Ulfstead Castle Revival

Ulfstead Castle Revival is the thirty-fourth episode of Sodor High School: Thomas and Friends Tales.
==Synopsis==
Thomas' father gets the chance to become reacquainted with an old friend.
==Plot==
One calm clear morning, Thomas is playing a game of football (soccer) with Percy in his front yard as Emily watches them while resting nearby in a lawn chair. As the boys play, they talk about how Annie and Clarabel are spending the day cleaning their room due to putting it off, on account of their parents returning from their trip and threatening to cut their allowances in half. When Percy lampshades how it's usually boys who have messy rooms, Emily coins in how she didn't keep her own room clean, instead maintaining what she calls "organized chaos". As the football game continues, Thomas kicks the ball so hard that when Percy blocks it, it hits him in the stomach and leads to him doubling over in pain.
Emily looks over to Percy but spots a girl walking towards the house. In spite of her appearance being unfamiliar, Emily identifies her as Rosie, who's let her hair down and dyed it cherry red with yellow streaks while sporting more tomboyish attire. When Thomas asks why she changed her appearance, Rosie says she had her old look for too long. Rosie sees Percy in pain and is told what happened, then Thomas asks if she wants to take his place. She declines and explains that she's in Ffarquhar because she felt like eating there for her lunch break; to everyone's surprise, she got a job in Ulfstead but when they ask what it is, she tells them her boss has asked her to keep it a secret for now. Rosie walks off promising the trio to teach/treat them to a game of American Football. Thomas and Emily are left wondering what's going on in Ulfstead, which ends when Thomas sees Percy still bemoaning his injury and tells him to get up.
Hours later, the Brighton siblings' father Dalton inspects Annie and Clarabel's room to confirm it's spic and span as his wife Andrea and Emily look on. Downstairs, Thomas is writing about his adventures in a book when he sees a lorry pass by outside, hit a pothole, and continue on without the driver noticing he dropped a crate. When Thomas and Emily go outside to inspect it, they find a knight's suit of armor inside meant to go to Ulfstead Castle. Thomas is confused since the castle has been left to rot years ago, but Dalton can tell that isn't the case anymore. With the lorry too far gone, the three of them decide to deliver the crate themselves in Dalton's old pickup truck.
The drive to Ulfstead doesn't take too long, but getting up the steep hill was a little difficult for the truck. After some time, they reach the top and find the castle is being restored with construction halfway done. Thomas soon spots his old friend Jack (who had been a senior at Sodor High when Thomas was a freshman) operating a front loader and explains what happened with the crate; Jack chalks it up to Max having trouble with driving the lorry. Jack instructs Thomas to take the armor to the site of the new drawbridge and mentions that like them, his father will be reuniting with an old friend that day as well before going back to work.
The trio head to the drawbridge site where they find a tall man with grey hair and a grey beard; to Dalton's surprise, it's his friend Sir Robert Norramby, the Earl of Sodor. As it turns out, Sir Robert has been traveling the world collecting priceless antiques, dinosaur bones, and vintage steam locomotives, and has come home to Sodor to renovate the castle and share his collections with the public. After meeting Thomas and Emily (along with teasing them about whether they're a couple), he offers them a tour as he explains the castle's history to them. He tells them the story of the generous and brave King Godred, whose reign was cut short when a group of thieves stole his crown. While the theives were caught and detained, the crown was never recovered which forced Godred to step down as King. The kingdom fell without his leadership but the town survived, and the castle was abandoned until Robert bought it the previous year and gave the order for a full restoration.
After Robert finishes his story, a girl walks up to give him a status update. Thomas and Emily recognize the girl as Millie from the flood weeks ago, who came from France with Robert's son Stephen to help with the restoration and spend time with her grandfather as Stephen works on a secret project. As Emily and the Brightons leave, Robert extends an offer to return should they need more help. While leaving, Emily sees what appears to be Stephenson's Rocket in a nearby building.
A few hours later, Emily is getting ready for bed but can't stop thinking about the Rocket. She does some research about it and learns both the locomotive and its replica are in the National Railway Museum in York, so she assumes what she saw wasn't real. Andrea checks in on her and after Emily thanks her for her hospitality, Andrea reveals she understands what Emily's going through in regards to being separated from her family and proceeds to explain.
Back in the 1970's, Andrea's father committed a crime aganist the royal navy and brought his family on the heist. Following a three hour police chase and a pit stop for more gas, Andrea's mother told her and her brother to run away or else they'd go to jail with their father. After splitting up from her brother, Andrea spend five weeks living on the streets of Cornwall only to be taken in and adopted by a clergyman. She did tell him what happened and he promised he'd look after her and help her find the rest of her family. Sadly, her mother died in a car crash in 1978 and she didn't see her brother again until 1996, but due to living on the streets doing a number on his health, he passed away five years later. At the very least, Andrea's father hadn't gotten away with his crimes, as he was arrested for speeding in 1984, and for his prior crimes was sent to prison and hasn't been heard from since.
Due to her experiences, Andrea promised her adopted father that she'd always offer her home to those who needed a place to stay, hence why her family is helping Emily now. She does add, however, that she was hoping Emily would be a good influence on Thomas due to his cheeky side, which surprises Emily as she'd seen him to be nothing but a gentleman. Regardless, Andrea promises Emily she's safe and won't be harmed so long as her family's there for her, Emily noting that Thomas gets his loyalty from her. Andrea prepares to take her leave not wanting to keep Emily up any longer since she, Thomas, and Percy are going to the Ffarquhar railfest tomorrow. When Emily expresses hope it won't end like the Knapford one, Andrea makes a note of talking to Thomas about his fight with James, causing Emily to jump to his defense and say that James started the fight, but Andrea still wants to hear the full story in the morning before leaving the room.
As Andrea heads to her room after contemplating how unfair it is for innocent children keep being separated from their families, Emily is left wondering about the Rocket and of course, what her family is doing in that moment.
==Characters==
* Thomas 
* Emily 
* Percy 
* Rosie 
* Millie 
* The Brighton family
** Annie and Clarabel
** Dalton (Debut)
** Andrea (Debut)
* Jack (Debut)
* Sir Robert (Debut)
* James (mentioned)
* Sir Topham Hatt (mentioned)
* Lady Hatt (mentioned)
* Olivia (mentioned)
* Stephen (mentioned)
* Max (mentioned)
* King Godred (mentioned)
==Cast==
==Trivia==
* After several previous mentions, Dalton and Andrea Brighton, Thomas, Annie, and Clarabel's parents, make their official debut in this episode.
*This episode's plot is inspired by the television series special, "King of the Railway". However, its plot continues on after the next episode.
* As of this episode, Rosie has changed her appearance in reference to her TV series counterpart's redesign in the twenty-first season.
* The events of the Misty Island arc, "Rail Fight!", "Emily's Bad Day", and "The Flood" are mentioned.
== Goofs ==
* Robert and Stephen are said to be Millie's uncles, but "The Rocket and the Map" clarifies she's Stephen's daughter and Robert's grandfather. This is either a mistake that was never corrected or was retconned in later chapters.
Category:Thomas and Friends
Category:Sodor High School
Category:Episodes
Category:Fan Fiction