Thomas had brought Min-Gi to Knapford station, where Min-Gi got off at the platform and stepped inside the office to meet Sir Topham Hatt, but he was nowhere to be seen. Then, he found a note on his desk. It read:

"Dear Mr. Min-Gi,

where were you? My wife said we couldn't miss our little holiday. We'll telephone to make sure you have arrived.

Signed,

Sir Topham Hatt."

He had just put the note down when he heard the telephone ringing. He picked it up and heard a familiar voice on the other line.

"Oh, good afternoon, sir," said Min-Gi. "It's a real honor, sir. Like my family before me. And how's Lady Hatt, sir? Good? Splendid," he said, hearing a few responses from him before hearing his orders. "Keep an eye out for Diesel? Definitely. Speak to James? Certainly."

He then heard a question.

"Yes, sir. The three 'R's, reading, writing, arithmetic-I mean I will be responsible, reliable, and really useful, sir." he said, a little embarrassed for that near slip-up. "Yes, sir. Goodbye, sir."

Min-Gi put the phone down as the call ended and he heaved a big sigh before sitting down on the chair.

At the sheds, James was cross and was letting Thomas know it.

"Wobbly wheels!" James grumbled.

"You're just jealous, James," smirked Thomas.

"Puffy Pistons!" James insulted. "You shouldn't have collected Mr. Min-Gi, Thomas. I should have!"

At that moment, Gordon bustled in.

"James is right, little Thomas," said Gordon. "You don't understand — collecting Mr. Min-Gi is an important job for important engines. Important is big and we are big engines. You, Thomas, are small so we should have collected Mr. Min-Gi. And I should know because I am a true big engine who knows everything."

Thomas felt insulted.

"Bossy sprockets!" he muttered before he heard the Troublesome Trucks giggling in agreement with Gordon behind him and gave them a bump.

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" screamed the trucks.

"Alright, that's enough, everyone."

Everyone turned to see that Min-Gi had already magically appeared onto the scene.

"Is everyone pleased to see me?" he asked.

"Yes, Mr. Min-Gi," smiled the engines.

"Good, now I'm sure you all remember that Sir Topham Hatt wants his railway to be running like clockwork," he said before turning to Thomas. "Ah, Thomas, I see you are taking those empty trucks to the quarry?"

"Yes, I am," replied Thomas.

"Good," smiled Min-Gi. "But please keep in mind that bumping trucks is not being really useful."

Thomas's eyes widened, eyeing his trucks for a brief moment.

"They were being silly," he tried to explain.

"I understand," he said. "Now silence."

"You can't say silence, Mr. Min-Gi," Gordon put in. "Only Sir Topham Hatt can say that."

"Then, cut it out and get back to work," Min-Gi said as the engines went about their business before turning to James. "James, I was told you can come out now."

James was delighted and puffed away.

Thomas went to the quarry of Anopha at the end of his branch line with his empty trucks. On the way, he kept thinking about what Gordon had said.

"Little engines can do big things," he puffed to himself, "especially when they have nice blue paint, like me!"

When Thomas arrived at the quarry, he shunted trucks with a privately owned BR Class 04 diesel with black paint, white lettering of ownership to the quarry on her side plates, her name MAVIS painted beside her cab, and yellow and black hazard stripes on her front and back. Mavis is a much kinder diesel and is friends with him and all the other steam engines on the railway.

Together, they filled their trucks with stone and rock. Thomas soon had his trainload ready and was about to depart.

"Be careful as you go, Thomas," warned Mavis. "There's a lot of dust laying all over from the blasting yesterday."

"I will, Mavis," replied Thomas before puffing away.

They were both unaware Splatter and Dodge were watching them from a distance when they noticed Harold the Helicopter flying up the air, about to hover over the quarry.

"Just watch what happens when that Harold the flopper chopper flies past here," sniggered Splatter.

"Let's start laughing now," chortled Dodge.

Harold did fly over the quarry, and over Thomas too. His strong propellers blew quarry dust everywhere! Thomas was coated in a thick sheet of grey dust. Splatter and Dodge laughed in their silly way, but not for long when the dust cloud reached them too. Now they looked very dirty and very silly themselves.

"Did you mean to look like that?" coughed Splatter.

"No," answered Dodge wearily.

"Neither did I," wheezed Splatter.

Mavis saw everything and rushed over to Thomas.

"Oh my, Thomas! Are you alright?" she asked, worried.

"Yes," choked Thomas. "But I suppose I could use a washdown."

That night, at the sheds, all the engines were tucked in. But they couldn't help laughing when they heard of Thomas's misfortune at the quarry earlier. He was clean now, but they would never let him hear the end of it. Percy felt sorry for Thomas.

"Never mind, Thomas. Harold didn't mean to make you dusty on purpose. Anyway, we'll all see your lovely blue paint again tomorrow."

"Thank you, Percy," smiled Thomas, feeling a little better as they all went to sleep.

However, none of them would be expecting what was coming in a few hours.

Outside, a full moon was hovering in the night sky. But through the darkness, Diesel 10 crept quietly towards the sheds with dimmed headlights until he stopped alongside a metal scaffolding beside the sheds, which was trying to cover up a big, open hole in the sheds. The workmen couldn't mend it during renovations in time and left it as it were to continue tomorrow. This gave Diesel 10 the perfect opportunity to eye the engines fast asleep inside. He sneered before seeing "something" in there as well.

