MARION MARKS THE SPOT
One day, Bill and Ben, the cheeky tank engine twins, were at the Clay Pits preparing to take their trains.
"Come on, Bill! We're going to be late if you don't hurry up!" Ben called to Bill as he waited with his train of loaded trucks.
"I can't leave yet if my train isn't full, Ben; besides, we're ahead of schedule already, so cool your boiler!" Bill retorted, before gasping in surprise as he felt a low rumbling from one of his trucks. He angrily looked back.
"Give me a warning next time, Marion!" He shouted. Ben smirked.
"Scared of a few rocks, Bill?" He teased. Bill fumed.
"At least I'm not scared of tunnels!" He retorted.
"That was one time! Besides, I didn't know what was in there; completely unknown! You would have felt the same…" Ben replied.
"Oh, I don't know, I think the unknown can be rather exciting! I look at every journey as an adventure; look at you two now! Charging off on a grand expedition with intrigue at every corner!" Bill and Ben looked towards the back of Bill's train, where Marion the Steam Shovel was loading his trucks on an outside line with an enormous grin on her face. Ben raised an eyebrow.
"We're only going to the Docks, Marion; would hardly call that 'exciting'." He replied. Marion chuckled.
"Oh, I know. I just love adventure: facing the unknown head-on, finding something no one has ever seen before…all of it!" She dropped some clay in Bill's last truck, and the tank engine grinned.
"Finished! Race you there!" He called and whistled before speeding away. Marion gasped as she quickly swung her arm out of the way of Bill's brakevan.
"Bill!" Ben gasped as Bill sped by.
"No fair! See you, Marion." Ben whistled and quickly followed after Bill, leaving Marion behind to watch the twins go.
"Those two are awfully silly…oh well, back to digging!" Marion excitedly went back to digging and loading trucks.
Bill and Ben raced side by side the whole way to the Docks, and were approaching fast, neck-and-neck. Bill grinned as his pistons pounded the rails.
"I'm going to win!" He taunted as he crept ahead. Ben tried to go faster.
"No, I am!" They rounded the bend to approach the Docks, and Bill managed to speed ahead at the last second before blitzing under the Sodor Shipping Company office and triumphantly braking to a stop, whistling loudly.
"I did it! I won!" He taunted in a sing-song voice as Ben braked alongside.
"Yeah, well…I let you win!"
"No, you didn't!"
"Yes, I did!"
"No, you didn't!"
"Yes, I did!"
"Ahoy, mateys!" Bill and Ben stopped their arguing to see Salty across the way, parked next to Porter.
"Hi, Salty." The twins greeted.
"I'm about to tell Carly here her first Salty story; care to hear about the treasure of the Golden Neptune?" Bill and Ben looked up at Carly the Crane, who looked as if she were about to burst at the seams with joy.
"I'm so excited! I finally get to hear one of Salty's stories!" She cheered. Big Mickey smiled, but Cranky simply rolled his eyes.
"You weren't missing much…" He muttered. Bill and Ben grinned.
"Yes, Salty!"
"Yes please, Salty!" Bill glared at Ben correcting him, but Salty laughed.
"Alright then, mateys…" His expression immediately became serious.
"Ol' Captain Kurt sailed by the light of the moon
He pillaged and plunderéd every doubloon
His gold and jewels put the heat on his crew
But that scurvy old captain knew just what to do." He spoke the poem ominously. Carly gasped delightedly, and even Bill and Ben looked raptured. The only one uninterested was Cranky, who rolled his eyes as Salty continued in the dramatic voice.
"He found the beaches of Brendam to be of good worth,
Put his loot in a chest, buried it in the earth
A marker was left; two crossed swords in the ground
Find the blades and the Golden Neptune's treasure you've found." Bill and Ben shared an intrigued glance.
"What is the Golden Neptune, Salty?" Salty grinned.
"The Golden Neptune is a pirate ship. Long before rails and engines were even thought of, the captain of the ship sailed onto our shores to bury his treasure to prevent rivals from stealing it. He marked his treasure with two lines in the sand; an 'X'."
"X marks the spot!" Carly interrupted, before blushing.
"Sorry, I'll be quiet!" Salty chuckled, still in his ominous sailor character.
"That's right, Carly. Legend has it that the treasure is buried somewhere nearby the Clay Pits, where Bill and Ben work, but-" Bill and Ben gasped.
"There's treasure!?" Bill squeaked.
