Twilight looked at her clock as she paced near the door of her castle. Still?, She thought. It can't possibly still be only one thirty in the morning.
Princess Celestia was coming at three in the afternoon that day and Twilight was already impatient. She was not normally like that, but the Princess had told her that she had something very important to discuss.
***
Thirteen and a half hours later...
Twilight's lack of sleep had finally caught up to her. She was just wondering if she should go and lie down for a couple of hours, when she heard the knock on the door. She opened it, and Princess Celestia gasped at the state of her.
"Oh, my dear Twilight! What happened to you?"
"Umm... I may have gotten up a little early waiting for you... And I may have not had breakfast this morning..."
"*Sigh* Very well. Where shall we go to talk? As you know I have some very important news for you."
***
Twilight and Princess Celestia walked into the castle's sitting room together. Twilight asked Spike to make them tea, and then magically closed the door.
"What did you want to talk to me about, Princess?" Asked Twilight, barely able to hide the impatience in her voice.
"Well, as you most likely don't know... Sunset Shimmer has contacted me with a letter to you. Apparently, there is a new teacher at her school. His name is Dr. Discord, he has a Ph. D in Chaos. Nopony knows why Principal Celestia hired him, but he likes giving rewards to misbehaving students, punishing hard-working ones and driving everypony crazy. I need you to go to Canterlot high to stop him!" Celestia exclaimed.
Twilight rubbed her chin with her hoof. "I will try to stop him, but I will need my friends at CHS. Oh! My friends! Am I allowed to tell my Ponyville friends about this?"
Celestia considered this for a moment. "Yes." She decided. "Yes. You can tell your friends about this, because they will wonder where you are. You could be gone for a long time. However, you should not bring them with you, for the same reason as last time."
***
Two hours later...
Twilight looked at her friends, all seated at the round table. Pinkie was panting a little, after being asked by Twilight to tell all of the others to meet in the Throne Room, and insisted on delivering the message via singing telegram. Twilight had just told them the news, and was waiting for any reactions.
Rarity spoke up first. "Don't worry, Darling. The last two times you were only there for a couple of days. This can't take too long."
"Oh, I'm not worried. All the other times I've been over there, almost everything went smoothly. I have no doubt that this time will be the same."
Fluttershy mumbled something about the portal nearly closing up after Twilight defeated Sunset Shimmer, but didn't voice this concern any further.
***
It was time. Twilight readied herself in front of the mirror, Spike at her side, her friends behind her, saying goodbye.
"Don't worry about a thing!"
"You'll do great!"
"You can't fail. You're awesome!"
Then Pinkie Pie. "Eat lots of cake!"
Twilight smiled at this and took a step forward, placing her directly in front of the mirror. She sighed, smiled, and stepped through with Spike.
But something was wrong. The colored lights that usually swirled around them were gone, replaced with complete and utter darkness.
Twilight's friends, on the other side of the mirror, turned to leave when they were hit with a flying dragon. Spike had been ejected from the portal.
Meanwhile, Twilight got up on the other side. The first thing that she noticed was that she was not a human. She was still her pony self. Then she looked up and gasped.