He had committed a horrible deed, and the stranger was going to hell for him- no, because of him.
Loyalty to Luke is a series of Thomas & Friends Pseudo Canonical Fics by Goldsaddletank. They chronicle Luke's life on Sodor, from his arrival to the events of Blue Mountain Mystery. While the other engines on the Skarloey Railway try to keep him safe, the Thin Controller wonders why the new engine never arrived...
The entries in this series are:
- Loyalty to Luke
- Loyalty to Luke 2: The Sequel
- Loyalty to Luke 2 and a Half: Tempest of the Lake
- Loyalty to Luke 3: On the Other Side of the Mountain
These fanfics contain examples of the following tropes:
As a whole
- Dramatic Irony: As in canon, Luke is torn up with guilt about "killing" the yellow engine, unaware that he's still alive. Meanwhile, characters who are out-of-the-know (such as Victor and various humans) wonder why Luke went missing; at one point, Mr. Percival, Sir Topham Hatt, and Winston rule out the possibility that the other engines are hiding Luke, which is exactly what's happening.
- Dysfunction Junction: The other engines find keeping Luke hidden to be stressful, causing them to snap at each other a lot. Eventually, Luke's suicidal tendencies get so bad that he has to get therapy.
- Friend to All Living Things: Luke has a tendency to befriend animals he comes across, such as a puppy and a bat.
- Interrupted Suicide: Most of Luke's suicide attempts are stopped by other characters. First he asks someone to light a fire in a tunnel while he's asleep, but Duncan pulls him out. Then he tries to derail himself off a bridge, but Merrick (who had insomnia that night) asks him what he's doing. Finally, he tries to blow himself up with gelignite, but his fireman knocks him out by pouring water into his firebox.
- The Load: Luke fears that he's a burden on the other engines, because he keeps accidentally getting others hurt.
- O.C. Stand-in: The engines' crews, who might as well be mindless drones in canon, are fully fleshed-out characters with names.
- Patchwork Fic: Thomas Canon Foreigners co-exist with unadapted Railway Series characters.
- Plagued by Nightmares: Luke has recurring nightmares where he's haunted by the yellow engine and everyone else hates him for what he's done. It's also mentioned that Victor has recurring nightmares about his near-death experience.
- Related in the Adaptation: Luke and Peter Sam are considered cousins because they were made by the same designer. This is never mentioned in canon.
- Saved by Canon: Luke attempts suicide multiple times. Since this is a prequel, none of them succeed, or else canon won't be able to happen.
- Survivor's Guilt: Luke often thinks it's unfair that his impatience got someone else "killed". It gets to the point where he feels like he doesn't deserve to live, and tries to kill himself multiple times because he can't bear the pain anymore.
Loyalty to Luke
- Big Damn Heroes: At the end, Luke and Duncan rescue the other engines, who are snowed-in at the sheds.
- Literal Cliffhanger: Luke almost falls off a cliff when he tries to escape from the quarry.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Sir Handel accidentally mentions Luke when he's at the Steamworks. Fortunately, his driver bluffs that his name is Luke (it isn't).
- Taking the Heat: After Luke accidentally bumps into Sir Handel, derailing him, Duncan agrees to take the blame.
The Sequel
- Bungled Suicide: Luke attempts to drown himself in a lake, but doesn't fall in deep enough and is rescued by Jessica the tractor.
- Call-Forward: Sir Topham Hatt suggests that Mr. Percival should borrow Millie once Sir Robert returns to Sodor; this references both King of the Railway (where Robert returns) and "The Switch" (where Mr. Percival borrows Millie for a day).
- Eye Scream: Duncan rescues Luke from a fire, and is temporarily blinded when sparks burn his eyes shut.
- Family of Choice: Luke says he considers Rheneas to be like a brother because he's never met his actual brother, Peter Pan.
- Fantastic Racism: The steam engines not only have to deal with condescending remarks from diesels, but from humans as well. When Skarloey and Rheneas give a group of MPs and journalists a tour of the Skarloey Railway, one of them spends the entire time complaining about how old and unreliable they are, which motivates him to publish a news article about Luke's disappearance to make Mr. Percival look bad.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": Everyone who knows about Luke is shocked when they see a newspaper headline about Mr. Percival's missing engine.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After Duncan goes blind, he snaps that Luke has brought nothing but trouble since he arrived. This causes Luke's suicidal tendencies to get even worse, and Duncan soon regrets it.
- Put on a Bus: At the end, Duncan is sent to the Talyllyn Railway to fill in for his twin Douglas, who's being overhauled, conveniently explaining why he's not in Blue Mountain Mystery. (The real reason is because Douglas was being overhauled when the animators went to Talyllyn to measure the Skarloey Railway engines' bases.)
Tempest of the Lake
- Heroic Sacrifice: Richard volunteers to pour water into Luke's firebox to prevent him from igniting the explosives, knowing that he'll be blown up too if he fails. Fortunately, he survives.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Skarloey is concerned when Victor, who usually gets straight to the point, stammers while talking about his nightmares.
- Taking You with Me: Defied; Luke refuses to blow himself up until everyone else gets out of the tunnel, so they refuse to leave.
On the Other Side of the Mountain
- Bad Liar: Sir Handel and Rusty get into an argument over whose lie to Thomas was worse: saying Luke was a runaway truck, or a mountain goat.