"Treasure buried near the clay pits!?" Ben squawked, and the twins began uncontrollably grinning.
"Let me finish." Salty interrupted, before going right back into character.
"Many have tried to look for the treasure and failed; it's been lost to time…" He finished his story. Carly beamed.
"Oh, great story, Salty! Thanks for telling it!" Salty smiled.
"You're welcome, Carly." He looked to Bill and Ben, who looked rather disappointed.
"How boring is that?" Ben lamented.
"There's supposed to be treasure near the Clay Pits, but no one's found it; it's probably not even there!" Bill snorted. Salty laughed.
"You two can believe just as much of my stories as you want, but just because no one's found the treasure doesn't mean it isn't there." He honked his horn and headed away to do more shunting, leaving Porter with Bill and Ben.
"Bill, Ben, you can leave your loads here; the ship is leaving at 4:00 so you need to have the entire order here by then. Make sure to tell Marion and Timothy!" Ben rolled his eyes.
"We have plenty of time, Porter! You'll have the clay soon enough, no need to get in a tizzy about it!" Porter rolled his eyes.
"Just trying to help." He whistled and rolled away. Ben looked to Bill, who looked deep in thought.
"What are you thinking about, Bill?" Bill grinned.
"If there was treasure in the clay pits…how great would it be if we found it?" Ben smirked.
"You're a genius. Marion loves that sort of thing; she'd totally help us!" Bill laughed.
"We're going to find treasure! We'll be heroes!" The twins laughed triumphantly before scampering away back to the clay pits.
Bill and Ben chattered about the treasure the whole way back to the Clay Pits, and were still chattering when they rolled in to collect their next load.
"Marion! Marion!" They called as they sped in. Marion, who was loading some trucks, raised an eyebrow.
"Yes?" She asked. The twins grinned excitedly.
"There's pirate treasure in the clay pits!" Ben cheered. Marion gasped.
"Really? Is it buried? In the dirt?" A smile slowly began to creep onto her face as well.
"Yeah! Salty told us about it! The 'treasure of the Golden Neptune'! We have to find it!" Bill added. The steam shovel beamed.
"Absolutely! We have no time to lose! Come on, you two! Treasure awaits! We'll dig it up in no time at all!" Bill, Ben, and Marion began to roll towards the rest of the clay pits to search for the treasure, but were interrupted by a whistle.
"Wait! Where are you all going?" Bill raised an eyebrow at the little blue oil-burning engine blocking their line.
"To find treasure, obviously, Timothy." Timothy frowned.
"Not while there's work to do! We have a big order due out later today and we all need to be working as hard as we can; you can't simply go off treasure-hunting whenever you please!" Bill and Ben rolled their eyes.
"Whatever."
"No fun at all, as usual. Come on, Marion!" Bill and Ben started to scamper away, but Marion could see that Timothy was giving her an expectant look and quickly cleared her throat.
"No, you two, Timothy is right. There's work to do! Important work!" She appeared to have trouble convincing herself, but she doubled down on her seriousness.
"Go and fetch more empty trucks for me to load up, please." Bill and Ben gave each other a look before rolling their eyes.
"Fine."
"Way to ruin our fun, Timothy." The twins scampered away, leaving Timothy to give Marion an exhausted look. She smiled.
"Your trucks are in the sidings, Timothy." Timothy smiled back.
"Thanks, Marion!" He whistled and headed away to collect them. As Marion returned to digging, she couldn't help but think about what Bill and Ben had said.
"Buried treasure…it'd be wonderful if I found more buried treasure! I'd be a real archaeologist, digging up ruins of the past…oh yes…" She fantasized, grinning from buffer to buffer.
Bill and Ben had gone to fetch the empty trucks, and were still in a foul mood about Timothy.
"That Timothy! What a spoilsport!" Bill complained as he banged the trucks into a line. Ben snorted.
"Yeah, especially after Marion seemed so excited! Besides, we have hours before the order needs to be at the docks; plenty of time to dig up treasure!" He bumped into the trucks, causing them to roll forwards. Bill rolled his eyes.
"Or at least something more exciting than just clay…" He grumbled. Ben murmured in agreement, but the two heard a whistle and saw Timothy leaving the clay pits with his full train in tow.
"See you later, Marion! Keep the twins in order and everything on track for me!" He called.
"Will do!" Marion's voice called back. Suddenly, a thoughtful smirk crossed Ben's face.