"Hmm, well isn't it my lucky day?" he whispered before eyeing his claw. "Alright, Pinchy, my little bucket of badness. Time to feast yourself!" he added as he raised his claw towards the scaffolding.

Min-Gi was inside the shed in his pajamas with a nice, comfy bed near the wall. He had heard about Thomas's accident and decided to stay with him for the night to comfort him as well. Right now, he was making a nice cup of hot cocoa with a very large bag of sugar before going to sleep.

"Hmm, just a little more sugar," he thought before reaching for the bag of sugar.

CRUNCH!

Alarmed, Min-Gi jumped, spilling his hot cocoa on the floor before falling himself. The scaffolding came crashing down to the ground in pieces. The loud noise woke up all the other engines. A barrel of ashes was standing on top of one of the boards of the scaffolding when Diesel 10's big claw crunched the entire scaffolding, causing it to topple over, spilling ashes into Thomas's funnel. Thomas coughed as he woke up and looked out the big hole in the wall. Instead of the scaffolding, he saw something else!

"Cinders and ashes!" cried Thomas. "It's Diesel!"

Everyone looked out to where Thomas was looking and were terrified as they all saw Diesel 10's evil grin through the hole in the wall. Meanwhile, Min-Gi recovered and he got back up to see the mean diesel looking at him.

"Hello, Twinkle Toes," sneered Diesel 10. "Unfortunately, you're NOT wanted here!"

"Oh, yes I am!" Min-gi glared at him.

"I don't think you understand," said Diesel 10 menacingly before moving his claw towards him. "But let me make myself quite clear."

"You can't catch me, Diesel!" shouted Min-Gi before trying to teleport away as gold dust started to surround him.

The dust flickered for a second before it faded away. But Min-Gi was still here! He looked at himself in confusion, but he didn't have time to wonder. He quickly snatched his whistle and blowing on it for better power, but the same thing happened. Diesel 10 noticed this and crackled louder as his grin widened.

"Losing your sparkle, eh? What perfect timing!" he smirked as he inched his claw closer to him.

Min-Gi quickly looked around and spotted the bag of sugar he was going to use for his hot cocoa and grabbed it before holding it out for Diesel 10 to see. Diesel 10 gasped in horror and stopped his claw.

"Is that..."

"That's right, it's sugar, Diesel!" called out Min-Gi threateningly. "The moment I throw this into your tank, it'll seize you up for good!"

Diesel 10 was horrified. He groaned, strained, and grunted in frustration before retreating his claw back.

"Make the most of tonight, Twinkle Toes, because you won't like tomorrow!" Diesel 10 said as he started backing away. "Neither will that line of tin kettles in there!"

And he disappeared into the darkness.

After he had gone, everyone relaxed and sighed. They had very great respect for Min-Gi for what he just did. But Min-Gi on the other hand looked very concerned as he looked at his whistle. Thomas was worried.

"Mr. Min-Gi, what happened to your sparkle?" he asked. "You know that without it, you can't come and go anymore."

"I don't know, Thomas," replied Min-Gi. "I suppose I'll have to sleep on that."

"On your sparkle?" asked Thomas, puzzled.

"No, Thomas," chuckled Min-Gi before becoming concerned. "I mean the problem. You just go to sleep now."

Thomas was still puzzled and concerned, but decided to obey his wishes and they all went back to sleep.

They were several hours into the night; no more events had taken place tonight. Even Min-Gi was fast asleep in his bed beside the engines. But as he slept, he began muttering.

"Sparkle... gold dust... magic... buffers... railroad... buffers..."

The muttering woke Percy as he heard more.

"Gold dust... valley... family..."

Min-Gi could see gold dust sparkling down on to a line of flowers, sitting at the top of the mountain, on a bush, a Bouquet tree, and along a meadow.

"The family told me... as long as there's a railroad, there will be energy... as long as there is gold dust... there will be harmony... the family told me... we have made sure that our railroad is safe... we have made sure that our gold dust will last forever... you will never have to worry..."

Suddenly, a strike of lightning had flashed the whole landscape, disappearing in a huge flash of light. But when the light ended, all Min-Gi could see now was a barren, abandoned town that looked like Shining Time. But it looked very different than how it looked when he left. Trash lay everywhere, every building was closed, and not a bit of life could be seen, except Grace Monroe, looking very somber as she wandered the lonely, abandoned town.

"Mr. Min-Gi!" she called repeatedly, only to get no answer. "Why aren't you here? Why couldn't you travel anymore to the Island of Sodor or back home to us in Shining Time?" she asked to nobody in particular before sadly looking around. "The magic is all gone!"

Min-Gi opened his eyes in alarm, looking around, seeing he was still on Sodor and all the engines were still asleep, including Percy. But he still couldn't get that dream he had out of his head.

"What's going on with our railroad and why? My universe is in danger!" he wondered quietly, sitting up. "I've got to find more gold dust!"

Min-Gi had no way of knowing that far away, in a workshop on Muffle Mountain, Tulip's father, Andy Olsen had a great, big secret that could perhaps provide the answer to his problem... if only he could remember how.