As Sir Topham Hatt, Stephanie, and Notches in her sweater's hood wandered around Knapford, seeing many statues around, Stephanie explained to Sir Topham Hatt about Shining Time Station.
She explained how it was abandoned and the tracks had been pulled out, causing Sir Topham Hatt to worry after hearing Stephanie's words.
He was even surprised when she mentioned there was advanced technology and even more diesels around that were doing the jobs.
Sir Topham Hatt soon stopped walking as a slow realization came to him as he pieced together Stephanie's words while Stephanie kept talking before stopping when he stopped.
"What's wrong, sir?" Stephanie politely asked as she looked over her shoulder at him.
Sir Topham Hatt stayed silent momentarily before glancing up at her and asking, "Stephanie. The year here in Sodor is 1994, but the real realm is 2013 since time slows down on Sodor." He paused a little, and Stephanie could tell he looked nervous but was keeping himself together.
Stephanie hesitated for a minute after Sir Topham Hatt asked, glancing over at Notches as he silently nodded at her before answering, "2024, sir."
"'2024?'" Sir Topham Hatt repeated as he looked surprised before paling slightly after realizing how many years had passed. "Eleven years have passed?"
Stephanie nodded after Sir Topham Hatt asked as she wrung her left wrist, saying, "Whoever came here with the Whistle and left behind that message must've forgotten about Sodor itself and disappeared."
She paused a little, saying, "I'm sorry that many years have passed."
"No, no, it's okay," Sir Topham Hatt assured her. "I think I need to sit down for the moment."
So he sat down on a bench and adjusted his hat, a little spooked after realizing how many years had passed since being transformed into stone.
Stephanie looked at the statues around her and said, "I'll start transforming everyone back to normal. Just take a break here for the moment, sir."
He only silently nodded after Stephanie had explained everything to him and took her whistle out, muttering, "Let's hope this works."
"It will," Notches assured. "We saw it happen before."
Stephanie nodded before double-checking the symbol as it is on the gold symbol and took a massive breath before whistling the whistle, watching an enormous bubble filled with Gold Dust emerge from the Dust Whistle.
She looked confused before an 'uh oh' expression replaced it after witnessing a storm of Gold Dust coming out of the Dust Whistle.
Outside, a gigantic explosion of Gold Dust soon gathered in the wind and spread throughout Sodor, even sprinkling on top of the statues as the wind continued.
They slowly started turning them back to humans, feeling sore from being stuck in their stone forms before stumbling from the soreness from standing.
Others woke up from sitting, glanced around in confusion, saw Gold Dust sprinkling on their bodies from the sky, and looked confused.
Meanwhile, Stephanie coughed after whistling in the whistle before looking at it, seeing that the Gold Dust had gone down a little from the explosion.
"Okay," Stephanie coughed as she waved her hands, not noticing she was getting covered in Gold Dust itself with Sir Topham Hatt as Notches sneezed, shaking himself to get the dust off him. "That was way too much, and I did not expect that!"
"Take small breaths next time, Stephanie." Notches sighed before giving a sneeze.
She looked at the Gold Dust sprinkling on her body, noticing no effect on her or Sir Topham Hatt, who gently brushed the Dust off with his hands.
"Oops," Stephanie blushed. "Sorry, sir."
"It's quite alright," Sir Topham Hatt gently assured, brushing the Gold Dust off his body.
Stephanie shook herself to get the Gold Dust off as Notches hopped out of Stephanie's hood, sneezing and getting the dust off.
She silently noted that she might need to stock up on Gold Dust Crystals if she used them too much to help everyone revert to normal.
After hearing a steam locomotive's whistle, she perked up and glanced over, watching what looked like a sentient, groggy locomotive puffing down the rails.
The steam locomotive's basis was a GNR Class A1 Pacific, painted in cerulean blue with red lining on its cab, splashers, tender, cylinders, and boiler and yellow lining around its windows.
The number four is painted on its tender in yellow with a red outline and has a white running board with red buffer beams and valences.
But the most perplexing thing is that it has a face that looks like an adult's.
Stephanie started to panic after noticing the massive steam locomotive approaching, not expecting to see a face on the previously non-sentient being.
However, she did not run away after seeing the face as it stopped at the station, still looking dizzy as its crew stepped out, looking sore.
She snapped out of silently freaking out after noticing the crew and quickly rushed over, helping them as she said, "Take it slowly."