"Marion did seem very excited, didn't she?" He muttered. Bill was at first confused, but instantly caught on.
"Oh yes! I'm sure she just needs a little more…"
"…convincing!" The twins finished together before mischievously smirking and puffing towards Marion with their empty trucks. As they rolled alongside, they could see Marion still digging away.
"Archaeologist Marion searches every crack, every abnormality, to try and find some indication of the treasure lurking beneath the walls of clay-""Hey, Marion!"
"GAH!" Marion promptly dropped the rocks she had been holding in her shovel on the ground, startled. Bill and Ben shared a look before smiling.
"We think you'd be a huge help to us in finding the treasure, Marion!"
"After all, you have found treasure before."
"Exactly! You know more about digging up treasure than anyone we know!" Marion couldn't help breaking into a smile.
"Thank you, you two, but there's clay to shift! And dig! Dig! Dig! Dig!" She quickly returned to work, trying to distract herself. Bill and Ben smirked.
"Marion, we want to find the pirate treasure-"
"But only if we make you our pirate captain! What do you say?" Marion paused, as her eyes began to widen. As much as she tried to force herself not to, she began grinning like a loon and looked back to Bill and Ben excitedly.
"Oh…I don't suppose looking for treasure for a little while could do us any harm…but only if we get right back to work afterwards!"
"Yeah, yeah, of course, Marion."
"Now, come on, let's go! We have treasure to find!" Marion swung her arm in front of Bill and Ben's tracks, causing the two to brake suddenly. Bill looked cross.
"What was that for?" Marion chuckled.
"Most of the quarry's been dug out; why don't we start near the top? If there's anything that was buried there before, it's bound to be up there! Come on, me scurvy crew!" She put on a pirate voice before Bill and Ben grinned.
"Aye aye, captain!" The twins chorused, and charged towards the upper part of the quarry, Marion following behind.
"Search everywhere! We'll find that treasure! ONWARDS!" None of the three had noticed the partially filled trucks Marion had left by the line…as well as the empties that remained in the sidings.
Timothy arrived at the docks with his full trucks and left them by the cranes. He saw Porter shunting trucks nearby.
"Hello, Porter." He called, and Porter braked to a halt, smiling.
"Timothy! Wonderful to have you down here; a nice change from the twins causing trouble!" Timothy laughed.
"They work hard, but you do always have to nudge them in the right direction to get them to do what you want. They came back to the pits from here talking about finding buried treasure…seems silly to me." Porter's expression became more serious as Timothy laughed.
"Very silly indeed. You should make sure they're staying on task; you only have a few hours!" Timothy looked up at the clock and saw that it was two o'clock. He chuckled nervously.
"Marion's keeping an eye on them; we'll have the whole order here on time!" Porter whistled and continued on as Timothy began showing his nerves.
"I should remind them of the deadline…I hope they're doing all the work they're supposed to…"
They weren't.
"Alright, first mates Bill and Ben! Give your captain more trucks! We'll dig up the Golden Neptune's treasure in no time!" Marion announced jovially as she took another scoop of dirt from the mountain where she was digging, while Bill and Ben pushed a line of trucks alongside her on the other line. The twins shared a grin.
"Aye aye, captain Marion!" They called before laughing.
"This is so much more fun than pulling trucks back and forth all day!" Ben grinned at his twin.
"Timothy doesn't know what he's missing!" Bill replied. As they moved another truck forward, Marion sang happily to herself.
"I love digging! I love treasure! For my love of both, there is no measure!" She dumped more rock into the twins' trucks. Bill laughed.
"This is much more fun than filling trucks and shunting trains, eh, Marion?" Ben bumped his twin as Marion's happy expression vanished.
"Bill!" He hissed. Marion gasped.
"We still need to shunt the trains for the order! Oh dear, I hope there's still time!"
"Relax, Marion! We have plenty! Besides, we're so close to finding the treasure that giving up now makes no sense at all." Ben soothed, smirking. Marion relaxed.
"Oh, I suppose you're right…BACK TO TREASURE!" She returned to digging. Ben glared at Bill.
"Way to almost spoil our fun, Bill." Bill rolled his eyes, and they continued their quest for treasure.
Timothy returned to the Clay Pits soon enough, but was shocked to find…
"There are no more trains ready?" He looked around at the trucks, not appearing to have moved since he left to begin with.
"Marion! Bill! Ben! Where is everyone?" He called but received no reply; the other engines were nowhere in sight. As he moved along, he saw that not a single truck had been filled with clay.
