Starswirl slowly lowered his hindquarters and sat on the dusty grounds. He glanced upwards into the darkening sky as he felt Twilight sit next to him. Neither spoke as the evening gently revealed a river of sparkling gems in the heavens one at a time, until a glowing river of light flowed through the night just above the horizon.

The princess was the first to break their silence.

"You know, I've dreamt of this so many times: stargazing with Starswirl the Bearded! I would imagine you and I at the top of a lonely tower with several telescopes, jumping from one eyepiece to the other, discovering new stars and comets and asteroids together." She laughed as only the young can laugh, without care, with joy unbound by worries and regrets, like sleigh bells ringing out defiance and vitality and life into the coldest of winter nights.

"Have you now, lass?" He added a chuckle of his own. "When I first came to Equestria, Princess Luna and I did exactly that upon many occasions. My, how she loved the sky! We were also fierce rivals at playing chess and spent much time together, those first years after my arrival." He felt Twilight's body shift as her head turned towards his.

"Maestro, would you mind if I were to ask you something... personal?" She waited for his nod, then continued. "Some historians postulate that the reason you never married was because... er, you had strong feelings for her but she didn't reciprocate them."

Even under the evening's dim light he could see her earnest expression, and as he studied her he realized he didn't want to deny this mare the truth.

"I'm afraid that was indeed a misconception." He lifted his gaze. "No, it was she who loved me as a mare loves a stallion, and I who was unable to return that love." He sighed. "I have always regretted the pain I unwittingly caused her. But in the end, when she confessed her love, I had to tell her the truth: that I did not fancy mares."

"Oh," said Twilight.

He barked out a laugh that was more pain than humour. "That is exactly what she said when I told her. Afterwards we were never so close again. Over the years we drifted further and further apart, until finally she was banished and all hope of rapprochement was lost." He glanced at Twilight again. "What about you, young Princess? Have you yet found your special somepony?"

She chuckled and her cheeks glowed red. "Somehow, I've never had the time or much of an inclination for romantic pursuits. They just seem so... messy to me." She considered a moment. "Science and study are a lot more tidy and predictable,"– she smiled –"and there are so many things I want to learn and understand!"

This time Starswirl's laugh was deep. "Lass, you remind me so much of your ancestor Clover the Clever. You two truly are birds of a feather!" He glanced down at Twilight's folded wings. "Except that you actually have feathers. I wonder how he would have felt if told one of his descendants would be born an alicorn."

Twilight’s smile brightened by an order of magnitude. “Oh, I wasn’t born an alicorn, I –”

“– Please, lass,” interrupted Starswirl. “This is one of those things of which I should not know the details.”

The young mare seemed to shrink in on herself. She looked down, ears falling to the side of her neck as her bright smile faded and turned into a sad frown.

“I’m sorry, Twilight. I can see this is something you sorely need to discuss with somepony.” He sighed and lifted her chin with his hoof. “I don’t see any harm in your sharing your feelings, as long as you don’t get into the events and decisions that led to your becoming an alicorn. Would you like that?”

Her expression was like a ray of sunshine peeking through rain clouds. “Yes, Maestro I would. And Maestro, I... thank you.” She took a moment to gather her thoughts.

“This is something I haven’t been able to discuss with anypony at all, not even the Princesses or my friends.” She looked up into his eyes. “Maestro, how can I possibly measure up!? I’m a unicorn filly just two years out of school! How can I look at ponies with a straight face when they bow to me, of all creatures, and ask me for advice?” Twilight nervously chewed on the tip of her hoof.

"I'm not at all poised like Princess Celestia, or even Pr... my sister-in-law, Cadence." She looked back up at Starswirl. "And I frazzle way too easily, just ask Spike or anypony who knows me. And even the ponies in town are treating me differently now, despite the fact that they know I want them to treat me no differently than they did before."

"Twilight, I have spent much of my life around royalty of one sort or another. Royals are just ponies like any others to themselves and to their families, but to other beings they are symbols, and as symbols they wear the dignity of their office wherever they go. It creates a distance between them and other ponies, a gulf that is as hard for them to cross as it is for common ponies. But that distance is also like a cloak that protects the royals’ dignity, and now also yours, from small slips and sometimes even big ones. So please don’t be so nervous, lass, the eyes watching them and you fall mostly on that cloak of office, and rarely see the pony beneath it."

