Author's notes: This one starts out like a typical episode, then it takes a very somber turn towards the 2nd half. I got very teary eyed towards the end. Anyway, let's go.

Hard Goodbyes

Rachel Narrating: With both William and me out of action, the 7 other Skarloey Railway engines, and the foals found it very hard to keep up with the increasing work load. The Thin Controller and Princess Luna had decided that Skarloey, Pipsqueak, Mr. Hawkins, Rheneas, Babs Seed, Mr. Roberts, Sir Handel, Sweetie Belle, Miss Ravens, Peter Sam, Apple Bloom and Mr Holden should take over most of the 7 o clock to late afternoon passenger runs. Meanwhile, Freddie, Featherweight, Mr. Hoskins, Duncan, Scootaloo and Mr. Thomson took the produce and hay trains in the early morning, noon, afternoon and evenings, and helped Rusty, Apple Bloom and Mr. Hugh with track repairs at night and at dawn, as well as helping out with shunting. Needless to say, Duncan wasn't happy about this at all and complained like anything. Fearless Freddie rolled into the yards to find Duncan bang and bumping trucks and coaches fiercely.

Freddie: Oh boy. He's at it again guys

Featherweight: Oh dear. He's got that look in his eye

Mr. Hoskins: Oh no. He's in rant mode again.

(Duncan bumps trucks hard)

Mr. Thomson: Now careful Duncan! We're lucky to have trucks at all. Please for the love of Sodor, don't contribute to any further damage.

Scootaloo: Yeah. You almost knocked me out of the cab.

Narrating Rachel: But Duncan, still fuming, took not notice.

Duncan: (Grumbling) Shunting! Goods work! Repair work! Why is it always me! Why can't Rusty do this? I want my passengers back! I swear, if I ever see that clumsy, stupid Hunslet Quarry engine klutz again, I swear I'm gonna tear him a new funnel next time. Hmph! Fancy him flying off the wharf as if he was a blue jay, hmph more like turkey! Of all the stupid things an engine can do! Gosh, hasn't that idiot quarry engine ever heard of something called a brake!

Scootaloo: HEY! YOU SHUT UP RIGHT NOW DUNCAN! You know as well as I do that that accident was your fault! You egged William on.

Mr Thomson: Yeah, and I think this shunting, goods work and repair work serves you jolly well right!

Freddie: And so do I and you've been doing more harm than good ever since that accident.

Duncan: Hey! No one asked you Freddie!

Featherweight: Heh. He wasn't telling, he was stating a fact.

Mr Hoskins: Come on, just get over it will ya!

Narrating Rachel: Duncan snorted and went back work. Pipsqueak, Sweetie Belle, Mr. Hawkins, Miss Ravens, Sir Handel and Peter Sam were also finding it difficult too. With William away being mended, they had to take his passenger trains and his goods trains all together, even making mix trains, a train that carries both goods and passenger.

Peter Sam: Boy, I have never had a train this long before, not even on the Mid Sodor Railway back in it's prime. (Sigh) I Hope Rachel and William will come back soon

Sir Handel: Same here. William is like a third brother to me and you, and Rachel is very much like a sister in law to me. I've never had to take coaches and trucks at the same time before.

Pipsqueak: I agree with you guys, but we've just got to make the best of a bad situation.

Sweetie Belle: That's right Pipsqueak my darling. We gotta make sure to keep on running.

Narrating Rachel: The two engines agreed and carried on. At the workshops, I was still being tuned up. William was there too. William told me about what had happened to him and what Duncan had said to him.

Rachel: Oh how awful of that Duncan! He shouldn't have done that to you. Wait till I get my buffers on him, I'll...

William: Please Rachel. It was also my fault too. I should have been more careful, and I really want to try and make a mends to Duncan. I mean, sure we get on the wrong side of each other, but I really don't think he's a bad engine. Really, I mean it.

Narrating Rachel: I was amazed.

Rachel: Oh well, that's quite noble of you William.

Narrating Rachel: Days passed and William and I still hadn't returned from the workshops.

Rachel: I hear that everyone s going to look for Duke. That's fantastic!

William: Same here. I hope they do find him. That will be lovely. I can't wait to meet him.