"Why are these trucks empty?" He started to panic and scanned the Clay Pits for any sign of the other engines. Finally, he spotted a cloud of steam coming from the upper part of the clay pits.
"What are they doing up there?" He wondered and quickly puffed up to try and get their attention.
Marion was still digging in the mountainside, Bill and Ben waiting expectantly alongside her with almost filled trucks.
"Found anything yet, Marion?" Ben called as he and Bill waited with anticipation. Marion dug another bucketful of dirt and shook her shovel back and forth, but heard nothing.
"Nothing yet, but get me more trucks! We'll find that treasure or bust!" Bill and Ben grinned before reversing down the hill with their line of trucks in front, but they promptly heard a whistle.
"Stop!" Bill and Ben slammed on the brakes and their trucks bumped together. The twins looked back to see an angry-looking Timothy staring at them.
"Out of the way, Timothy!"
"We're busy!"
"What you two should be busy with is the clay order; we don't have much time and there are no more trains waiting to be taken to the docks! What have you two been doing? Where's Marion?" Before the twins could reply, they heard a "clunk" and an excited voice from up the hill.
"Bill! Ben! I found something!" Marion called. Timothy raised an eyebrow at the twins, who grinned sheepishly before the oil-burner made his way up the hill alongside Marion.
"What are you doing, Marion?" He asked. Marion grinned.
"Looking for the buried treasure of the Golden Neptune, Timothy!" Timothy looked utterly dumbfounded.
"Instead of loading clay trucks! We have hardly an hour left, Marion; the shipment could be late!" Marion gasped.
"The shipment! Oh dear, I must have lost track of time!" She promptly dropped the load of dirt she had in her shovel alongside the line before starting to try to reverse.
"Bill! Ben! Put those trucks away right now, we have trains to prepare! The order can't be late!" Timothy gasped as he saw Marion heading towards him and quickly reversed away, trying to avoid Marion. Bill and Ben reversed down on the other line after them.
"Right, Marion!"
"Coming, Marion!" No one noticed a small golden glimmer shine from within the small pile of dirt that had fallen out of Marion's shovel…
The clay pits quartet quickly went into overdrive. Bill, Ben, and Timothy ran back and forth from the Docks as fast as they could with loaded trains of clay. Bill sped around the bend into the Docks and gasped as he saw a large pile of crates being lifted right across his line. He slammed on the brakes and came to a stop as the crates moved out of the way.
"Watch it, Big Mickey! Important delivery coming through!" Bill rolled forwards with his clay trucks again, leaving Big Mickey to raise an eyebrow as he sped towards where Cranky and Carly were starting to load up the ship.
"Mmm." He grunted.
While the three engines dashed back and forth between the docks and clay pits, Marion ran from truck to truck all over the Clay Pits and filling them as fast as she could.
"Dig! Dig! Dig! Dig!" She recited frantically as she quickly dug up rocks and placed them into trucks.
"Oh, I've been so silly…no time for that now! Digging! Digging!" She loaded the final truck on a train and quickly wound up and whacked the brake van with her shovel, sending the train flying down the line towards Timothy. The oil-burning engine gasped with surprise as the train bumped against his buffers.
"That's a new one." He muttered before whistling and speeding away.
"Come on! Come on! It's almost 4:00!" Ben rushed Bill as the two moved a train of clay along the line together, the former at the back and the latter at the front. Bill whistled as they rolled into the docks, panting frantically.
"We're here! Don't leave without the clay!" He called. Cranky rolled his eyes as the train came to a stop alongside him.
"Really pushing it with the time here, you two." The twins didn't care; they had gotten all the clay delivered on time and laughed triumphantly.
They weren't laughing when they got back to the Clay Pits and found an ashamed-looking Marion and a stern-looking Timothy staring them down.
"Uh oh." The twins shared a look as Timothy rolled forwards.
"Bill and Ben, you two can't just go off doing whatever you want when there's work to be done! You two could've cost us on a very big order today with your silliness, and you roped poor Marion into it too!"
"Actually, Timothy. It's my fault." Marion spoke up. Bill, Ben, and Timothy all gave her a look.
"It's really not." Timothy replied dully.
"Yeah, I think it's pretty obvious this one's on us." Ben added, before Bill gave him a glare.
"What? I know when to fold 'em." He added, causing Bill to pout. Marion sighed.
