AN: At long last, I finally rewrote the long-awaited epilogue! I wrote this a while back for a friend in my universe, and now it's finally all out in yours! Here's the reviews!
Chaoslord 678, on everything: Hope you liked how I punished Boomer!
TheWoosmann, on Daniella: Yep, it's the same Daniella! She was fun to work with. Very open! And I'm a fan of Victor Tanzig!
Boss Teal, on Dr. Seuss: He referenced Horton Hears a Who in Chapter 19.
Guest, on Crana's origins: It would've been similar to other early 19th-century English railways. It was a bit further north than Skarloey, so they've never met her personally. Skarloey and Rheneas were pretty sure that she was real long before she revealed herself, though.
P123, on karma: Vinnie's fate shall be revealed here!
Shootingstarstories, on questions: Many had figured it was a trap. Lifers cannot come back to life for various thermodynamic reasons. Alfred is deceased as of this story's setting, and I'm not doing a deus ex machina.
Guest, on forcing me to see their stories: You're impersonating a real person. Please stop.
DigitalBookworm1, on more chapters: This is the last one! If you want more TTTE content, check out TTTE True Story, the BoD's official prequel anthology series!
Loganthe9f51, on the story: Thanks!
Guest, on the story: Thanks!
GeneralUrist, on the worldbuilding: When in doubt about why supernatural stuff is happening, aliens are your best justification.
LadyTen shipper: It's a cover of The Great Race's first song!
Guest, on Harold's death: War doesn't care who dies.
Guest, on Thomas' plan: Here's the plan!
saphirefox-irl, on the new home: It's in here, and it's done!
Two years later, June 2024
Mitch drove along the rails, taking in the sunlight as his mixed freight train rattled behind him. "It's been two years and I'm still amazed there was just all of this...unwanted track up here in New Brunswick, just right for us to live on."
"Indeed it is, my friend," Alex said from behind him. "Thomas may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but he definitely scored big with this one."
Thomas had suggested sending the former Mesa Roja and Muffle Mountain fleets to a railway that no one had any use for, and forming a sort-of second NWR on it. Sir Topham Hatt thought it was a splendid idea and purchased the defunct Canada Eastern Railway for use as a subsidiary of the NWR. Now called the Sodor-Canada Railway, the SCR became a second home for those engines too large to fit Sodor's loading gauge, and most of the MRR & MMR (heh, MMR) fleets lived there now.
"Chin up, Vinnie," the caboose at the end of the train called to Vinnie, who was stuck with garbage duty for the foreseeable future with the other troublemakers, as the double-header passed him. "Ten more years of this and you might finally get probation!" Vinnie scowled and looked away.
"Speaking of years, today's the big day, isn't it?" Mitch asked Alex.
"Yep. And I couldn't be any prouder."
Charlie bustled to and fro along the Golden Railway. "Even with the – huff – old managers gone – huff – and us running the place now – HUFF – there's still a lot of work."
"That's just for this week," John said as he watched his apprentice. "Splatter and Dodge wouldn't miss the wedding for anything in the world." Charlie nodded thoughtfully as he set off to assemble another train.
"He's grown so much since Sir Topham sent him away," Sally noted as she passed them.
"But of course, my dear. That's the whole reason we take apprentices in the first place."
Emily sighed as she stared at Black Loch, remembering the past.
September 2022. Emily was chosen to be on the all-Lifer jury, the world's very first, to try P. T. Boomer for crimes against Liferity. And she was chosen to speak. "We the jury find Pete Tiberius Boomer guilty of 476 counts of first-degree murder, impersonation of a government official, and 50 counts of tax fraud."
"Tax fraud?" asked a small speedboat.
"Weren't you listening, man?" responded a Chevrolet Impala. "He had to pay for his boat SOMEHOW."
Frieda, who'd been chosen as the judge for her surprisingly vast understanding of law, glared wickedly at Boomer, who'd been rendered quadriplegic by Nick's hit. "Very vell. Herr Boomer, you shall be sentenced to one century in prison, no parole. Am I clear?"
Boomer sighed. "You are."
"Dismissed. Lock him up."
"Emily, there you are!" Thomas wheeshed. "C'mon, we're gonna be late!"
"Don't you have Rosie to look after?" Emily asked. Rosie had finally confessed to Thomas the year prior, and they'd been steadily dating ever since. Emily felt that she'd lost something big, and withdrew into herself.
"Well, I've been doing some thinking, and...I actually kinda like you too? I don't think it'd be right to just leave you to be all lonely. And Rosie said something about how she's starting to question her relationship with you..."
Emily blushed before it hit her. "Wait a minute...Lucy was right the whole time?!"
Elsewhere, Lucy cackled madly as Thunder and Lightning, sulking, handed over the money. "I KNEW IT!"
Nick gently lowered a bouquet of daffodils onto the ground in front of the metal place, now encased in stone. "Hey, darling," he said. "Well, today's the day. Guess it's...finally time to move on." A slight breeze brushed across the flowers, and Nick could feel Cressida's ghost giving her consent.
"Nice tie," Splatter said when Nick had reversed out of Ballahoo Memorial Park, where the remains of those Boomer had killed were put to rest.
Nick looked down at his bufferbeam, which was magnetized to a comically-oversized red bowtie. "Is it too much?"
