Thomas and Friends: The Retold Adventures

by The Blue EM2

Woolly Bear

At the height of summer, the grass on the lineside grows long and wavy, and becomes a danger to passing trains and people. So, the gangers cut the grass back and pile it into large bales so it can dry in the sun. Then, Percy comes by to pick ot up. The men load the bales into his trucks, and Percy takes the loads onwards to Ffarquhar. Toby will then take them for the final leg of their journey, to the farmers who live in the hills beyond Ffarquhar, so they can feed their livestock to get them through the autumn and winter.

"WHEEEEEEESH!" Percy whistled as he rolled into the yard, with Thomas looking forward and seemingly a bit annoyed.

"SHEEEEEEEEEW!" Pinkie added, laughing as they came to a stop.

"Gyaaaah!" Twilight cried, still a little spooked by those sounds. "Pinkie, I asked you to stop doing that!"

"Don't worry, Thomas, it's only me," Percy smiled.

"You needn't whistle in a silly way," Thomas snorted. "Your face is ugly enough to frighten anybody, I'll wager. Why, you're-"

"Ugly indeed?" Percy asked indignantly. "I'm-"

"A green caterpillar with red stripes!" Thomas finished. "And you crawl like one too."

"Is is somebody's birthday?" Pinkie asked.

"It will be somewhere in the world," Twilight answered.

"Who's been late every afternoon this week?" Thomas asked Percy. "Oh wait, you."

"It's the hay!" Percy explained. "It takes time to load and is hard to transport."

"Well, maybe you could say 'hay there' to those farmers and tell them to speed up!" Thomas snapped. "Besides, time's time, and Sir Toppham Hatt is relying on us to keep it. In this uncertain world, we must retain traffic by any means neccessary, and we can't do that if we're constantly running behind timetable because you want to roll in the hay. Goodbye!"

Percy looked furious. "Green caterpillar with red stripes?" he asked. "No I don't!"

As he journeyed to the harbour, he and Pinkie spoke for a bit. "You don't think I'm ugly, do you?" Percy asked Pinkie.

"Of course not, Percy!" Pinkie smiled. "You're a well proportioned saddle tank engine, and besides Thomas looks like a blue box!"

"Yeah!" Percy laughed. "Saddle tanks over side tanks any day! Besides, I'm never THAT late. If I am, it's only by a few minutes. And why should Thomas care? He can always catch up the lost time later on."

Even so, he and Pinkie decided to start back to Ffarquhar early, in order to ensure they were on time. But then came trouble. As Percy backed into the harbour, a crate of treacle was being moved by a crane. Then, the chains holding the crate in place snapped, and the crate of treacle fell onto Percy.

"MY PAINT!" Percy cried.

Pinkie, on the other hand, did her best to supress a chortle, and went off to grab a rag to clean the mess off. "This new treacle colour combined with green is quite interesting. I must try it on a cake!"

Percy did look like a cake, and he was still sticky when he set off back for the end of the line. The wind blew fiercely, and it was throwing the piled hay all over the place, throwing it high into the air and blowing it about with impunity. The line began to climb fiercely, and Percy struggled onwards through the poor weather. Unfortunately, the hay was wet, and had been reduced to a sticky mess on the track. Percy would constantly slide to a standstill on the gradient, and would spin furiously in place for several minutes. He would need to stop before he could start again a few minutes later, as the line needed to be cleared of hay first. Although Pinkie's randomness and ability to teleport for no obvious reason helped in that regard.

At the other end of the line, the passengers stood annoyed, and checked their watches in frustration. Twilight was nervous that they had failed to get off on time, and Thomas was annoyed. "Ten minutes late!" he said. "What is this, Northern rail? I did warn him about the importance of getting off on time and-"

"He's here!" called Twilight, whose look of concern had changed to one of one of amusement. Everybody began laughing at him, for Percy was absolutely covered in hay that was glued to his saddle tank by the treacle.