"No, I shouldn't have gotten distracted; I need to set a good example for you two and as much as I love the idea of digging up the 'treasure of the Golden Neptune', I shouldn't have gotten sidetracked from important work." Bill and Ben looked at Marion before total guilt washed over their faces.
"We're sorry too, Marion." Bill replied, looking down at his buffers.
"Yeah, we shouldn't have kept lying to you about the time; we were just having fun." Ben added, before a thought crossed his mind.
"Say, didn't you say you found something, Marion? When you were digging?" Marion gasped.
"That's right! Come on, we have to see what it is!" Marion quickly dashed away, leaving Bill, Ben, and a curious Timothy to follow. They soon reached the spot, and Marion looked down at the pile of dirt she had left beside the line. Quickly, the engines' crews went down and started sifting through the dirt, before they uncovered something that made Marion gasp.
"I found something!" She laughed happily.
"What is it, Sir?" Thomas, who had brought the Fat Controller, asked as he inspected the brass plate Marion had dug up. The Fat Controller held the plate in his hands before blowing the dust of it and reading the words.
"'Peckett and Sons, Atlas Engine Works, Bristol'…Marion, do you know what this is?" Marion, who was looking down at the Fat Controller raised an eyebrow.
"I don't, sir." The Fat Controller was about to reply when he heard a whistle and saw Stephen rolling into the Clay Pits with Sir Robert Norramby, the Earl of Sodor, on board.
"That looks like a builder's plate to me! Some engines have a plate that says where and by what company they were built." The "Rocket" explained as he rolled alongside. The Earl stepped down from his cab and walked alongside the Fat Controller as he spoke.
"It must be a builder's plate from one of the engines who worked here before even Bill and Ben! Many of them don't exist on a historical record, so you have uncovered a page of the railway's history!" Marion gasped.
"It's extraordinary! It might be even better than pirate treasure!" The Earl grinned.
"It shall make a splendid addition to my railway museum, where you can come up and see it at any time. I'll make sure that every attendant will know that this was your discovery, Marion." Marion beamed.
"Oh, yes, sir, and I'd be happy to find more things too! I can never resist the call of adventure!"
"Provided you get all your work done first." Timothy reminded her. Marion blushed.
"Oh, yes, of course." Timothy laughed, and soon enough everyone had joined in; everyone except a nearby Bill and Ben, that is.
"It was our idea to look for the treasure…" Bill huffed.
"We deserve thanks too!" Ben called, but no one could hear them over the laughter so the twins just sulked.
THE END
Here we come to the end of Season 21 Redux! I have really enjoyed writing this project and hopefully it has given you the feeling that at least one version of Season 21 is complete in a meaningful way. I hope you all read Set 3 of Thomas Friends: Original Episodes, my main series of stories, as well as my future projects beyond that (I have a lot planned). This story in particular was a blast to write, as Bill, Ben, and Marion are such fun, chaotic characters with a really effective straight man in Timothy, who tries to keep things on track no matter how much chaos the twins cause. I've always found the contrast between Marion's general personality and the way she treats Bill and Ben very fascinating, and this story came into being as a means to show the two in conflict, as I'm sure they would be. Getting to reference the Earl's Railway Museum at the end was a ton of fun, as I have plans for it to appear in larger roles in the future.
Thank you to everyone who has continued to read and enjoy my stories! Leave a review to tell me what you thought of both the individual episodes and this restructuring of S21 generally and, to aid that, I am going to leave you with the order you can experience this project in properly to combine it with the canon Season 21 (the asterisks mean the actual episode):
1. Springtime for Diesel*
2. A Most Singular Engine
3. The Big Freeze
4. Dowager Hatt's Busy Day*
5. Stuck in Gear
6. Runaway Engine*
7. P.A. Problems*
8. Hasty Hannah
9. New Crane on the Dock
10. Unscheduled Stops*
11. Philip's Number*
12. Red Engine Rivalry
13. Quiet in the Shed
14. Terence Breaks the Ice*
15. Terence and Trevor
16. Battle of the Buses
17. Rusty The Passengers
18. Emily in the Middle*
19. Daisy's Perfect Christmas*
20. Confused Coaches*
21. The Celebrity
22. Henry's Record
23. Hugo Does the Washing
24. Ring Around the Rosie
25. A Captive Audience
26. No Time for Ryan
27. Samson and Bradford
28. Marion Marks the Spot
Come back to Thomas Friends: Original Episodes in January 2020 for the Set 3 opener: Aging with Grace!