Sir Topham Hatt moved from the bench to allow them to sit down, looking dizzy and slowly adjusting to their surroundings.
"What happened?" the steam locomotive asked, sounding slightly groggy. "I felt like I had been asleep for a thousand years."
"Um," Stephanie said as she hesitated, still silently freaking out that this steam locomotive was speaking. "I'll explain everything once I figure out how everyone is doing."
He grunted a little with the sound of an acknowledgment as Stephanie stepped into the cab, checking for anything off or any damage.
There was no damage except for a low coal supply from the tender and a small fire, but she was fighting the urge to step further into the cab to look around.
Stephanie nodded to herself as she stepped out of the cab, noticing the coaches filled with passengers slowly stepping out.
After stepping out of the coaches, the passengers sat on the ground, leaning against walls to keep themselves from falling over from dizziness, as some winced from sore bones.
"Geez," Stephanie gently winced as she muttered. "Being a statue for over eleven years does give you a crick in the neck."
Everyone across Sodor started moving around after being a statue for a long time; some toppled over from different positions while others were sitting on items while clutching their heads.
Multiple locomotives and various vehicles were blinking in confusion, looking like they had just woken up from a deep sleep and were trying to get used to the light.
Or maybe they were like bats coming out of the cave in the daylight, slightly groggy from having to 'wake up.'
Sir Topham Hatt used his car to drive around Sodor to check if anyone was still standing and to help others from toppling over from dizziness.
Some people were still statues, and some locomotives were faceless or not alive, so Stephanie used the whistle to bring them back to life with one whistle.
During one of the drives, Stephanie checked the whistle as it was almost empty, telling Sir Topham Hatt, "Hey, sir? I must stop at Muffler Mountain to find more Dust Crystals."
"Right." Sir Topham Hatt nodded, looking around as if he were searching for someone but keeping an eye on the road. "I'll stop at Muffler Mountain for you."
Sir Topham Hatt drove to the mountain and stopped, allowing Stephanie to walk out and search for any Dust Crystals.
While she was searching, Sir Topham Hatt was still looking around for someone, muttering, "Where could he be?"
Stephanie took a long time collecting enough Gold Dust Crystals as Notches kept his eyes out for any Nightmares coming towards them to attack.
"I don't think we need to be worried about Nightmares," Notches remarked. "They can't come out because of the sun. But they attack from dark places where the sun doesn't come out."
Once Stephanie had collected enough, she walked to Sir Topham Hatt's car and gently tapped the window, accidentally startling the poor gentleman.
"Sorry," Stephanie apologized as she had her arms filled with Gold Dust Crystals, along with a few others that were the same. "I'm done collecting."
Sir Topham Hatt noticed that Stephanie had her arms full as she was thinking of a way to open the car door when Notches carefully climbed on her arm and, surprisingly, opened the door for her.
"Thank you, Notches," Stephanie thanked, surprising Sir Topham Hatt at how talented the cat was, but he kept it to himself as Stephanie climbed into his car's backseat.
Notches then closed the car door to help Stephanie, allowing Sir Topham Hatt to drive, and made a mental note to give her something to carry all those extra items.
Sir Topham Hatt soon drove to the same house that Stephanie had previously entered to create Gold Dust, and he was confused at first but decided to go with it.
Stephanie went to work on refilling her Dust Whistle by repeating the same process but first double-checking if she was using the correct Dust.
Meanwhile, Sir Topham Hatt searched the house, looking for something, as his hands were on his jacket's collar.
Everything looked eerily empty.
He entered a room and walked in, only to freeze after seeing a sight.
The room looked destroyed as items were tossed around, some destroyed or damaged, and the walls were covered with claw marks and some red splatters across the walls.
Worst of all, the window was smashed as if something had crashed through from the outside.
A knot twisted in his stomach as he glanced around, disbelieving that something monstrous had entered his friend's house.
He gingerly stepped into the room, glancing around cautiously as he looked at the items thrown across the ground as the shattered glass cracked underneath his shoes.
Half of him did not want to know what was splattered on the walls as he tightened his grip on his jacket's collar.
What just happened?
He looked around for clues about what could have happened but saw nothing littering everywhere.
But where was he?
"Sir?" Sir Topham Hatt perked up after hearing a voice and glanced up, seeing Stephanie peering through the doorway with Notches before gasping after witnessing the scene. "What happened here?!"
