Chapter 8-One Day we May be Apart
Sunny's phone buzzed, and as such she answered it. "Hello?"
"Great news, Sunny!" Argyle said on the other end. "We think we know where one of the crystal pieces is. I'll just send the attachment now as an email. You do get email to your phone, right?"
"Yeah. Where is it?"
"It appears to be somewhere in a relatively quiet part of the island."
"Thanks," Sunny said. "I'll take Thomas with me, and seeing as she's the only person left here I'll bring Zipp along as well."
"That sounds like a good idea," Argyle replied. "No pressure, but the fate of Sodor kinda rests in your hands. Bye!"
Sunny lowered her phone and popped it into her pocket. "Yep. No pressure at all. Just like last summer, but with a time limit. Come on Thomas, let's go!"
"Right away, Sunny!" Thomas said, and as the shed doors opened he puffed out onto the turntable.
"You coming, Zipp?" Sunny asked.
"I'll need to wait for you and Thomas to clear the turntable," Zipp replied. "Gordon has a very long wheelbase."
"Sending silly tank engines out before the bigger engines," Gordon groaned. "Upsetting the very order of things. Oh, the indignity."
"Again, Gordon, you remind me of my aunt. I dislike my aunt," Zipp said, as she opened the regulator.
"I don't believe I've ever met your aunt," Sunny said, as they got up to speed on the line.
"It's probably a good thing you haven't," Zipp said. "She's a bit stuck up and looks down her nose at people from a lower social station. She gave mom grief for wanting to marry somebody from outside of British aristocracy, and has quietly grumbled about it ever since, with nonsense about me and Pipp not being true Havens or some rubbish like that. We don't really talk to her anymore, only invite her to the events we are required to invite her to. Even then you can see the strain, given she's jealous mom and dad have a stable marriage and she doesn't." Seeing the surprise in Sunny's face, Zipp elaborated. "She's on her third husband."
"It can't be fun to have siblings who hate each other," Sunny said, "but it sounds as though it's for a good reason. I'm happy you and Pipp patched things up, though."
"Yep," Zipp replied. "We have more in common than we realise, and she was just frustrated from not having had much sleep. Hopefully, when this is over we can all have a good rest."
"Anyway," Sunny said, "we still have that riddle to figure out. The field of heroes will yield the ultimate treasure. What could it mean?"
"Your guess is as good as mine, Sunny," Zipp said.
"It could be a place like Maron's Bank," Thomas suggested. "That was the site of a battle in the Roman era. I'm not so sure about the Era of Chewing Gum, though."
"I suspect if something like that were near a busy mainline somebody would already have spotted it," Sunny said, consulting the image Argyle had sent her. "Aha! Here we are! It's somewhere off the end of the mainline near a place called Ulfstead."
"Does it have rail access?" Zipp asked.
"According to my map of the rail network, yes, surprisingly enough," Sunny admitted. "We just need to follow a dedicated branch line that will take us up to the castle."
As they rolled along, the conversation continued. "What a strange old day," Gordons said. "Pulling expresses, moving goods trains, now playing a fetch quest. Whatever next? James will attach wings and a propeller to himself, or the passengers flying around on jetpacks?"
"Don't give them ideas!" Thomas said loudly. "Those sound like something that would only happen in an animated show that was trying to jump the shark!"
"Why is an animated show trying to jump over a shark?" Gordon asked, perplexed.
Zipp leaned out of the cab. "It's a figure of speech. It means that a show or production does an outrageous stunt to try and draw viewers back in as the writing team have exhausted their ideas. It was originally coined to describe an episode of Happy Days where one of the characters jumped over a shark on water skis."
"How very interesting," Gordons said, in a voice which indicated the opposite sentiment.
There was a bit of silence as they arrived at Wellsworth and stopped to let a banking engine clear the main. As the signal changed, Zipp addressed Sunny again. "You know, I never imagined my life would turn out this way."
"In what sense?" Sunny asked.
"Well, I honestly thought that I'd be stuck in the life of being the kid of rich famous people, and all the ups and downs that brought with it. True, the comforts are nice, and I appreciate the stuff they've done for me, but there are times it feels like a gilded cage. Having your moves constantly monitored by the media got super annoying after a while. That's part of the reason I took to railway work- to get away from it all. And then I met you guys, and my life changed for the better. All of our lives did. Although the circumstances were less than ideal, meeting you guys was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Here we are now, on a fetch quest to save the world!"
