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Sunset, Smolder, and Silverstream all stared Indigo down, anticipating her very next move. They weren’t sure if she was planning on attacking, or expecting to sneak around them to escape, whilst using her new disguise to her advantage. Thankfully, it seemed rather pointless, given how the students had already gotten to know Sunset rather well in the time they’ve spent together, to where they’d easily be able to identify her. However, unknown to everyone else in the room, Indigo was already one step ahead of them all, especially after making her mistake with impersonating Rainbow Dash.

“So, I suppose the first thing you’d like to do is free your friends from that cage.” Indigo said, before holding up a remote with a red button. “But unfortunately for you punks, you’ll never manage to do that without this thing!”

“Oh yeah!?” Smolder huffed, taking a step forward. “Well we’ll just see about that, you weasel! Silverstream and I are gonna stop you, even if we have to rely on our traditional combat skills!”

“Yeah!” Silverstream agreed. “We’re gonna teach you a lesson you won’t forget, you little… stair hater!”

“You’d better watch yourself, Indigo!” Sunset continued glaring at the treacherous pegasus. “We’re all strong and determined, and we won’t let you get away with what you’ve done!”

“Oh, please!” Indigo scoffed. “You three? Ha! I could take all of you on myself if I wanted to! But since I’m feeling so generous today, I’ll let you try to stop me! Go on, and give it a try. Show me what you’ve got.”

The trio began charging toward Indigo at full speed, and as expected, the disguised pegasus simply backed away and made a run for it, initiating a huge chase atop the maintenance room’s high-raised platforms. Indigo had managed to circle the machinery multiple times, and kicked some old boxes at the trio in an attempted to slow them down. It seemed as though her disguise of Sunset had still allowed her to retain her remarkable athletic ability and speed, despite no longer having wings. After giving chase for a while, Indigo spotted a large old pipe that was hanging loosely from the ceiling above them. With a mischievous grin, she dashed towards it and knocked it free from its rusty bolts.

Suddenly, the pipe came loose and crashed to the ground, spilling a torrent of dark, foul-smelling sewage all over the floor. The thick, slimy mess instantly covered the area, making it nearly impossible to run without slipping and falling. Smolder and Silverstream skidded to a halt, their eyes widening in disgust as the muck managed to splash onto them. The dragon and hippogriff slipped and ended up landing on their backs, both injuring one of their wings. Sunset was more tenacious however, and simply ignored the awful odors to continue the chase, especially after climbing out of a dumpster earlier. Unfortunately, Indigo had managed to accomplish exactly as she had planned, which was to isolate Sunset from the two students. After pursuing the pegasus long enough, Indigo managed to hide in a nearby broom closet, seemingly cornering herself. Sunset followed suit, and was ready to finally confront the troublemaking pegasus.

“This is it, Indigo!” Sunset yelled. “You’re cornered, and there’s nowhere left to run!”

“Oh really?” The voice of the disguised pegasus echoed through the closet. “I’ve been in worse situations before. Besides, you’re the one who’s actually cornered here, my little fool. You shouldn’t have followed me.”

“Well, it’s too late now.” Sunset frowned. “You’re going to pay for what you’ve done.”

“Oh, I’m going to pay, am I?” Indigo challenged. “Well, that just sounds like a wonderful idea!”

As Smolder and Silverstream had been slowed down from the sewage earlier, they already lost track of where Sunset and Indigo had ran off to. Conflicted on where to traverse toward within the station’s massive maintenance room, the two students had no choice but to return back the way they came, to the exact spot with the giant cage that trapped Sandbar, Gallus, Ocellus, and Yona. Without either one of their field trip’s chaperones by their side, the students had begun to worry, unsure if they would ever find a way out of Bridlewood Station, let alone return home safely.

“Hey, you two think you could help us outta here?” Gallus said from within the cage. “Yona’s already feeling pretty claustrophobic!”

“This is so tight space, and bars are too strong for Yona to bash through…” Yona began chattering her teeth. “YONA! CAN’T! TAKE! MUCH! LONGER!!!”

