"Hullo, Twins!"
As time went on, the North Western Railway got busier and busier. More and more people travelled across the island by train, and not entirely surprisingly this got very difficult on the engines, their drivers, the coaches, and their trucks. More and more ships arrived at the harbour, so everybody was working doubly hard. The trucks complained bitterly. Mind you, this was not much of a change from the usual, as trucks always complain and nobody takes any notice of them. The coaches complained though, and people did take notice. No sooner had they arrived on one train, they had to go out as another, with more people crammed in, standing on the seats, wiping their muddy boots on the floor, sticking their heads out of the windows-
That's enough references to Rolley the Coach for today, I think. "We don't know whether we are coming or going!" the coaches complained. "We feel most distracted and distressed!"
Out in the yard, the engines were also complaining. "Nobody can say that we are afraid of hard work," Henry said one morning.
"But we draw the line at goods trains," Gordon added, shuddering as he remembered what had happened previous times he had taken goods trains.
"Come on!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, standing around in front of her charge. "When are we gonna get a rest? We've been working non stop for days now!"
"Agreed darling," Rarity sighed, as she hopped off of James' footplate with a mug of tea in her hand. "We have worked most hard over these last few days. Why, I've had to leave my store in the hands of Miss Pommel whilst I've been on the railway. And I haven't even had a chance to go for afternoon tea!"
"Especially those dirty trucks and dirty sidings!" James exclaimed. "Not only are they noisy and annoying, they ruin my paint and Rarity's clothes!"
"What are you all complaining about?" Duck asked them, annoyed. "Are you all just afraid of working? Why, at Paddington on the Great Western-"
"That tinpot railway," Gordon sighed. "Do you ever speak about anything else, Duck?"
"Ah quite enjoy bein' busy," Apple Bloom replied. "There ain't nothin' we Apples can't stand worse than bone idleness!"
"Then why are you sitting here with Duck, doing nothing?" Gordon asked.
"And why are you calling the Great Western a tinpot railway?" Duck asked. "It went to more places than Cornwall, you know. Why, it ran through the Thames Valley, Gloucestershire, Warwickshire-"
"Yes, thank you Duck," said a voice from in front of them. Everybody looked forward to see Sir Toppham Hatt had arrived, and he had a smile on his face. "Now then, everyone, I have some good news. In light of the increasing goods traffic on the island, I have purchased an engine from Scotland. He and his driver will arrive tomorrow. I want you all to greet them well."
The news was greeted with whistles and and cheers, as it meant that life on the island might get a little easier.
"WHAT?" Sir Toppham Hatt exclaimed, staring as he did at the engine inspector. "Did you say, two engines?!"
"Y-yes sir," the inspector stammered, as he looked at his boss with an equal level of surprise. "Truth be told, we were just as suprised as you when two engines turned up."
"Then send the other one back!" Sir Toppham Hatt exclaimed.
"Certainly sir. But which one?" the inspector asked.
Sir Toppham Hatt sighed, and walked over to the inspector. "Engines have numbers, inspector," he said. "We bought 57646. So send the other one back!"
"And therein lies the problem," the inspector said. "Neither engine has a number painted on their cabside, and are exactly identical. Not only that, we can't send them back based on driver."
"Why?" asked Sir Toppham Hatt. "I was told the engine's driver was a girl."
"Both these engine's drivers are girls," the inspector replied. "Furthermore, the name of the driver of 57646 is not given in the transfer papers."
Sir Toppham Hatt shook his head. "We'll soon settle that nonsense," he sighed, and headed out into the yard. Sitting in the sidings were a pair of Caledonian Railway 812 Class 0-6-0 tender engines. Both of them had rugged frames and thick, heavy boilers, as well as curved cabs to see off the rain. In addition, both had tenders with curved plates on the back, as well as side plates that jutted upwards. Both engines were painted completely black, and had the late BR crest on their tenders. Both engines whistled to him.
"How did you lose your numbers?" Sir Toppham Hatt asked. One of the engines replied, but his accent was so thick that Sir Toppham Hatt had no idea what he was saying. "Sorry, what?"
"They mourn'a side slippet auf, sir," the engine replied. "ye can knoow how it is."
Sir Toppham Hatt shook his head. "Of all parts of Scotland, they had to be Glaswegians. Can somebody please translate?"
"He says that the numbers might have slipped off, sir," said a voice. Hopping off his footplate was a girl with turquoise skin and similarly coloured hair. She had orange eyes, a flower in her hair, and wore a pink sleeveless shirt, blue shorts, and purple boots.
"Who are you?" Sir Toppham Hatt asked.
"My name's Laura, but you can call me Lyra if you want," the girl replied. "This is Donald."
"I know how numbers get lost this way," Sir Toppham Hatt added, now very confused. "Accidently on purpose."
The other one then spoke. "Yoo wouldnae be thinkin' we lost them on purpose, would ye noo?"