Twilight lowered her gaze. "It sounds very lonely," she remarked in a quiet voice.

"It can be," he replied. "But it's very important that you find those who can see beneath the cloak and cultivate their friendship. They will provide you an anchor for your soul, and will remind you that you are something more than just a cloak." He chuckled. "I remember giving your ancestor Clover some similar advice on how to behave around royalty. He was very frightened and nervous in the presence of princesses, as I recall."

"Did it help?"

The memory made him smile. "I suspect it did. He later married Princess Platinum, and they had the most wonderful daughter, Princess Hydrangea, who also became my student. She calls me Uncle Mo."

Twilight's answering smile faded after a moment. "But what if I screw up again? I always do!” She slumped down to sit on her haunches. “Oh, Maestro, how can I live up to Princess Celestia's and Equestria's expectations? This time if I fail, I bring shame not just on myself, but on her as well!" Looking like a frightened filly, Twilight hid her face in her hooves.

Starswirl sat down next to her. "That is a heavy burden to carry, lass. But it's one you don't have to carry alone. Remember that you have friends. Just because your circumstances are now different doesn’t mean that they won’t understand how you feel about that change. Give them a chance to prove their friendship.”

The young mare put her forehooves down and nodded once.

“But might I suggest something you might not have considered?” added Starswirl. “Look at me, lass.” She raised her head.

“In creating a gulf between you and common ponies, your new situation has bridged the gulf between you and another.” He raised an eyebrow and waited as she worked out the implication of what he had said. Her mouth dropped open.

“Princess Celestia!”

“Yes, lass.” He was rewarded with a shy grin. “I knew her when she was at her loneliest, just after Luna’s banishment. Clover and Platinum, and Harvest Wind and I all kept her company. We were there for her, as she was there for us at different times in our lives. And might I remind you that Clover was my student, and he became a very dear friend. Maybe it’s time you gave Celestia the same gift, and let her know the gulf between you is no more.”

He gave the mare some time to ponder his words, and again gazed at the stars as he heard the dull impacts of tears in the dust. Having been reminded, he spent some pleasant moments in recollection of Clover.

Lost in his reminiscences Starswirl noticed the princess looking at him intently, eyes still moist but with a raised eyebrow replacing her previous sadness. "Yes, lass?"

"Maestro, I have an additional question. Now that I think about it, how did you know that my family are descended from Clover? I'm sure I never mentioned it."

Starswirl swallowed, suddenly unsure of what he could say. "Er... in my research into the nature of time I have had many visions of the future, some of which involved you, lass, maybe even future versions of yourself. However, I truly mustn't say anything more on the topic lest I endanger us both and this timeline."

The young mare unsuccessfully tried to keep the disappointment off of her muzzle. "Oh. I understand, Maestro." Her smile returned almost instantly though, and she chuckled. "Hehe! I didn’t question it at the time, but I wonder if that family connection is why Princess Celestia asked me to play the part of Clover in our Hearth's Warming Eve pageant."

Starswirl smiled. "I wouldn't doubt it for a moment, lass."

They fell silent. Despite the beauty of the celestial panorama, the lack of any sound other than their breathing felt oppressive. Starswirl was about to ask the princess more about her family when his ear twitched.

Twilight leaped to her hooves, both ears pointed towards the horizon. "Did you hear that?" she whispered.

"Yes, lass." He held up a hoof before his lips to beg her silence.

He heard it again. At first he thought it was a shout. But then it continued, and he was able to discern a regular pattern to the sound.

"Somepony is reciting a poem," said Twilight, "in oplic pentafeather, no less!"

Starswirl grabbed Twilight's foreleg and teleported them both in the direction of the voice.

"Hay! Please warn a mare next time, Maestro!" muttered Twilight sotto-voce.

Instead of replying he just scanned the horizon with his ears until they again located the source of the sound. "Ready yourself!" he said, and teleported both of them in its direction.

Again they emerged to the sound of a male voice reciting words just beyond the edge of comprehension.

"I can't understand what he's saying. Can you, Maestro?"

"No, I cannot." They listened intently a moment longer. "Once again," said Starswirl.

