The citizens of Swanage love the Halloween market. Every year in the week building up to Halloween, a small market is held in the car park at Swanage station, and local businesses turn out to exhibit and sell local produce and wares that are connected to this spookiest of holidays. All sorts of things appear there, which is perhaps fitting for a holiday which celebrates the spooky and silly.
And this year was proving to be especially spectacular. The local blacksmith was exhibiting a collection of cauldrons she had made. Another vendor was showcasing special chemical mixtures he had made that produced spectacular eruptions, not unlike a volcano. Another was showcasing weird mirrors of the sort you'd find in a fairground funhouse.
One evening, Sunny and her friends were visiting the Halloween market. They had completed their tasks for the day, and now had some down time before they needed to head off for bed. Hitch was the first to try the mirrors. "Something doesn't quite look right," he said, as he looked at the image.
"It's meant to distort your appearance, silly!" Sunny said, in between bouts of giggling. For some reason she found this exceptionally funny.
"Get your finest hand wrought cauldrons here!" shouted the blacksmith. "Made entirely by hand using on the best Purbeck iron!"
Pipp, naturally, was filming things on her phone, given she often did little else. "This will make a fantastic vlog!" she said.
"Vlog?" Argyle asked, who was accompanying them.
"Video blog. Basically like a blog post on an old chat room, but a video. Far better for keeping the attention of viewers. #SuperFun!"
Argyle glanced about at all that was going on. "I, for one, like it being a bit quiet. The last few months have been pretty hectic, and I'm enjoying the chance to relax without the risk of something causing chaos and destruction that we need to stop."
"That is a fair point," Zipp noted, as she strolled past before spotting Izzy at the potions table. "Yo! Izzy! Found anything interesting?"
This attracted the attention of the others, and they sprinted over to take a look. Sitting on the table were several bowls of strange glowing substances. They glowed with ethereal energy as they sat there on the table.
"I wonder what's producing the glowing effect?" Misty asked, as she looked closer. "I've never seen a glitter bottle like this before!"
Suddenly, Pipp spotted a bowl with a strange purple swirling pattern on it, and in that moment had a horrified flashback to several months earlier when they'd discovered a strange portal behind a painting in the Falmouth residence. "Guys, we need to back away from this stuff!" she said.
"Why?" Izzy asked.
"Because it looks like that really weird portal we found in Falmouth that took us to the mad place where nothing made sense!" Pipp said. "We need to be careful in case it-"
She didn't finish her sentence, as Hitch's nose chose the worst possible moment to discharge. The resulting sneeze threw the bowl forward and caused it to slam into the other substances. And then there was a huge explosion. The crew were thrown backwards, and landed on the ground nearby dazed and surprised.
Where there had been a stand was a vast, swirling vortex, crackling with electrical energy.
"Uh, guys?" Sunny said. "This doesn't look good."
"You think?" Zipp asked.
Suddenly, a series of rattling and rolling noises came from within the portal. There were flashes and spurts of things, and suddenly, a voice spoke.
"Here comes Thomas!"
Hitch rolled to one side. "Oh not again!"
Just then, the form of that weird Thomas bounced out of the portal. He was then followed by a green tank engine, a black diesel, an orange tank engine, a strange purple electric thing, and a rail crane.
"Perfect!" the green engine said. "This looks like great fun, Thomas!"
"That's right, Percy!" Thomas replied. "Now let's go and cause mayhem! The Emperor would be pleased with us!"
Suddenly, each engine whizzed away in different directions, not being held back by annoying things like physics or common sense.
"We've got a bit of a problem on our hands!" Izzy said, looking concerned. "We have to stop them!"
"But how?" Misty asked. "We can't keep up with them!"
Argyle suddenly appeared with a drink. "Hey there! I was wondering if you wanted..." He trailed off as he saw the carnage erupting in front of him. "What is going on?"
"We're trying to figure that out ourselves!" Sunny replied. "Right, we need to tackle a different engine each. I'll take Thomas, Izzy, you chase the green one, Misty take on the diesel, Hitch you can tackle the orange thing, Pipp can handle the electric, and Zipp can you handle the crane?"
"We'll try!" said the others, and they all dashed in different directions.
Unfortunately, getting the chaotic engines under control proved to be easier said than done. The green engine bounced through the air like a basketball, whilst the strange crane thing smashed through several stalls.
Thomas was the worst, however, as he ran into a fireworks stand and, somehow, was able to light all of them and get them attached to him. The rockets blasted him high into the air. "This is Major Thomas to Ground Control!"
Sunny held on for dear life. "HOW IS THIS MY LIFE?!"
Down on the ground, the crane was busy swinging things around. "This is so much fun!" she said. "Better than the time we sent the Great Platypus to Groaning Gulch!"
Zipp had no clue where to start with this one. "How is the driver meant to see where they're going with no front cab windows?" she asked. "And how are these controls moving by themselves?"
"I'm a living machine!" the crane replied. "I'm Carly!"
Zipp thought to herself. "That voice sounds familiar..."
On the other side of the market, the electric had plugged herself into a nearby power socket. "I could do with a recharge," she said.
Pipp attempted to remove the plug, but a small shock threw her back. "I don't think this is how electric locomotives work!" she said.
