Wow. I should have updated this a long time ago! Why have I not been updating my stories lately? Well, it's all down to college work. Nevertheless, without any further ado or delay, here's a new story I wrote back in the summer of 2014! Plus, you'll find a lot of references to My Little Pony, Tugs, Starlight Express, Shining Time Station, and Thomas and the Magic Railroad!

The Railway Series Evolution

Story 31: Rainbow Dash and Applejack

New story written by Shimmering Sparkles

In the summer of 1989, a sixteen-year-old blonde girl named Jacqueline "Jackie" Smith had no idea what she was in for when she and her family moved from America when her father got a new job in the United Kingdom. After landing at London Heathrow Airport, the Smiths rode a high-speed train named Pip and Emma all the way from London to Barrow-in-Furness.

"Where are we goin' now, Pop?" asked Jackie.

"All the way to Sodor, Jacqueline," replied her father.

"Sodor?" remarked Jackie, "As seen on that television show mah little cousins watch?"

"The very same."

Jackie looked all around the station. She'd been told to stay close by her parents, but she couldn't help herself observing the station with curiosity. As she observed her surroundings with wonderment, Jackie bumped into a seventeen-year-old brunette girl.

"Hey! Careful, miss!" the brunette girl remarked.

"Sorry, partner," said Jackie, "Ah just let mah curiosity get the best o' me."

"Partner?" the other girl asked in confusion, "You're from the States, aren't you?"

"Eeyup," said Jackie, "mah name's Jackie. What's yers?"

"I'm Dash Ball," said the brunette girl, "nice to meet ya!" she added, giving Jackie a hard slap on the back.

"Ah!"

"Sorry, Jack," said Dash, "where ya headed?"

"Ah'm headed towards Sodor cause my pop's got a new job there," explained Jackie.

"Far out!" remarked Dash, "My parents are sending me there to apply for a job on the North Western Railway."

"Ah never knew girls could work on railroads!" exclaimed Jackie.

"Railroad?" Dash raised an eyebrow in confusion, "You're in the United Kingdom; we use the term railway!"

"Oh, sorry," said Jackie, "Ah'm not used to British terminology, y'see…"

"Jackie, are you still with us?" called out her father.

"Oh, hey, Pop," said Jackie, "just made a new friend with Dash here; she's comin' to Sodor just lak us."

"Really? Well then, please to make yer acquaintance, Miss Dash," said Jackie's father.

"Likewise, Mister… er…"

"Smith."

"Mr. Smith."

"Attention, passengers – the mid-afternoon service from Barrow to Tidmouth shall be departing on platform three in ten minutes."

Quickly, Dash and the Smith family rushed to platform three. There, standing on the platform, was a blue Standard class 4 tank engine named Belle pulling six recently refurbished Pullman coaches; Madeleine the first-class coach, Buffy the buffet car, Ashley the second-class coach, Dinah the dining car, Duvay the sleeper, and at the rear of the train was Pearl the observation car. Each Pullman coach had a nameplate on both of her sides.

Dash and the Smiths boarded Pearl and had their tickets checked, although not without Jackie calling the guard "Mr. Conductor" before Dash corrected her saying the British term was "Mr. Guard".

The guard blew on his whistle and waved the green flag, and with a shrill whistle, Belle pulled out of the station.

From inside Pearl, Dash and Jackie observed the outside views as the train rolled over the Vicarstown Rolling Bridge onto Sodor. Some of the sights the two girls saw were Henry's Tunnel, the Big Dipper crossing over River Hoo ("it gained its name after an accident in 1923," explained Dash), and the Skarloey Railway by Crovan's Gate.

After many more wonderful sights and landmarks, Belle and the Pullman coaches finally pulled into Tidmouth Station. On the station walls were a few posters depicting the Roaring 20s, and they featured two tugboat fleets known as the Star Tugs and Z-Stacks.

Dash and the Smith family got out of Pearl and walked towards the stationmaster's office. The station mistress, Stacy Jones, wore a red suit as opposed to the standard blue outfit worn by most railway employees. She was a friendly woman in her mid-thirties and everyone's idea of a favorite aunt. Upon hearing a knock at the door, Stacy called whoever was knocking to come in.

"Good evening, madam," said Jackie's father after entering, followed by his daughter and Dash.

"Oh, good evening, Mister… Peter Smith?" asked Stacy, looking at the papers.

"That's me, alright," he replied, "and ya'll are…?"

"Stacy Jones, station mistress at Tidmouth," she replied, "you're here for your job interview to become mechanic for Crovan's Gate Steamworks, correct?"

