped.

"No Germans?" Thomas offered.

"The politically incorrect habit of calling Germans 'huns' stems from a misreading of a German Bible," Twilight said, in full boffin mode. "Those traditionally have the words 'Gott mitt uns' on the front, which means 'God with us'. British soldiers, whose foreign language comprehension was generally very poor, misread 'uns' as 'huns'."

"Anyway," Dowager Hatt said. "Thomas, I need you to run to Brendam Docks to collect my hat."

Thomas was confused. "Why is an engine being sent to pick up a single hat? And why Brendam? Sure it would make more sense to send Edward there, as that's his branchline!"

Dowager Hatt blinked. "OK." She pointed to Murdoch. "What's your name?"

"Murdoch, ma'am."

"Michael, you can do Thomas' work whilst he collects my hat."

"What?" Murdoch asked. "All due respect, but I'm a heavy freight engine. I'm not designed to work stopping passenger trains. I lack steam heating, for one, and my tractive effort would probably damage Annie and Clarabel."

"Don't worry, we'll find another engine to do your work. I'm off to Knapford, where I'll be able to manage things more efficiently." Dowager Hatt walked to her car and drove off.

Vinyl spoke up for the first time that morning. "Well, today's gonna be a disaster."

"Looks like I'm off to collect a hat," Thomas sighed.

"Guys!" said a voice, and Autumn Blaze reappeared around the corner. "We merely have to give Dowager Hatt the illusion that she's in charge, and we can do all our normal work on top of the silly jobs she assigns." She handed out all the job lists again, and waved to them. "Good luck! I'm off to Knapford."



At Knapford, Dowager Hatt had just finished setting up her desk when Murdoch arrived with Annie and Clarabel. "Why are you pulling us?" Annie asked. "Where is Thomas?"

"Sorry girls, but I'm going to be pulling you two as far as Knapford Junction today," Murdoch said. "Dowager Hatt's made a few... alterations."

"That's one way of putting it," Rainbow Dash said, as Gordon came to a stop. "Where are the coaches? The yard pilot is supposed to have them ready."

"Ah, there you are Geoffrey!" Dowager Hatt exclaimed.

"Who's Geoffrey?" Gordon asked. "I'm Gordon!"

"Seeing as Millicent-"

"Murdoch!"

"-is tied up at the moment, I need you to work his freight train."

"I beg your pardon?" Gordon asked. "I'm an express engine! Different engines can do different jobs differently."

Dowager Hatt, who was holding a buttered scone in her hand, put it down on a table. "Goodness me!" she exclaimed. "You wouldn't speak like that to my son, would you?"

"No, but you're not your son, are you?" Gordon asked, rhetorically.

"I think he would be very cross to learn you were rude to his sweet old mother, don't you Rapunzel?"

"It's Rayne," Rainbow Dash growled through gritted teeth, doing all in her power to avoid yelling at this woman.

"Right then Gavin, off you go!"

Gordon sighed as he rolled away. "Oh, the indignity."

"I'll see you at Knapford Junction!" called Murdoch.

"Hopefully she'll have stopped getting our names wrong by then," Vinyl grumbled.

For the rest of the morning, the engines engaged in an increasingly ludicrous game of pass the parcel, swapping trains at various points to ensure two sets of instructions got done. Unfortunately, the situations got even more silly.

Whilst resting in the yard, James decided to vent his frustration to Henry whilst both were waiting for more work. Edward rolling past with a cake finally got him to snap. "This is absurd!" he said. "Delivering balloons, dropping off cakes, moving hats! This is not what a railway is for, and I have no idea whether I'm coming or going."

"Indeed," said Henry. "We're stuck here, and can't go and do our proper job until she's assigned us a silly one."

Fluttershy looked over. "I don't she'll be done with the flower beds any time soon."

Luckily, help was on the way, Autumn Blaze deciding to emerge from the shadows and deal with the situation. "Dowager Hatt?" she said. "I really must protest. This place is a mess!"

"Oh, nonsense," Dowager Hatt replied dismissively. "The railway is running normally."

"But nobody is doing the work they need to do, and engines have been allocated to the wrong work!" Autumn Blaze explained. "Murdoch was working a stopping passenger, Gordon was taking his goods train, Thomas is off collecting a hat of all things, and you allocated Donald to the Express, which is now stuck on Gordon's Hill."

"That's funny," Dowager Hatt said. "He seemed so willing."

Autumn Blaze looked like she was going to blow her lid. "Would you excuse me just one moment?" she asked. She vanished around the back of the newsagents, and there was a brief blast of fire and a scream of rage. Then she popped back out. "Ah! Nothing like a quick blast of nirik to calm one down."

Dowager Hatt blinked. "Oh no," she said. "I've made such a mess of running the railway. I'm so sorry, Autumn. I should have listened to you, but my pride overruled any sense I had. And Bertram will be so cross!"

"Don't worry," Autumn Blaze replied. "I'll help you out. Sometimes it has to rain to let the sun shine through."

And so, they got everything back to normal. When Sir Toppham Hatt arrived that evening, looking very well indeed, he was surprised at how well everything was running. "Autumn Blaze did a smashing job!" he said.

"Well sir," Autumn said, "I can't take all the credit. Some of it must go to Dowager Hatt. She was very helpful."

Just then, Thomas arrived. "Sorry this hat is so late!" he said.

Sir Toppham Hatt looked confused. "Eh?"

"Just a slight technical hitch!" Autumn Blaze explained quickly. And all was well on Sodor.