"Again," Sunny added, with a wry smile. "Having said that, you haven't always had it easy."
"You can say that again," Zipp said, as the screen went all swirly.
"Why is the screen swirly?" Thomas asked.
"It's just a transition to take us to a flashback, that's all," Sunny explained. "Izzy explained it all to me."
Just after Christmas 2022
Zipp had had a great time staying with the Starscouts, but even so she could feel something around here wasn't right. Even though she could blend in with most of the crowd, and her clothing didn't stick out anywhere near as much as Pipp (Zipp preferred to buy off the shelf items, whereas Pipp had her clothes tailored to match her interests- and boy had she had a lot tailored over the years), Zipp still felt like a fish out of water. It possibly didn't help she'd somewhat grown up separate from the rest of society, and with the looming weight of the duties she would have to take up one day it didn't exactly make for a relaxed mindset.
Zipp wandered down main street along the waterfront, noticing all the newly built buildings put up since the Battle of Falmouth about six months ago. That had been a pretty wild night- Lady Haven had wanted to figure out why she and Pipp were so dusty, and not only that why the Bentley could suddenly talk. It was an interesting few days to say the least.
Zipp then got a text, and opened it.
Hey Zipp! Just gonna be a few minutes! I need to clean something up with Izzy and I'll be good to go!
Sunny.
"You don't need to sign texts, the display tells you who the message is from," Zipp said to herself, before popping her phone away. She sighed as she looked out on the waterfront. Sunny had decided to try selling hot drinks to take advantage of the post-Christmas season and warn people up. Zipp had offered to help, having assisted with many a Christmas event at the Swanage Railway. She stood there, when suddenly a voice made her jump.
"Excuse me miss, is this the place where hot chocolate is being sold?"
Zipp jumped and turned around. "Err- aaaa- well- yes! Yes it is!" She paused. "Way to be awkward, Zipp."
"Thank you," said the person. "It's just that I don't see any stand, that's all."
It was then Zipp had a bright idea. "If Sunny is going to be a few minutes, I can get her stand set up and save her some time!"
And so Zipp got to work. She found the table Sunny used and flipped it out, the legs dropping into place quickly and reliably. Zipp then popped the table down and placed Sunny's machine onto it. It currently had the smoothie module fitted to it, as that was what Sunny had last been selling before business dried up with the coming of the colder months.
"Now, where's the hot chocoloate unit?" Zipp asked herself, as she sorted through the supplies. At last, after some searching, she found it. "Aha! Here we are!"
She lifted it up, and took it out of the box, and put it next to the existing machine.
She spotted two plates on each side, and pressed them down. The smoothie module disconnected and was soon placed to the side, and Zipp slotted the new module into place.
The display lit up. PLEASE ADD COCOA POWDER AND WATER.
"Now where did Sunny leave them?" Zipp asked, and searched through the box. At last she found the containers which contained the relevant items, and popped them on the table before placing them down. Sunny had also left a test mug to allow the system to be tested, and Zipp slid it under after filling the water tank.
Nothing happened when she pressed pour. "That's strange. Why's nothing happening?"
"That's because you haven't plugged it in," said a familiar voice. Zipp looked up to see Sunny leaning over and looking at the machine. "It also needs a few minutes to get warmed up properly."
"Ah. Thanks." Zipp got up and plugged the device in.
"Zipp, I appreciate you getting this all set up for me, but I kinda wish you'd asked me first," Sunny replied. "Not just because the machine is, you know, my property, but if you'd set it up incorrectly you could have injured yourself. The liquid this produces can be very hot!"
Zipp sighed. "Sorry, Sunny. I only wanted to help."
"I know, and I appreciate that," Sunny smiled. "Now then, if you'd like to help out I can show you how to get this all set up correctly. And we already have customers!"
Sure enough, their friends were already waiting in line, including the new girl Misty. Zipp couldn't help but feel something was a bit off about her, but kept her thoughts to herself as they got to work.
