Over the next few days, Jokesterrap's friends had kept their promise and whenever they had the chance, they would come by and visit with Gladstone for a while so she wouldn't feel lonely. Sometimes, they would tell her some stories about some of the things they had gone through, such as when Sunset Shimmer used to be mean before she changed her ways. And whenever he could, Jokesterrap would come by and help them with fixing Gladstone with new parts while keeping out of Trixie's snooping watch. Eventually, Gladstone was now a colorful patchwork of parts.
"She looks great guys," said Jokesterrap to his friends. "Thanks for the help. I couldn't have done it without you."
"That's what friends are for," said Vincent.
"Now that we've got her fixed, why don't we think about giving her a new coat of paint?" suggested Rarity. "Perhaps a dazzling Pink with golden stripes?"
"What kind of a livery is that?!" laughed Rainbow Dash.
"Well what livery would you give her, Rainbow Dash?" Rarity asked.
"I'd give her colors to make her look cool!"
"That's always yer way of things," muttered Applejack.
"Well you'd probably paint her in hillbilly colors," said Rainbow Dash.
"Hey!"
"Can we not argue over something that isn't that important?" asked Sunset, standing right between Applejack and Rainbow Dash.
"She's right," said Vincent. "The main thing is that we've gotten Gladstone fixed up."
"Eeyup," said Big Macintosh.
"We've worked hard," said Jokesterrap. "How about we go out for pizza and celebrate? Then tomorrow after school, we can start her up."
"Locomotive pizza party!" yelled Pinkie with excitement.
"Can you believe it, Gladstone?" Jokesterrap said to the engine. "Tomorrow's the big day. I bet it'll be great to be back in steam for the first time in years."
Jokesterrap felt that if Gladstone had a face, she'd be beaming with pride. Before he left with the gang, Jokesterrap gave Gladstone a quick hug. As he was leaving and closing Gladstone's shed door, the mysterious voice spoke.
"I certainly hope so too."
Jokesterrap heard the voice and looked around. But there was nobody else around.
"I sure wish I knew where that voice was coming from," he said to himself.
"Um... what voice?" asked Fluttershy.
"Didn't you hear it too?" Jokesterrap asked.
"Um, no."
"That's even more odd," Jokesterrap said to himself.
The following morning, Jokesterrap was getting ready for school.
"Today's the big day," he said to his father. "After school, we're gonna light Gladstone's fire and take her for a ride."
"That's great, son," said Tinker. "You and your friends have worked very hard to make Gladstone good as new, and now it's going to pay off. If your grandfather were alive, he would be proud of you."
"He sure would've, " agreed his wife.
Later at school, Jokesterrap had a large smile on his face. He just couldn't wait for the school day to end so he could take Gladstone for a ride.
"What are you so happy about?" asked Trixie suspiciously.
"Can't a guy be happy and not have any reason to be?" asked Jokesterrap.
"Not unless that guy is you," said Trixie.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Don't play innocent with me. I know you're up to something. And I am going to find out what it is if it's the last thing I do."
"Like that'll ever happen," said Jokesterrap as he headed off to his next class.
"I beg to differ," Trixie said to herself.
At last, the school day was over. Vincent was just putting his things up when he noticed a note on his locker door.
"Eh? What's this?"
He took the note off his locker and read it.
Meet me in the parking lot after school. I have a surprise for you. Love, Sunset Shimmer.
"A surprise for me?" Vincent asked to no one in particular, "How thoughtful of her!"
So, Vincent went over to the parking lot to find Sunset Shimmer.
"Where could she be?" he asked.
"Well, well, if it isn't Vector von Crab."
Vincent recognized that voice right away.
"Oh no," he said to himself. He turned around only to face Trixie and two girls he'd never met before.
"Trixie! What are you doing here?"
"And who are these girls with you?"
"We were in Trixie's band," said one of the girls.
"She told us she needed help in getting some information," said the second girl.