“Did you manage to catch that crazy pegasus who trapped us?” Sandbar asked.

“And where’s Miss Sunset?” Ocellus had begun to worry.

“We don’t know where that mean pegasus went, nor Miss Sunset!” Silverstream began freaking out. “But we need to figure out a way to get you all out of there! Who does that pegasus think we are, zoo animals!?”

“Nrrrrrrrgh!” Smolder did her absolute best to lift the metal cage, but to no avail. “Rats! I sadly don’t have the strength of Dragon Lord Torch, that’s for sure. And I sadly already gave up my dragon fire to give us this field trip. Of all the times for me to not have my fire breath… it would easily melt these bars to free you all!”

“Well, I have my abilities to morph into a dragon, but it’s only visual.” Ocellus sighed. “No fire breath, sadly. And I highly doubt changing into a fish could help us either.”

“Maybe not, but you could probably change into a smaller critter to slip through the bars.” Sandbar suggested.

“But… we can’t just leave the rest of you in there!” Silverstream interjected.

“Of course not.” Sandbar replied. “But perhaps Ocellus could make her way out of the cage, then she could help you two search around for Miss Sunset. Since the maintenance room’s so big, maybe it’ll be easier to find her by flying around.”

“I don’t know, Sandbar.” Smolder hesitated. “Silverstream and I both slipped and broke one of our wings earlier, while chasing after that crazy pegasus.”

“Oh no, are you two all right!?” Sandbar said, concerned.

“We’ll be fine, but it’s going to take us a while longer to fly again.” Silverstream moped. “We’re pretty much stuck here until we can get our wings back in shape. Sorry Ocellus, but if you can manage to get out, you’ll be on your own.”

“Well, I guess that’s what I’ll have to do then.” Ocellus said, determined. “If you guys can’t come with me, just stay here and be safe.”

“Uhhh, not to be pushy or anything but…” Gallus began, rather disconcerted. “You think you could find our chaperone as soon as you can? Yona looks like she’s about to snap…!”

“YONA! NEED! SPACE! NOW!!!” Yona howled, as she began banging on the cage’s metal bars.

With a deep breath, Ocellus focused his concentration and began to morph out of her changeling form, into that of a mouse. The mouse scurried out of the cage and down to the ground, squeaking softly. After exiting the cage, the changeling student morphed back into her original form, and began flapping her wings to soar into the air.

“Don’t worry, I’ll find them and get us all out of here.” Ocellus assured the others before scampering off into the distance, searching for any sign of Sunset or Indigo.

As Ocellus frantically searched high and low throughout the maintenance room, she began to feel a sense of panic rising within her. Everywhere she looked, there was nothing but metal and machinery, and there was also the internal fear of possibly getting lost herself. The changeling student knew she had to act fast, especially given the circumstances with Yona’s claustrophobia. The adrenaline was rushing through her heart, this somehow began to feel more intense than her intense study sessions back at the School of Friendship. After enough determination, she eventually noticed Sunset within one of the corridors.

“Hey, over here!” Ocellus called out from a distance, prompting Sunset to turn around, happy to see her student, and began approaching her. “What happened to that mean pegasus?”

“Oh, you know, just another pegasus with a stick up their flank, we won’t need to worry about her anymore.” Sunset assured. “Anyway, I’m glad you’re safe. Do you know where the rest of the students are?”

“Yes, of course!” Ocellus nodded. “I’ll take you back to them right now! But we must hurry, Yona’s becoming quite claustrophobic of that cage!”

Ocellus and Sunset rushed back through the maintenance room, careful not to trip over any of the pipes or machinery. As they neared the cage where their friends were trapped, they could hear Yona’s loud howls echoing through the room, which was a dead giveaway on their location.

“Everyone, good news!” Ocellus began to approach the group. “I found Miss Sunset rather easily!”

“Wait just a minute… how do we know that’s really the best chaperone we’ve ever had?” Smolder folded her arms. “After all, that rotten pegasus transformed into her earlier!”

“But… Ocellus seems to recognize it’s her!” Silverstream observed. “If any of us here would know about changeling magic, it’d be Ocellus, right?”