"Eeyup," replied Jackie's father, "mah daughter Jackie's also applyin' as a cleaner for Tidmouth, and so is her new friend Dash Ball." He gestured to the brunette teenage girl as he said the last part.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you as well, Miss Ball," said Stacy, shaking hands with Dash, "your parents say you've got potential."

"I guess I do," Dash chuckled. After about an hour of discussion, Stacy promised the three that they would have a word with Sir Topham Hatt first thing in the morning.

The following morning, Jackie, her father and Dash were in the Fat Controller's office, awaiting the verdict.

"I'm pleased to tell Mr. Smith that he's gotten a place among the faithful mechanics at Crovan's Gate Steamworks," he told them, "as for Jacqueline and Dash, you will be cleaners at Tidmouth locomotive sheds."

"Oh, thank ya very much, sir," said Jackie's father, shaking the Fat Controller's hand, "with mah skills back in the States, I'll be the best darn mechanic Ah can be!"

Within a week, Jackie and Dash became accustomed to waking up early and helping prepare the engines for the days' work. The engines, in turn, enjoyed their company and the girls often entertained them with jokes and stories. At the Steamworks, they found Jackie's father's skills to exceed their expectations, and the engines were impressed by his handiwork; for someone from America, he seemed to understand British technology like a professional.

One August morning, Jackie and the engines were having a discussion about Dash, who'd taken the day off. She'd told them she thought brown was dull for a hair color and wanted to dye it something else.

"I hear she's going to dye her hair red, just like my paint," said James.

"Rubbish," scoffed Gordon, "Dash told me her new hair color would be blue."

"Ha! You're both wrong," retorted Henry, "she said her hair would be green!"

"If that were the case," smirked James, "you and she would be a great match for your love of trees. You know how much you love the forest."

"For your information," snapped Henry, "she's more interested in athletics than nature."

"From what I heard from her," said Rosie, "Dash said she wanted purple hair."

"What kind of a stupid hair color is that?" scoffed Gordon.

"Douggie and I hear she'll be dyin' her hair oorange," remarked Donald, "almost reminds us of the Oorange Order back in Scotland from two centuries ago."

"Erm, Dash said her new hair color would be yellow," said Molly softly, "just like Jackie's."

"Does this mean Dash can't make up her darned mind about her hair color?" asked Jackie, taking a bite out of a juicy red apple.

As the engines argued for what hair color Dash would have, Belle watched with great amusement. Out of the engines, she enjoyed the company of Dash and Jackie best of all, and observed the American blonde eating her apple.

The following morning, Jackie and the engines received quite a surprise when Dash turned up. Her hair wasn't red, orange, yellow, green, blue, or even purple individually! No, her hair was streaked all six colors, almost like a rainbow.

"What've you done with your hair?!" exclaimed James, "Did you explode paint all over it?!"

"I think her hair looks very colorful," complimented Rosie.

"Yeah, so do I, Rose," said Dash, "I went for all six colors to make my hair 20% cooler."

"What kind of bizarre phrase is that?" asked Gordon.

"I like her hair too," said Belle, "it reminds me of a rainbow, Dash."

"Rainbow, Dash?" asked Jackie in confusion.

"Not a bad nickname for her, isn't it, Applejack?" joked Belle.

"Wait, she's Applejack?" asked Dash.

"I thought it up as her favorite fruit is apples," explained Belle, "and my driver has heard of an American beverage called applejack. And I gave Dash her nickname because of her newly-dyed rainbow hair."

"I like the sound of Rainbow Dash," said the girl with rainbow hair, "better than plain old Dash any day!"

"And Ah don't mind bein' called Applejack either," the American girl conceded.

"Applejack and Rainbow Dash," remarked Molly, "quite a pair of names, I do say so myself."

And so, Rainbow Dash and Applejack became the two girls' nicknames. Her father and the Fat Controller also liked the nicknames, and even admitted that they suited them to the ground. Over the years, Rainbow Dash and Applejack worked on the North Western Railway starting off as cleaners, and eventually working their way up to being second-hand drivers.

In the early 2010s, a children's television show for little girls featured two colorful horses named for the two women now in their late thirties. They were surprised by that, even more so when teenage boys and grown men also flocked to the show, some of them being NWR employees.

Both Rainbow Dash and Applejack found themselves watching the show with their respective children, and could only agree that in their early days on Sodor, they were very much like their pony counterparts.

And that was my latest offering! So sorry for the lack of updates, but I promise to update as often as I can, at least once a month! This was up to prove I'm not dead; I've just been inactive lately. For the record, this is not a crossover story; the Rainbow Dash and Applejack in this story are different characters to those from My Little Pony, and are not humanizations either.