"Yeah, that wasn't the best first impression," Zipp admitted. "But I've been working on my skills ever since."
"Yeah, you're great with a coffee machine now. Some of the brews you whipped up during the visit in October were amazing!"
"Family secret," Zipp smiled, as they approached a fork in the track. "Here we are. Line comes off to the left. Away we go!"
Gordon led off up the small branch line, with Thomas following behind them. It was a very long way up, and the line soon began to climb quite sharply into the skies.
"Keep an eye on our speed!" Thomas called forward. "It's easy to stall here!"
"As light engines this should be a piece of cake!" Gordon said, with a smile. An overconfident smile, but it was an improvement over the fact he perpetually looked grumpy some other times.
Sunny then clicked where they were going. "Of course! Ulfstead Castle!"
"Come again?" Zipp asked.
"Ulfstead Castle is where we're going! The field of heroes will yield the ultimate treasure, remember? And many of Sodor's greatest knights and heroes lived there. And if that's the case, then we're looking under the ground!"
But as they reached a bridge, they heard a threatening voice in their heads. "I warned you not to follow me, but you didn't heed the warning. Now you shall pay the price."
Suddenly, there was a dramatic increase in water, which turned a stream into a raging torrent. "Run!" Gordon shouted. "They're trying to destroy the bridge!"
Zipp drastically increased steam pressure as Gordon moved across the bridge. The structure began to shake from the combined forces of two engines and the intense water beating against it. Gordon cleared it safely, but the bridge soon began to creak and shift, as if it was about to break apart.
"Sunny! Get a move on!" Zipp shouted.
Thomas charged across the bridge at high speed, and cleared the other side just in time. With a crack, the supports gave way, and the central span of the bridge collapsed into the water.
"Well, that was hair raising," Sunny said. "Looks like you already got that treatment!"
"Very funny," Zipp replied. "Now let's get a move on. Discord clearly knows where we are!"
It was here the line just... stopped. After securing the engines in place and setting the injectors correctly, Sunny and Zipp hopped out of the cab and walked into a nearby cave.
"Any idea why we're wandering into a cave?" Zipp asked.
"Well," Sunny replied, "the field of heroes will yield the ultimate treasure. Yielding means giving up. The field can hardly give up something that's not underground, is it?"
They walked deeper in, before suddenly finding an illuminated cavern, filled with glowing crystals. "Whoa," was all Zipp could say.
"It's just like the cave we were in during the encounter with Discord!" Sunny said. She noticed something at the other end of the room. "There appear to be six locks, and I'm willing to bet each is somewhow connected to the glowing crystals on the ground."
"You figured that one out quickly," Zipp said.
"My dad and I loved to play puzzle games on Sunday evenings," Sunny explained. "I like trying to figure puzzles out."
"Well, so do I, so let's get cracking!"
The pair took to turning and rearranging crystals on the ground, observing shifts in light upon the facing wall and moving plates back and forth to see what happened. The lights beyond them were beginning to move about into new positions, and the displays on the facing walls began to change.
"One of the wall lights just went green!" Zipp called.
"So, if we keep turning them, we'll eventually find ourselves with the correct combinations and open whatever this strange device is! And there we shall find the crystal!"
"Careful, Sunny," Zipp replied. "We don't want to jump to conclusions, do we?"
After some more turning and spinning and rotating, more and more of the lights shifted from red to green, moving in sequence across the wall. It became clear they had to turn the crystals in a certain order, so after some experimentation they found the correct combination of lights and displays.
The wall lights all switched from red to green in sequence, and before long the cavern was bathed in an intense white light. The crystals sat within the cavern were so intense in their magnification of all the light that was bounding about that Sunny and Zipp covered their eyes, worried about the blinding intensity of the light levels.
The light grew to a fever pitch, and then suddenly it peaked, and dropped away. The noises declined, and the two girls standing in the cavern lowered their hands to see what had happened in the time they were gone.
Standing there, where nobody had been previously, were six girls. They all looked tired, and were partially collapsed on the ground.
"Darlings, I think my bottom's on backwards," said one, a girl with whitish skin and purple hair.
"I don't know where we are," whispered another, a girl with yellow skin and pink hair.