"Sorry I'm late!" Percy called. "The line was bad, and I did set off early!"

"Well, look what's crawled out of the hay," Thomas snorted.

"What's wrong?" asked Percy, who was unaware of what had happened to his paintwork.

"Well," Thomas said, "talk about hairy caterpillars. As annoyed as I am at being late, it was worth it to just see you."

Twilight went over to Pinkie. "You'll need some high pressure water, and I'd suggest doing some research into the plaster like qualities of treacle."

"OK!" Pinkie replied. "I might even make a treacle tart with it!"

Percy rolled slowly back to the shed, completely unaware of how completely ridiculous he looked. When he got back to the shed, Pinkie vanished, and went and grabbed a mirror so Percy could see how ridiculous he looked.

Percy gasped. "Well, bust my buffers, no wonder they all laughed. I look ridiculous, like a woolly bear. Please do clean me off before anybody else sees it!"

But it was no good, as Thomas and Twilight had already told Toby and Flash, and they were already on their way to the shed. As Pinkie was pulling the hay off of Percy, the two other engines made jokes about wolly green bear caterpillars, and other creatures that crawl about in the hay. Similarly, Twilight and Flash had a long and animated discussion about how to make an improved treacle tart, and maybe have a topping that vaguely resembles hay as an added bonus.

Percy, of course, did not think they were funny at all, and merely though they were being very silly. He planned to pay them out, but that's another story.

Author's Note:

Or not, as this was the last time in the books that we ever saw them.

Comments

[Banshee531]

Ever saw who?

[MLPThomasfan]

And Thomas gets the last laugh in the end. And tomorrow, we start my favourite two parter in the books: Mavis/Toby's Tightrope!

[Raptormon132]

When I saw this episode, I thought Thomas was being a bit of an asshole in this, especially insulting Percy by calling him ugly and saying he crawls like a caterpillar for being late (especially since it wasn't Percy's fault at all). But considering what happened in the story before this, I'd say he acted like that because he was still holding a grudge against Percy for pranking him.

I even wonder what the story "Thomas, Percy and the Coal" would be like?

[The Blue EM2]

10176233
Thomas and Percy. They don't appear in Toby's Tightrope.

[The Blue EM2]

10176239
That we do.

[The Blue EM2]

10176655
That's coming later.

[Thomlight Sparkle 1]

If anything Percy had that humiliation coming to him, if he can do is brag about scaring Thomas like a ghost, then he's just asking for it.
But we come to more important stories of this book, the introduction of Mavis.

[The Blue EM2]

10176817
And the end of Wilbert's tenure on the Railway Series (barring two stories he wrote for the TV series).

[Thomlight Sparkle 1]

10176829
Aye

[The Blue EM2]

10176905
It's an odd feeling, I'll admit.

[Banshee531]

10176808 Oh. But they do appear in other books?

[The Blue EM2]

10176929
The Christopher ones, yes.

[MLPThomasfan]

10176809
And I wonder who the lucky driver is for Mavis.

[The Blue EM2]

10177069
As do I.

[JimmyHook19]

"SHEEEEEEEEEW!" Pinkie added, laughing as they came to a stop.

Wheesh backwards..... now I have seen it all. XD

[The Blue EM2]

10177801
It's another WTLNetwork reference. He frequently played audio forwards and backwards for comic effect.

[JimmyHook19]

10177806
Noice =3

[The Blue EM2]

10177819
Combined with reverse video.

[Split Scimitar]

Obligatory Colin reference. Nice.

Also, been a while since I’ve had treacle tart. (And I’m not even a Brit!)

[The Blue EM2]

10181863
Colin?

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

Pinkie, on the other hand, did her best to supress a chortle, and went off to grab a rag to clean the mess off. "This new treacle colour combined with green is quite interesting. I must try it on a cake!"

Not the best time Pinkie.

Percy, of course, did not think they were funny at all, and merely though they were being very silly. He planned to pay them out, but that's another story.

I wonder what he might do.