"We'd never do that!" said another female voice, hopping off that engine's footplate. She had yellow skin and two-tone blue and pink hair. She had blue eyes, and wore a white dress with a single yellow stripe on the skirt, surrounded by blue lines. She also wore a belt with a bow tie attached around her waist, as well as a pair of blue sandles with ankle-high white socks. "I'm Bonnie, by the way, but feel free to call me Bon-Bon. NEVER Sweetie Drops."
"And who is your engine?"
"Oh, this is Douglas!" the girl replied.
Sir Toppham Hatt nodded. "I see. Which of you is 57646, and which of you drives him?"
"That is whata we canna min'." Both engines spoke at once.
"Right," Sir Toppham Hatt said. "Then I'll just telephone ScotRail to find out which of you is which."
"That won't help you much, sir," Lyra told him. "Those two were never referred to by name. That man was so rude he never bothered to learn them, nor mine nor Bon-Bon. Of course, we had the decency to refer to them by name, not to mention saying '57646' and '57647' got really tedious after a while."
"One of you," Sir Toppham Hatt said, "is playing truant. I shall find them out, and send them home. In the meantime, I shall give you both numbers, and set you to work. As for you two, what is your relationship?"
"Oh!" Bon-Bon smiled. "We're friends. Really good friends. It made perfect sense for us to both come here."
Sir Toppham Hatt said no more, and walked sternly away.
Stats
Page generated in 0.052 seconds
Total duration
596 users online
745,875 hits today, 1,822,946 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Well, the class were built there, but they worked from Perth to the Port Road.
Wait. So Donald and Douglas never got a debut episode. (Looks online) Says they were supposed to show up in Percy Takes the Plunge but were dropped, then they were supposed to be in a cancelled episode called the Missing Coaches. Boy, these two can't catch a break.
Donald and Douglas. I can't get their theme out of my head it was just as catchy as Diesel's. That being said, I always thought the Twin's debut episode felt a bit off, especially considering Sir Toppham Hat's lashing out at Douglas, or was it Donald?, when he backed into a signal box on accident. Now knowing that there were other stories that explained the frustration, I honestly hope you do the Twins more justice than the show did because their debut in the show just feels so off without the other stories that explain Sir Toppham's frustration at the two engines.
That is very true on that note and I will tell you, I prefer the way they were introduced in the book rather than the show. It gives much more reasoning on why Sir Topham Hatt would want to send one back.
And I am glad to see Lyra and Bon Bon are working with the Caledonian Twins!
*Donald and Douglas theme intensifies* Lyra and Bon-Bon as the drivers for the twins makes sense, actually. Barely seen without each other and the adorableness that is their relationship in canon.
10104912
That's part of the joke, Wessex.
10104916
Indeed. Those two were treated pretty badly by the showrunners.
10105009
The problem is, Brake Van was turned into their debut episode, but was not rewritten to remove the elements held over from Hullo Twins and The Missing Coach (the latter of which was meant to be an episode, but was cancelled late in production is Allcroft thought the plot would be too confusing for children).
10105075
10105282
Two of them are literal siblings, and two are effectively siblings.
10105617
The perfect duo times 2
10105656
Indeed (though I'm not sure confirming their married state was well handled).
10105932
Prepare for chaos.
-sigh- sometimes I still just hate the Coco Chanel for complaining about their name used in a fictional character. It just doesn't make any sense given that:
1. The two are nothing alike in personality.
2. Coco is a given name.
Anyways, excellent choice of having Lyra and Bon Bon be Donald and Douglas's drivers X3
(Bet you did that to serve as foreshadow for what will happen in terms of you know what on my account next month =3)Btw, you forgot to mention the true fact in the Author's note in that the twins original numbers being an in-joke in that the Class 812's never went beyond the number 57645.
10106516
1. Rarity is being formal.
2. I wrote this in May of last year, so I couldn't have planned that.
3. Shhhhhh...
10106524
1. As long as it is just that. :P
2. Gotcha ^^
3. Okie.... ^^;
10106526
You don't want Sir Toppham Hatt to know, do you?
Aww, I thought Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were going to be with the twins. It would be cool for the crusaders to be with Duck, Donald and Douglas.
So Lyra Heartstrings and Bon Bon (aka Sweetie Drops) are Donald and Douglas's drivers? Interesting.
10157036
Yup.
Huh, was expecting actual twins to be Donald & Douglas's drivers but I think Lyra and Bon Bon/Sweetie Drops will do nicely.
Was she ever called Bonnie in fim as I do think she was called Sweetie Drops.
Sometimes I wish I can understand Scottish accents.
11327237
Who were you expecting? Film and Flam?
11454117
No
11327237
It varies from region to region. The bulk of Scottish accents you hear in popular culture are either Lowland Scot (particularly of the type heard around Edinburgh) or Glaswegian (which is quite hard to a non-Scot to understand). Accents further north into the Highlands (think Outlander and similar) are much softer, and are often mistaken for Irish accents.