"Ah know, sugarcube," added another, who had orangey skin and blonde hair. "One second Ah was in the washroom, the next Ah'm in this cave."
"I must say the cave is quite nice to look at," said another, a girl with lavender skin and blue, purple, and pink hair. "I'm surprised you don't have more a view on this, Rarity!"
"I just wanna find the guy who put us in this place!" a girl with blue skin and rainbow coloured hair added. "I was driving at the time, and now I'm in this cave! Where are we, Twi?"
"Who cares!" a girl with pink hair and skin said, bounding around the cavern. "THIS LOOKS THE PERFECT PLACE FOR A PARTY!" She looked through a crystal. "THIS MAKES MY FACE LOOK FUNNY!"
Zipp looked at Sunny. "She has way more energy than Izzy. That's quite remarkable."
"I know," Sunny replied. "This is why I don't let Izzy anywhere near mom's coffee machine."
Suddenly, the girls before them noticed the two figures with them. "Hello friends!" the lavender girl said, stepping forward. "What are your names?"
"I'm Sunny Starscout," Sunny said, "and this is my friend Zipp Storm. We're new to the Island of Sodor."
"It's lovely to meet you, Sunny and Zipp," the girl answered. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends." She indicated to each of them in turn. "Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. What concerns me more is how we're in this cave. Last I remember I was driving Thomas and then suddenly I'm down here."
"That explains why Thomas had no driver when we met him!" Zipp said to Sunny.
"Sorry?" Twilight said. "Thomas had no driver?"
Sunny looked slightly sheepish. "We've kinda been filling in for you."
"Who is we?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Sunny!" called a voice, and suddenly Izzy, Pipp, Hitch, and Misty entered.
"Guys!" Sunny called. "It's so good to see you!" She turned to Twilight. "These are my friends. Izzy Moonbow, Pipp Petals, Hitch Trailblazer, and Misty Brightdawn."
Just then, there was a noise from up above. "That doesn't sound good," Fluttershy whispered.
"You said it, sugarcube," Applejack said, as she gathered her kit together. "Now let's deal with this here varmint who stole us here."
Pipp looked over. "You don't think Discord trapped them here, do you?"
"Who's Discord?" asked Rarity. "And how am I going to get these knots out of my hair?"
"You'd get on swimmingly with my sister," Zipp said dryly.
"Less time arguing and more time dealing with the problem!" Sunny exclaimed. "We have to find the last crystal or else the magic will be gone!"
"Crystals?" Twilight asked.
"Look, it's a really long story. I'll explain on the way!"
When they arrived at their destination, the new alliance of twelve, along with their engines, were amazed at what they had learned. "So, magic was fading, and you found a way to bring it back?" Twilight said, looking amazed. "I must visit Falmouth some day and learn more about how the crystals work!"
"We'd be more than happy to welcome you, though space at my house is a bit cramped with four," Sunny replied.
Just then, a convoy of road vehicles came to a stop, with another convoy of engines stopping nearby. "Those are our engines," Hitch pointed out. "Salty, Rebecca, Charles, Sophie, Porter, and Bellerophon."
"Girls!" called a voice. The gang looked over to see Lady Haven running over from her car. "Have you found the last crystal?"
"We're working on it!" Sunny called, as she dismounted from Thomas' cab. "But we found the original drivers of these engines, and they want to help us!"
The rest of the gang had joined them. "We should be close, though," Hitch offered. "Based on the map data Sunny sent me it should be nearby."
"Well, this is a large field that looks like a battlefield, so-"
Argyle chimed in. "The object should be somewhere in that direction, but I think-"
Lady Haven's face fell. "Excuse me, do you see my mouth still moving? It means I'm still talking."
Argyle stepped back. "Sorry."
Suddenly, the ground began to shake. As the team looked about, a huge machine stomped into view. It was massive, towering several hundred feet into the air. It was carried about on enormous, slab sided legs, with a central body which seemed to be packed to the brim with equipment based on all the glowing lights. It had two arms, each of which terminated in strange barrels which looked very big and heavy.
The head unit swivelled atop that, and the top viewing ports seemed to glow blue with intense light. A voice suddenly rang out across the terrain, processed from the head unit. "So, it seems my enemies decided to deliver themselves to me. What extraordinarily good fortune."