"I do not know, Stephanie." Sir Topham Hatt nodded. "But I must file a missing person report for Avril and Kathleen."
"Who is 'Kathleen?'" Stephanie perked.
"She's my friend Avril's wife," Sir Topham Hatt explained as he returned to Stephanie, his mind buzzing with questions about what had happened to Avril and Kathleen. "But I believe they must have been captured or disappeared somewhere on Sodor while we were stone statues."
Stephanie glanced at Notches worriedly before glancing back at Sir Topham Hatt and saying, "We can help find out what happened to Mr. Avril and Mrs. Kathleen. From stopping the Nightmares to returning Sodor to its glory, you can search the island for your friends!"
Sir Topham Hatt perked up after Stephanie told him before nodding softly and placing his hand on Stephanie's shoulder, "That would be perfect, Stephanie. We can find Avril and Kathleen with more friends and Sodor returning to its glory."
But then he looked at the destroyed room and added, "But we need to have some special people helping us find them."
Stephanie glanced back at the room thoughtfully as Sir Topham Hatt gently led her outside the house, wondering what could have happened in that room.
As they exited the house, a faint figure stared through the window, watching the two enter Sir Topham Hatt's car before disappearing into thin air.
After the last person was brought back to life, as it was midway through the day, Stephanie was double checking for anything off or any Nightmares running loose, using her Zodiac Pocket Watch to transform into her Aries form to scare them off.
She mostly gives people a shock with her transforming ability with the watch, but she gives them an apology for scaring them.
She, Notches, and Sir Topham Hatt traveled across Sodor to check if anyone else needed to be returned to normal, even seeing different sentient vehicles.
Stephanie was still not used to seeing all these sentient vehicles around her as she continued using the Dust Whistle to help them.
After helping the last vehicle regain its sentience, she was finishing up, feeling somewhat tired from wandering around Sodor, not expecting it to be that big.
"Excuse me?" Stephanie perked up as she was in her Aries form, turning around to see a news reporter approaching her.
She looked groggy from waking up, but her other hand held a coffee cup and had a cameraman with her.
"Kid," the news reporter said. "Can you tell what happened in Sodor and how everyone transformed into statues?"
Stephanie became nervous as news reporters gathered around her, pointing any recording device at her face.
She was about to answer when Sir Topham Hatt approached her, causing Stephanie to perk up as he said, "I would explain why everyone has been transformed into statues."
Stephanie listened to the conversation as Sir Topham Hatt explained how he and his friends had locked away Nightmares when they were teenagers.
But someone managed to break the seal that locked the Nightmares away and release them, who automatically drained the magic from Sodor, causing everyone to be transformed into statues.
Sir Topham Hatt did not tell the press who the 'stranger' was; maybe it was for reasonable measures not to get anyone into trouble.
'So that is what happened.' Stephanie thought as she returned to normal, still hiding behind Sir Topham Hatt.
She perked up when the same ghost appeared a few feet away, made the 'follow me' mention, then transformed into an orb and flew away.
Stephanie watched the orb fly in the air and muttered, "How would I follow him like that?"
"Didn't Sir Topham Hatt tell you about the pocket watch?" Notches spoke. "There's more than one."
"Oh, right." Stephanie nodded, taking the Zodiac Pocket Watch from her blue jeans pocket.
She looked at the clock face and thought about the Falcon Zodiac, wondering if she could use that one instead.
So Stephanie focused as she clicked the top of the Zodiac Pocket Watch, feeling herself transform and soon stopping after the feeling faded.
She looked at her body and was surprised to see she had transformed into a bird of some form while Notches was still bigger than her.
She was covered in orange, white, and black feathers with a beak and a necklace around her neck, which was instead a golden Native American totem of a falcon.
"Alright," Stephanie chirped a little as she looked at herself. "What did I transform into?"
"A kestrel of some form," Notches responded as he looked around Stephanie. "Too small for me to be carried."
"Ah, sorry," Stephanie apologized.
"It's fine," Notches sighed. "Go ahead and follow that ghost. I'll try to catch up."
Stephanie nodded before flapping her wings, going faster and faster before starting to fly as she smiled.
"Hey!" Stephanie smiled. "I'm flying!"
Notches smiled, saying, "You can glide through the wind too! But be careful with incoming larger birds or aircraft."
Stephanie nodded before taking off into the air to follow after the ghost, somewhat stumbling because she was not used to flying in the air.