“Well, I am pretty good at recognizing changelings, yes.” Ocellus nodded. “From what I can gather… I can’t sense any natural changeling magic coming from Miss Sunset here. So it has to be her!”

“Besides, I snatched the remote control from that awful pegasus.” Sunset held up the remote, before pressing the red button to life the cage up, releasing Sandbar, Gallus, and Yona. “I just came back to free you students from that awful trap.”

“T-Thank you!” Yona ran over to give Sunset a big hug. “You have no idea how much Yona hate being trapped like that! Yona was almost ready to smash all over cage, like rest of family!”

“It’s a good thing you showed up when you did, then.” Gallus breathed a sigh of relief. “Otherwise, Sandbar and I would be griffon scone jam right about now.”

“Well, I’m just glad that we’re all safe now.” Sandbar added. “Thanks to Ocellus and Miss Sunset, we’re finally back on our hooves again!”

“Again though, how do we know that’s Miss Sunset?” Smolder continued pressing. “What were we fighting about back upstairs before we jumped through the garbage chute?”

“Oh, you mean that little argument over those cream cakes?” Sunset reminded. “It seemed like a silly argument anyways, since even I wouldn’t feed those to a dog!”

“Besides, if she had the ability to morph like a changeling, I’d be able to detect it.” Ocellus assured. “I don’t sense it coming from Miss Sunset, so it has to be her.”

“Well, I suppose that’s good enough for me.” Smolder finally conceded, still looking a bit suspicious, but trusting Ocellus’s word. “So, Miss Sunset, what should we do now?”

“To tell you the truth, the diversion of that pegasus had us all sidetracked for a bit.” Sunset replied. “Could someone remind us why we’re all here again?”

“We were about to fly up that broken staircase in search for the stationmaster’s office.” Sandbar reminded. “Problem is, how that Silverstream and Smolder have their wings injured, it’s going to be a lot more difficult for us all to get up there together.”

“Perhaps we can find another way up there. This place is so big and complicated, there has to be another route that we can take to reach our destination. We just need to keep our heads together and think creatively. Come on, every creature! Let’s go!”

Sunset and the six students began to exit the opposite way they came, looking for another way to reach the stationmaster’s office. Everyone seemed assured that they were following their true chaperone, especially since Ocellus was able to corroborate that there wasn’t anything funny going on. Despite this, Smolder still remained somewhat skeptical of the whole ordeal, especially given her experience with being able to identify someone disguising themselves, most notably when Ocellus herself had attempted to take the form of a dragon during their first day of school.

As everyone exited the maintenance room and began searching for another way to reach the stationmaster’s office, Smolder’s intuition would unfortunately soon prove to be correct. Back in the broom closet where Sunset and Indigo supposedly fought over the remote control, an unconscious body remained on the floor, before slowly moving again, as the wind blew the door open, letting in a glimmer of light onto the pony’s face. Before long, the pony began to immediately get back up, realizing that something bad must’ve happened.

“This isn’t Canterlot…” Sunset began to slowly reiterate. “Where am I…? Princess Celesti- wait a minute now. I don’t think I have my memories erased this time, must be a force of habit. Let’s see… I’m chaperoning a field trip to Hope Hollow, we just encountered Indigo Zap, and… SHE KNOCKED ME UNCONSCIOUS WITH SOME KIND OF MAGICAL ARTIFACT!!!”

Recalling the true extent of the circumstances now, Sunset immediately ran out from the broom closet, and to her horror, found absolutely no sign of Indigo, nor the students anywhere. It began to sink in to Sunset that supposedly, Indigo must’ve truly utilized her disguise to her advantage, especially after separating her from the students during that chase. Sunset was now all alone in the station, as she had now been separated from the students she was assigned to chaperone, along with her own identity. This most likely meant that unlike with Rainbow, Indigo was now doing more of a deliberate job at playing a convincing role as Sunset, good enough to fool the students. With the situation growing increasingly dire by the second, Sunset scrambled all around Bridlewood Station’s maintenance room, before exiting another way into the station.