They repeated the cycle of ‘teleport and listen’ another three times before he had to stop. He sank to his haunches, sides heaving with the effort. After a moment he rose again, only to have the princess pull away briskly.

"Stop it, Maestro!" she exclaimed. Her face wore an expression of concern. "All you're doing is exhausting yourself."

"But... the voice! There's someone alive out there! They may be able to tell us what happened here, and –” he waved at the wasteland around them “– where all the people went."

"Maestro, listen!" She raised an ear towards the sound of the voice. After a moment he did the same.

"Have you noticed? The voice isn't becoming louder, and we aren't getting any closer." Her gaze turned inwards. "If it wasn't that we both heard it, I would have assumed this to be some kind of auditory hallucination brought on by a prolonged lack of aural stimulation."

"But... my people..." Starswirl didn't know what else to say. Of course she was right, and her young ears were no doubt sharper than his old ones.

His head bowed down as he panted. It surprised him how bitter it was to have his hopes dashed. He struggled to get up and was firmly, but gently prevented from moving by a purple glowing telekinetic field.

"Please, Maestro, don't take this so hard." Twilight approached and put a hoof on his withers. “You gave me advice when I really needed it, and for that I thank you. But now it's you who needs to listen, so please, allow me to return the favor.”

His breathing finally under control, he nodded. “Speak, lass.” The purple forcefield dissipated.

"The voice has been leading us in a straight line,” said Twilight. “I'm sure if we continue in the same direction tomorrow we'll eventually reach whomever or whatever is making these sounds."

Starswirl raised a hoof to object when the voice suddenly cut off. They kept a silent vigil for several minutes, their ears straining for even the tiniest sound.

Starswirl’s withers slumped. He looked at Twilight. “We might as well camp here.”

He didn’t even try to see how she pulled the huge bunk bed from under her wing. When he heard the pop he trudged over to the furnishing, hung his hat, and lay down in exhaustion. He was asleep before his head touched the pillow.

Twilight woke to the sound of Starswirl shouting angrily in a foreign language. She looked down over the edge of her bunk as he strutted about clutching his left forehoof, his horn glowing blue and the hoof along with it. His portal frame also glowed as it floated nearby.

“What was that, Maestro? You weren’t speaking Equestrian.”

He started at the sound of her voice and looked up. “Oh, Princess. I’m sorry for waking you so unpleasantly, but it appears I was bitten by a rat–” he proffered his glowing hoof “–when I tried to get our breakfast from my pantry.” He pointed the hoof at several jars and packets lying on the ground. “Worse still, I never put any of these things in there. Either somepony moved my portal frame, or...” he suddenly trailed off, eyes wide.

“Or what?”

“Or perhaps this is not my time. Perhaps it’s yours, or some other time entirely." His ears drooped. "And perhaps I am nothing more than a thief stealing somepony else's food."

Twilight flew down from her perch to land besides the gathered foodstuffs. "What? Let me see. This is bird-seed. And this tin, what is it? Talon script? 'C-o-o-k-'... wait! If I'm reading this label right this tin is cooked fish from Gryphonia." She turned to Starswirl. "Maestro, maybe the other portal frame isn’t even in Equestria anymore. Did you get anything edible to ponies before you were bitten?”

“One loaf of bread, and some uncooked oatmeal.” He extricated the two items from a pocket in his cloak while Twilight pulled out the camp table from her cache, complete with place settings for two and a tea set. He raised an eyebrow as he placed the food on the table.

“I have to say, lass, that I find your cache a most intriguing bit of magic. Did you create the spell yourself?”

“I wish!” She grinned. “Princess Celestia taught it to me, but I modernized it a bit on my own. It’s essentially a linked set of summoning and banishment spells, combined with shrinking and enlargement enchantments. Its carrying capacity is actually pretty huge. I currently use it to hold our camping gear, my basic magical references, my collection of Daring Do novels, some emergency medical supplies, a defibrillator, a kite, Pinkie’s hot-air balloon, my ‘Settlers of Coltan’ game set... oh, and paper, ink and quills for note-taking.”

Starswirl laughed. “Impressive! I won't pretend to know what half of the items you mentioned are, but considering what I have discovered of your obsession with preparedness, I’m surprised you don’t have the entire Canterlot archives in there.”