Narrating Rachel: The two engines sighed happily. Late one evening though, Peter Sam was returning with a down passenger train when he heard yelling and shouting from inside Crovans Gate's office. Peter Sam couldn't hear much, but he could make out a few words.

Luna: THAT'S NOT TRUE! YOU HAS NO PROPERTY ON THEM WHAT SO EVER!

?: I beg to differ! Those two engines belong to me and me only!

Thin Controller: STUFF AND NONSENSE! WE BOUGHT THOSE TWO FROM THEM LEGALLY FROM THE BLUE MOUNTAIN RAILWAY, MISTER J.R COOPER!

J. R Cooper: Sorry. I have the proper papers right here claiming my rightful ownership on them. Now you will have those engines on the ship tomorrow morning or else… I'LL MAKE YOU ALL SORRY YOU DECIDED TO WORK THIS BACK WATER RAILWAY!

Narrating Rachel: Peter Sam then saw a man dressed in a trench coat and a bowler hat his face was concealed but he thought he heard him laughing devilishly as he walked away to his car. Peter Sam puffed away feeling worried and horrified. Back at the, sheds the he told them all about what he heard. The ponies, engines and drivers were horrified.

Peter Sam: Oh, I don't like this at all. What if Sir Handel and I are being sold?

Sir Handel: What if they're going to scrap us?

Peter Sam/Sir Handel: What if this it? We're doomed!

Sir Handel: And then… (Panicking more then ever) Duke will be next!

Peter Sam: (Panicking more then ever) Oh my, oh my! Of all the worst things that could happen, this is the! Worst! Possible! Thing!

Sweetie Belle: Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop acting like my sister, Peter Sam.

Peter Sam: What? I'm not pretending to be Rarity, I really mean it.

Sir Handel: Don't you remember what we told you about the Aluminium Works?

Skarloey: Calm down! We don't know who's case this is just yet!

Apple Bloom: Yeah don't go worrying your fritters about something ya'll don't know fully!

Rheneas: Exactly, we must wait till morning. Then things will be clear.

Miss Ravens: That's a good idea.

Mr. Holden: Don't worry you two. I'm sure things will be alright.

Narrating Rachel: With that, the engines went to sleep and the ponies and the main 6 drivers went to Crovans Gate hotel. But Peter Sam slept badly that night. By morning, they soon found out why and what was going on. As the ponies and driver were getting them ready for the day's work, the Thin controller and Princess Luna came to the sheds, looking very sad.

Luna: Attention please thy foals engines and drivers. We have some very bad news.

Narrating Rachel: The ponies, engines and drivers goggled in horror.

Thin Controller: A man by the name of J.R Cooper had came by today and (tear trickling) We found out that Rachel and William were never ours to own.

Peter Sam/Sweetie Belle/Pipsqueak/Sir Handel/Miss Ravens/Mr. Holden: (Horrified) WWWHHHAATTT?!

Peter Sam: Your lying sir! That can't be true we bought them from misty island back in 1964.

Luna: Yes, but Mister Cooper had documented proof that he had full legal right to the ownership of William and Rachel.

Narrating Rachel: They showed them all the papers and documents. Mr. Holden and Miss Ravens took the note and as they read it, they began to cry.

Miss Ravens: By parliament law we at the ministry of transportation declare that the Ruston and Hornsby Diesel, Rachel…

Mr Holden: And the Hunslet 0-4-0ST steam engine, William, are under private ownership of Mister Jake, Collin Cooper of Misty island sugar plantation railway.

Mr Holden/Miss Ravens: Signed on September 12th, 1960…

Narrating Rachel: Mr. Holden sadly handed back the document and Mr. Holden and Miss Ravens both flooded with tears hugged each other tightly. Peter Sam and Sir Handel were tears as well. Fearless Freddie was right next to them and tried to calm them down. Pipsqueak Sweetie Belle and Mr. Hawkins Mr. Roberts Mr. Thompson and Mr. Hoskins all comforted them by there side. All 6, including the rest of the engines and ponies in the sheds were all flooded with tears even, Princess Luna and Thin Controller.