"Discord!" Zipp shouted.
"Well identified," the machine returned, confirming the pilot to be Discord. "You have arrived at this point. But sadly this is where your road ends, you six. You have been a thorn in my side for far too long now, and now that you've rescued those idiots I imprisoned I have no choice but to take action.
Lady Haven stepped forward. "No, not especially, Mister Big Robot Person. We're not here to fight!"
"I do not accept your surrender," Discord answered. "NOW GIVE ME THE CRYSTALS!"
Sunny stepped forward. "No."
There was a moment of stunned silence. "Did you just say no to me?"
"Yes, I did," Sunny replied. "You claim you wanted to destroy magic. I think what you really meant was you want nobody but YOU to have magic. We will stop you!"
Discord laughed. "How sweet. How charming. How futile." The guns on the mech started to spool up and missiles began to fire.
"Run!" Izzy shouted.
The final battle for the fate of Sodor had begun.
This chapter combines elements of the 8th and 9th G5 Comics; the flashback to Falmouth is a condensed version of a sequence from the 8th Comic, whilst the other elements are taken from the 9th Comic. Plot elements from several Thomas and Friends episodes were also worked in, which the crystal maze is based on one seen in the Tell your Tale short The Starscout Code.
And yes... more than two years since they last appeared in my stories... The Mane Six are back! And it wouldn't be an MLP story without an epic fight against a big villain, would it?
Discord's war machine is based on the Death Egg Robot from the second Sonic movie:
I have also worked into it elements from other war machines Eggman has fielded in the games; the main guns are derived from the Egg Dragoon, and the missile launchers are derived from the Egg Dealer.
The final battle has begun for the fate of Sodor. Will our heroes emerge victorious and defeat Discord? Or will he emerge victorious and destroy magic forever? Tune in tomorrow for the first part of the epic two-part conclusion to Thomas and Friends: Return to Sodor!
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11747930
I'll definitely have to check it out some time.
The gang's all here and just in time!
great chapter mate keep it up cant wait for the next chapter there's is one rule for hot chocolate never ever let it cool
11747967
Everybody is reunited and ready to go. This is what I was alluding to when I said I'd reworked Discord. The comic tried to turn him into a tragic villain, which safe to say didn't work.
11747992
I get that reference.
Wow, that's sad.
You can say that again.
And probably isn't too far from them.
It's the Mane 6!!
LOOKS LIKE*
But, how did they get here?
action!"*
Well, that explains what he was building.
11748053
1. Sadly this sort of bigotry is alive and well.
2. Indeed.
3. Yup.
4. After more than two years, they're back.
5. Corrected.
6. They were towed.
7. Corrected. Next time will see us return to this action.
11748058
But didn't goldie say in a previous chapter now long it would take to get there?
11748064
Indeed. More than 14 hours have passed since then.
11748083
Talk about a long journey for them.
11748099
Indeed. Travelling about the Uk takes a while.
11748167
Same in the US.
11748188
It takes about 6 days by rail coast-to-coast, 4 hours by plane, and several days to drive.
11748226
mhm
11748230
It's very far.
11748050
No kidding, honestly, with how he pretty much caused Equestria to fall 4 times in the show and got off scott-free with no Repercussions of any kind, he doesn't deserve any sympathy. And those actions have only solidified my opinion to how he should remain a villain.
11748402
And possibly again. They way he tells the story in the G5 comic leads me to wonder if he might have had something to do with Equestria falling to bits...
11748437
It wouldn’t surprise me. Once a Spirit of Chaos, ALWAYS, a Spirit of Chaos.
11748676
Given he doesn't seem to work according to any known rules or laws, that makes sense.
11748678
Well, he’s crossed the Moral Event moment several times already, so it adds to it.
11748681
Especially here.
11748682
Indeed, he’s turned into a full-scaled power-hungry psychopathic terrorist.
11748684
Very true. I also dropped an HTTYD reference in there.
11748864
Huh, I think I missed it.
11748866
This is an allusion to Hiccup calling Drago Bludvist out on his true intentions in the second film.
11748869
Oh yes, I got it now. I think Hiccup and Sunny would get along very well if they ever met.
11748871
I bet they would.