"Good." Tiara said aloud. She would be able to follow the bright reflection that her tiara offered. Tiara then started to walk in a straight line. She was careful to leave a large line to find her way back to Twilight. It wasn't long until the bright sun lifted and turned the cold desert into a frying pan. After hours of walking, Tiara then found a small, deserted shelter. Hastily, she ran into the small home. It looks decades old, the rotten planks tied down with rocks. Tiara was glad for the shade, and began to look for water. The cabinets turned up empty, and there was no running water. The only thing Tiara found was an old can of food, a knife, and some of papers, full of holes and falling apart.
Carefully, Tiara held the can with her hooves and the knife in her teeth. She plunged the knife into the can, opening up preserved fruit. Thankfully it wasn't dried, and the juice inside she gulped greedily. Almost forgetting her manners, she grabbed the knife in her hooves and stabbed each piece of apple, and bringing it to her mouth. When she was done, her mind came to realise she had forgotten to save some for Twilight. She immediately felt a wave of guilt wash over her.
Twilight had carried her all night, while she rested. She trusted Diamond Tiara with her life, and now she took all the water for herself. Twilight was the pony who had gotten her out of that retched place anyway! Diamond Tiara searched the entire place, but she could not find any more. Even the well outside was no more than a glorified hole in the ground. She looked outside. The temperature had gone down a little, and so she decided to find Twilight again. She ran along the line she had drawn. It was almost sunset when she saw the glint of a very special tiara. She picked it up. She watched the sunset, specifically waiting until the light was gone, just like Twilight asked.
The sunset splayed purples and oranges across the sky. The sun sparkled across the desert, illuminating clouds above the atmosphere, far higher than any pegasus could reach. Soon it purples turned to blues, the deep sea of sky burning with stars. The filly dug at the pile of sand, after a minute or two the filly started to panic, digging faster, trying to find the stone of Twilight.
"Twilight! Come on..." the filly said, trying to mask her panic. "Time to get up." she dug at the sand. "Twilight!" she screamed. Perhaps the wind blew the sand and she wasn't digging at the right spot? What if she didn't cover Twilight enough and she shriveled up into nothing? She didn't mean to murder Twilight! Tiara started to cry. Stop. She told herself. You don't want to waste the precious water you have! ... that Twilight didn't get... The thought only made her cry harder, which led to more guilt and the loop began again.
"Twilight!" she screamed, which made the ground underneath her hind hooves shake a bit. She then turned around and dug. She soon found the purple mane, and she dug faster. Twilight came out and gasped for air. She pulled herself out of the hole. Diamond Tiara hugged the mare.
"Thanks. I'm glad I trusted you. Hop on." Diamond Tiara jumped onto Twilight's back. "Do you know where that facility was?" the unicorn asks.
Tiara pauses. "I believe it was south of Ponyville. Twilight looks at the rising moon to her right.
Twilight thought. "Well it seems were going north. To Ponyville."
Tiara shudders. "I mean, do we have to? It just has so many bad memories. I was a real jerk to those blank flank fillies."
"I don't think you'll have to worry about that..."
"Why not, Twilight?" Diamond Tiara asks.
"I think I killed them..."
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"What do you mean think?" Tiara asks, hours later.
"I don't know. I hadn't sent a letter to the princess that week, so I freaked. I thought it all worked out in the end." Twilight paused.
"You get to send letters to the princess?"
"Yes, Diamond Tiara, keep up. But the more I think about it, the more it seems unlikely. I must have gotten out of hand, I never had been tardy before. I think that's where reality ended. Life does not end like that, where everything is just okay and with no consequences at all. Whatever I did, it must have been terrible to make my mind reject it. I have selective amnesia, Tiara. I'm worried that what I might have done is unforgivable."
"I can't believe it." Diamond said.
"I can't either..." Twilight stopped walking. "Why we're you in there?"
"My father, Filthy Rich. I guess he thought it was a camp or something..." Diamond Tiara started to cry. "But he saw it was a hospital, he didn't even care. He just left me! He was tired, I remember him saying. He didn't even care! His own daughter!" She sniffled. "I've been under their stupid experiments since. I was only there a week... Ish" she stopped, realizing she had no way of telling how many days had passed.
"That's terrible."
"Yeah, it is." She yawned. "Twilight, I need to get some sleep. Okay?"
The small filly slept for a few hours. Twilight's hooves beat against the sand. The moon slowly completing it's arch in the sky, it's waning. The desert seemed to be endless, the sand envoloping the land for miles. Even cacti were few, their green protrusions catching the moonlight.
The desert was only ended by a familiar group of plants.
"Look!" Twilight said "The Everfree Forest."
"We're almost there, and we still have half the night left?" Diamond Tiara mumbled sleepily.
"Okay, from now on, we'll only talk on whispers, okay? I just want to make sure everything goes smoothly."
"Okay." Tiara whispered. "I'm ready." Her yawn sleepy and long.
Twilight lifted her horn experimentally. It glowed softly, and so far she did not get a headache. It seemed the withdrawal had finally been over, and painless. "Hang on," Twilight said as her whole body teleported with Tiara. Over and over she did this through the Everfree forest. She could not risk stopping for the forest was infamous for it's many dangers, especially at night. At last they met the other side, with only scratches, and in Twilight's case, a nasty headache.
"Are you okay?" Tiara asks.
"I think I'll be okay, but what about you?" They had teleported to the graveyard outside of Ponyville, and right next to Twilight Sparkle, was a large stone with 'silver spoon' etched into its surface.