Peter Sam: I can't believe it! Why! My one and only girlfriend! (Tears)

Sir Handel: (Tears) And poor William. He was like a brother to all of us.

Fearless Freddie/Mr. Thompson/Mr. Hoskins/Mr. Hawkins/Sweetie Belle/Pipsqueak: There there guys. There there….

Narrator: Apple Bloom, Babs Seed, Featherweight and even Scootaloo came over and hugged the grieving Miss Ravens and Mr. Holden.

Thin controller: (Sad) Mr. Holden, Miss Ravens, since the engines are named after you, we want you to take them to the docks for proper goodbye. Peter Sam, I know how much Rachel meant to you. I want you, Sir Handel Pipsqueak and Sweetie Belle to help push them onto Donald's flatbed for their goodbye journey.

Narrating Rachel: The two foals, the two drivers and two engines agreed at once and set off to collect us. Me and William were waiting at the transfer siding, both our faces flooded with tears.

Rachel: Oh Peter Sam. I don't want to go. I don't want to leave you. I love you!

Peter Sam: I know. I know. I love you too. I don't want you to leave either.

William: Sir Handel, I'm gonna miss you and your friends. You've all been like family to me. And please tell Duncan that I'm sorry I rudely called Duncan names and that I forgive him for calling me a slow weak quarry engine and that I no longer have any spark of rivalry towards him.

Sir Handel: Of course I will.

Peter Sam: I want you to remember something Rachel my Darling: No matter how far away you and I Are. We'll always be together just on the other side of our horns and our whistles.

Rachel: Of course darling… I'll always have a special place for you in my frames

Peter Sam: And you will always and always and always be in special place in my boiler.

Narrator: Then as Donald and big Macintosh came sadly in with the flatbed, Peter Sam and Rachel gave each other a kiss full of love and the two engines pushed Rachel and William gently on the flatbed. Miss Ravens and Mr. Holden climbed solemnly aboard Donald and began to set off. Peter Sam and Sir Handel did not stop whistling and the foals did not stop waving until they were out of sight and gone. Then Peter Sam Sweetie Belle, Sir Handel and Pipsqueak with Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Roberts all crying went to work.

William: (Singing teary) Oh, Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling

From glen to glen, and down the mountain side,

Rachel: (Singing teary) The summer's gone, and all the roses falling,

William/Rachel: (Singing tears) It's you, it's you must go and I must bide.

Mr. Holden: (Singing tears) But come ye back when summer's in the meadow,

Miss Ravens: (Singing tears) Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow,

Miss Ravens/Mr. Holden: (Singing tears) It's I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow,

William/Rachel/Miss Ravens/Mr. Holden: (Singing tears ) Oh, Danny Boy, oh Danny Boy, I love you so!

(Arrive at port)

Miss Ravens: (Singing tears) But when ye come, and all the flowers are dying,

Mr. Holden: (Singing tears) If I am dead, as dead I well may be,

Miss Ravens/Mr. Holden: (Singing tears) Ye'll come and find the place where I am lying,

And kneel and say an Ave there for me;

Rachel: (Singing tears) And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me,

William: (Singing tears) And all my grave will warmer, sweeter be,

(Crane off loading Rachel and William.)

Mr. Holden/William/Rachel/Miss Ravens (singing tears) For you will bend and tell me that you love me,
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me!

Narrating Rachel: The ships whistle blew and sailed away as Big Macintosh and Donald burst into tears. Miss Ravens and Mr. Holden burst into tears and hugged each other tightly.

Mr. Holden: (Crying, hugging Miss Ravens) Big Macintosh, I sorry for troubling you, but could just please just take us back to Tidmouth please

Miss Ravens: (Crying and hugging Mr. Holden) Please, we're so Sorry to trouble .

Big Macintosh: (Crying) Eeeyup! (sniff) Anythin' for you two…. Alright Donald. Lets get to tidmouth.

Donald: (Crying) Och…Aye… Big Macintosh!

Narrating Rachel: Big Macintosh opened the regulator and the Donald with Big Macintosh, Mr. Holden and Miss Raven went sadly back to Tidmouth.

(Wiping my face with a tissue) Now that was very sad. But, the next one... you'd better brace yourselves people. See you then.