Tate310 wanted me to write this up, so here we go. It's a comedy, to be honest.
Enjoy!
...
"Thomas, mind if you do me a favor?"
"Of course Edward! What is it?" Thomas looked up eagerly. It must be something important if it was Edward asking for a favor.
"I need you to talk to James about his...flour issue." Edward said this with some great distaste. Thomas turned pale. There were some things even he wasn't willing to do in the name of being Really Useful.
"But...But why me?"
"Because I've got to stay the night at Wellsworth, Percy's getting sleep for the mail train, Gordon and Henry are too untactful, Toby's helping out at the quarry and Emily said no." Edward was clearly aware that he was asking Thomas to do a great deal of work for little reward, for he added. "And if you do it, I'll get you a branch-line run for the next week or so."
"Done!"
...
Thomas regretted his decision almost immediately, when he saw James watching in terror as the flour trucks were loaded up. He wondered if he could back out, but quickly realized that was going not to be a option.
"James." he remarked. "Are you still doing this?"
"FLOUR IS THE ENEMY!"
"James, for god's sake-"
"YOU LAUGH NOW! BUT WHEN THE FLOUR REVOL-"
"James, this is just a way to get out of doing work, isn't it?"
"No! It is not!" James was clearly serious. Thomas groaned. Why was he even in this situation?
"Look, James, right, flour's used for lots of things! Bread, cakes...uh...uh...pies?" Thomas was reaching here, he actually knew very little about flour. "And, and it's not like it'll hurt you or anything, not like chocolate. So could you please just shunt the trucks?"
James sighed. "You promise it won't hurt me?"
"Have I ever told a- Don't answer that."
James sighed. "All right. If you insist."
...
"I rather think I carried it off well, Edward."
The blue engine said nothing, merely turning his eyes towards James, now attempting to attack Mr Jolly's Chocolate Factory.
"Oh." Thomas groaned. "Here we go again."