So before I post the actual story i would just like to tell you some key things to understand how this story was written. Firstly, this story was originally posted on a forum called Three Word Story Revolution (3WSR), which I belong to, and highly recommend readers to check out and become members of, so some of the material in this story is tied to the games and stories found on that found, like the P.T. Boomer references and the ending. Also, this is a one shot, and if requested, I might go into more detail on the story if asked in a review, and I take any criticism you have with it and love reading reviews of my work. Anyways, please enjoy!

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In a time since lost to the past, in the age of King Godred's reign, their was an order led by a group called the Colormen. But this story is about another order, and their magic that came from a similar place...

It all started when a knight, Sir Allcroft, was riding his horse, Lady, when he and his steed grew tired on their journey to the court of the king. They stopped at a small grotto, next to a small pool. While Allcroft rested on the grass and his horse took a drink, the knight stared into the cloudless sky, drifting off into a land of dreams until he heard a fateful noise. It was the sound of something falling, and what was falling towards him was a strange object. In the bright sun's light, he could see it reflecting off a golden glow as it plummeted towards the ground. The object soon crashed into the pool Lady was drinking from, and was embedded into its bottom. Sir Allcroft, surprised by this sudden occurrence, went to investigate the strange phenomena. What he found was a strange, golden crystal that was glowing brightly almost like the morning sun, and it seems to flutter rainbow beams every now and then. When he approached the crystal, a strange entity emerged from it and spoke to the knight.

It said:

"Noble creature of this world, I am a crystal from the heavens sent here to protect a rip between worlds, a crack in the dimensions, that has formed in this very land. I wish to bestow upon you great power, but in return you must promise your loyalty to my spirit, and promise to keep this knowledge that I tell you to only your future generations..."

Sir Allcroft, a noble man who cared for the natural world around him, agreed, and the crystal bestowed upon him the foretold power, but left a few words before it disappeared...

"Very well creature of this land, I will bestow upon you the power and shall make you a protector of this sacred place. You shall forever be known as 'The Herald' of my sacred ground and I wish you will protect it with your life and your generations to come. I will leave behind remnants of my form to help you protect my land. I also wish to have your noble steed become my guardian spirit to protect this land and the land on the other side of the crack you must protect, as a sort of carrier, but if you accept my conditions, you and your family will be bestowed with great capabilities unmatched to any others on this world..."

The crystal soon dissipated into the water, only leaving behind gold dust, filling the entire pool. Sir Allcroft soon cupped some of the strange dust and blew it in a direction towards some strangely arranged rocks. When the dust hit the rocks, a rainbow portal appeared and disappeared within an instant. Sir Allcroft, amazed by this discovery, decided to heed the entity's last words and give some of the gold dust to his horse, Lady. When his steed drank the dust in the water, a rainbow glow spread from head to tail on Lady and his horse began to speak to the knight...

"Herald of the Grotto, I, your faithful steed these many years thank you for bestowing upon me this power left behind for you. As gratitude, I will forever obey the entity's final words and will be a carrier through the portal between worlds we have been left to protect. Now let us go to this other world to know what we must also guard..."

Sir Allcroft, now known as the Herald, got upon Lady, and rode his mighty stallion into the portal after whistling some gold dust towards the rock face. Instead of crashing into it like he thought, he rode out onto a glistening grass field filled with flowers beyond the eye could see... He rode on Lady until he went through another portal, ending up in a strange cave... Allcroft investigated the cave, which led out to a mountain, and claimed it as a sacred area for his duties as well, and returned back to the grotto shortly after. The Herald soon gathered what he would need to protect the area, built a well over the gold dust pool, and used some gold dust to throw off people from arriving near this place...

Many years passed, centuries even before a threat finally caught up with the Herald family line, the world was modernizing, and the island they called home was too. A railway was being built, the Kirk Ronan Branch Line to be precise, and it was getting very close to the Sacred Grotto of the Herald Clan. It was the early 20th century, and times were changing. The latest Herald was a distant descendant of Sir Allcroft and was fulfilling his job like he was raised to, caring for the spirit guardian of the grotto, the horse Lady, and kept watch on anyone from invading the land. When it seemed all hope was lost, the original entity that had given the power to Sir Allcroft spoke to the latest Herald...