"Don't sweat it, Nick. You only get married once," Dodge shrugged. His eyes widened when he realized his mistake. "Or, uh, twice in your case, uh...I can't do emotions."
"You don't have to. Being here is enough for me." Dodge smiled and the three diesels motored on to Vicarstown.
At Vicarstown Station, Trevor cleared his throat. "And where is the bride?"
"Billy had to pick her up from the Steamworks, said there was a surprise she had to get ready," Molly explained. "She should be here shortly."
"And here's the surprise!" Billy announced, bustling in with the very same boxcar he'd smuggled the little tank engine to Sodor in. "Okay, Lady, it's showtime!" The door came down, and Lady rolled out before clambering over the rails to face her groom. When the guests at the station saw her, they gasped as one.
Lady looked very different now. Gone were her golden trim and grape purple paint, gone were her fancy funnel and dome. Instead, she was clad in an elegant dark red, with a simple smooth dome & a funnel as black as her smokebox. Her lips were delicately painted a bright ocean blue, which did wonders for her silvery eyes.
"You got repainted?" Nick managed to get out.
"It's a new era of my life, I figured I should look the part," Lady shrugged. "And I recall you saying you'd love to see me in red."
Trevor chuckled. "Ah, young love. Anyway, today we are here to celebrate the union of Lady of Allcroft and Dominic of Mitton. Lady, do you take this engine as your spouse?"
"I do."
"And you, Dominic, do you reciprocate?"
"Yep."
"Then I pronounce you engines in love. Ms. Mitton, if you would be so kind."
Nick's creator nodded and handed Huxley and Stone two small keychains, Lady for the former and Nick for the latter. They entered their engines' cabs and clipped them onto their controls. Now that the Lifers were self-mobile, there was no need for their fireboxes to open ever again; fuel came directly through the mouth now.
"There you are. Now proclaim your love!"
Nick and Lady looked behind them. Thomas was beaming, Rosie in one hand and...Emily in the other, still getting used to that apparent prospect. Percy and Donna were beaming equally brightly, James and Molly looking hopeful, Gordon and Lucy consoling a crying Henry (apparently Henry cried at weddings; who knew?), Derek and Mavis nodding their approval, and Billy, Splodge, Toby, Henrietta, Murdoch, Paxton, and Crana applauding them (quietly, of course).
They kissed.
Ten years later
"And there you have it," I said. "That's my father's tale of redemption. But his story, and my mother's story, are far from over." I raised my pantographs high, electricity crackling above my cinnamon-brown, modified PRR E3c body. "And as long as I, Cressida II, live, I shall continue to tell them!"
THE END.
Bonus song!
Billy:
Gosh, it disturbs me to see you, D10, looking so down in the dumps.
Everyone here'd love to BE you, D10, even when taking your lumps.
There's no engine around as respected as you,
And though you're not everyone's favorite guy,
I'm really awed, and inspired by you,
And it's not very hard to see why.
No
One's
Slick as D10!
Pulls a trick like D10!
No one's got a wit quite as quick as D10!
Gordon:
There's no other engine half as useful.
Express coaches:
He knows exactly what all's going on!
Thomas:
You can ask any Tom, Rick, or Stanley,
Stanley:
And they'd tell you whose team
Richard:
They'd prefer to be on!
Billy:
Who's got
Heart like D10?
Percy:
Can restart like D10?
Mavis:
Who is worth far more than just spare parts like D10?
Nick:
As a specimen, yes, I'm intimidating!
All:
Ten out of ten, that D10!
Nick:
I needed encouragement, thank you, my friends.
James:
You'd think that by now this fanfiction would END!
(beat)
James:
What? Too meta?
Nick:
Kind of, yeah.
(beat)
Billy:
No
One
Fights like D10!
Alex:
For equal rights like D10!
Rosie:
Who could easily install a light like D10?
Nick:
When I shunt, I send down spines a shiver,
For all of the trucks must beware
As I prepare to stand and deliver
Before I shove from BEHIND!
Molly:
Is that fair?
Lady:
Eh, who cares?
Billy:
No
One
Hauls like D10!
Henry:
Has a thrall like D10!
Salty:
And be lookin' for justice for all like D10!
Nick:
And I'm really quite good at modern art creating!
(proceeds to carve his face into a mountainside with Pinchy)
All:
...Ten points for D10!
Nick:
When I was a plan, I had two Blomberg trucks
To allow me to perform my deeds.
And now that I'm built, I've two Flexicoil trucks,
Granting me a phenomenal top spee-HEED!
(musical & dance interlude as Nick dances his way across the island before making his way to Tidmouth Sheds)
Billy:
Who's got
Brains like D10?
Emily:
And pulls trains like D10?
Lucy:
Who's subject to these endless refrains like D10?
Nick:
(turning around on the turntable dramatically)
I've come so far from stealing Christmas decorations.
All:
Say it again!
Who's that useful engine?
He's a super success,
Don't you know? Can't you guess?
Nick looked into the sky and saw Cressida's ghost. She smiled at him and nodded before fading away.
From passenger trains to pylons,
There's one engine around who's got all of it DOOOOOOOOOOWN!
Crana:
And his name's
D-E-E-Z-
Is there another Z?
It just occurred to me that I've been asleep so long
That I don't know how spell the word.
...Oh, bother, that isn't even his actual name!
All:
DO-MI-NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIC!
And NOW it's THE END.