"Information, eh?" said Vincent, "Oh, I got plenty - there's a Freshman Fair every year at CHS, uh, the square root of 169 is 13, my friend Rainbow Dash owns a tortoise named Tank-"
"We don't care if she has a turtle named Frank!" snapped Trixie.
"Well no need to be rude," said Vincent.
"We just want to know what that Jokesterrap guy is up to," said one of the girls.
"You'll get nothing like that out of me," Vincent said firmly.
This didn't deter the girls.
"We've got ways of making you talk," said Trixie. "Grab him!"
"Hey! What are you-?!"
Before Vincent could do anything, the two girls grabbed him.
"Hey! Let me go."
They dragged him over to Flash Sentry's car.
"Why are you taking me here?!"
"To get you to talk," said Trixie. Trixie took out the keys to Flash's car that she had stolen when he wasn't looking from her pocket and opened the trunk as the girls threw Vincent in and closed it behind him.
"Hey! What are you girls doing to my car?"
The 3 looked around and saw Flash Sentry looking rather cross.
"Hey, beat it spook!" snapped one of the girls, "This don't concern you!"
"When you mess with my friends and my car, then it does concern me," said Flash. "Now beat it before I report you to Principle Celestia!"
The girls ran off, not wanting to face an angry principal.
"You alright, Vincent?" asked Flash.
"Not quite!" Vincent shouted through the trunk, "The keys are in here!"
Flash opened the car and got the key. Then he opened the trunk and let Vincent out.
"Thanks," said Vincent.
"What were those girls doing to you?" asked Flash.
"They wanted me to tell them what Jokesterrap was up to," said Vincent. "But I wouldn't tell them so they took me to your car and threw me in the trunk! Also, they took my house keys."
"That is just wrong," said Flash. "We'd better warn Jokesterrap."
Then Vincent realized something and felt horrified.
"Jokesterrap left the map to Gladstone in my house!" he cried. "If Trixie finds it, she'll find Gladstone!"
Quickly, he ran fast as his legs could carry him. Unfortunately, when Vincent got to his house, he found that someone had trashed it as if they had been looking for something.
"Good grief!" he cried, "What in the name of Yoko Ono happened here?"
He found Archibald hiding under a blanket on his bed.
"Archie!" Vincent scolded, "What's the meaning of all this, eh?"
Archibald squeaked in fright and using his body language, told Vincent that Trixie had broken into the house and trashed it.
"Oh no!" said Vincent. Quickly, he ran back downstairs and looked in the nightstand, but it was empty. "Trixie's got the map! Oh, how could this have happened?! I gotta warn Jokesterrap!"
Meanwhile at the shed, Jokesterrap and the rest of the gang were getting Gladstone's fire ready. They had already started it with some dried grass and sticks, and were letting the steam pressure get up enough.
"Where's Flash and Vincent?" asked Twilight. "They should have been here by now."
"I hope nothing bad happened," said Sunset.
Suddenly they saw Flash and Vincent race into view. Both boys looked as though they'd run a marathon.
"You guys alright?" asked Jokesterrap. "What's the rush?"
“Trixie and her bandmates locked Vincent in the trunk of my car,” said Flash after the two caught their breath.
“Then she broke into my house and stole the map!” said Vincent. “She's on her way right now! Also, my bike got a flat."
"Oh no!" cried Fluttershy. "Trixie's gonna try and hurt Gladstone."
"No she won't," said Jokesterrap firmly. "Gladstone's fixed up and she's got steam. By the time Trixie gets here, I'll have taken Gladstone down the line away from her." And he climbed into the cab.
"Wait," said Vincent. "You need a fireman to keep the fire stoked, don't you?"
"That's a very good point," said Jokesterrap. "Vincent, how'd you like to be Gladstone's fireman?"
Vincent didn't really know what to say at first.
"You bet!" he said at last. He jumped into the cab and took up his shovel.
"Come on, Gladstone," said Jokesterrap, opening the regulator. "Let's go!"
"Good thing the boiler works fine," said Vincent, "otherwise, it'd have taken months!"