Unfortunately, this engine was consuming so much electricity it began to wreak havoc with the lights.
As Argyle was trying to manage the chaos, Goldie arrived. "Argyle, what on earth is going on?" she asked.
Argyle looked over his shoulder, puffing and panting. "No... time... to... explain... get... Harvey... and... please... help!"
Goldie, seeing the havoc erupting around her, nodded and headed away.
The green engine careened into several cauldrons loaded with chemicals, sending them flying all over the place. "Look! Rainbow rails! This is traintastic!"
Izzy was struggling to hold on. "NO! ANYTHING BUT CHUGGINGTON!"
The orange engine had stopped in front of a collection of crystals. "Hello?" she asked. "What are these?"
The vendor screamed and ran away.
The orange engine looked confused. "Why is everybody running around today?"
Hitch caught up to then. "STOP!" he shouted. "YOU'RE CAUSING CONFUSION AND DELAY!"
The orange engine turned around. "Nobody says that anymore," she said, and then rattled forward past some more crystals, sending them flying.
Meanwhile, the diesel had gone flying, presumably to try and catch up with the floating Thomas up in the air. "I can fly higher than you, Thomas!" he shouted.
"No you can't, diesel!" Thomas said. "I need to get some more rockets!"
Just then, Misty lost her grip, and began to plummet back to Earth. "SOMEBODY HELP ME!"
Luckily, they did. She landed on a mattress that just happened to be in the right place. "Hey, that was lucky. I wonder who put that there?"
The chaos was only getting worse. The orange engine was whizzing about with crystals on its bufferbeam. The electric was now up to speed and racing around in circles. The crane was bouncing around in ways that large machines should not. And Thomas and the diesel were having a rocket race, dragging Sunny through the air with them.
"WILL THIS MADNESS NEVER END?" Pipp shouted, getting very out of breath.
Argyle looked at his watch. "I'm getting way too old for this sort of thing. I thought I was past this sort of havoc when Sunny turned six."
Suddenly, the portal began to glow again, and six ponies flew out of it. "Need a hoof?" called a familiar voice.
Sunny looked down to see the faces. "Sunny! Guys! Save us!" she called.
"That we can do," Pony Pipp smiled. "Let's go!"
And sure enough they flew into action. Pony Zipp roared alongside the crane and looked at them. "Hey! This way!"
Carly would have objected, but Jenna Warren was voicing Pony Sunny at the time, who had adopted alicorn mode to try and rescue her human counterpart.
"Stop right there, Thomas and Diesel!" she said in a commanding voice.
"Can't we have fun?" Thomas asked.
"No, you can't!" Pony Sunny replied, and created a glowing bubble around Sunny to levitate her back to the ground.
Meanwhile, Pony Pipp jumped in front of the electric engine. "Like pictures, Kana?" she asked. "Let's see how you like it with the flash on!"
She began blasting images from her phone.
"MY EYES!"
"That's how most viewers reacted to the animation style!" Pony Pipp replied. "Reap what you sow!"
Thomas and the diesel dropped to the ground whilst Pony Hitch helped get the orange engine under control. "You should be safe now, partner," he told his human counterpart.
"Thanks for the help, buddy," Hitch said. "I'd probably have been rolled flat were it not for your help."
"Why can't we move?" asked the engine.
"Because you're tied back, Nia," Pony Hitch replied. "It's what you deserve after behaving so badly."
At last, they even had the green engine contained. Pony Izzy floated him over to the others with her horn. "You have way too much energy, you know!" she said. "And that's coming from me!"
Having finally got all the engines in front of the portal, all that remained was to get them back to where they came from, so they could cause chaos no more. The humans and the ponies said their goodbyes, and thanked each other for helping each other, and then they went their separate ways, with the chaos engines being finally given the boot.
Just then, Harvey arrived. "Do you need some help?" he asked.
Sunny turned to look at him. "I think we've got a bit of rebuilding to do."
So, engine and humans got to work repairing the damage inflicted on the market. It would prove to be long and challenging work considering the situation, but it was finally done, and all could have a rest.
"So, who wants to..." Argyle trailed off as he saw them. The six friends were all fast asleep, leaning on one another for comfort.
"Aww," Goldie said, as she watched from Harvey's footplate. "They really are tired out."
Argyle looked back. "Remember how Sunny used to do that on the way back from a long day out? She'd always sleep on either my or your shoulder as the day would tire her out."
"Well, we'd best be getting them off to bed," Goldie said. "No point in them sleeping out here."
Opaline smiled as she broke open the door. "Perfect!" she said, as she looked inside the mineshaft. "I have found it after all this time!"
"Mission update?" said a voice.
Opaline peered down the mineshaft and shone a torch down it. "This confirms my theories and suspicions about this part of the world. The pathway is here, and a connection exists." She stepped back and closed the door. "They thought they'd sealed them all up, but the authorities clearly forgot about this one."
"That's at least twenty confirmed exits."
Opaline nodded. "And no doubt we'll find more as we go along. After repeated setbacks, these last few missions have been most fruitful." She stepped away into the darkness. "The Reverend may have been clever, but not clever enough."