Heat rose to Twilight’s cheeks. “Er, I used to keep selected items from the archives in there too, but then some ponies complained because they always had to find me to get access to them. Then the librarians were upset at all the paperwork needed to renew my borrowings, and then finally Princess Celestia herself told me to put everything back.” She sighed and her ears drooped. “It was fun while it lasted, I guess.”

Starswirl patted her on the back. “There, there, Princess. How about you describe the spell while we have our breakfast?”

Her ears shot back up to full attention. Starswirl the Bearded is asking me about magic! She could hardly believe it! A huge grin split her face.

“Well, the basis is to provide a set of equipotential cantilevered hexes. They take a lot of magic to set up, but once they’re in place the amount of magic needed to maintain them is practically infinitesimal. Admittedly, it's not ideal for consumables, which is why I don't use it to store food...”

Breakfast, and the next four hours, went by faster than she would have thought possible.

"... and then I thought why not buy an API matrix to simplify–"

"API matrix?" Starswirl interjected for what he assumed was the hundredth time since the chatty mare began her discourse. Luckily the interruptions never seemed to offend her, nor did they cause her to slow their steady progress towards the horizon.

"Alchemical Platform Incantation matrix,” supplied the princess. “I used it with a Constrictalk interpreter to build a series of self-modifying cantrips that essentially re-cast themselves whenever any of the basic parameters of the spell require modifications such as adjusting for the mobility of the access point.”

“I see,” said Starswirl, lying with a grin. He was sure the information would have constituted a major breach of causality if he had understood more than a small fraction of it. Seeking to recover some modicum of self-respect, he did have what he hoped was an intelligent question.

“Did you say you bought this API matrix?”

“Yes. It’s a lot faster to buy one than go through all the effort of enchanting a spell matrix from scratch, and the good ones even come pre-invested with an OS – operating sorcery – that really simplifies developing new spells. In fact the one I use claims to make casting spells as easy as eating an apple.” She frowned slightly. “My friend Applejack tried to sue that company for trademark infringement, but honestly, who could ever confuse a personal spellcasting platform with food products. We even had a few arguments about it, before Princess Celestia forced her and the company to a compromise licensing deal.”

Twilight froze in her tracks. Her eyes grew as big as dinner plates. "Wait! Should I be telling you all this? Won’t it interfere with your future, and maybe even cause a time paradox that will result in us being trapped in an infinite time-loop for ever and ever and ever?”

Starswirl grumbled. “I tried to warn you over two hours ago, lass, that your discourse was drifting into dangerous territory, but, quite frankly, you were losing me quite often and you seemed so happy talking that I couldn’t bring myself to rain on your parade.” He pursed his lips. “And I also did a bit of thinking.”

Twilight’s ears rose to focus on him.

“There is another agency at work here, Twilight. Somepony who brought us here, and who now obviously wants to lead us somewhere.”

Her expression grave, Twilight nodded. “It seems like a logical conclusion. But questions remain: who did this, where are they leading us, and why?”

Starswirl paused a moment to gaze into the distance. A dark spot stood on the horizon. By shading his eyes and squinting he could just make out its shape: a soot coloured hemisphere. He pointed to it. “I believe that might be where.”

He offered a foreleg. “Ready?”

Twilight looked at the extended limb. Placing her own on top of it, she nodded. The world flashed and they emerged from the teleport a few dozen paces away from the black dome.

Starswirl took a moment to catch his breath, and then together they slowly traced the dome’s perimeter. Twilight counted out her paces until they were back to their starting point, as evidenced by their tracks in the ever present dust. “The dome is sixty eighty paces in circumference, or just over twenty-one paces in diameter.” She scratched the back of her head. “And it has no visible entrance or exit.”

Starswirl raised an eyebrow. “Since when does a unicorn need a door?” He offered her his foreleg again.

“Okay,” she said looking down at his trembling limb, “but this time I do the lifting.” Before he could reply the lights went out.

Twilight lit her horn, revealing a small empty room that reminded her of those in the Reclamation Center. It also revealed a very irate looking Starswirl.

"That was not exceedingly responsible, Princess! I have a scrying cantrip on my teleport to avoid emergence inside solid objects."