As this was happening, trouble would soon brew back in the Human World at Crystal Prep Academy, where coincidentally, another Sunset Shimmer had a vendetta toward another Indigo Zap. Principal Cadance had been on the phone with the parents of two students, whom she knew were rather close friends, to discuss a rather urgent matter. Indigo Zap and Sugarcoat were rather unpleased to be called back to school campus at nearly 6 PM, but knew that they couldn’t let anything minor get in the way of their graduation.

“What do you suppose Principal Cadance wants from us?” Indigo questioned. “It’s not like us to get a trip to the principal’s office just a few days before graduation, let alone at around 6:00!”

“Maybe she’s congratulating me on the many college acceptance letters I should’ve received by now.” Sugarcoat remarked, proudly. “As for you, I’d say she probably wants to talk to you about cheating on that math final with Mr. McColt. I know I saw you sneaking those cheat sheets into your desk during class.”

“Oh, please.” Indigo rolled her eyes. “Like you didn’t have your own stack of them!”

“Nope.” Sugarcoat shook her head. “I can recite the pythagorean theorem and rules of derivatives in my sleep. You know what else I can do, if Principal Cadance called us in for something else? Mention to her that I witnessed you cheating, even if you only ended up getting a C-.”

“You’d better not!” Indigo spat. “If you even DARE think of doing so, I’ll make sure your school life in college will be miserable, just like I did to that nerdy girl way back in freshman year!”

“Good luck doing that when you won’t even know which college I’ll end up choosing.” Sugarcoat called Indigo’s bluff. “Besides, you know the drill at this point, since I let you take pictures of my homework for a fee. If you want to buy my silence, cough up the dough.”

“Fine…” Indigo growled, before reaching into her pocket and handing Sugarcoat a $20 dollar bill. “Let’s just get this over with, so I can go home and start training for something that’s ACTUALLY important!”

Before long, the two Crystal Prep girls made their way into Principal Cadance’s office, and took a seat. It had admittedly been a while since either of them had been in the principal’s office, but they noticed that the gloomy and dark interiors were no longer there, as it had been when Principal Cinch was in control. Despite the lively and more cheery atmosphere, Principal Cadance was ready to break some hard news to the two students.

“So, what’s up, Principal?” Indigo asked, innocently. “We’re not in any trouble, are we?”

“Maybe you are.” Sugarcoat scoffed.

“Sugarcoat!” Indigo stomped her foot in the floor in a rage.

“Unfortunately, I’m afraid that there is indeed trouble for you, Indigo.” Principal Cadance sighed, as Indigo’s eyes widened.

“Please, don’t hold me back from graduation!” Indigo began crying crocodile tears. “I DIDN’T MEAN TO DO IT!!!”

“Didn’t mean to do… what?” Cadance raised an eyebrow. “This is regarding an incident I had witnessed, involving a break-in with your locker.

“Oh, well…” Indigo fidgeted her fingers, nervously, before recalling what she used to bribe her math teacher for a passing grade. “I didn’t mean to give Mr. McColt a pumpkin pie as a treat after the finals. I didn’t realize he didn’t like pumpkins.”

“Wait, what did you say, just now?” Sugarcoat’s eyes widened at the principal. “Indigo’s locker?”

“Yes, I’m afraid that a few hours ago, I had witnessed what appeared to be two hooligans somehow breaking into Indigo Zap’s locker.” Cadance explained.

“They… didn’t steal our old Crystal Prep uniforms, did they!?” Sugarcoat began hyperventilating.

“Sadly, they did.” Cadance sighed. “In fact, according to the CCTV footage from our security camera, it appears that those were the only items that were stolen.”

“AND YOU DIDN’T THINK TO STOP THEM!?” Indigo snapped. “WHAT KIND OF PRINCIPAL ARE YOU!?”

“Indigo, you idiot!” Sugarcoat facepalmed. “I knew I should’ve just kept my old Crystal Prep uniform with me the whole time!”