Slowly, wheel turn by wheel turn, Gladstone chuffed out of the shed for the first time in years.
"Take care, guys!" called Applejack.
Gladstone steamed down the line. The rails hummed as she rolled along.
"She's doing great so far," said Vincent.
"Well done, Gladstone!" called Jokesterrap. "You're doing great!"
"Eh? What's that behind us?"
Jokesterrap looked back and could see a rather familiar looking girl with a blue hoodie chasing them on the handcart from the shed.
"It's Trixie!" he cried.
"How'd she steal that handcart?" remarked Vincent.
"Don't worry about that now," said Jokesterrap, advancing the regulator. "If she wants to get us, she'll have to catch us first. Faster, Gladstone! Faster!"
"You're not getting away from me this time!" shouted Trixie.
Gladstone chuffed as fast as her could to get away from Trixie. But Trixie would not give up. Some of the new parts on her started to rattle as though they were coming lose. Suddenly, one of the cylinders lost its cover and steam began to leak out.
"What was that?!" cried Jokesterrap.
"One of the cylinders' covers came off!" cried Vincent. "She's falling apart!"
"Don't worry, Gladstone!" called Jokesterrap. "You can do it!"
"I don't think it can!" Trixie smirked.
Trixie was right. At that moment, there was a crack and Gladstone's cab filled with more leaking steam.
"Keep puffing, Gladstone!" Jokesterrap cried. But Gladstone couldn't. She was going slower and slower.
"It's no good," said Vincent. "We gotta take her onto a siding before she comes to a complete stop."
Thankfully, a signalman up ahead saw them and diverted them onto a siding. With a loud bang from her boiler, Gladstone came to a complete stop.
"Is this what you've been doing, Jokesterrap?" asked Trixie tauntingly. "Spending your free time to build a junky old steam engine?"
"Gladstone is not a junky old steam engine!" snapped Jokesterrap. "She's family!"
"Oh, and you consider this object to be family?"
"Yes! My grandfather helped to build her years ago!"
"Well the way I see it," said Trixie rudely, "this is nothing but a rusty old tin kettle that's only good for scrap metal. The Great and Powerful Trixie shall see to it."
Before the 2 could stop her, Trixie disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
"She's gone!" said Vincent. "Oh wait, there she is."
Trixie was hiding behind a tree. Noticing she'd been spotted, Trixie ran off.
"Looks like we'd better get the crane and take Gladstone back to the shed," said Vincent.
"But what about Trixie? " asked Jokesterrap, "We can't let her scrap Gladstone!"
"You're right. I'll call the others and warn them." Vincent got out his phone and hoped Sunset Shimmer had hers. Thankfully, she did.
"Hello?" she said, answering her phone.
"Uh, yeah, we got bad news," said Vincent, "the boiler's failed and to make it worse, Trixie has found our plan out."
"Don't worry," said Sunset. "We'll hunt her down for you."
"We're also gonna need the crane to bring Gladstone back," said Vincent.
So, Flash and Sunset came with the crane while the rest of the gang went after Trixie. Jokesterrap was very upset.
"I'm sorry," he said to his engine. "I'm so, so sorry, Gladstone. I worked my hardest to keep you safe, but I let you down. Worst of all, I let Grandpa Porter down too. If he were here, he would be ashamed of me."
"Don't talk like that," said Vincent. He didn't like how upset his friend was. "It wasn't your fault this happened. It was Trixie's fault for being nosy."
"Well what are we supposed to do? Now that Trixie knows, she'll stop at nothing to destroy Gladstone just so she can get even with me and get money for it."
"We might have another chance to save her," said Flash.
"But how?" asked Jokesterrap.
"We have to tell Principle Celestia about her."
"Given that Trixie hasn't told her first," said Sunset quietly, "then that would be a disaster."
Jokesterrap wasn't so sure that he wanted to tell Principle Celestia. But he knew Flash was right. He had to do it for Gladstone.