Her smile faded. "So do I, Maestro. Do you really think me so irresponsible? You are exhausted, you’re distraught and you’re acting on impulse. Give me some credit here. I may not have thousands of years of experience, but I have earned these wings."

His glare died and he suddenly looked very vulnerable. "I'm sorry, Twilight." He turned away. "Please forgive me, but for the last few hours you've been very effectively demonstrating how incredibly far beyond mine is your knowledge of magic and science. It has been... a humbling experience."

Twilight stared at the old unicorn’s back, and cringed. A feeling of shame washed over her as she realized to what she had just unintentionally subjected her idol.

"No Maestro, I'm the one who needs to apologize." She strode forward until she could see his face again. "Since I woke up in this place I've done nothing but act like an inconsiderate fanfilly. I thought... I wanted so much to impress you, the legendary Starswirl the Bearded, the pony I admire most of all."

He turned his gaze towards her. "What about Princess Celestia? Doesn't she deserve that accolade?"

"She is my mentor, and without her I would be just another unicorn egghead, with only my books for friends. Everything that I love about my life, my dear little Spike, my friends, the library in Ponyville, the unrestricted access to the Royal Canterlot archives, I owe them all to her. But how could I aspire to be like her? She is the unattainable ideal!

“But you, Starswirl, you are the pioneer who changed the direction of Equestria forever. You took magic from the darkness and superstition of pre-classical times and made it into the science it has become. You brought the light of reason to an entire civilization. You showed us all how extraordinary, ordinary ponies could be."

The old mage’s eyes were closed. “Ponyville?” he asked. “So she saw fit to grant my request, bless that mare.” When he looked up there were tears in his eyes. “Tell me about Ponyville, Princess. Is it beautiful? Do all the pony tribes live there together in harmony?”

Twilight felt relief wash over her like a cool wave. “It’s without a doubt the prettiest little town I’ve ever seen, and it’s the home of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, two ponies from each of the three tribes. Princess Celestia once called it the beating heart of Equestria.”

“Perhaps you could describe it to me, as we explore this place,” he asked.

“Certainly Maestro. It would be a pleasure.” Together they walked out of the only doorway leading out of the room. They had barely placed a hoof in the room beyond when they were suddenly blinded by an intense white light.

Starswirl blinked as the light was cut off. He looked up to see lavender hued feathers and a slight pony body standing between him and the light source. It seemed the princess had somehow become his protector! He peeked below a wing to scan the rest of the room in which they found themselves. The light seemed to diffuse from the entire ceiling, and the room’s walls were featureless, except for another doorway, whose doors were closed.

“Is it safe for me to come out now, Princess? Or should I continue to cower behind your formidable self?” Twilight folded back her wings and turned away blushing, but not before he glimpsed the edge of her mouth curving slightly upwards at his jest.

Together they approached the doorway. The doors and their frame were also featureless, except for a small plate with a button at head-height to the right of the doors. He shrugged and pressed the button, then leaped back as the doors silently slid apart, revealing a rather small chamber beyond. He glanced inside and saw only another plate identical to the one he had pressed.

“Well this is disappointing,” he said. “Yet another empty room.”

Twilight surprised him by entering the chamber and turning around to face him. “Please come in, Maestro,” she invited with a hoof. He did, and in imitation of the young mare turned back towards the door.

“So, what’s the point of standing in this room?”

Twilight smiled and punched the button with her hoof. “It’s not a room Maestro, –” the doors closed “– it’s an elevator, a platform suspended by cables and controlled by sheaves and pulleys, used to lift cargo and ponies."

Starswirl started as he felt suddenly lighter. A glance to his side showed that Twilight had noticed his momentary alarm. "Ahem. How convenient," he said. A light had appeared in a horizontal white strip above the doorway. It slowly progressed from the right hoof side of the strip to its left hoof side.

"We are going down," said Twilight. "I think it’s safe to assume the dome at the top is merely the entrance to a larger habitation."

Starswirl observed the princess as the elevator descended on its imperceptible course. She stood there, doing absolutely nothing.

“This elevator could stand some improvement,” he declared.

Twilight pointed an ear in his direction and raised an eyebrow.

“The wait is quite tedious. It would be better with some music, don’t you think?”