“How is this my fault!?” Indigo became enraged. “You were the one who said my locker combination out loud earlier at the gas station! Some crook must’ve overheard and put two and two together!”

“Like you’re even the type of girl who knows what two plus two even is!” Sugarcoat jabbed. “After graduation, I was going to sell my uniform and use that money to pay for my college dorm costs! Thanks a lot, now I’ll probably have to live in the campus library, thanks to your incompetence!”

“It’s not my fault you and the other girls wanted to store your uniforms in my locker for free, while you all focused on studying for finals!” Indigo huffed.

“Now, now, girls.” Cadance tried to break up the fight. “Let’s not get any more worked up, shall we? I’m sure we can come up with a solution to this problem. Perhaps we can ask the police to investigate further into this matter, and see if there’s any way we can retrieve the uniforms.”

“Well, I suppose that’s all we can do for now.” Sugarcoat groaned. “But to get an idea, do you think we can see the security footage of the two thugs who broke into our locker?”

“Absolutely, the only issue being, there’s no audio.” Cadance nodded, before playing the footage back on the large monitor next to her desk.

Although the two girls were unable to recognize Gilda, they both noticed that the other girl looked familiar. In fact, it didn’t take long for them to realize that the hairstyle, facial features, and even mannerisms, seemed to match up with Sunset Shimmer. Sugarcoat and Indigo’s eyes widened at this, before Indigo stomped again, rather outraged. This prompted the goggle wearing girl to storm out of the office to let off some steam, as Sugarcoat accompanied her.

“It was that girl at CHS, Sunset Shimmer!?” Indigo snapped. “What does she have against Crystal Prep Academy!?”

“Well, in all fairness, the other girls and I partook in plagiarizing her and her friends’ dance choreography once.” Sugarcoat recalled. “Still though, stealing dance choreography is nothing compared to stealing my college dorm rent! Should we let Principal Cadance know who we think the culprit really is?”

“Why bother?” Indigo folded her arms. “She’ll probably ask us for more solid proof, especially because that footage was a little blurry, and lacked audio! Well! Two can play at this game! Come on, Sugarcoat. If Sunset Shimmer thinks she can ruin our lives just days before graduation, we’ll teach her AND her dumb school!”

Back at Bridlewood Station, Sunset continued to search through the various rooms within the station, only to be met with dead ends, and no sign of Indigo and the students anywhere. She had almost begun to have flashbacks of desperately searching through Canterlot’s labyrinth-like main castle during Twilight’s coronation, only there weren’t any security guards this time around. However, she knew time was of the essence, especially with the possibility of Indigo being up to no good, and potentially leading the students into an even more dangerous trap. It was still unknown why Indigo was doing all this, but Sunset stood by her original belief that the pegasus was likely doing it out of pettiness, after what had happened with Rainbow Dash.

Eventually, Sunset found herself within what appeared to be an old basement with records and archives of the station’s history. Upon further inspection, Sunset took notice of a framed picture on the wall, showing Grandpa Skies, which listed him as the former stationmaster. It made sense that this would be here, after Mayor Skies had implied that his grandfather had connections with Bridlewood Station long ago. Unfortunately, this didn’t really help matters, especially since Sunset was still focusing on regrouping with her students, or potentially finding another way outside the station. Sunset looked around the station’s basement for further clues, before finding what appeared to be a hidden message written on the back of Grandpa Skies’ picture.

“In case of cravings, check the stationmaster’s office, 6-28-86.” Sunset read out loud. “Hmm, this combination… maybe that’s what we need to find the keycard? I’ll have to keep this in mind.”

Sunset made a mental note of this combination, before exiting the basement, and miraculously, discovering another room that led up, and outside of the station. There was now a visible night sky, signaling the near end of what was now arguably considered the longest day within her extended stay in Equestria. Unfortunately, due to the barbed wire fences cutting off the forest area, Sunset didn’t have many options to go from here, as she was technically outside, but still inside, in some ways. She was about ready to head back into the station to frantically search for the students, before hearing what seemed to be… soft crying from a distance? Sunset worked up some courage to approach the station’s outside corner, and eventually noticed what appeared to be a familiar face behind the dumpster. It was Sour Sweet, the other chaperone who had mysteriously been vanishing throughout this entire field trip.