"Noble Herald of this era, I thank you for your service to the duty you were raised to receive. This duty is a heavy burden, and I am thankful you have stuck with it all this time. I will bestow upon you a way to conceal this land in plain sight, and will 'modernize' as you call it, this area to protect it from anyone that will do it harm, all I ask you to do is throw some gold dust into the air, and I will do the rest..."

The Herald did just that, and when the gold dust rained down on the area, rail lines had appeared and buffers now replaced the the original rock face that led to the mysterious mountain. Then a rainbow light shone down on the horse guardian Lady, and the horse changed into the 'Iron Horse of the New Era', a Steam Engine... The entity had one last thing to say before it departed again...

"My thanks for protecting this area and keeping nothing from crossing between the worlds can never be expressed, but as a gift for your servitude, I will grant you a new title for this new modern age. You shall forever be known as Mr. Conductor, to alert the arrival of this magical engine... There is also another who I foresee will take over your duties of protecting this guardian spirit..."

The entity then dispersed into nothingness once more, and Mr. Conductor hopped aboard Lady to test the portal. No longer did it require gold dust to blow in front of it, for the steam Lady gave off had gold dust mixed within it, so the portal had enough residue around it that now it could be accessed by anyone, though no one realized this at the time. Mr. Conductor and Lady soon traveled down this 'Magic Railroad' to the sacred mountain...

The duo soon arrived and now found the cave with a track that circled back to the portal, so there was no need of a turntable, and then Mr. Conductor stepped off Lady. Shortly after, a young man stumbled into the strange cave curiously. The man introduced himself as Benedict Stone, and he revealed he lived in a town at the base of the mountain, which was called Muffle Mountain, named Shining Time. He had heard legends about the cave, and claimed to be called to it in his dreams, so he wanted to see it for himself. Mr. Conductor was surprised, since the gold dust prevented all outside forces from directly seeing the cave, and decided this man was the foreseen person determined to guard Lady. Benedict approached Lady and a rainbow glow emitted off the engine, indicating it excepted him. Mr. Conductor then decided to leave Lady in Benedict's care, and promised he would be back. As thanks, Benedict gave Mr. Conductor his lucky whistle, and once combined with the gold dust, Mr. Conductor figured out a way to travel between the worlds without Lady, though she was the key in creating the gold dust he needed, and it was discovered by using this method of travel, a side effect would occur where Mr. Conductor would become smaller, only a few feet off the ground, though he didn't seem to mind. So Mr. Conductor returned to Sodor, promising he would return and would bring Benedict to Sodor soon.

Mr. Conductor later founded 'The Order of the Rails'(TOOTRs, pronounced 'Tooters'), a secret organization of only railwaymen dedicated to protecting the Sacred Grotto, to keep people and railway workers from using or destroying the siding the Magic Buffers to the Magic Railroad were located on. The men do this without even knowing why, as per the agreement made by the Herald and the entity which stated that no one can know about the Magic Railroad, just knowing it was something that has provided a divine protection to the North Western Railway. Its main faction is located in Kirk Ronan, and you can tell whose a member by the color of their whistle, gold, and it is even said that Sir Topham Hatt was a member at one point. Benedict would later build a workshop in the cave on Muffle Mountain to keep Lady in working order, and his grandson, Burnett, would later take over caring for the magical engine. Mr Conductor would later have a son, Mr. Conductor (Ringo Starr), or easier said as Conductor Starr, who started the trend of visiting Shining Time while checking up on Lady every so often. This brings us into the modern era, where the adventure on the Magic Railroad with Thomas, Lady and Diesel 10 occurred, but I think you all know that story so I won't 'echo' the story you are all familiar with. Though one thing to note about that story, the infamous P.T. Boomer, who was originally from the world Burnett resides in, was trapped on Sodor as the Magic Railroad would not let him return home as punishment for misusing itself. There have been many Conductors since the first Herald, wit their own stories to tell, but those are tales for another time...

Now the latest Mr. Conductor, Mark (Morghan), has been tasked with taking up this sacred duty, and now with trouble brewing and the Magic Railroad in danger, what will become of this link between worlds...