At that moment the light reached the left edge of the strip, his knees bent and he suddenly felt heavier. He was about to remark about his perceptions of acceleration and deceleration when Twilight spoke up. “We have arrived.”

The doors slid open. “This might be a trap, Maestro, so please stay behind me.” As she moved forward he saw the glow of a force shield in front of her.

He sighed. “Perhaps I would be safest cowering in the elevator,” he said in a dry tone of voice. Twilight looked back at him and rolled her eyes. “You take point in the next room then. Happy?”

He nodded.

The room outside had the same bright white ceiling light as the elevator and the room in the dome that contained it. It was long and narrow, a corridor he surmised. He followed the princess carefully to the other end. As they approached he saw a long barreled device lying prone on the floor, its open end propped on two metallic legs, the other end sporting a trigger and stock like an arquebus, but made entirely of metal instead of wood.

“This is the type of weapon used to project the lead bullets we saw earlier,” he remarked. “It was obviously set there to prevent undesirables from entering via the elevator.”

They passed the deadly looking device and went through a doorway into another long corridor lined with doors. They examined each room in turn, finding them empty as they had been at the Reclamation Center. To save time they began investigating rooms individually. This time it was Starswirl who discovered the corpse.

It was smaller than the one from the Reclamation Center, but its long hair and dried out features made it difficult to tell whether it was male or female. It sat in a chair that seemed too large for its size. To the right of the chair was a low metal table, on which lay sheets of metallic film.

Starswirl called out. “Twilight, come! I’ve found something!” he entered the room, his eyes focused on the film sheets.

The princess appeared in the doorway, a look of concern on her face which deepened when she saw the corpse. He held up one of the film sheets. “It has writing on it,” he said in hushed tones. “But written in a language I do not master.” He again looked at the words on the sheet. “To think that all the answers to our questions might be here, plain as day, and yet as unreachable as if they were on the farthest star!”

Twilight approached the corpse warily. “How many sheets are there?” she asked.

He gingerly lifted and counted them. “One dozen sheets,” he said. “Why is the number important?”

“Because there is actually a translation spell that might work, but...”

“Yes?”

She swallowed and pulled back from the corpse. “I would rather... well, this spell needs a bit of space.”

He nodded and she moved almost all the way back to the room’s entrance. Her horn lit up and a sudden whirlwind set the film sheets spinning into the air. Starswirl grew alarmed when even the one he still held in his hoof was pulled irresistibly into the vortex. He glanced again at Twilight and saw that her eyes had become blank pools of white light. She shuddered gently, as if she herself were subject to the whirlwind’s turbulence.

“Stop, Twilight! You might damage the pages!” shouted Starswirl. He was about to make an effort to reclaim the sheets when a stream of paper flowed from under Twilight’s left wing, each sheet adhering to one of the metallic ones spinning in the air. One by one the papers fell out of the vortex until the floor around them was littered. When the last paper fell out, the whirlwind slowed and the metallic sheets assembled into a sheaf, which floated gently back onto the table.

The glow died from the princess’ eyes. She blinked once, and then her horn glowed again as she collected the fallen papers. She levitated all but one in a sheaf before Starswirl. “Here. That was barely enough text for the translation spell to work, but it did.”

He grabbed the document in his horn field and stared down at it in disbelief. It was all there in Equestrian.

Dear Diary,

Before he died my dad said I should keep a physical diary, just in case I was the last man on Earth and all the electronics stopped working. So here goes.

Today I brought dad’s body to the reclamation unit. He was pretty heavy. He told me I had to do it as soon as he died, or else I would starve soon afterwards. I remember when we put mom’s body in it. Dad cried and cried. He couldn’t push the button and asked me to do it. I cried too, but it was more for dad cause he was so sad. He wouldn’t eat for days afterwards. I fed him the biscuits when he was still half asleep. When he woke up he cried, but after that he ate the biscuits when I gave them to him.

I think I won’t eat the biscuits, but just for today. Dad made me promise to never skip eating the biscuits, so I won’t, after today. Now I’m tired, so I’m going to go to bed. Oh, and I cried too.

Maximilian Sachs

October 21st, 2280

Starswirl felt a cold hand clutch his heart. His vision dimmed as the paper slipped from his grasp and slowly fluttered to the floor.