“Sour Sweet…?” Sunset approached the broken pegasus, unsure of what was even happening.

“I… I’m sorry…” Sour Sweet whimpered, tears streaming down her face. “I… I never meant for any of this… please, don’t turn me in to Princess Twilight!”

“What are you talking about?” Sunset said, taken aback at this. “I’m just glad to see that you’re okay. What… didn’t you mean for?”

“Getting you in trouble a few days ago, just because I wanted that bonus from Mr. Steele.” Sour Sweet sniffled. “And… now you’re probably going to report to Princess Twilight that I was stealing everypony’s things on the train!”

“I’ll admit, it wasn’t cool what you did, back during Twilight’s coronation.” Sunset acknowledged. “But as for the train thief, I know it wasn’t you. I just can’t really see you as a crook, being a former royal guard, and all.”

“Easy for you to say.” Sour Sweet pouted. “Everypony on board hates me, and thinks I’ve been stealing their stuff!”

“Wait a minute…” Sunset began to slowly process what was happening. “Is that why you were…?”

“I went back into my cabin to enjoy my dinner.” Sour Sweet began explaining herself. “However, when I overheard Mr. Ramsay announce that his lamb sauce had been stolen, I realized there was trouble. Part of me didn’t want to miss my chance to talk with you and the students regarding this matter, but then I began overhearing some of the other passengers accusing ME of being the thief. That got me even more anxious and paranoid, to where I just panicked, and hid in Mr. Ramsay’s freezer to save myself the shame. Then, I stepped off of the train and flew all the way here, just to drown my sorrows.”

“I guess that’s why we found you unconscious in the freezer.” Sunset recalled. “I can kinda see why you did what you did, but… if you truly were innocent, you’d have nothing to hide.”

“I know, I know…” Sour Sweet whimpered, wiping her eyes. “But it’s just… what if nopony believed me, or heck, tried to frame me on purpose by planting evidence? Besides, I can’t really prove my innocence now, can I?”

“Well, I wouldn’t really say that.” Sunset assured. “Like I’ve said, I know who the real thief was, because I just caught her earlier. Mr. Ramsay and the mayor were even around when she revealed herself, so I can assure you that no one believes you’re a thief now. If anything, they’re just confused as to why you mysteriously disappeared.”

“I… I don’t know what to say.” Sour Sweet said, rather surprised. “Thank you, Sunset.”

“No sweat at all.” Sunset replied. “I’m just wondering now though… even if everyone was still accusing you of being the thief, why did you take such an extreme level to hide from the problem? I’m sure that sooner or later, we would’ve discovered the real thief anyways.”

“Don’t you remember what Princess Twilight said to me back in the dungeon?” Sour Sweet reminded. “She’d maximize my sentence, and also make certain I could never find work in Equestria ever again. With that kind of pressure on my shoulders, something inside me just snapped. I’ve always hated my job as a royal guard, anyways.”

“I understand that what Twilight said might’ve been a bit harsh, but from my experience with her, it’s primarily tough love, when she knows you have hope.” Sunset remembered everything Twilight had done to set her on the right path, shortly after the Fall Formal back at CHS. “If you don’t mind me asking… what didn’t you like about your job?”

“Well… I suppose it’s not the job itself, but rather the expectations that came with it.” Sour Sweet gave her input. “As a former royal guard, everypony expected me to be this tough, unshakeable pony, always in control of any situation. But the truth is, I’m not. I’m just a normal pony, with normal problems. Sometimes, I just need a break from a tough and sour leader, because my family always raised me to be a kind and sweet pony. The pay wasn’t that great either, and paying rent on time in Canterlot isn’t easy.”

“I guess this was before Twilight became the Princess of all of Equestria, when there were different rules.” Sunset listened on. “While I can understand this, why were you a pony who ended up abusing her power? Flash even told me that you sometimes ended up talking trash behind his back, when you two were working together.”